Microsoft Reveals The Lumia 535 Low Cost Smartphone
by Brett Howse on November 10, 2014 11:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Lumia
It has been a while since the official Nokia smartphone acquisition was completed, but to date all of the current Lumia phones have carried the Nokia brand alongside Lumia. Microsoft has been busy going through the Nokia apps over the last while, and updating them to be Lumia apps, and as of today, they have now done the same with the latest Lumia smartphone to be announced. The Microsoft Lumia 535 will be the first official Lumia smartphone to drop the Nokia name. With this being a 5xx series of Lumia, it is aimed at the value conscious end of the market.
Microsoft is calling the Lumia 535 their 5x5x5 proposition. The first of the fives is five free integrated Microsoft experiences with the company listing Skype, Office, Cortana, OneDrive, and Outlook. Astute readers will recognize that these free experiences are available on all Windows Phones though. The second five is a five megapixel front facing camera which is one of the latest trends in “Selfie” cameras, which is good to see regardless of if you take selfies or not. Horrible front facing cameras have been a staple of most smartphones for too long. The final five is a five inch display, but this time with a qHD (960x540) resolution IPS LCD.
The press release does not include full specifications for the phone, but as a 5xx series we can expect it to be fairly low end parts. The 530 is powered by a Snapdragon 200 with quad-core Cortex A7 CPUs at 1.2 GHz, so it would make sense for the 535 to offer the same. The Lumia 530 is only equipped with 512 MB of RAM, but hopefully the 535 bumps that to 1 GB to allow the entire Windows Phone app store to be available to this device. Storage on the 530 is only 4 GB of internal NAND with microSD expansion up to an additional 128 GB which would fall in line with the low cost of this device.
Update: The full specifications are now available. It is indeed a quad-core Snapdragon 200, but included is 1 GB of memory and 8 GB of storage. The battery is a 1905 mAh 3.7 volt part, for just over 7 Wh of charge. Although the front camera is indeed 5 MP, it can only record FWVGA resolution video (848 x 480). For a complete listing of specifications please check here.
There will be two versions of the Lumia 535 with both a single SIM and dual SIM model to be made available. As is often the case with Lumia phones, there are colors aplenty with bright green, bright orange, white, dark grey, black, and making its return to the Lumia fold, cyan. The 535 will be available in “key markets” beginning in November, with an expected price of around 110 EUR before taxes and carrier subsidies.
People looking for a new flagship Windows Phone from Microsoft will have to wait a bit longer. Microsoft has clearly targeted the low cost segment of the smartphone market, but they now have an almost dizzying array of devices for different regions. The Lumia 535 joins the already launched 530, 630, 635, 730, 735, and 830 as low cost devices. Not all devices are sold in all regions, and it appears Microsoft is happy to continue with the multitude of devices to serve different markets much like Nokia was doing.
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coburn_c - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
I like it. The current 5xx series seemed like a step backward from the 520. A 5" phone for a hundred bucks? The 5xx has its place again.Laxaa - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
Disappointing.Confusing naming scheme as well. Nokia already have a phone in that price segment(the 530). This seems like to be halfway between the 530 and the 630(also a low-end phone at around 100 EUR) with more RAM and a higher resolution than the 630, but a weaker CPU.
eddman - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
It's for those who want a cheap phone with a big screen.Actually the CPU isn't weaker, the GPU is; adreno 305 vs. 302, but it's still fine for that low-res screen.
dayoATX - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
the current 530 is actually an embarrassment that this 535 corrected.see details here: http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-lumia-535-vs-noki...
and at 110euro, it is a better value proposition.
Daniel Egger - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
Ridiculously large display? Check."The Lumia 535 joins the already launched 530, 630, 635, 730, 735, and 830 as low cost devices."
Funny you say that, although I'd rather say all of those are low specs devices (compared to the x20 series) not necessarily low cost.
Arnulf - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
110 EUR before taxes comes out to 130+ EUR after taxes throughout Europe. 130 EUR is the off-the-shelf price of Lumia 520 where I live so 535 at same price would be a nice upgrade. I am Android user (N5) but was really looking forward to Moto G like phone at similar price point and Lumia 535 appears to be it (except for lower display resolution). There was just no point in buying device with only 512 MB RAM. I'll purchase one just to try it out if it indeed hits the ~130 EUR price range (without subsidies).Daniel Egger - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
Maybe you should mail order then? The 520 is available for 89,99€ including VAT. You can without a problem go 620 for < 130€ or even higher if you don't mind waiting for special offers...Arnulf - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
Unfortunately 620 has the same downsides as 520. This new 535 at same price point finally feels like a real upgrade.dayoATX - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
Exactly... It seems folks are not properly exploring HW features comparisons to this 535 at that price point.silv - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
If it's really a low cost phone with around the price u say, they will sell a lot coz the specs are not bad http://versus.com/en/microsoft-lumia-535-vs-samsun...