Despite the increasingly competitive market of budget smartphones, which has seen some new competition from the likes of Android One and Tizen-powered Samsung Z1, Microsoft is hoping to sell its Windows Phone. The company has recently launched its cheapest Lumia smartphones in India at just Rs. 5,999.
Called Microsoft Lumia 435, the new smartphone was officially unveiled last month. But it wasn’t until recently when Microsoft almost quietly launched the new phone in India. Microsoft said that the new phones are aimed at budget customers who just want the basics of a smartphone without spending too much. And the hardware specifications of Microsoft Lumia 435 speaks just that.
With a 4-inch FWVGA resolution display, Microsoft fitted its Lumia 435 with a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor from Qualcomm and 1 GB RAM. The phone packs 8 GB internal storage, but if the user is storage-hungry, they can increase the storage up to 128 GB with a microSD memory card.
Microsoft Lumia 435 has dual SIM card slots. The phone supports HSPA+ or 3G network, so it should cater to the budget smartphones who don’t want to be left out of the 3G services being offered in the country by various mobile phone operators. The phone also has the standard connectivity options such as WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, etc.
On the camera end, Microsoft fitted the device with a 2 MP shooter on the back and a 0.3 MP shooter on the front. While the camera specifications aren’t that pretty, neither is the battery capacity which is just 1560 mAh.
However, the biggest thing that might draw customers to this new low-end smartphone is the operating system it’s running on. At present, the new phone will run on Windows Phone 8.1. There is nothing new about the operating system, but Microsoft is teasing with Windows 10 with confirmation that the phone, despite being on the low-end of its arsenal, will be updated to the latest version. This could be a big deal given that Windows 10 hasn’t been officially launched yet and when it does, there will be a lot of people willing to try it out.
Microsoft hasn’t announced whether the phone will be updated to Windows 10 as soon as the new version is released, but the company did say that the new phone will come in various colors.
