Microsoft launches 'most affordable' Lumia 530 in India

Microsoft on Wednesday launched the Lumia 530 Dual SIM smartphone, the 'most affordable' Lumia to date, in India. The phone is priced Rs 7,349 and will be available in stores from August 14, 2014.

Lumia 530 comes with the latest version of Windows 8.1, with updates such as the one swipe notification from the Action Center and the World Flow keyboard. It comes with changeable cover shells in bright orange, bright green, dark grey and white. 

The phone has a 4-inch display with a screen resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. It has a 1.2Ghz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. 

With a RAM of 512 MB, Lumia 430 has an on-board memory of 4 GB and expandable memory of up to 128 GB. Microsoft also offers an additional 15 GB of free cloud storage on its OneDrive, allowing users to sync, store, access and share files between Lumia 530 and computers, laptops and tablets.

The phone has 5 MP rear camera, but no front-facing camera or flash.

The Lumia 530's dimensions are 119.7 x 62.3 x 11.7mm, and it weighs 128 grams. It has connectivity options of GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth (4.0), GPS and Micro-USB. 

Microsoft is looking to target the youth with the Lumia 530 in the affordable smartphone segment.

“We, at Microsoft Devices, are committed towards helping people experience the uncompromised technologies and services that we offer on our Lumia devices. Lumia 530 builds on the legacy and success of Lumia 520 and will help us consolidate our position in this segment further,” said Viral Oza, Director-Marketing, Nokia India, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobiles Oy.
 
“With its innovative design, the latest Windows Phone 8.1 and signature Lumia experiences, the Lumia 530 3G Dual SIM is the perfect device for those who are looking for a distinctive smartphone,” he added.

In India, the phone comes with special offers. Phones bought through the Windows Phone Snapdeal app will get Rs 3,000 off. Buyers can also win six free movie tickets from BookMyShow when they book seats to any show through the app.

Nokia Lumia 530, the low price Windows Phone, announced

Microsoft unveiled the Nokia Lumia 530 smartphone today, this is the first device from Microsoft post Nokia acquisition. The device is likely to cost less than the launch price of the Lumia 520 smartphone as it has relatively low end specs and features. The major drawback of the Lumia 530 is its fixed focus rear camera, which is likely to be criticized by reviewers around the world.

In terms of design this device merges the Lumia 630 and Lumia 520, it is not as curved as the Lumia 520 and also not has flat as the Lumia 630. The curves are minimized on the rear plastic shell and it manages to ditch the rear facing camera flash. Like the Lumia 630 this one also has the capacitive touch buttons embedded in the display, off screen buttons are now likely to be history for Nokia.

This smartphone comes with the latest Windows Phone 8.1 OS and is powered by a 1.2GHz Dual-Core Snapdragon 200 processor paired with 512MB of RAM. It has 4GB ROM on board and as you would expect it has a micro SD card slot for memory expansion. The display on the device has an 854x480 pixels resolution and measure 4-inches diagonally. It is likely to come in Dual SIM variant soon, the Dual SIM functionality on the device offers call waiting and forwarding on both the SIM cards at the same time. There is no front facing camera on this smartphone but it has a decent 1,430mAH battery for the power supply.

Nokia Lumia 520 was launched with a price tag of Rs 9,000, we expect the Lumia 530 to cost around Rs 7,000 initially during the launch. We are not very much happy with the launch of this device, let us know your reaction on this one below in the comment box.

Nokia Lumia 530 up for preorder in India

Nokia announced the Lumia 530 smartphone recently but the company did not announce the price. It just gave a hint that the price of the device will be under Rs 8000 category but Indian online retailer Snapdeal has already put this device for preorder on their site. Snapdeal while skipping mention of the price, has said that the device will start selling in the 3rd week of August.

The Nokia Lumia 530 is the successor model of the popular Lumia 520 and Lumia 525 smartphones. In terms of specs it is not a true successor of the Lumia 525 smartphone, the specs are lower end and Nokia has cut down heavily on internal storage department.

Lumia 530 would come with the latest Windows Phone 8.1 OS and will have 4GB ROM on board. Like Lumia 520 this one too will have 512MB of RAM, the rear camera will have the same 5-MP resolution but the focus will be fixed. There is no front facing camera on this device and it will have a 1,430mAH battery for power supply. Connectivity options are to include Dual SIM slots, 3G, Wifi and Bluetooth.

What do you think has Nokia done with the Lumia 530? Has it failed to bring a true successor or is it just a smart move to provide cheap smartphone? Let us know your reactions.