The first Lumia to shed the Nokia branding and wear Microsoft's name instead was the Lumia 535, a $130 phone that signalled an ambition to bring Windows Phone to a wider audience by lowering its price. Today continues that downward momentum with Microsoft's announcement of the Lumia 435 and Lumia 532, both measuring 4 inches in size and costing less than $100 before the usual taxes and subsidies.
With many people looking to upgrade from a feature phone to a smartphone for the first time, Lumia 435 and Lumia 532 provide a balance of features and power, while also bringing Windows Phone 8.1 experiences to new price points. Lumia 435 is the first 400 series Lumia and the most affordable Lumia yet. With core smartphone features, incredible Windows Phone experiences and access to the latest apps, it opens up the Lumia Windows Phone experience to even more people. Lumia 532 is a powerful quad-core smartphone that builds on the success of the Lumia 530. With a premium layered design, Glance Screen, front-facing camera and more memory than the Lumia 530.
Both smartphones come with the latest Windows Phone 8.1, the Lumia Denim Update, Microsoft’s Office suite, Outlook for email, seamless Skype integration and front-facing camera for Skype video calling, HERE location services, up to 30GB of free cloud storage on OneDrive, and access to thousands of apps in the Windows Phone store.
Lumia 532 highlights: 4-inch display with a resolution of 480 by 800 (yes, it has capacitive keys); 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor; 1 GB of RAM; 5 MP main camera; 0.3 MP secondary camera; 1,560 mAh battery; 8 GB of internal storage; microSD card slot; Wi-Fi 802.11n; physical dimensions of 118.9 x 65.5 x 11.6 mm and weight of 136.3 grams. It runs Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim enhancements, and offers Glance Screen functionality.
On paper, Lumia 532 looks like the proper successor to Lumia 520. It fixes the latter's main shortcomings -- 512 MB of RAM, no front-facing camera, and no Glance Screen support -- while retaining some of its stronger features -- like 8 GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot, non-intimidating size, and capacitive keys. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Lumia 520 users will choose Lumia 532 come upgrade time (and assuming they do not want to or cannot afford to opt for a better model in the range).
Lumia 435 highlights: The Lumia 435 is the first smartphone for the 4xx series, and is really low on your budget, and when I say low, I mean extremely low -- its estimated price is just 69 Euros. Microsoft Lumia 435 boats a 4-inch display sporting a resolution of 800 by 480 pixels with a pixel density of 233 ppi. The processing power comes from a dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor clocked at 1.2GHz paired with 1GB of RAM (Thank you Microsoft), and 8GB of internal storage coupled with a microSD card slot for expansion of up to 128GB.
Other notable features include a 2MP rear camera for photos and videos with an aperture of f/2.7 and 1/5inch sensor size, a 1,560 mAh battery, 3G connectivity and ships with Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim out of the box.
Both new Lumias will be available from next month, rolling out across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, with India being singled out for a special mention. It's the obvious target market for devices of this kind, and it's also a place where Microsoft can seek to capitalize on its own good reputation and Nokia's extensive legacy, which is being carried on by the Lumia brand. As to the choice of bright orange and green (coincidentally, the colors of the Indian flag) as the colors to accompany the standard black and white options, they echo the palette available with the Lumia 930, which Microsoft told The Verge was chosen after extensive customer research to determine the most popular colors around the world.