The Lumia 535, one of Microsoft’s most affordable handsets, is finally being sold in the US from the company’s official stores. The device was first unveiled late last year, but it’s only been available from third party retailers until now.
The Lumia 535 was deemed to be quite a capable device when first unveiled, fixing many of the errors made with other low-end Lumias. It even competes with the supposedly higher-end Lumia 630 line, especially given its aggressive pricing.
The 535’s specs include:
- 5-inch screen, 960 x 540 px
- Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- 1.2 Ghz Quad-core Snapdragon 200
- 1GB Ram
- 8 GB Storage with MicroSD slot
- 5MP rear camera, 5MP front-facing camera
For $149, with no contract or branding, those are quite capable specs, especially considering that devices in this price range usually eschew decent front-facing camera or screen quality. And many users might find this handset attractive.
However, it’s very unfortunate that Microsoft took such a long time to start selling this device, because the newer, much more capable Lumia 640 is also going on sale. And that handset has an even more affordable price coming in at just $129 with no contract on Cricket Wireless.
Given Microsoft’s tardiness we wouldn’t be surprised if the Lumia 535 fails to make any kind of impact and becomes just another victim in a long line of forgotten, affordable handsets.