In February, Microsoft unveiled the Lumia 650, its newest Windows 10 Mobile handset, which it says is uniquely designed around the needs of business users. Documentation published by Microsoft at the time clearly referred to the device's availability on Cricket Wireless, but it wasn't until last month that the US carrier officially announced its plans to offer it.
The 650 went on sale in the US a few weeks ago priced at $199 SIM-free and unlocked, but today, Cricket has started selling the device for just $129.99. However, the handset is locked for use with Cricket SIMs only.
Cricket is owned by AT&T - and uses its parent company's mobile network - but Cricket devices will not work with AT&T SIM cards (or those of any other carrier) without being unlocked - which it won't do until the handset has been in use for at least six months on an active account.
The Lumia 650 will only be available in black, and includes these key specs:
- 5-inch AMOLED with HD (1280x720px) resolution and Gorilla Glass 3
- Quad-core 1.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 processor
- 1GB RAM
- 16GB onboard storage (plus microSD card support up to 200GB)
- 8MP rear camera with autofocus, LED flash and 720p video recording at 30fps
- 5MP front-facing camera with continous autofocus, 'video light' and 720p video at 30fps
- Bluetooth 4.1
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with support for Wi-Fi calling
- 4G LTE connectivity (bands 1, 3, 7, 8 and 20)
- NFC support
- microUSB 2.0 with Type B connector
- Removable 2000mAh battery
- 142 x 71 x 6.9mm; 122g
Notably, Cricket makes no mention of the Lumia 650 being designed for business users, which is hardly surprising - aside from its metal-framed design, the device offers no unique features for business users that aren't available on other Windows 10 Mobile handsets.
Nonetheless, the Lumia 650 is an impressive device, as we found in our review earlier this year, in which it earned a very high score.
Source: Cricket Wireless via Windows Central
