T-Mobile confirms plans for Lumia 530 release later this year

The Lumia 530, Microsoft's new budget Windows Phone 8.1 handset, was announced today and it's already making the release date rounds.

T-Mobile posted a new release stating that the successor to the Lumia 521 (aka the Lumia 520 elsewhere in the world) is coming to US shores later this year. This is the vaguest release time frame they could go with, but the low-end handset should sell for about $115.

At that price it hits the same sweet spot many budget-minded Android handsets such as the $129 Motorola Moto E.

The Lumia 530 will be the third Windows Phone 8.1 device to enter the market following the Lumia 630 and Lumia 635.

Bet your bottom dollar

At this bargain price users picking up the Lumia 530 will get a decently sized 4-inch screen at a low-definition 854 x 480 FWVGA resolution.

Tucked inside the 530's plastic shell is a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It also has a dinky 512GB of RAM and only 4GB for storage, though luckily it's expandable to 128GB with a microSD card.

The Lumia 530 comes with a rear camera backed by a 5MP sensor and no front-facer for selfies. The low-end smartphone offers up 3G connectivity, so there are definitely trade-offs to consider when buying this device.

On the plus side users will get Windows Phone 8.1 on the device complete with Microsoft's new Cortana virtual assistant, a new Action Center notification area, and Wi-Fi sense among other operating system upgrades.

• Is the Lumia 530 worth the upgrade over the Lumia 521? Find out in our head-to-head versus!