Microsoft unveils its cheapest Lumias to date

Lumia
Illuminating

We don't all necessarily want to blow hundreds of pounds on the latest and greatest smartphones, and if you're shopping around for something a little more modest, you've got two new mobiles to pick from: the Lumia 435 and Lumia 532, just announced by Microsoft.

"Pricing will vary by market and operator" says the firm, but the baseline figure is 69 euros before tax for the 435 and 79 euros before tax for the 532. That's a smartphone for about £54/$81/AU$101 or £61/$93/AU$115 based on a basic conversion.

Both phones are running Windows 8.1 complete with Cortana, Skype and Outlook integration and 30GB of OneDrive space as soon as you upload your first pictures from the device. Both phones offer a single or dual-SIM configuration.

Spec savers

The Lumia 435 features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal space, a 2-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front-facing camera. If you opt for the Lumia 532 (which essentially picks up where the Lumia 530 left off), the CPU gets a quad-core upgrade and the rear camera is boosted to 5 megapixels.

Both handsets are rocking a 4-inch WVGA 800 x 480 pixel screen, and bright green and orange colours will be available alongside white and black.

The target market here is very much those who are upgrading from a feature phone to a smartphone for the first time: think grandparents or kids picking up their first proper handset.

Microsoft says the phones are rolling out from February everywhere except the United States, though it seems Brits will only get the 435 for now. "There are no current plans to launch the Lumia 532 in the UK; however, the Lumia 435 is expected to come to the UK in March," a Nokia spokesperson told us.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.