Microsoft showed off a low-cost feature phone at CES (since 2013, the company has made its biggest announcements at its own events), and has now revealed two affordable Windows Phone 8.1 smartphones: the Lumia 435 and Lumia 532. They cost just €70 and €80, ex VAT, and will be launched in February.
Both phones are clearly an attempt to take on the new sub-$100 Android One smartphones from Google’s partners, which include Micromax and Spice. The specifications reflect this: the 435 is a 4″ device with 800 x 480 resolution, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM 8GB of storage (expandable) and a replaceable 1,560mAh battery, lasting for 11.7 hours on 3G. Meanwhile, the Lumia 532 can be considered a step down from the recently-released Lumia 535; it is similar to the 432, but with a quad-core processor.
Both phones are available in single- and dual-SIM variants. They offer access to Microsoft Office programmes, the Cortana virtual assistant and 30GB of free cloud storage.
