Microsoft Unveils Its First Non-Nokia Phone, Lumia 535

The non-Nokia smartphone generation begins. After a string of leaks, Microsoft has today announced its Lumia 535, a mainstream offering that the company hopes will help kick-start the success of its own branded phones. Dubbed the “5x5x5” smartphone package, the Lumia 535 has a 5-inch IPS screen and 5 megapixel cameras at both the front and back, and in typical Lumia fashion, the phone will be available in multiple colors: gray, green, blue, white, and a personal favorite, orange.

Some will scoff at the fact that the 535 is just a low-end phone, but it’s hard to blame Microsoft for wanting to start things out slow. It could be that the company is waiting for the right blend of hardware to come along before releasing its first flagship; it doesn’t want to launch now and have it fail to compete against pre-established offerings. What “low-end” means here is a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor, 1GB of memory, and a 960×540 resolution (giving us a ppi of 220).

The 535 will offer a single storage model, 8GB, but will come in both single and dual-SIM flavors. If you’re in need of more memory (and obviously, you’re going to be), you can make use of an included microSD slot to expand the storage to 128GB. I think Microsoft deserves some kudos for putting a microSD slot in a “budget” phone like this. Further, 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage is also included.

Further specs include a 1905mAh battery, which Microsoft says will give you 11 hours of talktime in 2G, 13 hours in 3G, 78 hours for music playback, 8.5 hours for Web browsing, and finally, 6.5 hours for video playback. All-in-all, not too shabby for the phone’s size and accompanying hardware.

On the software side, the phone includes Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim, and it comes pre-equipped with many of Microsoft’s de facto apps, like OneNote, Skype, and of course, Office.

To celebrate the launch of its first self-branded phone, Microsoft has released two videos:

At this time, Microsoft hasn’t revealed Lumia 535 pricing, and I’m not confident enough to hazard a guess. If you’re interested in learning more about what Microsoft wants you to know about the phone, check here, and if you’re more interested in the specs, this is where you want to be.