Microsoft Lumia 550 Brings Windows 10 To Budget Shoppers

Microsoft has announced a new smartphone called the Lumia 550 that aims directly at shoppers on a tight budget who want the Windows 10 operating system. The smartphone will launch in select markets starting today in Europe. Availability will start in other regions in the coming months.

The big feature of this smartphone is the budget price of $139. That is the MSRP, not the price of the smartphone with subsidies or discounts. The smartphone ships with apps like Microsoft Office, Cortana, OneDrive, Outlook mail, and Outlook Calendar along with Skype.

The screen is a 4.7-inch unit with HD resolution of 1280 x 720 packing 315 ppi. Power comes from a removable 2100 mAh internal battery. The processor is a Snapdragon 210 with quad cores operating at 1.1 GHz. The main camera is a 5MP unit with an autofocus f/1.4 lens.

That camera can also record video in 720p resolution and has a single LED flash. The front camera is a 2MP unit. Internal storage is 8GB and the Snapdragon 201 chipset is mated with 1GB of RAM. Storage expansion with to 200GB with microSD cards is supported. Physical dimensions of the smartphone are 136.1 x 67.8 x 9.9mm and the phone weighs in at 141.9g.