Microsoft’s first phone to launch with Windows Phone 8.1 — not Nokia, not any more — is the Lumia 630. In five typically Nokia bright colours, the 630 is made for students and businesspeople and trendsetters alike, with decently powerful hardware and a 4.5-inch display. And it’s cheap, too.
Also the first Windows Phone available through a carrier with Nokia’s low-power SensorCore, the Lumia 630 can run any of the quickly-growing fleet of Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy fitness trackers and wearable hardware devices without majorly impacting battery life from its 1830mAh cell.
A 4.5-inch, 845×480 pixel ClearBlack (LCD) display may not be the most detailed on the market, and even within its particular market segment, but the Lumia 630 isn’t really playing on its specifications. Its 5-megapixel camera should take adequate photos, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (a 1.2Ghz quad-core from 2013) is similarly capable of handling everything but the most recent and most visually demanding mobile games.
The Lumia 630 is an entirely reasonable $249 outright from Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, JB Hi-Fi and other electronics retailers when it launches later this month — May 27th is the big day. If you don’t mind being locked into a carrier, you can get a hefty discount when you buy it directly through Vodafone for the bargain price of $179 on prepaid from June 4th. [Nokia]