Nokia 601 May Be Super Cheap Windows Phone

Originally Posted by Techradar

Nokia's forthcoming Lumia 610 is set to tread new ground for the Windows Phone platform and enter the market as a pay as you go only offering. Three new phones are expected to debut from Nokia at Mobile World Congress 2012, and sources close to the matter have confirmed to TechRadar that the budget model will be priced very aggressively in UK shops.

With the Nokia Lumia 710 already only costing £199.99 on PAYG with O2, and further price drops anticipated in the near future, it's not a great leap to think that the Lumia 610 will be cheaper still if we follow Nokia's numbering strategy.

Now this has been confirmed, it also seems pretty much nailed on that it will be running the super-cheap version of Windows Phone, named Tango, which is expected to be launched at MWC 2012 by Microsoft.

The new OS is heavily rumoured bring support for lower end hardware (such as fewer pixels, slower processors and perhaps no dedicated camera shutter) and fits perfectly with a cheap-as-chips handset appearing on the market.

Definite pricing for the Nokia Lumia 610 has yet to be confirmed for the new phone as yet, but the idea of a Windows Phone handset for under £100 should surely start getting the budget Android manufacturers a little hot under the collar.

I thought the 710 was already cheap enough at £199 PayGo (Vodafone are even selling it for £149 atm in store), but £100 for a Windows Phone (bare in mind the very powerful minimum specs Microsoft restricts handsets to) is just unthinkable, especially for a Nokia handset. If it happens, it could well blow the Android and Blackberry dominance of the budget smartphone market to pieces.

We already knew the 610/601 and 900 should launched at next weeks WMC, but I wonder what the third new handset will be...

Source: http://www.techradar.com/news/phone...to-set-new-bar-for-windows-phone-1063205

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Nokia 601/610

I can believe that they will put 610 out for £100 simply because Nokia need to get selling handsets again after they stalled almost completely in 2010 due to Androids dominance of the smartphone industry. These Lumia Devices will prove to be Nokias saviour and may well outsell Rim and lower priced android devices very quickly.

Those who are sceptical about windows mango will be very suprised once they use the OS. I have just replaced my Galaxy s II with a HTC win 7 phone simply because WIN 7 works , whereas Android is very buggy. Once this 610 gets released, there will be an influx of windows phones out there, this will then give everyone a chance to see the phones in operation and most will agree, Win 7 blows android away........

Agree with most of that, though I do say the Android/WP7 competition is more dependent on what the end-user wants to do with their phone. Droid is better for people who want control and bleeding edge technologies/applications, however I do feel for 99% of "Joe Bloggs" Win7 is a far superior user-experience.

Right now, WP7 7 imho, is the best OS out there; it's not perfect, and there is some area's where other ecosystems are stronger, but overall, the competition have some serious catching up to do.

I agree with you too, that Mango is simply wonderful, it was the coming-of-age for WP7, and as a long-term WinMo user, it addressed most of the criticisms that I, and the WinMo community in general, had thrown at it. Tango will further improve the user-experience and further answer any outstanding criticisms such as the lack of NFC etc...

If they get this phone into shops for sub-£100 (even £99 lol) then I think the widespread prediction within the technology industry that 2012 will be the year of Windows Phone, should be well on its way to becoming true; can you imagine the sales boom, of a Nokia handset running the fashionable/buzzword Windows Phone for less than £100 in the fall of 2012? As you say, all Microsoft and the OEM's need to do, is keep the pressure on marketing the phones, engaging with the consumer to create more awareness of the system, once most Andorid/BB users pick it up, they will probably fall in love with it's out and out refinement, simplicity and speed, not to mention the impressive and sleek GUI, in comparison to the clunky and outdated interfaces they have been used to using previously.

these are nice phones!