By Alexandra Burlacu | Feb 25, 2013 01:43 PM EST
In a bid to boost sales and stay competitive, Nokia came up with new offerings on Monday, Feb. 25, including a budget-friendly Lumia 520 smartphone.
Rumors about the Nokia Lumia 520 made the rounds for a good while, but most people expected a low-end handset with a worthless chassis that would hardly be worth a second look except for its price. As it turns out, however, the Nokia Lumia 520 actually looks quite good and seems like a promising handset for the more budget-conscious. The smartphone will be available in red, yellow, cyan, white and black color options.
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The Nokia Lumia 520 will launch globally, and it will also hit the U.S. on T-Mobile as the Lumia 521. The handset should arrive in the U.S. around late spring or early summer.
Those who were expecting a round, bulky handset along the lines of the Nokia Lumia 620 are in for a surprise. The Lumia 520 has a smooth, rounded back that allows for a nice grip, but the sharp-edged screen stands out in a somewhat odd manner.
As previously mentioned, the handset comes in a range of colors, and users can also swap between several exchangeable covers in different colors to keep things more interesting, at least chromatically.
The Lumia 520, or 521 for the U.S., sports the usual buttons for the volume rocker, power button and camera shutter, though these buttons are a bit wider than on the higher-end Lumia smartphones.
In terms of camera, the 5-megapixel shooter can record 720p HD video, but it lacks flash. Nokia also chose not to include wireless charging in this model, likely in an effort to keep costs down.
When it comes to display, the Lumia 520 packs a 4-inch LCD IPS screen with Lumia's super-sensitivity to nails and covered hands. This means that the display is responsive even when the user is wearing gloves or taps the screen with a fingernail.
Other details include a 1,430mAh battery, 8GB of storage, and support for expandable memory of up to 64GB. Moreover, Microsoft is also offering its standard 7GB of free online storage on SkyDrive.
Last but not least, let's talk pricing: the Nokia Lumia 520 will cost just €139 without a contract, roughly $185. It will cost even less with a carrier contract. Nokia gave no exact launch date other than the Q2 timeframe, but the U.S. should see it sometime before the summer.
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