Microsoft Lumia 550 Release Date & Specs: 4.7-Inch LTE Smartphone Out Soon? EU Price Details Revealed
Microsoft showcased its hotly-anticipated pair of Windows 10 flagship smartphones at a grand unveiling on Oct. 6. There was also a budget handset on display during the event.
The Lumia 550 might not have the marquee appeal of its siblings, but it's the smartphone that will bring Windows 10 Mobile to the broader masses. Also, it's arriving sooner than expected.
According to WM Power User, Amazon's local website in France has already put up the Lumia 550 for pre-purchase at €130 or approximately $148. It is listed in white and black, yet more color variants could still be available.
There was no mention of a shipping date, but the timing of the listing has supported prior rumors suggesting the Lumia 550 will release sometime in November.
The availability of the pre-purchase will only spread to more European markets in the coming days. Hopefully by then, a definite release date will be revealed.
Phone Arena listed the official specs of the Lumia 550 to include a 4.7-inch 720 x 1280 touchscreen display, 1 GB of RAM, and a 2,100 mAh battery. Its 8 GB storage space can be expanded up to 200 GB via the micro-SD slot.
The handset is equipped with a five-megapixel main camera that supports autofocus, touch focus, geo-tagging and HD video recording. Meanwhile, its two-megapixel front-facing unit can capture sub-par quality selfie pictures and videos.
The Lumia 550 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 210 chipset with four cores and the Adreno 307 GPU on board. It supports basic smartphone connectivity like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, GPS, LTE and other EDGE networks.
As a Windows 10 smartphone, the Lumia 550 will have Microsoft Edge as its default browser while having support for other unique Windows 10 OS capabilities such as Universal Apps and Continuum.
Microsoft Japan president Takuya Hirano revealed this week some of the company's OEM partners that are developing their own line of new Windows 10 smartphones.
Mobile manufacturers like Acer, Freetel, and VIAO showcased their upcoming Windows 10 smartphones during the event, as per K-Tai.
Acer introduced its Liquid M330 handset with a 4.5-inch LCD display, 1 GB of RAM, and the same CPU-GPU combo as the Lumia 550.
Freetel had a mid-level offering known as the Katana 02. It has 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of native storage and a 2,600 mAh battery all for $250.
As for VIAO, the Sony Corporation offshoot merely brought a mock-up device and said its Windows 10 smartphone is currently in development en route to an early 2016 release.
The proliferation of these devices only means the Lumia 550 should come out in a span two months for it to have its day in the sun as one of the very first Windows 10 smartphones.
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