Catering to different range of global smartphone users.
By Dileep Thekkethil
Microsoft today added three new Windows 10-based smartphones to its line-up – Lumia 950 Dual SIM, Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM and the affordable Lumia 550, thus catering to different range of global smartphone users.
According to Microsoft, the Lumia 950 and 950 XL dual SIM smartphones will be up for sale starting from November for a price of $549 and $649, respectively, whereas the affordable Lumia 550 will hit stands in December with a price tag of $139.
Like their names suggest, the two devices have many things in common when it comes to features under the hood. Microsoft has included a 5.2-inch display along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 hexacore processor for Lumia 950 and on the other hand, 5.7-inch Lumia 950 XL is powered by a Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor. Both the devices are coupled with a whopping 3GB RAM to gear up with the performance of the processors.
Both the devices have Quad HD AMOLED display that makes reading easy even in bright sunlight, and the Gorilla® Glass 3 gives extra protection for the screen from scratch, tough enough to let you relax and enjoy your Lumia 950 Dual SIM.
Coming to the affordable smartphone Lumia 550, Microsoft has not brought many changes from the other series of the company’s affordable smartphones. The 4.7 inch Lumia 550 has an HD display and runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 210 processor. The device has just 1GB RAM, just a bare minimum to run Windows 10 OS.
One of the key highlights of the devices launched today is their capability to use all features of a Windows PC inside a smartphone that can fit inside a pocket.
Microsoft has went a step further and added a USB port to its Lumia 950 series smartphones letting users to connect their smartphone to a keyboard or mouse and work with apps that PC users generally use in their desktops and laptops.
To enable seamless transition of apps, Microsoft had earlier introduced a feature called Continuum, which ensures that the best screen is always the one displayed for the user, regardless of whether he is using a Windows smartphone, Xbox or Surface tablet. You can even change from desktop to tablet mode any time they want.
If that was all that Microsoft had to offer, the new Lumia smartphones could have been just a favorite among business users, but with lots of thinking going into making the phones feature rich, Microsoft has even tempted many loyal Android users towards its new operating environment.
The Lumia 950 series smartphones come with a 20-megapixel camera with image stabilization feature that reduces distortions caused by accidental shakes. It also has a triple LED flash that ensures pictures taken in low light are sharper and closer to the original. Users can also record video in 4K quality like in other premium smartphones like Apple iPhone 6s and Sony Xperia Z5.
Both devices have an internal storage capacity of 32GB expandable up to 2 terabytes using microSD card.
Two of the most notable features of the Lumia 950 and 95 XL are facial recognition feature and the super-fast battery charging. According to Microsoft, their new smartphones will charge over 50% within 30 minutes using the USB Type C connection.
Windows Hello Beta is another feature added to Lumia 950 and 950 XL Dual SIM phones that simply wake up your device just by look directly at the screen. The new infrared sensor and infra-red camera technology automatically authenticates the user.
Microsoft is planning to make a comeback into the smartphone market after some of their recent smartphones didn’t perform the way they quite expected. Also, it is to be noted that this is the first major launch of Lumia devices after the new CEO Satya Nadella took charge of the office.