Lumia 535, first Microsoft branded Lumia Windows phone launched on Tuesday in Kenya. This signifies Microsoft’s target of achieving low cost for smartphones while achieving great experience and value for money. Lumia 535 that is selling is a Dual-SIM and comes in as the third from the bottom in terms of price. This is after Lumia 530 and Lumia 520, the latter which is still selling way long after the end of life reached.
Read: Hands on with Lumia 535, first impressions.
Value proposition for Lumia 535 is a big display at 5 inches LCD, a 5 inch rear camera auto-focus with flash and a 5MP front camera to complete the triple 5 offering. Microsoft also made the pricing of this device quite aggressive at Kshs 13,800 launch price and the device is already available in the stores. By getting the front camera on an entry level smartphone, Microsoft can now speak of Skype videos on a mass market product.
Read Photography with the Lumia 535; Low Tier Price, Upper Tier Experience
As you may well be aware, Microsoft has been trying to market Skype as the alternative to Google talk and other chat apps that are available by getting the app available across all devices. This is on the desktop, tablets and smartphones across the platforms. Skype is also a business communication platform with the morphing of Microsoft Lync into Skype in what is now Skype for business.
Read: Lumia 535 Full Review
Lumia has great capability of customization of home-screens with resizeable tiles and folders, the latter which became available with the Windows 8.1 Denim update available on Lumia 535. “Lumia is one personal phone and no one is similar to the other, it’s the most personal phone in that your home-screen is defined by the apps you set as live tiles,” Said Kingori Gitahi, Microsoft adding that on top of the screen, you also have ability to define what colour your phone looks like at any day by switching the back shells. These are available in four colours; Grey, Black, White and Orange at launch and these could be added based on demand according to Kingori.
As usual, offline maps has been a selling point for Windows phone, though this is fast becoming available as an advantage across the divide with HERE maps recently becoming available for Android. Microsoft also has the best integration of Office environment with document sync, Onedrive and Microsoft office.
Read: Differences between Lumia 530 and Lumia 535
The launch offer at Orange is Kshs 8450 which is Kshs 5350 off for the first 200 buyers at the Orange stores at Mega, Extelcoms, T-Mall, Sarit Centre and Galleria.
