Nokia squeezes Windows Phone 8.1 down to $149

A replacement to the now year old Nokia Lumia 520, the aptly named Lumia 530 is here, or at least it will be shortly in September.

“The Lumia 530 builds on the momentum of the highly successful and category defining Lumia 520 and demonstrates our focus on welcoming more people to the Windows Phone ecosystem with amazing devices for work, home and play,” said Steve Lewis, General Manager at Microsoft Device Sales in Australia and New Zealand.

“With high end apps, features and exceptional build quality at an amazing price, the Lumia 530 sets a new benchmark for affordable smartphones.”

The change in handsets features an updated design and operating system, thanks to Windows Phone 8.1 appearing on the Lumia 530 out of the box, but there’s also a new processor too, with a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor replacing the dual-core Snapdragon from last year.

Outside of these changes, it’s mostly the same phone, with a 5 megapixel camera with no flash, 3G connectivity, 4 inch screen, a 1430mAh battery, and support for microSD cards to upgrade the storage inside.

You’ll likely need to do that, though, since the 8GB from the Lumia 520 has been cut down to 4GB for the 530, no doubt to bring the price down (though Microsoft would be quick to note the inclusion of 15GB online OneDrive storage).

Pricing for the Lumia 530 looks to be interesting, with an outright price of $149 hitting shelves shortly, as well as a prepaid Optus bundle for $129.

That said, if you’re not bothered by the upgraded processor, it’s possible you could find some good bargains on the back of this release, with the Lumia 520 still out there in the market, and just as upgradeable to Windows Phone 8.1.

With this in mind, we could end up seeing Nokia Lumia 520 handsets found at sub-$100 prices shortly, so keep an eye out if you’re at all curious.