Microsoft has unveiled two new Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1, which will be upgraded to the cross-platform Windows 10 later in the year.
The company gave news media at Mobile World Congress a brief glimpse of how Windows 10 apps, such as an Excel spreadsheet, maps and Outlook email, look on a smartphone display. Windows 10 is currently in a publicly available preview version and will be ready for official release later in 2015.
The new phones are the Lumia 640, with a 5″. display, and the Lumia 640 XL with a 5.7″. screen. The larger device ships in March and the smaller one in April. Pricing was estimated at about €189 for the Lumia 640 on LTE and about €219 for the Lumia 640 XL on LTE, but pricing will vary by market and operator, Microsoft said.
The Lumia 640 measures 5.5×2.8×0.35″ and weighs 141g. It has an 8MP rear camera and a 0.9MP front camera. The 2500mAh battery supports up to 26 hours of talk time.
The larger Lumia 640 XL measures 6.2×3.1×0.35″ and weighs 170g ounces. It has a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front The battery in the Lumia 640 XL is larger, at 3,000mAh.
Both phones will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor running at 1.2GHz; 1Gb of memory; 1Tb Onedrive storage; a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal for the Lumia device, as well as for one PC or Mac and one tablet; and 60 free minutes per month of Skype worldwide calling. Both will be available in single and dual SIM LTE and dual SIM 3G variations.
Microsoft also announced a Bluetooth-capable keyboard that can be folded in half to fit in a pocket or purse. It is larger than the Lumia 640 XL when folded in half. Further specs and pricing weren’t immediately available.
Cortana hiccup
Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia under Microsoft, described the new Lumia devices as further manifestation of Microsoft’s commitment for Windows 10 apps and services that work across phones, tablets, laptops and desktops and even across major operating systems.
On-stage demonstrations showed how an Excel spreadsheet will look on the Lumia 640 XL, allowing on-display touches to re-size cells of data. In one demonstration, a Surface Pro 3 tablet was used to search for a map of downtown Barcelona, then the same map was sized on a smartphone. In another demo, a Barcelona restaurant dinner reservation reminder for 8pm was set on a Surface tablet using voice commands with the Cortana digital assistant, then the reservation was shown immediately on the smartphone. The spoken command for 8pm was misunderstood by Cortana as 6pm, explained as a fault of a live demo in a crowded and loud exhibition hall.
“Developers can build universal experiences and deliver them across different types of Windows devices,” Elop said. “It is our hope that our cross-platform initiatives will deliver not only across our platforms, but those of others.” Elop said there are now 2.8 million developers and others registered as Windows insiders to work on Windows 10 apps and services.
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