Finnish handset maker Nokia has launched the Lumia 900, its flagship smartphone powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, in SA. It will be available from MTN starting on 28 June.

The Lumia 610, Nokia’s cheapest Windows Phone device to date, goes on sale at the same time.

The device will become available through other operators at an unspecified future date. Nokia and MTN also being cagey on the retail prepaid price for the Lumia 900, with MTN publishing only a contract price of R369/month on an MTN Anytime 200 package with a 75MB/month data bundle.

Through a branding and co-marketing agreement with the latest Batman movie, for a short time after launch consumers will also be able to get limited edition Lumia 900 handsets engraved with the Batman logo.

The Lumia 900 was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. It offers a 4,3-inch Amoled display and includes turn-by-turn navigation in the form of Nokia Maps, an interface for use by drivers called Nokia Drive, and the company’s music service, Nokia Mix Radio.

Nokia says the Lumia 900 also features its highest-capacity battery. Its primary camera offers eight megapixels, Carl Zeiss optics and a dual-LED flash. It’s also capable of shooting video at 720p and 30 frames per second. There’s a secondary camera on the front of the device — a first for the Lumia range — that offers 1,3 megapixels and 640×480-pixel video at 30 frames a second.

The Lumia 900 is powered by a 1,4GHz Scorpion processor and has 512MB of RAM. It includes 16GB of flash storage and, like the Lumia 610, does not offer an expansion slot for microSD cards.

Though the Lumia 900 is available in a speedy 4G/LTE model in the US, in SA it will support HSPA+ and other high-speed mobile broadband options up to speeds of 42Mbit/s.

Nokia’s entry-level Lumia, the 610, is aimed at the youth market and features large-scale social media integration. It includes 8GB of flash memory, 256GB of RAM, a 3,7-inch, 480×800 pixel screen, and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus. It’s powered by an 800MHz processor and an Adreno 200 graphics processing unit.