Nokia South Africa, now part of Microsoft, announced two new devices at a launch event in Johannesburg on Thursday evening. The Nokia Lumia 630 is the company’s latest midrange Windows Phone and set for its South African debut, while the 930, its new flagship, is also winging its way here.
At the same time, Nokia has cut the price of its entry-level (and most popular) Lumia device, the 520, to R1 499.
The new Lumia 630 features a 4,5-inch screen and a 1,2GHz quad-core processor. The screen resolution is 480×854 pixels for a pixel density of 218ppi. The phone supports a variety of colourful interchangeable covers and offers users free MixRadio streaming. It will be available in July starting at R1 999.
The Nokia Lumia 930, the follow-up to the 925, is a 5-inch, 1080p smartphone (441ppi pixel density). Weighing 167g, the 930 is 9,8mm thick and has a 2 420mAh battery. The 4G/LTE phone sports a 2,2GHz quad-core CPU and has 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It has a 20-megapixel camera. There’s no word yet on the likely price. The 930 will go on sale in September.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that Windows Phone 8.1 will be available in the next few months. The much anticipated update will provide more flexibly on the Start screen layout, with users able to use a photo as the tile background.
Windows Phone 8.1 will introduce a new way of writing using the built-in keyboard. The new Word Flow keyboard allows users to drag their finger around the keyboard to “shape write”.
Companies will welcome features that allow simpler device enrolment. There’s also a built-in mobile device management client and support for S/MIME for encrypted e-mail as well as support for virtual private networks.
Search is another feature that has received an overhaul, while Microsoft the Calendar and People Hub have also received big updates.
Nokia says Windows Phone 8.1 will be available as an over-the-air update on supported phones. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
