Microsoft Lumia 540, the upgraded version of the company’s mid-range phone Lumia 535, is all set to hit the Indian market in the next few days, according to distributor sources, though pricing details are unavailable.
It will be the first 500 series Lumia phone to come with an HD display, making it virtually identical to the recently released Lumia 640 phone, which is priced at Rs 11,999. The Lumia 640 does not have 4G LTE.
Going by Lumia 640 price, it can be expected that the base version of Lumia 540 will be priced around the Rs 11,000 mark.
Distributors also indicated that the phone would come in two variants, with a price difference of around Rs 1,500 between them. It is not clear what the higher variant of Lumia 540 would come with — LTE, or more storage.
Official launch date is seen as within the next two weeks.
Microsoft Lumias come in different series.
The 400 series indicate the basic, almost feature-phone sort of configuration and come with small, 4 inch displays. The 500 series is the one targeted at the value conscious smartphone customer, and comes with larger 5 inch displays.
The Lumia 600 series comes with slightly more advanced features such as 4G LTE, while the 700, 800 and higher series offer greater hardware capabilities. No phones with quad-HD displays have been launched by Microsoft yet.
500 SERIES
The 500 series is of high interest as it is the largest selling series for Microsoft in India.
Currently it comprises the Lumia 532 (5,660) and the Lumia 535 (price Rs 7,500) smartphones.
The Lumia 535 was launched six months ago at a price of Rs 9,100, while the 532 was launched two months ago at a price of 6,500. Both phones have seen tremendous decline in their prices since launch, indicating that it is not a good idea to buy Lumia phones immediately after launch.
The Lumia 5xx series usually come with no LTE, low resolution displays and Snapdragon 200 series entry-level chipsets, and the Lumia 540 is no exception.
Like the 535, the Lumia 540 also sports a 5-inch display, but unlike last year’s model, the new model comes with an HD 720p display, which will be its key differentiation from the earlier model. The new phone’s display has 1 mln pixels compared to the 0.5 mln pixels on the older model.
The back camera also gets an upgrade from 5 MP to 8 MP. The front camera will remain at 5 MP.
Of course, going by previous experience, it might make sense to wait for prices to decline before buying. The Lumia 540 should reach the Rs 8,000 mark in about 2.5-3 months after launch.
Comparison of Lumia 535 vs Lumia 540 vs RedMi 2
| LUMIA 535 | LUMIA 540 | REDMI 2 | |
| Display size | 5 | 5 | 4.7 |
| Display pixels | 1 mln | 1 mln | 1 mln |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 410 | Snapdragon 200 | Snapdragon 410 |
| No of Cores | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Core tech | Cortex A7 | Cortex A7 | Cortex A53 |
| Processor freq | 1.2 Ghz | 1.2 Ghz | 1.2 Ghz |
| RAM | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Internal Memory | 8 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Camera (rear) | 5 MP | 8 MP | 8 MP |
| Camera (front) | 5 MP | 5 MP | 2 MP |
| 4G | Yes | No | No |
| Price | 7500 | 11000 | 6999 |