Microsoft Devices — still popularly known as Nokia, despite the acquisition — is getting ready to launch two new Lumia smartphones into the Australian market.
The first is the Nokia Lumia 930. This is the latest flagship device for Windows 8.1 — a sturdy metal construction topped with a 5-inch Full HD OLED screen. Inside is a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor. It’s powered by a 2,420mAh battery, which has a reported talk time of up to 15.5 hours.
The 930 is slated for a “July” launch in Australia where is will be available outright for AU$729. The 930 will be available from all major carriers in Australia.
The Lumia 635 is the other handset coming to Australia this month. A mid-tier model, the 635 offers 4G/LTE connectivity, but is otherwise broadly similar to the Nokia Lumia 630 already on the market.
The 635 will be available from Telstra and Optus or outright from AU$279.
Arguably, Windows Phone has been in desperate need for a flagship device and the Lumia 930 seems to fit the bill perfectly in terms of its design and build quality.
Both phones also have Nokia SensorCore software, which lets applications use the device’s motion sensors for fitness tracking. Bing Health & Fitness comes pre-loaded on both, but Nokia has released SDKs for developers in the hope of expanding the fitness offering across Lumia products.
Speaking at a press briefing, Steve Lewis, GM for the Microsoft Mobile Devices in Australia said that while the company had “no announcements” about a dedicated fitness tracker, he felt that “SensorCore and Bing Health [were] a great launching point for developers” and that Microsoft anticipated that health monitoring would be a “big industry”.