Nokia launches Lumia 620, a budget-based Windows Phone 8

Nokia has announced the Lumia 620, its most affordable Windows Phone 8 device yet. With an estimated pricing of $250 contract-free, the Lumia 620 is the company’s budget Windows Phone 8 smartphone, although for just $50 more you might have better options.

The specs on the Lumia 620 are in line for a budget phone: it has a 3.8-inch display with 800-by-480 pixel resolution, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor. It has 512MB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage (expandable up to 64GB via MicroSD), and 7GB free Microsoft SkyDrive storage.

Nokia said the 5-megapixel camera with flash on the Lumia 620 shares the same lenses with the higher-end Lumia 920 and 820. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera is a standard VGA sensor, and this phone also has NFC connectivity on board for accessories such as portable speakers and payment apps.

As with most Windows phones, the Lumia 620 comes in a range of colors, including lime green, orange, magenta, yellow, cyan, white and black. Nokia used a new dual-shot color technique that adds a second layer of colored, transparent or translucent polycarbonate on top of a base layer to produce secondary color blends and depth effects.

The Lumia 620 is estimated to cost $250 unlocked and contract-free. It will begin selling in January 2013 in Asia, followed closely by Europe and the Middle East before expanding further.

Although at $250 the Lumia 620 is the cheapest Windows Phone 8 by far, if you have $50 extra, you could get a higher-end phone, unlocked. The Google Nexus 4 is $300 contract free, has a larger 4.7-inch high-resolution screen, a better camera at 8MP, 2GB of RAM and a quad-core processor – so unless you want a Windows Phone 8 specifically, the Nexus 4 is a better option for a just that extra $50.