At $80, Microsoft just launched its cheapest Lumia phone yet

Microsoft has today unveiled two new “affordable” (AKA low-end) Lumia smartphones, as the company looks to gain market share in emerging markets.

The Lumia 435 and Lumia 532 smartphones will be arriving in India as well as “select countries” across the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, beginning in February.

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The Lumia 532 comes in two 3G editions — single SIM and dual SIM — and sports a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor. The Lumia 435 also comes in single SIM and dual SIM 3G variants, but it sports a lesser 1.2 GHz dual-core processor.

Both newcomers have 4-inch screens, a 1560 mAh battery, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of memory. The built-in microSD slot lets you expand the memory to 128GB.

As you’d perhaps expect, both new devices arrive with Windows Phone 8.1 in tow, the latest version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, as well as integration with many of the company’s services, including Skype, Office, and OneDrive.

Earlier this month, you may remember, Microsoft launched the Nokia 215, a $29 phone that was touted as its most affordable Internet device yet. As a feature phone, it won’t appeal to those accustomed to the full specifications you’d expect on a smartphone, including access to the Windows Phone Store, so this is the void Microsoft is looking to fill with these latest Lumia devices.

Indeed, the Lumia 435 will be priced at roughly 69 euros (around $80), while the Lumia 532 will weigh in at around 79 euros (around $90), though specific pricing will vary by country.

The 532 is actually a variant of the Lumia 530 that was launched last year, which we called its cheapest Windows Phone yet. The 532 comes in at around 6 euros cheaper (before taxes and subsidiaries) than the 530, which cost 85 euros at launch, though the 532 is marginally heavier.

However, with the 435, Microsoft has its cheapest Lumia-branded handset yet, which is a clear sign of the direction the company is heading. While Windows Phone is struggling to gain traction in many Western markets, as iOS and Android continue to dominate, Microsoft is pushing out into territories where it feels it can still make a mark.

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