FCC Approval for Lumia 521 Means Nokia is Poised to Tussle with Apple, Samsung in Budget Phone Arena
It looks like budget phones will create a considerable scene this year and Nokia will not be left behind as the Finnish mobile device maker is all set for the global rollout of the Nokia Lumia 520, which is the Lumia 521 for U.S. buyers.
It's only a matter of time before the 521 makes its way to the hands of U.S. users as Engadget reported that a Nokia handset bearing the model number RM-917 gained approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
It is, of course, the Lumia 520 that Nokia had earlier unveiled via the 2013 MWC and U.S. carrier T-Mobile is picking up the handset for distribution, bearing the name Lumia 521.
The FCC approval means the 521's radio signals of 850/AWS, 1900 HSPA+/UMTS and GSM/EDGE are cleared and suitable to access America's communications infrastructures.
To simplify everything, T-Mobile is bringing the Lumia 521 to American consumers as a mobile phone capable of accessing 4G and HSPA+ signals.
Apart from its superfast wireless internet access, the 521 is small gizmo that packs the following middleweight specs: a 4-inch display with 800 x 480 pixels, dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, A-GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm processor, Adreno 305 GPU, 5MP main snapper, 521MB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage plus microSD card support of up to 64GB and 1430mAh battery.
And lest we forget, it runs on Windows Phone 8 from Microsoft.
Unlocked, the Lumia 520/521 started selling in Australia at around $300 but U.S. buyers will likely get it for free, courtesy of T-Mobile, but with contract coverage that lasts two years at the maximum.
As mentioned above the Lumia 521 is set on a collision course with upcoming budget smartphones that biggie names like Apple and Samsung will issues in the coming months.
Apple is believed to be working on a cheaper iPhone version with the specs still under tight guard while Samsung already has a slew of affordable Galaxy handsets. But for this year, the South Korean tech giant is releasing the Galaxy S4 Mini, probably assuming the role as the company's 'flagship budget phone'.
While these price-sensitive handsets from Apple, Samsung and Nokia are geared for international release, analyst believe the main battleground would be in emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa or BRICS.