Some good news to end the year! Microsoft has officially confirmed that the Lumia 650 smartphone is in development, and all set to launch in early 2016.
This is, obviously, the successor to the fan favorite and highly popular Lumia 640 series of handsets.
This new Windows 10 Mobile phone will be part of the company’s midrange phone lineup, and although it is set for arrival early next year, information regarding this particular device is quite limited. We’ve had previous little in the way of rumors and leaked details.
However, Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela spilled the beans on the Lumia 650 during the Windows Weekly podcast, confirming that the company was working on it.
He refused to provide any specifics in terms of hardware or when can we expect to see it debut.
The upcoming MWC 2016 (Mobile World Congress) event in Barcelona is a fair bet from here.
That said, there are possible hardware specifications that have been thrown around regarding the anticipated Lumia 650, codenamed Sanaa, all of which point to this being a low-end or midrange phone, powered by a Qualcomm processor.
Most likely the Snapdragon 210.
It may come with a 2,000 mAh battery that will power the 5-inch display.
Interestingly, rumors are rife that while the handset will offer at least 8GB of storage space, it will not come with a microSD card for expanded storage. Which is very odd when you think about this, as this feature exists on most Lumia smartphones.
In terms of camera, we can expect modest 8 megapixels, but without a dedicated physical button.
That said, all these are rumors and unconfirmed reports.
The only things we know for sure is that Microsoft is ready to launch their fourth (or third, depending on how you count the Lumia 950) Windows 10 Mobile handset in the form of the Lumia 650, and it is coming in early 2016.