The Microsoft Lumia 650 has hit the shelves in other countries already, and now it won't be long until it lands on U.S. shores as well.
Lumia US announced via Twitter that it will announce some news about the smartphone "later this week" on social media. That means it's only a matter of days before details of the anticipated handset are in plain view of the public's eye.
@myke115 Please stay tuned ... we'll be posting some official updates on social media later this week! #TeamLumia #Lumia650
— Lumia US (@LumiaUS) March 9, 2016
Until that happens, here's what to expect from the budget smartphone, from the hardware specifications to the price.
For starters, the Lumia 650 has a 5-inch AMOLED display that's topped off with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It's capable of pushing out a 720 x 1,080 resolution at 294 ppi.
Under the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 with a quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex A7 setup along with an Adreno 304 GPU. In terms of memory, it packs 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage that can go all the way up to an additional 200 GB via microSD card.
It's loaded with a 2,000 mAh battery pack to keep it alive throughout the day. As for the cameras, it has an 8-megapixel rear shooter with an f/2.2 aperture plus an LED flash and a 5-megapixel f/2.2 front-facing snapper that's just enough video chatting. As anticipated, it runs on Windows 10 Mobile out of the box.
Connectivity-wise, it supports 4G LTE, boasting 16 hours' worth of talk time on a single charge. It also has the components for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth v4.1. Lastly, it sports a microUSB 2.0.
According to reports, the Lumia 650 is more of a smartphone meant to be handed out to employees who are tasked to go out into the field, and based on the respectable specs, that certainly seems to be the case.
Another thing to expect is that the AT&T subsidiary Cricket Wireless will premiere the smartphone in the United States.
It's believed that the Lumia 650 will come with a price tag of about $200.
Long story short, the Lumia 650 is by all means a pretty decent smartphone, where it's sitting somewhere between the entry-level Lumia 550 and the high-end Lumia 950. In other words, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles as the Lumia 950, but it's not quite as underwhelming as the Lumia 550.
