Microsoft has recently announced the lasts Nokia Lumia phone, the 540, to its family of Windows phones. This is just one of many phones that operate Windows 8.1, and there are rumors of all kinds of firmware updates on other Lumia phones like the 535, 435, 532, 640, and 640 XL. There is also speculation that there will be a relaunch of the Nokia phone brand, which could change a lot of things.
According to Digital Trends, Microsoft announced the Lumia 540, a budget Windows phone that is the next step up from models like the Lumia 520 and 530. The Lumia 540 has a 5.1 inch HD (1280 x 720) screen, with a 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor. The main camera is at 8 Megapixels with an auto-focus and LED flash, and the front-facing camera is a 5 Megapixel wide-angle.
The Lumia 540 Dual SIM plans to roll out in May and will launch in IMEA (India, Middle East, and Africa) as well as APAC (Asia Pacific). It will cost about $149 USD with the taxes and subsidies.
In the meantime, PC Advisor reports that the Lumia 640 has just launched. One of the big developments with Windows phones is that Microsoft is shifting form Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, and it looks like a lot of Microsoft phones are going to be getting themselves a firmware update of some kind.
Softpedia reports that when Microsoft releases Windows 10 for its phones later this summer, and the Lumia 535 should be getting that upgrade after that. There are reports that the 535 phone is receiving a new firmware upgrade now, which is supposed to "fix some minor issue and add small improvements".
As for software and firmware updates for other Windows phones such as the Lumia 435, 532, 640 and 640 XL, there is very little information available online about it. The big excitement last year was the announcement of Lumia Denim at IFA 2015 in Berlin, Germany. Lumia Denim was the firmware for Lumia handsets and included features like passive-listening Cortana, 4K video, Rich Capture, and much more. A most recent update was the Verizon Lumia Icon Denim update with version 8.1.1 of Windows, according to Windows Central.
A recent article from Phone Arena states that Nokia could be staging some kind of a comeback for 2016. Nokia once had a huge market share of cellular phones, but this was before the smartphone revolution. Thanks to the purchase by Microsoft, now they are all Windows phones, and it should be interesting what will happen to the Microsoft mobile platform after the release of Windows 10.
The article about Nokia's new rumored re-launch has sparked rumors that the first of these new Nokia phones could run on Android. A lot of Nokia fans have wanted to go back to that, but this would certainly be an odd twist if Microsoft still wants to keep a hold of Nokia.
