The phone has been confirmed to hit shelves on December 4

Dec 2, 2014 14:49 GMT  ·  By

Last week, Celkon Win 400, an affordable Windows Phone handset, was launched on the market as the cheapest smartphone powered by Microsoft’s mobile platform.

Today, another Indian OEM, Lava Mobiles announced the upcoming availability of yet another budget-friendly Windows Phone handset that’s only slightly more expensive than the Celkon Win 400, which is selling now for $75 (€60) outright.

Well, Lava Iris Win1 will be available for purchase beginning December 4 for just $80 (€65) off contract, which makes it a great deal for those looking for their first smartphone.

We’re not sure whether Lava Iris Win1 would be a good alternative for those who want to switch from another mobile platform such as Android or iOS, but it’s worth mentioning that the smartphone will only be available for purchase in India.

Lava Mobiles is one of Microsoft’s recent partners that confirmed the release of at least one Windows Phone handset this year. The Redmond-based company waived any licensing fees for those companies that are willing to launch Windows Phone handsets, but there aren’t too many smartphone makers with the desire to support this platform.

The Iris Win1 is a budget-friendly smartphone, as the price suggests. You can also tell that this is a cheap device just by looking at the phone’s specs, confirmed by Lava Mobiles.

While cheap, Lava Iris Win1 has lots of Android competitors in this price range

For example, the smartphone is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, which is one of the lowest supported by Windows Phone 8.1.

The good news is the Iris Win1 packs 1GB of RAM instead of 512MB, the amount included in the Celkon Win 400 smartphone announced last week.

Even though the Iris Win1 comes with only 8GB of internal memory inside, the smartphone features microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).

On the back, Lava’s budget-friendly smartphone packs a 5-megapixel photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and BSI sensor, while in the front there’s a secondary VGA camera for video calls.

Connectivity-wise, the Iris Win1 features dual-SIM capability, 3G and Wi-Fi support, as well as Bluetooth, microUSB 2.0 and GPS with A-GPS.

Last but not least, the Windows Phone handset comes with a rather small 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports 480 x 800 pixels resolution and is powered by a 1950 mAh battery that has yet to be rated by the manufacturer.

While the Lava Iris Win1 does seem like a very cheap handset, competition on the Indian smartphone market is fierce and people are looking for more than specs when choosing their phones.

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Lava Iris Win1 (3 Images)

Lava Iris Win1 (back & front & left sides)
Lava Iris Win1 (bottom side)Lava Iris Win1 (right and back angle)
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