14 DAY TRIAL // The first smartphone to run under the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system version is already available for purchase on various markets out there, namely the Nokia Lumia 630, but not all of its features are available to users in all countries, such as Cortana.
The personal digital assistant has been released only in the United States for the time being, despite the fact that people in other countries did have the chance to get it by changing their phone’s language and region settings to the US.
Microsoft has already confirmed its intentions to bring Cortana to more markets before the end of this year, including the UK and China, but it has not provided specific info on when that might happen.
According to Carphone Warehouse, however, Cortana will arrive in the UK soon, although Microsoft was actually expected to release it in this country towards the end of the year.
The retailer has published a video teaser for the Nokia Lumia 630, presenting some of the main features that the Windows Phone 8.1 handset has to offer, and claims in it that Cortana will indeed come soon to the country.
The company is referring to the UK version of the personal assistant, the one that Microsoft said that still needed refinement, which leaves little room for supposition. Furthermore, an article on Neowin claims that Cortana is all but confirmed to land in the UK before the end of this month.
Apparently, a source from Microsoft has unveiled this, though a specific release date has not been provided. Cortana is, however, said to land in the country within the next two or three weeks, which means that an official announcement on the matter might actually arrive sooner than initially expected.
The one thing that is certain for the time being, however, is the fact that Microsoft is hard at work with expanding the availability of the feature, and that it might release it in the Netherlands and India too sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, however, users in the UK interested in the purchase of a Nokia Lumia 630 handset should have a look at the video review published by the leading retailer.
The handset has a nice rage of features to offer, including a 4.5-inch touchscreen display, a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor inside, and 512MB of RAM, paired with 8GB of internal memory and a microSD memory card slot with support for up to 128GB of additional storage space.
On the back, the handset sports a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording videos in 720p resolution. The usual set of connectivity capabilities was also included in the device.
The Nokia Lumia 630 can be seen listed on this page at Carphone Warehouse, but it is only available for pre-order for the time being.
