The handset cannot access Skype, Tango, Angry Birds, PES 2012 and other apps

May 28, 2012 09:01 GMT  ·  By

Nokia Lumia 610, the cheapest Windows Phone handset to date, arrives on shelves with a big handicap: it cannot run some of the applications available for the platform.

The handset was made official during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this February, with a 3.7-inch touchscreen display, an 800MHz application processor inside, and only 256MB of RAM to accompany it.

At the time, Nokia and Microsoft did say that some applications won’t be able to run on this device, especially those who require a large amount of RAM.

In fact, the Redmond-based software giant has been advising developers to take a better look at their apps and to optimize them with low memory needs, so that the owners of entry-level handsets such as the Lumia 610 can be able to install and use them as well.

However, not all apps have been modified to meet these requirements, and some of the most popular Windows Phone applications have been left out of this device.

According to Microsoft, 5 percent of the applications in the Windows Phone marketplace are incompatible with Windows Phone 7.5 Tango devices, packing a low amount of RAM.

Recently, we learned that Skype won’t work on the smartphone due to RAM limitations. Now, we hear that applications such as Tango, Angry Birds, and PES 2012 won’t load on this device either.

The guys over at WindowsPhoneApps.es played with the Lumia 610 a bit, and came up with the video embedded below, which also shows its inability to install certain apps.

The reason for which Microsoft prevented the handset from accessing certain applications in the Windows Phone Marketplace is a simple one: the company was focused on ensuring that the OS would continue to run smoothly on low hardware as well.

Nokia’s Lumia 610 is truly the cheapest Windows Phone smartphone out there, and the company did need to target the entry-level of the market, that’s for sure. However, its limitation is not something that users will take lightly.