The smartphone is likely to be available for free on select plans as well

Aug 19, 2014 12:01 GMT  ·  By

We’ve just reported that Nokia Lumia 530 has been officially introduced in Romania where Windows Phone fans can purchase it beginning this week, and now it looks like news about the phone’s availability in the UK hit the Internet.

According to The Verge’s Tom Warren, the budget-friendly Nokia Lumia 530 will go on sale in the UK beginning September 4 for only £60 (€75 / $100) outright. The price does seem much lower than expected considering customers in Italy and other European countries can pre-order the smartphone for no less than €100 ($132).

Anyway, we suspect the Lumia 530 will be available for free on select plans as well, but for the moment there are no details on which carriers will pick up the affordable Windows Phone handset.

The idea of releasing Nokia Lumia 530 on September 4, the same day multiple handset makers have scheduled launch events at IFA 2014 trade fair, doesn’t seem too bright, but maybe Microsoft wants to disrupt these event with the launch of such a cheap phone.

All in all, Windows Phone fans should wait for Microsoft’s press conference, which is set for the same date, September 4, and see what other smartphones the company plans to release this autumn.

If none of the devices to be announced by Microsoft early next month suits your needs, you should definitely go for the Lumia 530, unless you already own the Lumia 520.

From what we’ve seen, there aren’t many differences between the two smartphones, so an upgrade is not really worth it even if the Lumia 530 comes with Windows Phone 8.1 operating system out of the box. The Lumia 520 is also eligible for the upgrade, so this won’t be an advantage for Lumia 530 owners for too long.

For those unaware of the Lumia 530’s specs, here is a quick rundown so you know what you get for the money you pay. First of all, the Lumia 530 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, an Adreno 302 graphics processing unit and only 512MB of RAM.

The smartphone lacks secondary camera in the front and LED flash for the 5-megapixel photo snapper on the back. Nokia Lumia 530 sports a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports 480 x 854 pixels resolution and packs 4GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 128GB via microSD card.

Nokia Lumia 530 will come in both single-SIM and dual-SIM versions, but it’s unclear if the latter will be available in the UK as well.