With iOS and Android leading the smartphone market for the broad choice of apps that they offer, you could easily overlook Windows 10 Mobile as a viable operating system for your next smartphone. However, many phones that do run this OS can prove surprisingly good value, particularly for business use; here are some that can be good buys right now.
Microsoft Lumia 550
Officially priced from $139.99 unlocked, this model is the cheapest of Microsoft’s Lumia phones which come with Windows 10 Mobile out of the box. And, unsurprisingly, a lot of compromises have been made with the onboard features…
These include a 5-megapixel back camera, a 2-megapixel front camera, 8GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. The 4.7-inch display is also the smallest in Lumias with Windows 10 preinstalled – but, of course, some of us like a phone in a very compact package! The option to expand the storage to 200GB via microSD card is also welcome in such a cheap handset.
Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
This is the “phablet” offering of the Lumias which Microsoft currently offers through its online store, where the device can be picked up, without a contract, for $249.99. The fact that it actually comes with Windows Phone 8.1 – though a free upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile is available – belies the Lumia 640 XL’s age, but many of the specs certainly don’t…
Along with a 5.7-inch display, you’ve got a 13-megapixel rear camera and, on the front, a 5-megapixel snapper. This obviously makes the Lumia 640 XL easy to recommend for people who love to take photos of their surroundings, capture selfies, and video chat over Skype while on their travels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 also helps to smooth things; however, not everyone likes regularly wielding a phone this big, which leads us onto the…
Microsoft Lumia 650
If you consider, for your own needs, the Lumia 550 too underpowered and the Lumia 650 too large, then you could find that the Lumia 650 strikes just the right balance of everything. For a start, with its price of just $199 for an unlocked handset from the online Microsoft Store, it’s only slightly more expensive than the 550 – but comes with some extra goodies…
What goodies? We mean an 8-megapixel front camera, 16GB of onboard storage, and a 5-inch OLED display. There’s also the same ability to increase the storage up to 200GB by inserting a microSD card. All of the little improvements over the 550 could ultimately persuade you to spend the little extra money for the 650. So, the best all-round Windows 10 Mobile phone on the market at the moment? Here at AppleMagazine, we reckon so.