The future of the budget windows phone?

[Wbutchart1]

Boy this is a question that wouldn't be needed last year....im curious through. I have a Lumia 650, a great phone, however say it breaks what options would we have that have been released recently?. I see great high end phones coming, the Jade, the elite, however what about for those that are not looking to pay over ?500?.

Curious as to whether things are still coming and I'm missing it, or if Android is now the only option for the budget conscious.

Thanks.

 

[abhishek singh21]

however say it breaks what options would we have that have been released recently?

Microsoft has closed the shop on lumia series so no more shows there. Local regional OEMs might bring in a few devices but that is not for granted. As you already mentioned we have our new flagships but nothing for a mid range device and no one knows when to expect one.

 

[Wbutchart1]

Microsoft has closed the shop on lumia series so no more shows there. Local regional OEMs might bring in a few devices but that is not for granted. As you already mentioned we have our new flagships but nothing for a mid range device and no one knows when to expect one.

That's what I was thinking too, I have no desire to spend vast amounts of money on a phone, my options with windows, my preferred os may soon be no more, forcing a move to Android.

 

[libra89]

This is a great point that you raise here. It doesn't look like Microsoft will do it. The only options I'm seeing currently are the Coship Moly phones (not sure what they are called where you are), and the rumored Cerulean phone. Acer also has lower end phones, but they aren't even midrange.

I'm hoping that the rumored phone will bring a midrange to Windows 10 Mobile. I find it very interesting that you mention Android and midrange, because that space is very HOT right now and it's not good that it isn't at least lukewarm on the Windows 10 Mobile side.

 

[Aamir Mustafa]

There is no future for budget windows phones bcoz Microsoft has ended the production of Lumia. People are usually are not interested in high ends specially in windows phones and other OEMs also don't exist in many countries and have no aggressive marketing.

 

[rinosaur]

There is almost certainly no future for budget Windows phones anymore. If anything they will be Chinese or Japan exclusive.

 

[Wbutchart1]

Originally posted by rinosaur
There is almost certainly no future for budget Windows phones anymore. If anything they will be Chinese or Japan exclusive.

The irony then is that it's not users giving up on Windows Phone in this case but Microsoft discarding part of its current group of customers.

Did a bit of digging, the moto e3 looks a good one for my next phone. I have no intention of paying anything over ?150 for a phone these days.

 

[earthman007]

The irony then is that it's not users giving up on Windows Phone in this case but Microsoft discarding part of its current group of customers.

Microsoft did - sadly for many of us - retreat from the consumer market, having decided to focus elsewhere. At the moment we don't know much about the models that may be rolled out by anyone next year ('surface' phone rumours etc), whether they're high/medium or low end.

We just have to sit and wait, somewhat in the hope that our current great phones have good longevity - and that the right future phones to come onto the market, suit our needs and budgets at that point. It may be that having a somewhat stable Windows 10 mobile OS will appeal to a larger number of OEMs: but time will tell.

Currently many countries have seemingly been fully abandoned, such as parts of South America: let's hope that this doesn't happen, or that there are no models priced below the premium ones for us. Another option could be to buy what are today's premium models in future, when/if they get heavily discounted due to being older phones.

 

[Everard Onggon]

No budget Windows Phones means a drastic fall to WPs marketshare. So how developers will become interested to UWP if there is no point on doing it?
Microsoft killing budget Windows Phones is also like killing their UWP. As a developer, I don't see any worth on investing to UWP development if I only have Windows 10 desktop/laptop/2 in 1 users as target customers. A traditional Win32 app is better since I can still target Windows 7 users which is quiet large until now.

 

[anon(6078578)]

That's what I was thinking too, I have no desire to spend vast amounts of money on a phone, my options with windows, my preferred os may soon be no more, forcing a move to Android.

I'm the same way, I've never had a desire to spend what amounts to more than a Desktop PC on a phone. The Lumia 640 was one of the best Windows phones ever made in comparison to how cheap it was and I'm not on about those who got it for $30. I paid $100 for mine when it come out and that was still a bargain at the time I got it.

Currently here in the USA, the only generally available low end Windows mobile phone is the ALCATEL ONETOUCH FIERCE XL for about $140 on T-Mobile. Otherwise its online for whatever sparse pickings there might be. It will certainly be interesting if T-Mobile ever replace the Alcatel with another low end Windows Mobile device. They are rumored to be getting the Alcatel Idol Pro 4 but that isn't low end.

 

[EspHack]

well you wait a year and the current flagship becomes the budget phone, it isn't rocket science, ironically, ask apple users, they seem to get it better than anyone

I personally don't see why the budget class even exists, the icon/1520 can be found for about 100$, how on earth can you justify paying more for a 650?

only exception being you live in a place where local market is hell and you see the odd carrier/shop still selling a 520 for 2013 bloated launch price(you know, those countries where they magically cost x2 because yolo) and you have absolutely no other option


so here's your answer op, the 950 is already down to 300$-or less dual sim brand new, wait a year and it will cost less than what you probably paid for the 650, then you can upgrade to that, we on wp land are even luckier in that regard, lumias and wp in general tend to have the worst resale value ever, so unless they become exotic collection items thanks to no new replacements at all, you can bet they will be very affordable

 

[SirThoreth]

I like my BLU Win HD LTE, which replaced my Lumia 925, and it's going for dirt cheap right now (like under $100) a lot of places.

 

[Guytronic]

I really do miss the cheapy Lumia line.
Actually thought it may have panned out for the WP effort.

I wasn't ever mad spending low $$ for capable phones running Windows.
When boredom set in I just gave the low cost phones away and grabbed the next best thing.

For me that was a good way to refresh.

 

[xandros9]

well you wait a year and the current flagship becomes the budget phone, it isn't rocket science, ironically, ask apple users, they seem to get it better than anyone

I personally don't see why the budget class even exists, the icon/1520 can be found for about 100$, how on earth can you justify paying more for a 650?

only exception being you live in a place where local market is hell and you see the odd carrier/shop still selling a 520 for 2013 bloated launch price(you know, those countries where they magically cost x2 because yolo) and you have absolutely no other option


so here's your answer op, the 950 is already down to 300$-or less dual sim brand new, wait a year and it will cost less than what you probably paid for the 650, then you can upgrade to that, we on wp land are even luckier in that regard, lumias and wp in general tend to have the worst resale value ever, so unless they become exotic collection items thanks to no new replacements at all, you can bet they will be very affordable

I personally do the same(ordered a Nexus 5x used), but those phones are $100 used, which means no warranty, a battery of unknown condition and other risks that many either aren't aware of or don't want to deal with.

 

[Indistinguishable]

I echo what others have said about the future of budget windows devices being bleak.

Not only that, but Windows 10 Mobile simply doesn't run as well on lower spec'd devices. Especially not in comparison with Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8. Windows 10 Mobile shares so much with Windows 10 that it's simply more sluggish on lower spec devices than WP7 and WP8 were.

 

[kristalsoldier]

There is almost certainly no future for budget Windows phones anymore. If anything they will be Chinese or Japan exclusive.

Japan maybe, but China (or for that matter, India) is very unlikely.

 

[EspHack]

I echo what others have said about the future of budget windows devices being bleak.

Not only that, but Windows 10 Mobile simply doesn't run as well on lower spec'd devices. Especially not in comparison with Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8. Windows 10 Mobile shares so much with Windows 10 that it's simply more sluggish on lower spec devices than WP7 and WP8 were.

well you just pointed another reason to not make budget devices

yea I get it, warranty and risks, nice thing to have for me but in no way a deal breaker, and the thing is you would be hard pressed to find a "new" icon today, or a 950 in a few months for that matter

 

[jimmy s1]

lumia line is dead, so forget it, windows phone on a budget, i dont think oem partners would bring out anything, since android rules in that sense, not unless a high end windows phone really makes it big in the market, then they will all copy the design and start a price war, oh well i'm still wishing surface phone does what surface did for pc

 

[Wbutchart1]

Originally posted by SirThoreth
I like my BLU Win HD LTE, which replaced my Lumia 925, and it's going for dirt cheap right now (like under $100) a lot of places.

I had the win jr, it was ok but Windows 10 was a disaster on it, formatting issues everywhere, some text rendered so small it wasn't readable. Wouldn't get a blu Windows Phone after that i don't think.

 

[SirThoreth]

I had the win jr, it was ok but Windows 10 was a disaster on it, formatting issues everywhere, some text rendered so small it wasn't readable. Wouldn't get a blu Windows Phone after that i don't think.

I tended to find Windows 10 Mobile a disaster on most phones, including my Lumia 925, which is one of the reasons I reverted it back to WP8.1. With two exceptions, one of which isn't BLU's fault, I've been happy with Windows 10 Mobile on my BLU:

1. One of the production updates pushed this summer before the Anniversary Update did something bizarre to the battery meter: now, when sitting on the charger, instead of counting up to maximum, the battery meter decreases at the rate it's charging, until it thinks it has 0%, reboots, and realizes what its actual battery percentage really is. That could be BLU's fault, or Microsoft's, or both.

2. Microsoft dumping Kid's Corner from Win10 Mobile Anniversary Update drives me absolutely batty.