It’s been said in recent weeks that Microsoft had a Surface phone in the works but canned it for reasons related to development. It only makes sense that Microsoft would release a Surface phone, since the company has a Surface RT and a Surface Pro tablet available for its customer base – and renaming its smartphone lineup “Surface” would only unify its products and devices in the minds of consumers. Even the newest product, the Surface Book, takes after the Surface name.
The “Lumia” label, however, is reminiscent of another day and time, a time when Nokia owned the label and ruled the world in mobile phone shipments. Back then, the Finnish manufacturer was king, and its Windows Phone devices were the best of the best in photography. In the minds of many diehard Windows Phone fans, the Lumia line is still the very best of the smartphone industry (no matter how popular iOS and Android become). Unfortunately, Microsoft decided to buy the Lumia line and name from Nokia, who debated selling its line to Samsung but declined to do so in order to preserve the Windows mobile OS. Microsoft purchased Nokia’s mobile division, but then laid off a huge chunk of it, leading many to wonder why Redmond even purchased it in the first place.
The latest news about Microsoft and Lumia says that Redmond intends to can the Lumia smartphone name. A tweet by Twitter member @sleaknow says, “#Lumia650 which has code name is Saana may be the last 5 inch Lumia of Microsoft.” The tweet itself is sketchy, considering that the Lumia 640 is said to have a “metal edge” in the tweet (unfortunately, it doesn’t.). We don’t know how trustworthy this information is, but the idea that Microsoft would do away with the Lumia name is not surprising. It is disappointing, however, as the name is nostalgic and still points to Nokia. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why Microsoft looks to do away with it.
The Lumia 640 has a 5-inch HD display, and the Lumia 650 could feature the same. We’re sure that Microsoft would give it a RAM boost, from 1GB to 2GB, as well as double the storage from the 8GB of the 640 to 16GB in the Lumia 650. As for the cameras on the device (or wireless charging, for that matter), we don’t know at this time. If the Lumia 650 is indeed the last 5-inch Lumia, then it may be nothing more than a small refresh of the Lumia 640. With the Lumia 650 being “the last of the Mohicans,” so to speak, it’s highly doubtful that Microsoft would spend much time investing in this device – so don’t expect much of an improvement from the Lumia 640.
Now that Microsoft has taken over the Lumia line, however, it seems as though the name, like “Internet Explorer,” no longer fits into the company’s plans. Some have said that Internet Explorer as the web browser name was a nightmare in the minds of consumers and should be canned. Microsoft changed “IE” to “Edge,” with Windows 10 Mobile having greater popularity than even Windows Phone 8 did.
We’ll keep you posted on what the Lumia 650 is all about, but for now, we’re waiting for further confirmation. You can expect the Lumia 650 to likely match the Lumia 640’s price point – so you can expect a $99.99 or less price tag. The Lumia 640 is currently $59.99 retail price at Microsoft’s USA site. If you’d rather wait, the Lumia 640 will sell for just $29.99 in Best Buy’s Black Friday 2015 sale.
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