Tired of taking blurry and pixelated selfies? Microsoft has a solution for you.
The company’s new Lumia 730 and 735 smartphones, unveiled this morning, come with 5 megapixel front-facing cameras, capable of shooting 1080p HD video — promising significantly better self-portraits and video calls than higher-end devices like the iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S5.
They won’t be the first 5MP front-facing cameras to hit the market. The HTC One (M8), which recently expanded to include Windows Phone in addition to Android, also features a similar front-facing camera. And all eyes will be on Apple next week as the company unveils its new iPhone lineup.
The phones are expected to start at 199 euros or about $258 before subsidies, shipping in September.
It’s the latest attempt by the company to gain traction in the smartphone market, following its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone business. Worldwide, Windows Phone has single digit market share in the U.S. and many other countries.
Microsoft also this morning unveiled the new Lumia 830 — describing the new phone as an “affordable flagship” device that offers advanced features at an unsubsidized price of 330 euros, or about $430.
It has a more modest 1MP front-facing camera, but it’s the thinnest and lightest Lumia to date, at 8.5 mm thick and 150 grams, compared with 9.8 mm and 167 grams for the Lumia 930. The Lumia 830 is metal and polycarbonate and ships comes with Windows Phone 8.1, including Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant.
All of the devices were unveiled by Microsoft overnight at the big IFA tech show in Berlin. Microsoft also announced a new Windows Phone software update called Lumia Denim with camera improvements, Cortana enhancements and other features. Each of the new phones will come with the update, and existing Lumia devices will get the upgrade later this year.
