Microsoft has officially launched their new unofficial selfie smartphone for the masses, the Lumia 535. The most notable features of this smartphone include a 5MP wide-angle front camera, 5MP rear camera with LED flash and 5-inch display with 960 x 540 pixel resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for just RM429. The version coming to Malaysia supports dual SIM and will pack in Windows Phone 8.1 with the latest Lumia Denim update right out of the box. It will be available next week in black, cyan, orange and white. In addition, units bought in December 2014 will also come with a free bundle worth RM99 which includes a 2200 mAh power bank, 16GB memory card, screen protector, keychain and notepad. Trying out the Lumia 535 first hand, the smartphone is quite thin and light with the usual polycarbonate backside and it certainly looks better than the rather chunky Lumia 530. Other tech specs and hands-on photos of the Lumia 535 are listed below:

• 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 8GB storage + 15GB OneDrive + up to 128GB microSD
• 5-inch display with 540 x 960 pixel resolution, IPS, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, Sunlight Readability
• 5MP rear camera with LED flash + 5MP front camera with wide-angle lens
• 1905 mAh removable battery
• 140.2 x 72.4 x 8.8mm | 146g
• Supports dual-SIM
• Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia Denim
• RM429

The Lumia 535 is the first Windows phone to carry the Microsoft branding and it looks like the same device is all set to hit the Malaysian market pretty soon. It was recently spotted at the SIRIM database, which means the phone is already certified for our local market. The Lumia 535 is the successor to the Lumia 530 budget smartphone. It brings a lot of new upgrades, but retains some features from the earlier generation. For example, the processor remains the same as before with a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200 processor. However, Microsoft has increased the RAM capacity from 512MB to 1GB while the internal storage has also been upgraded from 4GB to 8GB. On the front, there is a 5-inch 960 x 540 pixel resolution IPS panel. At the rear, there is a 5MP camera with auto-focus and LED flash. The front camera now features a 5MP wide angle sensor, which should click better selfies than before. Microsoft has also improved the onboard battery to a 1905 mAh capacity one along with dual SIM card slots. Although Microsoft Malaysia has not yet announced any details for Malaysia release or pricing, we expect it to retail around RM400 with a possible Malaysia release date on 4 December 2015.