If you didn't get a new smartphone at Christmas, Microsoft has a new one out for 2016 which might tempt you. The Microsoft Lumia 550 is what it’s called and it’s available now on Three.
It's just £79.99 (plus a £10 top-up) on pay as you go, making it remarkably cheap. For that money you get a phone with a 4.7-inch 720 x 1280 display, making it crisp at 315 pixels per inch.
There’s a quad-core 1.1GHz Snapdragon 210 processor and 1GB of RAM under the hood, which is low end but fast enough to comfortably run Windows Phone.
Speaking of Windows Phone, the Microsoft Lumia 550 comes with Windows 10 on board, so you get the brand new version of Microsoft’s OS, complete with the Cortana personal assistant, Microsoft Office and OneDrive, so it’s great for productivity.
8GB of built in storage plus a microSD card slot with support for cards of up to 200GB means you should never run low on space, there’s a 5MP camera on the back and a 2MP one on the front for solid photography and the Lumia 550 supports 4G, so you can get blazing fast data speeds, which on Three come at no extra cost.
There’s a decent sized 2,100 mAh removable battery included and while the design of the phone won’t win any awards it’s not bad looking either, with a sturdy plastic shell in black or white.
All in all then the Microsoft Lumia 550 is a brilliant entry point to Windows 10 Mobile for anyone on a tight budget.
The phone is out now and as well as being available on pay as you go you can also pick it up on a 24-month contract from just £10 per month with no upfront cost. That will get you 500MB of data, 100 minutes and unlimited texts. There's a whole range of other tariffs available too, right up to unlimited everything for £37 per month, so you're sure to find one that's a good fit.
