As expected, Nokia announced a couple of brand new Windows Phone devices at Microsoft’s BUILD conference – at the same time where they announced what would be included in Windows Phone 8.1. The Lumia 930 will the be first device running the new OS, and will include a 20-megapixel camera.
Hardware specs include a 5-inch full HD OLED display, a quad-core 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The body is similar to the Lumia 925, where it has a mixture of metal and polycarbonate at the back; and will come with wireless charging.
Like all Windows Phone 8.1 devices, it will include its brand new Cortana personal assistant. Designed to compete against Siri and named after the Halo character of the same name, Cortana is designed to answer questions and predict what you need. To do that, it will have access to everything on your phone – from emails, address book, calendar and web searches.
What makes this different to Google Now and Siri is the third-party support – meaning that you can ask Cortana to make a video call on Skype, look up something on your Facebook newsfeed, send out a tweet on Twitter, or even watch a show on Hulu Plus. She will also have a personality, just like her counterpart in Halo. A beta will be available in the United States shortly, and will launch from the latter half of 2014.
The Lumia 930 will roll out in June in Europe, Asia, Middle East and India from USD$599. Nokia Australia has told us that they will provide Australian pricing and availability closer to the launch.