Nokia Lumia 610 will go on sale next week

THE CHEAPEST Windows Phone handset yet will go on sale in the UK within the next two weeks, Nokia announced on Thursday.

At an event in London, Emma Gilmartin, head of smart devices at Nokia announced that the Lumia 610 will hit UK stores in the first week of June. She also revealed that the handset will be available on a £15 per month contract, and a Nokia spokesperson let slip to The INQUIRER that it'll also be available for £150 SIM free.

The Nokia Lumia 610 might be a low-end phone but Gilmartin added that it'll be offered by a number of retailers and networks, including Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u, O2 and Virgin Media. Orange also announced last month that it will be exclusively selling an NFC-equipped Lumia 610.

The Lumia 610 is one of the first handsets to arrive running Windows Phone 7.5 Tango, giving it Nokia's new public transport app and the ability to set custom ringtones. The latest version of the Windows Phone mobile operating system also lowers hardware requirements, allowing the Lumia 610 to use a budget 800MHz processor and just 256MB of RAM.

"It's not about MHz or GHz - the Smoked by Windows Phone tests proved that," a Nokia spokesperson told The INQUIRER.

The phone also features a 3.7in WVGA touchscreen, a 5MP camera with LED flash, GPS and a 1300mAh battery. It will also be available in four different colours - black, cyan, white and pink.

Check back next week for our Nokia Lumia 610 hands-on review. µ