Dallas — AT&T is joining T-Mobile in offering the low-price Nokia Lumia 635 smartphone, the first U.S.-market Lumia phone available out of the box with Windows 8.1 OS and the OS’s Cortana personal assistant.
Starting July 25, AT&T will offer the device at an initial launch price of $99 under its GoPhone prepaid program through AT&T-owned stores and AT&T’s web site. It will come to national retailers and AT&T-branded stores operated by third parties “soon,” a spokesperson said.
Starting Aug. 8, the phone will be available with AT&T’s postpaid plans at $139 with no annual contract. Alternately, the postpaid model will be priced under the AT&T Next 18 installment-payment program for as little as $5.84 per month or only $7 per month with Next 12. With AT&T Next 12, users can upgrade to a new smartphone after 12 months, and with AT&T Next 18, users can upgrade to a new smartphone after 18 months, and continue to make installment payments. Users can also decide to pay off the phone and keep it after 20 monthly installments under AT&T Next 12 or 24 monthly installments under AT&T Next 18.
T-Mobile launched the phone at $0 down plus a monthly payment of $7 for 24 months with a postpaid Simple Choice plan. T-Mobile’s 635 became available July 5 through the Home Shopping Network, July 9 through the carrier’s online store, and July 16 in participating T-Mobile stores nationwide.
On July 18, the phone will become available to customers of T-Mobile’s MetroPCS prepaid brand at a promotional price of $99.
Features include 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm CPU, 4.5-inch 854 by 480 display with 221 ppi, 512MB RAM, 5-megapixel main camera, 8GB capacity, 128GB MicroSD slot, Bluetooth 4.0, and HSPA+42Mbps and LTE cellular technologies.
