Lumia 550 RM-1128 - Should you buy one ?

The unlocked North/Central America varient of the Lumia 550 - the RM-1128 has started to become available via some of the on-line electronic / camera retailers.  

 B&H Photo is carrying this device for $149.99. Like my Lumia 735 - which I bought from B&H it is a fully unlocked "Mexican" phone.  I supports all of the North American 4G LTE Bands - 2,4,5,7,12,17 from major US carriers like AT&T & TMO as well as the 3.5 & 2.5 bands.  So it will work fine.

 The 550 is a Windows 10 device - and the 5x series replacement to the 635/640s' before it.  It runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 201 chipset with a 1.1 GHz ARM Cortex A7 Quad-Core CPU, Adreno 304 CPU and 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.

 Like the previous generation devices is supports SDXC expansion. It does use a nano SIM.

 The screen is a 4.7 - 1280x720 with 315 ppi resolution.  3.5 mm headphone and Micro USB port are available and it uses the same USB-Micro USB charging cable and wall socket (US) that came with the 735/640.

 Bottom line - to me this will be the last of the "entry" Lumia devices available in North America

 So the question is this - do you spend $150 on the this device or buy the much cheaper 640 ?

 The 640 by comparison runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with a 1.2Ghz ARM Cortex A7 CPU and Adreno 305 GPU with the same 1Gb RAM and 8GB internal storage along with SDXC expansion.

 The 640 screen is 5.0" at the same 1280x720 resolution - so actually a lower ppi @ 294.  

 The 640 has an 8MP rear camera while the new 550 only has a 5MP - which is way too low in my opinion.  In front the 640 is a 1MP and the 550 a 2MP.

 The 640 is selling @ the MS store and Walmart for $59.99 for the AT&T "no contract" version. 

 So I ask the question - where is the $90 premium for the 550 ?   

 Outside of being new and in theory "designed" for Windows 10 - it actually has similar if not lesser specifications than the 9 month old 640 in several areas which is a shame.

 We all know that a large portion of MS's Lumia sales come from these entry level phones.   But the 550 in my opinion brings absolutely no improvement to that entry level platform.  Just some re-packaging and some internals changes to lower the build cost and therefore MS's margin...

 If you have some 635's like I have, then yes the updated screen, rear camera flash and front camera are nice adds - but otherwise it's basically the same phone internally..  

 I would certainly wait until the price drops.  Just like the 640 - this is a $59.99 phone - nothing more...  The real question will be if MS actually releases this phone in the US.   Just like my 735 - it never saw the light of day...

 To me this shows just how lost MS is in the phone market..












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