Microsoft Lumia 635 4G Windows Phone gets 3 July release date

Affordable smartphone to cost £120 SIM-free

Microsoft's Lumia 635 smartphone with 4G service will arrive in the UK on 3 July with a modest £120 price tag. The Lumia 635 will be available from Vodafone, EE, 3, Phones4u, O2, Carphone Warehouse, Tesco and Amazon.

The Lumia 635 is an upgraded 4G-ready version of the older Nokia Lumia 630, which was released in May. The Lumia 635 has the same colourful design as the Lumia 630 and features a ClearBlack 4.5in LCD screen and quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor.

The Lumia 635 targets the same market as the Motorola Moto G Android smartphone. The Motorola Moto G was released in November 2013 and offers users the same quad-core performance and advanced 4G connectivity as the Lumia 635, while costing an equivalent £135.

Microsoft has been betting on the Lumia 635's Windows Phone 8.1 operating system (OS) to differentiate it from competing budget smartphones in the enterprise market.

Microsoft's senior director of marketing Stella Chernyak listed Windows Phone 8.1 as "the first truly enterprise-ready" version of the OS, during an interview at the company's TechEd conference in Houston in May. Chernyak cited Windows Phone 8.1's advanced mobile device management (MDM) support and robust security as key reasons Windows Phone 8.1 is superior to competing platforms for corporate use. For a full look at Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1, check out V3's review.

The firm unveiled its first ever Android-powered smartphone, the Nokia X2 on Monday, listing the device as a key step in its ongoing battle to connect the next billion people to the internet.