Earlier today, Nokia Microsoft Mobile held their very first press event after the nokia acquisition closed early last month. Today was all about the Lumia 630, the dual SIM version to be more exact. Launching alongside the new device is Windows Phone 8.1 which enables quite a number of key features on the Lumia 630. The event started off with Gary Chan (Head of Marketing, Microsoft Devices Pan Asia) taking the stage to talk about the Windows Phone momentum which is steadily increasing. He also mentioned that in Malaysia Windows Phone is still ahead of iOS in terms of market share and Windows Phone is still securing the No 2 smartphone OS in the region. Additionally Mr. Gary also stressed out that there is a rise in the need for Dual SIM smartphones this year and with the latest Windows Phone 8.1 update announced last month during Microsoft’s BUILD conference enabled Lumia devices to work with two SIM cards. In the midst of things, he went ahead and confirmed that all Windows Phone 8 devices in Malaysia will be receiving the Lumia Cyan update (Windows Phone 8.1) in the coming months and when asked about when cortana will be making its way to Malaysia, he said the release date for that is unpredictable.

“All Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices will be update to Windows Phone 8.1 in the coming months”

After a short promo video, the Lumia 630 is officially announced and it is the first device in the world to be preinstalled with Windows Phone 8.1 out of the box. There are quite a number of ‘firsts’ with the Lumia 630; it is the first windows phone device to accept two SIM cards, the first windows phone device to feature on screen keys and the first device to feature Nokia’s Lumia Cyan update which includes Nokia’s sensor core to enable passive tracking. As you might already know, the Lumia 630 will be priced in at MYR 549 and is available for purchase TODAY at nokia retailers throughout Malaysia. However, in Malaysia, the Lumia 630 will initially be available in yellow, black and white (no info on when the green and orange models will arrive). The specs of the device is really nothing out of the norm, a 4.5” IPS Clear Black display, a Snapdragon 400 quad core CPU, 512MB of RAM 8GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot to expand that internal storage. On a side note, it is highlighted that with Windows Phone 8.1 you can virtually put anything into the microSD card and the system will recognize it as an extension to the internal storage. This feature is quite improtant for low-mid range devices which usually come with 4/8GB of internal storage. Basically, the remaining of the event was used to showcase the new Windows Phone 8.1 features like the 4 ‘senses’ (data sense, wifi sense, battery sense, storage sense), the notification center and the wordflow keyboard. Out of all the new Windows Phone 8.1 features, I was mostly attracted to the wordflow keyboard because it’s something like the SWYPE keyboard I’m used to using but with a twist which makes gesture typing more intuitive. This is the kind of thing which you would need to try if yourself to believe it, so head down to your nearest nokia outlet to try out the wordflow keyboard on the Lumia 630. That was pretty much the summary of the launch event today, stay tuned as I’ll be posting a Lumia 630 full hands on at our international site next week. But until then, I have a few glamour shots of the Lumia 630 below for your viewing pleasure.