Microsoft's selfie-centric Lumia 730 set to launch 9am Thursday, live webcast

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The name is officially unconfirmed, of course, but with even Microsoft's (née Nokia's) Conversations blog getting in on the leaking act, we now know that the much-rumoured Lumia 730 (under the clumsy 'Nokia by Microsoft' branding) will be launched on Thursday, at the start of IFA 2014. There's a live webcast getting underway at 9am, so you'll be able to watch the action unfold.

From the Conversations site:

We’re looking at you! Join us for a very special webcast live from Berlin, Germany on September 4, 2014 at 10am CET to find out what we’ve got in store…

730 teaser

...along with a countdown timer ending at 9am, Thursday. There's no official link to a livestream page yet, but doubtless that will turn up on the day.

The selfie photo is more confirmation that the launch is for the much anticipated followup to the Lumia 720, with its star feature being a very good front facing camera. Rumoured specs (thanks in part to FCC approvals) include:

  • $240 / E180 / £140 before taxes and subsidies
  • a 4.7" 720p display
  • Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU
  • 5MP front camera, rear 6.5MP camera

When (ex-)Nokia's hardware guys make a 5MP camera, you know it's going to be pretty good, especially on the 72x range, which had something of a mid range imaging speciality (the 720's large aperture camera was particularly impressive). Having been in and around London for the last couple of days, I was amazed by how many people are taking 'selfies' with the rather rubbish FFCs on lower end phones - devices like the 730 will solve that use case once and for all.

Branding is rumoured to be "Nokia by Microsoft", so it'll be interesting to see how this is pitched on the day.

Less certain, but probable, is that the also rumoured Lumia 830, with a 10MP 'PureView' camera, and removeable battery, will be announced on the day. Watch this space. 

Source / Credit: Conversations