• November 27, 2013 12:29pm EST


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Nokia's latest effort to corner the Windows Phone market quietly debuted this week with the unveiling of the value-priced Lumia 525.
The 4-inch, sub-$200 smartphone is not expected to reach U.S. customers any time soon, but the handset will go on sale before the end of the year in various locations in Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East, Nokia said.
A variant of the popular Nokia Lumia 520, the new device sports the same screen size and 800-by-480 resolution, with the teeniest of pixel density upgrades—from 233 ppi to 235 ppi—and a boost up to Bluetooth 4.0 support.
The Lumia 525 doubles the amount of RAM in the Lumia 520 to 1GB, with the addition of 8GB memory and an expandable MicroSD slot up to 64GB. The new phone also comes with 7GB of free Microsoft SkyDrive cloud storage.
Hands On With the Nokia Lumia 520, 720

The latest addition to the Lumia family boasts a battery that delivers up to 14 days of standby time, more than 10 hours of talk time on 3G, and 48 hours of music playback. The new handset also comes with Nokia's trademark colorful—and interchangeable—covers, which are available in orange, yellow, and white.
The Lumia 525 offers various headphone options which also come in loud colors, including yellow, red, and blue.
Among the new features stuffed into the device are a handful of photography apps, including Nokia Smart Cam, which shoots a sequence of photos and provides various post-production effects. Users can test the 5-megapixel rear camera's potential with photo editing tools like Glam Me, Creative Studio, and Cinemagraph. The Lumia 525 does not include a front-facing camera.
"Like the Nokia Lumia 520, the Nokia Lumia 525 brings high-end innovation and experiences to an accessible price," a Nokia spokesman said.
You can get an up-close look at the new Lumia 525 in the video below.
There is no word on when the bargain-priced phones will become available to the public. According to Nokia, the device will be sold in China via China Unicom for CNY 1099 ($180) before taxes and subsidies.
In the meantime, U.S. shoppers can pick up a Lumia 520, which will "still play a key role in our portfolio as it continues to delight both our partners and consumers around the world," the spokesman said.
For more, see PCMag's review of the Nokia Lumia 520 and the slideshow above.
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