Nokia Lumia 520 has been voted as the best low-cost smartphone at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards, held at MWC 2014. The Lumia 520 trumped rivals Lenovo A390T, Samsung Galaxy Young, Sony Xperia E and the Xiaomi Hongmi for the award. Apart from the Lumia 520, the Nokia 105 took away ‘Best Entry-level or Featurephone’ award. This is the first time a single manufacturer has made such a clean sweep, underlying Nokia’s pedigree and prowess in affordable mobile phones. Now in its nineteenth year, the Global Mobile Awards recognises the latest and best innovations across the mobile ecosystem including hardware, software, apps and services. In 2014, the Awards had more than 160 nominees competing for 38 awards in more than eight categories.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Nokia’s Vice President of software program management for Smart Devices businessSamuli Hänninen indicated that every Nokia Lumia comes packed with a wealth of innovation, and that the Lumia 520 was a perfect example of how the company brings exciting technologies and experiences from the high end, to everyone.
“From the super sensitive touch screen and polycarbonate design, to free Nokia MixRadio and the Nokia Camera app – the Nokia Lumia 520 set a new benchmark for affordable smartphones. Launched here at MWC last year, this award demonstrates the great momentum for Lumia in the budget friendly range of the market,” he added.
At the awards ceremony, attendees watched on as the Nokia 105, Nokia 208, Nokia 515, Asha 210 and Asha 503 nominees were pitched against each other in the Best Entry Level or Featurephone category.
Nokia Lumia 520 costs about KES15000 in Kenya.
The judges noted the winning Nokia 105 for its“outstanding value for money and battery life, which is driving penetration into more and more markets”
After collecting the award, Jussi Nevanlinna, vice president for Mobile Phones product marketing, also added that Nokia had become a global leader in affordable mobile phones, and an all-Nokia category in the Global Mobile Awards was quite a feat.
“The team responsible for designing, building and bringing the Nokia 105 to market have a great reason to celebrate today’s win. I’m personally proud of all the nominated product teams whose hard work is helping Nokia connect the next billion”, she added.