Earlier this week, Nokia unveiled three new smartphones, including the Lumia 930, which will be the first smartphones to run Windows Phone 8.1.
The Lumia 930, Nokia's flagship product this year, will feature a 5-inch 1080p display, a 2.2GHz quad-core processor with 2GB RAM and 32 GB of storage. The smartphone is also surprisingly iPhone-like with metal trim and a voice assistant named Cortana that may rival Apple's Siri.
"Cortana is the only digital assistant that gets to know you, builds a relationship that you can trust, and gets better over time by asking questions based on your behavior and checking in with you before she assumes you're interested in something," Microsoft Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore said after unveiling Windows Phone 8.1 at the Build 2014 event in San Francisco.
Cortana also "detects and monitors the stuff you care about, looks out for you throughout the day, and helps filter out the noise so you can focus on what matters to you," according to Belfiore.
But what makes Cortana especially interesting is the fact that it can interact with third-party apps, something that Apple is currently trying to implement in Siri for iOS 8.
The 930 is expected to launch in June at a base price point of $599. It will also feature a 20-megapixel camera and Surround-Sound capabilities through four directional microphones.
The other two smartphones to come with Windows Phone 8.1 are the Lumia 630 and 635. They both have 4.5-inch displays and quad-core processors, but will retail for under $200. The 635 will release in the U.S. for T-Mobile and MetroPCS customers, while the 630 will be exclusive to Asia, the Middle East, South America and parts of Europe.
Microsoft is currently in the process of acquiring Nokia's handset operation, with the finalized deal expected to happen later this month.
