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Windows 10 for phones coming to low-end Lumias, too

• Egon Kilin
• February 9th, 2015

Windows 10 for phones will not only be available for flagship smartphones with high-end hardware, as Joe Belfiore, from the Windows team of Microsoft confirmed that the team is working on making Windows 10 for phones compatible with low-end and mi-drange smartphones, like the Lumia 520. These phones come with only 512 MB of RAM and many were suspecting that Windows 10 for phones won’t work on them.

Hey all: we ARE working on Win10 for 512MB, including 520. Our ambition is to make #Win10 available for these devices but features may vary

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) February 8, 2015

As you can read in the Tweet from Belfiore, we’ve pretty much got confirmation that Windows 10 for phones will be widely available for most Microsoft Lumia smartphones. Now that doesn’t mean that you’re going to get the same functionality out of it on the Lumia 520 as you will on the Lumia Icon, for example. As Belfiore makes it clear that features may vary, we are certain that Windows 10 for phones will be a tad different on mid-range phones with less RAM on board. Now we don’t have any hints as to what features will be omitted from the Windows 10 for phones version that will be sent out to phones with less than 1 GB RAM, so that’s up to speculation.

Rumors about the Windows 10 for phones technical preview say that we should get a glimpse of it today, although there’s no confirmation on that. Most sources say late February is a more likely release for the technical preview. Windows Insiders should receive Windows 10 for phones at 9 am PST, according to rumors, but don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t show up.  In any case, we do know that the technical preview will also hit entry-level phones with a “lite” version of Windows 10 for phones, so stay on the look-out. We expect Windows 10 for phones to surface at the MWC 2015, too, some saying a variant of the HTC One M9 with Windows 10 will show up at the fair. That seems unlikely, as the release date of the platform is said to come sometime in Summer 2015.