Business Gadgets & Technology Shopping Share Tweet Having recently bought a new smartphone I was somewhat disappointed to see that Microsoft have announced this week the launch of their low-priced and affordable Nokia Microsoft Lumia 640 smartphone in Australia. The Lumia 640 and its bigger brother the Lumia 640XL phablet are due for release in Australia in May, had I known they were coming I would have waited….which is why I’m disappointed!! The colourful, plastic-cased phones run the latest Windows mobile 8.1 operating system and will be among the first smartphones that are eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it releases later this year. Both phones come bundled with a free one-year personal Office 365 subscription and a terabyte of OneDrive storage. This makes the new Lumia 640 an idea small business phone as the Office 365 Personal subscription makes working on the go easy with the latest full desktop version of Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. This allows you to read, review or edit your documents on the go as well as easily manage work or personal emails on the fly with Microsoft Outlook. This coupled with the one TB OneDrive storage, and 60 Skype world minutes of calling per month for 12 months would make it a perfect phone for small businesses. The Lumia 640 also comes with Cortana – which is like having your very own personal assistant who can help organize and keep track of your life, so you can spend more time doing the things you love. This is just what I need as the older I get the more I need to set reminders for things that just hog space in my head – passwords, pin numbers etc. Nowadays I can’t even remember my partners phone number – yes sounds terrible I know!! But its true… The Lumia 640 will be coming to Australian retailers in May in a selection of colours although if you want the orange or cyan you will need to buy it through Optus or Vodafone. Lumia 640 Verdict: Cool Phone with a small price tag