Nokia Lumia 521 Coming to T-Mobile in May

T-Mobile announced this week that it will exclusively offer the Nokia Lumia 521 next month, though an exact release date and price have not been released.

The Lumia 521, a version the Nokia Lumia 520 that was unveiled at February's Mobile World Congress, is powered by Windows Phone 8.

Beginning in May, the 4-inch smartphone, which features a 5-megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording, will be available through Walmart, Microsoft retail stores, and T-Mobile locations. It comes pre-loaded with Nokia apps like Music, Cinemagraph, Creative Studio, Panorama, Smart Shoot, and the Here suite of maps, voice-guarded turn-by-turn navigation, and transit directions.

The Lumia 521 boasts 8GB of internal storage, plus a microSD card slot expandable up to 64GB. But the phone won't run on T-Mobile's new 4G LTE network; the lower-end phone will instead tap into the carrier's HSPA+ 21 "4G" network, a spokesman confirmed.

At MWC, Nokia revealed that the midrange Lumia 520, designed to offer a "high-end" experience, will sell overseas for 139 euros ($183) before carrier subsidies.

A second Windows Phone 8 handset was revealed in February, alongside the Lumia 520. The Lumia 720, which PCMag mobile analyst Alex Colon likened to a step between the high-end Lumia 920 and the 620, likely won't hit U.S. markets, since it's made exclusively for non-LTE networks.

The larger, 4.3-inch 720 is Nokia's first unibody phone with microSD support, as well as a 6.7-megapixel camera and NFC support, powered by a 1-GHz dual-core processor, like the lower-end 520.

For more, see PCMag's Hands On With the Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 and the slideshow above.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 12:30 p.m. Eastern with comment from T-Mobile.