Nokia’s Lumia line lasted less than five years. The first models, the Lumia 800 and 710, were announced in October 2011, and the last new Lumia, the Microsoft Lumia 650, arrived in February 2016. In between, Microsoft bought Nokia’s phone business for €5.44 billion (about $7.2 billion), wrote down $7.6 billion of it a year after closing, and ended support for Windows 10 Mobile on December 10, 2019.
The hardware was often excellent. The Lumia 920 had optical image stabilization and built-in wireless charging in 2012, the Lumia 1020 put a 41-megapixel sensor in a phone, and the cheap Lumia 520 became the most-used Windows Phone in the world. None of that fixed the problem that ended the line: too few people bought Windows Phones for app developers to care. Below is the full Nokia Lumia history, every model by year, and a plain answer on whether an old Lumia is any use in 2026.
Updated, September 14, 2026: Rebuilt around a year-by-year table of every Lumia phone, added sourced acquisition figures and support end dates, corrected the Lumia 1020 camera details, and added a section on using a Lumia today.
Nokia Lumia history in 10 dates (2011 to 2019)
- February 11, 2011: Nokia and Microsoft announce that Windows Phone will be Nokia’s main smartphone platform.
- October 26, 2011: Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 announced at Nokia World in London.
- June 20, 2012: Microsoft confirms Windows Phone 7 phones, including every Lumia sold so far, will not get Windows Phone 8.
- July 11, 2013: Lumia 1020 and its 41MP camera announced.
- September 3, 2013: Microsoft agrees to buy Nokia’s Devices and Services business.
- April 25, 2014: The acquisition closes.
- November 11, 2014: Lumia 535, the first Lumia sold under the Microsoft name.
- July 8, 2015: Microsoft takes a $7.6 billion impairment charge on the Nokia deal.
- February 15, 2016: Lumia 650, the final Lumia, goes on sale in Europe.
- December 10, 2019: Windows 10 Mobile support ends.
Nokia Lumia phones list: every model by year
This list covers the Lumia phones sold worldwide, grouped with their carrier versions, by the year they were announced. It leaves out the Lumia 2520 tablet and China-only variants. Models from the Lumia 535 onward carried Microsoft branding.
| Model | Year | Notable feature |
|---|---|---|
| Lumia 800 | 2011 | First Lumia; 3.7-inch AMOLED screen, Carl Zeiss camera |
| Lumia 710 | 2011 | Cheaper sibling with swappable back covers |
| Lumia 900 | 2012 | 4.3-inch screen, LTE version for AT&T |
| Lumia 610 | 2012 | Budget model with 256MB of RAM |
| Lumia 510 | 2012 | Low-cost 4-inch model for emerging markets |
| Lumia 505 | 2012 | Latin American budget model on Windows Phone 7.8 |
| Lumia 920 | 2012 | PureView camera with OIS, built-in Qi wireless charging |
| Lumia 820 (810, 822) | 2012 | Mid-range Windows Phone 8 model; T-Mobile and Verizon versions |
| Lumia 620 | 2012 | Compact budget phone with two-tone shells |
| Lumia 520 | 2013 | Best-selling Windows Phone; 139 euros at launch |
| Lumia 720 | 2013 | Mid-range model with f/1.9 camera |
| Lumia 925 (928) | 2013 | Metal frame; Verizon’s 928 added a xenon flash |
| Lumia 1020 | 2013 | 41MP PureView sensor and xenon flash |
| Lumia 625 | 2013 | 4.7-inch budget phone with LTE |
| Lumia 1520 | 2013 | First 1080p Windows Phone; 6-inch screen |
| Lumia 1320 | 2013 | Cheaper 6-inch 720p phablet |
| Lumia 525 | 2013 | Lumia 520 successor with 1GB of RAM |
| Lumia Icon (929) | 2014 | Verizon flagship with 5-inch 1080p screen |
| Lumia 930 | 2014 | Nokia’s last top-end Lumia; 20MP camera |
| Lumia 630, 635 | 2014 | First Windows Phone 8.1 phones; first dual-SIM Lumia |
| Lumia 530 | 2014 | Low-cost 4-inch Windows Phone 8.1 model |
| Lumia 730, 735 | 2014 | Wide-angle 5MP front camera for selfies |
| Lumia 830 | 2014 | Mid-priced phone with 10MP PureView camera and OIS |
| Microsoft Lumia 535 | 2014 | First Microsoft-branded Lumia |
| Microsoft Lumia 435, 532 | 2015 | Entry-level models for emerging markets |
| Microsoft Lumia 640, 640 XL | 2015 | Mid-range models later upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile |
| Microsoft Lumia 430, 540 | 2015 | Low-cost Windows Phone 8.1 models |
| Microsoft Lumia 950, 950 XL | 2015 | First Windows 10 Mobile flagships; Continuum, iris sign-in, USB-C |
| Microsoft Lumia 550 | 2015 | Microsoft’s cheapest LTE phone with Windows 10 at launch |
| Microsoft Lumia 650 | 2016 | The last Lumia; metal frame, about $199 |
Why Nokia chose Windows Phone in 2011
In February 2011 Nokia’s new CEO, Stephen Elop, sent staff what became known as the burning platform memo. He compared Nokia to a man on a burning oil rig, admitted the company still had nothing close to the 2007 iPhone, and said Android had just overtaken Nokia in smartphone volume. His diagnosis was that competitors were winning with whole ecosystems, not single devices. For context on how fast Apple moved in those years, see this history of the iPhone from 2007.
Three days later, Nokia and Microsoft announced their partnership, with Windows Phone as Nokia’s primary smartphone platform. That sidelined Symbian and Nokia’s own Linux-based MeeGo. The MeeGo-powered Nokia N9 still shipped later in 2011 and drew good reviews, but it had no future inside the company. Whether MeeGo or Android would have saved Nokia is unknowable. What is clear is that the Windows Phone bet made Nokia dependent on a platform it did not control.
Lumia 800 and Lumia 900: the Windows Phone 7 years (2011 to 2012)
Nokia announced the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 on October 26, 2011. Both used a 1.4GHz processor and a 3.7-inch screen and ran Windows Phone 7.5. The 800 had the curved polycarbonate body Nokia had designed for the N9, an AMOLED display, Carl Zeiss optics and 16GB of storage. The 710 was the cheaper option with swappable back covers. Budget models followed in 2012: the Lumia 610 with just 256MB of RAM, then the 510 and 505.
Early sales were modest. Nokia said it sold more than 2 million Lumia phones in the first quarter of 2012, while its total smartphone sales kept falling.
The Lumia 900 was Nokia’s push into the US. It had a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen and LTE, and it launched on AT&T in April 2012 for $99.99 on contract. Then, on June 20, 2012, Microsoft confirmed that no Windows Phone 7 device would be upgraded to Windows Phone 8. Owners got Windows Phone 7.8 instead, which copied the new Start screen but not the new app platform. Less than a month later, AT&T cut the Lumia 900 to $49.99. Anyone who had signed a two-year contract for Nokia’s flagship now owned a phone with no upgrade path.
Lumia 920: Windows Phone 8 and the PureView camera (2012)
Nokia and Microsoft unveiled the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 in New York on September 5, 2012, as the first Nokia phones on Windows Phone 8. The 920 had a 4.5-inch screen that worked with gloves, an 8.7MP PureView camera with a floating lens for optical image stabilization, and Qi wireless charging built into the body. The iPhone would not get wireless charging for another five years. The trade-off was weight: at 185 grams, the 920 was far heavier than the 112-gram iPhone 5.
The launch also produced an own goal. The Verge noticed that a promo video meant to show the 920’s stabilization had been filmed with a professional camera, and Nokia apologized for the faked footage. The camera itself was genuinely good in low light, which made the stunt more damaging, not less.
Lumia 520: the best-selling Windows Phone (2013)
Nokia’s commercial success came from the bottom of the range. The Lumia 520 was announced at Mobile World Congress on February 25, 2013, at 139 euros before taxes and subsidies. It had a 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, a dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon chip, 512MB of RAM and a 5MP camera, plus Nokia’s offline HERE maps and free Nokia Music. Windows Phone 8 ran smoothly on those modest specs, which was one of the platform’s real strengths.
Nokia rolled it out across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, and it stuck. In January 2016, nearly three years after launch, ad network AdDuplex still found the Lumia 520 was the most-used Windows Phone, at 12.9% of devices in use. The catch was that the typical Windows Phone owner had a cheap phone, which arguably made the platform even less attractive to developers chasing paying customers. Its 1GB successor, the Lumia 525, fixed the 520’s tight memory.
Lumia 1020 camera: what the 41MP PureView phone actually did (2013)
The Lumia 1020, announced July 11, 2013, is the Lumia most people still search for. It used a 41-megapixel sensor derived from the Symbian-based Nokia 808 PureView, with optical image stabilization and a xenon flash. The 1020 saved each shot twice: a 38MP (4:3) or 34MP (16:9) file for cropping and a 5MP oversampled copy for sharing. That oversampling, which merged several sensor pixels into one, was an early form of the pixel binning many high-resolution phone sensors use today.
DPReview’s Lumia 1020 camera review measured the sensor at 1/1.5 inch, roughly four times the area of most phone sensors then, and rated its image quality best in class. It also found shot-to-shot times of about four seconds and no HDR mode. The 1020 was a camera for patient photographers, not for catching a moving child. For how phone cameras compare with dedicated cameras now, read this smartphone vs digital camera comparison.
Lumia 925, 1520 and the rest of the 2013 lineup
2013 was the year Nokia released the most Lumias. The Lumia 925 kept the 920’s camera in a thinner, lighter body with a metal frame, and Verizon’s Lumia 928 added a xenon flash. The Lumia 720 and 625 filled the mid-range, while the 620 and 520 covered budget buyers.
In October 2013 Nokia went big. The Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320 both had 6-inch screens. The 1520 cost about $749 and had a 1080p display, a quad-core Snapdragon 800, a 20MP PureView camera with OIS, a 3,400mAh battery and wireless charging. The 1320 kept the size and battery but dropped to a 720p screen and a 5MP camera for about $339. A software update added a third column of Live Tiles to use the extra space.
Microsoft buys Nokia’s phone business: the 2013 deal and Lumia 930
On September 3, 2013, Microsoft agreed to acquire Nokia’s Devices and Services business. It paid €3.79 billion for the business and €1.65 billion to license Nokia’s patents, €5.44 billion in cash in total, and about 32,000 Nokia employees were expected to move to Microsoft. The deal included the Lumia brand. At the time, Lumia sales had grown for three straight quarters to 7.4 million units in the second quarter of 2013.
The deal closed on April 25, 2014, and was widely reported at $7.2 billion, with Nokia expecting a small upward price adjustment. Stephen Elop, who had left Microsoft to run Nokia, returned to Microsoft with the business.
Just before the deal closed, Nokia announced the Lumia 930, 630 and 635 at Microsoft’s Build conference on April 2, 2014. They were the first phones with Windows Phone 8.1, which added the Cortana voice assistant and an Action Center for notifications. The 930 had a 5-inch 1080p screen, a Snapdragon 800 with 2GB of RAM, a 20MP PureView camera and wireless charging for $599. The Lumia 630 started at $159 and was the first Lumia with a dual-SIM option, aimed at markets such as India and China.
Microsoft Lumia: from the Lumia 535 to the 950 XL and 650 (2014 to 2016)
The Nokia name came off the phones in late 2014. The Microsoft Lumia 535, a 5-inch budget phone with a 5MP front camera, was the first Lumia to carry Microsoft branding. Low-cost models such as the Lumia 435, 532, 640 and 640 XL followed in 2015.
By mid-2015 Microsoft had changed course. On July 8, 2015, it announced a $7.6 billion impairment charge on the Nokia business and up to 7,800 job cuts, mostly in phones. CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft would stop trying to grow a standalone phone business and instead use its own devices to support the wider Windows ecosystem.
The last flagships were the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, announced in October 2015 and on sale from November 20, 2015. They ran Windows 10 Mobile and had Quad HD OLED screens, 20MP PureView cameras, USB-C and a beta of Windows Hello iris sign-in. Their standout feature was Continuum: with a Display Dock, the phone could drive a monitor, keyboard and mouse and run Windows apps in a desktop-style layout. It only ran apps built for Windows 10, though, and there were not many.
The final Lumia was the Lumia 650, a slim phone with a metal frame and a 5-inch OLED screen at around $199, sold in Europe from February 15, 2016, and pitched at business users. In May 2016 Microsoft sold its feature phone business to Foxconn’s FIH Mobile and HMD Global for $350 million. A week later it cut up to 1,850 more jobs and took a further charge of about $950 million. No new Lumia followed.
Why did Windows Phone fail? 5 reasons the Lumia never caught on
Microsoft’s own executives have given the clearest answers. Here are the causes that the record supports, roughly in order of importance.
1. The app gap never closed. In October 2017, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said on Twitter that Windows 10 Mobile would keep getting bug fixes and security updates but no new features or hardware. He explained that Microsoft had tried hard to attract developers, even paying for and writing apps, but the user base was too small: “volume of users is too low for most companies to invest.” Apps that did arrive often came late. Instagram’s official Windows 10 Mobile app only replaced its long-running beta in April 2016.
2. Microsoft started too late on the wrong foundation. Terry Myerson, who ran Windows, later wrote that Microsoft underestimated Android’s business model and began its phone reboot on Windows CE, an older platform built for embedded devices. By the time the software was ready, Android had signed up most phone makers.
3. Two platform resets broke buyers’ trust. Windows Phone 7 phones could not upgrade to Windows Phone 8 in 2012, and many Windows Phone 8.1 phones were left off the official Windows 10 Mobile upgrade list. Each reset punished exactly the early adopters a young platform needs.
4. Google stayed away. Google never built Gmail, Maps or YouTube apps for Windows Phone. When Microsoft made its own YouTube app, Google blocked it in 2013, saying it broke YouTube’s terms of service.
5. Microsoft’s priorities changed. Under Nadella, Microsoft put Office, Outlook and its other apps on iOS and Android and wrote off most of the Nokia purchase. Carrier exclusives such as the AT&T-only Lumia 900 and 1020 in the US also kept Nokia’s best phones out of many shoppers’ hands.
When did support end for Lumia phones? Windows Phone end dates
- Windows Phone 7.x: No Windows Phone 8 upgrade; Windows Phone 7.8 was the final update for the Lumia 800, 900, 710, 610, 510 and 505.
- Windows Phone 8.1: Microsoft ended support on July 11, 2017.
- Windows Phone 8.1 Store: App downloads stopped on December 16, 2019, so apps you delete or lose in a reset cannot be reinstalled.
- Windows 10 Mobile: Version 1709 was the last release, and support ended on December 10, 2019, with no security updates after that date.
- WhatsApp: Dropped Windows Phone on December 31, 2019.
Can you still use a Nokia Lumia in 2026?
Not as your main phone. Every Lumia has gone at least six years without a security patch, most mainstream apps are gone, and the built-in Internet Explorer and Edge browsers struggle with many modern websites. Calls are also a problem. US carriers finished shutting down their 3G networks in 2022, and phones without Voice over LTE lost calling and texting. Many Lumias are 3G-only or were never certified for VoLTE on today’s networks, and other countries have been switching off 3G as well.
What still works: the cameras, offline music and video playback, and Wi-Fi for basic tasks. A Lumia 1020 still takes detailed daylight photos. For tinkerers, the community LumiaWOA project installs desktop Windows 10 or Windows 11 for Arm on the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, a feat covered when developers got Windows 11 running on a Lumia. The project warns that its software is not approved for emergency calls, and flashing a phone can brick it, so treat it as a hobby build.
Best Nokia Lumia phone to own today
- Lumia 1020, for photography: The one Lumia whose main feature still holds up. Check that the camera module works before buying a used unit.
- Lumia 950 XL, for tinkering: The best-supported model for running desktop Windows on Arm.
- Lumia 920 or 925, for design: The phones most people picture when they think of Nokia’s colorful and metal-framed Windows Phones.
- Lumia 520, for history: Cheap and plentiful, and the model that defined Windows Phone for most real owners.
Skip all of them if you need banking, messaging or reliable emergency calls.
What happened to Nokia phones after the Lumia
HMD Global, one of the buyers of Microsoft’s feature phone business, licensed the Nokia name and began selling Nokia-branded Android phones in 2017. For a snapshot of that period, see these Nokia X, G and C series phones from HMD. Since 2023 HMD has pushed its own brand, and its exclusive license for Nokia-branded smartphones was due to expire in March 2026, with Nokia not seeking a new smartphone partner. Nokia itself is now a network equipment company, and it rebranded for the first time in 60 years in 2023.
Nokia Lumia FAQs
When did Nokia Lumia phones come out?
Nokia announced the first Lumia phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, on October 26, 2011, and the Lumia 800 went on sale in Europe that November. The last new model was the Microsoft Lumia 650, released in February 2016.
What was the best-selling Nokia Lumia phone?
The Lumia 520. It launched in 2013 at 139 euros, and in January 2016 AdDuplex data still showed it as the most-used Windows Phone, at 12.9 percent of devices in use.
Why did Windows Phone fail?
Mainly because of the app gap. In October 2017 Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore said the user base was too small for most companies to build apps, even after Microsoft paid developers. A late start, the Windows Phone 7 to 8 upgrade break, missing Google apps and Microsoft’s 2015 strategy change all made it worse.
How much did Microsoft pay for Nokia’s phone business?
Microsoft agreed to pay 5.44 billion euros in September 2013, 3.79 billion for the Devices and Services business and 1.65 billion for a patent license, which was about 7.2 billion US dollars. The deal closed on April 25, 2014, and in July 2015 Microsoft took a 7.6 billion dollar impairment charge on it.
When did Microsoft stop supporting Lumia phones?
Support for Windows Phone 8.1 ended on July 11, 2017, and support for Windows 10 Mobile ended on December 10, 2019. The Windows Phone 8.1 Store stopped offering app downloads on December 16, 2019.
Can you still use a Nokia Lumia phone in 2026?
Only as a secondary device. Lumias have had no security updates since 2019, WhatsApp dropped Windows Phone on December 31, 2019, and US carriers shut down 3G in 2022, which cut calls on phones without Voice over LTE. The cameras, offline media and Wi-Fi still work.
How good is the Lumia 1020 camera?
It uses a 41MP, 1/1.5-inch sensor with optical stabilization and a xenon flash, and DPReview rated its image quality best in class in 2013. It is slow, with about four seconds between shots, but it still takes detailed daylight photos.
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