Nokia has introduced the Nokia Lumia 620, the third and most affordable in its range of Windows Phone 8 smartphones, to the East African market. Alongside the flagship Nokia Lumia 920 and mid-range Lumia 820, which were announced earlier this month, the Nokia Lumia 620 offers a fun and youthful appeal at a highly competitive price.

The smartphone was unveiled at the official Nokia and Safaricom Lumia launch party in Nairobi, signaling Nokia's commitment to bring the signature Lumia smartphone experience to customers across East Africa.

"There is global momentum and excitement behind the Nokia Lumia range," says Bruce Howe, general manager for Nokia East Africa. "We are pleased to now have the full range of Nokia Lumia smartphones based on Windows Phone 8 available locally, bringing a consistent Lumia experience to our valued consumers across a range ofprice points. It is especially exciting to have the support of Safaricom behind this Lumia range, with some amazing introductory offers."

At launch, the Nokia Lumia 620 will be available through Safaricom for KES 22,999, including 1.5 GB data and 500 airtime. Safaricom customers can also get the Lumia 620 for KES 14,999 and 10,000 Bonga Points.

The Nokia Lumia 620 uses a new dual-shot color technique to deliver a variety of striking color and texture effects. Dual-shot adds a second layer of coloured, transparent or translucent polycarbonate on top of a base layer to produce secondary color blends and depth effects. With seven different exchangeable shells to choose from, people can adapt the look of their Nokia Lumia 620 to their own personal taste and style.

Among the features shared with the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 are the exclusive camera 'lenses', apps that transform the creative power of the Nokia Lumia 620's five megapixel main camera and VGA front-facing camera. The Cinemagraph lens adds simple animations to still photographs, while SmartShoot creates a single, perfect shot from multiple images, even removing unwanted objects from the picture.

The Nokia Lumia 620 also provides access to the world's best maps and locally relevant location experience including Nokia Maps, Nokia Driveand the exclusive Nokia City Lens. Nokia City Lens displays information about local surroundings overlaid onto buildings as seen through the camera viewfinder.

With NFC support, the Nokia Lumia 620 can easily pair with NFC-enabled accessories like the JBL PlayUp Portable Speaker for Nokia. Open and secure NFC-connectivity makes it possible to share and receive content by tapping with compatible devices.

Powered by Windows Phone 8, the Nokia Lumia 620 delivers a more personal smartphone experience. Adjustable live tiles update directlyon the Start screen. People Hub pulls together contact information from multiple address books and social networks into a single location, making it easy to stay in touch with friends and set up contact groups and private rooms for sharing. From the 'Me'tile people can check in to their location, post an update, set chat status, see what's new and monitor notifications across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Windows Phone 8 also includes Xbox Live, Microsoft Office, 7GB of online SkyDrive storage and faster, safer surfing with Internet Explorer 10.

"Microsoft is confident that the Lumia range from Nokia, including the Lumia 620 being unveiled today, provides excellent value for African consumers and will support both companies' ambitious growth plans for the continent. We recently made a commitment through the 4Afrika Initiative to deliver tens of millions of smart devices into the hands of Africans in the coming years, and every new Windows Phone that becomes available further enables us to deliver on that commitment," said Eric Odipo, General Manager Microsoft East and Southern Africa.

Nokia is also supporting Microsoft in an effort to build out the Windows Phone ecosystem. We have a growing number of local applications on the Marketplace created by Kenyan developers including ChemCalc, an educational tool that can be used by chemistry students and laboratory technicians to perform chemistry based arithmetic calculations. Also on the store is Healthy Recipe which is an illustrated cook book providing healthy local recipes and Zuru, a one stop navigation application for local tourists interested in exploring the beautiful country of Kenya.

The Nokia Lumia 620 will be available across East Africa through various operators and retailers in a range of colours* including, lime green, orange, magenta, yellow, cyan, white and black.