After teasing its first Microsoft-branded smartphone, the Redmond-based company has finally taken the wraps off the Lumia 535. As expected, this is another budget-friendly smartphone that’s supposed to expand the Windows Phone customer pool.

There’s no doubt about it, Microsoft is now focusing on growth by trying to tap into the low-end, budget-friendly smartphone market. This isn’t a bad thing at all, but lots of Windows Phone fans still wait for the company to come up with a really powerful smartphone that could stand against other flagship handsets running different OSes.

Anyway, the latest addition to its Windows Phone lineup of handsets is the Lumia 535, a budget-friendly smartphone that features mid-range specs but is priced as a low-end phone.

So, if you happen to own the previous Lumia 525 model, you might want to take into consideration an upgrade to the Lumia 535, if you can afford it.

First of all, you only need €110 ($150) to buy the Lumia 535, which is a very good deal considering the phone’s specs. More importantly, you get Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim update pre-installed, which is great considering how slow Microsoft is pushing these update to Lumia smartphones.

The most obvious difference between the two Lumia smartphones would be the size. The Lumia 535 is much bigger than the Lumia 525 and sports a 5-inch IPS LCD display that supports qHD (540 x 960 pixels) resolution with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coating, as opposed to the latter, that comes with a smaller 4-inch display with 480 x 800 pixels resolution.

Another major improvement would be the fact that Lumia 535 is now equipped with a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, while the Lumia 525 packs only a dual-core Qualcomm processor inside.

Lumia 535 is also a great choice for customers looking for their first smartphone

Both smartphones feature 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, and a microSD card slot for memory expansion. They also have 5-megapixel cameras on the back, but the Lumia 525 lacks LED flash, whereas Lumia 535 offers users the option to take pictures even in low-light conditions.

It’s also worth mentioning that Microsoft Lumia 535 also packs a 5-megapixel camera on the front, which is perfect for selfies and video calls. The Lumia 525 doesn’t come with a secondary camera in the front.

Connectivity-wise, both smartphones are similar with a slight difference. Microsoft Lumia 535 offers HSPA+ (42Mbps) support, while the previous model only packs HSPA (21Mbps).

Last but not least, the Lumia 535 is powered by a much bigger 1905mAh battery, which is rated by the manufacturer for up to 552 hours of standby or up to 11 hours of talk time (13 hours in 3G mode).

The Lumia 525 drains energy from a 1430mAh battery instead, which should be enough given the much smaller display.

All in all, Microsoft Lumia 535 is not only a worthy upgrade over the Lumia 525, but it’s also a great choice for those looking for their first smartphone. What do you think about Microsoft’s new budget-friendly smartphone? Would you be willing to upgrade from an older Windows Phone handset?