Late last year Nokia began its assault on the smartphone market with the launch of its first Windows Phone 7 handsets, the Lumia 710, and 800. Nokia has always done well in more emerging markets with cheaper handsets that have sold in their millions, and is now looking to build on this with the Lumia 610. Today we are looking at the unlocked prices for the device in the UK and India.

To recap the upcoming Lumia 610 will feature a 3.7-inch LCD display and is powered by a single core 800 MHz processor. It only has 256GB of RAM and 8GB of on board memory that can’t be upgraded, but it has to be remembered it is a budget smartphone. There will also be a 5 megapixel camera, and the device will come pre-loaded with Nokia Maps, Nokia Music, and the Nokia Drive applications.

Now over at My Nokia Blog there is some speculation about the price of the handset SIM free with suggestions it will cost around Rs 11,000 in India, and around £165 over in the UK. The price of the handset in India works out at about £137 and by the time you add VAT works out about right.

We decided to do some digging and found online mobile phone retailer Clove, listing the Nokia Lumia 610 for pre-order and priced at £228 including VAT, and over at Expansys the device is also up for pre-order but the listing states no pricing has been announced yet. Currently both Amazon and Play.com have no listing for the Lumia 610.

It is believed Nokia will release the Lumia 610 in the next couple of months, and will provide a cheaper option for those wanting to get a taste of the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Earlier today we told you how the Windows Phone operating system had become more popular in the UK than Nokia’s own Symbian OS.

Will you be considering the Nokia Lumia 610 when it is released?