The Lumia 520 will initially be available through Allphones, Dick Smith, Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi for $229 and will also be sold as a prepaid device through Telstra from Tuesday April 30 for $179.

The low cost, entry level smartphone is part of Nokia's plan to offer Windows smartphones at "every price point", according to the company's Australian managing director, Steve Lewis.

The Lumia 520 follows a similar design trend set by previous Nokia Windows phones, particularly the slightly more expensive Lumia 620.

The phone comes in five bright colour options — white, red, yellow, cyan and black — but will first launch in black and yellow Down Under. Nokia will also sell optional snap-on covers for the Lumia 520, a common trend with entry level devices.

The Lumia 520 has a reasonably sized 4in IPS display with a resolution of 480x800, is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, has 512MB RAM and comes with 8GB of internal memory.

The phone also has a microSD card slot to expand the memory, along with a 1430mAh battery that lists 360 hours of standby time and up to nine and a half hours of talk time.

The Lumia 520 includes a 5-megapixel rear camera that doubles as a 720p video recorder and the camera works with Nokia's existing digital camera lens apps, including the Cinemagraph, Smart Shoot, and Panorama lens modes that first debuted on the flagship Lumia 920.

The Lumia 520 lacks a front-facing camera but comes preloaded with Nokia's Drive, Transit, Maps and Music apps.

A promotional video of the Nokia Lumia 520 can be seen below.