Nokia Lumia 1020 Price Cut: Now $249 on Contact at Amazon

Nokia's Lumia 1020 debuted at $299 (with a two-year service agreement) in late July, and though it's the company's flagship handset, a fistful of Benjamins is a tough asking price when high-end Android devices like the popular Samsung Galaxy S4 can be had for $99. Perhaps realizing that it may have overestimated the demand for a high-end Windows Phone 8 device, Nokia's Lumia 1020 just received a price cut.

If you head over to Amazon, you'll see that prices start at $249 with a two-year service contract. And according to various reports on the web, the Lumia 1020 is going for $199 in select markets such as Florida and parts of the Southeast U.S. as part of a limited time promotion that AT&T is running.

Lumia 1020

Even at $249 or $199, the Lumia 1020 is going to be a tough sell. As we noted in our review of the device, it's no faster than the Lumia 920 or 925, delivering benchmark scores that were virtually the same as those two other handsets. But the biggest hurdle is the Windows Phone ecosystem. While Windows Phone market share is slowing growing, it still pales in comparison to Android and iOS, leaving little incentive for developers to flesh out an app market that's far behind the competition.

On the plus side, the Lumia 1020's camera is excellent and we dig the phone's beautiful, high-quality design along with its sharp 4.5-inch AMOLED display. For $249, however, we can think of several other handsets more deserving of that kind of investment.