T-Mobile's Nokia Lumia 521, i.e. the carrier's version of the budget Lumia 520, has launched today, April 27, for just $149 off-contract.

T-Mobile and Nokia will start selling the Nokia Lumia 521 on the Home Shopping Network (HSN), with other retailers to follow soon.

"On April 27^th, multichannel retailer HSN will introduce T-Mobile's exclusive Nokia Lumia 521 to audiences during its bi-annual Innovation Weekend on HSN, HSN.com and via HSN Mobile. This will be the first time T-Mobile and a Nokia smartphone will be featured during the special event," reads T-Mobile's announcement.

"Following the HSN debut, the Nokia Lumia 521 will be available at Microsoft Retail Stores and Walmart on May 11. The Lumia 521 will be $149 at Microsoft Retail Stores. At Walmart, the Lumia 521 will be available with the retailer's exclusive T-Mobile no contract $30 per month unlimited Web and text plan."

As promised, the most affordable Nokia Lumia smartphone running on Windows 8 is now available on HSN's website. For $149, customers will get the exclusive T-Mobile Lumia 521 contract free as well as a car charger and a screen protector bundled with the smartphone. The handset will hit Microsoft Retail Stores in May.

For those unfamiliar with this budget handset, the Nokia Lumia 521 is a Windows Phone 8 (WP8) smartphone with a "super-sensitive" 4-inch display, a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5GHz, a 5-megapixel camera, 720p HD video and Nokia-exclusive applications such as Cinemagraph, Nokia Music, Smart Shoot, HERE Drive, Maps and Transit. The handset packs 8GB of internal storage, but the micri SD card slot allows for up to 64GB of additional memory.

A Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 1,430 mAh is juicing things up and should keep the show going for roughly 9.6 hours of talk time or 360 hours of standby over 3G, according to the company. The battery should also last for roughly 6.7 hours of Web browsing over cellular data or 61 hours of music playback.

T-Mobile touts the Nokia Lumia 521 as a "perfect, everyday smartphone that will embody a range of high-end features at an affordable price tag." At $150, the T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 521 is certainly affordable indeed, and its specs and features do sound pretty good for an entry-level smartphone. Buyers will also get free shipping and a flex-pay option with every purchase.