Microsoft really does a great job
when it comes to building a budget smartphone. The company’s latest line of
Lumia smartphones, the Lumia 640 and the 640 XL are very attractive and also
have reasonably powerful specs, even though they’re relatively cheap.
The new Lumia smartphones from
Microsoft are very similar in terms of design to the previous Nokia models.
It’s true that neither of the two smartphones is to die for but they are pretty
nice, not to mention that they’re both ready for the new Windows 10.
PROS
- Great quality of plastic
- Compatible with Windows 10
- Great specs
- Lumia 640 XL has great cameras
- Both smartphones are affordable
CONS
- The devices are still running
on Windows 8.1
- Lumia 640 doesn’t have great
cameras
Here is our Microsoft Lumia 640
review.
This time around the corners have
been a little more rounded off but it still feels a little slippery in the
hand, it doesn't have the best grip available at this range.
The thickness of the handset has
been knocked down a little, though Microsoft has yet to confirm the exact
dimensions of the new handset. The buttons and features all remain in the same
place with the power button sitting comfortably on the right for your thumb and
a volume rocker just above.
Battery
We can’t really say if the
battery will last as long as Microsoft claims it will but the batteries inside
the two smartphones are quite big. The Lumia 640 XL comes with a 3,000 mAh
battery and the smaller one comes with a 2,500 mAh one. Microsoft claims that
the battery life on both Lumia’s will last for two days.
Windows
10
Both devices are running Windows
8.1 as Windows 10 is not yet available for mobile phones. However, both the
Lumia 640 and the 640 XL are ready for Windows 10. The update to Windows 10
will come to these two devices as soon as Microsoft launches its new OS. The
two smartphones perform very smoothly in Windows 8.1 and the Lumia Denim update
works really well.
Camera
The Lumia line-up has always been
great at taking shots. While the Lumia 640s don’t have incredible cameras, they
both take pretty decent photos, mainly thanks to the camera software. You can
adjust lighting, control exposure and have several effects at your disposal and
you can also create living pictures that will show you the changes you’ve made
to your image from start to finish in a format resembling GIF. Lumia 640 shoots
lesser quality photos, however. For some reason, the smaller Lumia comes with
weaker cameras. It comes with an 8MP camera on the back and a 1MP camera on its
front. Seeing how selfies are the new trend right now, we can’t understand why
Microsoft chose to put such a small front-facing camera on its device.
