REVIEW: Microsoft Lumia 640

Announced about 3 months ago at the MWC 2015, Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL are available in the Indian market and are two of the most anticipated Lumia devices out there. It's no secret that Microsoft does budget as well as flagship phones incredibly well; and the 640 does not disappoint. 

I recently got my hands on one and after using it for a while, here are my thoughts:

Design:

The design is very similar to that of the Lumia 630 and 635, a little larger and heavier yet slightly thinner, with the same matt-finish case in black, or glossy in blue, orange or white, that sits comfortably and securely in the hand. This case is removable, but wraps around to the front, resulting in a solid feel that won't creak or flex under pressure.  

It's simple and unassuming, a slab of plastic with a slightly curved rear and rounded edges. There's a gaping hole on the rear for the small speaker, and the rear camera and headphone jack protrude just enough to spoil the Lumia 640's smooth surface, but still it's a good- if basic-looking phone for the money. 

As before the screen is covered by tough Gorilla Glass 3, with cutouts top and bottom for the earpiece and microphone. It's a larger sheet of glass, though, since Microsoft has upgraded the Lumia's display not only in size but also resolution. Whereas the Lumia 630 and 635 feature a 4.5in 854x480 ClearBlack IPS panel, the 640 has a 5in HD (1280x720) screen, which results in an improved pixel density of 294ppi. (Bigger still is the 5.7in screen on the Lumia 640 XL, although the resolution is the same at 720p.) 

As such, browsing the web, watching videos and even playing the odd games is now a far more enjoyable experience on the Lumia 640.

The overall design of the device is good looking in this price segment and the build quality is exceptional. You'll find that the poly-carbonate back cover is solid and has a great feel in the hand and the device is a pleasure to use.

Hardware:

The Lumia features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, along with 1GB RAM and the graphics performance is aided by Adreno 305 GPU- which is what you'd find on other mid range phones as well; so no surprises here. The performance in day to day use, though, is exceptional. You won't find any lag in using apps and mid range games. The performance gets a little shabby when playing high end games such as Asphalt 8 or Halo, but that's a given seeing the specs. That said, it runs such games pretty well for a device of this caliber.

The battery performance of this device is something that its Android counterparts should take inspiration from. The battery performance is quite amazing. It features a 2500 mAh battery and the battery lasts about a day with ease during heavy use.  

A major drawback of this device, though, is the internal storage. Microsoft promises 8 GB of internal storage but in reality, like always, the user accessible memory is just a little over 4GB. There is a Micro SD card slot available which allows you to expand the storage up to 128 (which is not something you see on every smartphone) but it would have been nicer to have a GB extra available on-board.

The connectivity specs come as no surprise at this price. There's support for Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA and NFC. The GPS and GLONASS is assisted. The Indian version of the device also comes with Dual SIM support and 3G.

Camera:

The 640 packs in an 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 0.9 megapixel front camera. The rear camera comes with f2.2 aperture and autofocus, as you'd expect, while the front facing camera has fixed focus but does come with options such as manual exposure and timer. 

The Lumia 640 is not the best cameraphone in the world, but it's significantly better than its Android rivals. It is a well known fact that in terms of cameras and optics, Microsoft does the best job with its Lumia devices at every price range, and the same is true even here.

There's an LED flash for low light photography, though the shots look a little grainy. The performance during the daylight is exceptional for such a device and captures details and colours very well. The 0.9 megapixel front cam takes pictures better than I expected it to, perhaps because of some algorithms Microsoft uses in the "Lumia Camera" app. Whatever may be the reason, it takes some great shots and comes with a wide-angle lens for better group selfies and Skype calls.

The overall camera performance is far better than other phones in this price range.

Software:

The Microsoft Lumia 640 runs Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim, although Windows 10 will be available later this summer (in fact, you can get Windows 10 on your phone now with the Windows Insider program). 

Windows Phone is heavily criticised for its lack of apps, but the situation is improving with thousands of legit apps being added to the store every day. Although Windows Phone does not have Google apps, you can still sync contacts, calendar and mail with native apps in Windows Phone to get a truly seamless experience between services. There are also third party apps available for YouTube that not only allow you to watch videos but also download them natively and store them on your device.

In other respects Windows Phone is every bit as good as iOS and Android, although it has a different look and feel with a colourful tiled interface in place of the familiar icon-led home screens. In place of Siri and Google Now there's the excellent Cortana and with Action Centre notifications are just as easy to manage.  

Here Drive+ and Here Maps are very good, offering free turn-by-turn driving instructions, offline maps and live traffic information, while MixRadio offers free audio from your favourite artists (without ads, although you can skip the track only six times in an hour). Add to that Kids' Corner, preinstalled social apps and a double-tap to wake feature, and Windows Phone isn't looking too shabby next to its rivals. 

Verdict:

Microsoft yet again proves how well it does smartphones and at the price of Rs.10000, the Lumia 640 is a steal! It is a perfect example of seamless hardware, software and services and along with Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim, an absolute pleasure to use.

And why wouldn't you go down the Windows Phone route? Windows Phone is bright, it's colourful, and it's something different to the icon-led home screens of iOS and Android, with tiles that update with information in real time. Once you've become familiar with its layout, it's really easy to use. It wont be an overstatement to say that the Moto G just met its match!

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