At the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft revealed two new mid range handsets. The Lumia 640 and 640 XL are two variants of practically the same phone with the key difference being the size and we feel that this is a very wise move. But are the differences as superficial as they seem? We find that out in our hands on of the Lumia 640 XL.
On the face of it, the Lumia 640XL really does seem like an overblown Lumia 640 which in itself is just a slight improvement over the 630 in terms of aesthetics. You get a large 5.7 inch 720p panel which is a welcome departure from the rather outlandish 6inch displays that were doing the rounds a while back. We found the size to be a nice middle ground between usability and size though there’s no doubt at all that the Lumia 640 XL is certainly an extra large device. The screen looks decent enough though the colors are slightly muted. An odd issue that we feel might have to do with the prototype hardware was that the whites appeared to have a pinkish hue. Viewing angles are better than that on the Lumia 640 but still not particularly great. Nokia has made enhancements for sunlight readability though we couldn’t really test that out for obvious reasons.
Let’s talk about the design then. The right side of the handset sports the single piece volume rocker as well as the power button. The microUSB port is at the bottom while the 3.5mm audio jack is at the top of the phone. A very standard port layout and there’s really nothing much to talk about on that front.
If you’ve gone through our Lumia 640 hands on and you really should, you’ll know that the smaller sibling of the Lumia 640 XL has a hyper glossy back panel. The 640 XL on the other hand eschews that for a matte finish that looks (to us) and generally feels a lot better. Since it doesn’t attract scratches or smudges, it means that your phone will look pristine for that much longer. The back panels are once again replaceable and the Lumia 640 XL will be available in orange, blue, black and white though it isn’t immediately clear if you’ll be able to buy additional back covers in retail. Look closely and you’ll spot the third big change on the Lumia 640 XL which we’ll talk about in the next section of our preview.
While the Lumia 640 has a rather nondescript 8MP camera at the back, the Lumia 640 XL has a 13MP sensor with Carl Zeiss optics. There’s of course a single LED flash as well placed above it. Will this make a tangible difference in day to day usage remains to be seen but at least on paper, the camera module looks promising. The specifications of the front facing camera too have been beefed up with a 5MP sensor finding space above the 5.7inch display. We couldn’t really test it out given the conditions but it seemed to be fairly decent. Wait for the full review once the device launches for a better idea of the camera capabilities of the handset.
Powering the Lumia 640 XL is a 1.2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor paired with 1GB of RAM. There’s also 8GB of built in storage that can be expanded upon via the microSD card slot. In addition you’ll get dual SIM card slots all of which are placed under the removable rear shell. Functionally, the Lumia 640 and 640 XL are identical and this was very evident in our brief amount of time with the two phones. Where the handsets do differ in is the battery capacity with the XL getting a more capacious 3,000 mAh battery unit. That said, Microsoft was quick to point out that standby, run times will be very similar given the differences in screen sizes.
Microsoft has a compelling offering in the Lumia 640, 640 XL duo. They have the potential to offer a one-two punch in the mid range that really is flooded by Android devices. Windows Phone has shaped up to be a decent operating system for not so demanding users despite it’s glacial pace of updates. We’ll let the consumers decide if they approve of Microsoft’s new handsets but on the face of it, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with either. The handset will be priced at 189 Euros for the 3G variant while the LTE version of the phone will retail for 219 Euros before taxes and subsidies.