Microsoft Lumia 640 XL review

Is this the Moto G, for those who want Windows and a giant screen?

That certainly seems to be the idea behind the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL: getting you a pretty compromise-free Windows experience without having to pay much for it at all.

Starting at just €189, likely roughly the same or slightly less in pounds, it seems as if Micorosft may have its budget phone strategy back in gear after some pretty rubbish cheap models from last year.

It gets you a 5.7-inch display and a camera that seems fairly good, when Samsung would probably charge you almost double for such a device.

Smooth as plastic

Nothing changes too much design-wise with Lumia’s cheaper phones, though. The Lumia 640 XL is a plastic phone with the classic one-piece back cover. It’s not unibody, and that cover will probably fly off if you drop the thing. But it does provide a nice smooth curve for the back.

The Lumia series made colour a standard choice among cheaper phones, but now Microsoft seems to have pretty much nailed down its colour choices. You can get the Lumia 640 XL in orange, blue, white or black. If you’re expecting something a bit more exotic, forget it.

The version we checked out has a smooth matte finish, avoiding the tacky feel you can get with a glossy back cover. Is it big, though: stay away if you don’t want a palm-bothering phone.

Using a removable back cover also means Microsoft has been able to hide the SIM slot. It’s not a bad looking phone, this. And Microsoft has even helpfully put the power button on the side to ensure you’re not left desperately reaching for the thing on top too.

Note-style girth

The main event here is the screen. This will be one of the largest phones you can get at the price, offering 5.7 inches of LCD space, matching the Galaxy Note 4. It’s not a high-end display, and at 720p resolution doesn’t have the pixel density to get you that neat ‘you can’t see the pixels’ Retina effect, but it’s not bad either.

It’s not obviously blocky unless you’re looking for things to criticise, and unlike some of the cheapest Lumia phones, its colours are pretty good.

Pressure to perform

As it’s set to arrive as early as April, the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL will use Windows Phone 8.1 to begin with, before getting the boost-up to Windows 10 later in the year. So software-wise there’s nothing too surprising here yet.

The Lumia 640 XL does feel nice and smooth to operate, which is reassuring after the couple of slightly creaky budget Windows phones we’ve used over the past 12 months. It has a quad-core Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz CPU with 1GB RAM – so not quite a top-tier spec, and one generation behind the pack, but not exactly surprising given the price. Anyway, in use it seems enough to keep Windows 8.1 ticking along nicely.

The Zeiss effect

Where we see some more obvious signs of development is with the camera. Firstly, the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL has a Carl Zeiss lens where affordable Lumia phones have tended to feature bog-standard unbranded optics. There’s also a pretty high-res 13-megapixel sensor and a bunch of new camera features on-board.

The most important one is something we’ve been wanting for ages: proper HDR. The Lumia 640 XL’s rich capture mode supposedly merges multiple exposures to get you more detail in the shadows and highlights than standard photos. It goes a step further than most too, able to even merge shots with and without the flash: there’s a single-LED flash on the back.

So is this really the next-gen HDR we’ve been hoping for? We were shown a few demos of the mode in action, but we’re reserving judgement until we get to check it out ourselves.

Initial verdict

The Lumia 640 XL suggests Microsoft is trying to retain its reputation for being a company that offers decent phones outside of the very top-end models. Making a good £500 phone is one thing, but pulling the same trick off at £180 is quite another.

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL review