[Real Users] My Lumia 640 XL Review

[RumoredNow]

Who has a Lumia 640 XL? Which Variant?

What's the good, the bad and the ugly? How long have you had it and what do you think?

Put your User Review here to help others. The more detail the better, we really appreciate hearing how it performs in the field.

Here is a quick spec sheet.:

• Single SIM or Dual Sim (variant dependent)
• H+ or LTE enabled (variant dependent)
• 5.7" IPS LCD display 720x1280 pixels, 259 ppi density
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC, quad 1.2GHz A7, with Adreno 305 GPU
• 8GB internal storage, 1GB RAM
• microSD slot stated at up to 128GB
• rear camera 13MP, Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash, video 1080p @30fps
• front camera 5MP, 1080p
• sensors: ambient light sensor, accelerometer, proximity, magnetometer, sensor core
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM Radio, microUSB 2.0
• removable 3000 mAh battery

 

[Arizona Willie]

Just went to the store and picked up my Lumia 640 XL --- this is my FIRST smartphone.

Don't know much about it yet, but I was disappointed that the volume is so low. I am hearing impaired and I can barely hear it with it up against my ear and hearing aid(s). Speaker on is much better but not good for privacy.

Is there any way to make this thing a wee bit louder?

I see they want to know what variant of Lumia 640 XL I have.

Hmm, not sure what they want but it is a Windows Phone and it's black.

 

[Muhammad Ali30]

I have bought Lumia 640 XL about 1.5 months back.. this is my 2nd windows phone and 4th smart phone (used 1 android 4.2 and using 1 Android 2.3 as second phone). Windows phones, overall, are very stable, have better battery time and do not have hanging problem. My lumia 640 xl has not given me any problems, whatsoever, till date. I am using many apps and games on the phone without any difficulty, including Candy Crush, Subway surfers, Asphalt Overdrive, 2048, Checkers etc. I am using it with continuous WiFi, 2 emails syncing every 30 minutes, viber, whatsapp, skype and line messenger. Using Facebook app and messenger also. For the diet conscious people, it also has the sensor core, which counts ur steps and hence calculates calories burnt and u can feed in the food taken and it will declare the calories taken. EasyTransfer app helps u in sharing files between ur pc and phone over WiFi. I will rate it 10/10...

 

[Derausgewanderte]

After sending our L830s back to ATT for refund I looked at alternatives and tried the Blu Win HD LTE and the 640XL. I purchased the 640XL off of Amazon and it's the RM-1096 International version. It's made in Vietnam but picked up the English language whith our ATT Sim card inserted. It's unlocked which will be the case for all our future phones and has dual SIM (no use for us at the moment).

We are using the phone for a little over 3 weeks now and we are not looking back to the L830. Sure, it doesn't have the same premium feel as the L830 but the 5.7" screen and the 13MP camera and 5MP front camera are great. My wife loves the front camera for selfies. My wife also loves that everything is larger and the additional screen estate.
I installed W10M on mine and interop unlocked it and love the Large Screen settings (5action items and 4 medium tiles in one row on start screen).

We are still somewhat missing wireless charging, but when I have some time I will explore the possibilities mentioned in some threads here to use the L920 qi charger in the 640XL. Already purchased an extra case for messing around with.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

I got my rm-1096 version on ebay. I don't use the XL as my main phone as of present anymore. I use the smaller 640.

I have to say this phone is awesome. I am a flagship high end guy at heart but I am not ever left wanting for much. I do wish it was a slight bit faster and I wish the camera on back was better but this phone also helps me take some awesome selfies as well.

It is certainly well worth the price and a phone people should give a shot if you want the best midrange windows phone there is. It is a bit big and bulky but it also feels like it is well made and not fragile.

Definitely my second favorite windows after the 1520 and I love the fact that the new flagships are following this design language

 

[Duke111]

Hi, new to the forum. Have been looking here (and elsewhere) for my next phone (coming from an HTC Mini). Finally got the Lumia 640 XL and a 128 Gb Lexar Micro SD Card.
All I can say is... Brilliant. For what I need it worked out BY FAR the most value for money (more so than I could have hoped for).
I have spoken to a guy at work who was anti Windows from a few years ago. Showed him mine and he bought one the next day and loves it.

For me I needed...
Big Screen.
Big Storage (Music, Photos, Videos).
Good Cameras.
Removable Battery (ability to have a swappable spare if needed).
Over a Day's Battery Life.
Good Telephone conversation quality.
4G LTE
Decent Music Quality Playback.
Sturdy Construction.
Good Visibility in daylight.
Email.
Text.
Browsing.
Skype
Viber
FM Radio
Off Line Maps

I am more than impressed. Brilliant Device.

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

640XL is my 2nd WP (630 was my first).

So my phone history goes like this.
Java (1 device )
Symbian (1 device)
Android (3 devices)
Windows (2 devices)

After having tinkered with android (rooting, custom ROM's, running scripts, overclocking) I felt it was too open.
If anyone had done these, you would know that these stuff are hard to maintain and need constant attention and fixing.
Even though it had apps (useful ones) I never felt satisfied on android (battery life, security, intense resource usage).
Got bored of android and switched to Windows Phone on June 2014 (630 DS was launched at that time).

The ad caught my attention, yes the Microsoft ad for Lumia !
630 DS performed beyond expectations.
I liked everything about the OS, nothing to worry about and totally stable.
630DS survived a year without any damages (this is the first time a thing like this is happening, previous phones were damaged due to my careless handling).
But this, it was special ..... I took care of my Windows Phone like "my precious".

The main reason why i switched to 640XL is that i wanted to have a better camera with flash (since i couldn't have the full Lumia experience on my 630).
One other reason is RAM some apps/games work only in 1gb devices and 512mb devices are getting "outdated".
The big screen is just an added bonus (finally able to hide the nav bar !!).
The phone fits snug on my pocket (while sitting and standing ).
Comfortable to hold also.

There is not much performance difference between 640XL and 630DS since the chipset is the same (SD400).
However you will notice occasional lags (I notice while playing AOE:CS).
I think the SD400 supports 720P display for namesake !
Color reproduction is excellent.

Camera is really good.
But there seems to be a problem with the app as I press the preview image button after clicking the image, it does some "processing".
It takes some time to preview the image. (I've turned off rich capture and living images).

I have noticed that the video app does not utilize the full screen while playing videos (I noticed some pixel gaps on all sides of the screen).
While playing a video file from the files app it utilizes the full screen upto the bezels.


Value for money is all that i can say about this device.(Since I am not interested in flagships).

640 and 640XL should have been the first device that Microsoft should have launched after taking over Nokia.

I am not saying that the 630/635 and all others that came before 640/640XL are failures.
But admit that they are not "perfect".
No matter what the chipset and display size may be, FFC, RC with flash, 1gb or more ram should be standard for all Windows Phones.
I did feel "crippled" while using 630DS feature-wise.

With 640XL starts my 2nd year on Windows Phone.
I have taken insurance for my phone.
Hope it stays with me like the 630 did.

 

[anon(9707071)]

OK folks here is my review! after reading these forums i decided to get a 640 XL! bear in minde that i come from android 4.0 xperia 3.2" 2013 model...

i got the phone this morning and after 3-4 hours i am hugely impressed with it! the built is superb, screen quality is great; wp 8.1 is SMOOTH, the difference with my old android is stagerring !
sure they are less options than android but overall many things can be done! also everyone says the store is poor...i was surprised that actually 90% of the apps i was using on android were there...or has equivalents !!! gps, weather, prayer, youtube, dailymotion, viber, fb etc....many games can also be found!
one thing that had me worried as well as many others here is the SIZE of this beauty....i has a small phone and honestly i find the 5.7" to be NORMAL, yes normal it is NOT that big in fact...i got used to this in less than 2 hours!!

CONCLUSION: microsoft has an outstanding 2015 LUMIA range (i also tested the 535 and 430....) i can't wait for the WP 10 update in the next few days! i really don't thing i can go back to android and their crappy update system (4,5 and 6 fragmentation...)

go for it this phone is a BOMB !:winktongue::winktongue:

 

[Prince Pusey]

Hi, new to the forum. Have been looking here (and elsewhere) for my next phone (coming from an HTC Mini). Finally got the Lumia 640 XL and a 128 Gb Lexar Micro SD Card.
All I can say is... Brilliant. For what I need it worked out BY FAR the most value for money (more so than I could have hoped for).
I have spoken to a guy at work who was anti Windows from a few years ago. Showed him mine and he bought one the next day and loves it.

For me I needed...
Big Screen.
Big Storage (Music, Photos, Videos).
Good Cameras.
Removable Battery (ability to have a swappable spare if needed).
Over a Day's Battery Life.
Good Telephone conversation quality.
4G LTE
Decent Music Quality Playback.
Sturdy Construction.
Good Visibility in daylight.
Email.
Text.
Browsing.
Skype
Viber
FM Radio
Off Line Maps

I am more than impressed. Brilliant Device.

Bought mine two weeks now, and an anti windows friend of mine saw mine and started to envy me. He is now saving to make his order online right now!
Love the weight as well!!!

 

[Digibrush]

640 xl is my first windows phone and I am impressd with it after using last 20 days.
1st one is I like most is its glance screen, it allows me to see notifications on my phone without unlocking.
2nd one is of course the camera.Picture quality is pretty awesome. In low light condition with lower ISO It also took nice pic. But i am a little disappointed with daylight long shot. It is not that great.
One more thing I noticed, I download few 640 XL sample image(from this forum) and when I look its file detail, its horigontal and vertical resolution is 96 dpi. But my 640 XL camera only took 72 dpi, dont found any option to change that. Is there any?

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

my 640 XL camera only took 72 dpi

Change aspect ratio to 4:3 in photo settings (inside the camera app).

4:3 gives full 13MP while 16:9 give only 10MP.

 

[Digibrush]

I change aspect ratio to 4:3 but still its 72 dpi. Only what change is hight pixel area increased to 3120p form 2368p.

 

[Derausgewanderte]

you probably saw this one already...

http://forums.windowscentral.com/mi...92-change-camera-resolutiion.html#post3315037

 

[t0ny94]

I will try to be short, it is as good as any other similarly priced windows phone in terms of performance. I really like the design.
The camera takes really good pictures. The only disadvantage I see is that if you want to take a panorama picture, it really takes a lot of time to process the image afterwards.

 

[Swaha]

Purchased the 3G model about one month back. I was using Sony Ericsson Live With Walkman series before(rooted and installed with cyanogen mod). Love this 640XL from Microsoft, affordable & stylish. Clearly Windows phone OS has lot to improve, but man it's way way better than Android.

 

[kristalsoldier]

I have been using a 640XL (DS/ 3G) that I bought about 6 months back. I like big phones and it was meant to be a backup phone for my 1520. But I have relocated since and have picked up - within the last two week - another 640XL (DS/ LTE). I think the phone is excellent and, to be honest, it has had me defer purchasing the 950XL!!!

I like the 640XL because:

Large screen but not quite as unwieldy as the 1520
Lighter, compact and durable (having dropped it a number of times already)
Battery life (particularly with 8.1 Update 2 - not so much with W10M)
Nice camera (though OIS would have been nice!!!)
mSD Card

Some areas where I think I would like things different:

On-board storage should really have been 16GB (really, 8GB is too little)
Ideally 2GB RAM would have been excellent (however, with W10M, the phone feels much faster and smoother)

All in all, I think the phone is excellent value for money and it looks elegantly understated (in black!)

Battery life under W10M:

I signed up for the Insiders thing and downloaded and installed the latest build of W10M. Damn!!! It has made a difference. W10M runs very well. Only thing I notice is that battery life is not too good. For example, I have almost every service including location turned on. Both SIMs are operational with one also housing a LTE data connection. BT is off, but WiFi is always on. Screen is set to auto brightness. With all this, lets say I use Telegram for about 45 mins continously; Make a couple of calls using both SIMs, check some Twitter feeds, scan through some articles on a couple of News Apps, two email accounts (both outlook) are syncing as and when mails arrive. I send some mails and read some. I take a pic or two. Receive and send SMSs. Talk for 30 mins on Viber. Look up something using Edge. If I start with 100% at 9AM and do all of the above, then by 5PM, the battery level hovers around 40%. I am quite sure I used to get a better result when I used to do the same thing on 8.1. If it is indeed because of W10M, then over time MS will probably optimize/ fix this.

But as a phone the 640XL is very very good!

 

[Jakoh]

http://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-lumia-640-xl/366220-got-my-new-lumia-640-xl.html
http://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-lumia-640-xl/405478-640xl-durability.html
http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...s-baja-california-640xl-wm10.html#post3322322

My Review and posts about 640 XL

 

[Win10all]

do you think if i keep both data and wifi on will save some battery life? i think the phone will try to use wifi first if it is available? this way, it will save battery power? can anyone confirm if i am right?

 

[vickyirs]

I have been using the LTE model for the past 3 months.
No issues with the hardware, software and performance. It is much better than my previous Android.
BUT, suddenly on an evening, the earpiece speaker stopped working. Found the solution in another community as to remove the sim from slot 1, insert in slot 2 and restart the phone. It sorted out the problem.
The rear camera glass has got lots of scratches, even though I am using it as my secondary mobile, not carrying it along always. The rubber thing surrounding the main speaker and camera flash (can be seen if you open the back cover) are brittle and worn out completely. This kind of quality from Microsoft is disappointing.

 

[captaincalamity]

I'm back with windows phone after a break trying out both iOS (iphone 6) and Android (LG G4, S6), my last windows phone being a Nokia Lumia 930, which really enjoyed apart from the battery life and not being able to fit a proper screen protector, no SD slot or removable battery. So I decided to give the Lumia 640 XL a go and after only a few days I am already testing out Windows 10.

Firstly this phone shouldn't really perform quite as well as it does with its relatively low specs, so well done to Microsoft for continuing to build a fast UI and operating system even with windows phone 10, I would say for everyday stuff like checking mail, calendar and news etc its about the same speed and fluidity as my Lumia 930 ever was, but for gaming (which I have only tested a few, seems to perform about OK on the 640 where as on the 930 it was very quick and slick)

Things I love about the 640XL:

Screen, before i bought it I read the specs and thought the dpi would be too low, but in real usage, its crisp and clear, blacks are deep and viewing angles are OK not brilliant like the 930 or as vibrant. But the size of the screen is so nice to view.

Build quality is a little plastic and no where near as plush as the 930, but the weight is distributed nicely so holding the 640 XL seems lighter, strangely I thought I would miss the dedicated camera button, but on this sized device its nice to grip the device without activating it accidentally. Being able to remove the battery and potentially buy another spare for my summer camping trips will be a bonus.

Now I use NaviComputer app a lot for walking/hiking/running so like to download large offline maps, I have quite an extensive music collection uploaded to Groove/One drive and am constantly saving large work files to the device, so even though the 930 had a 32GB storage, i had to manage it a fair amount, now I put my 64GB card into the 640XL and immediately it asks you where you want everything to be automatically saved, I am amazed as how well the Windows devices handle SD cards, far better than android does.

Being able to have so many live tiles on the screen at once is so usefull, not sure if you had this option with the 930 (maybe wrong) plus the multitask area is laid out much nicer too. I would say windows 10 runs equally as smooth and trouble free as my 930 did, cant fault it so far, battery life is phenomenal on the 640XL it really is very good, so far even better than my old Android z3 and I thought that was good. Knocks the battery life on the 930 into the far distance I'm afraid.