Help me decide on the 640XL please?

[cartobob]

Hello everyone!

Nice to be on a forum that is really helpful for a change..

I am on the lookout for a new phone. I am not an android ******. I have been using the LG G2 for a long time, but it broke and I decided it was not worth spending the cash for a new display. I switched to my wifes Panasonic Eluga S after buying her a new Lumia 530.

Now I would like to get a new phone. I am torn between the 640XL, Lenovo Vibe P1 and the Lenovo K4 note which I might or might not get in the flash sale.

My uses:
1. I travel a lot, so I usually get a lot of videos to watch in the train or bus or hotel. So it needs to have a good display. I am not a stickler for ppi, but the LG G2 has spoiled me a little bit. The thing is the 640XL has almost half the pixels of the other two. So I would like to know if movies would look good on it.

2. Productivity apps like reminders with notifications for e.g. I use Wunderlist and Any.Do. Not sure if there are equivalent apps in the Windows store.

3. Music & videos The sound needs to be clear and audible especially since travel will usually be in a noisy environment. I have Sennheiser headphones, so I'm not bothered about the quality of the 640XL box headphones.

4. Office apps: I guess the 640XL beats the others hands down.

5. Gaming: Not that much except for a few not really hw intensive games.

I would appreciate any advice that you folks can give me..

Cheers and have a great day!

 

[kristalsoldier]

Hi...

I don't know anything about the other phones that you are considering, but I have been using a 640XL now for sometime (around a year).

In my opinion, the 640XL is an amazing device! It is robustly built and very comfortable to hold and use (note that I don't have largish hands).

Battery life (with 8.1.2) was very good but on W10M it is not so much probably because the appropriate updated firmware has not been released and W10M is not yet fully optimized. But on the latest build the battery seems to be better.

I personally don't face any app problems. My banks have fully functional apps, my preferred airline has an app, I use O365 a lot and Outlook and Onedrive are my staple uses. Microsoft Maps works well for me and while I don't like the Skype integration (it eats up a lot of battery), it works. Cortana is fun and useful.

I have taken some nice pics with the 640XL but I know its limits (no OIS etc.). The display is good enough for me. One trick is to calibrate the colours to "vivid" in the setting. It does make a difference.

Wunderlist is available in the Windows Store. Groove Music was a mess earlier but is now coming around. Its not too bad, but there are other alternatives which are very good. The basics are covered - Twitter, Instagram, Telegram (though this kills battery too in my opinion), News, Youtube (some excellent 3rd party apps like myTube and TubeCast), Reddit (Readit, Baconit, among others). For a browser you are basically limited to Edge (which is ok, but still inefficient in terms of rendering and battery optimization).

At the end of the day, I have to be honest here. The 640XL is a decidedly mid-range phone, but it is a brilliant (and, if I may say so, elegant) performer. In my experience, the device shines on W10M and often you don't feel that there is a relatively dated chip and only 1GB of RAM in it.

The glaring weakness in the 640XL for me is the internal storage. It comes with 8GB but has the MicroSD card slot which you can use. Quite a few apps can be installed to the SD card (at least under W10M) which helps, but I still wish the 640XL came with 16GB standard storage.

If you ignore this one slight blemish, the 640XL is a stellar and under-rated device. If you choose to go with it and are fully aware of the essential limitations of the Microsoft ecosystem, I don't think you will regret it.

Good Luck!!!

 

[Laura Knotek]

2. Productivity apps like reminders with notifications for e.g. I use Wunderlist and Any.Do. Not sure if there are equivalent apps in the Windows store.

Wunderlist is available. https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...o-do-list-tasks%2F9wzdncrdfxzs&token=hKvDaA8H
Any.do is not.

4. Office apps: I guess the 640XL beats the others hands down.

You might want to try out the Office apps on your wife's 530 and compare them to what you used on your G2. Microsoft Office apps for Android have more features.

 

[PlaymoBg]

I used to have 640xl, sold it not long ago.
It is a good phone, two things I loved the most are the shape of the device and the battery life. Everything else is average at best. I wasn't impressed with it's performance, the camera wasn't the best either. The screen was very good no matter inside or outside.
After updating it to Win 10, it got slower, battery was a bit worse, but over all Win 10 looks better imo.

My advice is first to install all the apps you use on the 530 lumia and then jump on to buy 640xl.
Win apps are very different compared to Android ones. LG G2 is still a decent device and you might not be very impressed with 640 xl.
Try the apps first

EDIT: Oh and there are no headphones in the box, the charging cable is sealed to the charger and can not be used to connect the phone to PC, but you can always use some old usb cable.

 

[cartobob]

Ok, thanks for all your answers. I will check out the apps on the 530 and then decide