[Real Users] My Lumia 640 Review

xandros9

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The 640 may not be available as of this post, but this'll still be around when it launches!

Stick your musings and experiences here!
 
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I will post my experience with the device.

I had no crashes using the device, it ran very smooth. I did not test it with a sd-card. The processing of the rich capture is expectingly slow, not horribly slow but when you go back and it's doing the initial process, its rather slow a good few seconds waiting. However, shot to shot time is crazy fast for such a low end device.

The screen was good, the brightness not as bright as others, but it wasn't to the point it wasn't usable in direct sunlight during a baseball outing in the afternoon. One thing I noticed was that at odd viewing angels the screen had this square rainbow like reflection that I suppose is the way the screen is pushed onto the device. Can't really explain it, perhaps if I can get another shot with it (no longer in my hands) I can see if a picture might be able to catch it.

The sound was rather loud, compared to the 930 and 1020 and Z3, during videos you could tell it was fighting for the loudest volume that your ear would hear, it was not drowned out.

The homescreen buttons or navigation buttons, are swipeable to be visible or hidden, even in the homescreen. It freaked me out some because when I took a picture and went to go view it, the keys are hidden, and it didn't dawn on me to swipe them in. Because when you tap the screen the edit keys come up but not the navigation keys.

The Settings menu was rather easy to navigate, probably what win8.1 should have been, but I wasn't blown away.

The screen looked great next to the 930, and it was wider screen, and was thinner than the 930. The battery lasted over a day of general usage if not two days. I didn't use it as my main phone so I would expect a good day without worry is what you should expect.

All other things worked as they were supposed to. The build quality was really good, almost felt like a 5c's bigger brother, in a good way. The only thing I noticed, and that's because I am not used to removable backs as my daily phone (925 to 930), the way it meets the glass edge with the plastic back seemed 'different' It did not distract from the quality but overall was a good fit just seemed 'different'.

I was so impressed with it, it is a day one buy for me, to replace my fathers 635 with. I don't think he would like a 5.7 640xl version, but this size was simply perfect for him and even me. It was an eye catcher, the blue was really nice looking and many people gave it a look.
 

agaskew

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Here's my view, FWIW, comparing a black 640 to previous phone: a Lumia 925.

The matt black 640 is a shock at first - the removable plastic back and no battery (its separate in the box) means it feels really light and a bit flimsy compared to the all metal backed 925. However, once the SIM, MicroSD Card and battery are in, it feels much more substantial. Great news that the battery is replaceable, if and when replacement batteries become available to buy! The ability to expand with a MicroSD card is also great, the 925 has a fixed storage amount. I prefer the 640's more rounded corners.

Note that the MicroSD card doesnt 'click' in to place in the 640, you just push it in. Also the USB power socket is on the bottom, the SIM card goes inside the phone under the back cover - no need for poking a pin in the phone - and there are no headphones included with the 640. The 925 has visible wireless charging contacts built in, whereas the 640 does not, but there may be a replacement/additional case that allows wireless charging coming for the 640 - I read of it in a different review but have not seen any evidence of its existence!

The screen of the 640 has slightly lower PPI than the 925 and it certainly looks a little bit different somehow. Its hard to say exactly, I think its a little bit brighter overall, but I haven't calibrated the display myself. The 640 is more 'blue', the 925 is more 'yellow'. I don't really prefer either screen. The Navigation Bar on the 640 is software at the bottom of the screen, and can be set to different colours,set to switch off the screen etc.

In normal usage, the 640 is faster than the 925 at everything. Unlocking, opening apps, swiping through menus, accessing OneDrive, using the camera etc - everything happens more quickly. In built speaker quality during phone calls is a little better. Photos - the camera on the 925 is rated a little better, although I don't see a great deal of difference between them when looking at the pictures on the phones. The 640 does not have Zeiss PureView lens branding, but also the lens does not sit proud of the back of the phone. Both shoot 1080p Video. The 640 does not have a dedicated camera button on the outside edge.

And now for me, the killer feature of the 640 over the 925 - battery life. The 925 ran consistently at 5-6% discharge per hour, with things like 'double tap to wake' set off, and Glance set to 'Interval', SIM card set to 3G maximum and auto brightness. The 640 is using 2.5% per hour with everything turned on - glance, double tap etc. The 640 does have a 25% bigger battery but I think there are other things helping to keep battery use down.

My own personal summary:
  • Slightly bigger screen
  • Faster
  • Replaceable battery
  • Expandable Storage via MicroSD
  • Much better battery life

- two more things:

The 640 is Cheap.
The 640 comes with 1 year Free Microsoft Office 365 Personal Subscription.
 

Pearcey125

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I've had my 640 3 weeks now (Bright orange)

I'm upgrading from a 635 which I really liked.

The 640 improves on the 635 in almost every aspect. There are a few software tweaks which all improve on 8.1 version 1. Like swiping away the navigation keys, the settings menus have been tidied up, and there's now a tap to wake and glance feature for the lock screen which is really helpful.

The build quality is good, it's a less creaky handset than the 635 and the back cover seems more tight and secure than on my 635. The screen also doesn't pick up dirt and dust like the 635 did.

The camera is good in most situations and I've already taken some cracking shots (I'll share these on the pictures thread when I'm back at the desktop) The speaker also seems louder and clearer than on the 635.

The only thing that bothered me is the ringtones. All the in-built ones are dreadful! But this is a very minor gripe and also a matter of opinion & taste.

Windows is a good, smooth operating system which is improving with every update. And it's catching up with android and ios. Hopefully developers will start putting more effort into developing apps for the windows platform.

I have all the apps & games I need (apart from a decent .epub / ebook reader) and the 640 handles them all well. Gaming performance was surprisingly good too (I play Minecraft, Dream League Soccer, Sonic Dash, Asphalt 8) all these run great with no lag.

I'd describe myself as a power user, and I use my devices heavily.

This is a brilliant phone. It's a mid range device, but it punches above it's weight.
 

r4v

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I bought my L640DS few weeks ago, so now I can say something about her. I've been using L820 and then for a 2 months LG G3s. I bought 640 because of frustration that LG was causing. And because battery in my 820 was dead before 3pm. So I can compare 640 to those 2 phones:

Screen

It's good. Not great, but good enough. Glance screen is too dark, but on 920 it's the same. It has no chance with 820's AMOLED and it's a little worse (view angles especially) than LG. But at least it has auto brightness. Good resolution and good colors.

On the downside, there is visibility in the sunlight. Glass has huge glare, it's almost like a mirror. I can look at myself in the car. What's worse, in the stron sunlight you can see digitizer. And it really, really a huge problem. It shines, reflect most of the light and you need to change angle to get a clear view. LG is much better with it, but it's too dark for using in sunny days.

And I have some touch issues. Either it doesn't recognize my thumb, or detects fingers too fast and then it thinks I want to swipe words on keyboard, which isn't the case.

Battery

Uh, it crushes L820. The phone have 60% at the end of day with one sim card and glance always on. Unless something crashes and eats battery. Then you can get 30% (like yesterday). In that case you need a soft reset. LG can get 60% too at the end of day, but it has no glance screen.

OS

Well, it runs smooth. Actually it feels faster than 820. Looks like it's better to have 4 slower cores than 2 faster. It can also be a part of performance difference beetween Samsung EVO and Sandisk Ultra. Lumia Camera starts immediately, while on 820 it took 5s to launch it. Update 2 to OS changes few things, like settings, but it's nothing special.

Phone is almost a twin of LG G3s. Same RAM amount, same CPU, same screen size and resolution, on-screen buttons. But there is huge performance gap beetwen those two. Android just dies with 1GB of RAM. You start Chrome and everything in the background starts to close itself and restarts. I don't care if it's something like twilight, but it's getting really annoying with keyboard, when you wait 5-10s for restart. Then you go to homescreen (Aviate) and you need to wait 5 seconds for icons to showup :angry:. You can use Firefox, but it crashes a lot (system kills it?). But the bigger problem is with memory for applications. On Lumia you have around 4GB of free space. On LG it's around 800MB less and most apps can't be moved to SD Card. You can root it, use something like FolderMount and other things, but it's just a workaround. On Lumia I have still 3GB left with 90% of apps put on SD Card. And it works great. All the maps for Navigon, some few GB, all on the card (to be honest, you can do the same with Here Maps on Android, but app still sits in the phone).

In short: Lumia is much more fluid and comfortable to use.

Camera

I can't say much, I'm not using it too frequently. It looks similar to LG and a little worse than L820. But it all depends on the conditions. Without too much light it's terrible, like basically all such small sensors. So it's basically what you're paying for.
 

vw1610

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so far it's much faster than my 630. it's also noticeably thinner than the 630 too. my daily driver is the iPhone 6 and the size of the 640 is quite close. it feels good in hand. the buttons feel more substantial than they were on the 630. they stick out above the shell more.
ImageUploadedByWindows Central Forums1431742233.758625.jpgImageUploadedByWindows Central Forums1431742244.826835.jpg
 

Bubblefat

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Picked up the new 640 yesterday at my local Cricket. The phone is fantastic. Much more sturdy than my old 635. Less creaking and the back cover fits a lot more snugly than the old model. The screen so far is excellent, and I am thankful they put the extra money in for the oleophobic coating to keep dirt and oil off the screen. The brightness is good ,and it has auto-brightness which is a big deal for me personally. The operating system seems more responsive and snappier with 1GB of RAM instead of the 512MB on the 635. Apps open instantly 90% of the time, and switching between apps doesn't give you the 3-5 seconds onf "Resuming". Multitasking on this device is excellent.

The Battery so far seems identical to the 635's. After a full day's worth of use, I was at around 55-60% and I am a heavy user. I've heard Windows OS makes battery improvements with every one of their updates, and since the 635 hasn't gotten Denim or Update 2, I will wait and see if the battery life is marginally longer than the 635. Phone also doesn't seem to get too hot like the 635 did either.

All in all, the resolution, improved screen options and the 1GB of RAM make a HUGE different for this phone and it is what the 635 should have been at the beginning. Still, definitely worth it to upgrade.
 

baandoptager

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I took a chance yesterday, springin' for the Lumia 640 even though i loved my 735. One day in, i must say i regret my switch. Here's why:

Straight of the bat, i noticed that just like the 630/635 the upper left corner of the backcover wiggles a bit. It's no biggie, but i noticed it was something almost all 630/635's had, so i instantly thought, aha, it's because they scaled the locking mechanisms from there on to here. I checked other 640's and they all have it aswell.

The camera: I was shocked to learn that compared to the Lumia 735, the 640 camera is incredibly bad. There's an incredible amount of noise all over the pictures and i'm really having trouble getting a decent focus on my pictures. I find it interesting that my former 735 had an almost better camera module than the 920, but now the 640 (with more megapixels, have gone wayyy back in time). The camera boots up fast unlike the 735 (could take 3-10 seconds), but that doesn't really help much when the result isn't good. I'm also having trouble with the flash. Flash photos look dark and it's only every 3rd or 4th time that you can get it just right with the light from the flash, i think it's has something to do with the timing of the flash itself. (don't know, but it's weird.) Taking pictures and previewing them outside is also a hassle due to the extremely low brightness levels of the screen. Even at highest level, it's bad..... Again compared to the 735, it's almost not usable outdoors. Front cam is oki for skype, but that's about it in terms of usage. I personally don't do selfies, soo....

Video: In daylight, is very good. Compared to the Lumia 735 (nearest early reference), it's not. Too much noise in almost any possible combination you could choose to use. later, evening and nigh time; Forget about it! Lumia 735 is way superior here too. But overall fair video i guess. (not the biggest video dood).

Pictures/Rotation or more camera: So... one thing i've noticed since 8.1 GDR1 and now 2 (worse). Pictures do not show up instantly in you camera roll, which means that you have to back out of the pictures app and go back in, in order to see that they actually are there. I don't know why this suddenly is an issue, especially with 630/635 (out of the box), 730/735 after GDR2. On top of this, i can sometimes delete a picture endlessly, but it will remain. The same goes for editing, sometime i can crop or edit a photo, but when i save it goes back to the original. Last but least i am having rotation issues with all my pictures. Using 6tag or Black the pictures rotate either 90 degrees left or right. It's really really embarrasing.

Pictures/software/OS/camera app issues: Whenever i enter the pictures/photos gallery/app and try to fx. select multiple pictures for deletion, it takes up to 5 seconds before you can start selecting your photos. This is all across the board for GDR2 on 730/735 and now 640. I don't see how changes in the software could have affected this so bad, But it's not good. Button for the Lumia camera doesn't rotate when used vertically. (guess they didn' have time to get that working). Furthemore there's now autocontrast fixing built in the camera, meaning you see what you wanna shoot, shoot it, but it comes out darker and once you open it, the app auto "fixes" the image. WTF is this!

Browsing: I don't know what MS did to the browser on this phone compared to even 735, 920 and before.... but scrolling around and pinch to zoom is far from smooth all the times and swype back and forth in the browser is hit or miss 24/7. Typing in the browser has also slowed down compared to any previous Lumia device i've used. I even compared it to an old Lumia 610. Believe it or not. There's lag on the 640 compared to the 610. I dot know why!

Screen: Screen is actually quite good to be honest. I like the softness of the IPS LCD compared to the oversaturated AMOLED from my former 735. But, this only goes for indoor and late night screen gazing. Outdoors is not necessarely bad, but it's just not bright enough even at highest brightness setting.

Battery: Battery seems to be on par with the 735 (and 730), 1.5-2 with heavy use it seems, but i do think that there's something different about the way this phone shows it's battery levels. It takes a long time to charge to higher procentages and it sometimes take dramatic jumps in levels, which made me feel a little bit more uneasy. It can drop 4-6% within minutes, but then around 80/70, it stays there for ever and then down. I noticed this with GDR2 on Lumia 735 aswell, but no as bad. Also i have had the 640 for little more than a day, so i can't really know if this is a real thing after calibrations etc. (use over longer time). It just feels off.

Build quality: Besides the upper right corner creeking as with the 630 and 635's, i find the build quality to be great Buttons are not too mushy and the backcovers feel really good. I personally prefer gloss, since the matt ones are to slippery and i feel that the screen to body ratio is pretty perfect. I did though find it extremely odd that MS now jumped back to Micro sim after Nano's all over the board.

Other than all of this i find this phone to be on par with all other 8.1 phones. Performance is good in most places and it's plenty capable, but there's some bugs in this guy that simply should not have made it out. Such a shame.


Overall: MS dropped the ball on this phone (literally). Soo many bugs and annoyances compared to even cheaper previous generations. I seriously do not understand how all these errors sneak in like that. I'm gonna try taking it back to the store on monday, telling them that i cannot justify the downsides of this phone (especially when it is capable on paper). To me, this phone should not be on the shelves.


>>>UPDATED<<< with this afterthought: What boggles me with all of these new phones is that, take fx the 730/735 it has the same processor Qualcomm SD 400 with the L640, but they perform differently. The camera is slow to launch on the 730/735, but fast on the 640 and that even gets all the new camera updates. (and the 640 camera is not even good) On another note, everywhere you look, to vendors with standard prices 730/735 and 830 are priced almost identical. The only difference between them being that 830 has the 10MP pureview camera and capacitive buttons instead of onscreen. (and then the design ofcourse). so with the 640 (and 640 XL) they took out wireless charging, because apparently that's expensive to add even though it's a few copper switches (the higher price is in the cover and the charger). Which just makes it all the more confusing. I bought the 640 because i assumed that the f.2.0 (28mm) couldn't be worse the the lumia 730/735's f.1,9 (26mm), despite the higher 8MP count (which i never go for). I mean.... coming with all the new updates for the Lumia Camera apps.... Yeah, so to carve it out. the 735 i had was a natural upgrade to my former Lumia 920. It was ages better. Incredible actually. But the 640. I's like they took the ****ty camera on the 635 and added a flash. I don't understand (again back to the 730/735 vs 830), why wouldn't they just carry over the Lumia 730/735 lenses, when they plan to abandon that phone anyway. Lot of consumers are gonna be very confused, i am sorry MS, but they will. Not just sorry, but extremely dissapointed. Move forward already or atleast try your own phones before you start selling them.
 
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vw1610

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So I bought this phone last week and today is the first full day of use. I parked my iPhone 6 and popped my sim in this puppy. I have to say that this phone is impressive. For 129$ it's a phenomenal deal. It literally has everything you would need. I have a 630 and always though that phone had too many comprises to be a daily driver for me so I never used it. But the 640 has cured all the problems the 630 had. Microsoft has done a great job with this thing. I'm excited for windows 10.
 

Pilgrimtozion

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As a previous owner of a Lumia 520, 635, 920, and HTC 8x, I have to say that I am quite impressed with the 640. I cannot add too much to what has already been said: the phone is fast, has great battery life, and the screen size and resolution is good.

Compared to my 635, which was a backup phone anyway: the camera has a flash!! I took some shots of the various camera's and compared them. My conclusion is not only that the flash is a welcome addition but also that the camera is significantly better than the 635. Somehow, the colors are richer, the pictures clearer. Very much happy with that. I didn't use the 635 too much but obviously, the screen quality as well as the screen size make a significant difference.

Compared to my 920, which has been my primary phone until now, I prefer my new 640. While the 640's camera is good, my 920 outshines it - I've not found any camera like it. Whereas going from my 635 to my 920 was a shock ("man that screen looks so much better!"), I don't have that same experience with the 640. Perhaps the screen is marginally better on the 920...but the 640 has a larger screen. The absence of physical back, home, and search buttons on the 640 are a welcome change - one swipe up and you make them appear. No camera button? Doesn't bother me, but it may bother some. I like the fact that my 640 has Motion Data, which my 920 didn't have. And I have a replaceable battery. And I can put in an SD card. All in all, the Lumia 640 has my preference, though the better camera, slightly better screen quality, and the more solid feel of the Lumia 920 make it a close second.

So there you have it. I like my new 640. Now to find a good case to protect it...
 

Rudy Lin

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I have been using Lumia 640 for around 2 weeks now, replacing my Lumia 620, and quite satisfied. I'm only complaining for the
1. speaker location which is on the back side (muffled sound)
2. no USB cable in the box (been using my old Lumia 620 charger instead the new one)
3. fast typing is somehow very impossible on this phone (wondering if anybody else experiencing this).
Overall, Lumia 640 is a very nice lower end phone for only Rp. 2.100.000 (around $160).
 

Broad and Market

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I replaced my Lumia Icon with the 640 and here are my thoughts so far after using this phone on Cricket for the last three weeks:

Good
Battery life beats the Icon with a stick, I'll still have ~30% left at the end of the day
Glance, I've never owned a phone with Glance before and I'm not sure I could go back
Volume, while the quality is not as good, the speakers are louder which means I miss fewer calls and texts
SD Slot, not running out of room any time soon
Double tap to wake, missed this feature on the Icon
On-Screen buttons, I've officially been converted I haven't accidentally launched Cortana since I got this phone
Holdability, because of the softer edges this phone is much more comfortable to hold

Compromises
While there is a noticeable drop in screen resolution it is not as painful as I thought it might be
Camera, definite drop in quality but daylight images are still very good

Bad
I also have the issue where the upper left corner of the back cover seems loose
Animations are choppier than they were on the Icon, although apps still open very quickly
Placement of the FFC leads to some up-nose Skyping
I didn't you Hey Cortana a lot but when you want it, you really want it.
The earpiece speaker leaves something to be desired, although it is not as tinny as the one on the 635

Verdict
The Lumia 640 would be a good buy at $180 let alone the $130 that Cricket is charging for it. I have regrets about my move and only really miss that 20 mp camera from the Icon. From a feature standpoint I find Glance and double tap to both be more useful than Hey Cortana or wireless charging. I would highly recommend this phone.
 

RK928

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My $0.02 on the 640. I couldn't wait, wanted to upgrade my Nokia 520. I have Android devices and was using an HTC One M7 Google Edition phone with Android 5.1 but the speakers on that phone, while good for music, are terrible for phone calls for some reason. After a couple of years, I never became comfortable with the "Wild West" approach of Android and the way everything doesn't ever seem to work smoothly together as a system.

I started using my wife's old Nokia 520 and really liked it. All I wanted was a phone with a screen as large as the entire face of the 520 and maybe a bit more RAM.

The 640 has 1MB of RAM, but to be honest the difference in speed is hard to notice between it and the 520. Some apps a tiny bit faster, some seem the same.

I like the 640 screen and Gorilla glass, but 2 problems bother me. First, there's a 3.5 mm wide black space on either side and a huge 15 mm black space on top or bottom. They couldn't use that for the screen?

On top of that, you have to slide up the home buttons, which then take more screen space.

So in the end, the screen doesn't seem as big as I thought and the black space all around really bugs me.

[ADDENDUM: I calculate the wasted space at 32%! The screen measures 69 x 138 mm, for 9,522 mm sq.

The vertical sides waste (3.5x138)x2=966 mm sq. and the top and bottom (15x69)x2=2070 mm sq. That's 3,036 mm sq. of wasted space, or (3036/9522)x100=31.88%.]

Other problem: the 640 is slippery as a bar of soap in a bathtub. I noticed this right away; as soon as I took the cover off to install the battery, I placed the cover on the side of the fabric chair and it slid right off. I'm going to look for some type of rubbery paint I can spray on the (orange) cover, this thing is way too slippery.

The cover seems cheap also and the speaker -- while better for phone calls than the HTC One M7 -- is pretty bad, especially if you lay the phone down while talking. Again, why didn't they use that black space for speakers top and bottom, on the front, like the HTC One?

The thinness of the 640 is good, but it just seems to me like there's a lot of wasted space here. I wish the phone was no larger than the visible screen real estate, that would be nice.

Otherwise, everything ok, once I figured out how to switch from Chinese to English on this eBay purchased (new) phone, I was able to transfer my old 520 settings in a jiffy, unlike the Android phones, which take me forever to re-download and install and set up all the apps.

UPDATE: I've been using the 640 for a few weeks now, I'm really liking it more. Couple of other things, the battery life is nearly unbelievably good. I can use the phone the same amount all day as I used to with the HTC One M7; the 640 still has 80-85% battery left at night where the HTC One I had to stop during the day to recharge it at least once! Amazing battery conservation on this thing.

The longer/taller size still bugs me a bit, especially when talking on the phone, if I have the speaker in my ear (and if you don't put it directly over your ear, the volume drops dramatically), the mic is too far away. One more reason that the blank black wasted space is ridiculous.

On the speakerphone, it's good but I do wish it had maybe a pair of better speakers.

Owning and using the 640 has got me thinking I may upgrade to a premium Lumia when the 840 or 940 or whatever comes out. I figure if I like the 640, then the 940 should be awesome!

Here's a pic showing the 640 vs. 520 vs. HTC One M7 and another showing the amount of black space around the screen on the 640.

phones.jpg

lumia-640.jpg
 
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markANTHONYgb

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Not as good as I was expecting

After a good 16 months with my Lumia 625 I felt it was time for an upgrade. The Lumia 640 seemed like the most logical option. Better specs, within my budget etc. There seemed to be a lot of hype about this device and a lot of positive reviews, so I was expecting an awesome device. So I popped into my local Carphone Warehouse today and picked me up a sim free Lumia 640 LTE, in black. I had some time to kill so I sat down in Starbucks with a Venti Hazelnut Latte and set about opening up my shiney new box of wonders.

I knew what to expect unboxing the device having watched some unboxing reviews, but it's still disappointing that the device does not come with any earphones or USB cable.
I took the phone out of the box of the box, and my first thought was: "What. The. Heck."
Because of the reviews I'd seen and read I was expecting a good sturdy phone with a premium feel. Premium is definitely not the word I'd use. The phone is very light weight (too light weight in my opinion). I thought this would improve once I'd inserted the battery. I was wrong.

The back cover seems to be very cheap plastic and frankly just horrible. I was already regretting my purchase. I'm hoping I can replace the back cover to something better.

Device setup was great, pleasantly surprised that all my existing settings, including alarms were transferred over.

The touch screen is not as sensitive as I'm used too, and there is no option (that I can find) to alter this, which is a let down, I'm often opening apps that I'm meaning to scroll past. I'm hoping with W10M there'll be a setting to alter the sensitivity. I'm not sure why a basic option like this would be left off the device.

I know this is a negative review but it's not a bad phone for the price, it's just not as good as I was expecting. Maybe I was expecting too much? It's not a whole lot cheaper than when I bought my 625, and I love the build quality and feel to that phone, and I have no issue with it's touch screen.

I guess I need to save my pennies and opt for a more expensive device .
 

Guytronic

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Few thoughts about the T-Mobile Lumia 640 after waiting to get it for so long.
Bought from the WalMart Supercenter on Antelope Rd. in Antelope CA. on June 19th.

Price $99.74 in store. (2 year protection available for $24.99)
Comes in one of those giant T-Mobile retail boxes that rips when you try and open up.
There's a $40.00 a month plan option with "unlimited" LTE data/talk/text.
Data is evidently capped at 8GB down.

The back cover is slippery/shiny white.
Thought I wouldn't like it at first, yet it feels solid and doesn't creak.

Set-up is the usual no-brainer.
I opted to start fresh with an existing T-Mobile SIM with my current plan on it.
One thing I forgot to do was hard reset the phone after turning it on for the first time.
I'll reset when the new fast uSD card for it shows up here in the next few days.

I was really hoping band 12 being enabled on this phone would help with our service "cold spot" problems here at my home.
LTE on this phone does connect somewhat better and I'm not seeing the drops to 4G as often.
There is one room in this house where other phones see no signal unless on wi-fi.
The 640 gets 2-3 bars in this location with wi-fi disabled.

So far:
I can see the screen in portrait with polarized sunglasses on (screen goes dark in landscape)
Internet sharing works very well as it did with my 925 (my main reason for buying this)
It's the right size for just about anyone I think.
Great audio thru wired or BT headphones.
Main camera is good...very capable.
Not an intimidating super phone.
Priced very low.

Surprises:
First thing I noticed after settling in with the 640 was how sharp the display is (especially with a dark background)
Better LTE signal reception with T-Mobiles poor network coverage.
Rich capture under the Lumia camera app
Sunlight screen readability is excellent.
In call voice clarity is exceptional.
Smooth scrolling on all screens.
Loud media volume level.
Shoots 1080p video.

Not many cons:
Update 2 under Denim on this phone has eliminated a few formerly common settings.
The settings menu of course has been grouped...not sure why it opens expanded.
Unable as of today to obtain the free for one year 365 subscription via the gift app.
Microsoft Camera only available on the shortcut bar.
No dedicated camera button.
Low res front camera.
Limited Glance

Good stuff for a WalMart offering.
If Microsoft ever gets their plan together they can only go up from here.

Have fun with those 640's everybody!
 

CrossedFaith

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Nov 19, 2013
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I purchased this device on Friday. Today being Monday....I don't have any complaints. I'm fresh off a 1020 and using this phone. Very good for the money. Only complaints I have are....lack of a camera button, since I'm so used to that, and the back of the phone is very slick. I'm afraid of dropping it. Though I have a case ordered, which hopefully will arrive soon.

Other than that, it's a great phone. Got mine at Walmart for $99. Using it with T-Mobile
 

Commander Will

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May 29, 2014
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Switched from 630 yesterday and it's a great improvement especially the display. Other features like glance screen, tap to wake, audio settings etc. are a very welcome. I also, like the latest windows updates with cleaner settings menu, hiding navigation bar and so forth.
 

Elitewolf

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Apr 17, 2015
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I went from a Lumia 820 to a 640 and I'm very happy for doing so. I do miss the camera button, sensitive touch, Dolby audio and the more detailed glance screen. But getting a bigger better screen, faster camera, and way better battery life make up for those missing features.
 

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