WinPhone Junkie

[George Novak]

Hi Everyone!

I've been lurking the board for a bit, and decided it's time to introduce myself.
I'm a 30 year IT tech living and working in Florida USA. About 8 years ago I needed a new phone and tried out a Nokia 635. It was $50 and worked much better than any Android phone. Certainly cheaper than Apple.
The 635 worked so well that I found a 640 at BestBuy for the closeout price of $35. I upgraded the 640 to Win10 and it now lives in my truck. It's perfect for tracking mileage and monitoring the ECU. It's also my backup phone, since I can move the SIM and be operation in 2 minutes.
Last year the power switch in my 635 started to flake out. Typical issue, after a while it pulls off the board and requires soldering. There is a hack using plastic shims which works for a while, but I was afraid it would die when I needed it. So I found a brand new 640XL on ebay for $65. Great phone, but dang this thing is big. I upgraded it to Win10, which may or may not be a good idea. It runs, but tends to stall if I have too many apps running. I'm still deciding if I should roll back to 8.2.
Anyways, great group here and glad to see people still use these phones. I'm not an expert in these things, but happy to give any info I have.
Cheers,
George

 

[libra89]

Welcome to Windows Central George! I love your dedication to the platform. I'm with you when it comes to size for phones. Glad to hear that the 640 XL is working for you. As you can guess, it would probably work with 8.1 a little nicer.

Please feel free to explore the forums!

 

[TechFreak1]

Welcome George!

You can find a Lumia 930 on Ebay for similiar price to the 640XL and spec for spec it is way better in terms of price per dollar.

However if you need a removable battery and msd card slot you can get the 950 for somewhat around $100 dollars - I wouldn't spend more than $130.

However the phone to get would have been the Lumia 1520 (make sure it's the 32 gig model with Qi wireless not the AT&T's gimped 16 Gig version) but as it runs Wp8.x it's not exactly future proof but in terms of hardware it's pretty damn good - Just make sure you don't flex the screen too much as people have reported of "ghost touches" due to the structural weakness near the volume keys - thus causing the screen to flex slightly.

 

[ochhanz]

If you find the 640xl too big might want to try the 950. Positives are better camera, good audio, bright oled screen and faster. Disadvantages are lower battery life (so you most likely need to replace the battery, costs ~30 bucks), can get warm and still relatively bright at lowest brightness setting. Though with the limited time of updates I would not pay much now, also about 80 bucks or 100 if the battery was replaced recently.

 

[MrockNroll]

Hi Everyone!

I've been lurking the board for a bit, and decided it's time to introduce myself.
I'm a 30 year IT tech living and working in Florida USA. About 8 years ago I needed a new phone and tried out a Nokia 635. It was $50 and worked much better than any Android phone. Certainly cheaper than Apple.
The 635 worked so well that I found a 640 at BestBuy for the closeout price of $35. I upgraded the 640 to Win10 and it now lives in my truck. It's perfect for tracking mileage and monitoring the ECU. It's also my backup phone, since I can move the SIM and be operation in 2 minutes.
Last year the power switch in my 635 started to flake out. Typical issue, after a while it pulls off the board and requires soldering. There is a hack using plastic shims which works for a while, but I was afraid it would die when I needed it. So I found a brand new 640XL on ebay for $65. Great phone, but dang this thing is big. I upgraded it to Win10, which may or may not be a good idea. It runs, but tends to stall if I have too many apps running. I'm still deciding if I should roll back to 8.2.
Anyways, great group here and glad to see people still use these phones. I'm not an expert in these things, but happy to give any info I have.
Cheers,
George

George, I too have the 640 on T-Mobile running 8.1 and its almost indestructible. I have dropped it twice on concrete only put a small ding in the plastic case. its perfect for one handed operation. I also have and really like my 940XL but you may find it a bit to large like your 640XL. Anyway welcome and keep enjoying your WP mobile while you can, hopefully a least a year and a half.

 

[Ryujingt3]

I had a 640XL (still do in fact) and I thought it was a great phone. I would have stuck with it, back then, if not for the 950XL (a very good phone) and the HP Elite X3 (even better than 950XL). I'm sure you'll enjoy it and it's good to see Windows Phone fans on here. Welcome to the forum, George!