BARCELONA: Microsoft introduced two new Lumia phones that can best be described as modest upgrades for the budget conscious. The Lumia 640 and the Lumia 640 XL offer respectable if unexciting features, as well as some potentially attractive extras.
The phones will be upgradeable to the mobile version of Windows 10 when the operating system is released by Microsoft in the latter part of 2015. Both models can be used to test the mobile OS preview once they are available for purchase.
“Our newest Lumia devices build on our momentum in the affordable smart phones space,” said Jo Harlow, corporate vice president for Phones at Microsoft. “With the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL, we continue to make innovation accessible to more people. We have packaged competitive hardware with innovative Windows software and Microsoft services to help you achieve more, wherever and whenever you want.”
The Lumia 640, the smaller of the two phones, has a 5 inch 1280×720 Gorilla Glass 3 screen and like its bigger brother, a polycarbonate case with rounded edges.
The 640 comes equipped with a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm 400 (Snapdragon) quad-core processor, with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of on-board storage. The phone’s cameras, often considered a weak point in earlier Lumia models, have been upgraded to an 8 megapixel lens with LED flash in the back and a 1 megapixel wide angle lens facing the user.
The lower end phone will be available in two flavours a 3G model which will retail for approximately $140, and a 4G that will cost about $160.
In terms of hardware, there are not a lot of significant differences between the 640 and the 640 XL; the most obvious distinction is that the larger “phablet” comes with a 5.7 inch screen that sports the same 1280×720 resolution.
Under the hood, the 640 XL boasts two higher resolution cameras: a 13 megapixel rear facing lens that features Carl Zeiss optics, while the “selfie cam” gets bumped up to 5 megapixels. As with the Lumia 640, the XL will be sold in both 3G models.
