Wow, this is a huge Windows Phone. I’ve tested the Lumia 1320 when it first came out and was amazing at the sheer size of the device, but the 640XL is the new kid on the block and it’s just as amazing. Announced back in March of 2015, the Lumia 640XL and its younger brother the Lumia 640 are both intended to grab your attention in the affordable smartphone market. The Lumia 640XL is available for purchase right now on AT&T for $0.99 on a new two year contract, or $249.99 off contract. AT&T’s Next program will allow you to snag the phone for $8.34 a month.
The 640XL features a 5.7-inch HD720 ClearBlack IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. This large device features a 13MP camera with 4x zoom and Carl Zeiss optics, and a 5MP wide angle front-facing camera for those selfies (which are not selfies if you have more than one person in the picture!). The 640XL also features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (1.2GHz Quad Core) chip, 1080p video recording, 8GB of storage space, and 1GB of RAM. The phone runs on a 3000 mAh battery.
As you can see from the image above, the big “wow” factor of the phone is the 5.7-inch display. Sitting alongside the Lumia 730 (Verizon’s new 4.7-inch Windows Phone device), the Lumia 640XL is designed beautifully and performs well for a budget-conscious smartphone. As someone who has typically owned smartphones less than 5-inches in size, learning to confidently hold the Lumia 640XL will take time and patience. I found myself nearly dropping the phone when trying to quickly pull it out of my pocket, not consciously aware of the larger size.
I personally am not a big fan of the HD720 resolution, as I feel the device could have easily been 1080p. It operates like a smaller sized Lumia smartphone on a larger body with a zoomed-in display. However, because the 640XL is designed as a large affordable Windows Phone device, it makes sense to have 720p. Stay tuned for our full hands-on review of the 640XL coming soon!
Further reading: Lumia 640, Microsoft, Windows Phone
