Earlier today at the MWC show floor in Barcelona, Microsoft unveiled a number of new mid-rage devices, the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640XL. They are basically the successors to the Lumia 63x line up — what Microsoft did is they got rid of the flaws of both the Lumia 630 and 635, and offered a more robust set of specifications and features at an attractive price tag. To be honest, Lumia 640 is something the Lumia 630/635 should have been in the first place.
This doesn’t mean the Lumia 630/635 weren’t good, they were (and still are) but not without their own set of setbacks. Nonetheless, they are pretty capable, and still offers a decent performance. Here’s a quick comparison of the Lumia 630/635 with the newly announced Lumia 640 and 640 XL.
Just take a closer look at the table above, and you’ll notice a significant change being made to the newly announced Lumia 640 and the Lumia 640XL in almost every department. Starting off with the display, Lumia 640 boasts a 5-inch HD display while the Lumia 640 XL takes a phablet form factor with a 5.7-inch HD display compared to the mediocre 4.5-inch display on the Lumia 63x line up. In simple words, we can even call the Lumia 640 XL a successor to the Lumia 1320, but with a slightly smaller display.
The RAM on both devices are bumped to 1GB as well, it seems Microsoft may have finally realized to stop producing handsets with 512MB of RAM. Windows Phone runs quite smooth on low-end devices with low RAM, but the main issue comes with the apps, some high-profile apps don’t work with devices equipped with 512MB — the issue was taken care of even in the Lumia 532 and 435.
Another important aspect change are the photographic capabilities of both devices. The Lumia 630/635 both came with a 5MP sensor for photos and videos, and to make things even worse, there was no front-facing camera. However, Microsoft isn’t making that mistake with the Lumia 640 and 640 XL. The camera on the Lumia 640 is bumped to 8MP with a f/2.2 aperture, while the Lumia 640 XL boasts a better unit — it comes with a 13MP rear shooter with an aperture of f/2.0.
Additionally, there’s a 0.9 MP and 5MP front-facing camera, respectively, on the devices as well. Furthermore, both devices are also equipped with the new Lumia Camera 5.0 app for better imaging features — not the 4K video recording, its for the high-end Lumia line up.
As far as the operating system is concerned, both devices ship with Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim. Microsoft also confirmed both devices are Windows 10 ready so as soon as the company’s next big operating system is ready for primetime, you can rest assured that Lumia 640 and 640 XL will get it.
It gets even better, both devices come with considerable bump in the battery capacity — Lumia 640 has a 2,500mAh unit while the Lumia 640 XL has a 3,000mAh battery compared to a 1,830mAh battery in the Lumia 630/635.
As far as the availability and pricing is concerned, Lumia 640 XL will launch later this month in several markets carrying a EUR 189 for the 3G models and EUR 219 for the LTE model. On the other hand, it little sibling will launch next month globally with an estimate price of EUR 139 for the 3G model and EUR 159 for the LTE model.
