5 things to know about the Lumia 640 and 640 XL!

I left the days behind where I would write about every single technology news story but that does not mean the industry doesn't intrigue me. Microsoft's two new devices the Microsoft Lumia 640 and 640XL have impressed me a lot. The specifications are available on any technology website you go to today but I would like to talk about 5 things you should know about these two devices.

1. The camera

Since the acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft, Windows phone devices have lost the Carl Zeiss lenses that were very popular on windows phones built under the Nokia brand. 8MP does not seem like much but the f/2.2 aperture on the lumia 640 makes photography as usual a dream on windows phone devices. The aperture value tells us the width of the lenses which is directly proportional to the amount of light the lens can take in. The lower the aperture rating the wider the camera lens and hence more amount of light can enter the lens. In comparison, the iPhone 6 also has the same f/2.2 aperture rating and we all know the image quality of the iPhone. The more expensive Lumia 640XL has an f/2.0 aperture and a 13MP sensor which makes sense on the more expensive offering. Windows phone devices are supposed to have a good camera by default which is exactly what Microsoft has delivered with their newest budget oriented devices. The presence of a flash only enhances the optics on these cameras. 

2. Windows 8.1 denim 2

The most advanced version of windows 8.1 comes out of the box on both the Lumia 640 and 640XL. For indians, Cortana is much more improved. The denim 1 update had Cortana in the alpha version making it less accurate for detecting the indian vocabulary. Apart from this the settings app has been divided into categories and a search feature has been added in the settings menu to make it easier to find what you want. Talking about the windows OS in general, I have used it on a Lumia 630 and I must say Microsoft has done a very good job with the OS. It has the capabilities to run on very low system resources. The 630 has a snapdragon 400 with 512MB of RAM and there wasn't a lot of stuttering. If there was then the only reason was the RAM. This problem has been fixed with these new devices as they come with 1 GB of RAM.

3. The Display

Finally Microsoft has given people what they have always asked for, a budget device with a 720p display. Its not as good as 1080p but previously for a 720p display you had to spend at least more  than Rs 15K but the Lumia 640 comes at an affordable price of Rs 10K and the XL comes at around 15K because it has a bigger screen. I would consider these two offerings from Microsoft as their best devices yet in their price brackets. 

4. Construction

Lumia 640XL

Its pretty typical that Microsoft devices will have the same polycarbonate back shell and the same is true for the two devices. Polycarbonate in general feels cheap but a matt finish on these phones make these devices feel more premium. There is no metal reinforcing like the iPhone 5C but the back shells are replaceable increasing the customising options. Gorilla glass 3 on the front makes the display durable enough to take a light fall but don't go banging this phone up because glass is never immortal. It does break under extreme pressure. The phone's body us held by screws which means it should be easy to open and fix. This helps a lot in the maintenance of the phone in-case there are problems.

5. Freebies

With the 640XL Microsoft is offering a one year subscription to Office 365 worth Rs 3,299 which will allow you to make documents and save them in the cloud. These files can then be accessed on any device that is logged in with the same Microsoft account. Both the 640 and 640XL will give you 1TB of free storage on One drive which is Microsoft's cloud storage solution. Its safe to say this is a pretty sweet deal since buying cloud storage can be expensive. Unfortunately the unlimited download subscription on Mixradio that all windows phone users love won't be available any more. Apart from this the 640XL will have headphones in the box where as the 640 will not. 

I think these two devices have incredible potential to the point that I could even categorise these devices under the best that windows phone has had to offer in its entire history. Unfortunately the main reason why Windows phone doesn't get as much attention is the lack of apps. This problem is getting fixed rapidly as more and more developers are getting on board to make apps for the growing platform. Indian consumers have a keen interest in the windows phone platform because of its budget oriented nature. I would recommend these phones to anybody whose looking for a windows phone. 

Thanks for reading!