The Microsoft Lumia 640 XL has a large 5.7-inch 720p display, which is easy to see in bright light, was responsive, providing easy access to all main functions and programmable shortcuts. You can double tap the display to wake up the screen. The Windows Phone interface provides straightforward, yet flexible access to most functions via two panels. One is a Start Screen with a scrolling interface of resizable Live Tiles, which are animated app icons that can display real-time updates from social network feeds, news, appointments, and other sources. The other is a simple alphabetical list of the apps on your phone. You can pin any app in this listing to the Start Screen, if it's not already there. The simple fonts and dark backgrounds provide a clear and distinctive presentation of e-mails, calendars, and other phone content. You can easily change most Live Tiles to one of three sizes: a full-screen-width rectangle, a half-screen square, or a tiny quarter-screen. And you can change their color palette. You can also create folders to organize apps. People Hub puts all of your contacts and social-network updates in one place. It also lets you send updates to several social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, at the same time. And it allows you to arrange contacts into smaller groups, like "Family Room (the default setting)," or "Work Friends," enabling you to share messages, social-network updates, and pictures just with them. Its Kids Corner feature lets you create a home screen of selected apps, games, and other preferred goodies so your kids can use your phone.
The multi-touch screen lets you zoom in and out of photos or Web pages using two fingers (for instance, your thumb and index finger). In addition to the touch-screen support, three keys provide the core navigation controls. There's a back key for backing out of applications, a start key for returning you to the home screen, and a search button key that launches the Bing search box or Cortana. Cortana, the voice-activated assistant, can perform searches, launch apps, make calls, schedule meetings, and more, on your command. Cortana will either speak her answers to you or show what she thinks are relevant results from a Bing search. The Action center is a pull-down notifications bar that lets you see and access various phone features, such as settings, the camera, etc. without having to unlock the phone screen. But holding the phone while on a call or performing other one-handed operations is difficult on this slab, which measures a seam-busting 6.2 by 3.2 by 0.4 inches and weighs 6.1 ounces. And you can't shrink the dial pad or keyboard enough or slide them to either side of the phone's screen to bring them closer to your thumbs in portrait mode, unlike other phones we've seen.
The Lumia 640 XL supports Near Field Communication (NFC), a short-range wireless communication technology that allows the phone to read "smart" tags, or other items that have NFC capability in them. Though the technology is not yet widely deployed for mobile phone users, it could ultimately allow you to pay by phone at the register. The Lumia 640 XL supports a "4G" networks (LTE and HSPA+), allowing fast streaming, downloading, and uploading of high-definition videos and other large files. The fast network also facilitates better Web browsing experiences. The WiFi connection provides another way to access the Web, e-mail, and other Internet-based content, without using your data plan allowance.
MESSAGING: The virtual keyboard was very easy to use. It supports a method that allows users to type words without lifting a finger-literally. You enter a word by dragging your finger across the screen from letter to letter. Though it's initially awkward to use, we eventually had a lot of success "typing" quickly and accurately. Its advanced voice command feature supports text fields, allowing you to dictate text messages, search the Web, open apps, and other normally typed forms of communication. Excellent e-mail readability and attachment capabilities. This phone allows you to create and edit Word documents and Excel spreadsheets out of the box, which can come in handy when working on the go. The Lumia 640 XL also supports Microsoft Exchange and Outlook for work e-mail. When connected to Windows or Macintosh computers, this phone can appear on the computer as another drive. You can then transfer data to and from your phone as you could on a regular drive. But it doesn't have preset text messages, nor does it allow you to create custom presets.
PHONE: We tested this phone under a variety of conditions to simulate environments ranging from the quiet indoors to noisy roadsides. We found voice quality was good when talking and listening. Talk time was an ample 18 hours. This phone has a very good mixture of controls and features for making and taking calls. Excellent keypad readability under most lighting conditions, even in bright light.
Its voice command allows you to conveniently dial numbers from your phone book by speaking the name, without the usual training. You can also dial numbers by pronouncing the digits. It has Bluetooth for wireless hands-free voice communication. This model can simultaneously be on a phone call and an Internet-based connection over the cellular network. It can also be used internationally. But the ringer is not easy to mute. Auto answer doesn't work with headset.
MULTIMEDIA: The 13-megapixel camera has a short shutter lag, and produced good-quality pictures at ISO settings up to 800. It also did very well under low-light conditions. The camera has a flash, autofocus, face detection, manual ISO settings, and can record HD video. The touch focus feature lets you override the autofocus by tapping on any subject on the screen. The camera's flash and ISO-setting controls help improve your chances of taking better pictures under low-light conditions. The phone's camera supports some useful-and fun-apps called Lenses, which allow you to embellish photos and videos in various ways. The camera took decent 1080p video, probably adequate for casual use such as uploading to the Web. The front-facing, high-resolution 5-megapixel camera allows easy self-portraits, and can support video chats. It can also record at 1080p.
The music player has the capabilities and controls of a typical stand-alone MP3 player, including an equalizer, music shuffle and repeat controls, and options for sorting music by album, artist, etc. The Lumia 640 XL comes preloaded with Xbox, which lets you play games with your friends and use your avatar and gamer profile to keep track of game scores and achievements online through the Games hub. This model also supports Bluetooth stereo headsets, has an FM radio, and can download music over the phone network. Its Bluetooth data support enables the phone to wirelessly share pictures, contacts, and other files with compatible printers, computers, and mobile devices.
GPS navigation capability provides spoken turn-by-turn directions and automatic re-routing. The Lumia 640 XL supports the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standard. This lets the phone connect via WiFi to share content with other compatible certified devices such as a TV. The Lumia 640 XL can act as a mobile hotspot for up to eight WiFi-enabled devices. It has 8GB of built-in memory, and supports memory cards of up to 128GB. Its memory capacity is beneficial for storing music, videos, pictures, and other types of files. But the memory card is hard to access.
