China set to receive a more powerful variant of Microsoft's Lumia 640 XL

China is set to receive a more powerful version of Microsoft's Lumia 640 XL, according to regulation body Teena. The handset has a large 5.7-inch display and will be updated to Windows 10 (for phones) when available. Simply put, it's quite the mid-range smartphone, but we're looking at some considerable improvements for the Chinese version.
The regulatory body has published specifications of a special variant of a device that looks like the Lumia 640 XL, but this RM-1096 listing sports not only a 2.2GHz quad-core processor (up from 1.2GHz found inside the 640 XL), but a whopping 2GB of RAM. Other than those two changes, the remains are identical to the Lumia 640 XL announced at MWC 2015. Still, that's quite the upgrade.
It'll be interesting to see whether this device will still bear the 640 XL branding when launched in China, and if the price tag will be raised to reflect the considerable specifications upgrade. We hope we'll see something outside of the region too.
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Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.
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XXL?
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XL+ or XLS
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645XL
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any more information about that plz ???!!!
i gogled about any news more but nothing appeared !
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That's why I love China不错不错
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China sucks
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Interesting theory.
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can anyone tell me more details about this phone
name plz . where is it available ? price how can i order ir online to Egypt ? thanks in advanced -
Lol
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Microsoft Lumia 640+, Microsoft Lumia 640 XL+
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That's unfair -_-
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Same as lumia 920T. But at that time it made some sense, now, i really see no sense. Why don't just buy a 1520??? Msft is driving us crazy with all that variants, they should just do a 4xx line, 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, 8xx, 9xx and 10xx. From super low end to flagship. Model variants with xx5, and generation jump with +x1x. For me, I'd use xx5 to do bigscreen or small screen for all variants maintaining res. I'm missing for example a small flagship phone. 930 is still big.
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Variants and confusion is Nokia's legacy since the 90s. Microsoft is just continuing tradition.
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Yeah I see... Maybe offtopic, but Id see a 3d variant again. Don't know why 3d phones died, they were so cool
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"Why not just buy a 1520?" In a word: Price. This device will obviously be much cheaper than a 1520 and has the potential to crush the competition in its price range. This might be exactly what Microsoft needs to break into the Chinese market.
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Sadly, I don't think it will be. The 1320 was around 2000rmb last spring when I bought mine. The 1520 is now down to under 2500rmb, and this will be at least 1500rmb. I think they bump the specs up to try and help justify the price, because right now their are a lot of 5.5-6inch android phones with similar specs for under 1500rmb available here. I think the 1320 was down to around 1400rmb but I haven't seen it for sale in awhile. I see a lot of Lumia's here though, almost as many as Xiaomi. I would never guess Xiaomi is as popular as it is. Huawei and Meizu seeem much more common.
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As a US VZW user, MS is not driving me crazy with tons of variants. Not at all....
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Now that was funny!
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I think streamlining it to 3-4 devices would be a good idea.
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I think designating bigger phones as the XL version of a smaller phone with similar specs is genius. Narrows the model numbers down, while easily communicating the differences to consumers.
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Reminds me of how the HTC one M7 had no SD card slot, then got a Chinese variant with the slot. As for the beefed up 640XL... wouldn't be the first time I've imported.
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Yeah... I have an imported Lumia 1520 RM-937 myself. The only useful LTE band it supports in North America is band 7. Thankfully I'm in Canada and that band is in use here. In the U.S. it's not in use (yet... if Sprint sells off EBS spectrum, as had been speculated, another carrier could refarm it as BRS band 7 LTE). It'll be interesting to see whether it's dual-SIM. Is that a common and popular feature in China?
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Its not that useful there's only a few small areas that band 7 covers & those have band 4 as well which is plentiful. Still cant wrap my head around people who import the rm-1045 instead of the rm-927(which has the bands needed for lte - A but guessing untill vzw fully deploys this they wont enable it)
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I live in a suburban area in a relatively small city in Canada and I have band 7 almost everywhere I go. The 1520 RM-937 doesn't support band 4, so I'm not sure of the relevance of your comment on that. Band 7 is used for extra capacity... meaning it's commonly found in the places where lots of people spend lots of time. So noting that it's geographically limited missed the point, IMO. And Rogers has deployed band 7 aggressively in Canada anyway.
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this happened lots, Microsoft China has different decision, they want things to get better, like Lumia 636 & 638, Lumia 630 & 635 with 1GB RAM
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Is it better, though? Is it still dual-SIM? Does it support as many LTE bands as the global variant, or have they supported only bands relevant in China? Has the battery life suffered significantly due to higher specs? This had the potential to be better, but its not necessarily better overall. I rarely use the horsepower of my 1520, but bear the extra cost of the device and the hit to battery life either way.
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The 636 and 638 were better for China. I couldn't care less what LTE bands it supports outside of China - hardly any phones support China Mobile's LTE network, I had to switch because i was sick of being stuck on 2G with my 1320 and 930. The 635 was offered here along side the 636 and 638, most Lumia's are sold with China Unicom branding but the 636 was China Telecom and 638 China Mobile.
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i want to import this phone for me to egypt . but no further information found . anyone tell me about name in china , price and online store can chip it to egypt plz
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China has become the biggest smartphone market and Chinese oems are thrashing giants like Samsung. Microsoft has lost very badly in smartphone battle in china with wp only having 0.8% market share (and still an optimistic estimate). If Microsoft doesn't do something to survive in china market, it's very hard for wp to succeed.
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Snapdragon 400 @ 2.2GHz?
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It could be the 800
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If it has SD800, this will be totally unfair. Even more unfair is the price is similar with the rest features preserved. This could even become a true L820 successor (top CPU in middle specced device).
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Most probably it will be Snapdragon 600/615.
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Those are 1.9 GHz.
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Unlikely. A7's aren't usually made to clock that high. It's probably an 8xx old variant. Or maybe a mediatek chip or something but that's less likely. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
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100% sure it's not mediatek and 90% sure it's SD800. No point in optimizing the OS for something else when you can just toss in the SD800+2GB combo from 930/1520
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SD800 Fr sure
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Isn't it possible that the regulator made a mistake on the spec list? That's happened before, I believe.
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I'm thinking the same thing. If this has a SD 800, that will kill Lumia 830 sales here.
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Booo..
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Microsoft in a nutshell.. more fragementation please
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As compared to Google? MUCH better. ;)
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We have the vast fragmentation already between the same OEM - Microsoft.
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fragmentation refers to software, not hardware. unless these variants mean that the phones can't run the same software, it's not fragmantation. there is fragmentation caused by the carriers not pushing updates to phones and between the 520mb phones and the 1gb+ phones. this isn't an example of fragmentation unless we start getting apps that require 2gb of ram.
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Interesting i wonder would we be able to get that unlocked and use it in the US?
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For 3G, almost certainly. As for LTE? That depends. In North America, the Asian variant of the Lumia 1520 only supported LTE in Canada. Canada supports the only international band, band 7. In the U.S., Sprint owns what could otherwise be the global band 7. But Sprint rolled it out as a little used band (band 41). Anyway, it depends what bands this device supports, unless you're happy with 3G-only.
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735 xl or 740 xl
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I am with you. i will buy one of them & really curious to knows what MS can change from nokia version (735) i am really waitting with my money.
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What bribery have the Chinese government done this time to get MS too add more to their new hero phones?
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it's to counter the cheap chinesr brands. nobody would buy a SD400 + 1GB ram combo for that price there when Xiaomi puts out those super cheap SD801 + 3GB ram phones
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I would if I realized xiaomi products are shit and even have android installed... I guess it has more to do with politics than with competition
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I agree with you!
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Xiaomi products are not shit. The UI looks 10x better than any other Android UI too. I still prefer WP but if you're going to knock Xiaomi like that you are living in a dream world.
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Ya. I have seen the specs of the Xiaomi Mi 4. Aside from not having a memory card slot (but hey there is a 64GB internal memory wth), it is a good phone. And it is rumored to test Windows 10.
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Chinese governments banned the use of windows, how could they collaborate with Microsoft? And, if there is any bribery, it would be Microsoft giving bribery to Chinese government for green light on promoting windows. Your assumption is so wrong
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Your right, MS should keep giving free money to China.
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It would be nice if they could offer this in select markets
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LOL the Chinese version slaughters the affordable flagship 830. MS better learn about hardware specs and not fail again with the new W10 phones.
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It's China. It's not like you are going to see it in your local best buy. 99.99 percent of Windows phone users won't know it exists. Also, I'd still buy the 830. It's the complete package. Could have went with the 930, but the 830 is great for me, for now.
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It's not dual-SIM, sadly. A great phone otherwise. :-)
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I wanted the 830 looks vs my 930, but like the 930s hardware, miss SD aand battery but I still have 16gb free so no big. I hope the 940 is 5.2in 2gb or 4gb, Intel soc x86, 25mp snapper and docking support.
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We don't have Best Buy but we do have a billion other stores to go phone shopping and they're way better than anything you can get in America. Like Sam said though, other than better build quality I'm not sure what the 830 will have over this phone, and they'll both be around 1500rmb. I don't think the 830 has a better camera, maybe a better screen.
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We are in India wouldn't mind a 2 GB RAM phone as well -_-
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Did you do it or an I just seeing things?
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You shouldn't bother abt RAM, but about the processing speed. Everyone knows how WP runs smoothly even on low RAM
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Nd don't worry, India will get it someday. (Just like Lumia 638)
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Unfair! It'd be globally
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It's because companies like Xiaomi base their phones on specifications. Microsoft can't compete with their absurdly low price tags.
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Here every second Indian, who is new to smartphone has Xiaomi in his/her hands.Pretty pathetic phone with useless service!
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Maybe they're just talking about another device, we don't need to assume that China gets exclusive phones now.
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It's the 640 XL. Look a at the sources
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That phone is on steroids for China
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But the screen resolution remains 720p?
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Yeah
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That kind of strategy is definitely going to kill Microsoft Mobile now.
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Lord, China. Please stop. Placating the beast only makes it stronger. And hasn't China been a pain in Microsoft's side? Seriously people, china steals your product, attacks your businesses and pirates your proprietary secrets.
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And what do you do? Placate and appease. Grow a pair and give china the business it deserves..nothing.
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Don't come back mad when that communistic regime freezes you out of it's market to push your designs and your secrets, as it's own. I mean seriously... grow a pair. -
One of the biggest countries... Do you even brain?
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Nice English you chinktard...
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Reminds of the "Michealsoft Binbows" meme
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You do know that going from 1% marketshare to 5 % marketshare in China almost would triple windows phone marketshare globally ;-) Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
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You realize that not doing business with China wouldn't change the software piracy at all right? If some people are going to buy it its better than none.
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talking without brain
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Demand is there in the Indian market, but Microsoft's negative thinking is eating its market share.
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Now that's high end, maybe XL+
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Made for the chinaman, by the chinaman.
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WTF ?? Why can't they just make all devices available everywhere ??
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How about pushing some Lumina variant out to Verizon?
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Lumia. Lumina is a crappy car.
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Yeah... Another variant. And why not?... There aren't enough versions and variants of the Lumia phones yet. Confusing the public/customer is Stephen Elop's way of thinking. Unbelievable.
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Using XL to designate the larger version of an otherwise similar phone helps simplify. Yes this Chinese-specific variant muddies the water a bit, but its still clearer than 520 vs. 525 ever was. I think they're headed in the right direction.
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People who want a high-end phone... You got it
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WTF?
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Why not everywhere? Fail.
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Who says it's not coming elsewhere? Or just import. Yes it'd be nice for every product to be released everywhere, but it's not realistic.
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XXL
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Do windows phone really need 2.2 GHZ of processor and 2GB of RAM?? May be useful for win10 (If it takes more RAM to run the OS), not sure until public release So apart from some really high end games and heavy multitasking, Is this hardware upgrade essential for win phone? In other words, Our usage gonna utilise it's full capacity? As of now, - no such high end games found on store that really need this hardware spec -not needed for win 8.1. - multitasking is super smooth with current lumia hardware specs (even low end) 640XL do not have rich camera. so no 2k recording or 2k playback. Therefore 640xl with this hardware upgrade really make sense? What you people's thought about this??
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Not to mention it'll reduce battery life, so have they also beefed up the battery?
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This phone doesn't need it. But, for same money in China you can probably buy a ton of cheap local phones with quadcores and 2-3 gb of RAM and cheap, poor build quality. That's the key of success of new, small, chinese OEMs, good specs (at least on paper) and poor quality, low cost of manufacture. People go for specs as that matters in Android world a lot. If MSFT wants to compete, they must do something like this.
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I wonder, will it be possible for us in the USA to buy it somehow, have it shipped here, and use it on our networks like T-Mobile, Verizon, etc.?
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Maybe. Expansys, Omegacell, B&H, and others import devices. So it'll come down to what frequencies this phone supports.
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Not really seeing why there's so much fuss over these phones, don't seem to be anything special. If this was their standard spec then they'd be interesting.
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Loved they would also release in India.
Dream come true. -
Will it be available in Chinatown? Bad joke , I know
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Lewl
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This must have been the international variant ....
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Wow awesome, another reason to hate on china. :|
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What about India
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I want dis phone. Rogers\Microsoft bring it to Canada. My flag ship 920 needs a update and I want bigger and better and this 645xl with ram and chip upgrade will do fine ;)
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Hope HTC comes with Windows10 flagship in INDIA!
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Yeah, would love to see the desire 8xx & 6xx series runing windows 10.
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Microsoft should drop all the lower end to middle devices that don't have a front facing camera and at least 1GB of ram. 2GB of memory is hardly ground breaking and CPU clocked speeds of 2.2 GHZ is so common in Android as to make all WP Devices look pathetic. I'm writing this from my little HTC 8s A620e running WP 8.1 update. The only device available from MICROSOFT here in Australia with decent under the bonnet specs comparable to Android is the 930. MICROSOFT should drop all this plethora of unsuitable devices and concentrate on only providing updated devices perhaps 2 at the entry level ( dual sim) 2 at the middle level ( all 4G Lte capable together with expandable memory) and finally at the top end something akin to the 930 together with something like the HTC M8 WP but with full WP construction. The average person finds the numbered Microsoft range confusing something Nokia started and which MICROSOFT SHOULD HAVE STOPPED long ago. PS. The HTC M8 windows phone is unavailable outside the USA.
Regards' from Downunder -
Using XL to denote the phablet version of an otherwise similar phone soes simplify the range. As for devices, I just import if need be. I'm in Canada, but bought an imported Mexican Lumia 1520 as it supports all the right frequencies.
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It is required or it won't sell. Chinese are spoiled by Android specs
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Its probably so the Chinese government can install spying software and the end user wont notice a performance decrease.
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Kind of like the US government and all those laptops and hard drives they installed software on?
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I was planning to buy the 640XL, but now I will wait. This is just like AT&T messing up the 1520 when it was released to the US.
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Yeah, like the 640 XL should prob have 16gb internal just because of the 13mp photos and 5mp selfies it takes. I don't understand any phone having only 8gb of internal storage space. I plan on getting the 640 XL, so I'm automatically gonna need at least a class 10 32gb SD Ultra or Extreme for my apps to run smoothly.
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Still no qi charging
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Microsoft do love Chinese customers more than all the other ones. Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
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booooo. why does ms hate americans so much?
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this varient looks great but same time it will drain battery more as compare to standard xl version!
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1080p display?
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Ya waste of ram
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wow what a config!
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Release same in India