Both were introduced at Mobile World Congress in March and the XL stands for exactly what you think it does. At 5.7-inches, this is a pretty big Windows Phone.
To recap on the specs:
- Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim
- 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
- 5.7-inch 1280x720 IPS LCD display, 259 PPI
- 1GB RAM
- 8 GB storage, microSD card expansion
- 13MP rear camera with Zeiss lens
- 5MP front facing camera
- 3000mAh removable battery
- Weight: 171 g
- Size: 157.9 x 81.5 x 9 mm
The 640 XL is the spiritual successor to the Lumia 1320, but Microsoft seems to have done away with the 4-digit phone naming scheme, at least for now. But while it might be a successor, it's more than just an iteration what came before it. Design wise, from the front the XL looks like a larger Lumia 640. Understandable. From the back, though, there's a feeling of the Lumia 1520 with that slight camera hump.
The 640 XL shares most of the same internals as the Lumia 640, and as such it's not going to break the bank. The UK launch will see prices around £219 for the LTE version and that's pretty respectable for a large form factor smartphone with some of what we're getting here.
Like the camera, for example. It's a step up hardware wise from the Lumia 640, with resolution upped to 13MP and Zeiss optics included. Pair this with Lumia Camera 5 and our initial impressions are pretty good. For a cheaper phone, a camera of this quality isn't often found.
720p at 5.7-inches isn't the highest PPI around, but that's not to say the Lumia 640 XL has a bad display. Far from it. Deep blacks and bright colors make for a good viewing experience all round.
For a large phone, too, it's surprisingly comfortable to handle. The 1520, for example, feels massive (and actually is pretty massive) but the drop from 6-inches on the 1320 to 5.7-inches on the 640 XL is noticeable and welcome. You still get a big screen experience without it being quite so, well, big.
The Lumia 640 XL, like it's smaller sibling, has a removable back cover to allow access to the SIM slot, microSD slot and the 3000mAh removable battery. We're hoping for top notch battery life, but as a word of caution we should point out that we only a European 3G model being used here in the UK. Microsoft will hopefully be swapping it out for a proper, UK LTE unit at some point, so we'll have a better feel for it then.
So far, though, we're liking what we see. Bigger phones aren't for everyone, but the Lumia 640 XL looks like it strikes a good balance between design, hardware, experience and price. It'll go on sale in the UK later on this month but it's already starting to filter out into some markets around the world. We'll have a lot more on the 640 XL in the coming days including a full review, but in the meantime be sure to stop by the Windows Central forums and join the discussion!
