The Microsoft Lumia 640 Review
by Brandon Chester on June 9, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Lumia
- windows phone 8
Camera Architecture
Due to the more closed nature of Windows Phone, I can’t do much poking around to find detailed information on the cameras in the Lumia 640. The information that I have been able to collect is organized in the chart below. The main omission is the sensor manufacturer, which I would suspect is Omnivison or Toshiba, but I can’t say for sure exactly what it is.
| Microsoft Lumia 640 Cameras | ||||
| Front Camera - Resolution | 0.9MP (1280x720) | |||
| Front Camera - Focal Length | 1.5mm (30mm eff) | |||
| Front Camera - Aperture | F/2.4 | |||
| Rear Camera - Resolution | 8MP (3264x2448) | |||
| Rear Camera - Sensor Size | 1/4", 1.12µm pixels | |||
| Rear Camera - Focal Length | 3.0mm (28mm eff) | |||
| Rear Camera - Aperture | F/2.0 | |||
On paper, the Lumia 640’s camera hardware is better than a lot of other devices at this price point. I recently reviewed the 2015 Moto E, and on paper the Lumia 640 has higher resolution cameras with larger sensors on the front and back, and the front camera has a significantly wider aperture. While the specifications of the camera sensor and lens aperture hardly tell the whole story when it comes to image quality, they definitely put the Lumia 640 in a better position when it comes to sharpness and low light performance.
The focus time on the Lumia 640 sits right in the middle of our comparison results. It’s slightly faster than many other devices that don’t have PDAF or laser based autofocus, but it’s not as fast as phones like the Nexus 6, and not near as fast as the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 with their PDAF. Shot latency is also right around the middle, and while there is a tiny bit of a delay between shots, I never felt like I was kept waiting for an unreasonable time when trying to take several photos quickly.
Camera UX
A device’s camera application has a big impact on the user’s experience when taking photos or shooting video. If the camera preview is cropped or badly scaled then it’s difficult for the user to gauge what their photos will look like. A high resolution preview and an accurate aspect ratio are necessary to frame and compose photos properly. For quite some time I’ve heard great praise for the Lumia camera application interface and the manual controls that it offers, so I was excited to have a chance to try it in depth.
Upon first opening the Lumia Camera app, I felt like the interface was fairly organized and well laid out. It was immediately obvious that tapping the right-facing arrow in the menu at the top would reveal more controls, and that hitting the gear in the upper right would show me options. Having a button to instantly record video is also very handy. The camera preview would definitely be improved if it were higher resolution, but this is mostly a limitation of the ISP so there's not much that can be done.
Once I started trying to use the manual controls I was very happy that the app uses what is basically a dial interface to make adjustments. It reminds me a lot of the control dials on a real camera, which is a good design decision, as anyone interested in these controls probably has prior experience with photography.
Unfortunately, I very quickly ran into a number of issues with the manual controls on the Lumia 640. The first problem was that I seemingly could only adjust one option at a time. While this is a common limitation of smartphone camera interfaces, it was very annoying because you had to continually move your thumb between the control wheel and the menu at the top. This is a much less ergonomic and more time consuming method of adjustment than something like ASUS’s camera interface where the menu for selecting each control and the menu for performing adjustments are beside each other.
After asking people who were more familiar with Windows Phone, I was told that you can pull outwards on the shutter button to bring up every control at once. I have two issues with this gesture. The first is that it’s not obvious at all. The only way I was able to find it was because I was told by another person, and that alone is a pretty massive design failure. My other issue is that it doesn’t directly solve my problem. I want the settings and the menu for adjusting them to be adjacent, not a giant menu of controls covering up the camera preview.
The fact that you wouldn’t be able to see the changes you’re making reflected in the preview because it’s covered by semi-opaque menus would be a big issue if it weren’t for an even bigger problem with the Lumia Camera application. The biggest issue of all is that camera preview does not change to reflect adjustments to ISO and shutter speed. At first, I had assumed my device was suffering from a bug, but after doing some troubleshooting I asked our editor Brett Howse to confirm that his Windows Phones behaved the same way. When he confirmed that they did I really didn’t know what to say. Having manual camera controls that aren’t reflected in the camera preview makes them essentially unusable. While changes to white balance, brightness, and focus do show up in the preview, your adjustments to ISO and shutter speed do not. This means that you have no visual idea of what the exposure of your photo is going to be.
I wasn’t near as impressed with the Lumia Camera application as I had expected to be based on what I had heard about how camera-centric Lumia devices are. While the interface for auto mode is fine, it’s basically impossible to mess that up unless you're trying to. The manual controls aren’t implemented in a very obvious and accessible manner, and the most important ones require you to just pray that the exposure meter is accurate, which ruins the entire concept of having full control over how your photos turn out.
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BabelHuber - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
It depends on the software you use - nobody forces you to use the software the phone shipped with. For teh SGS4, I prefer AOSP-based ROMs or GPE-versions.Margalus - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
oh, and I am not ms propaganda. The phone wasn't bloated. Brand new out of the store with no apps it wouldn't last more than a day. The person at the store even told me that I would have to charge it every day. I also bought a replacement battery to use since it died so fast, that replacement battery works exactly the same as the stock battery. Barely 24 hours.BabelHuber - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
You claimed your WP-phone lasts 5-8 times longer than your Android phone, didn't you? Perhaps this was slightly exagerated?But be it as it may, when I have battery problems I actually tend to install a tool to analyze things. Then I can deinstall or freeze the app which causes the problem or block its wakelocks. Problem solved.
Some other people may prefer to whine because of their low battery runtime instead, to each its own.
leexgx - Friday, June 12, 2015 - link
most avg for battery life is a Nearly a working day for most smartphones (8-12 hours)(if you turn off mobile data 3 days is easy maybe even 5 if you can get your phone to use 2G only) and Most people do not AOSP ROM there phone
we - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
Two things I cannot confirm (using a fully updated HTC 8X). 1. Action center always flows smoothly. Never had any stuttering or freezing. 2. Generally Scrolling speed is proportional to swipe speed. I can scroll from top to bottom of the "Windows Phone" page of this review within 5 seconds if I swipe quickly, or 15 seconds if I swipe slowly. Top scrolling speed could be faster though.Zizy - Thursday, June 11, 2015 - link
Currently using lowly HTC 8s which was the worst WP8 phone till 435, no issues with action center - no delay or freeze. It has somewhat strange/unexpected opening, because it can be fully opened or just enough to play with those 4 buttons and or go in settings. I never had enough unattended notifications to be able to test scrolling there.Camera - This isn't a proper camera with viewfinder or at least tiltable display. Ever tried underexposing something under bright sun? You wouldn't be able to see anything on the screen. But it would be good to have some notification to tell how many stops below the preview the image is going to end. If you are serious enough about manual stuff this should be enough to know how will the image turn out :)
As for idle battery drain - try activating battery saver and see the power draw then, plus check which apps drain the battery. If it is the same, probably screen, something failed to close / is intentionally running in the background or some other hardware/software bug. Shouldn't happen but does. Manually closing apps usually resolves the problem.
If battery saver does help, play with sync settings for mail and similar. For me, syncing mails as they arrive instead of manually every now and then drops battery life from 3-4 days to 1-2 (light use - no demanding games). If you get tons of mail it will be even worse.
Harry_Wild - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
I just purchased an international version of the 735 and I love it for $300. It is unlocked. I purchased a cyan battery cover too. It feels like a iPhone 6 with a case on it! Same thinnest! The 400 is slow in some operations; but overall it pretty good overall. I switch to the iPhone 6 and back from day to day since they use the same nano SIMs card inside. My iPhone cost $900 so performance is quite a bit faster on everything. But still I like the change of environments. The WP does not have all the apps that I use so most case I pin the webpage and create an icon tile as a substitute. It works for a lot of Apple apps except for Apple Pay and Starbuck's Pay.SirPerro - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
I'm just amazed at how people can deny the reality in front of them.This phone has a better camera/screen than a Moto E and it is MUCH worse in every other regard. The app selection and quality of the apps is orders of magnitude worse. The web browsing experience is laughable. The overal OS experience and fluidity is worse, no matter how much iOS/WP fanboys keep repeting stupidities about android performance.
The only reason Windows Phone is alive is because Microsoft has a HUGE pile of cash they can burn if they want to stay in the game, and I seriously pity everybody who puts they hard earned money in such a shitty and undeveloped ecosystem.
Even with the screen and camera, I find no single person in the planet to which I'd reccomend this phone over a Moto E. And while I'm probably much less polite, the bottom line of the review is Brandon & Anandtech agree with that.
Zizy - Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - link
Quick check whether you need Android/iOS ecosystem:Need an app not on WP? Don't get WP.
Really want anything social (games or apps)? Don't get WP.
Completely tied to Google/Apple? Don't get WP. Note that plenty think they are tied to google but only really need their search, mail and youtube and could easily ditch the rest.
Not found yourself up there? You will bitch about WP... but you will bitch about Android and iOS as well :)
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Want better hardware? Go with Lumia. Software? Moto E.
Would I buy Lumia 640 though? Heck no. I have a WP dev phone already, don't need another. As a primary phone, this one still has too poor camera for my wishes. Lumia 830 is much more tempting, but costs quite a bit more.
BaronMatrix - Monday, June 15, 2015 - link
MS is so pissing me off... First they destroy how I use my desktop, now since they bought Nokia NOT ONE NEW PHONE HAS COME OUT...You can't get the 640 anywhere... T-Mobile has it coming soon for MONTHS... And no 640XL even mentioned... Even the MS Store doesn't mention the 640...
I'm through with Windows Phone... I'll keep one for DEV, but I'm getting an Android phone... I'd rather be able to get all the cool apps that don't come on Windows Phone...