Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE (2015)

Very basic phone, for Windows die-hards only – I purchased a Lumia 640 LTE a few years ago, strictly to have a fiddle with Windows Mobile. This was while the device was still available new, and before Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows Mobile. First of all, it's not the beefiest Lumia ever released... as far as the range went, it was a mid-ranger at best. The display is alright, the… Read more

camera was passable in its day but horrible by today's standards, and the whole UI is slow and clunky even in its latest update glory.

One of Microsoft's biggest spruiks with Windows Mobile was its integration with desktop PCs. I had more than a fair play with this thing, trying to get stuff to work in that lazy Apple-esque fashion that some people are addicted to... and it failed miserably. Yes, there were some apps which had desktop equivalency and hence some semblance of synergy, but it was nothing that you couldn't already get on an Android device... and the Android versions of said apps were markedly more polished. I guess you really could see where Microsoft's priorities lay long before Windows Mobile died on the vine.

Phone functionality was as advertised, as was messaging and basic functionality such as Office apps. Again, nothing unique or bespoke, just a suite of mobile also-rans. The default keyboard is completely awful, and it's a good thing that GBoard and (now Microsoft, rather perversely) SwiftKey have taken heed of this warning from history.

Long story short, on the whole... it's a phone, and that's about it. It might do as a backup device if you have nothing else available... but honestly, as terrible as $99 Android devices are, they will almost certainly run rings around any Windows Mobile device you turn your hand to.

Just don't. Not today, anyway.

A phone which never worked properly – Apps can barely open, or crash as soon as they are opened. Tried everything, reset, reinstall (error, error....), different sim cards, different networks. The only thing this phone is good at.....is crashing. This phone is/has been a nightmare. Show details

I name it Glitchy Crap – Bought it second hand. Camera is not bad. Unfortunately system takes at least 5gb of its memory hard to surf on Internet. Reboots, reloads, loosing the site and returning to home page nearly every 5 minutes. Flicking keyboard is a disaster. Facebook is a nightmare on it. Westpac doesn't work properly either. Avoid like a plague.  Show details

Good phone with some limitations, shame it's gone off the market – OK, it's not perfect, there are some faults. My phone will sometimes re-start itself without warning, fortunately not often enough to be a major hindrance. The app store doesn't have a lot of apps - but I have all the functionality I need. Maps is great, for instance and I use the alarms/timers all the time. Facebook doesn't work all that well,… Read more

but most other apps I use work fine, for example, I sometimes read books on Kindle on this phone without any problem.

I like how the software's interface mimics a windows computer (even though my main computer is a Mac). It's good that Microsoft have kept up with updates, although i'm not clear on how much longer that will last.

I added in a memory card because the standard 8gB memory isn't enough.

Never used Cortana or any other virtual assistant, and after reading how another poster uses Cortana, that's probably that's my loss. Camera is OK, without being great. I like the way it stores photos in the cloud.

Thank goodness the battery is replaceable (I've replaced mine once already), and the screen is large and easy to read.

In 2 1/3 years my phone has had a very hard life with lots of drops, but the original guerrilla glass screen is still OK -- I covered it with a clear plastic screen saver, and that's scratched, but the screen still has zero cracks.

When I first bought it, this phone wouldn't work at all in Japan - apparently it hadn't been accredited by a particular rule bound government agency, but on my last trip it worked just fine, and it's worked fine in any other country I've been to.

There's probably not all that much point in writing a review for a phone that's gone off the market, but if I had the chance to buy a replacement one all over again, I'd take it

Great – if all you need or want is an excellent TELEPHONE with a good camera – [update 2025] This platform has been killed off by Microsoft – the Windows Mobile platform is no longer operational or usable in any way. I'm leaving this review 'up' for 'historical interest' sake as I think they really were great devices. [/update 2025] I know, I know – the Windows Lumia Mobile Phone platform is obsolete and lacks apps – so why… Read more

would I give this phone five stars in mid-2017? Well that would be because some people (like me) don't want a smartphone – we just want a great telephone with a decent camera ... at an affordable price! If it comes with a few little doo-dads to toy around with, so much the better.

And this is indeed, an excellent mobile *telephone* that will suit all manner of people with less ambitious use-case scenarios than your typical smartphone user. In my case, I didn't (and still don't) need or want a smartphone but the terrible photos my feature phone was producing prompted me to look for a mobile phone with a better camera. A little research soon revealed that there were no feature phones on the Australian market with decent cameras; so it had to be a smartphone ... but it had to be well-made and affordable. iPhones were too dear by far. Samsung and Motorola phones were in the running but I don't like the Android operating system – for me, it's fussy, unintuitive and I keep misfiring (performing unintended actions) and getting lost and confused in Android – and it looks and feels cheap too, like someone had cobbled the GUI together in the back of a bus.

Microsoft's Lumia phones are well-designed – by Nokia no less (Microsoft bought the company ... and sold it again) – and run what I consider to be the most intuitive, fluid and attractive, big-buttoned mobile phone GUI available, in Windows 10 Mobile. Everything works as you'd expect it to from using Windows 8 & 10 PCs, and though there aren't millions of apps, there are thousands of useful ones to chose from, including one that turns the flash into a torchlight. I also have a spirit-level, the VLC media player (for video and music playback) and a Bible loaded on mine. No worries. Office for Mobiles is preinstalled ... but costs if you want to use it. When I tried it I immediately concluded that Word processing on a five-inch screen is silly. Maybe it's good for note-taking, but I'd rather record a voice memo. My outlook.com account calendar – that I typically access through my desktop computer's Web browser – talks to my phone, which displays notifications for all my appointments and reminders, and I can open the calendar on the phone and look ahead to see if I'm free on a given day when I'm setting a new appointment.

The phone has the Microsoft Edge web browser preinstalled, which is great for those times when storms are looming and a quick look at the Bureau Of Meteorology's radar can spare one getting caught in rain or driving through hail. I don't need to email on the go but Outlook is onboard. I don't do "social media" so I don't care how 'good' or 'bad' the FB and Twitter apps might be on this platform. YouTubes can be accessed via the browser or a choice of YouTube apps, and built-in WiFi reception on the phone enables one to avoid running up one's mobile phone bill if on a prepaid mobile plan or working to a tight download quota. On the topic of mobile data, be warned that using these Internet-based services will eat through prepaid credit like mad so I normally have 'mobile data' switched off but WiFi 'on', in case I find myself at a free WiFi hot spot like Telstra Air or at McDonalds or a public library. If one has a brand new Miracast-ready TV – or a Roku (Telstra TV) or some other Miracast receiver (like Microsoft's HDMI Miracast dongle) hooked up to a TV – one can throw one's pics and vids wirelessly from the 640 onto that big screen for everyone in the lounge room to comfortably enjoy: sure beats crowding around a little telephone screen!

The 640 LTE has Telstra's blue tick of approval for rural usage, so one knows it will deliver the best coverage and reception possible, and this is a 4G+ phone, which not only means that in 2017 it has the very latest, fastest and most powerful mobile network technology available, but it also has the best, most extensive coverage in Australia. The phone's 8MP camera with LED flash is a massive step up from the 2MP "light detector" on my old flip phone, but the 1MP front-facing camera still produces surprisingly pleasing selfies. Skype is a feature I haven't bothered with yet. Battery life is great – I go about a week between charges with my very light usage (turning the thing off at night and usually leaving it off when I'm not out and about). The screen is a bright, Standard High Definition (720 x 1280) resolution IPS that offers up plenty of colour and detail: at 294 PPI, it's very close to Apple's "Retina" screen pixel density. The 640 is light, slim and attractive (I bought a protective hard cover for it from eBay) and its speaker is plenty loud and clear enough – a lovely device all 'round!

In conclusion, if you don't really want or care about smartphones but you need a solid mobile phone with a good camera, a Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE is a great solution. Senior people who don't particularly care about electronic distractions; young folks wanting to back off on electronic distractions; new smartphone users or those who might only be interested in casually dabbling in these technologies without it costing the earth ... all such would be satisfied with this phone, as would those who might value Windows familiarity and an intuitive interface over a bewildering variety of apps, and better still, a device that integrates well with their Windows PC and Microsoft/Outlook account. Without a SIM card (and with emergency dialling disabled, if possible; maybe by removing the phone app?) this phone would even make for an amusing iPod Touch-like electronic toy (games and media player) for bored kids: various games, including Minecraft and Halo are available at the Microsoft Store for cheap. FL Studio Mobile is available for techno/hip-hop music composing on the go. Still others might even enjoy the idea of sporting an affordable but sleek mobile phone that's different from the run-of-the-mill Android devices out there. Officeworks just sold off a batch of new 640 XL Lumias (640 XL is essentially a larger-screened 640 that features a much better Carl Zeiss-lensed camera) for only $150 a pop!

Update mid-2018: Brand new Lumia 650 phones (the successor to the 640) are still available for around AU$170. However, I just upgraded to a brand new, unlocked Lumia 950 – the last and best 'flagship' model Lumia with a high-performance 20MP Zeiss-lensed camera – for AU$243 from eBay. At AU$370 a brand new 950 XL didn't make sense for not much more than a slightly larger screen, a slightly fast processor and slightly harder Gorilla 4 glass. This last generation of Lumias (650, 950 and 950 XL) all have brighter/sharper/more energy-efficient AMOLED screens and they also all have Continuum onboard: add Microsoft's outboard Continuum display adapter (AU$50-odd, new on eBay) and you can hook your phone up to a computer monitor, keyboard and mouse and use your phone like a mini-PC, complete with Microsoft Office Mobile! Now Office on a mobile phone makes sense! Such a rig could be the only computing device many people would ever need.

Best Phone I've had especially using Cortina it's great! – Love this phone! I've had my phone for nearly a yr now and will not go back to Android or iPhone, Lumia 640 can be easily set up the way you want it set up, and with Windows 10 it gets much better with each upgrade as they iron out the bugs. It can sync all your notifications apps, messages from your phone to your PC with latest 1607 Windows 10… Read more

OS. Love it! Love using Cortana while driving, I set Cortana to read my txt messages while in Bluetooth and Headset mode automatically, while driving (so easy to set up) can reply to txt via voice or call back the person who sms me with simple commands. Love Cortana Haven't found anything good or apps with Android or iPhone that does the same thing while driving. Love how I can get location based reminders and people based reminders with Cortana eg: If someone rings or you ring that person you will get a notification that It's that person's anniversary or birthday etc... It will notify you as the person rings you or you ring them. Yes some apps are missing features eg: You can't voice call or video call in Facebook Messenger (not sure if it's with all Windows phones running Windows 10 but on desktop you can video and voice call in Facebook Messenger app on desktop). It has Garmin Connect app but no Garmin Vivofit Jnr app. Snapchat, Class dojo (app for my kids classroom) and a couple of other big apps are totally missing but I use an Android tablet for those apps but as annoying as it is missing a few good apps (It's not Windows fault) that's the only downside to owning a Windows phone. Otherwise its a better OS overall!

Great Phone, Could be better – I have had this phone for coming up to 3 years now. I have never had to reset the phone, never had an issue what-so-ever, and never lost any of my data. Its a great little phone, at a great price. I paid only $179 brand new from Vodafone. I recently got a notification from Microsoft saying its now available for a Windows 10 Phone update. I updated… Read more

it and I am loving it still. However, I did have plans to upgrade to a Windows 10 Phone, and I will not hesitate to get myself another Microsoft Mobile. 10/10

like it – Great phone for that price - pretty cheap, good camera, nice looking phone, - I like design, - very modern, also has pretty powerful performance, I like Windows 10. Easy to use and battery is very strong like in old Nokia. I think Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE is great smartphone, simple with very affordable price. I hope to use it for few years., like I used old Nokia phones.  Show details

So easy and convenient – Affordable. Big screen so is visually easy for reading and operation. Has the same format as my PC, so is easy to share between devices. Great performance and capacity. Bluetooth, wi-fi, email, internet explorer, all at my fingertips. User friendly "Cortana" to get you where ever you need to go or the places you need to find..  Show details

Terrible mobile – First and foremost I have to admit I always have been a sucker for Iphones. Unfortunately I have lost mine on the train and until I wait for the new one I am stuck with Lumia 630. With that said, I can comfortably say I created a certain animosity with this phone. Terrible user experience, slow, the keyboard has lag when writing. Most of the… Read more

apps are MS focuses obviously, IE is most likely the worst product that Microsoft has developed. Basic stuff like surfing on the web is a pain, browser crashes or reboots, not to mention it's slowness. Facebook app is terrible, toa point I had to uninstall. Store ia mediocre, not a lot of options and even email management is difficult. I am very surprised this is a MS product, i heard some wnegatove feedback on this phone but never thought my personal experience would be so bad. Cant wait for my new iphone to arrive.

Worst phone i have ever owned! – My windows phone will have to be one of the worst phones I have ever owned! I cant even download the instagram app or hundreds of other apps on this phone, witch is complete crap considering everything these days is involved around Apps! I do not recommended this phone to anyone.  Show details

It sucks – I bought this phone last year and absolutely hate it. I'll be on face book or on some site and it will cut out and go back to the home screen for no reason. As well as the camera quality is absolute CRAP. I have switched phones now but the phone was not cheap and I am very disapointed.  Show details

FOUND MY TRUE LOVE!!!! LUMIA 950 XL – Have had quite a few Android Smartphones and was totally sick of the OS....So went searching for a Windows 10 Phone as I find windows 10 great really great. I needed the phone to have a good Camera as it goes on holiday's with us... ENTER the LUMIA 950 XL WOW what a phone fast reliable windows is so responsive and able to be customised. 3G Ram… Read more

good battery (just turn off the live tiles you don't want or use).

32g storage but you can add up to a 256GB Card.. I am using a 64GB Card and that is fine for me.

The Camera is great 20 megapixel back and 2nd camera 5 megapixel

The photo's are fabulous and love the button on the side which activates the camera without having to open the phone up. You know when you want to grab that fleeting image and you have to open the phone and then the camera ...Well no more just click and shoot great...

Sturdy and reliable – Have small children and didn't want to spend too much on a smart phone (as mine has taken flights off balconies etc). I think this phone is good value for money. Have had Samsungs in the past and despite costing more they were rubbish. The Lumia has a responsive screen, good sound, decent camera. I am not particularly tech savvy but I find the windows phone easy to navigate. The only downside is a lack of apps.  Show details

Laptop at your fingertips – Wow what a phone or should I say mini laptop. Extremely powerful processor, windows 10 operating system with all the programs like word, excel, one drive and a lot of other programs you find on your home computer or laptop. Easily syncs with your xbox one and other Microsoft devices. You can also display you phone on a big screen wirelessly. Camera is so clear.  Show details

Simple and easy to use – I am in the older age bracket and this is my first smart phone. I have found it easy to use, and like the tile interface. The battery life is good, phone reception excellent, and the call quality is also excellent. It has all the apps I want to use.  Show details

Good enough for me – I wanted a basic phone and bought this from Optus for around $135. As long as I can make & receive calls + the odd SMS & access my Outlook account occasionally when I'm on the run that's all I ask. The "Here" Drive+ app was an unexpected plus and is wonderful. (I gather Microsoft have now discontinued this - why do they keep shooting themselves… Read more

in the foot?) The screen/battery life/camera are all excellent for the price. In short it fulfills all my (admittedly limited) requirements very well, though perhaps if I was buying a new phone today I might be opting for something a bit more future-proof.

I can't work out why Microsoft is no longer selling them – Why would you spend $1000 on a smart phone or enter into a 2 year contract for a fancy android when you can have this beauty for only $160 on a pre-paid plan ($80 minimum recharge before you can unlock it). At least that's what I paid at an Optus shop. It has everything that most people want in a smart phone. As well, it seamlessly meshes or… Read more

syncs with your Windows 10 laptop and tablet.

It's just a pity that they no longer seem to be available as I'd like to buy one for my wife.

Come on Microsoft, your phones weren't that bad, put them back on the market!

Can't live without it – Easy to use and photo's are just perfect,like the large print on screen.Just the right size for my pockets.Only use it to message and phone people, have had no problems with coverage and can even go to the beach and still receive phone calls.The battery time is great as well only need to charge it once a week.  Show details

Not Happy Jan!!!!! – I have had this mobile phone back to the company that I purchased it from and no one has been able to help me with any of the problems that I have been having with it. At first I had trouble with things disappearing and then reappearing ... but now I am about pulling my hair out!!! I get NO acknowledgement when a text message comes through ..… Read more

not even a number 1 or 5 or 8 to let me know how many text messages are waiting for me to check. I have taken it back to 2 separate shops to see if I can get help ... the best one was in Rockingham, WA ... they were very helpful and went to a lot of trouble to get it working properly again for me ... but to no avail. I have since found out that it seems to be a common fault with the phone. One positive point is that it takes great photos but I'd still give this one a miss in future.

Its as good as its expected – So far it lives up to its name although there are some games in the android or google play that cannot be found in the windows phone. But all in all its alright. I guess I am still experimenting on my phone. The picture quality is good. the music is good although when I bought mine there were no headphones so I had to buy a pair and sometimes when listening to music or news through the headphones they stop.  Show details

Great Phone – One of the best phones I have used... Yes there are glitches sometimes but the reliability, easy to use, capabilities, functions & features are first class.... The battery time is adequate... the storage is great with the memory card capability.. The size of the phone makes it easy to cart & use...  Show details

Great Replacement for a dodgy Iphone – This phone is easy to use, does everything my old Iphone did. No issues with updates everything works nicely. Better still cost less than $200!! Only issue I've found is while I'm talking to someone on the phone, it sometimes tries to ring that person again or someone else and puts the first person on hold. Got to figure out how to stop that.  Show details

The best phone!!! – I absolutely love my Lumia 640! It is very easy to use and I enjoy using it everyday. It is also a very productive phone because it has Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, OneNote Mobile and PowerPoint Mobile. With this feature, I can access all of my productive work and make/edit things if needed.  Show details

There is life beyond Apple and Android! – This is my 3rd Windows Phone from Microsoft nee Nokia and I thought it would be my last. However having also used an Android at work and an imac at home I have really appreciated the relatively intuitive ease and navigability of the lumina. . This is a very reliable and strong phone. Not unbreakable but what is. Windows apps are a bonus.… Read more

Excellent camera. The only 2 downsides are 1) saving pics and phonebook to a cloud not being automatic (unless someone can show me how) and 2) the common refrain that the platform doesn't get the full range of apps.

I love my lumia 640 XL – I got the larger size for ease of texting. It is a simple to use reliable phone. Mine is now about two years old. I can't believe the battery life compared to my last phone. I just love the Windows format and ease of use for a basic phone that allows me to call, text and email with a little internet use. It is the best phone I have ever used and one of the cheapest to buy.  Show details

very good and cheap – $180 phone bought over internet. Microsoft phone so easy interface with computer. Not as many apps as samsung or iphone, but at $500 cheaper, i dont care. Very happy with this phone. Easy to use, and file share. Not scared of it being stolen either. Many accessories available. Good camera and sound.  Show details

Windows 10 has caused the problems, it was okay with Windows 8.2! – I had owned a Nokia Lumia phone running Windows 8.2 and I really liked the phone and the simplicity of the Windows interface. Unfortunately the screen broke so I bought the Microsoft 640 running Windows 10. I have owned the phone for 5 months and have had nothing but trouble with it. I have been unable to set up my Bigpond email account, even… Read more

after hours on the phone to the Microsoft help section. My retailer was of no help with the issue and also my local Telstra shop could not help me. The voice navigation in Microsoft Maps stopped working after an update. I did manage to work out that by changing the language to American the voice then worked. A number of different apps, including Microsoft ones behave incorrectly. For example, in Messaging when attempting to select all messages in order to delete them the screen flashes and changes to something completely different. Microsoft Edge as the browser is useless. The text on the screen in webpages is often "scrambled". More and more apps are being released for Android and iPhones, but not for the Windows phone. I will not be buying another Microsoft phone.

After installing Windows 10 Mobile on Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE, I'm looking for an android phone – Windows 10 Mobile on my phone is awfully buggy. The browser has been changed to Edge which means it constantly reloads web pages and then you get the dreaded Resuming ... message before it goes back to the home screen. The camera is full of bugs where videos end up choppy and jumpy and photos take forever to save, if at all. Then when you want to… Read more

"Choose the best lighting" it fails most of the time. There are two separate areas to change the font size and one area requires a restart of the phone. Cortana won't work initially until English (Australia) is downloaded and it took me about eight times to actually get it downloaded. And then of course there are hardly any useful apps available. Battery life has worsened under Windows 10 mobile. Before Windows 10 mobile, the phone was tolerable at best, but it actually lost sound several times which meant I missed important calls. They say you get what you pay for, but I feel I didn't even get that. Time to find an android phone which will probably come with its own set of problems ... at least they'll be different problems.

Update 5th January 2017 - I ended up buying a Moto G4 Plus android phone during Oct 2016 and love it! Way, way better than the Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE phone.

This is a hell of a phone for the price – I like everything about it but the camera is not the best. Great screen, feels fast and smooth when using apps, volume of speakers is great, call quality fantastic. The app gap is not as large as I was expecting and I haven't found a single app that I regularly use that I cant get a Windows version of. I have bought one of these for my mum and I highly recommend it.  Show details

Very happy – This is my 2nd windows phone and I really like it. It's so easy to use, great features and is responsive. Have heard others complain of the lack of apps available but I am happy with the selection. Camera is great and with an sd card and one drive has loads of storage capacity. I like everything about it. No complaints here.

Post-Windows 10 Upgrade Review – I have two of these phones which more than met my requirements - see other review. Now Microsoft have released the much delayed, much awaited Windows 10 update. Cortana does not work, the downloads that are required for Australian keyboard and Speech will not install. Yet MS continues to advertise that Cortana is available in Australia. I… Read more

guess this is what comes of being on the other side of the planet - in spite of cries for help on the blog sites, not a word from MS.

Great phone – I'm not real techy in any shape or form, and am a more budget conscious phone buyer, so I'm thrilled with this phone. Its my 2nd lumia windows phone and its such an improvement on my last model. The so called lack of apps is not a concern for me, there's plenty for what I need. I love the size, the reception (blue tick-regional area), clarity of… Read more

voice, ease of use and more. Really good value for money. Might not be everyone's idea of a great phone, but it'll do me nicely. Best phone Ive ever had so far.

Surprising Windows Phone. Better than IPhone and Android phones – Having come from an Android phone and previously an Iphone I was extremely surprised at my first encounter with the Lumia 640. Firstly it is a Blue Tick phone, meaning it has the best possible rural coverage reach, so that even with the smallest signal, it will continue to function. This means if you are travelling or in rural areas where signals… Read more

are sparse, you will get the absolute best out of this phone.

The next thing is the navigating and setting of this phone. These are just so much easier when you have to move just one screen to access the full list. Select settings and what you are looking for is mostly found instantly.

Now there are some drawbacks, such as the inability to change the initial screen, but at least I could delete apps, (Sport) which will then disappear from the front screen.

The 5” touch screen is very responsive as is the responsiveness of the phone itself. With the locked phone price at sub-$100 at the moment it blitzes most other competitors in this price range.

I can understand my friend telling me that if you are familiar with Window 8-10 operating system then you will love this phone. I do. This phone runs on Windows 8.1 and has 8Gb built-in memory plus room for an extra memory card.

Lots of Font Sizes for the ease of reading the Current News and SMS’s. I like the way the screen flicks up from the bottom, drop-down menus based on app sensitive flicks from both top and bottom, and sideways flicks for apps and controls.

An example is when reading the latest news, if you flick up from the bottom a menu shows different font sizes that instantly alters the print size of the page you are reading. Very handy. Revert any time.

Personally I think that a 5” screen is the current perfect size screen and when I was looking at the screen in full sunlight it seemed to appear almost LCD like and quite easily readable, though colourless. No phone I have previously owned was readable in full sunlight.

So, well done Microsoft.

Best smartphone going around - for the price – I've had my 640 for about two months now and was cautious moving from iphone 4s. But I've found that it not only matches the iphone but exceeds it in almost all areas. Granted its not the flagship model and does have limitations but for the price its is the best smart phone you can buy. Windows 10 mobile has made this phone even better. An outstanding phone.