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
Battery Life
One thing I distinctly remember about the Samsung Focus is much of an improvement the battery life was compared to the original Galaxy S. Windows Phone 7 was a very well tuned OS, and it managed battery life very well. When the first waves of Windows Phone 8 devices were launched, I heard complaints about battery life, and I was very surprised. The Lumia 930 review here at AnandTech confirmed that there were issues with battery life on at least some Windows Phone 8. However, the Lumia 735 achieved a very respectable battery life in our web browsing test. With both of those results in mind, I was very curious about how the Lumia 640 would fare when it comes to battery life.
As always, our first test is the WiFi web browsing battery life test. Since this Lumia 640 is locked to Cricket Wireless, I'm unable to also test it on LTE, which is unfortunate. However, Qualcomm's radios have evolved to the point where there's only a very small difference the between power usage with a good LTE signal and WiFi.
With a 9.5Wh battery and Snapdragon 400, I had expected the Lumia 640 to last much longer in this test. It shares many components with the Lumia 735, including the SoC, yet the Lumia 735 lasts significantly longer. I can only attribute this to display power usage, and even that seems strange as the Lumia 735 uses an OLED panel which will consume a lot of power when displaying the large white areas of web pages. To ensure there wasn't any sort of issue, I re-ran the battery test and achieved roughly the same result. 8 hours is not the lowest result we've seen, but it's ultimately disappointing when you consider how long other budget devices like the Moto E can last.
In GFXBench's battery test we see that the Lumia 640 sits between the Lumia 735 and the Moto E. However, it should be noted that although these three devices achieve a much longer battery life than other devices, this is a result of their relatively low performance during GFXBench T-Rex HD.
One observation that doesn't show up during out battery tests is idle battery life. During my time with the Lumia 640, I noticed that Windows Phone seems to have an abnormally high battery drain when devices are idle. Even though I was only able to use it on WiFi and had no cellular connection when I wasn't at home, I still found myself having to charge it in the early evening. The Lumia 640's battery life is certainly better than devices like the ZenFone 2 and Lumia 930, but it definitely doesn't compare to the Moto E and the Moto G.
Charge Time
The Lumia 640 ships with a 5V, 0.75A charger. This is a lower wattage than the 5W chargers that ship with most phones, and it's significantly lower than the high power chargers that are now reaching as high as 18W. Something worth noting is that at least with the North American Cricket Wireless version I received, the cord on the charging block is permanently connected, so you can't separate the block and the cable like on most devices.
With its relatively slow charger, the Lumia 640 has a fairly long charge time. It's actually the fastest of our group of low end devices though, with the Moto E being noticeably longer, and the Lumia 735 being substantially longer at 5.57 hours. Not including a super fast charger is obviously done for cost reasons, but I do wish these devices would ship with at least a 5W charger. Thankfully, if you do have 5W charger it will charge the Lumia 640 faster than the one included in the box.
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testbug00 - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
Just one FYI, Glance has multiple modes, including "peek" where it only activates when it detects something moving over it (or leaving a space where it always is 'sensing' something (IE, a pocket)And, yeah. Windows Phone uses a lot of battery life to have Wifi on. Dunno why. Even without any MS account on it and no non-native apps it still eats 2-2.5% of battery on 920. Haven't tested on other WP devices.
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
Nice phone for a good price, but it's positively huge with a 5 inch screen. Its disappointing that it's impossible to find a phone with decent specifications and a 3.5 inch screen. I can't imagine carrying this or any other phone that big around. I'd be tempted to tape a stick to it and use it as an oar.kyuu - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
As someone whose smartphone history is iPhone 4, Lumia 920, and now Lumia 1520, I can tell you that once you've used a bigger smartphone (1520 has a 6" screen), you cannot go back to the small ones. They feel like toys and browsing the internet or watching videos on them is intolerable.Daniel Egger - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
Get a 735 then. It's a very nice piece and noticeably smaller than the 640 plus it has an AMOLED display. It's a bit larger than my 820 which for me has about the perfect screen size but it's thinner and much lighter (especially since it has Qi built-in rather than needing a special cover which adds additional bulk and weight).MrSpadge - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
Consider the Lumia 435 then. Internally it's not much different from the 640 if you can live with a few compromises.paulheu - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
Google does not just not make any apps for Windows Phone, it actively blocks anyone else from doing the same if at all possible. Hopefully with Windows 10 this will change due to the very nature of that OS . We'll see..The remarks on Glance probably come from not having the extension app loaded which allows for backgrounds and more options.
Brandon Chester - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
The Glance Screen app doesn't show up in the store for all Windows Phones, Lumia 640 included. If you look at the list of Microsoft apps when browsing the store on the phone it's just not even there.MATHEOS - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
You definitely should have rating system!atata - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
I've had this phone for several months and it feels great after Lumia 525. I certainly don't see the battery drain mentioned in this review, but I don't use most of fancy mobile apps aside from Viber.lilmoe - Tuesday, June 9, 2015 - link
"Microsoft's scroll speed cap also makes the entire operating system feel slow"This issue is so underrated, and I believe (even with your criticism) that you were very diplomatic in your complaint. This is BY FAR my biggest issue with Windows Phone and I've nagged Microsoft so many times on uservoice and the feedback app about the speed of scrolling and inertia settings (speed and feel of the "flick"). Not only does it feel slow, it's also not even close to being natural.
iOS is slower than my liking too, but it feels more natural in a sense. I believe Samsung got the speed and the "flick" right with their devices, and Android followed after JellyBean. Microsoft needs to blatantly copy Android in that department, and screw what people say.