MicrosoftLumia 640XL 3.5 G UK SIM-Free Smartphone - Black

This phone represents excellent value for money. If you can get past it not being either Android or iOS then it is just as good as any generally higher priced competitor.The phone itself feels well made and solid with a nice bright and legible screen. Fair enough it is made out of plastic but it is well constructed - there are no flimsy thin plastic covers that snap when you try to prise them off.For most tasks (see below), it is nice and responsive and I have not had any slow-downs or bizarre behaviours.The camera on the phone is generally excellent - I am no David Bailey (by any stretch of the imagination) but I do predominately use my phone to take photos. In the past I have used iPhones and generally used that as my bench-mark for comparing other phone's cameras. I think for my purposes the camera in this thing is just as good, certainly no worse for most tasks. This camera does not have the 120fps slo-mo of the iPhones or the OIS for the S editions but so what? This phone is practically a quarter of the price (but certainly not a quarter of the quality). My only negative about the camera is it is not fast. It is not slow by any means but it is not suited for those super quick spur of the moment "gotta catch that" types of moments. You cannot simply press the button and quickly snap a series of sub-second images. There are extra "lens" that provide a rapid burst mode but those require you to deliberately go in and select them (i.e. "now I will exit the regular camera app and active the burst mode app") which all takes time and as such is pointless if you're trying to quickly catch that wonderful spontaneous moment. The burst mode apps also don't simply store a series of individual photos into your photo album they store the images in a proprietary (single file) format and then you have at some later point go in and select which image(s) you wish to keep from the burst action. Again that makes burst mode a bit of a faff. The other aspect of camera slowness is around "HDR" mode photos. As I say it takes some nice quality photos but if you take 3 or 4 HDR shots in a row the camera app stops responding for a good few seconds as it "processes" the images. If you are taking a single HDR shot that it does not cause any issues, the camera app is immediately available for more (non HDR) photos. Partly for this reason and the fact the camera just takes nice shots I do not bother too much with HDR mode (or Rich Capture as MS calls it).Having said all that, I am not deducting any stars. I do not mind really, the camera apps provides other nice customisable features (e.g. shutter speed control) and generally produces such nice photos that I have accepted that I might not be able to capture those spontaneous moments.One of the best things about this phone is the battery. Not only is it replaceable it also lasts. With reasonable realistic usage (e-mail, photos, web browsing even short Sat-nav usage) I get 2 days between charges (2 days as in 48 hours, not these "marketing" days which are only 18 hours long).I know other phones claim to last "days" but when you look into the claims they are either "short" days or you are only interacting with the phone once or twice a day. It is so refreshing to have a device that can genuinely last.In summary I am pleased with this phone and would recommend it.

this is a LOCKED version of the 640 xl...mine came branded by Vodafone and as soon as I switched it on asked for the unblocking code, which I didn't have because I use a different carrier. I was deceived by the description saying "sim free", but that doesn't mean unlocked, therefore I had to return my device straight away.Make sure you only get the ones that say UNLOCKED.Furthermore, make sure your parcel isn't carried by Hermes Parcels, otherwise you're screwed: they're extremely unreliable, and Amazon should ditch them all together. Just take a peak at their reviews on Google...The phone itself is great...I only used it a few minutes before putting it back into its box and return it, but looks pretty snappy and the screen, in spite of the 259 ppi, looks good, sharp and bright. Honestly I couldn't notice much difference from the retina display of my Iphone 4S, and that was my main concern. I can't stand pixelated screens (I know I'm spoiled!!)Last but not least, this is NOT the DUAL SIM version: the one I got only came with one SIM card slot so, again, make sure the description spells out clearly DUAL SIM. Initially I thought all the 640 xl would come dual sim by default but that's not the case, so was my mistake.I hope it helps....

Excellent phone. In particular, the operating system seems so much simpler and somehow, more 'grown up' than the previous Android phones I have owned. The apps, whilst not as comprehensive as androids, seem to be more than adequate, and perhaps because they are vetted first, tend not to come with the unwanted malware which makes Android phones flakier and flakier over time.Added to that, the camera is little short of fantastic and the battery life easily better than anything I have owned previously.A very good, very solid buy!

Moved over from Android, although I still have a tablet for games bought with Google Play. I decided that for a phone I do prefer the Windows OS, which in many ways reminds me of my old Blackberry, not too many gimmicks just a solid dependable system. Hopefully the handsets will follow through with the 10 upgrade coming to desktops soon. The phone operates smoothly and all the tiles can be customised / moved / sized to how you want your home screen to look. Setting up was straightforward and I was soon able to have multiple email accounts perfectly running in no time. This was one of the reasons for leaving Android, there have been some serious problems after a Lollipop update - none of the apps updated, email accounts stopped working and the final straw, Play store disappeared - so time to go I thought. having seen someone else using Windows I'm glad I moved over, everything is well presented, not fussy and easy to use.

I would not recommend anyone to buy from this third party seller. The phone that is supposed to be in very good condition is defective. The phone keeps dropping the cell signal - it drops and connects over and over.According to the seller the phone can be returned but, "this cant be repaid as we are a hazmat seller again as per your terms and condtions". So why doesn't this seller state that they do not do refunds? Also state the phone is being shipped from China.I guess the phone can be returned for them to sell it again.

Je pense qu'il n'est pas neuf car les écouteurs sont absents et la batterie enveloppée dans un sachet Samsung !De plus le chargeur est aux normes secteur Anglaises.J'ai déjà eu un 640 (mais non XL) donc je connais mon sujet.

Ce commentaire est destiné plutôt envers le vendeur qui n'a pas hésité à vendre un produit obsolète et qui n'a pas voulu prendre en charge le problème. En effet, il m'a conseillé de me tourner vers Windows alors qu'il s'est pertinemment que cela ne sert à rien puisque, Microsoft a abandonné son système d'exploitation Windows Phone 8.1 le 11 juillet 2017. La période de prise en charge du système par Microsoft est terminée et le système est donc définitivement abandonné.Mais, je suppose qu'il faut écouler son stock et faire sa fortune au détriment des autres.