From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed and does it warrant your attention?

By Sayan
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Microsoft, after much delay has finally launched the budget Lumia 650 smartphone at a modest price of $199, which is roughly Rs 13,000 in India. But has it received some noteworthy changes over the existing Lumia 640?

 
From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

As reported earlier the Redmond giant is closely working to revamp its current smartphone portfolio with improved and more powerful successors. While this may be true for its Lumia 950 and Lumia 950XL flagship, the same can't be told for the Lumia 650. Microsoft is in fact referring to the Lumia 650, which may be the last device form the Redmond stable to come with a Lumia branding; as a "smart choice for your business".

 

At 6.9mm: One of the slimmest Lumia around

Well, the Lumia 650 does stand it ground when its design is compared to its predecessor. It is in fact one of the slimmest Lumia smartphone around at just 6.99m. However, that doesn't warrant a claim that it is the slimmest Windows phone in the world.

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

First budget Lumia to feature a Metal Frame

Microsoft has introduced a new chamfered metal frame design in their budget business phone aka the Lumia 650. The presence of brushed metal adds a premium look and feel to the smartphone; in fact, it is a marked changed over the all plastic predecessor. Hence Microsoft Windows smartphone revamp plans seems to be justified as long as you are sticking to the design aspect of the device.

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

From 1MP to 5MP: Selfies have changed!

It is great that Microsoft has finally noticed that they are decisively lagging behind in the megapixel race. While Android counterparts are running after introducing 13MP selfie snappers upfront, the Redmond giant was sticking to a resolution which is just 10% of the aforementioned.

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

The amends has however, been made in the Lumia 650 as it now features a 5MP selfie snapper which is also capable of shooting wide angle groupfies.

5" HD IPS LCD now replaced with an AMOLED one

While the 5" HD (1280x720p) screen has been carried forward from the older Lumia, Microsoft has replaced the ClearBack LCD panels with improved AMOLED ones. It worth recalling that the Lumia 650 is the first budget handset from the makers of Windows 10 to feature an AMOLED panel.

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

SD212 (Lumia 650) compared to SD400 (Lumia 640): What were they thinking!

Microsoft has however, made a blunder with the internal of the Lumia 650. Instead of packing in an improved SoC like the Snapdragon 412, the Redmond giant has opted for the SD212. This is quite disappointing considering the fact that the Lumia 640 came with a Snapdragon 400 chip.

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

Well, Microsoft may however churn a reason stating that the business users aren't quite interested towards the specs sheet; hence including a lower powered chip would help to cut the price. While this is indeed true, but would you as an average user buy this phone considering that it has a Snapdragon 212 inside?

Why still 1GB?

The Lumia 650 still comes with a 1GB of RAM while other Android counterparts are including 3GB in this price range.

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

8GB to 16GB: Storage is no longer an issue

Microsoft has increased the internal storage of the Lumia 650 to 16GB from the 8GB on the Lumia 640. Apart from that it can now support memory cards as large as 200GB as compared to the 128GB (wonder why would you buy such a large memory card anyways!)

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

No Continuum

As you may already be aware the Snapdragon 212 SoC doesn't come with Continuum support. So forget connecting your phone via the dock to your monitor.

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

2000mAh vs 2500mAh: Where did that 500 go?

In terms of specs the Lumia 650 comes with a markedly smaller battery. At 2000mAH it is in fact, 500mAH smaller than the one seen in the 640. This however, doesn't mean that the Lumia 650 will have a poorer battery. Remember the Lumia 650 is making use of a low powered SD212 chip and a run on Windows 10 onboard. So these two might together compensate for that loss of 500mAh.

Windows 10 icing on the cake

As expected the budget business phone from Lumia run on the company's latest operating system namely the Windows 10. It provides a number of improved features over the Windows 8.1 which was seen in the earlier Lumia.

From Lumia 640 to Lumia 650: What all has changed?

Overall Microsoft has come out with a phone that indeed suits business needs. It has the looks, the software and well the camera too. But an area of concern is in the processing power. The Redmond giants seems to have cut a little too many corners in the Lumia 650. While this is truly a decent budget Lumia, it definitely isn't what was expected from Microsoft as part of its 'revamped' lineup.

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