Microsoft announce the budget-friendly Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL

Microsoft launched two new mid-range Windows Phone 8.1 handsets dubbed Lumia 640 and Lumia 640XL at MWC 2015, Barcelona.

The Microsoft Lumia 640 sports a 5-inch HD (1280x720 pixels) IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protections. It is powered by 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor paired with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage [microSD card supported upto 128GB].

Camera features include 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 1-megapixel front camera with wide angle view. Connectivity features include Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB2.0, Micro SIM, A-GPS+GLONASS, BeiDou, DLNA, Screen cloning with Miracast and WLAN 802.11 b/g/n/ . It measures 141.3 x 72.2 x 8.85 mm and weighs 145grams.

On the other hand, the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL as the name suggest will have a bigger screen just like the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320. Unlike these devices the Lumia 640 XL is a budget offering from the company.

It sports a 5.7" HD (1280x720, 16:9) IPS LCD display, 13-megapixel rear camera boasting ZEISS optics, 5-megapixel wide-angle front camera and is backed by a larger 3000mAh battery. The rest of the specs are same as Lumia 640. It measures 157.9 x 81.5 x 9.0 mm and weighs 171grams. 

Microsoft is offereing one-year subscription to Office 365 personal which includes includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL as well as on one PC or Mac and one tablet. The company is also offering 1TB OneDrive storage and 60 free minutes of Skype Unlimited Worldwide calling per month.

Microsoft on its official blog post said, "Today we announced two new, affordable Lumia phones: the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL , both of which give people the flexibility to do more anywhere, and at any time. These phones will be upgradable to Windows 10, when it becomes available later this year."

The Microsoft Lumia 640 will go on sale globally in April and is priced Euro 139 (Rs. 9500) for 3G model and Euro 159 (Rs. 11,000) for the 4G model. The Lumia 640 XL 3G variant is priced Euro 189 (Rs. 13,000) and for the 4G variant the price is Euro 219 (Rs. 15,000) and will globally roll out later this month.

In addition at its MWC 2015 event, Microsoft demoed some of the highlights of the Windows 10 for phone operating system like the ability to swipe across the screen to access recently installed apps. Quick toggles along with the notification bars which were introduced in Windows Phone 8.1 have been refreshed and now can be expanded to control more shortcuts. Project Spartan, Microsoft's new browser will also make its way to the Lumia devices with features like reading lists, cross-sync between computer and mobile and more.