Microsoft Lumia 640 and 640 XL Available in Singapore

Microsoft Lumia 640 and 640 XL Available in Singapore

Microsoft announced yesterday (April 16) the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL will be available in Singapore on April 18 for S$299 and S$429 respectively. The latest Lumia devices are designed to offer more personal computing and increased productivity through seamlessly integrated Microsoft Office experiences, OneDrive storage, and 4G connectivity. Users, who buy the phone before 30 June, will be entitled to a 1 year Office 365 Personal subscription with 1TB OneDrive storage, and monthly 60 Skype minutes.

From now to 30 June, the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL will also come with a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal, which includes the latest Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote) on the Lumia as well as on one PC or Mac and one tablet. With the Office 365 Personal installed, users will receive an additional 1TB of OneDrive storage, and 60 Skype world minutes. To redeem the offer, users will need to download the Office 365 gift app from the Windows Phone Store by 30 June and activate it by 14 August 2015.

Specs

Both the Lumia 640 and 640 XL are powered by a Quad-Core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of on-board storage that’s expandable with microSD. The Lumia 640 offers a 5″ 720p screen, 8MP rear, 1MP front camera and a 2,500mAh battery. The bigger Lumia 640 XL offers a 5.7″ 720p screen, 13MP rear ZEISS Optics lens, 5MP front camera and a larger 3,000mAh capacity battery. Both phone support Glance, which lets you peek at the time, notifications in Standby mode. It’s one of the nicer features on a Lumia device.

Both devices will upgrade to and benefit from Windows 10 as it becomes available later this year. To be specific, this is still Windows 10 Mobile. It is not full blown Windows 10 for PCs. However, it uses a similar underlying platform, which allows for “a universal Windows App”. That to me is the strongest advantage. Windows Mobile apps have been lacking behind the Android and iOS counterparts. Hopefully, with the addition of a more broad based support, we would see more Windows / Xbox apps ported to Windows Phone.

Both the Lumia 640 and 640 XL will be available in Singapore at Microsoft Authorized Mobile Resellers from 18 April, Saturday. They will also be available through the three local operators. The Lumia 640 will be available in glossy cyan, orange, white and matte black, and the Lumia 640 XL will be available in matte cyan, orange, black, and white.

Microsoft, Better Together

Microsoft also demonstrated their latest Surface 3 (pre-order available) at the launch event. The Surface 3 offers the same Surface Pro 3 experience in a thinner, slimmer package – such as compatibility with the Surface Pen. Here’s the pen in action.

surface 3 - pen drawing (1)

surface 3 - pen drawing (2)

The event highlighted the synergy across the suite of Microsoft devices, from mobile to tablet / laptops. My experience with my Windows 8.1 devices have been positive and is echoed in the post: 8.1 Reasons to buy a Windows 8.1 Tablet. Things like synced passwords, WiFi settings, Hotspot sharing, OneDrive and OneNote offer a strong feeling of cohesion. It should only get better with Windows 10.