My Lumia 640 needed the battery pulled twice before it would start up this morning. I’ve been thinking about replacing it but now it’s become a necessity.

I’ve been pretty happy with the Lumia: cheap, decent battery life (2-3 days as I’m a light user), good email performance (esp in Outlook). The camera isn’t great though.

I did think just get a 650 or whatever the replacement is except there ain’t. Seems to have disappeared out of the shops.

Been looking a Sony Xperia XA. Anybody any experience?

Anything else to consider?

Want: long battery life, decent camera, but outright and sub £150. Decent email on both outlook and yahoo.

Not fussed with apps (only really use metoffice weather….)

STW standard: Motorola MotoG 4 or 5.

Thank me later.

I’ve got a hardly used Lumia 7 series (I think) sitting on my shelf, I’ll have a further investigate, I bought it hated it apart from the outlook bit, and haven’t used it much since.

I had to replace my Lumia a couple of weeks ago as the charge connection snapped off.
Picked up a Motorola E3 sim free from Tesco for £85.00 although I see it’s gone up a few quid now there.

Decent phone, decent clear screen, decent camera with flash if your not looking for anything fancy. Android operating system. Link my Outlook to my Gmail account no problem.

https://www.tesco.com/direct/motorola-moto-e3-black-sim-free/156-1089.prd?source=others

I bought a MotoG4 when my 630 died, I am very happy with it.

Try a factory reset? Latest build of W10?

I’ve got a 640 as my work phone. It’s ok but it’s the slipperiest damn phone I’ve ever known, it’s like trying to make phone calls on a greased otter.

Moto G5 looks like a decent option.

Should really declare that abiolity to run OS maps would be nice… seen as I have a couple of maps with download codes and everthing… 😀

@cougar: its a couple years old, had the screen ‘stick’ a couple times, I’ve had my moneys worth CBA with anything technical….

When you say ‘good email’ the Outlook app should be more or less the same on Android and W10M

what I mean is outlook on the 640 is virtually instant in ‘pushing’ emails through.

I also like that it automatic uploads photos to onedrive too… of course I’m sure just about everything does that now…

metalheart – Member 
The camera isn’t great though.

May not be top of the range, but not too bad for a budget-ish phone.

Nokia quality in it (even with the MS branding it was Nokia developed before MS killed Nokia Mobile entirely). Hence I’m keeping an eye on the Nokia Android phones soon to be released in UK. Not exactly Nokia doing them but it’s ex-Nokia Mobile staff and input from Nokia themselves. Build quality and battery life are the key things I’m after, and a good camera.

Android I’d given up on but that was some versions ago. It got frustrating, buggy, bloated and a battery/data hog.

Being an MS developer and most my kit and software is MS/Windows, I like to keep to the same ecosystem, so OneDrive syncing and Outlook, Office apps are a must. These are quite good on Android though it seems.

Oh, on the camera, one thing I’ve really liked with Windows Phone is the Lumia camera app had a lot of control over the camera, and in Windows 10 they pulled in that and added more. I was quite disappointed in Android having a stock camera that couldn’t really control much of the camera. Just a “smart” point and shoot. I like to mess with the focus, “shutter” speed, aperture if possible, at least. Slight niggle is Win 10 Mobile doesn’t have the same post process editing that Win 10 desktop has, even though they’re the same build of Windows and supposed to be UWP apps shared between them. THe desktop ‘Photos’ app in the Creators update finally has some good post process adjustments.

I actually quite like the 640, great value for the money. As I said I was all set to get a 650 to replace it but they’ve disappeared from the shops (I’m sure you can pick them up somewhere) but it seems a dead end unfortunately.

I had a 920 (or 925?) which had a much better camera so if I hadnt had that I’d probably have been happier with it…..

The answer is ‘not a Samsung’. Got a s6 and have never been impressed.

If you can find an old stock top line lumia I’d go for that. My previous lumia was ace and I would be happy to go back from the Samsung.

I recently got a moto g5 and had to return it. It’s not got a compass so things like skymap and backcountry navigator were not useable.
I’m still trying to find something to replace my g3 although for some reason it started working again today, after not having a phone signal for a week.

one thing I’ve really liked with Windows Phone is the Lumia camera app had a lot of control over the camera, and in Windows 10 they pulled in that and added more. I was quite disappointed in Android having a stock camera that couldn’t really control much of the camera.

I suspect you may know this already, but there are many many alternative Android camera apps that will give you all manner of different functionality. (Though from your requirements it does sound like a Windows phone is the right thing for you.)

I don’t think your 640 is gubbed as opposed to running badly. The minor update before Creators introduced some bugginess to mine and after the big update it’s a mess; runs badly, constantly hanging up and occasionally crashing. Going to have to do a full reinstall I think.

Same for me. The last update has bollocksed my 640, somewhat frustrating.

The problem was that it wouldn’t start up in the am. After switching it on it just kept on hitting that Windows strap and buzzing, strap and buzzing, just not getting to the next stage. Didn’t switch it off last night just in case!

Otherwise generally running ok (apart from the odd glitch, mostly not being able to swipe the screen up to answer a call every now and again).

Just checked, OS is 8.1 update 2…. 😳

Just checked, OS is 8.1 update 2….

Eek. Have you missed the window for updating to W10?

Above your budget, but I’ve just bought a Lenovo P2 from Three. It’s £200 and I’m really impressed with it so far…

Great battery life
Nice screen
Fingerprint sensor & NFC
Camera seems OK (better than the reviews suggest IMO)
32GB storage with room for expansion
4Gb RAM
Android not been overly messed about

Not really found any down sides yet….

I had a fiddle with some of the Sony offerings while in the shop & they did seem nice. The Lenovo has just replaced a Sony Xperia T that survived >4 years of abuse but was starting to get a bit problematic.

chestrockwell – Member 
The answer is ‘not a Samsung’.

I think that was a lot of my frustration with Android. Samsung make a right mess of it.

Anyway, Nokia 6. Should be launching this month and probably around £200.

https://www.nokia.com/en_int/phones/nokia-6

Mid range. There’s also the Nokia 8 and 9 to be released which are supposed to be flagship. Rumours this month also, but there’s nothing on their site about them. Not fussed about top end models. Nice, but they can be so powerful that battery will only last half a day in use.

metalheart – Member 
Just checked, OS is 8.1 update 2

Yeah, you could have upgraded to Windows 10, and it’s actually not too bad on the 640. You might still be able to get it. Just install the upgrade advisor app and check. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/store/p/upgrade-advisor/9nblggh0f5g4?rtc=1

Samsung make a right mess of it.

they do!

simple android implementations – Lenovo, Motorola, OnePlus etc… are all excellent phones from a usability/functionality point of view. Samsung just seem to feel the need to infest the OS with bloat and customisation that doesn’t work as well as the original.

MS stuff on Android now works great e.g. Outlook, Office. In fact I’d go so far as to say it runs better than Google’s own crappy alternatives. A complete change from a year or two ago.

MS apps work far better and have greater functionality on Android than on their on Windows mobile platform. It’s weird. Someone mentioned the outlook app above – works way better on Android than Windows. Same with excel spreadsheets – some work ones display correctly on Android Excel and don’t work at all well on Windows Excel. Quite amusing really!

Due to perceived urgency of replacement I picked up a G5 at lunchtime…

Definitely interested in the new Nokias but no release date means I might not make it that far (or that when they’ll appear in the Sneckie… 🙄

I checked my Nokia it’s a 735

Just an update for the 640 users, latest OS upgrade for ARM based phones has sorted all my issues. Nothing is crashing it and Edge is working perfectly again.

My Nokia 3 arrived yesterday…

I have a 920 sitting doing nothing at home. Not switched on since it was not switched on since the battery and screen were replaced around a year ago.