After the disappearance of Nokia, Lumia phones have been struggling a bit in Indian market. There were a number of Microsoft Lumia phones, but only few of them were well-received by the consumers. In recent months, the Windows phone loyalists wait for almost a year and then three phones came along at once. Microsoft released its two flagship phones in December 2015, named the Lumia 950 and 950 XL. Recently, the company has added another phone to the list, and this time it is the affordable Lumia 650.
We have tested the Lumia 950XL and we had mixed emotions for that phone, but now, let us unbox and see if the new Lumia 650 is a good upgrade over the Lumia 640 or not.
Microsoft Lumia 650 Full Specifications
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Microsoft Lumia 650 Unboxing
The box has the same design that we have seen in most of the Lumia devices. Lumia 650 comes packed inside a square box that is not thick or unusually big at all. It has a slide out mechanism, which is surely better than any of the designs. The moment you cut off the seal and slide out the box, you will see the handset on the top and rest of the contents are placed right under the block.
Microsoft Lumia 650 Box Contents
It comes with the following contents:
- Lumia 650 handset
- Battery
- 2 pin charger with non-detachable USB
- In-ear headphones
- Documentations
Microsoft Lumia 650 Physical Overview
Lumia phones have always followed a different path when it comes to design and build, they believe in putting their hardware in a simple looking shell with no extra design elements. This time, the company has added a bit of metal to the design, and let me tell you, it looks really good. The front and back is almost the same that we have seen earlier but the sides have a metallic border that makes it look sleeker and solid.
Microsoft has ditched the funky florescent colours this time and has released only black and white variants. The best part about the design is the in-hand feel, as the weight is just 122 grams, and the 5 inch screen size makes it even handier. What I didn’t like is the width of the bezels around the display, especially on top. If you take a look around the phone, the front has the 5 MP camera on top with the earpiece on the top edge.
There is nothing at the chin except the loudspeaker mesh,
and the left edge of the phone also has no buttons, but the right side has the volume rocker and power buttons.
Moving to the back side, the primary camera module is on the center top with the LED flash on its left. And the Microsoft Windows logo is in the center of the back panel.
The good thing is that the back panel is removable and the battery can also be removed. You can find the USB 2.0 port at the bottom.
3.5mm audio jack is on the top edge, and it also has a microphone hole on its right.
Microsoft Lumia 650 Photo Gallery
Lumia 650 User Interface
Microsoft Lumia 650 comes with Windows 10 Mobile OS. The new Windows OS offers a great range of new features, like Continuum and Hello. Windows lover will love the UI as it is great for office personals who like working on the go. Pull down menu offers quick selection Window styled tiles for immediate access to settings. Cortana virtual assistant works really accurate to recognize words quickly and save some precious time of yours.
Windows still lacks when it comes to Apps support, and it will take some hard work from the developers to catch up with the Android and iOS. The Overall feel of this UI is good, it is fast and responsive.
Lumia 650 Camera Performance
It has an 8 MP primary camera with f/2.2 aperture and 28mm focal length. The autofocus is pretty quick and accurate, but the colour production looks a little saturated. It captures great images in day light but dim light photography struggles a bit. The 5 MP front camera does a fair job in bright lighting conditions but as the light is on the lower side, it suffers a lot and captures blurred and grainy images.
We have seen many other phones struggling in low light conditions but this camera should have been better if we look at the price. For better details, you can see the camera samples below.
Camera Samples
Lumia 650 Gaming Performance
The Microsoft Lumia 650 comes with a quad-core Snapdragon 212 processor clocked at 1.3 GHz and Adreno 304 GPU. The Snapdragon 212 was announced back in 2015 and we expected a better configuration at a price of almost 15K Rupees. I played Asphalt 8 on this phone, and despite of 1 GB RAM and a lighter processor, it was handling the game with a grace. I played with high graphic settings and with the medium graphic settings as well. There was a minute difference in the game play. Obviously, the medium level graphics were smoother but I must say it was handling higher graphics pretty nicely as well.
There were minor frame drops in the high settings but I had no issue playing with the medium settings. So you can play high-end 3D games on this phone but make sure you have changed the settings to medium level. The phone was not showing any sign of abnormal heating, even though I noticed slight amount of heating near the camera while gaming for too long
I played Asphalt 8 for 30 minutes and it consumed 16% of the battery and the temperature rose from 31 degree Celsius to 34.2 degree Celsius.
Microsoft Lumia 650 Performance
The Microsoft Lumia looks weak on paper if compared to other rivals in the same price segment. Very few of us would want to spend 15K for a phone with 1 GB RAM and Snapdragon 212 when there are phones offering much more than this. I don’t know what you expect from this but I was satisfied with the performance. This phone is targeted to business users and office goers, if you look at the tasks they do, and then it is good enough for such tasks. But if you are an aggressive user and love doing heavy stuff on your phone, then you might have to rethink before buying this.
Verdict
According to me, Lumia 650 is a good phone which could have been a lot better if there was some extra power inside. Looking at the design, display and camera, any Windows loyalist would love the phone for sure, but why would someone invest on this when there are so many options in the market under this price. The company has a different strategy this time; it is a good option for those who want a Windows 10 phone without shedding extra cash for the 950 XL.
