Microsoft Lumia 640

The Lumia 640 is a mid-range Windows Phone smartphone from Microsoft that is slightly highly priced in comparison to the Android phones it competes with.

The star of the show is a 5-inch display that makes use of Nokia's ClearBlack technology for vivid colors, high sunlight legibility, and deeper blacks than what standard LCD displays are capable of. It also offers a smoother touch experience compared to the competition. A Snapdragon 400 processor provides the horsepower for running things, with four processing cores that are matched with 1GB of RAM.

There is 8GB of internal storage, and 128GB of additional storage can be added via the microSD slot. That means there users will most likely never run out of space, making the Lumia 640 a great device for those that store a lot of things on their smartphones. The phone also has official support for Microsoft OneDrive, a cloud storage service that offers 30GB of free storage for two years.

There is an 8-megapixel camera on the back that can take impressive photos thanks to Nokia's (now Microsoft) prowess in imaging technologies. There is a 0.9-megapixel front-facing camera that has a wide-angle lens so you can fit more people in your selfies at once. Being a Microsoft smartphone, users also get Skype pre-installed, so that they can talk to their near and dear ones via video calls.

The Lumia 640 runs Windows Phone 8.1, and comes with various goodies. These include a free one-year subscription to Microsoft's Office 365 service, which is basically a productivity suite that lets you edit documents and presentations on any device, and also OneNote, a note-taking service that takes advantage of the cloud to let you edit your notes anywhere, be it on the web, a PC, or a mobile device.

Dual SIM functionality is supported, and the Lumia 640 is a great alternative for anyone looking for a simple yet powerful smartphone experience. Windows Phone does not have as many apps as Android, however, which might limit it for those that like to have the latest and greatest games at their disposal.