Category: Lumia 640

The Lumia 640 is making its way to Cricket Wireless this Friday, May 15th for those in the United States.  Announced at Mobile World Congress in February, the Lumia 640 is one of two devices launched at the event (the larger Lumia 640 XL being the other) and Cricket becomes the second US carrier behind T-Mobile to announce they will be selling the 5″ Windows Phone.  Currently only AT&T will carry the Lumia 640 XL in the US.

The news is good for those who are wanting to pick up the 640 as Microsoft has been clear that it along with the 640 XL will be amongst the first phones to receive Windows 10 for Phones when it is available later this year.

If you follow me on Twitter or know me personally, you know that I’m a big user of Fitbit and MyFitnessPal.  In 2009 I weighed in at just under 300lbs while today I’m a healthy 195lbs and I credit my Fitbit (One and now a Flex) as well as MyFitnessPal as part of my success in losing the weight and keeping it off.  That said, there are some out there who do not necessarily want to have a wearable device to track their activities let alone have another app they have to go to so they can log their food and caloric intake.

With the introduction of the Lumia 1520, Nokia introduced SensorCore, a sensor and software application built into certain Lumia devices that will allow you to track activities such as walking and running.  Couple that with the free MSN Health & Fitness app for Windows Phone, you now have a way to keep track of your steps, runs, diet, and calories burned all in one app and you don’t have to wear any other devices other than your Lumia in your pocket – which is where it always is anyway, right?  Setting up your Lumia to use SensorCore is easy and it automatically configures MSN Health & Fitness so you can get to tracking things straight away.

If you can’t wait to get your hands on the Lumia 640, you can at least get the next best thing while you wait:  The wallpapers that ship on the 640.  Thanks to the team at WindowsMania.pl (and a follow up link from the team at Wmpoweruser) you can now get a .rar file that contains all of the wallpapers that will ship with the Lumia 640 when it is released.  As I posted Monday and Yesterday, it is expect that the Lumia 640 will start pre-orders this week or next with a mid-April ship date.

Yesterday I posted that AT&T is now listing the Lumia 640XL on their website as a device that is “Coming Soon”.  Now T-Mobile has gotten in on the act with the Lumia 640.  When it was launched last week at Mobile World Congress, T-Mobile was one of the first to sign up to get the Lumia 640 along with AT&T and MetroPCS.   While none of the carriers have them in stock yet, T-Mobile is now listing it as “Coming Soon” on their website.

For those who are anxious to pick up the Lumia 640 or the Lumia 640XL, you may have a few weeks of waiting if the German, UK and French Microsoft Stores is any indication.  The online store has posted the availability of the Lumia 640 for pre-order but delivery is not until mid-April.  While this is certainly more than has been posted on the US Microsoft Store, you can assume safely that the wait times will be similar.

Yesterday’s announcement of the new Lumia 640 and Lumia 640XL seems to have gone over well with many relieved to see a mid-range phone instead of a low-end Windows Phone come to the market.  I still contend there needs to be a flagship phone sooner rather than later but that’s a different discussion for a different glass of wine.

One interesting observation though:  Verizon was not mentioned at all as a US carrier who will have these new Lumia devices.  AT&T will carry both the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640XL while T-Mobile and MetroPCS will carry the Lumia 640.  It appears, at least for now, the Lumia 640XL will be exclusive to AT&T which, frankly, it should be given that AT&T has been a supporter of the platform.  So you will have the US #2 and #3 carriers with these new budget friendly devices but not the #1 carrier in Verizon.

Given the history of Verizon with Windows Phone however, this shouldn’t come as a complete shock to anyone.