Microsoft Lumia 640 XL review

The overall narrative of the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL continues with the camera's capabilities: it's decent but not much more than that. Good lighting conditions lead to good shots, albeit a little under-saturated and noisy when you get right down to the details.

Low-light performance was impressive, though, and shutter speed relatively fast, so when you consider the price I'd say this is a 13-megapixel camera that overperforms for the section of the market it's in.

Weigh it up against the iPhone 6 and you're likely to be disappointed; compare its pictures with snaps taken by similarly priced Android phones and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

The integrated LED flash deserves a mention, too, managing to add light to shots quite nicely without washing them out. Of course, there are better mobile cameras out there, but the Lumia 640 XL holds its own in the photo-taking stakes and isn't going to have your Facebook friends laughing at your attempts to take a nice beach or landscape shot.

The Lumia Camera app that comes as standard with Windows Phone 8.1 offers basic manual controls for ISO, shutter speed, white balance and brightness, so if you want to play around with these settings then the option are there.

I'm not sure the quality of the lens is up to it, but if you know your photography then these settings can help you get better shots.

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