Vodafone pitches a 4G phone that most people can afford
I'm not sure why Microsoft bought Nokia. Whatever the reason, its masterplan appears to have face-planted, given the share of the mobile market the pairing has managed to grab. However, if we ignore that fact, and treat the Lumia products like Nokia's previous feature phones, they suddenly seem much more attractive. This thinking would also put the Microsoft (Nokia) Lumia 635 design at the very heart of Microsoft's mobile strategy because, having seemingly given up on ’flagship’ designs that can challenge the iPhone et al, the brand has been heading to the bargain end of the market at speed.
This is a redesign of the Lumia 630 model, where the design brief appears to have been to add 4G(LTE) capability and change little else. Because of this, it shares the same 1,2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU with Adreno 305 GPU, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of Internal storage, a 5MP Autofocus camera and an odd resolution 854 x 480 4.5" ClearBlack Display.
Or, that's how the spec sheets read, anyway. In reality, once I saw the 630 and 635 next to each other, it became obvious that this is a much better phone in a number of critical ways. The most obvious of these improvements is the display; it’s brighter and has a distinctly richer palette than its predecessor. Unfortunately, though, the downside to the display and LTE improvements is that both features impact on battery life, and therefore the 635 won't last as long on a charge unless you tweak brightness down and disable 4G when not in use. The feature that impressed most, though (especially given some phone makers’ track record in this respect), is that this design lets you insert a microSD up to 128GB in size to supplement the modest internal storage.
Vodafone, as appears to be its policy these days, have laid very gentle branding hands on the Lumia 635, with only a few apps that would differentiate this from the vanilla product. My only related complaint is that the device comes with OS version 8.10.12397.895, which was released by Microsoft way back in June 2014. There have been eight subsequent releases, adding all manner of fixes and features, none of which Vodafone has chosen to pass on. That means there are no 'Denim' OS enhancements, like the UK version of Cortana for example.
Networks need to realise that when people ask in their support forums when these updates will appear, telling them that they don't discuss firmware release dates just isn't good enough these days, and actually rather insulting. What’s more, Microsoft should quickly change the way Lumia works so that it upgrade the OS directly, not the network providers, because otherwise it'll just annoy the relatively small number of customers who use these devices.
This as akin to a curious, but generally useable, feature phone. However you slice it, though, a 4G compatible device you can buy for less than £69, or have free on a minimal monthly contract, is something of a bargain, really. If you take the plunge, and at some point Vodafone and Microsoft manage to turn it into something more than that, then that will be a bonus. Mark Pickavance
Fantastic value 4G smartphone if you can ignore the old 05 version.
Key Specifications
• Display: 4.5"
• Processor: 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
• Front Camera: No
• Resolution: 480 x 854 pixels
• RAM: 512MB
• OS: Windows Phone 8.1
• Internal storage: 8GB
• Expandable storage: MicroSD (128GB Max)
• Rear Camera: 5MP
• Flash: No
• Battery capacity: 1830mAh
• Colours: Bright Green, Bright Orange, Black, White