Microsoft Lumia 650 review: A smartphone that might have been great

Microsoft took its precious time over Windows 10 Mobile, but now, only a month or so after it first appeared on the screens of the Lumias 950 and 950 XL, we already have the next instalment in the series: the Microsoft Lumia 650. It’s a very different phone, though, to the first pair. Where those two phones targeted consumers looking to spend high-end handset money, the Microsoft Lumia 650 is a budget device through-and-through.

Not that you’d know it by simply looking at it, though, because Microsoft has done a stand-up job on the design. In fact, you could argue the Lumia 650 is a better-looking device than either the 950 and the 950 XL, which says as much about the cheap design of those devices as it does about the good looks of the 650.

Nonetheless, the Microsoft Lumia is an uncommonly handsome device for one so cheap. Its gunmetal grey aluminium frame and exposed chamfered edges (machined at an angle of 38.5 degrees to maximise the gleam) cut a business-class dash, and its slim lines and understated detailing break with budget phone conventions.

If you don’t get on with the bright colours and plastic feel of the third-generation Motorola Moto G, this phone is the perfect antidote. Even though the back is made from thin, matte-black plastic, there’s a bonus: it can be removed to give access to a removable battery and microSD card slot beneath.

Microsoft Lumia 650 review: Specifications and performance

A close look around the edges of the Lumia 650 reveals more than just pretty machining. Along the bottom edge, you’ll find not a next-generation USB Type-C socket like on the first two Windows 10 Mobile handsets, but a bog-standard micro-USB socket.

Why is this important? Because it means the Microsoft Lumia 650 does not support Windows 10 Mobile’s marquee feature, Continuum. You can’t plug it into the Microsoft DisplayDock and use it as a desktop PC as you can with the 950 and 950 XL.

There’s also no iris recognition or fingerprint reader, either, but these aren’t the biggest of the disappointments. The major let-down is that the Lumia 650 is powered by a lowly Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 – a quad-core SoC running at 1.3GHz – and it has a meagre 1GB of RAM. Those are the sorts of specs I’d expect to see on an ultra-budget smartphone costing under £100, not a phone expecting to compete with the likes of the Moto G and Honor 5X.

At first, you probably won’t notice. Menus scroll up and down smoothly enough, even moderately data-heavy web pages do the same, but as soon as you load up something more demanding – a game or the Maps app, for example – the Lumia 650 starts to stutter and slow down. In the benchmarks, its scores lag significantly behind the majority of rival phones at a similar price.

And it isn’t helped by Windows 10 Mobile’s many bugs, which the Lumia 650’s slowness throw into stark relief. Zoom into a photo in the Photos app and you’ll see irritating glitching as you pinch in and out, fire up navigation in the Maps app and it disappears from the multitasking menu, seemingly at random. The included voice memo app won’t run in the background – it pauses when you switch to another app – so you can’t take notes while recording audio. I could go on.

Battery life is better, outlasting the Moto G 3rd generation in our video rundown test by a handful of minutes. It lasted 11hrs 36mins to the Motorola’s 11hrs 12mins, which translates to around a day of moderate use. It still isn’t anything special, though.

Microsoft Lumia 650 review: Software

This is all a bit of a shame, because I do like what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 10 Mobile. The idea of having the same code base and app offering across laptops, tablets and phones is a sound one, and I like the unified look and feel.

There aren’t as many holes in the app catalogue as there used to be, either. Most of the major social networks are covered. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine are available, as are BBC iPlayer, iPlayer Radio, Spotify and Netflix. Even Slack gets a look in, although the app is admittedly still in beta. However, there still aren’t nearly as many smart-home devices and wearables that support Windows 10 Mobile as Android or iOS.

For more details, you can read my in-depth review of Windows 10 Mobile here. Aside from Continuum, the Lumia 650 offers all the same features, but its low power processor means it doesn’t show the new OS in its best light.

Microsoft Lumia 650: Camera and display

Usually, if the rest of a phone is disappointing, you can be pretty certain the camera will be equally rubbish. Fortunately, that’s not the case with the Lumia 650. You’re not getting cutting-edge camera tech here: the camera is an 8-megapixel offering, with a single LED flash and a 5-megapixel shooter at the front and there’s no fancy phase detect autofocus or optical image stabilisation, either

However, the quality is pretty decent. Photos were crisp rather than smeary and, as long as you hold the phone steady, you can get acceptable snaps out of it. I like the Windows camera app, too, which lets you switch quickly between auto and “pro” modes at the flick of a finger, although the lack of any kind of HDR mode is a bit irritating.

Video quality is limited by the speed of the processor, topping out at 720p and 30fps, when most other phones, even below £200, are capable of capturing 1080p, but largely I was pleased with results the camera produced.

The display is another positive feature. Once again, it’s hardly cutting edge, with a resolution of 720 x 1,280, but contrast is perfect, thanks to the use of AMOLED tech, and under the scrutiny of the office X-Rite i1 Display Pro colorimeter, it performed well, posting maximum brightness and sRGB coverage figures of 357cd/m2 and 100% respectively.

To the eye, it’s more than respectable. White and light grey tones have a slightly yellowish tinge to them, but unless you squint hard you’ll not be able to spot the pixels, and the deep black and super-saturated colours typical of AMOLED screens mean images and video look great. It’s certainly a lot nicer than the dull screen fitted to the third generation Moto G.

It’s also fitted with Microsoft’s Clear Black polarising layer, so it’s readable in bright sunlight and you also get a Gorilla Glass 3 topping so it’s less likely to cracking, scratching or shattering than phones that use no-brand toughened glass.

Microsoft Lumia 650 review: Verdict

After first setting eyes on its slim form and understated design, I wanted to like the Microsoft Lumia 650. Its screen is great, the camera isn’t bad and there are plenty of elements of Windows 10 Mobile that I like.

But it’s completely spoiled by Microsoft’s decision to hobble the performance of the phone by shoehorning in a processor so low on power that not even Windows Phone can make it look good.

That, ultimately, is what turns the Lumia 650 smartphone from a potentially great phone into a disappointing one – and that’s a shame because Windows 10 Mobile needs every bit of help it can get.

See also: Where next for Windows phones? Probably nowhere