Microsoft Lumia 650 hands-on: Microsoft at MWC 2016

Microsoft at MWC 2016

GSMArena team, 23 February, 2016.

Microsoft had a small presence at the MWC, mostly to show off the new Lumia 650. It's hard to pin down where this phone belongs - it combines a premium metal frame and OLED screen with low-end specs.

Microsoft Lumia 650 at a glance

  • Body: Metal frame, polycarbonate back
  • Screen: 5" AMOLED, 720p resolution (297ppi)
  • OS: Windows 10 Mobile
  • Chipset: Quad-core Cortex-A7 at 1.3GHz, Adreno 304, 1GB of RAM; Snapdragon 212 chipset
  • Camera: 8MP with f/2.2, 28mm lens, 1/4" sensor; 720p video recording
  • Selfie camera: 5MP with f/2.2 lens; 720p video recording
  • Storage: 16GB built-in, microSD slot
  • Connectivity: LTE, optional dual-SIM; Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 with LE, NFC, FM-Radio;
  • Battery: 2,000mAh

The phone makes an amazing first impression - it looks and feels much better than the Lumia 950 which was right beside it at the stand. The aluminum frame makes the phone very sturdy.

5 5 5
5" 720p screen (AMOLED) on the Microsoft Lumia 650

The screen is very good too - 720p is enough at a 5" diagonal and it offers the typical deep blacks and great viewing angles of a quality OLED display. It makes the Windows tiles look great too, the single-color squares on a black background look best on OLED.

Anyway, the Microsoft Lumia 650 has a bargain bin chipset - a Snapdragon 212. That's four Cortex-A7 cores (remember those?) at 1.3GHz.

Microsoft Lumia 650 - MWC 2016 Microsoft Microsoft Lumia 650 - MWC 2016 Microsoft
Microsoft Lumia 650

Still, the interface is smooth, apps (people, phone) load quick, scrolling through long lists was a breeze. The camera interface was reasonably snappy too. The browser takes its time to re-render the page as you pan and zoom, though. That's what you get with a low-power chipset and a single gig of RAM.

Unimpressive camera with manual controls - MWC 2016 Microsoft Unimpressive camera with manual controls - MWC 2016 Microsoft
Unimpressive camera with manual controls

The camera itself is nothing special. Yes, it has manual controls (Pro mode), including manual focus. It's still an 8MP camera that tops out at 720p video. The selfie cam is almost the same - 5MP/720p, both with f/2.2 aperture.

Reader comments

  • AnonD-472337
  • 02 Mar 2016
  • U$0

Someone tell me what made MS put a SD 212 in it! They've simply wasted a fantastic hardware!!

  • AnonD-295423
  • 25 Feb 2016
  • uvB

It's affordable good phone. It's original by design and with Windows 10. At least it's not copied product. These days most of android phones are copied from Apple

  • Anonymous
  • 24 Feb 2016
  • vb$

You'll are just so negative regarding windows phones :|