Lumia 950xl

[Dreads]

I gotta friend of mine who's just bought this giant windows phone he's coming from an iPhone 5 and he's done nothin but rave about it he totally loves it. All I keep hearing from him it's basically like having a laptop in your pocket. All
I've seen is lots of tiles and plastic are they that good now days your thoughts welcome.... Sorry folks my bad I just texted him it's the lumia 1520 or something like that the screen is huge....

 

[lowendlinux]

If I was a Windows user it's what I'd get.

 

[jeepik]

Its not even out yet?

 

[spinedoc77]

It's not even out for another month, he must be talking about a different phone. I had my heart set on a 950XL, but continuum turned out to be weaker than I thought. Also I was hoping the ability to run Android and iOS apps would be in place, but I haven't heard much about that in a long time. I'll keep my eye on it, but I'll pass at release. Best case scenario I'll get one half price on swappa in 2 months.

 

[maflynn]

I'm hearing great things about the camera - seems like a nice phone.

 

[jamezr]

Here is the link to the MS site and the stock pics. It does look like a nice phone.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/phone/lumia950-xl/

 

[spinedoc77]

I fondled one in store before they pulled them, very solid feeling phone and the screen is VERY nice. Let's not forget removable battery and SD slot.

 

[CraigGB]

I recently purchased the iPhone 6S Plus after using a Lumia 930, sent it back after a week and I've already preordered my 950 XL. currently using a Lumia 820 in the mean time which is still fairly speedy in day to day use considering it's age, going to such a low resolution screen again sucks though.

in my own opinion the way Windows works on a phone is miles ahead in regards to ease of use and it feels a whole lot more modern to me whereas iOS just feels dated and clunky in quite a lot of areas, people tend not to like change though so I can see why Apple stick with what isn't broken, I've also found battery life to be pretty good and Windows Phone is smooth, fast and stable too (I know some won't agree which is why I started with in my opinion, I'm not stating it as fact).

it is a shame it is lacking some of the big name apps however I haven't found a podcast client on iOS as good as Podcast Lounge, a Youtube client as good as Metrotube or a Reddit app as good as Readit so it wasn't all positive in respect to apps on iOS for me, hopefully Windows 10 will bring some new apps to the ecosystem too along with Microsoft's attempt to make it much easier to port apps from other platforms.

unfortunately we don't have Microsoft stores in the UK so I haven't had chance to try the phone before getting mine but from what I've read people are impressed so far

 

[laudern]

but continuum turned out to be weaker than I thought.

Please explain this. How is having a full desktop experience with peripherals a weak experience??? I really wanted to know as that is what I thought was the coolest thing about windows 10 mobile.

 

[jeepik]

Please explain this. How is having a full desktop experience with peripherals a weak experience??? I really wanted to know as that is what I thought was the coolest thing about windows 10 mobile.

Because originally they brought out this feature as doing one thing on your phone and continuing doing that same thing on your pc or laptop

Yet it turned out to be a glorified projector view, with slightly more featured apps, not even close to fully featured desktop apps

 

[spinedoc77]

Please explain this. How is having a full desktop experience with peripherals a weak experience??? I really wanted to know as that is what I thought was the coolest thing about windows 10 mobile.

That's just the thing, continuum is NOT the full desktop. I was initially VERY excited at having the full desktop when I docked my phone. Continuum uses universal apps, which scale differently and are more full featured when docked. Although it's too early to say, in theory I don't see this as much different than other OS's where you can also have a scaled up mode with more features.

Here's a great example, Office 2016 versus Office mobile. Office mobile is great, you can do a lot with it, works in continuum, but it's NOT Office 2016 which is a desktop program. None of the thousands upon thousands legacy windows programs will work with continuum, it has to be specifically programmed as a universal app.

At the end of the day I'm NOT saying continuum is a bad thing, no it's awesome. I can't wait to see what developers create, but they haven't created anything yet so as of today I'm not really interested. In a year I may be very interested, who knows. While I am disappointed I still admire and applaud Microsoft for pushing this boundary and at least going in that direction.

 

[laudern]

That's just the thing, continuum is NOT the full desktop. I was initially VERY excited at having the full desktop when I docked my phone. Continuum uses universal apps, which scale differently and are more full featured when docked. Although it's too early to say, in theory I don't see this as much different than other OS's where you can also have a scaled up mode with more features.

Here's a great example, Office 2016 versus Office mobile. Office mobile is great, you can do a lot with it, works in continuum, but it's NOT Office 2016 which is a desktop program. None of the thousands upon thousands legacy windows programs will work with continuum, it has to be specifically programmed as a universal app.

At the end of the day I'm NOT saying continuum is a bad thing, no it's awesome. I can't wait to see what developers create, but they haven't created anything yet so as of today I'm not really interested. In a year I may be very interested, who knows. While I am disappointed I still admire and applaud Microsoft for pushing this boundary and at least going in that direction.

I see. Hummm well that does dampen the experience a little. More of a glorified Web/word/picture viewer right now. I guess it is something to keep an eye on and see how it is supported.

 

[vhl71]

When is it available? Its been more than a month since they announced it and no one seems to know when can we purchase this? Called the MS store - they don't know when..

 

[AliMacs]

It's all nice but once you realize there aren't many apps that are supported then the novelty wears off. Sure it has a nice camera so does many other android alternatives. It has removable battery and yes, only a few still has this option on android. It is plastic - which I don't care about cause put a case over it anyway. Just that the marketshare for these devices is less than 2-3% and it's quite sad. I can't use many apps I have on android on this windows device. That's the major deal breaker.

 

[laudern]

I was under the impression that Windows 10 was universal with its apps. So it is obviously a completely different os depending on which platform with the only similarly the name, Windows 10.

 

[Truefan31]

Just saw a review....

Pretty scathing. Are these concerns valid?

 

[Michael Goff]

Yeah, Windows 10 mobile is a hot mess right now.

 

[Rogifan]

Just saw a review....

Pretty scathing. Are these concerns valid?

Ouch. I must be in the minority but I'm not a fan of the Windows UI and I think live tiles are a cluttered hot mess. And while iOS can be too bright sometimes I hate the pitch black with bright white text of Windows UI just as much.

 

[laudern]

My interest in win10 has been short lived. Both mobile and pc.

 

[spinedoc77]

Ouch. I must be in the minority but I'm not a fan of the Windows UI and I think live tiles are a cluttered hot mess. And while iOS can be too bright sometimes I hate the pitch black with bright white text of Windows UI just as much.

I thought I'd love tiles, I really did. They just don't seem to relay the information I'm looking for many times though. I still think Android widgets are far and away the best paradigm of relaying information at a glance. I can customize them almost endlessly to display just what I want.

 

[VertPin]

Just saw a review....

Pretty scathing. Are these concerns valid?

Wow, I was just about to post this video. And yes, the concerns are valid. Lots of glitches, crashes, hold ups when installing apps...it's awful.

 

[CraigGB]

Wow, I was just about to post this video. And yes, the concerns are valid. Lots of glitches, crashes, hold ups when installing apps...it's awful.

the bizarre thing is how much peoples experiences vary considering the identical hardware though I suppose it's not unknown even on iPhones . I've seen quite a few people with no problems and I've seen plenty of people with problems, Michael Fisher is by far one of worst experiences I've seen though as things just seemed to be totally broken for him. personally mine has been pretty good which is strange considering I set myself up for problems by restoring a huge backup that's gone from a 920 running WP 8 to developer versions of 8.1 to the final version, it then went to a 930 then back to a 820 then finally it's now on my 950 XL, tons of apps, texts and stuff backed up, since I got the phone on the 3rd of December I've had about 8 apps crash and one reboot. I did have stuttering Bluetooth audio playback if I had the screen on but that was fixed in the first update release a few days after I got it.

Honestly if anything I would say I'm pleased with how stable it has been meanwhile you have people like Michael Fisher in that video and he has had a horrific experience on exactly the same hardware, seems to me that most people seem to have minor problems including reboots and stuff, I seem to be one of the lucky few to have no problems but I've seen only a few as bad as his. battery life has been really good for me too. with about the same use my 6S Plus is on about 70% at the end of a day and my 950 XL is on about 63% which is much better then I was expecting especially considering the iPhone is set up as new after my backup didn't restore then mysteriously vanished and I lost everything .

EDIT: if anyone has any questions then I will be happy to answer them, my original post was much longer and it was basically a full review and I thought that was too long so changed it.

 

[aneftp]

Microsoft should have just sold it (950 xl) at $350 unlocked base price.

My guess is sales will be horrible at the $650 price point that they will slowly drop the price.

Why not get some interest at a better price point ($350) where they are probably still making a small profit.

Don't want to be stuck like Amazon having "fire" sale on a $650 phone.

Better to sell 1-2 million 950xl at $350 than sell 500k units (my guess) at $650. More users. Same revenue. Less profits.

But they need more users. It's essential. Without more user base. No developer will waste their time. As much money as Microsoft has. This may be their last shot at the mobile operating cell phone market.

Their purchase of Nokia has been essentially a waste.

 

[spinedoc77]

Well, we're seeing hints of a surface phone now. I wonder if they will leave their loyal 950xl consumers by the roadside once we do see a surface phone. Why does MS do this odd dance? They didn't need to buy Nokia. They didn't need to make the 950XL. All they freakin needed to do was make a surface phone from day one.

 

[businezguy]

I really hope Microsoft does a good job executing on the Surface Phone. Apple really needs some competition. It seems like Microsoft has some solid plans but they just can't execute on them.