DISCLAIMER
The opinion of this product is not to discourage the buyers for buying such product.
The opinion is just to state the pros and cons, with some introduction and specifications.
Read previous reviews (click here).
1. Introduction
Microsoft Lumia 950 XL, the long-awaited comeback of the Windows phone phablet, is eagerly anticipated by every fan of the brand. It makes use of one of the best hardware around and it's the perfect demo platform for all newly introduced Windows 10 Mobile features
.
This could change with Microsoft's universal apps which theoretically can work across the mobile and desktop versions of Windows 10. App developers then would have a much larger audience to develop for and would therefore be more keen to bring their apps to Windows sooner.
While Windows 10 for mobile is a refreshing change from iOS or Android, and it's pretty straightforward to use, it's plagued by the same issue that faced Windows Phone 8 before it: apps. The app store is still woefully under-stocked compared to Android and iOS, and app developers rarely put any effort into bringing new releases to Microsoft's mobile apps first
The improvements that the Lumia 950 XL has compared to the Lumia 950 include the bigger screen (5.7" vs. 5.2") and the beefier chipset (an eight-core Snapdragon 810 vs. a six-core Snapdragon 808). The new liquid cooling system is also welcome, and hopefully it can take off some of the extra the heat generated while playing games or using Windows Continuum.
What's Continuum? Does anything else you know..???
It's the name given to the 950 and XL's ability
to be hooked up to a full-size PC monitor, keyboard and mouse to work like a
PC. You can either use an HDMI dongle to wirelessly mirror content from your
phone to the bigger screen, or you can buy a display dock (sold separately for
$80 in the US and $140 in Australia, with UK pricing yet to be announced),
which then plugs into a monitor using HDMI. From here, Continuum lets you use
apps like Word, email or the browser just like you would on a regular PC, only
they're powered by your phone. #GooglePlusGuides
2. What I liked about it
-The Microsoft Lumia 950 XL offers great build-quality and clean simplistic design, but the polycarbonate back doesn't feel as premium as the phone's price tag would suggest.-The flagship AMOLED display with Quad HD resolution and ClearBlack technology delivers high pixel density at 518ppi. Colors and contrast are gorgeous, sunlight legibility is top-notch.
-Windows Hello works as advertised and while it's slower in unlocking the phone than the current crop of fingerprint sensors, it is still feels really cool to use.
Battery life is above average at 64 hours of endurance rating but not if you count only phablets in the results sample. The standby performance is somewhat underwhelming. The DualSIM endurance rating is even worse at a total of 47 hours.
-Windows 10 Mobile is on the right track, refining the interface and catching up with features and services. It has tight integration with Skype, Office and OneDrive, it offers an Xbox app and Offline navigation. Windows 10 Mobile is shaping up to be one of the most feature-rich mobile OS's right now.
-Windows Continuum also works as advertised, but you don't have an actual desktop with icons, you don't have true multi-tasking or side-by-side windows, plus you can't run Win32/64 apps. While all system apps are Continuum compatible, currently there are no games that support it, and the optimized third-party apps are very scarce, too. Since it's a new feature launching for the first time, we're willing to give it the benefit of a doubt - perhaps it will really take off once developers give it proper attention.
-Performance-wise, the Lumia 950 XL is a true powerhouse, equipped with the top-end Snapdragon 810 SoC. CPU and GPU performances are top-notch. The phone relies on a new liquid cooling system and indeed it helps take the extra heat off the infamous Snapdragon chip. The phone still gets warm under heavy pressure and when using Continuum, but it doesn't overheat.
-The speaker on the Lumia 950 XL scored Excellent in terms of loudness and indeed it's very loud. The speaker sound quality is very good, but not impressive, the sound is tinny.
The video player managed to play almost every video format we threw at it, except those files with AC3 audio encoding. There is subtitle support.
-Audio output quality is very good, but not among the best out there.
-The still camera quality is top-notch - high detail levels, little noise and accurate colors and contrast. Lossless zoom, rich capture and RAW shooting support are very nice additions as well.
-The captured videos offer class-leading video and audio quality, 1080p videos and lower can use lossless zoom, too.
3. Main disadvantages
-Expensive at launch-No fingerprint reader (the lack is offset by the iris recognition)
Sure, Microsoft could have done better with the design, especially with such a high asking price. Matte plastic isn't considered premium anymore and whether the Lumia 950 series is entitled to such a high price tag is indeed debatable. Body materials are of course a matter of personal preference and some people may consider plastic to be more durable than glass and lighter than metal, not to mention that understated looks are actually preferred in certain circles. #googleglass
4. Hence,
The Microsoft's Lumia 950 XL is the face of the new Windows series and a reboot of the company's smartphone business. Microsoft may have been slow in adopting new tendencies and features, but it made sure everything is done right with the Windows 10 Mobile premiere.And indeed the Lumia 950 XL lives up to all the promises and then some. The Lumia 950 XL is the most powerful Windows phone to date. Both the screen and the camera are absolute treats to use.
5. In my opinion (Read the Disclaimer above before reading the following)
In a nutshell, it feels so easy and natural for a Windows 10 user, the OS is cleaned up considerably from previous versions, and Microsoft is improving the experience weekly. I wish the video autofocus wasn't so busy but it's not a deal breaker. Both the 950 and 950 XL are great phones..
It has sober over heating issue fixed. I think they released a patch to take care of any bugs.
These phone just cool but in this price Huawei p8 or mate s far better than 950 ,,,,
You don't praise Microsoft. If continuum is a useless joke, a 4K screen should be a laughing matter too. And just because a feature is new doesn't mean it's something great. HTC's Ultrapixel tech in the M8 was nothing more than a marketing ploy - photos were muddy, had low DR and often had poor contrast. (PS, if everything new was good, then we should all be celebrating their decision to include an 810 instead of an 808 :P )
I'm not saying the 950XL is a wonder phone. Plastic is Bligh, especially next to that gorgeous Sammy glass, and the price isn't exactly competitive either, and MS could have done something really great with this device. But that said, it's not such a bad phone! Apart from the build quality and the apps, it does pretty much everything you'd expect from a flagship.
As shown and told battery life is not so impressive it’s not lasting much even when it is above 3000 amah battery
I was very disappointed by this as even Lumia 550 does not heat that much playing this game... but I want to give it a try after a week again. Lumia 550 was heating up like crazy first day even on age of empires and after a few days it was only warm. So I hope it will be the same story for 950XL.
Otherwise...
-Design - I own Xperia Z1 and I find 950XL nicer. I don't know why. I loved design of my Z1, but my new 950XL just seems nicer. So design is pretty subjective.
-Power - for normal use it is awesome. I am waiting for display dock to test continuum, but for now I did not have any issues except for Tomb Raider overheating and not exactly smooth performance - could be even game's problem.
-Windows 10 - unlike others I have minimum of issues with the system - my only problem is outlook. I can no make it work. It receives email, but it does not send it. But in desktop outlook (not the web one) it works fine.
-Iris scanner - still in beta, so I would say it is funny feature, yet it works and even in the dark (tested)
-Camera is excellent. It takes much better pictures than the compact camera we had.
So in overall I am happy with this device. I only hope that the overheating will be fixed ASAP.
6. Specification
NETWORK
Technology GSM / HSPA / LTE
2G bands GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3G bands HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
4G bands LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 12(700), 17(700), 20(800), 28(700), 38(2600), 40(2300)
Speed HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps
GPRS Yes
EDGE Yes
LAUNCH
Announ
Status Available. Released 2015, December
BODY
Dimensions 151.9 x 78.4 x 8.1 mm (5.98 x 3.09 x 0.32 in)
Weight 165 g (5.82 oz)
SIM Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
DISPLAY
Type AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 5.7 inches (~75.2% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels (~515 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Protectio
PLATFORM
OS Microsoft Windows 10
Chipset Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810
CPU Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2 GHz Cortex-A57
GPU Adreno 430
MEMORY
Card slot microSD, up to 200 GB
Internal 32 GB, 3 GB RAM
CAMERA
Primary 20 MP, f/1.9, 26mm, Carl Zeiss optics, OIS, autofocus, triple-LED RGB flash
Features 1/2.4" sensor size, 1.12 µm pixel size, PureView technology, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, HDR
Video 2160p@30fps, optical stabilization, stereo sound rec.
Secondary 5 MP, f/2.4, 1080p
SOUND
Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
COMMS
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, hotspot
Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP
GPS Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
NFC Yes
Radio FM radio
USB v3.1, Type-C reversible connector
FEATURES
Sensors Iris scanner, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, sensor core
Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser HTML5
Java No - Microsoft Continuum support
- Wireless charging (Qi-enabled) - market dependent
- Fast charging
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player
- MP4/H.265 player
- OneDrive (15 GB cloud storage)
- Document viewer
- Video/photo editor
BATTERY Li-Ion 3340 mAh battery
Stand-by Up to 288 h (2G) / Up to 288 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 25 h (2G) / Up to 19 h (3G)
Music play Up to 75 h
MISC
Colors Black, White
Another review coming after few hours. Stay tuned.
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