Lumia 950/950XL

[Undirection]

The 950 looks like a great phone which is already being 'written off' by some people because a surface phone may be coming along which will be much better. I don't think that there are any great leaps in tech etc for smartphones left now and so I suspect the Surface Phone (is actually confirmed?) will just look a bit nicer.

I am impressed with the MS phones. I never hear of any issues with them and users seem very happy with them too.

[Russ35]

Received my 950xl from CPW. Took a bit to set up as I needed to do an OS update for the update released in the last week and then about 40apps to update. Then a trip to Three to get a nano sim.

So now fully up and working. First impressions, fast, very nice screen, feels nice in the hand.

Power button being between the volume up and down will take some getting used to, but it is slightly recessed in compared to the up and down buttons so easy to id by touch.

I was worried about the size of the XL, but so far from playing its not to bad. The only thing so far is with the hamburger menu icon being top left makes it hard to reach when using the phone one handed. I need a longer thumb.

Size comparison -Left 950xl, middle 1020, right 635

[Rawwr]

Russ35 said:

The only thing so far is with the hamburger menu icon being top left makes it hard to reach when using the phone one handed.

Hold down the Windows button

[Chris Hinds]

So currently I'm using an iPhone 5 which is just over 2 years old. As usual for a 2 year old iPhone the battery life is measured in nanoseconds (ok about an hour and half on a charge) and I'm contemplating either a Lumia 950 or an iPhone 6s to replace it. I'm SIM-Free so will be an outright purchase not a contract. Has anyone else made the iOS to WP jump and if so what did you like best/least? I'm not massively app dependent on the iPhone so don't think the limited choice will be too much of an issue.

[KaraK]

Posting this from my 950

[Russ35]

Been having a further play today.

Picked up a USB Type C to Type A cable to try the USB OTG. Copied a TV show I'd recently downloaded to a pen drive, this played Ok. Also tried some music - MP3's, Flac and Ogg format. MP3s and Flac worked Ok, but wouldn't play the Ogg.

FM Radio works Ok.

Windows Hello - This is being temperamental. I think one of the problems is you train it without wearing your glasses but I really squint with my right eye when not wearing my glasses. It was also not very bright in the room when I was training it. I'll have another go tomorrow.

Battery Life - Still trying to drain it/charge it a few times before making my mind up. But last night I went to bed at about 2:15am and it was on 46%, at mid-morning it was on 43%. It hadn't been used at all between those readings. It should have but I set the alarms wrong. Luckily I had left my old phone on so the alarm on that went of.

[KaraK]

I'm finding Windows Hello a bit temperamental too - I've trained it without my glasses and in various light levels and it's still a bit flaky, and to be honest it's not the quickest generally. I keep thinking that I'll just disable it but then I'll find myself just juggling the phone in one hand while I'm in the middle of something and then it's really convenient!

Battery life seems pretty comparable to my old 920 so far - usually mid forties by the time I call it a day around midnight and then I just charge overnight.

[joebongo]

What's the camera like and specifically when you've taken a picture do you get a pause whilst it says "adding finishing touches"?

This is a slow process on my 640XL and am wondering if the beefed up processor takes care of this better?

[Russ35]

This is a picture I took yesterday at the Trafford Centre. Just used the auto settings.

Click for the full size image



Saved the image instantly, no waiting around for 10 seconds like on the 1020

[AmitG]

I decided to take the plunge and order a 950 from Carphone Warehouse since I had a voucher. I spent most of last night setting it up, and unfortunately I hit three showstoppers.

The first is that alarms don't work. Set an alarm, and when it rings, it appears silently on the notification bar but there is no sound. Since I use my phone as an alarm clock this is no good. Looking on the web this appears to be a known problem, and it's astonishing, since it's such a basic piece of functionality. I have phones from 10 years ago where the alarm worked perfectly every time.

The second is in the OneDrive app. If you are browsing pictures on OneDrive, and you click on one, it comes up as expected - but there is no way to go back. You are stuck with the picture. All the soft buttons are disabled. The workaround is to go into the Share menu, then press Windows to get back to the home screen, then start task manager and kill OneDrive, then start again.

The third is that there appears to be no built in text editor, so if you are in OneDrive and click on a text document, you cannot read it. It asks you if you want to search in the Store for a suitable app, but I am completely lost as to which app I am supposed to be searching for. None of the suggested apps look right.

This is after downloading the latest system update along with all 41 application updates, rebooting twice, and searching the web for workarounds.

I have reported the above issues via the feedback tool.

My Lumia 930 did not have any of these problems. So the 950 has gone back in the box, and I am back to the 930. I'll see if the above issues get fixed, and if they do, I'll give the 930 another go. Failing that it will go up for sale. I could just return it now, but I feel like I ought to give it a chance.

I really like where Windows Mobile 10 is going, but this is still beta quality software even with all the updates.

[grumbledoak]

^^^ That's crap. I've never cared that there weren't a million apps on the Windows Store - what I really liked about Win8.1 was that the basic app suite all just worked perfectly out-of-the-box.

[AmitG]

grumbledoak said:

I've never cared that there weren't a million apps on the Windows Store - what I really liked about Win8.1 was that the basic app suite all just worked perfectly out-of-the-box.

Exactly. I'm not a power user and in fact I don't think I installed any extra apps at all on the 930. But I need the basic apps and functions to work well, and right now they just don't.

My worry is that at some point soon, all Windows Mobile 8.1 devices will get forcibly upgraded to Win10 (like they are pushing with desktops), and that this will happen before it's really ready.

[Russ35]

No problem with alarms on mine.

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen should bring up the back,home, search icons

Just tried the text file and I get the same. But works on my 635. Just downloaded an app called NotepadT. Seems to open txt files ok from one drive. If you change the file it doesn't appear to save it, but if you save it as a new file it does. I need to have a further play

[AmitG]

Russ35 said:

No problem with alarms on mine.

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen should bring up the back,home, search icons

Just tried the text file and I get the same. But works on my 635. Just downloaded an app called NotepadT. Seems to open txt files ok from one drive. If you change the file it doesn't appear to save it, but if you save it as a new file it does. I need to have a further play

Thanks Russ35. On the alarms - would you mind taking me through how you are setting up an alarm? I must be doing something really stupid, because I simply cannot get it to work. I have added the alarm to the lock screen and made absolutely sure that it's enabled and has a sound associated with it. I was going to add it as a live tile but I don't seem to be able to - instead, there is a combined tile for alarm/calculator/onedrive which I have kept on the home screen. Is there anything else I should be doing?

On the picture issue, I tried swiping from the bottom up, but I get the picture details, not the icons.

Bit surprised that there is no built in, working text editor. I assumed that text documents would open in Word seeing as that is built in, but they don't.

[Michaelgeeky]

I'm thinking of buying 950 but just hesitating the terrible battery life. How about the battery life? Is it as terrible as other reviews say?

[LeeThr]

Michaelgeeky said:

I'm thinking of buying 950 but just hesitating the terrible battery life. How about the battery life? Is it as terrible as other reviews say?

I've got the XL so a slightly bigger battery. I had some issues with battery life a couple of weeks ago, i.e phone was getting red hot and the battery was going from fully charged to completely dead within 6 or 7 hours if that with very little use. But I think I had an app that wasn't quite right, or there's just been an update installed somewhere I haven't noticed because it's sorted itself out. Phone no longer warms up, not even a tiny bit and the battery life has improved massively. Yesterday I pulled it off charge around 5:30am as I left for work, had it sat with the WiFi & bluetooth on all day, messages coming & going all day and by 1am this morning I still had 35% left which I thought was extremely good going.

[KaraK]

Mine's been pretty comparable to my old 920, steady-ish use sees me hit about 40-50% left after about 17hrs

[AmitG]

I just gave my 950 another try. I powered it up and installed 1 system update and 21 application updates. 30 minutes and 2 reboots later it was ready.

Good news is that 2 out of my 3 issues have gone:

• Alarms now work correctly
• When viewing a picture in OneDrive, you can go back to the previous screen (swipe up now brings up soft buttons, not image details)

The only showstopper remaining for me is not being able to view and edit text documents. I'm baffled as to why this can't be done in Word, seeing as it's installed on the device and seeing as desktop Word lets you do it. Once that's resolved I may be able to switch over.

New gripe: in the calendar week view, which I use all the time, the text is too big. You can only see 3 entries in the box, and there is nothing to indicate the presence of additional entries. My old 930 lets you see 4 entries, despite having a lower resolution screen. I haven't found a way to change that yet.

There are still "fit and finish" issues all over the place. Parts of the UI look rather rushed, which is probably because they were.

Good things:

• Battery life appears to be very good. I am sure that one of the updates has improved it, because it now seems much better than before
• Web browsing is much better than the 930
• HTML emails appear to render much better than on the 930

I must say, it's growing on me. Feels like more of a computer and less of a phone, but in a good way. It reminds me of the early Nokia smartphones that ran Linux, which is probably ironic in some way.

[Russ35]

Not sure if your aware but for anyone with the 950XL (possibly also the 950) you can get a free 1yr subscription to Office365 Personal. Usual price £59.99 per year

This includes 1TB of OneDrive storage, Office installed on a PC, tablet, and phone, and skype minutes.

Download the Lumia Offers app from the store and it should list any offers. Mine shows the Continuum Dock (that I've already claimed) and the Office 365 offer.

• ** Be careful if you already have a Home or University subscription as it may downgrade it. ****

The app took a few attempts to get it to work correctly to get to the offer.

Edited by Russ35 on Monday 18th January 17:25

[Frimley111R]

I really liked the look of these but most user reviews have been average at best, tbh quite disappointing and people are already saying its the precursor to the new Surface phone, even thought there is no evidence one is even in development!