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Review: Microsoft Lumia 950 XL

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Comments (25)
  1. Katlyn Connelly says:

    I don't think "hot-swap" batteries is the right term to use. That actually led me to think that you can actually swap the batteries with the phone still running

  2. Dina Harber says:

    While the lack of apps in undeniable, especially when it comes to productivity apps (Autodesk apps are gorgeous on Android, but most of them are not available to WP), i can't stop laughting when writers take Instagram app as an example. Come on guys, Instagram is one of the most used app on the planet, that's for sure, but there are some great alternatives on WP (6tag is one of them, and it's even better than Instagram app on Android).

  3. Tyson Stroman says:

    Well, I used it but switched soon to Onenote. I opened the app on the 950 XL and the web and I don't see differences. The only thing I miss of Evernote is the easy reminder in the free version but I prefear to pay for Office 365 than for Evernote!

  4. Fannie Bahringer says:

    If you have to choose between Office 365 and Evernote Premium but haven't invested in Evernote its a good choice. Evernote plus is $21.97 for a year Office 365 is a bit pricier at $69.99 per year but you get the whole office plus extra space on OneDrive etc. Good deal if you use it.

  5. Abagail Klein MD says:

    Damn you TechRadar. Always reissuing stories as "revised" but never showing in any way what might have been changed. I can't see anything that might have been updated. Come on, we need a changelog.

  6. Jacques Hayes says:

    Agree, love the replacable back, one reason i buy the 950XL. Although the OS is so so. Simple things are missing, i get frustrated i dont have contacts right in the dialer + touchID is badly missin + browser feels slow and not as good as Safari on my 6S plus.
    But overall pretty decent i say. Again love the SD, removable battery 🙂

  7. Katlynn Schaden says:

    The new knob layout i love it i never mistaked the camera buttten with the power knob . Low light is really superb its almost like an dslr colors are well kept in low light. Look at those metal phone when used withouth coover they look like garbage over a year this phone would look stil great . I love the polycarbonate and the freedom too chose an awesome leather cover from Mozo. Iphone and androids are toys compared too this phone with the same build windows on my PC. Get over it apps metal blah blah u tech guys drool too much on old stuff.. Technique means going forward and change and microsoft is all doing that lately. get over your XP times. This is a great Phone with no battery issues too.

  8. Alison Wilkinson says:

    I tried WP on a Lumia 535, never again, I was forced to use it when I misplaced my charger for my iPhone and boy it was a horrible experience, WP sucks, big time especially the mail app and YouTube alternatives, their UI is just horrible, it like YouTube using IE, when I found my iPhone charger, I couldn't wait to start using my iPhone again and dumped my 535, even finding the back up options on WP is terrible compared to the iPhone, personally I'll never use WP again, I'd much rather use Android than WP but I prefer and always will prefer iPhone and iOS over the both of them. WP didn't even have my favourite newspaper app, The Mirror,how lame so it's not only the app gap that hurts WP, it's the fact that WP or W10 isn't good enough against the iPhone (I could care less about Android as I'm team Apple and plan getting an iPad again and Mac as Apple's ecosystem is simply unmatched).

  9. Devante Bailey says:

    The USB C rant is lame! It's the future – deal with it! Simple solution is get yourself a small inexpensive USB adapter so you can still use your old cables and enjoy the slower data transfer and slower charging that using them will give you!

  10. Donato Bergstrom says:

    Whoa! What an odd review! Written from the point of view of somebody who has issues from accepting progress to finding his cables, this article is so biased, it could be misleading if one really took it seriously. Grow up, man!

  11. Cordia Brakus says:

    What is wrong with these fricking writers, this is nokia's design dumbasses

  12. Kailee Barrows says:

    And excel, powerpoint and so on…

  13. Nicklaus Volkman says:

    The OS is not "s so" and had numerous features and functionality improvement over Android and IOS when first introduced nearly 6 years ago (yeah hard to believe WP has been out almost 6 years)

    as some examples , in late 2010, WP had, without having to add a single app, a very good predictive text keyboard, cloud integration on skydrive for contacts calendar etc, as it was called back then, native Facebook integration, you could pick up a new phne and simply enter password and ID and be fully synced up within a few minutes, integrated MS Office, HTML5 support, and a lot of other stuff. I have never run into a single thing I could not do on Windows phone, it has sandboxed apps so malware is literally unheard of, and I've had maybe 5 crashes, all of which happened when I was screwing around with beta OS releases.

    Also the a so called app gap is a myth unless you've really gotta have 500 ripoffs of angry birds. A large portion of both platforms app stores are fluff and redundant copies of widely used apps.

    IOS and Android lagged far behind in many areas… example: Apple acted like it was a groundbreaker when they introduced native predictive text early last year, literally 5 years after WP

    also, I've actually used IOS and Android numerous times over the years and WP is still more intuitive and takes less keystrokes per task that them.

    about 100% of the time, people po poo ing WP are fan boys who have never actually used it except for picking up a handset in the ATT store for 5 minutes.

  14. Demarcus Lind says:

    Sorry to say but i have all 3 OS:es (LG G4, iPhone 6s Plus and 950 XL) but between these the 950XL is the worst at browsing and the app quality is just poor. And yes there is a gap. For instance my band dont have a app for WP and its the biggest band in Sweden. But sure most essential things are there. But still apps like say Spotify which i use daily is very poorly made. Its sluggish at best, UI is bad and its just not the same level of quality on Android/iOS.
    Same with games. i just started playing Hungry Sharks and thought i play it on my WP but man it lags. On my G4 which isnt even as powerful as the 950 its smooth as my iPhone.
    So WP is pretty bad in comparison to other phones in high segment.
    Its a good phone but no question its really behind the others in many aspects.

  15. Sidney Lesch says:

    Google won't make apps for Microsoft because they hate microsoft. It has nothing to do with their confidence in Windows Phone. Google literally has a vendetta against microsoft….

  16. Leif Batz says:

    1)Specs overkill ;O) that's a first. If you can get more in ..do it.

    Continuum seems to have passed you by. One of the more interesting areas of the Lumia 950 is its ability to 'become a PC'.
    Think about that for a minute. Finally a phone that also can be your mobile PC. Ideal for field agents, plugin in the phone to acces keyboard and a bigger screen having the OS adapt and act as a "full" PC and at the same time use to phone for calls and SMS? This isn't a lame iPhone office mock up, this is Microsoft OFFICE ..Beat that ;O)

    2) Holding on to your Micro-usb, what's that about? Are you unaware of iPhone having to use a adapter together with micro usb??
    Standards change for a reason.

    USB -C cable can now charge at up to 100W at 20V, whereas most smartphones are limited to 18-24W.
    Think about that for a minute, …plugin a car charger, run GPS all day on 3D maps, background task in LOB Apps without draining the battery.

  17. Destany Funk says:

    the lack of apps i use is putting me off so much. Snapchat, an actual YouTube app, the rest of the Google lot, videos on Instagram, and all the Sky apps, such as Go, Plus and Wifi. I don't care about alternatives to YouTube, Google apps and Snapchat, I want the actual official. If Google won't make this own apps for Windows Phone, which is owned by the giant Microsoft, what does that tell you about their confidence in the OS. Once the official Snapchat and Google apps come, i'll consider it.

  18. Lindsey Casper says:

    the reason of shortage of apps is the developers and companies. the app should be developed regards to device.

  19. Ernestina Wyman says:

    "When you're spending the sort of money on a handset that could buy you a week's holiday for two, the experience has to reflect that, and that experience starts when you first pick up the device."

    When you are spending that kind of money you want a device that is more than just a fashion accessory that you will consign to a landfill site when your contract is up. If you value functionality, maintainability and longevity you will appreciate that the polycarbonate back of the 950/950XL is a positive thing. You can replace the back if it scratches or gets damaged in a fall. Or if you fancy one of the premium leather Mozo covers / flip cases for a change of style. You will appreciate that it aids antenna reception, incorporates wireless charging, and can be easily removed to access the replaceable battery, SIM card and SD card slots without resorting to a bent paper clip like those "premium phones"

  20. Guy Kertzmann says:

    "more likely to be seen in the pocket of a used-car salesman than a trend-setter."

    "but whether the phone might melt internally beforehand is another question altogether"

    … and you call yourself a "Windows phone apologist"?

    You also mention that the OS is "buggy" in several places, but you never talk about specific instances of bugs… that I could find. Got any real examples?

  21. Dr. Brennan Leffler says:

    The sad thing about Windows phones is that while they have the performance of something like an iPhone in terms of optimization, it's late to the game in apps.

    Microsoft was probably a little too used to having all the apps on their PC.

  22. Madaline Donnelly says:

    He's entitled to do what he wants.

  23. Mrs. Winifred Romaguera says:

    Yeah, Band apps and games are a ridiculous measure of the so called app gap, the edge browser is very quick and this phone has never ever hitched on me once…

    nice try fanboy

  24. Antwon Kertzmann says:

    I can't believe someone has a problem with USB C. Micro USB is garbage. So happy for USB C

  25. Savanna Graham says:

    Love mine!
    At least half of the problems must be something wrong with the review model. Battery life is brill, I put my phone on charge last night at 40% which had never happened with my S4. They had this with the Band 2 as well, the review made no sense to the device.
    Yes there are some apps missing however everything else is brilliant and the apps should follow. The thing that makes no sense is apps I have on my pc and I cannot get them on the phone which makes no sense as the whole point of same OS was same apps or am I missing something.
    Cannot wait for my dock to arrive to try continuium.

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