The Lumia 950 and its bigger brother XL are the first two devices running on Windows 10 officially. That’s nice, but next to the new operating system, there are plenty of reasons to be excited by this great phone. We went with them to work.
We could for this review to get started with the Lumia 950 XL, but not with the Lumia 950. Both devices, however, the battery after about the same. We additionally wrote a separate review on Windows 10 Mobile. Which can be found here.
Classical aspects
If you are a fan of the Lumia, you can completely manage with the Lumia 950 XL. That fact has that typical look you’re used to Microsoft phone. The device has a plastic back that is easy to remove, so the battery can be replaced quickly. It is also possible to expand the memory with micro SD, which should also include the back.
Although the Lumia 950 XL is a lot thicker than most other phones (at that price) you do brand by weight, not much. The device feels very light and is not too heavy in your hand.
Gorgeous screen
The Lumia has a gorgeous screen and removable battery
In addition to the removable battery We are always very pleased with Lumia devices across the screen and even there it should be alright along with the 950 XL. The 5.7 “screen (or 5.2″ for ordinary 950) has an OLED screen of 2560 x 1440 pixels, and it looks crisp out. It is one of the most beautiful scenes we’ve seen in ages.
Poor battery life
When we first tested the Lumia 950 XL, we were shocked by the lousy battery duration which turned out to be no more than 5 hours. Meanwhile, Microsoft has released a software update for the device so the battery life should be improved. There you see something back, but still the Lumia 950 XL does not have the best battery that we have ever seen. You get still “only” eight hours off, which is actually enough for a device that you should use so intense during eg the work.
USB-C
does not make it easier that the Lumia 950 XL has a USB-C connector. That’s still unconventional, so you have to take your cables with you every day, but at the same time USB-C or future-oriented and is the new standard to charge both devices in the future when connecting to a monitor.
Log Windows Hello
Sign in to an iris scan works well, but not very fast
Windows 10 comes with some important new features, including biometric login using Windows Hello is one. The function is in the Lumia 950 XL, so you can unlock your phone with an eye scan. This works surprisingly quickly, though it log in with a PIN probably just a bit faster. It is therefore questionable whether much you want to use Windows Hello this way.
Continuum: no laptop replacement
Continuum is another useful feature of Windows 10. That you turn your phone into fully-fledged PC, by using a special linking dock to a monitor. The feature works by apps not only to enlarge the screen, but really to emulate. How this works exactly, have good written our colleagues from PCM.
While that sounds very nice on paper, Continuum has been in practice a feature that has a lot of bugs, is unstable, and where few apps out Office, Outlook and OneDrive support offer. That way Continuum is not really to be used as a replacement for your laptop. Maybe Continuum is interesting if ultimately more applications unfortunately be compatible, but for now you’ll have little to.
Windows 10, with all its flaws
Windows 10 unfortunately still suffer the infamous “app gap”
Without a doubt the most interesting part of the Lumia 950 is Windows 10. the 950 along with the cheaper 550 the first device that comes standard with the new operating system. That is very nice and definitely improve Windows 8 already provides the app gap still problems. Missing just too many apps in the store, so you have to rely on third party applications and third-party developers, or simply a wrapper of a mobile website.
We wrote earlier this review on windows 10 mobile which we go deeper into all the details of the new operating system.
Conclusion
the Lumia 950 XL is an excellent first Windows 10 device. Especially the screen is gorgeous, but also features such as Windows Hello Continuum and add some fun to the device. It is unfortunate that the battery is not so good, and you have to live with the flaws of Windows 10, but if you look around there is the Lumia 950 (XL) a great phone.
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