Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950XL confirmed!

[Denly]

User reviews start popping up on Readit including first time user from Android and Iph and in general happy with it.

there even an IT manager get by a full work day with just continuum, he barely get by the day without reaching for a laptop but he said it is promising.

Even THG gave good review on continuum.

 

[quikah]

The kicker is I can actually get an edu discount on the MBPr, and they can be had in sales for regular consumers. But hey, at least Microsoft doesn't charge for the keyboard this time around :sneaky:

?? you can get 10% edu discount on the surfacebook (shows on their webpage at least, haven't actually bought one). Probably won't be any regular sales for a while since it was just released...

 

[Graze]

User reviews start popping up on Readit including first time user from Android and Iph and in general happy with it.

there even an IT manager get by a full work day with just continuum, he barely get by the day without reaching for a laptop but he said it is promising.

Even THG gave good review on continuum.

Continuum seems to me like niche feature and would be a major selling point of these phones.
The masses would not purchase a Windows Phone for this, only tech heads

 

[tsupersonic]

?? you can get 10% edu discount on the surfacebook (shows on their webpage at least, haven't actually bought one). Probably won't be any regular sales for a while since it was just released...

Oh nice, must be relatively new.

 

[darkswordsman17]

One thing I've seen is people going "I don't know why they went with an iris scanner instead of a fingerprint scanner", like they don't think about winter at all and how fingerprint scanners don't work through gloves. Plus considering how many of them act like the less buttons the better, its like they don't realize it would enable getting rid of another one (or let you make it so it doesn't have to be on the face or back of the phone, so you could have a configurable button on the side that you could make be a dedicated shutter button, power, Home/navigation, or whatever else). Best thing would be if they integrate the fingerprint scanners into the display and also offer iris/face/body recognition. This way you can have a two factor security, or if you have a preference for a need for one you can just use it.

I'm seeing way too many problems with the Surface Book to even consider one till gen 2 or 3 at least.

The reviews of the 950 are underwhelming, hard pass there too.

The rumored Surface Phone sounds much more interesting, but as only MS can do, it'll be a mess

I believe the most recent things Microsoft has hinted at with regards to the Surface phone is that basically the Lumia 950s are their high end devices and will get the Surface branding to differentiate them. Er, I mean they'll also be upgraded, but that they're going for a 3 tier approach. They'll offer the budget 640-esque phones, supposed to come out with some midrange ones, and then the high end ones will become Surface.

I really think the 950 is basically a beta device. It has competent hardware, but they kinda just had to have a device out to show they're serious and show some of the things they're working towards. They want time to polish the software (Edge isn't really ready for instance, and there's plenty of other work that needs to be done in Win10 before it'll be a good phone OS), and so don't want to sink the Surface phone by releasing it with the half-baked state that Win10 on phones is.

Give it a Surface-esque design (and the VaporMg case), get the iris scanner working well (or shrink the Surface's detection sensor to fit), make sure the camera is great, keep the AMOLED display, go with a high end contemporary SoC (which next year should be a big improvement), converge the Continuum dock and the Surface dock into a single device (that could wirelessly charge the phone), maybe add the PixelSense or whatever into the Surface Phone's display (so could use the Surface Pen) and possible make it so that you could use the Surface Phone like a Mighty Mouse, and that would be a hell of a pro-level device.

?? you can get 10% edu discount on the surfacebook (shows on their webpage at least, haven't actually bought one). Probably won't be any regular sales for a while since it was just released...

I think they're already offering some discounts for a Black Friday sale. The problem is they're bundle discounts, but if you're buying Office subscription and maybe some accessories it might work out to be ok. They were showing one for the Surface Pro 4 with choice of a sleeve, keyboard, Office, and maybe something else for like a $1xx discount.

They might not on the Surface Book since they're trying especially hard to establish it as a premium product, but we'll see.

Continuum seems to me like niche feature and would be a major selling point of these phones.
The masses would not purchase a Windows Phone for this, only tech heads

As it is now I would agree (I'd be really interested to see what developers think, I wonder if it might actually be more of a play at them for right now). I know a lot of people that already use their phones as their primary computing device. If they make it so you drop the phone onto/into a charging dock when you get home and then you can control it around your house, I think people would love it.

Especially if Microsoft comes up with some slick dumb terminals (like tablets that are just batteries, network adapters, and displays, with options for keyboards/mice/etc) for cheap, a lot of people would really like that. Keep one in the bathroom (because for some reason people seem to love to spend hours on the toilet playing on their phones/tablets), one by the bed, maybe one in the kitchen for recipes and stuff. (And of course if you have a Win PC and/or an Xbox they could follow you throughout your house without you needing to actually lug them with you as well.)

They could even bridge things by making the Glass app turn devices you already have into that.

 

[sweenish]

The highest end Surface Book (i7/16 GB RAM/1 TB Flash/dGPU) is $3200. The highest end MBP (i7/16 GB RAM/1 TB Flash/dGPU) comes in at $3000.

Let's see, the i7 in the MBPr is a true i7 (4870 HQ), in that it's an actual quad core CPU, where as the i7 used in the SB is the 6600U, which is an ULV chipset, and a dual core CPU. The benchmarks between the two CPU's show the i7 in the MBP being far far superior. Apple needs to refresh the MBPr with Skylake CPU's. You get more ports in the MBPr (even the 13" MBPr), and the MBPr is more configurable in terms of specs/models. The kicker is I can actually get an edu discount on the MBPr, and they can be had in sales for regular consumers. But hey, at least Microsoft doesn't charge for the keyboard this time around :sneaky:

I want to love the Surface Book, but it's expensive, and I'm seeing loads of people w/ problems on the internet. I have a Surface Pro 2 and a MBPr. As versatile as the Surface Pro 2 can be, I much prefer using my MBPr because it's not trying to be something it can't be.

THE HIGHEST END MBP IS $3200. If you can't even get your numbers right, why am I bothering?

A SP2 is not a Surface Book. Moot comparison.

And as has been mentioned, MS offers an education discount on their hardware.

Granted, I didn't take into consideration the CPU differences.

My general point still stands. It fits right in with the competition. Saying it's over-priced may be your opinion, but saying Apple looks reasonable in contrast is wrong.

 

[tsupersonic]

THE HIGHEST END MBP IS $3200. If you can't even get your numbers right, why am I bothering?

A SP2 is not a Surface Book. Moot comparison.

And as has been mentioned, MS offers an education discount on their hardware.

Granted, I didn't take into consideration the CPU differences.

My general point still stands. It fits right in with the competition. Saying it's over-priced may be your opinion, but saying Apple looks reasonable in contrast is wrong.

You can get the 1TB/i7 2.5 GHz for $3k. Step it up to the 2.8 GHz i7 and 1 TB, it's $3200. You can't choose to upgrade the CPU's in the SB outside of the i5/i7 options.

Nope, obviously the SP2 isn't a Surface Book. However, it's still a valid comparison since the SP2 was marketed as a device that's both a laptop and a tablet.

Bottom line, the SB is more expensive when comparing like MBPr configurations. The SB is basically $200 more than the MBPr at like configuration levels. MS has better edu discounts, it's 10% across the board. Apple's edu discount are 5-8%.

 

[Denly]

Continuum seems to me like niche feature and would be a major selling point of these phones.
The masses would not purchase a Windows Phone for this, only tech heads

I'm not a fan of continuum but it is good to know at least it is usable.

smartphone feature are mostly gimmick, WP have some outstanding real life features like camera button, tab anywhere shutter, birthday reminder(I was surprise A/I don't have auto reminder), pin to start(you can pin a WhatsApp group to start screen) just to name a few but people are too obsess with apps.

My point is real user so far giving positive review compare to mostly negative from reviewer.

 

[Deeko]

I got the 950 through work yesterday. Will post more detailed thoughts later, but first impressions - screen is gorgeous (no idea what Verge is saying calling it washed out), camera is excellent, still not as fast as an iPhone but way faster than older Lumias and the quality is still very high, phone is very fast. I've been running Win10 on my HTC One M8 and it was very laggy - amazing how much more fluid it is on the 950. Also unfortunate that it doesn't perform better on lower end devices, which was always WP's niche, but maybe that will improve with updates to the OS. That's a Win10 issue, not a 950 issue, so moving on.

Build quality is, as expected, poor. The back plate feels like the same one from the Lumia 640 and that's not a compliment. I don't have a problem with plastic - loved the build of the Lumia 920 / 800 - but this is CHEAP plastic. At least it's replaceable? Some of the 3rd party ones look pretty nice....

Battery life seems pretty bad so far, but I never judge a phone's battery after the first day...I use it too much, it's downloading / updating too much in the background, etc, so I'll withhold judgement there.

Iris scanner works great for me (thanks LASIK), but it's not as fast as I'd like, to be honest I can type in my PIN faster than it can find me, but as was mentioned earlier, it's got the added bonus that it will work well with gloves on.

 

[middlehead]

Anybody seen an estimate for when Microsoft will ship the unlocked 950 in the US? My brother is looking for a new phone, but only the AT&T version appears to be shipping here and that's $50 more for no good reason

 

[maevinj]

Anybody seen an estimate for when Microsoft will ship the unlocked 950 in the US? My brother is looking for a new phone, but only the AT&T version appears to be shipping here and that's $50 more for no good reason

They come in and out of stock on the store. I've quizzed down the online chat reps, but they have no answer. Does your brother live near a Microsoft store?

 

[middlehead]

Closest is Minneapolis, which isn't close at all

Are they actually already selling it online? That'd be disappointing if they are, considering I have two emails that were supposed to get alerted when sales started and I've gotten no such messages.

 

[maevinj]

Closest is Minneapolis, which isn't close at all

Are they actually already selling it online? That'd be disappointing if they are, considering I have two emails that were supposed to get alerted when sales started and I've gotten no such messages.

Yes they are selling them online. They seem to go in and out of stock fairly quickly.
Yes the email alerts are worthless. I've pointed this out to Microsoft sales support many times. I missed the initial pre-order wave because I never received an email alert.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I left BB10 for Android. I have this to say. I don't thinkpeople realize how badthe Android OS really is.

I am tempted to get rid of my Moto G right now in order to get teh 950 XL. IfI have to transition to sometihng, it might as well be somethingthat might be useful.

To be specific, I can not believe that Android doesn't have anything like The Hub yet (BB10). It's now 2015 Google!

 

[Crono]

Bottom line, the SB is more expensive when comparing like MBPr configurations. The SB is basically $200 more than the MBPr at like configuration levels. MS has better edu discounts, it's 10% across the board. Apple's edu discount are 5-8%.

I'd gladly pay (or did gladly, just got my Surface Book) that $200 difference for the pen and touchscreen. You'd have to get a different Apple device, the iPad Pro, for those features and have to be okay with using iOS versus a full desktop OS.

 

[middlehead]

The Unlocked 950 sale page at least says "Out of Stock" now instead of "email when available," so they're finally admitting it's up for sale.

 

[middlehead]

AT&T version is now 'on sale' for the price of the Unlocked, if you're willing to take the AT&T unit.

 

[wasabiman123]

Tempting but the software isn't there yet for me, my 640 will amuse me until the price drops further, especially since it's not even on W10 yet.

 

[Griffinhart]

I have been sporting the 950XL for a month now. I'd like to give some of my impressions so far, but first a little phone history for me.

My first smartphone was a Galaxy IIS. I used it for about a year, but was never really that impressed by it. It was ok, but I found it to be annoyingly sluggish from time to time.

After a year, I tried the Nokia 920. I really liked this phone. It was/is indestructible. It performed better than the previous galaxy and battery life was similar to the galaxy. Bluetooth connectivity to my Car (A ford) mostly worked, but it was quirky at times. Especially for the Audible app.

This summer I got a Galaxy 6S Edge. It was ok, but I found annoying performance issues from time to time. Sometimes just unlocking the phone was sluggish. And Battery life, even with no apps open, GPS and other services off, was terrible. Bluetooth connectivity was flawless. I never had an issue.

Last month, I got the 950XL. I am really liking the phone. It is much snappier than my Edge, The display is awesome. Battery life is excellent, Standby battery life is noticeably better. So far the Bluetooth connectivity has been perfect as well.

I wouldn't say it's cheaply built. The plastic back cover doesn't make it feel premium though, I have a leather back cover on order. The only real complaint I have is the lack of apps. While I have most of the apps I need, I can't really use my phone to interface with a lot of gadgets as they typically are only created for IOS and Android. A few have workarounds, my Echo can be controlled by the browser, so I don't need the app.

One thing noticeably absent is a fingerprint reader. That said, the reader on my edge was a pain. It only worked about half the time so I just had to disable it and use a straight PIN to unlock. By contrast, my ipad's fingerprint reader has never been an issue. This brings me to the Windows Hello feature. Reading reviews, I was getting mixed reactions over it. Reviews saying it works fine to terrible with glasses. Being an eyeglass wearer, I was worried that it would be a problem. I am pleasantly surprised with it so far. It works with or without my glasses on. Fingerprint readers may be a bit more "natural" to use, but this isn't bad.

I do like that I have access to the battery and that I have a microSD slot.

Now, Friday I got my free Continuum dock. I do like it a lot, but it needs a lot of refinement yet. It makes the phone look very similar to the desktop OS. This is an important distinction. It still behaves like a phone OS. right clicking usually does nothing. There is no windowing of apps (at least I haven't seen an obvious way). You can't store files on the desktop, or interact with the desktop. It's simply a background. Obviously, no X86 apps.

I spent a few hours using it as a PC over the weekend. Surfing the web, watching youtube videos, emails and the like. For these basic tasks, plus the Universal app version of Office, It's quite useful. Quite snappy too. Not as useful as a full desktop PC or laptop since you can't window things, but it is something I can work on for a day or two and be reasonably productive. It really shows a promising future of what windows phone can be. Time will tell if it actually happens.

Honestly, if MS made a Surface Phone that behaved like the 950XL normally and then turned into an x86 windows 10 machine that could window apps and use the desktop I would buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[sweenish]

I left BB10 for Android. I have this to say. I don't thinkpeople realize how badthe Android OS really is.

I am tempted to get rid of my Moto G right now in order to get teh 950 XL. IfI have to transition to sometihng, it might as well be somethingthat might be useful.

To be specific, I can not believe that Android doesn't have anything like The Hub yet (BB10). It's now 2015 Google!

Based on your other thread, you just don't know your way around Android.

 

[IamDavid]

I was pissed MS didn't release this on ATT so I switched to the IPhone 6S Plus. Now I feel like an idiot, I can't get around how clunky and non-fluid IOS is...

I've looked for somewhere to buy the 950XL now and can't find any in stock, neither MS stores in DFW, MS online still shows coming soon and the only Amazon ones are the single sim/non warranty version. Either MS make just a handful of these devices or the demand isn't too bad.

Anyone know where to pick one of these up at? NOT EBAY.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I was pissed MS didn't release this on ATT so I switched to the IPhone 6S Plus. Now I feel like an idiot, I can't get around how clunky and non-fluid IOS is...

I'm about a month off of BB10 and on Android. I can not stand Android. It's slow, disorganized and clunky. I have to search Google just to figure out how to make trivial changes. I don't think people realize how bad Android is.

I want to leave Android and if a new BB10 phone comes out at a good price point, my Moto G will be up for sale. That or a lower cost Windows phone. $550 is way to much for a smartphone (I wanted the 950 XL).

 

[Commodus]

I'm about a month off of BB10 and on Android. I can not stand Android. It's slow, disorganized and clunky. I have to search Google just to figure out how to make trivial changes. I don't think people realize how bad Android is.

I want to leave Android and if a new BB10 phone comes out at a good price point, my Moto G will be up for sale. That or a lower cost Windows phone. $550 is way to much for a smartphone (I wanted the 950 XL).

From the sounds of it, you're not getting another BB10 device any time soon. John Chen suggested that the future for BlackBerry (at least in the short term) is more Android. Which isn't surprising, because let's face it... he wants to actually make money, and he won't do that with BB10 when too few people still care for it.

$550 isn't too much for a smartphone, in my mind. Remember, this is arguably the most important piece of tech in your life; it's probably with you most of the day, and it does everything from phone calls to email to web to gaming to photography. Paying extra is worthwhile if it's going to improve a vital tool.

 

[IamDavid]

I finally ordered a 950XL once the Microsoft store had it in stock last week. received the phone Friday and switched over immediately.

Here's my impressions for the first 48hrs:
Had to update to the newest WP10 right away.

*Build quality is nice. Lightweight and NOT cheap feeling despite what others have mentions. I really like the feel. Surprisingly lighter than the 6s Plus. Removable back/battery is nice, already have a second battery on order. I travel allot. One thing I don't care for is the power button placement, on the side between two other buttons. No biggie, just not sure why.

*Screen is beautiful, crisp and all around excellent. Then again what mid to high end phone doesn't have a good screen nowadays?

*Photos\Video are absolutely stunning. Puts IPhone 6s Plus to shame. I did have 1 picture freeze my phone for about 10 seconds. I've taken ~50 along with a few videos. Low light photos are great.

*Micro SD Slot = Perfect! Every phone ever made should have one. Lack of one on the iPhone is a major reason I can't stay on the 6s Plus. I travel carrying gigs of music, movies along with constantly adding more and more photos and videos. Not sure how people like me cope with the limited space without sd cards. Internet access isn't always available.

*Iris login is "neat. Huge potential but it needs about 6-8" better range. I'd give fingerprint login a light edge for now. Surface book iris login is amazing.

*WP10 is fast, fluid and totally simple to use just like WP8.1. Not quite sure if the "tweaks" are enough to justify a 8.1 to 10 jump.

*Wireless display is great. I use wireless display a couple times a week with my surface book, maybe this will replace it.

*Apps are still lacking of course but I'm not really an app user so no big deal. Every company has a mobile site so no loss for banking, traveling or any other commerce.

*Lack of payment system like Apple Pay doesn't matter yet. I was 2 out of 27 when trying to use Apple Pay for the month I was on the 6s Plus. Most claimed they had it but the machine was "down" Only could swipe cards.

*Office integration is perfect. Outlook is the best email client in the world and despite it being on IPhone it's no where close to the same. Anyone who receives 200+ emails a day will understand. -OneDrive integration is awesome.

*Battery life is good so far. I'll really test it out this week.

*Ordered but haven't received the Display Dock.

*Bottom line is this phone is NOT worth $700 I paid for it but NO phone is. It is however worth the money over spending the same on an IPhone for me.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Nice review. Ya, the price is the issue. Flagships should cost $400, not $700. And even then, I don't need $400 hardware. So, I'm hoping for a $300 Windows phone next upgrade (2 years from now)