Fondling the 950XL with Photos

Witness

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The other day, I read in the comments that the 950XL was in the MS Store! But, I didn't have time to actually fondle the new phone until the past weekend. So that you get a sense where I'm coming from, I broke my beloved 920, got an iPhone 6 to qualify for TMO's ETF reimbursement, bought and broke a L640 within two weeks. I haven't tried WP10 at all. It was pretty cool to be standing there and have 4 people come by specifically to look at the new phone. One lady checked it out and wondered aloud to her husband if this is something they can get for the office, to which I asked if she's seen Contiuum in action. After telling her what it is and how I intend to use it, she got really interested. Hopefully she'll be back to give it a shot. I spent about 10min checking it out, but also had to check out the SP4 and Band 2 while the family was getting impatient, so I got what I got here. Enjoy.

Here's the phone. They didn't have the 950 which is the one I intended to get, but having held it, it really didn't feel all that big or heavy. Now I'm not so sure which one to buy. It feels nice in hand, slim and the case didn't creak.
IMG_7285.JPGIMG_7286.JPGIMG_7287.JPG

The most critical thing about the phone's hardware for me is the camera. I wished I remembered to actually pull an image file off the phone to post here. The options for the camera is much like you'd find in the Lumia Camera app which suits me just fine. It has a nice wide angle - side rant: It has a nice wide angle so you'd shoot your stills and video in the PROPER orientation, unlike the 90% of iPhone users who shoot video vertically, smh. Anyways, nice wide angle. Here's the menu and I zoom in on the photo with the double tap which is probably a 50% zoom, then pinch-zoom to the maximum to see detail. Definitely not L1020 clarity, but I think this is sufficient. It's not like anyone is going to make a poster with a phone image. Bracketing is in there, which is nice. Camera snapped photo to photo very quickly and the burst is well, bursty. I believe you can change the photo res to either a 5 or 8MP image (I forget), but it is definitely a welcomed option. I don't need to take a photo at max res all the time (iP6 doesn't have an easy option).

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The best thing about the iPhone 6 is the Slo-Mo video, which was subsequently made less usable with the release of iOS 9. I used to be able to select between 120 or 240fps. Sometimes I don't need things slowed down that much and sometimes I'd rather shoot 120fps because it requires less light to get a proper exposure - Apple, you screwed it up. Anyways, I was really hoping to find it on the Lumia, but alas the only way I can slow things down is by shooting at 60fps and output at 30fps. If they can do this in a future update, my head would explode. In slow motion. Anyways, shooting video was very smooth. The OIS was doing it's job, but not in the smoothness that I remembered when shooting with the L920. You can adjust things like the exposure and even WB while shooting, but there's a very distinct click sound as you're making adjustments which also gets recorded. There should be a way to turn it off - there better be. Here are the different shooting options in video.

IMG_7292.JPG


I launched Excel to see if there was anything new since it's supposed to appear like the full version when using Contiuum. Other than having all the insertion options, formulas and whatnot it seems intact. When I began typing, I noticed ThinkPad-like stick mouse on the keyboard. I used it to navigate between cells, but didn't bother checking to see if this cursor is persistent throughout the phone.
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Popping off the back plate was fairly simple. It is locked in pretty good. Prying it off I noticed these contact points from the phone to the case. Not sure what it is for.

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That's pretty much all I got, so I hope this helped you either by deciding if you'd like to get a 950XL or if I at least fed your WP lust. I'll be editing this post later to add links for the Band 2 and SP4 in case you're interested.
 

pjm1891

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Seriously it just looks better and better in every picture! Hated the renders, now I think it's gorgeous! To bad there aren't any MS stores over here so I can look at one in person.
 

Witness

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Seriously it just looks better and better in every picture! Hated the renders, now I think it's gorgeous! To bad there aren't any MS stores over here so I can look at one in person.

Hence the reason why I had to shoot some photos. It's for folks like you that don't have one close by to really examine it. Yes, the more I held it and looked at it, the more I liked how it looked. I wish they had the back covers to check out. Those covers will definitely win some people over.
 

JaimitoFrog

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Biggest diff with icon and 1020 was how fast you can shoot from phone in standby, and frames per sec. Got off at least 4-5 frames per sec by tapping on the screen. When u review them right away, it has a short lag while it processes all those frames, but it wasn't slow.
 

theefman

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No. She's further away than you think. And twice the pixels isn't going to make her face perfect!

Nope, she's not that far away (you can see her at the top of the shot in the 8th pic) and this is exactly where the lossless zoom of the 1020 comes into play with those delicious 41MP.
 

TechFreak1

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The little nub is persistent throughout the O/S, makes navigating through files and text much easier (if you're like me, who always happens to end up typing long essays as opposed to short sms messages lol).

Thanks for the images!

Pity no 950 in the stores... really want to see some 950 images :grincry:.
 

Witness

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I'm sure orange shirt lady appreciated you taking these pictures and posting them on the internet.

:evil:

She's now a WindowsCentral star! :cool:

Well, I had to sacrifice somebody in the store for the sake of the test and she was seated at the right distance and angle of view to get a good idea on image quality. :evil:
 

Jakoh

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I'm sure orange shirt lady appreciated you taking these pictures and posting them on the internet.

:evil:

Thats America for you.

But i wanna ask, how is the autofocus?
Since there is no laser focus or phase shift "pixel" focus, is the focus slow and unreliable.
I hate having the camera button but having to touch the screen to focus.
 

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