Returning my 950 tomorrow :(

[gmd2618z]

Well, I ran out to the Microsoft store on Friday and excitedly plunked down for the 950. And I have owned 3 separate Lumia Windows phones since launch and have bought within each first week of release each time. Anyway, here's why in brief:

- It gets strangely warm no matter what you do. Listen to music? Get's hot. Send some Txts? Gets hot.
- The feel is just terrible. The case was designed to be replaced. The guy at the store couldn't have been pushier with the addon pack. Really a $35 charger? You mean a $6 dollar USB-C cable and the same dongle I already have in my car?
- I make a call and the screen blacks out. Apparently this is a long standing issue with the OS and front camera / face detection. Never had it happen but it drives me nuts. If this is a ground up replacement it shouldn't still be in the OS/hardware.
- OS pauses at times and then rubber-bands. Unacceptable considering they made the hardware AND OS.

All told, compared to the 950 XL at $50 more with the continuum dock, I plan to return it and go ahead and preorder the 950 XL. There are things that are awesome .. I love the Iris scanner, although its 50/50 on working it seems. The screen is nice, and the glass is fantastic. Battery life is very good and the app store seems improved. The whole process of restoring from a backup was near seamless. And Cortana's updates are amazing. I was traveling today and it had my flight information, distance and travel info from where I was to the airport and weather where I was going. In addition, I found the voice recognition to work better than ever. Oh and this works with Nokia charging plates (hooray!)

My only complaint in purchasing was the MS store had no way to help me activate the phone which was mind boggling to me. I mean, cmon guys Apple was doing that 10 years ago.

So that's my review of the bad stuff. And yes I created an account since I needed to get this out somewhere. Been waiting for this for a long time, my 920 is feeling its age at this point and this was not the catharsis I was seeking. But, I do ~want~ a windows phone and the jazzy new mozo case but I'm going to wait for the XL at this point even if I'm now at the back of the line. Ah well.

G

 

[ven07]

My only complaint in purchasing was the MS store had no way to help me activate the phone which was mind boggling to me

Elaborate please?

In any case sad to hear that you had so many issues :/ Did you try hard resetting once just to check?

 

[Roderick Aspiras]

So can we confirm that the 950 does not have liquid cooling? I think MS just had to release this. I hope the big brother XL will be more favorable. From the looks of it the OS in the 950 is not polished enough. I updated to Windows 10 mobile and it has that .11 which the 950 does not have.

 

[realwarder]

So can we confirm that the 950 does not have liquid cooling? I think MS just had to release this. I hope the big brother XL will be more favorable. From the looks of it the OS in the 950 is not polished enough. I updated to Windows 10 mobile and it has that .11 which the 950 does not have.

One other site (PocketNow?) in a podcast was basically saying that every 808 phone (Priv,950 etc.) got a lot hotter than expected and that it was s myth that processor is cooler. I'd expect the 950XL to be cooler due to liquid cooling and larger size being able to help dissipate the heat.

 

[ven07]

Didn't know that the priv had heating issues :/

 

[dakranii]

So can we confirm that the 950 does not have liquid cooling? I think MS just had to release this. I hope the big brother XL will be more favorable. From the looks of it the OS in the 950 is not polished enough. I updated to Windows 10 mobile and it has that .11 which the 950 does not have.

Daniel's review stated that it does not have liquid cooling, only the XL does.

 

[spaulagain]

Mine doesn't get overly hot. Compared to my 1020, it runs quite smoothly and cool.

 

[Skyway]

One other site (PocketNow?) in a podcast was basically saying that every 808 phone (Priv,950 etc.) got a lot hotter than expected and that it was s myth that processor is cooler. I'd expect the 950XL to be cooler due to liquid cooling and larger size being able to help dissipate the heat.

Not true, go look up benchmarks for both the 808 and 810. The 810 thermal throttles like crazy really fast, the 808 doesn't at all. It has stable clock speeds and consistent performance. There's a reason the 810 has liquid cooling, it needs it.

 

[gmd2618z]

I had to call and activate the phone myself. I would think that the MS store would have had some mechanism for me to activate my phone there.

And yes I did do a hard reset.... and I didn't restore from backup the second time and the call blackout issue was still there. Still the same fix with the front camera activation, but that really is unacceptable at this stage. I am torn, it would be going back alone for the camera issue but I'm not replacing it because I just don't think its $600 of value compared to the 950 xl package.

So product problems, bad price structure and a little buyers remorse. Hopefully I can change my mozo order to the XL.

 

[Bjfcm]

So can we confirm that the 950 does not have liquid cooling? I think MS just had to release this. I hope the big brother XL will be more favorable. From the looks of it the OS in the 950 is not polished enough. I updated to Windows 10 mobile and it has that .11 which the 950 does not have.

Windows 10 Works awesome on my 3 day old 950. This was part of my reasoning for moving from my 1520 with the latest Insiders Preview.

[ to the original thread poster]......

I am very happy with the 950 in everyway. This is an Amazing phone and has worked flawless for me. I am sorry to hear your troubles dear friend(referring to the original thread poster) . I had issues with the 1520 ( went through 3 at launch) I didn't return it because its the phone I wanted .Is there a reason why you don't want to simply replace it ?

 

[ashram]

:
- I make a call and the screen blacks out. Apparently this is a long standing issue with the OS and front camera / face detection. Never had it happen but it drives me nuts. If this is a ground up replacement it shouldn't still be in the OS/hardware..

It's not an issue, my 920 and 830 do this. The screen shuts off if it detects something close, like the side of your head, but also if you cover the front sensors. It's by design.

 

[casab1anca]

- It gets strangely warm no matter what you do. Listen to music? Get's hot. Send some Txts? Gets hot.

Maybe just a defective unit? My 950 stays mostly cool and gets just a bit warm sometimes. A huge improvement from my 920 which used to get hot after a few minutes of doing anything.

 

[Phillip Kuzma]

I waited forever for the 950 and ran out and got it on Saturday. Switched from S3. Within 8 hours I was ready to return it. This is not one operating system across multiple devices. It is multiple operating systems with the same name. I have many apps that I use on my Surface Pro 3 that do not work on the Lumia 950. Total fail for microsoft after all that waiting... I doubt I will ever try another windows phone. Had to pay $35 restocking fee to ATT. They burned me..

Mine got hot as well for basic things.. like texting. And once I hooked up to all my email accounts the phone slowed down. But the lie of one operating system made me return it immediately...

 

[ashram]

I waited forever for the 950 and ran out and got it on Saturday. Switched from S3. Within 8 hours I was ready to return it. This is not one operating system across multiple devices. It is multiple operating systems with the same name. I have many apps that I use on my Surface Pro 3 that do not work on the Lumia 950. Total fail for microsoft after all that waiting... I doubt I will ever try another windows phone. Had to pay $35 restocking fee to ATT. They burned me..

Mine got hot as well for basic things.. like texting. And once I hooked up to all my email accounts the phone slowed down. But the lie of one operating system made me return it immediately...

Not all app are universal, while MS is working on making all their apps universal, not all Devs are or have yet. So it's not a lie. It's using the same kernel as the desktop, Xbox and iot and it's up to developers to make their apps universal.

 

[Charles Hinkle]

Mine get warm during use but is very reliable and smooth. Sounds like you may have a defective one or one that needs a reset.

 

[Prince Pusey]

- It gets strangely warm no matter what you do. Listen to music? Get's hot. Send some Txts? Gets hot.
- The feel is just terrible. The case was designed to be replaced. The guy at the store couldn't have been pushier with the addon pack. Really a $35 charger? You mean a $6 dollar USB-C cable and the same dongle I already have in my car?
- I make a call and the screen blacks out. Apparently this is a long standing issue with the OS and front camera / face detection. Never had it happen but it drives me nuts. If this is a ground up replacement it shouldn't still be in the OS/hardware.
- OS pauses at times and then rubber-bands. Unacceptable considering they made the hardware AND OS.

So that's my review of the bad stuff. And yes I created an account since I needed to get this out somewhere. Been waiting for this for a long time, my 920 is feeling its age at this point and this was not the catharsis I was seeking. But, I do ~want~ a windows phone and the jazzy new mozo case but I'm going to wait for the XL at this point even if I'm now at the back of the line. Ah well.

G

So this is my view based on reviews I have seen so far. The specs is good but the OS is so buggy its a disgrace!

 

[Skyway]

I waited forever for the 950 and ran out and got it on Saturday. Switched from S3. Within 8 hours I was ready to return it. This is not one operating system across multiple devices. It is multiple operating systems with the same name. I have many apps that I use on my Surface Pro 3 that do not work on the Lumia 950. Total fail for microsoft after all that waiting... I doubt I will ever try another windows phone. Had to pay $35 restocking fee to ATT. They burned me..

Mine got hot as well for basic things.. like texting. And once I hooked up to all my email accounts the phone slowed down. But the lie of one operating system made me return it immediately...

You jumped the gun returning it. Mine was kinda the same way at first, laggy and was warm under light use and battery life wasn't that good. Fast forward two days, and everything is perfect. Smooth sailing. I hardly get any lag, the phone doesn't get near as hot, and the battery life is much much better. The phone apparently needs a little time to settle in and learn how you use it. I was debating on returning it too after initial impressions, but I gave it some time and now I love this phone.

 

[feereless]

You jumped the gun returning it. Mine was kinda the same way at first, laggy and was warm under light use and battery life wasn't that good. Fast forward two days, and everything is perfect. Smooth sailing. I hardly get any lag, the phone doesn't get near as hot, and the battery life is much much better. The phone apparently needs a little time to settle in and learn how you use it. I was debating on returning it too after initial impressions, but I gave it some time and now I love this phone.

Im guessing its cortana thats making it all buggy. gathering your lifestyle and data for initial loading/optimizing. after she and bing are done gathering initial data, maybe thats when it stops getting buggy? Plus its probably trying to download all your contacts from facebook and what not too. who knows. glad to hear it goes away after a couple days. waiting on my 950 XL to come

 

[Daniel Rubino]

So can we confirm that the 950 does not have liquid cooling? I think MS just had to release this. I hope the big brother XL will be more favorable. From the looks of it the OS in the 950 is not polished enough. I updated to Windows 10 mobile and it has that .11 which the 950 does not have.

Holy...will you guys drop this liquid cooling thing? It's been stated a thousand times that only the XL has it because 808 does not get that warm.

 

[n7slc]

Mine gets hot enough to be uncomfortable and battery life is horrible. I'm going to be exchanging it today in the hopes that I've got a defective unit. Ordered a cheap $39 640 to get me by just incase the 950 doesn't work out. (I hope it does tho, I love the phone otherwise!)