Switching platforms? | Thinking of leaving?...comment here!

[TechAbstract]

@Werentuckl I do miss glance and double tap too. Apple maps is not that great. No way to avoid toll road. Google Maps and Waze are top notch. Here and CoPilot I use when offline. The fingerprint reader on iPhone only takes one press on home button to sign in even when screen is off. Pretty much instantly.

 

[libra89]

@Werentuckl is a hero. I got my 950 yesterday and I was having mms issues. I did everything possible and no luck. However, thanks to him and his patience (trending thread! lol), it's working. The 950 doesn't feel huge and the camera is great. I was ready to return it but now I can set it up.

First impressions:
-Not too big, seems like it is barely wider than the 640.
-Too early to say for battery life.
-The camera is really nice.
-It gets kind of hot every now and then.

 

[Werentuckl]

Stahp making me awkwardd womannnnnnnn!!!!! I was borderline this close to hiding behind a couch or something because I dont know what to say and uh... basically.. clueless. Yesh. Basically. And uhm. Yes. So I dont know what to say. I guess this is what it feels like. Being a potato.

I sent you a PM when we were starting out on that thread. I just realised if you'd checked then, the thread would probably never have gotten trending.

And its a very good phone Libra. The battery, performance, and the heat issues, are all supposed to get figured out over the coming few weeks with the RS updates. Everyone's saying the phones really come into their own with these newer RS builds. So if I were you, I'd really keep my fingers crossed for the next couple of weeks. For the rollercoaster to really start. And the experience to flesh out. And to really start liking your new device/toy.

I'm guessing small hands though, because I remember you posting somewhere about the 640 or 5" being the threshold mark to your phone size tolerance.

So yeah. Whew. Thank you. Basically

-- W

 

[wgs84]

The camera is really nice.

So how does the 950's camera handle HDR and Living Images shots? On the Lumia 640 (14393.5 with camera app version 2016.729.11.0), photos still sometimes don't save correctly. Living Images work half the time, and HDR sometimes works, but sometimes results in a 1280x720px image. I sometimes wonder if it'll work as intended on a made-for-W10m phone.

 

[libra89]

Stahp making me awkwardd womannnnnnnn!!!!! I was borderline this close to hiding behind a couch or something because I dont know what to say and uh... basically.. clueless. Yesh. Basically. And uhm. Yes. So I dont know what to say. I guess this is what it feels like. Being a potato.

I sent you a PM when we were starting out on that thread. I just realised if you'd checked then, the thread would probably never have gotten trending.

And its a very good phone Libra. The battery, performance, and the heat issues, are all supposed to get figured out over the coming few weeks with the RS updates. Everyone's saying the phones really come into their own with these newer RS builds. So if I were you, I'd really keep my fingers crossed for the next couple of weeks. For the rollercoaster to really start. And the experience to flesh out. And to really start liking your new device/toy.

I'm guessing small hands though, because I remember you posting somewhere about the 640 or 5" being the threshold mark to your phone size tolerance.

So yeah. Whew. Thank you. Basically

-- W

Aww, I'm sorry but I can't just not acknowledge how you helped me out. I randomly just saw the PM after it started working haha.
It seems to be pretty cool, thanks again for helping me keep it xd Hopefully all of that would treat me well. I'm looking forward to it.

Haha nah. I have long fingers but I'm all about the one handed phone usage. If I can't use a phone one handed decently, I start to dislike it, like what happened with the Robin for me. The 950 already feels better in the hand over that one. I prefer 5" and under personally but after trying three 5.2" phones, I learned that they all feel differently in the hand.

You are welcome

So how does the 950's camera handle HDR and Living Images shots? On the Lumia 640 (14393.5 with camera app version 2016.729.11.0), photos still sometimes don't save correctly. Living Images work half the time, and HDR sometimes works, but sometimes results in a 1280x720px image. I sometimes wonder if it'll work as intended on a made-for-W10m phone.

I am one of the oddballs that doesn't like Living Images so I can't speak on that. I need more time with the camera to give you a good opinion on that. I was impressed with the quality of my random shots.

 

[Callum_Smith]

Sigh, Update on a few more reasons I'm ready to leave for good.

* phone sometimes won't have mobile data, It's toggled on, and its not the network as people on the same network provider in class next to me have full 4G.
* When I toggle it on/off as soon as I click on mobile data in the drop down menu the phone freezes. Every. damn. time

* Apps constantly crash, edge is by far the worst. Seems to happen every few tabs that I open, or when sometimes clicking in the address bar.

* Clicking on the power button on the side doesn't wake the phone up. I have to hold it down until the "slide down to power off" screen comes on, where at this point I then tap the home button.

* My God, the camera speed is horrid. "adding finishing touches", what is the phone doing? My mates S7 edge can take 10 photos and few them all by the time my 950 takes one and adds finishing touches, which frankly the image isn't all that great.

 

[Werentuckl]

Callum, the 950's were really buggy at launch and alot of those issues have persisted overtime because of the wealth of ghost registries and other quirks that the updates leave behind them without a clean wipe. Could give it a last shot staying and do a hard reset on your phone, preferably after updating to the latest RS builds. Along with the newer firmware updates, you might just be pleasantly surprised yet still. Give it a last shot still.

And oh shush Libra, stop being all cutesy with me. I dont think Fire29's going to appreciate that too much. I joke! I joke! But you really need to stop doing this to me. Now I have small hands, and long fingers stuck in my head. -__-

Honest to goodness though, 5.2" phones are actually great in a number of cases, mainly because they fall in the same chassis sizes as the older 5" phones because of better screen to body ratios and smaller bezels. So you get more screen for the same amount of body. Its just like what Dell has been doing with their XPS line of notebooks with their screen bezels. You get a 15" notebook in the chassis of a 14-13" notebook. Ad I think thats a pretty great direction to move in towards.

I know my ATIV SE is visibly smaller than my 640, and thats a whole lot more hardware for the same amount of screen.

-- W

 

[libra89]

And oh shush Libra, stop being all cutesy with me. I dont think Fire29's going to appreciate that too much. I joke! I joke! But you really need to stop doing this to me. Now I have small hands, and long fingers stuck in my head. -__-

Honest to goodness though, 5.2" phones are actually great in a number of cases, mainly because they fall in the same chassis sizes as the older 5" phones because of better screen to body ratios and smaller bezels. So you get more screen for the same amount of body. Its just like what Dell has been doing with their XPS line of notebooks with their screen bezels. You get a 15" notebook in the chassis of a 14-13" notebook. Ad I think thats a pretty great direction to move in towards.

I know my ATIV SE is visibly smaller than my 640, and thats a whole lot more hardware for the same amount of screen.

-- W

Lol. I wonder if he ever ran into that med student again. I don't have small hands, that wouldn't be possible as a combo xd Long fingers usually go with long arms and limbs.

You're right, they are. I had the Nexus 5x and that phone was pretty cool but the tallness was really annoying. Seeing that the 950 is shorter than it by a bit, made me also consider trying it. I agree about the direction being good, I like it too. I liked the Robin more than it though, mainly because of how it looks, that was just really big. Hopefully the 950 wouldn't feel the same to me.

Funny that you mention the size difference between your 640 and ATIV SE, that's probably really interesting. I really want to put my 640 and 950 together to see the difference for myself.

 

[garak0410]

* My God, the camera speed is horrid. "adding finishing touches", what is the phone doing? My mates S7 edge can take 10 photos and few them all by the time my 950 takes one and adds finishing touches, which frankly the image isn't all that great.

I can confirm this...when comparing pictures with the Note 5 and the 950XL, the 950XL was at a snails pace, especially on Auto-Flash whereas the Note 5 was super fast.

 

[Werentuckl]

Uh... pictures with flash are always a bad idea. I wouldnt ever recommend phone flash photography, even with xenon and three tone flashes. And this isnt me defending the 950 or the 950XL, I've never had them so I cant testify to any of this. But this is just a note to make. And I'm frankly not surprised that the Note 5 is balls faster when on Flash. Simply because the Lumia has to do a turd load more of post processing on the image compared to the Note when it is on Flash. Any sort of flash. Period. And this isnt just because of turdy post processing algorithms that the MS Camera app may have. Note: I havent used the WM10 Camera app for any measure of time yet, so I really dont know how crappy their post processing really is.

Its because the 950XL has a triple/RGB LED flash. Try shooting in Raw, your pictures are going to come out instantaneously. Then try post processing manually by yourself with all that tricolor flash data and you'll get an idea of why it takes so darned long to do it. The Note 5 has a single Flash, the Lumia has to process thrice the amount of light data on the same picture and adjust the color profiles and temperatures of all three resultant sources and balancing them out before assimilating the Exif data into the final picture it throws back at you. The fact that you might still get a crappy picture even after all of this would be a testament to the fact that MS may still not have it down to pat, and they just dont have the talent or experience for it yet without Nokia's knowhow that they acquired, and then let go. Later. But that is water under the bridge now. Really.

So no flash for faster, good, more normal pictures. Flash for when you absolutely must. I suppose. Unless you're into flash freeze photography. That stuff is really crazy loads of fun. But maybe not what people use their phones for. I suppose. And Raw. If you really want to do the post processing/production yourself. And really gain some manner of appreciation on how much heavy lifting goes into making those algorithms give you the pictures they do, behind the scenes. For those little pieces of compressed information we all like to call JPEGs. Whew.

Rant over.

 

[wgs84]

I can confirm this...when comparing pictures with the Note 5 and the 950XL, the 950XL was at a snails pace, especially on Auto-Flash whereas the Note 5 was super fast.

How long does "adding finishing touches" take on the 950XL? I've only used W10m and the Windows camera on a 640, and it is very slow, taking around 20 seconds to finish - sometimes not even saving the photo correctly. The 640 is a good phone, but it's not flagship-class, so it not fair of me to judge it based on that. I'm really curious as to how great/poor the camera performs on the high-end stuff like the 950. I live less than half a mile from a MS Store, but their display models are always lagging behind on updates, so that wouldn't be fair either. And it's gosh darn near impossible to find people who can be objective in reviewing the phone, i.e., people who aren't delusional fanboys or foaming-at-the-mouth haters.

 

[garak0410]

How long does "adding finishing touches" take on the 950XL? I've only used W10m and the Windows camera on a 640, and it is very slow, taking around 20 seconds to finish - sometimes not even saving the photo correctly. The 640 is a good phone, but it's not flagship-class, so it not fair of me to judge it based on that. I'm really curious as to how great/poor the camera performs on the high-end stuff like the 950. I live less than half a mile from a MS Store, but their display models are always lagging behind on updates, so that wouldn't be fair either. And it's gosh darn near impossible to find people who can be objective in reviewing the phone, i.e., people who aren't delusional fanboys or foaming-at-the-mouth haters.

I've not done enough testing to give a good review between the cameras but I will say I love Windows Phone's and the 950xl but I have to use the Note 5 since I'm on Verizon. I can give an objective comparison between the two when I've had more time to test. I will say the 950xl's photos look more natural for sure.

 

[RumoredNow]

How long does "adding finishing touches" take on the 950XL? I've only used W10m and the Windows camera on a 640, and it is very slow, taking around 20 seconds to finish - sometimes not even saving the photo correctly.

Often times the "lag" is caused at the SD card bus...

Select save new pics and vidz to internal storage and your process times greatly decrease.

 

[Werentuckl]

Are you sure you're not that Med school student Libra, I mean really. You can tell us you know. No need for both of you to be so shy and keep it all under wraps. And really. Why do you have to KEEP DOING THIS TO ME!!! Now I have long limbs stuck in my head. SMH woman. -__- >_<

And one of the reasons the Robin was so big, if I remember right, is because of the industrial design team that went behind it. They didnt want a phone by 'convention' but by 'handle-ability'. Much like the older Nokias of yore. A phone with heft and inhand weight/feel of size. I'm guessing. My memory's not so good anyways. But you have to admit, that was one hell of a phone design, especially considering the bland slate design that is prevalent in the smartphone world now.

On that note, one phone you want to check out, especially if you're a reader, or value battery life. Is the YotaPhone2. I really really just wish someone would make an E-Ink display phone and plunk it in with a big battery. For those people who are into either reading, or who have mission critical uptime work, or just plain want more battery than they want the fanciest phone. My battery hypermiling efforts on my 'call primary' are pretty well recorded at this point in time. But I have to admit, the way they executed that phone is really the right way to go about it it. The idea and execution was plain gorgeous. And they can be found on the relatively acceptable on Amazon right now. Okay okay, now I'm letting my drool and fantasies get in the way of the post.

Why I really posted this, I know that was a pretty darn seriously long preamble to two lines of question, was to ask you to do a side by side visual/picture comparison of it, both the 640 and the 950. So that you can show us the difference/size comparison too. I mean you dont have to. And only if you want to. But now you have me really curious too, as for the design and size differences. And the screen to body ratios.. and, you get the idea. Basically. You can post it here, or on the 950 impressions page. Or - :O - on a new thread altogether! ZOMG. :O :O :O :O :O



-- W

 

[Werentuckl]

What RumoredNow said, also the MS Camera algorithms have been less than ideal for a while now. Especially after the deprecation of the Lumia Camera app. And its trials and tribulations have been well recorded. I use the ATIV Camera app on my ATIV SE, and I havent used the MS Camera app in a while. But a good idea, as RumoredNow usually always recommends, is to also try other camera apps, like the ProShot or the Camera360 app, to get another perspective on the lenses on these pretty things.

-- W

 

[libra89]

Are you sure you're not that Med school student Libra, I mean really. You can tell us you know. No need for both of you to be so shy and keep it all under wraps. And really. Why do you have to KEEP DOING THIS TO ME!!! Now I have long limbs stuck in my head. SMH woman. -__- >_<

And one of the reasons the Robin was so big, if I remember right, is because of the industrial design team that went behind it. They didnt want a phone by 'convention' but by 'handle-ability'. Much like the older Nokias of yore. A phone with heft and inhand weight/feel of size. I'm guessing. My memory's not so good anyways. But you have to admit, that was one hell of a phone design, especially considering the bland slate design that is prevalent in the smartphone world now.

On that note, one phone you want to check out, especially if you're a reader, or value battery life. Is the YotaPhone2. I really really just wish someone would make an E-Ink display phone and plunk it in with a big battery. For those people who are into either reading, or who have mission critical uptime work, or just plain want more battery than they want the fanciest phone. My battery hypermiling efforts on my 'call primary' are pretty well recorded at this point in time. But I have to admit, the way they executed that phone is really the right way to go about it it. The idea and execution was plain gorgeous. And they can be found on the relatively acceptable on Amazon right now. Okay okay, now I'm letting my drool and fantasies get in the way of the post.

Why I really posted this, I know that was a pretty darn seriously long preamble to two lines of question, was to ask you to do a side by side visual/picture comparison of it, both the 640 and the 950. So that you can show us the difference/size comparison too. I mean you dont have to. And only if you want to. But now you have me really curious too, as for the design and size differences. And the screen to body ratios.. and, you get the idea. Basically. You can post it here, or on the 950 impressions page. Or - :O - on a new thread altogether! ZOMG. :O :O :O :O :O



-- W

Lol! You're amusing me :grin:. Not a med school student, not even in school actually. Can't be me. I'm pleased with my non-scientific job. I want to know what happened there though, if anything.

I agree, I love the design and of course the green/mint. It made me pleased to look at it and say that this is my phone. Hopefully they will eventually make a smaller one.

Hmm, never heard of that phone before. I searched for it on amazon, and it seems cool. Thanks for the suggestion. I was sad to see that it doesn't have American LTE bands. Funny how you said, if I am "a reader or value battery life" because both of those things matter to me...to a point. I value battery life, but I wouldn't get a phone that doesn't look nice to me for it. No matter the phone, I enjoy reading on my phones a lot, it's also one of my top activities. I just haven't loaded my book on the 950 yet but I will tonight. Yeah, your battery thread for the 640 was interesting, so I get how that goes. lol.

That is a good idea, I think I might make a thread to do that if I have an opportunity today. I think it would be good to know for anyone who has a 640 and is just curious, etc. If not today, sometime in the near future.

 

[Callum_Smith]

Uh... pictures with flash are always a bad idea. I wouldnt ever recommend phone flash photography, even with xenon and three tone flashes. And this isnt me defending the 950 or the 950XL, I've never had them so I cant testify to any of this. But this is just a note to make. And I'm frankly not surprised that the Note 5 is balls faster when on Flash. Simply because the Lumia has to do a turd load more of post processing on the image compared to the Note when it is on Flash. Any sort of flash. Period. And this isnt just because of turdy post processing algorithms that the MS Camera app may have. Note: I havent used the WM10 Camera app for any measure of time yet, so I really dont know how crappy their post processing really is.

Its because the 950XL has a triple/RGB LED flash. Try shooting in Raw, your pictures are going to come out instantaneously. Then try post processing manually by yourself with all that tricolor flash data and you'll get an idea of why it takes so darned long to do it. The Note 5 has a single Flash, the Lumia has to process thrice the amount of light data on the same picture and adjust the color profiles and temperatures of all three resultant sources and balancing them out before assimilating the Exif data into the final picture it throws back at you. The fact that you might still get a crappy picture even after all of this would be a testament to the fact that MS may still not have it down to pat, and they just dont have the talent or experience for it yet without Nokia's knowhow that they acquired, and then let go. Later. But that is water under the bridge now. Really.

So no flash for faster, good, more normal pictures. Flash for when you absolutely must. I suppose. Unless you're into flash freeze photography. That stuff is really crazy loads of fun. But maybe not what people use their phones for. I suppose. And Raw. If you really want to do the post processing/production yourself. And really gain some manner of appreciation on how much heavy lifting goes into making those algorithms give you the pictures they do, behind the scenes. For those little pieces of compressed information we all like to call JPEGs. Whew.

Rant over.

I never photograph with flash. It's every damn photo.

 

[Callum_Smith]

We shouldn't have to do this...
If DSLR's can take larger photos and save them to an SD instantly than you'd expect a phone to be able to do.

This seems to be everybody's solution for this phone. Basically, don't use an SD card for anything.

 

[Werentuckl]

Have you tried using a different app to do the deed Callum? Its very likely it could be just the MS Camera app acting up for you. Also what build and firmware are you on. If its not up to date, maybe a few updates would help? And while phones dont usually have the best of memory controllers, I dont see why that should mean not being able to use it for photography at all if you have a decent microSD card in there. As long as the card is atleast a Class 10 and from a reputable seller. If you have another high res phone or camera around the house, try using the card in there to see if its your device or the card. And finally. Just test by switching the storage out from the card to the phone to see if it helps with the problem. That way we can know what it is atleast.

Your power button woes seem like a genuine hardware woe though. And if you have the device on warranty, get it checked in. Also. DTTW, and Glance as wells as Tap to sleep. That was usually my solution to every power button simply because I hate reaching up for them. The rest I can maybe try chalking up to MS's firmware and updates' mess. But I really dont want to tell you to hard reset. Because I'm sure that wont make you feel any better. :/

-- W

 

[Werentuckl]

Hey! I'm not amusement for a mere mortal Libra! IKidIKid! But hey, its always good to smile. Or have a good laugh. ^_^

And I'll believe you woman. Was always taught never to tell one you didnt believe her anyways. Mama told me scary things happen if you do that. And I really dont go too well with scary things. Unless it means a pretty girl might jump me because shes scared. Or an adorable little kid. But. Not happening. So yeah. I'd rather not go that route. But we really do need to get Fire29 back in here and make him spit it out. Spill his secret kidney beans!

That Robin 2.0 is only happening if they sell enough of the 1.0. I hope you know that. Thats how most new companies go under, sadly. Because no one is willing to put in the faith or their money in them to make them last to another iteration. Prolly whats gonna with that YotaPhone brand too. But I really do/did like their droid, the LTE band issues aside. And I'm not a freak for the battery, stop pointing fingers at me. I'm just a conscientious person about battery on my 'phone phone smartphone'. The other one gets a boat load of battery abuse. Every day. So rest assured. ^_^

Also, I'm going to hold you to that thread Libra. Fingers crossed. Now I'mma just sit tight with my popcorn and wait for it to materialise. Or something. Eventually.

-- W