so finally i did get a call from Microsoft India since i was one of the first people to prebook the 950xl in my city.
however i wasn't impressed as i should have been. i din have the same excitement as i had when i first went to see my last phone the Nokia 1020 ,test unit.
Firstly the phone looks identical like the 640XL , now don't call me cribby but if i am shelling out Rs.49,999/- i least would want the phone to look somewhat flagship grade. Yes it has its advantages like the removable back , dual sim (indian variant ) and the micro SD card slot , but so does my current handset the LG G4 which i picked up for the time being waiting eagerly for the 950xl.
secondly, i was extremely disappointed to see the loading resuming screen. yes its still there and its quite sad that even with the best of the chipsets and with three gigs of ram this issue is still there specially on the start screen when phone is left idle for long and when switching apps. Now before i get comments like " Ive barely spent time with the phone" , since i know the manager of the Microsoft store in my city i was lucky enough to have the handset for a few hours of use before i had to return their demo unit.
Microsoft have done a brilliant job however in keeping the Snapdragon 810 heating issues at bay with the liquid cooling , even after intensive use i never found the phone to heat up , yes it does get warm but never so much that i had to stop using the handset so i would give the phone at least that.
The screen is brilliant , no complains whatsoever , yes i wished it was slightly curved (not Samsung s6 edge curved but more like the previous lumians curved at the edges). Besides that superb viewing angles, deep blacks , punchy colors all what you would expect from a QHD screen , it feels at par with the QHD screen of the LG G4 .
The camera is marvelous, however if it had more richer options in manual controls( greater control over shutter speed duration mainly, 4seconds just doesn't cut it anymore honestly) i would be sold and honestly the software is to be blamed . While some pictures appear crisp and sharp some appear washed out .
lastly the pricing .
The 950 is priced at RS.43,000/- while the 950 XL is priced at Rs.49,990/- which is quite disappointing when you compare the same with the other flagships. My LG G4 costed me Rs.33,500/- which has identical specs to the Lumia 950 and i really don't see why there is such a price difference.
will i pick up one of these? No. Why? cause these phones just don't make the cut that the lumians did in the past for me and i have always been a windows fan starting with the lumia 610 to the 720 and finally the 1020 and i thoroughly miss windows phones mainly due to the no nonsense right to the point behavior of the OS which android CANNOT provide , but i don't see myself investing in the 950 twins anytime soon .