Getting rid of my 950xl, anyone else?

[Serpent1189]

Possibly because sites like this and Thurrott and others, in an effort to convince people not to "pre-judge" the new "flagship", kept saying that the device is with a look. I can tell you, firsthand, the 950 certainly isn't. And I made no bones, early on, that I doubted all the hype over these devices.

Yeah overall this feels like an incremental update that was hyped as the next big thing. I think most folks, me included, would have been ok with it if the 950 and XL were the lumias of the year with a few new features, but I'm struggling to think of how my 950 is all that better than my 1520. Continuum is cool. Also cool that USB type C is in this.

 

[Jeddic]

I might be returning mine. The battery even after 5 days and 8 complete kill / charge cycles... it just drains so fast. IN standby its fine, but once you fire up that screen, its all over. 20% + per hour drain.(Fun game - go into the battery saver screen and look what uses the most power. My screen uses 65% - 80% of total power, without fail) I have turned off everything not critical as a background task. Add to the fact that mobile hotspot no longer works (yes, I called AT&T, make sure the IMEI was right, and then went as far to go into their store. Nothing is wrong on their end). I get my display dock today, and if that doesn't bowl me over, it's going back to the store. Much like the OP I have been waiting a while for this, and the kicker is there is absolutely nothing wrong with the 1520 it replaced. Nothing. Added fact: the 1520 got 24 - 32 hours of battery usage before it hit 15%. This one gets 10 hours....

You may not realize this, but when battery saver says your screen is using battery... that doesn't mean the screen hardware itself. That's just battery life that being used while the phone is not in standby, and which cannot be attributed to a particular app. In WP8.1 the battery app was better at tracking which apps used power, so it didn't show as much for screen on. In Android, screen on, or display on, or whatever is almost always the highest battery drain, since Android doesn't do a good job of tracking which app is using power. It's usually Display On using the most, then Standby, then other random stuff. Even though I knew that most of the power was used on Clash of Clans and Instagram.

 

[deezus]

As for the battery drain issues, I disabled windows hello and phone is rock solid and I get great battery life. Lumina 950.

 

[hzelaya]

I am returning mine. This has been the worst battery experience I have had on a "premium" device. I don't know how anyone can use a phone that can't even survive a night (dies even if the battery is fully charged.)

 

[Sunstorming]

I have literally had ZERO issues with mine after migrating from a backup from a Verizon icon to at&t. This thing is blazing fast and battery lasts forever with heavy use. Are those of you with issues "upgrading" to 10586.11? I have kept mine on 10586.0 and had a GREAT experience after a week with this thing. Best phone I have ever had.

Nope. Mine was done twice: First out of the box w/ restore, sucked the battery. Second, hard reset w/ no restore, still sucked. I realize its good to defend an expensive purchase to validate it somehow, but the battery on this thing is horrible, even after the "pray it works and breaks in" charging escapade everyone seems to love to go through.

 

[Sunstorming]

You may not realize this, but when battery saver says your screen is using battery... that doesn't mean the screen hardware itself. That's just battery life that being used while the phone is not in standby, and which cannot be attributed to a particular app. In WP8.1 the battery app was better at tracking which apps used power, so it didn't show as much for screen on. In Android, screen on, or display on, or whatever is almost always the highest battery drain, since Android doesn't do a good job of tracking which app is using power. It's usually Display On using the most, then Standby, then other random stuff. Even though I knew that most of the power was used on Clash of Clans and Instagram.

Thanks for your input, and please if it is needed re-read my comments here and other topics... the battery is atrocious, case closed, the end. I actually use my phone and if my 1520 lasts 24+ hours and the 950XL lasts 10 (even after I tried turning off background tasks, etc) .. the 950XL sucks in comparison. And also explain to me why the SCREEN ITSELF GETS WARM when in use??!? That has never happened on any phone I ever owned. It's just not ready for primetime, its not all the way baked, and MS should have known better, and I am pissed off that I waited this long for it, drove 85 miles round trip to get it, it sucking the life out of itself and my patience for 5 days, then drove 85 miles round trip again to return it.

 

[Burger Nog]

I returned my 950 2 days ago. The phone got VERY hot to the touch and the battery was just bad. Coming from a 1520, I was very excited to try a new "flagship" but it just didn't feel that way. I ended up with a Samsung Galaxy S6 and I have no regrets. I still have a Lumia 640 that I'll keep and use from time to time, but it just seems W10 Mobile still has a long way to go before it feels like a complete OS. Still, I LOVE my Surface Pro 3!

 

[deewee2015]

Lots of fickle people in this world. I can't imagine anybody actually buying a 950XL without already knowing what to expect, with a not-yet-ready OS in addition to the normal bugs and glitches to be expected with a new high-end device. The only way anybody even knew it existed was from reading about it on sites like this one. It's not as if any site hid the issues with the OS. And then being so impatient as to get rid of it less than a week later because the experience is less than perfect. I just don't get it.

I think this is quite false assumption that you are making. For instance here in Finland WP still has relatively large marketshare and operators have been marketing these Lumias for over a month and targeting them especially as "ultimate tool for entrepreneurs" to entrepreneurs and business folks. Many of them do not read these forums, WP sites etc. but expect Microsoft to deliver a flagship phone with software that is stable and ready to use, not some beta edition. If they can't provide that then they shouldn't be marketing these phones as flagship phones (or allow their partners and resellers to do that neither) but rather as developer phones, such as the early Nexus series by Google.

 

[Brandon Keenan]

I'm guessing that eBay provides convenience, they are willing to pay more because it's easier. They don't have to keep checking to see if they can order one, no taxes, etc.

Also noticed the XL is on sale on the Amazon US site too.

They also have a 10% fee along with the 3% fee paypal takes. So you have to sell at a markup in order to make your money back.

 

[PepperdotNet]

I would not call him fickle. You are not in his shoes. Your threshold for crap might be higher than his. Do not judge him for that. ... Let's slow down with the name calling.

I was not calling out any specific person, hence the fact that I did not quote anyone in my post. I certainly was not referring to anyone who is returning their phone for the reasons you gave (flaky hardware, etc).

The ones that seem odd are those who are bashing the phone because of bugs in the current build of the OS, or lack of particular apps. These problems are well known and discussed here every day. Anybody who bought this phone should have been well aware beforehand of the potential issues. Unless somebody walked in off the street to a Microsoft store and bought one, the only way they even knew it existed was reading about it on a site such as this one where those problems are verbosely discussed. To my knowledge there has been no advertising or promotion to the general public. If anybody spent that amount of money without doing enough research to know the OS isn't finished and Snapchat is not available, sorry but I have no sympathy for that.

I think this is quite false assumption that you are making. For instance here in Finland WP still has relatively large marketshare and operators have been marketing these Lumias for over a month and targeting them especially as "ultimate tool for entrepreneurs" to entrepreneurs and business folks. Many of them do not read these forums, WP sites etc. but expect Microsoft to deliver a flagship phone with software that is stable and ready to use, not some beta edition. If they can't provide that then they shouldn't be marketing these phones as flagship phones (or allow their partners and resellers to do that neither) but rather as developer phones, such as the early Nexus series by Google.

Interesting point, if the operators are actually advertising the devices to the public, then they bear some responsibility. I've not heard anything about that till now. Without that, it seemed more a silent release just for the fans. Is it just Finland, home of NOKIA, where this is happening, or are other places getting public exposure too?

 

[krayziehustler]

Interesting that the OP had a 1520. The 1520 has been the buggiest WP I have ever used. it was such a nightmare to use with that stupid screen issue and phantom touch that they suffered from. They all have it, some 1520s have it a bit more than others but it is something with the phone. I've been through like 5 over the course of my 2 year journey with the 1520.

So far my 950XL has exceeded it in everything. And it feels good to use a phone with no hardware issues.

 

[Brandon Keenan]

Interesting that the OP had a 1520. The 1520 has been the buggiest WP I have ever used. it was such a nightmare to use with that stupid screen issue and phantom touch that they suffered from. They all have it, some 1520s have it a bit more than others but it is something with the phone. I've been through like 5 over the course of my 2 year journey with the 1520.

So far my 950XL has exceeded it in everything. And it feels good to use a phone with no hardware issues.

Very Interesting, I have only experience the phantom touches a handful of times but other than that this 1520.3 has been a solid phone.

 

[Hildr]

You may not realize this, but when battery saver says your screen is using battery... that doesn't mean the screen hardware itself. That's just battery life that being used while the phone is not in standby, and which cannot be attributed to a particular app. In WP8.1 the battery app was better at tracking which apps used power, so it didn't show as much for screen on. In Android, screen on, or display on, or whatever is almost always the highest battery drain, since Android doesn't do a good job of tracking which app is using power. It's usually Display On using the most, then Standby, then other random stuff. Even though I knew that most of the power was used on Clash of Clans and Instagram.

In fact not really, cause in W10m the 80% power consumption by the screen is just opposed to the cellular, wifi and process.
So you have a 80% display, 8% process, 5% cellular and 7% wifi (this always sum to 100%).
And then messaging at 50%, a game at 25%, etc (for example)
That just means 40% of the battery have been used to display the messaging app and 4% to process it, 20% to display the game, 2% to process it, etc.
It's an average of course, a game will probably ask for more process power.

That's why display+wifi+process+cellular =100%
AND the sum of the battery use of all the app listed also do 100%. The ration in the display, cellular, process and data doesn't add to the app's one like if it was a leftoverof some app not recognised. It's just two way to study the battery use. Hardware wise and software wise.

In fact, 100% used in display would means the only way the phone drains the battery is by turning the screen on, with no process, no data in background, just like a lamp. It's in fact the way the phone would last the longest.
But the more you use it, the more process and data stuff use energy, and in proportion the display use less. But that just means the phone will ask for a recharge quicker. Cause the screen consumption is more or less a constant (less true with amoled and black screen that save a little).

My 1520 could last 2 days with 80% battery used by the screen, cause I don't ask it to do anything.
If I play game, display will drop to 60% because the process will use 30% (10% average on wifi/cellular) and the phone last only 6 hours.

 

[deewee2015]

Anybody who bought this phone should have been well aware beforehand of the potential issues. Unless somebody walked in off the street to a Microsoft store and bought one, the only way they even knew it existed was reading about it on a site such as this one where those problems are verbosely discussed. To my knowledge there has been no advertising or promotion to the general public. If anybody spent that amount of money without doing enough research to know the OS isn't finished and Snapchat is not available, sorry but I have no sympathy for that.

This might be true for the US, but in the rest of the world, at least in some countries, there has been advertising and promotion done with pre-orders available through all major carriers and retailers. I do have sympathy when people spend 600-700 € on a phone that is buggy and not ready. They can get an iPhone around the same price without having to research countless hours on international fan forums to find out if their expensive new phone will actually work or not. Would you pay premium for a car with the promise that it might work as intended in the next quarter or two? In addition, you are not giving much thought to possible language barriers that some people might have to access this information that you seem to consider so readily available.

 

[JRDEMASKUS]

In reality, I think I am avoiding the 950 XL, where I couldn't put down the 1520.
In this time of avoidance, I am not learning to work through my issues.
I expect the Dock will change everything for the better.

The XL is slightly smaller.
I am having an issue with the Home, Back, and Search buttons. Sometimes they do not appear, sometimes the Back button does not work.
The device seems slow?
I have not spent enough time with the device to get a true feel for the battery.

I regularly switch between Android and Windows devices. Been using Windows "Mobile" since 5.0, Android from 1.6. I have several devices from each platform.

The 950 XL, is the first time I have felt buyers remorse.
(Not counting the Nexus 5, it never got a chance as the 1520 was Superior!)

However, in the end, I believe I made the correct decision, and trust MS will be everything each of us hope for.

 

[CrownSeven]

Interesting that the OP had a 1520. The 1520 has been the buggiest WP I have ever used. it was such a nightmare to use with that stupid screen issue and phantom touch that they suffered from. They all have it, some 1520s have it a bit more than others but it is something with the phone. I've been through like 5 over the course of my 2 year journey with the 1520.

So far my 950XL has exceeded it in everything. And it feels good to use a phone with no hardware issues.

Same here. My 950 xl has been flawless.

No battery drain (even with windows hello turned on) and + 48 hours battery life.
No overheating.
No random reboots.

'It just works'.

Those of you with poor battery performance - Windows 10 does take a few days to 'settle' down after which you should see better battery life. Also the more live tiles you have on your screen, the worse your battery life will be. Thats about the only advice I can give on that topic.

 

[Joseph Avena]

The real issue is that the OS is not close to final, we are not suppose to be the test beta's on a new device and OS. Execution on this has been **** poor. The MS apps on my company IP6 are way better than the experience on the WP10. Its sad that MS just can't do this right. They should have emulated the desktop launch as that was well done.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I just returned mine and even tried to cancel the display dock, but they wouldn't let me. I guess I will put it up on eBay or give it away.

I'm having pronoun confusion.

They DID let you return the phone, right?

And if not, what reason did they give?

 

[don4law]

I almost returned the phone considering the lack of visual voice mail, then stumbled on YouMail through these forums. It's free and far superior to the visual voice mail that I used to get. The only downside is it's not integrated with the calling app so it has to be set up separately and opened/closed separately. I think I misspoke about the phone being perfect as there are always so,e kind of issues, even with iPhone, but I,don't believe they're as bad as what many people think they are. At least not for me. I do,think the biggest issue stems from MSFT's failure to adequately communicate about their devices and the customer service is horrific. This is a PR/marketing issue. A little advance info would do much to quell some of these concerns

 

[neodk]

Microsoft finally pushes out some respectable hardware on what should be their giant leap forward in the convergence of mobile and desktop. What do people get? A quick case of buyer's remorse. It's really sad to see this happening because I want the Lumia line to thrive if not for the industry as a whole to foster competition but for the loyal Windows Phone enthusiasts that have stayed away from flagships from other companies.

I have yet to personally hold and use one of these devices, so I will withhold judgement until I encounter a phone in the wild. Due to its exclusivity with AT&T and the Microsoft Store, chances that I will try one out between now and the end of the year are slim.

In the meantime, let me know when the Lumia 640 XL is going for $100 unlocked.