[Quick Impressions] Who Has Gotten The Lumia 950?

[Dan TheMan86]

These bad battery reports are really disappointing me
I wonder if anyone will come out with extended batteries and custom backs

 

[Jordan Rieck]

I am on my third full day with the 950 and I haven't had one day that I have come close to running out of battery. (I have fully recharged it through the night each time)

 

[mkenyon2]

Just got mine, and I must say, it feels like it's built better than my Lumia 920. (My 920 has the white shell.) I think they went with plastic for 2 reasons, 1) people will want to customize anyway, and 2) it's lighter.

I just got mine, AT&T branded through Amazon, so it's single SIM which is fine with me. Charging it up first.

Funny they didn't have any guide on how to take the case off to install the battery. Not a big issue, but they had a quick start guide, you would think getting the battery in would be one of the quickest things you'd want to do.

 

[Dan TheMan86]

I am on my third full day with the 950 and I haven't had one day that I have come close to running out of battery. (I have fully recharged it through the night each time)

with heavy use, what percentage are you left with at the end of the day before you put it on a charger?

 

[PC1589]

I have found the call quality to be very good. First phone I've had in a long time that I didn't have to put on speaker to hear, and I'm no spring chicken.

 

[Dan TheMan86]

Why can't they just make a phone with a 5.0-5.5" screen, 1920x1080 (for less power consumption), 4000 mah removable battery, SD card slot, and decent camera?? I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[Albatross2]

I received my unlocked dually 950 from MS yesterday. I set it up from scratch to avoid some of the issues folks have had after a restore from back-up. So far I'm delighted. It's a big upgrade from the Lumia 735 I was using on the insider program. To early to tell on battery life, but it seems fine so far.

 

[Jeff Merritt1]

I am on my third full day with the 950 and I haven't had one day that I have come close to running out of battery. (I have fully recharged it through the night each time)

Are you using it at all? LOL. I have had mine off the charger since 8:30 this morning (now 10:30) and I'm down 23% and aside from some texts, and push emails from work, I haven't used it. I haven't used it on purpose...this thing destroys the battery. Every 1% it goes down I lose 23 minutes...I am no way getting close to 23 minutes in between each loss. Maybe I got a bad one...I don't know. I did a factory reset it helped for a minute. I was going to get my wife one, but she depends on it for her job, no way could I get her one with the battery life being so spotty. Hopefully the next update fixes the issues. My 1520 would go all day without a hiccup.

 

[oldpueblo]

Are you using it at all? LOL. I have had mine off the charger since 8:30 this morning (now 10:30) and I'm down 23% and aside from some texts, and push emails from work, I haven't used it. I haven't used it on purpose...this thing destroys the battery. Every 1% it goes down I lose 23 minutes...I am no way getting close to 23 minutes in between each loss. Maybe I got a bad one...I don't know. I did a factory reset it helped for a minute. I was going to get my wife one, but she depends on it for her job, no way could I get her one with the battery life being so spotty. Hopefully the next update fixes the issues. My 1520 would go all day without a hiccup.

Out of curiosity, an you list your battery stats? What surprised me yesterday was that messaging was my highest drain app at 23% and I wonder if it has to do more with the integration of skype maybe always running in the background. Because I definitely wasn't messaging that much.

I just realized that was all my texts finally restoring, yay!

 

[ericr42]

Mine just arrived today. I don't even have it in hand yet, but its waiting for me at home. It is the black, unlocked 950 from microsoftstore.com. Looking forward to fiddling with it over the next few days although I probably won't start using it in earnest until my Mozo flip case arrives next week sometime.

 

[ACF1]

I received my unlocked dually 950 from MS yesterday. I set it up from scratch to avoid some of the issues folks have had after a restore from back-up. So far I'm delighted. It's a big upgrade from the Lumia 735 I was using on the insider program. To early to tell on battery life, but it seems fine so far.

Does the 950 unlocked has the same AT&T LTE provisioning issues as the 950XL? Or did you use an existing sim?

 

[abivaanenopi]

Just got my 950 in white! Good stuff

 

[Rem97]

Mine just arrived today. I don't even have it in hand yet, but its waiting for me at home. It is the black, unlocked 950 from microsoftstore.com. Looking forward to fiddling with it over the next few days although I probably won't start using it in earnest until my Mozo flip case arrives next week sometime.

When and where did you order the Mozo cover from? I can't find anywhere that currently has them in stock.

 

[KrisYYC]

Just bought the 950 unlocked from the MS here in Calgary. It is dual SIM. Also to note it doesn't appear the Canadian MS stores are carrying the 950 in white. Only black. The XL however is available in both. Still in the process of setting mine up. So far so good!

 

[alphaswift]

Lumia 950 - Better than expected, app fears unfounded

First impressions being important, consider me very impressed with my N950.

I won't repeat a lot of what's already been said about the phone itself (screen and build quality are very good) but as a Android convert I am pretty happy with the results so far. The 'App Gap' was one of three big worries I had. The good news is that all of my apps except one have been replaced ( Cineplex -- no buying movie tix via app...not a big deal ). Now, I'm not a 18 year old girl so I don't use stuff like InstaSnap or FaceTindr so your mileage may vary.

My second fear was being to connect my phone to the UConnect unit in my Jeep Cherokee. This was not a problem, in fact it was flawless and seems to work better than my Android ( Note 3 ) including pulling in the phonebook and even showing me my text messages. My daughter said voice call quality via the UConnect/N950 was better than before, so I guess the connection/integration is tighter.

Lastly, I was a big fan of the Samsung G2 smartwatch with the notifications and fitness tracking. I did pickup the Band 2 with the 950 and am liking this setup. My only regret is not being able to answer a call on my Band 2. Answering calls on my wrist was nice on the few occasions I left my phone somewhere nearby.

All in all, I'm pretty happy and expect I'll be keeping this phone for my usual 2+ years. If you're coming from Android and stick to mainstream apps, I expect you'll be fine.

 

[KrisYYC]

Earlier today I picked an unlocked 950 dual SIM from the Microsoft Store in Calgary (Canada). I've been using it for about 6 hours now and haven't had any of the bugs reported by others on here really. The odd app download had to be refreshed (paused and then restarted) but it worked every time after that. I've had no issues whatsoever with notifications, emails, or syncing with my car. Nothing has crashed though the odd app has had a hiccup.

The phone did get a bit warm during initial set up and downloading a lot of apps. But in normal use it's fine.

The battery was at about 40% out of the box. I let it drain a bit while doing set up and then did a full charge. After unplugging it at 100% it dropped to 95% within a few mins but then went back to what I consider pretty normal battery life for a smartphone. I've been on it constantly organizing my start screen and texting people and after about 5 hours it was down to 50%. Normal day to day use I expect decent battery life.

Overall I'm very impressed so far. Phone is perfect size for me, screen looks great. Phone is snappy and runs smooth. Battery charges very quickly. I haven't had a chance to put the camera through its paces yet but that'll come.

Of note: I didn't restore a backup from an older phone on this. Only my contacts.

Edit: Just had my first voice call. Using the earphones that came with my Lumia 1020. Call quality was very good and the person I was talking to said I sounded clear as well, but not quite as clear as my 1020.

 

[Roland Stoll]

got my Lumia 950 yesterday (from Amazon Germany)... and my MOZO leather cover 2 days before...
both together match extremely good, feels like a real premium device!
I already used W10m as a daily driver for about 3 month on my Lumia 930, so not so much surprise on this side.
One exception: I got "Visual Voice Mail" running (with O2 Germany) - never did work with the Lumia 930, and shouldn't work as confirmed by the O2 hotline...

So here some experiences about the common "issues":

battery
with "normal" use (maybe a little more extensive than normal due to playing around more than usual): 10:35h running with 78% left...
Glance: on
Windows hello: on
Hey Cortana: off (not yet available in Germany)
Edge "pre-render": off

camera
The camera of the Lumia 930 was already damn good, but the camera of the Lumia 950 is even better! yeah, like it!

Windows hello / iris scan
for me it works pretty good, even in dark situations! I would say 1 of 20 times fail, but as it is still "beta" I can live with it.

display
directly compared to the Lumia 930 colors seem to be more cleaner (white is white and not a yellow-white on the Lumia 930).
on the other hand colors seem to be colder - but I like it so far.
Sure I can still (as already on the Lumia 930) setup the color profile - but no use so far for me.

build quality
I don't have anything to complain! especially with the leather MOZO cover it feels damn good!
TBH the frame and the button quality of Lumia 930 were better, but on the other hand there are so many improvements on the Lumia 950 (replaceable cover, replaceable battery, AMOLED screen with glance, iris scan, etc.) so imho the Lumia 950 is much superior to the Lumia 930...

app gap
what is this? honestly all apps I need I have... might be different to other users...

CONCLUSION:
still some minor things that have to be improved OS-side (e.g. double-tap to wake, better/faster sync of outlook, etc.)
but hardware-side there is nothing to complain and a lot to enjoy imho...
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[Rificzech]

Edge "pre-render": off

What is this and where can I find this settings to turn it off? Does it save battery when off?

 

[robert peake]

my short review of the lumia 950, after a day of use

I had so many problems with the 820 that I ended up selling it and leaving the 0S, I then went android for a couple of years but found the battery life just as bad, then I came back to Microsoft with the 635, then the 735 and then the 640 and now the 950.

I had seen similar threads and was starting to worry what I had done, especially as im the UK and I bought my phone from Europe so wondered if I had lots of issues how I was going to return it.

after reading lots of threads I set the 950 up as a new phone connecting to my windows account, but downloading all the apps again. First impressions are really good, screen is beautiful and no lag from mine at all. I did notice when turning it on there is a very small dot in the top left corner (purple like) but that goes once the screen is turned on.i

ive only charged it last night and had a play around setting up email accounts and facebook etc this morning as well as playing music for 30 mins into work and that's took drop the battery to 65% but looking at other threads people have said stick with it and it sorts itself out. Its currently on charge on my desk at the moment.

just a few observations I can make after the short time ive had it.

Hello works incredibly well, I love it never had any issues with it, and I tried with glasses and still worked this morning. Made my daughter jealous as she doesn't have it on her iphone 6 lol.

love the size of it, feels thin but not flimsy and cheap. I went for the white but I have a moza cover coming for it and im sure the silver bezel will make it look more premium

Camera seems amazing I thought the iphone 6 had a good camera and it might the combination of the screen and the camera but the photos look crystal clear, very impressed.

I cant see to find the office app, you know the red icon one that use to take me into my spreadsheets etc.

so of the apps keep crashing still so hopefully in a few weeks that will be sorted out, for instance amazon app open I put my log in details in and then it crashes, same with the ebay app I go to type in log in details and the screen goes black and nothing happens.

The silver buttons on the side feel a bit flimsy and cheap, not sure how long they are going to last, but love the dedicated camera button, just going to have to get use to one.

the photo tile on my 640 could show what you had as favourited and just cycle through them, now it only has recent or a single picture, no a biggy but I liked how it was before, same with the folders, now its seems you have collection / albums / folders. In folders it splits out to pictures on the phone and then SD card. its just, its just a few more clicks that's all.

There doesn't seem to be a battery saver on there now, I use to like turning off the things running in the background to save batter.

overall really impressed with it, and its definitely a jump up from the 640. Just probably needs a few software tweeks to get it performing properly.

 

[dKp1977]

Re: my short review of the lumia 950, after a day of use

Thanks for the brief review. Nice to see someone enjoying his new device.

I cant see to find the office app, you know the red icon one that use to take me into my spreadsheets etc.

In WM10 it's not a single Office App from where you launch directly into your documents, but serpareted apps:

OneNote (I know, that's always been a separate app)
Excel
Word
PowerPoint

the photo tile on my 640 could show what you had as favourited and just cycle through them, now it only has recent or a single picture, no a biggy but I liked how it was before,

Seems your photo app isn't up to date. It's been recently added, so you can actually mark pictures as favorites again and have the tile show these.

There doesn't seem to be a battery saver on there now, I use to like turning off the things running in the background to save batter.

There is. Go to settings -> System.. Battery saver is right there. Not sure if it's still called this way, my device is German. If you tap and hold the list entry, you can pin it to the start screen. Kinda useless though, is it doesn't have a live tile anymore. Unlike it did in WP8.1.