L950 - An unbiased review from a casual smartphone user ( switching from iOS and never seen W10M tec
Got my 950 in via FedEx tonight, purchased through AT&T. A brief phone history so you know where I'm coming from. I started my smartphone addiction with the iPhone 3G, the year after it came out. Kept it for a year and then upgraded to the iPhone 4 at launch. A year later, I moved to Windows 7.5 with
the Samsung Focus S. A year later I moved to Windows 8 with the Lumia 920. A year later I got tired of everybody at work playing games with each other that I did not have access to, so I went back to with the iPhone 5s. Two years later, I'm back in on Windows. I decided to come back to Windows Phone because I just really was tired of the drab, boring iOS look. I also realized over the past couple of years that I simply do not use many apps at all. Any that I did use, I could do without.
At unboxing:
*.Version: 1511
*.OS build: 10.0.10586.0
*.Firmware revision number: 01078.00017.15454.29031
*.Hardware revision number: 2.1.3.2
*.4.33GB used out of 29.1GB available out of the box. 4.62GB used after updating all pre-installed apps.
*.Came charged at 63% battery.
*.No updates available currently.
It actually saw that I had a backup available from my 920, but I'm a huge fan of configuring new phones from scratch. Plus, it was a 2+ year old backup and who knows what it would've tried to do. The free space available I listed above is from a fresh setup, I've installed/added nothing so far.
First impressions of the hardware is that I like it quite a bit. I was scared it would feel cheap after using my 5s for the past couple of years but so far, I'm not getting that feeling. It's got a nice weight to it, not too heavy, not too light. The buttons on the side feel fine, not "chintzy" like others have described
them, IMO. They're nothing special, they're buttons. The screen is fantastic, I'm glad to be back to OLED but it did make me realize the 5s screen was no slouch. Nonetheless, the screen is great, it's what I expected and I'm happy with it. Brightness looks good to me, I'm one to set a static brightness level instead of letting it control it, and 70% is about where I want to be with it. I'll get more a feel for it once I use it over the next couple of days.
As for the size, I picked the 950 because I just didn't want the size of a 950XL. The 950 as-is already feels like it's pushing what size of phone I want, but I've found
it pretty good so far. I'm 6'4" with normal hands for this size, and I can reach almost everything with my thumb without having to readjust the phone in my hand. One thing I really like about this phone is the squared-ish edges. Makes it far easier to hold onto. My wife has the iPhone 6 and after handling it multiple times, I would NEVER buy it because it's too rounded and slippery. I am not a case kind of guy so that phone is simply unusable to me.
As for the software side, I have not used any Windows Phone software since the 920, not even the preview builds of W10, so this is all new to me. So far, just with
the setup and going through all options and configuring what I want, I've only encountered one minor bug. In the main settings screen, I tried searching for a setting and when selecting the result, it "crashed" back to the start screen. Went right back in and had no further issues. The OS as a whole is very responsive. The only lag I've encountered (and I can replicate) is going into the colors settings. It seems to take a couple of seconds to load for some reason.
Random other notes:
*.I configured my work email and calendar, no issues. Just glancing at the Outlook Mail and Calendar built-in apps, I think I'll like them just fine. I had been using the Outlook app on iOS and it is, IMO, the epitome of mobile email clients.
*.I configured Windows Hello and WOW am I impressed. I have gotten quite used to the fingerprint scanner on my 5s, which works brilliantly IMO. With Hello, I was pessimistic about its ability to log you in quickly enough to make it worthwhile. I can say that is no longer a concern of mine, I am very impressed with how quickly it can identify and log you in. If you hit the lock button to wake up the phone with the scanner already pointed at your face, it's easily no more than 2 seconds. Using the fingerprint on the 5s is quicker to unlock that particular phone but the difference is not going to be a problem for me. The only real disadvantage I see now with Hello is that you have to actually pick up the phone and look at it if you want to use it. I've become accustomed to unlocking with my finger with my 5s laying flat on my desk, so that's a small change for me.
*.Loaded a couple of pages in Edge...nothing exciting to report, it's a browser. It didn't do anything to make me happy or mad, it just loaded the page like I wanted it to.
*.Loving the ability to increase the DPI. It really opens up the screen and makes it immensely more useful for what I use a phone for (email, messaging).
*.I only snapped a couple of test pictures with the camera, nothing to judge quality on. I normally shoot photos with my D7100 but will use the camera on my phone for more casual settings. I'm impressed with the built-in options to adjust exposure, shutter speed and ISO, but see no aperture options. Maybe that's not normal on phone cameras, I don't know.
*.Glance is pretty cool. I've configured it to stay on at all times, however I'm unsure if that's a battery drain or not. It will take a couple of weeks to get a fill for how the battery performs.
*.This is my first time actually using Cortana and so far, so good. I had her learn my voice and had zero issues, nailed everything on the first try.
Overall, so far, I'm super happy with this phone in the very early stages. After I purchased it a couple nights ago, I had a slight feeling of buyer's remorse only because I was going into the unknown. That's gone completely now and I'm looking forward to diving into everything I don't have time to do tonight. I know others have already answered lots of questions but let me know if I can help in any way.
EDIT 1
- The 950 works beautifully with the DT-910 wireless charger. I bought one when they were on clearance at the Microsoft store for $20 a month ago. I
had one of these with my 920 and sorely missed it, so happy to have this sitting on my desk again.
EDIT 2
- At work this morning showing off the phone, and Hello didn't work. Once I did the "Improve Recognition" option, it worked perfectly again. I expect to do this a few times to work out multiple lighting conditions, which is no big deal.
EDIT 3
- Tried Hello again in my car during lunch, just because I can. It is very sunny this afternoon with no direct light on the phone or my face, however it wouldn't log me in. I then tried again to "Improve
Recognition" but it couldn't "find" my eyes. So apparently on a bright sunny day in the shade, it won't work (for now).
EDIT 4
- Connected to my 2013 Ford Escape MyTouch system via Bluetooth. No sync issues. Track information when playing my OneDrive cloud music through the Groove app is shown on the display. I have not made any calls yet but so far, no different between the 950 and the 5s before it.
EDIT 5
- I decided to disable Windows Hello. It needs to be too close to my face to work, which I don't care for. Even though
I'm impressed with how quick it works, it just doesn't feel practical to me. I'll revisit it down the road to see if I change my mind.
- I'm really impressed at the speed of charge, at least through the wall adapter that's included. I let the battery run all the way down until the phone turned itself off (seemed to be at about 5%, it didn't go to 0%). I then plugged it in and about 15-20 minutes later, it was charged up to 50%. Another 60-90 minutes later, it was at 100%.
- I'm starting to run into a LOT more bugs in the OS, which is disheartening. These basically take the form of
programs crashing or not responding for more than a few seconds, causing frustration. The biggest thing that pissed me off this morning was that I wanted to take a picture of my daughter and text it to my wife (she's out of town). First thing I found odd is that I can't take a picture to attach from within the messaging app, I can only select ones I've already taken. OK, no big deal, I'll handle.
So I open the camera app, take my picture, then go back into messaging. I select the option to attach a picture and when it brings up my local and OneDrive pictures, I tried to select the one I had just taken. It wouldn't select. The whole
thing started acting stupid. I'd press the little box to select the picture and it'd collapse the whole row, or select all the pictures, or do nothing, or make the page scroll. It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen. I backed up, close the apps, tried again. Same thing. Once again, closed the apps and went back in, had some initial problems still but it finally selected just the picture I wanted and let me send it. WTF...I was very frustrated with that experience.
EDIT 6
- Some sample, full-size pics straight from the phone. The only thing turned off is "capture living images", everything
else is set to auto. Hopefully imgur retained the exif, I didn't check.
-
http://i.imgur.com/w6qSUSx.jpg
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http://i.imgur.com/GsYV314.jpg
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http://i.imgur.com/0ROh5aM.jpg
- I'm more impressed with closer shots than anything landscape so far. As I said earlier, the bokeh is distracting and just plain looks weird a lot of times. For what's in focus, the detail looks pretty good. All in all, I'm happy with the camera, it's not going to replace my DSLR and is perfect for what it is, a quick point-and-shoot that I have everywhere I go.
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