Why haven't I bought a 950XL?
Really simple: Verizon blacklists it and for tl;dr reasons, I'm not really in a position to leave big red over it.
I really do want in on the Windows 10 Mobile action though. I mean, I guess I "technically" am already with my quaint little Lumia 520 on the insider program. But it doesn't have cell service, it doesn't have Continuum, and it doesn't even have additional storage via an SD card. So beyond getting superficial tastes of the latest OS builds and superficial exposure to a limited number of apps, it's useless to me, which is why I really don't count myself as "being in on Windows 10 Mobile" with it.
I have had a chance to get my hands on a 950XL and play around with it a bit. I find it a thoroughly lovely phone, and while styling is ultimately "to each their own", all the overwhelming outcry about it being a bland or ugly phone just utterly fails to resonate with me at all. I don't find it bland, I find it poised. And, I really like Continuum! Even though I realize this current "Snapdragon-powered" iteration of Continuum is ultimately just a half-measure more akin to Windows RT than to a full fledged Windows experience - I still like it!
By tax return time 2017 I want to buy or to already have bought a serious gaming PC for the "main rig" in the living room (well, built rather than bought....okay, okay, have had built for me probably). But I also want a more modest PC experience for the upstairs office to supplement it, and ideally, a way to take my computing around with me.
Continuum has a TON of merit for that use case scenario! Have the dock upstairs using an actual keyboard/trackpad, then have continuum dongles put on most or all of the TVs in my house and just use the on-screen virtual keyboard/trackpad for those locations and then I can compute anywhere in the house! Also, my parents live on the North side, and I visit them roughly every other Saturday, so maybe set up a dongle or a dock over there too! Plus, if my vision of "Continuum kiosks" ever materialize in public places, there's yet another way to use the computer I carry with me in my pocket.
That it's basically just "RT" at this point I think I can manage to overlook as a) it wouldn't be my main Windows PC, and b) the app scene does seem to be improving somewhat and RT will be exactly as robust or thin as the app scene is - which I'm optimistic about.
Well that all sounds great, so why don't I just say "screw cellular coverage" and buy a 950XL just for its uses as a Continuum computer, and continue to use my other phone as a phone? Well, frankly because I simply can't justify spending flagship phone, or lower end gaming rig prices for "Windows RT" no matter how much I love the handset. I just can't do it. Sure, Verizon could whitelist it later and then I suddenly have a phone, but I'm not gonna take that kind of risk.
-HOWEVER- there are two close alternative solutions where I -COULD-, and -WOULD- justify getting a Windows phone without Verizon service just to use it as a computer with Continuum:
1) If the alleged Intel-powered "Surface Phone" that should hit the market this year or next is all that it's cracked up to be, namely, if it's Intel-powered version of Continuum is not just some glorified RT, but really turns into a [for all intents and purposes] a "real", "full" Windows 10 desktop experience, then I'll gladly pay flagship phone prices even without cell service to make that thing the "floating computer" I described above and use it just as I described above - only now as a full-fledged Windows 10 experience, rather than RT. I'd be in on that action as fast as funds allow!
2) If they they bring Continuum, even Continuum RT to the budget phone segment, and I can have a Continuum equipped phone for $200 or less ($250 would be my top dollar in this case), then I'm down with that too! I could always replace it later with either a whitelisted 950XL, or a Surface phone, be that whitelisted or blacklisted.
or, of course if the impossible happens:
3) Verizon whitelists the 950XL.
So there you go. Should ANY ONE [or more] of these three scenarios unfold, then the very first chance I get, I'm "getting in on Windows Phone." I mean, obviously, my starry-eyed, Pollyanna pipe-dream Magic wish is for a Verizon whitelisted Intel-powered Surface Phone with a full win32 Desktop Continuum experience. But really, any one of the above three scenarios will do in that one's absence. Really!
....til then, I'll keep on the near outside, keeping my fingers as close to the pulse as I can, continue using my 520 to "sniff the air" from time to time, and eagerly awaiting that open door to "jump through". And in the meanwhile, I'll double down on Android (I'm already doubled down on Apple) and then the road will be clear money-wise for to dedicate all my attention to Microsoft and Windows.
Cheers!