Should I go for Lumia 950 XL or wait for Surface Phone/iPhone 7?

[kpulak]

Hi Folks,

My Lumia 920 has gone patheicly laggy and unresponsive. No more Windows 10 insider preview for 920 has made me disheartened to use it further.

I'm looking for upgrade to Lumia 950XL. However, I'm still undecided as Windows 10 Mobile is still far from finish.

Should I wait? Need your valuable suggestion.

 

[Moez Juventus]

Hi,
I was in the same situation. But after looking for some news for the surface phone, I concluded that nothing is clear about the project, neither about the release date. So I decided to upgrade and bought a Lumia 950 and a Lumia 950 XL for my wife and me through the BOGO deal. I'm just waiting for the packages to arrive with a friend of mine by the end of July

 

[Pete]

Windows 10 Mobile will never "be finished", it's an OS that's constantly going to evolve.

The production ring that will be installed on the 950XL should be fine. It's only when you get impatient and join the fast ring where you have to go through some ups and downs.

 

[kpulak]

Does it worth to upgrade to Lumia 950 XL? or Should I wait for more powerful Surface Phone, which will launch next year?

 

[Pete]

Does it worth to upgrade to Lumia 950 XL? or Should I wait for more powerful Surface Phone, which will launch next year?

It depends, do you want to spend your money now, or later on? Bear in mind that it'll be a long time before we know anything concrete about the Surface phone.

 

[Ryujingt3]

Nobody knows anything much about the Surface phone. It's all rumours.

As Pete has said, if you don't mind saving your money for a phone that may be further delayed then wait, otherwise, go for the 950XL.

 

[milkyway]

And not to forget: the "Surface" phone will be very expensive I assume. Like....REALLY expensive. One has to consider that

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Does it worth to upgrade to Lumia 950 XL? or Should I wait for more powerful Surface Phone, which will launch next year?

can you wait a year plus a few months? And be ready to spend a lot.

The 950xl is a good device with the current official windows 10 mobile build very stable and fast

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

I say just go for the 950XL. However, if you're looking for something more powerful(???), I'd wait a few more months and grab the new HP Elite X that's supposed to be released this summer.

 

[Noob1ee]

Go for the upgrade to 950XL now - the surface phone is too far down the road and I bet it's going to cost an arm and leg. I upgraded from the Lumia 920 to the 950XL and have no regrets, huge step up!

 

[jrb363]

Lumia 950/950XL prices have dropped like a rock since Microsoft had the B1G1 sale a few weeks ago. I picked up a New-in-Box Lumia 950XL for $380 which is about half what I would have paid after taxes + shipping from the Microsoft Store.

I'd pick one up now, if nothing else, you can always resell it next year and use it to help offset the cost of the Surface Phone. But who knows, you might wind up loving it (like I have) and wait for Gen 2 of the Surface phone which is what I plan on doing.

Of course, coming from a HTC One M7 (3+ year old phone) to the Lumia 950XL is like moving from a Pentium II to an Intel i5 in performance terms.

 

[anthonyng]

depends what kind of person you are, do you want the latest and greatest? Will you be ok with something 6months old? The 950XL today is way better than day 0. I won't say the OS is far from finished, stable now. I actually get a kick out of all the updates that come, it's kinda neat to have something new monthly.

If you like latest and greatest, that HP Elite X3 whoa, .... I want... but I feel the 950XL will probably have the better camera.

Actually even the fact you consider the iphone 7... maybe you already gave up on windows and might as well just switch.

I don't feel people generally enjoy using different OS all the time... People would tend to want to get comfortable and stable with something they interact with daily.

 

[rory753]

the trade in offer is still valid at the msft store, assuming you're in the US. you can trade your 920 for $150 off a 950.

the 950 is a significant and noticeable upgrade from the 920. from the camera, to the chip, all of it has been improved. continuum is nice, although going to get better with the july update. This all assumes you still want to stay with windows phone. if you're not interested in keeping with windows phone, and switching, iphone is really the best option to go to. android works, but not as well as iphone.

 

[Krystianpants]

Windows 10 Mobile will never "be finished", it's an OS that's constantly going to evolve.

The production ring that will be installed on the 950XL should be fine. It's only when you get impatient and join the fast ring where you have to go through some ups and downs.

That's actually not entirely true. Windows 10 was released early to gain market share. The vision for Windows 10 being finished is redstone 2. Now after redstone 2 once the vision has been reached it will constantly continue to evolve and features will be added. But it is definitely not finished. It's a slow process they are working on while getting feedback from users. Redstone 2 will have the full control panel settings moved over to settings. All the features they planned already will be put into place and then they will work on enhancements. So I see Redstone 2 as Windows 10 being finished. Then the evolution of windows 10 will continue from there.

And to the original poster. I'm happy with my 950XL. Initially there were lots and lots of problems when I bought it. In fact, it's only now that it has become stable enough that I could consider it a product that MS can sell. I knew what I was getting into of course when I bought it right away. I did expect it to be a little more fine tuned but hey, it does what I need it to do.

I think that if you aren't very app centric then go for it. But if your friends use apps that you like to be a part of then go for iPhone. You will not get snapchat on here nor should you expect to in the future. More apps are coming out no doubt but you will likely still come across a scenario where you may not find an app that you wanted to use. There are some great third party alternatives for things like tinder, reddit, etc. Twitter and facebook are there. Most of the big main ones are available. They are not quite on par with the ios equivalent but they seem to be getting worked on. I use Line a lot and am happy that they have a windows 10 app that they are constantly updating. Twitter app is awesome, I actually prefer it to the ios one. Facebook currently will let you do the basics but is not as feature rich on the phone. Though there are plans for this one to gain parity eventually. Continuum is great and once you really experience it you will actually see the huge potential. The only issue is that edge is super slow in continuum. I think that once extensions come with adblock it will speed up quite a bit. Even the desktop version was super slow but with adblock being added recently I'm actually using it as my main browser with no issues.

It is definitely a work in progress and the insider builds do show it getting better with time. But while the OS may get better don't expect the app situation to ever be on par with ios. It's looking more positive at this point, but you can't rely on that. Just because there's some motion no doesn't mean it will continue.

 

[EspHack]

"Go to the doctor now or wait for god to save me?"

only you can decide OP, I'd wait a little longer to get a 950 as cheap as possible so I don't kill myself in regret, its already at less than 400$ on ebay new-sealed

 

[badMojo69]

If you buy the XL just buy a used one. It's not worth full price and has very little resale value. If/When the Surface phone drops so will the remaining value of the XL. I would not pay more than $360-$380 for a mint used one. If its in good only condition $320-$350.

I wish there was a good smart watch that worked (not a band) like my ZenWatch2. I'm still holding on to my 920 even though the camera died years ago.

 

[Sager-Naji]

Honestly just get the phone.

 

[Lagur]

Release preview is already stable .164 .218 .242 and now .318.

Go buy now, thank me later.

 

[JANGEL13]

So I just traded in my wife's old 925 and got the option of $150 off the 950 or 950XL. I chose the 950 because they didn't have a demo of the XL at the Microsoft store I was at (it was stolen). That's a lot of money to spend without holding the phone in your hand first. Also, I thought I was buying an AT&T branded 950. I didn't even realize right away that it was unlocked because I've never bought an unlocked phone. Anyway, now that I know it's unbranded I was thinking about going back and buying the XL. Besides battery and the display, what are the advantages the XL has over the 950?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

So I just traded in my wife's old 925 and got the option of $150 off the 950 or 950XL. I chose the 950 because they didn't have a demo of the XL at the Microsoft store I was at (it was stolen). That's a lot of money to spend without holding the phone in your hand first. Also, I thought I was buying an AT&T branded 950. I didn't even realize right away that it was unlocked because I've never bought an unlocked phone. Anyway, now that I know it's unbranded I was thinking about going back and buying the XL. Besides battery and the display, what are the advantages the XL has over the 950?

the only other difference seems to be the processor