950XL and 5 days of crushed hope

[Sunstorming]

Well, I was there Wednesday, cash in hand, to get my 950XL. I have had Win 10 on my 1520 for a month and up to the last release and figured it has some bugs, but a new phone is new hardware and it should probably be ok. I even posted here a "why should I" sorta post... anyhow obviously off I went to buy the phone.

Here I am today, after 5 frustrating days of loving and hating the 950XL at the same time, the phone is now back at the Microsoft store. Between the battery, the bugs, mobile hotspot not working, and other things that drive someone like me crazy, I couldn't take anymore. I am gonna list what I liked and didn't

Like:
- light, sturdy design that felt really nice in the hand
- the greatest blacks ever seen on a phone screen (as far as I am concerned)
- excellent camera
- fast I/O via USB-C

Dislike:
- Battery is crazy bad. There is no getting around this. The way I used my Icon, I would get ~ 6AM to Midnight. On my 1520, 6AM to the next day 6AM with power to spare. On the 950XL, after 8 discharge / charge cycles I couldn't get 10 hours out of it unless it was just sitting in standby. The screen uses WAY too much power. If you own one of these, have a good time and look in Battery Saver on what part of the phone is using power.
- the back cover was loose on the bottom corners and was extremely annoying, also made it feel assuredly not-flagship compared to my Icon and 1520.
- screen looked awesome straight on with dark colors. Get a full white screen, and its bluish on the top and reddish on the bottom.

That's just the beginning, but to sum up... I brought it back and I am waiting til spring with my 1520. The 950XL phone might be ready by then, and it will be cheaper.

 

[TexasLabRat]

did you restore from a prior 8.1-based backup or did you set it up clean-slate?

 

[cracgor]

I don't think the OS should be so finicky as to have problems if you click the wrong button during install (especially an option the system gives you).

 

[TexasLabRat]

I don't think the OS should be so finicky as to have problems if you click the wrong button during install (especially an option the system gives you).

No arguments here..but it is what it is. If one likes the phone otherwise it behooves one to give a clean-slate install a shot IMHO.

 

[taphius]

No arguments here..but it is what it is. If one likes the phone otherwise it behooves one to give a clean-slate install a shot IMHO.

Just shows even more lack of thought on MS part. I was really hoping that this would be the phone I keep.

The search continues 8'(

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[Sunstorming]

both. That's right, I restored as it is designed to do... the experience was mediocre... so on a brand new $700 item, I factory reset, and even at that state it was goofy as described.

 

[oldpueblo]

Yeah I'm only on a 950 non-XL and it bugs me that the screen is always at least 57% of battery life for me. I don't recall what it was on the previous phone, so maybe that's not odd. But I do feel the screen is overkill at that resolution. I guess we can't win though because a lesser screen would have been universally damned by the reviewers. I do wish it would quit defaulting back to 50% after a reboot. I set it to auto adjust brightness and the slider at 25%, but it won't stay there. Heck it's even bright enough at 0% and auto.

I wonder though if the Iris scanner get's logged under screen? I'll turn it off for two days and see if that number drops.

 

[phelme]

i never thought the 1080p screen on the 6" 1520 was left wanting. i fear the marketing department at MS succumbed to the new "great race," screen resolution.

 

[occamsmonkey]

I was on the same page until I bit the bullet and did a factory reset without restore. Now I get a full day of charge out of my battery (7a to 12a) with a still pretty weak 15% or so left if I use it heavily. The reset removed many of my frustrations. We are absolutely beta testing this (they laid off all of their SDETs for the phone team to adapt to a more 'agile' methodology). And I'm not entirely thrilled, but also not entirely angry about it. I will say that leaving their core customers in a lurch by not having a solid data migration strategy for 8.1 to 10 was pretty crappy and hands down my biggest negative for the phone. But if you can take a shot of whisky, bite a strap of leather, and get through a factory restore with no backup restore, it does make a huge positive difference.

 

[shifty303]

Mine's been great! I got the 950XL on Friday. After signing in and a couple gigabytes of syncing later it was nearly identical to my old Blu Win HD on W8 mobile, except I also added the Band 2. I turned on all of the bells and whistles to make sure I can drain+recharge often to wear in the battery. It's 1:40PM today and I'm sitting at 71% battery whereas my old phone would be down to around 20-40%.

Mobile hotspot works for me (T-Mobil). Screen is amazing (I'm a photographer/designer so I have calibrated PC monitors and would notice issues).

I've only had one glitch so far which happens if my Band alarm and phone alarm are set at the same time - basically after disabling the alarm on both the phone hangs for 10-20 seconds, my guess currently is something to do with Hello+Encryption+Multiple Alarms at once because after the hang it'll just show the "couldn't recognize you" message.

 

[Brandon Keenan]

i never thought the 1080p screen on the 6" 1520 was left wanting. i fear the marketing department at MS succumbed to the new "great race," screen resolution.

Exactly. I never felt like it wasn't high enough on the 1520 but felt just right. While a higher resolution is cool for the 950xl, I don't see the benefit at such a loss for battery life.

 

[Dan TheMan86]

I think we can thank LG for the whole "higher resolution is better" thing. 1080 should be the absolute MAX resolution on any screen under 6 inches. Your eyes can't even tell the difference. LG came out with the G3 and 2k resolution and used it as a way to say their phone is better. Now other manufactures have to meet that "benchmark" in order to compete. It's nonsense and consumers have just gobbled it up.

 

[occamsmonkey]

 

[elindalyne]

It seems like there's varying amounts of software stability and build quality on the 950s. I'm sorry you got a dud, but honestly this has been the smoothest experience I've had on a phone. No crashes, no resuming, no battery life issues.

 

[ajj3085]

No arguments here..but it is what it is. If one likes the phone otherwise it behooves one to give a clean-slate install a shot IMHO.

No it doesn't. A phone without all my data is pretty pointless.

 

[TexasLabRat]

No it doesn't. A phone without all my data is pretty pointless.

LOL I would explain how it works, but I don't think you want to know. You should return your phone immediately and save yourself the frustration.

 

[ajj3085]

LOL I would explain how it works, but I don't think you want to know. You should return your phone immediately and save yourself the frustration.

I know more about how it works than you do. I don't have the 950, I'll be waiting for the glitches to be fixed.

 

[TexasLabRat]

I know more about how it works than you do. I don't have the 950, I'll be waiting for the glitches to be fixed.

ROFL somehow I doubt that, or you wouldn't have written such an uninformed post. Unless you were just spouting non-sense for effect. But either way, good luck with that. You seem to be one who might need it.

 

[ajj3085]

ROFL somehow I doubt that, or you wouldn't have written such an uninformed post. Unless you attempting to be a the-t-word-that-shall-not-be-spoken. But good luck with that. You seem to be one who might need it.

You're the one that's uninformed. There's data that is only backed up or restored to the phone via backup and restore, such as text messages or call history. Other apps are in the same boat. A smart phone that loses personal information is pointless.

 

[TexasLabRat]

You're the one that's uninformed. There's data that is only backed up or restored to the phone via backup and restore, such as text messages or call history. Other apps are in the same boat. A smart phone that loses personal information is pointless.

Because, yes, it is IMPOSSIBLE to ever recover your personal data from ANY other means after a hard reset. /rolleyes I suppose I should have been just throwing my phone into the trash when I did hard resets during the insider preview program rather than recovering my data since obviously it's impossible and hence it was pointless to own the phone. Silly me.

here's a hint: take your example of text messages and explore that a bit with a foucs on the "History and Sync" functionality of the OS. And then check out the part of the OS where apps store their info independently (with developer support). oh, and there's creative use of this thing called "the cloud" and these new-fangled potato-chip things called memory cards that you can save stuff on supposedly.

And Pray tell....I suppose by your definition it would be "pointless" to change ecosystems (in either direction) since you might lose some bit of personal info in the process? LOL

But honestly, you crack me up. I'm not really sure if you are serious or not...I want to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are just trying to get a reaction out of me but then I think maybe you really don't get it. /shrug like I said before...good luck with that.