Do you regret getting a 950?

[Krystianpants]

That's a tough question to answer for me. I'm using the 950XL. I love it and it's my favourite phone I ever owned. But then I paid quite a lot for it and it still uses an older SOC that is already outdated. I only slightly started regretting it when I saw the HP elite X3 video. It has the advantage of running the snapdragon 820 and looks like a really cool modern design. And of course then when MS started the BOGO sale for 950xl+950 it sort of made me wonder about why the early adopters didn't get the 950 through lumia offers. I do realize that besides the SOC it has some pretty advanced hardware. The vapor chamber is the best for the 810. Tests show it out performs any other model of phone using the SOC. So MS did put a lot of money into the hardware. The iris scan is probably not cheap either and I do love it. But shortly after the market started getting flooded with 820 SOCs and the 810 is kind of left behind.
I'm also not fond of the fact that MS is going 64-bit and likely that's what the HP elite X3 will run. It would be nice if they allowed flashing the device from scratch using the WDRT tool or something similar so you can get 64-bit running on it. It's a fresh start and probably not an easy change, but they should put the effort in for those who are willing to go that route and start completely fresh. They have full control of firmware/bootloaders and everything. It's not a third party system. And if they are worried about opening up a hole for hacking, they can at least offer replacements or for MS stores to do it for people.

I do plan to likely purchase whatever they release in spring 2017 so it will not be a long term phone for me. I'm willing to put down the money on something that will differentiate itself from any current offerings. But it will likely be a big hit to my wallet as selling it at that point will likely not be that easy and the price will have to be pretty low. I do take care of my phone so I expect it will continue to be in mint condition.

Anyways, so my regrets are only because of future products and the price I paid for it. But I guess that's the issue with being an early adopter. I know HTC is giving early adopters of HTC 10 some sort of gift. And while we got office 365 for free, it's not something that I really use much.

The OS is great, the app ecosystem seems to be expanding so I'm pretty happy with it so far. This wasn't the case when it first came out as it was full of problems. So I paid a high price for a lot of problems. Of course I knew they would be resolved but now that they are pricing is dropping quite a lot. So for those thinking of buying them it's a good choice right now if the price is right. The BOGO deal was definitely a no brainer.

 

[zack251]

No regret as it exceeds the 830 that I used to own before. I do have some problems when I added a second sim card - the phone reboot a couple of times a day. So I updated the phone (insider preview version) and removed the second sim card. No rebooting yet until now. I will try to insert the second sim card later and hope the problem has been fixed.

 

[Mark F24]

I took advantage of the BOGO offer, was planning to get a 950, but have used the 950XL 90% of the time. I carry my phone in my front pants pocket and the XL isn't gonna work out. I am going to start carrying the 950 on production build and just stick with it. They are really nice phones, I may sell one and get the continuum dock, but not sure I want to part with either of them, kinda like the pair if you know what I mean. I was surprised that they are both dual sim.

I have run the 10586.242 build mostly, I put the 14332 on my 640 then on the 950 but I didn't leave it, I need to wean myself back to the slower pace and just stick with a good build for a few months...enjoy the phone.

I thought about waiting it out till 2017, but I am sure I won't want an early release "Surface" phone anyway, I'll wait like I did now, these phones ain't bad.

No regrets at all, I have the HTC One M8 my son is using, he likes the superior sound compared to his iPhone 5, think he may stick with windows. He likes the custom-ability of the start screen too. I had been using a 640 LTE for a while so he gave it it a whirl.

 

[TK2011]

$270 is a nice deal for this phone. I got the XL for my wife and it's an awesome device. I'm trying to get the non-XL myself. Overall, 950/XL's camera should go more than toe to toe with the S7 based on what I've seen. iPhone is no-contest, BTW. I feel sorry for all iPhone 6s owners deluding they have a top notch camera. lol

 

[TLRtheory]

Nope.

Got it day one... no bugs whatsoever. I'd always wanted to have a super powerful Windows Phone with an SD card slot that wasn't a goddamn phablet. Lumia 950 is the first and only one that fit the bill. Surface Phone's gonna have to do something phenomenal to rip me away from this.

Maybe I'd be a little more pessimistic if my camera were failing, or I was getting these restarts... but I've been getting none of that. I'm regret free

 

[kristalsoldier]

So far the heat doesn't seem to hurt anything, but it does get hot. Well, I actually have the 950xl. I haven't heard of my wife's 950 getting hot. At least not as hot as mine.

My battery life seems ok, but it probably depends on what you do.

True. I received my 950XL just a couple of days back and I was testing it today. I left my place with 90% charge. I was then on Telegram for about 20 mins; on Readit for about an hour; on Viber (talk) for about an hour. All this was on cellular data. In the middle, I received and answered some mails (two mails synching - both Outlook accounts), I looked up things on the Windows Central app, I periodically looked up some stocks on the Money Central app. So, about 3 hours or using the phone in the above manner, I was down to 48% and the phone had become very warm. I should mention though that the ambient temps where I am currently located is around 33 degrees C. So, maybe that may have something to do with how warm the phone got. But in terms of performance, flawless!

 

[uselessrobot]

Yes, I do.

I had a 920 for 3 years and was consistently pleased with the phone, enough that I was able to tolerate the lack of apps.

I got my 950 when it launched and it's been one frustration after another. Beyond the crashing apps there was just a pervasive sense of sloppiness. A lot of issues have been addressed over the intervening months, but problems still persist.

And the problem here is that issues persist with core functionality. I still get lag when sending texts. Browsing photos still results in the occasional crash, especially when trying to add an attachment. I've also discovered that deleting a photo doesn't actually remove it from the device; it's gone in the album, but still sitting on the SD card. I also still experience the issue with the camera app where the camera stops working, requiring a reboot. I suppose I should be happy that it doesn't restart on its own like it used to.

Then there's the pervasive frustration of inconsistent Bluetooth functionality between the phone and my Band. I never had a problem with the 920, but with the 950, from day one, it hasn't worked properly.

But sure, day to day the phone is serviceable. It works well enough and I still prefer this UX over others. Still, had I known what I was getting into I would have gotten a Nexus or an iPhone. And one of those is likely to be my next phone by the end of the year.

I know a couple of people who were diehard Microsoft supporters for a very long time and Windows 10 has been an incredible disappointment for them, leading them to seek out alternatives.

 

[Ron Simpson]

Not in the slightest. Loved my 920 for the last three years and really love my 950 XL Dual SIM. I swallowed hard but went the expense to keep on par with my 920, but this is head and shoulders over the 920. It's a solid and, yes, I do say a bug-free device. A large part of my high opinion of this smartphone is Windows 10. I now have it on my desktop, laptop, three tablets and now my phone. Integration and commonality are huge benefits for me. I am an IT pro, so I am very critical when it comes to my productivity.
I would not go back to my 920 and would never go back to Android or even think about an IOS device. The 950 is it for me. Keep it coming Microsoft!

 

[Ron Simpson]

I'm sorry you are not enjoying your 950/Win 10 experience. Mine is the opposite of yours. I love y 950 XL Dual SIM and am totally sold in Windows 10. And I'm pretty demanding when it comes to my productivity. Having Win10 on all of my devices - integration and commonality - is extremely valuable. 1 OS is the way to go in business.

 

[jrb363]

Yesterday I receive my 950, so cool and I'm not regret but damn the device get hot for everything, it's normal?

The 950 does tend to run a bit warm. While demoing a unit in an AT&T I noticed it as well when I was messing around with Excel and taking picture/video. It's why I decided to go for the 950XL since, even thought the processor is more demanding, it had (supposedly) better cooling and wouldn't have to push itself as hard to perform the same tasks.

I took it to a concert last weekend and shot around 50 photos with a few 2-3 minute HD recordings in-between and not once did it feel warm to the touch.

Of course, it also helps I have a solid case which means I won't feel it get hot as quickly, but still...I was very impressed.

 

[ElronTheElder]

Utilizing past BOGO promotion was intent on selling the 950 DS.
Telling my wife it had the same camera as my XL....plans have changed.
Currently charging/setting up said 950 for use as her daily driver.
Being semi-literate with her Nexus 6 she will take some time getting used to it.
Once she takes some pictures, pretty sure it will be a done deal.

 

[obakir]

I can't believe I'm saying this but I do regret it. I owned a windows phone in 8.0 to 8.1 transition. We had to be very patient those days. 8.1 was such a stability improvement. But the phone I had was kinda slow, so I wanted to switch to a flagship kinda phone. Big mistake. It feels like 8.0 again. Nothing is stable. First month I had the phone it restarted itself during a phone call! It still restarts itself from time to time. What if I have to call 911 or something?? 6 months later, still restarts itself. along with other problems. Unbelievable.

 

[Dexter_Morgan9]

I can't believe I'm saying this but I do regret it. I owned a windows phone in 8.0 to 8.1 transition. We had to be very patient those days. 8.1 was such a stability improvement. But the phone I had was kinda slow, so I wanted to switch to a flagship kinda phone. Big mistake. It feels like 8.0 again. Nothing is stable. First month I had the phone it restarted itself during a phone call! It still restarts itself from time to time. What if I have to call 911 or something?? 6 months later, still restarts itself. along with other problems. Unbelievable.

I agree with you 100%. I wholeheartedly regret buying this 950. It's battery life and performance are terrible compared to the 1520, which is a three year old device. Apps lag, it's frozen in a few apps already, and it won't let me login to Amazon, eBay, or cloudmuzik. Poor output by Microsoft.

 

[Vasrias]

Have you updated to the 10586.318? I bought my L950 yesterday and with the installed build 10586.107 it got crazy hot without doing anything, lagged, asked me to shut it down to prevent overheating and so on. After the update I did a hard reset, restore from backup, let it download all apps and now everything is super smooth and it doesn't get hot if I'm not doing anything heavy. But I can't confirm the battery life for now, since I unplugged it about half an hour ago.

 

[barotropic]

My Lumia 950 is working beautifully, and the battery easily gets me through the day. I'm not a gamer, but I do use the phone and apps frequently.

When I got it a couple weeks ago, I set it up using a backup from my Lumia 640. I saw a couple of glitches, then remembered the common wisdom: do a factory reset and build the apps and data from scratch. After doing that, it has been flawless. Better battery life and reliability, btw, than the Nexus 5X I was using before.

I was using happily using a Lumia 640 last fall, but wanted better features. My list included faster chipset, higher res screen, biometric security and mobile payments. I wanted this in a Windows phone, but when I compared the Nexus 5X and the 950, I found that the features were similar (small wins / losses on each), but the 5X could be had for much less $. Bought the 5X, and made two discoveries: I never use mobile payments (haven't met anyone who does more than rarely), and I was reminded of why the chaos of the Android interface drove me away a couple years ago.

So I bought 950 during the BOGO sale last month, and jumped from the 5X back to Windows. No regrets! The 950 is responsive, with a beautiful screen, the "Hello" iris scanning works pretty well for me. The Windows tile interface is so much more attractive and useful than the iOS or Android scheme. The ability to add 128GB (microSD) of storage for $30 is wonderful, and the option to replace the battery is important as well.

I'm always perplexed at those who complain about the polycarb case and "feel in the hand". To 95% of us, those are things that matter for the 5 minutes after we remove the new phone from the box until we put it in a protective case. And most know that if we don't put it in a case, we'll destroy the $400+ phone within 6 months by a simple drop on concrete. A metal case would prevent including the removable back, which in turn allows microSD expansion and removable battery.

This is a great phone. I think Microsoft's retail price is too high, but it will be less on sale and as time passes.

Sent from mTalk

 

[farhanaxiq]

I bought a 950 and i regret nothing
At first its really glitchy but after few os update and update all store app, it run smooth.

 

[theblankat]

I just got a 950 running the official release of WM10P - changing from a L1020 running 8.1 that I've had since 2013. I'm still adjusting, but here are my fresh observations.
Negatives

• The 950 gets warm, and the battery seems to drain quickly. (I'm not using "Hello" and "Glance" is set to 30 seconds, as these are known for battery draining.
• Movement on the screen is not always as buttery smooth as on the 1020
• Touch sensitivity on the 950 is not always the same - sometimes it registers a touch, sometimes not
• Bluetooth connections seems to get disconnected randomly
• <-- pressing the Back Arrow, will get a tactile vibration, but not always necessarily move one "back"
• MAPS is not as good as DRIVE+. Visually, the layout is not refined in landscape mode. I miss Surfer Dude! MAPS speaks about .2 miles. DRIVE+ would say 200 feet.
• I wish SPECK made a case for the 950
• I can not for the life of me find anyplace that sells official replacement batteries for the 950. So, the battery is replaceable in theory, but if you can't find a replacement battery it's not very useful.

Positives

• The Camera saves images faster than on the 1020
• HDR is a cool photo feature.
• The screen has a lot of room to place a lot of tiles.
• It's lighter.
• "Settings" in WM10P are far better organized and deeper, overall.

CABLES: Advise you to buy a few "official" USB-C cables (car, home-computer, home-bedside, work). Over the years we've all accumulated a few USB cables and have them where we need them. You'll need to stock up on USB-C cables.

MICROSD: Also, if you are looking for a MicroSD card look for UHS II U3 grade cards. They are more expensive, but they should be good to capture 4K video.

 

[les suggs]

Disappointed yeah, regret - no. Within the same time frame when I picked up my 950, I also purchased a Surface Pro 4. The surface pro is amazing and I feel it gets far far more attention from Developers than the 950. My 950 needs a reboot every 24 hours to cure several nagging issues: Cell signal loss, Facebook shenanigans, Audible app loses its mind, etc etc. Microsoft needs to make fixing the OS, for the phone, a priority. But I don't want Windows Phones to go away. This is a tool. iOS is a toy for people who want to be entertained 24x7. I see the Windows Phone as the MacSE of the mid-late 80's. Yeah, it was a cool device, but the MacSE was a tool, and that tool kept Apple afloat until better products and minds prevailed. Microsoft is on the leading edge of PC to micro device transformation. And this work needs to continue.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

Not at all for me. I have had an LG Quantum, then Samsung Focus, Samsung Ativ S and a 1520 prior to the 950. I got it right after launch and it was pretty rough until a few updates came in. On the latest .318 build and it works great. I get over 24 hours of battery life easily. It has all the apps I need.

As for the OP, 8 hours is totally not enough time. When you first set the device up there are a lot of housekeeping tasks that Windows runs in the background. It will be at least a couple of days before the battery settles in. No different than desktop Windows.

 

[chezm]

. This is a tool. iOS is a toy for people who want to be entertained 24x7. .

What's this conception that people have about iOS being a toy on this forum? It's a mobile device that is stable, works most of the time, is lighting fast and reliable. In addition, it's ecosystem is well developed and as much a premium feature as WP fans consider their integrations with MS software.

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