From 640 to 950 & 950 XL on AT&T

[B T C]

I do have a Microsoft account. My original email account was a Hotmail account, so I've probably had it for a long time. I obviously don't utilize, or even know about, all of the functionality it offers. I just logged in and poked around a bit, and I'm glad to know my contact info is all online. I honestly had no idea that all of my "People" info was stored by Microsoft and accessible via my account.

 

[Kevin Rush]

Thank you, everyone, for the great information. We have just received our L950 and L950XL phones from the "buy one get one" (BOGO) offer. We will be trying out ATT and T-Mobile on the phones, using new prepaid accounts, so this information will be good to know.

 

[TennisGuy45]

I broke the screen on my 950xl a while back and sent if off to Palco for repair, I should get it back tomorrow.

But for the past month I've been using my 640 running Win 10 on the slow ring.

ITS PAINFUL!!!!!

The phone is so slow and its limited 1GB RAM causes random app crashes, windows 10 reporting out of memory errors, and many apps dond suspend properly.
Browsing the web is frustrating because pages load so slow.

The 640 is getting the job done and I cannot complain to much as it only cost me $30 brand new.

But man I cannot wait to get back my 950xl!!!

 

[satishn]

Satishn,
1. I've read it is ok to reuse a SIM from another phone on the same carrier but I've not tried it.
2. My phone received two update files at the same time I did the Check for Updates and they were both FROM Microsoft. The first was called something like microsoftphonedc (It definitely wasn't that name but somewhere along that line.) and the second was the current 1607 Anniversary Update latest build. Never anything ever from ATT even during the last year on my old phones.

B T C - If you have a MS account and you sign into it when you setup your computers/phones your contacts are on MS Servers and are in the People app. Some of mine come from Outlook from years ago. Same with Calendar, OneDrive etc.
If you don't use MS Account I have no clue. Never not used it.

I will be able to try this over the weekend and will share my findings back here.

 

[WillBthr]

Tennisguy45, I've been switching between 640 (one Fast, one preview, one release) and 950 series. XL quicker than 950 but every time I use 640s I am amazed at how decent they are. I think when you run close to full on 8G storage (greater than 6G) on 640 things seem to bog down. Try moving as much off it to mSD. Latest Fast release today seems quite decent on 640.

 

[B T C]

I wonder if the key to your success, particularly with the visual voice mail, was using the IMEI number from an AT&T branded Lumia 950.

 

[WillBthr]

The IMEI defines the device. I think a ATT 950 IMEI number defines per their database that the phone is a 950. A 950 is a 950 locked to ATT or Unlocked. If you input the unlocked IMEI number into their db (it is online so you can try it) it is an unknown device and I think they tell you to go to a store. When ATT stores run out of ATT 950s (and their IMEI) then you'll have to get on elsewhere for an IMEI for per defined by ATT as a 950. Their 950 number works for XL version too. ATT sell the 950 for $550 so I don't think they'll be flying out the door soon. Check one out hidden in the corner behind the..............

 

[B T C]

Per AT&T's website, none of the stores around me have a 950 in stock. I wonder if they will have a demo unit. AT&T has been selling the 950 for $298 for several months. I think I'm going to schedule an appointment or just go in sometime this weekend.

 

[WillBthr]

Last week at my local official ATT store the 950 was 550 US. I even asked the person if there was a discount and I told I thought they were less than that at ATT.com and he told me they should be the same and $550 was it.
Today on AMAZON 950 for $246.50

 

[ceinsgra]

it's actually a good buy

 

[satishn]

Update: I got the 950 XL DS last night and I inserted the nano SIM from my AT&T 830 and plugged into power. A quick note here is that the setup/user guide mentioned multiple times that some "important settings are determined by your SIM card. Insert your SIM before powering on the phone". The phone came on after charging the battery for a few min. After going thru the setup, it downloaded 2 updates: (1) Anniversary update (2) MICROSOFTMDG update. Just like WillBthr mentioned, it came with version 1511 and after these 2 updates, it is now 1607. Now the phone is fully functional. Some of the features I checked but may or may not use in the long run are Glance screen, Double-Tap to Wake, Windows Hello Iris, Microsoft Wallet and Visual Voice Mail. They all work well but Iris and Wallet have a lot of room for improvement . I think before the update, it had something like "Double-tap the navigation bar to lock the phone" and after the update it became "Double-tap to Wake". The other thing to note is that I had Visual Voice Mail working very well for a couple years on my 830 as well.

Not sure if it is because of the heavy usage during the setup and playing, but to me it looks like the battery might make me desire for me. Or may be it will settle down and become better. Fingers crossed. Please share any tips you have.

Hoping to show off my phone with the Mozo case on and all the best to all new owners of 950 and 950 XL.

 

[B T C]

My phone is set up. I'm not entirely sure whether visual voice mail is working. I'm just charging it right now. The guy stuck a sim in the phone before turning it on, but I believe it was just a SIM they pulled from a display phone. At some point we turned the phone off and put my SIM in and started going through the set up. The phone had to charge for several minutes before it would power on.

What does visual voice mail look like on Windows 10?

I guess I should connect to my Wi-Fi network and run the updates.

 

[B T C]

Visual voice mail is working on my phone. I'm not entirely sure what I did, but I was messing around with some settings and hit a link to call my voice mail. Afterwards, when I hit the back button I was prompted with a text box to enter my voice mail password to set up visual voicemail and it seems to have worked. Sweet.

Has something been changed, either by Microsoft and/or AT&T, to get visual voice mail working? I haven't read everything on the web about this phone, granted, but this thread was the first time I had ever seen anyone post that visual voice mail worked on the 950XL.

 

[PepperdotNet]

Yep, all you have to do is call Voicemail and disconnect, then enter the password when it asks.

 

[PJL99]

AT&T Visual Voice Mail has been working on our two 950XLs since we got them in May 2016. To function, the cellular data must be on. It does not function over WiFi.

 

[B T C]

That's interesting about the Visual Voice Mail. I want to say I recall seeing several reports that it did not work on the 950XL. Assuming I wasn't dreaming, that info must have either been incorrect or somebody fixed something.

 

[PJL99]

That's interesting about the Visual Voice Mail. I want to say I recall seeing several reports that it did not work on the 950XL. Assuming I wasn't dreaming, that info must have either been incorrect or somebody fixed something.

...or perhaps the reporters did not have cellular data enabled. In a conversation with AT&T they confirmed that with cellular data on Visual Voice Mail was supposed to work on the 950XL, which is does for me (as I indicated). VVM is a great feature by the way.

 

[PepperdotNet]

VVM did not work on dual sim phones for a long time, but was fixed back around 10586 or so.

 

[B T C]

Any regrets keeping both phones? I'm still trying to decide what to do with the 950. I'm liking the 950XL quite a bit, but my needs are pretty simple. I don't use a lot of apps, but maybe that's because we don't have a lot of apps.

 

[WillBthr]

I've been switching between 950 and XL every three or four days incl. today with the update. Re-linking of the Band 2 takes a few seconds along with switching the*nano(macro!!!)SIM but I appreciate them both. XL a bit quicker and bigger but the non-XL is really good to and sometimes smaller is better. Excellent camera in both! If you can afford the luxury they are both great phones. Of course I have the 640 (minus SIM) around to do everything but "call" and I am amazed constantly by it too. I got a friend and set up a 640 XL for $69 and it is impressive with it's 13MP camera too.