Getting rid of my 950xl, anyone else?

[chezm]

Apps will come only if there is a good user base. And of the less people who buys it leaves for Android citing app gap problem. It's ok they leave but they just points out the flaws in the phone making other users reluctant to buy it. So the % share of wp users stays low and developers ignores this os

Unfortunately this has been the case for the last 4 years, it's nothing new. Too bad.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[drtek]

Mine is going back today. First, the Incipio protector doesn't fit, and the back cover creek. It feels like an all around cheap phone.

 

[chezm]

I loved the Note, it was a good phone, very quick and heaps of apps but the stuttering that is ever-present in Android used to annoy the hell out of me and the delay for upgrades was maddening. It was mandatory for me to restart the phone every morning to ensure it would run as smooth as possible, (though that wasn't really too much of a hassle...).

This whole android stuttering and not running smoothly is such an old argument, 4 year old argument that doesn't apply anymore. Even Samsung touch wiz has improved so much, it was the long time offender and android across all devices is super slick. Windows phone fanboys really need to get over that claim...its an ancient case, much like Windows doesn't have a quick toggle or love tiles are still updated every 30 minutes (on my windows 10 pc live tiles actually take longer than 30 mins to update but I've been told on these forums case is otherwise on mobile).

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[X-topher]

Gawd these forums are plagued with American Tyre kickers...
'I,m not buying one because my sisters husbands brothers uncle cannot meet me on the winter equinox" or 'I,m going to sell mine and the display dock because I can make 15c profit'
"I was going to get one but went for the Huwie x1 for $7"
These are the Customers Microsoft really needs to get rid of hopefully swap them with the apple customers who actually expected their ipad pros to be able to do stuff...

 

[downup]

Best phone i ever had!
Feels soo light and it's quick!
Charged it for 25 hours ago and i am at 40% atm.

Only thing i miss is Cortana for sweden.. Why even thinkging about giving it up?

 

[macros_1]

Dearest Lumia 950 XL,

I'm sorry....I really tried, but I give up. Things just really shouldn't be this hard. I just don't have the patience right now especially since my 830 with Insider Preview seemed so stable compared to you.

Maybe we can try this again in the future. But you're just wearing on me and I can't continue to make excuses (. These things just continued to add up...

1. No visual voicemail on T-Mobile. I understand that it's due to it being Dual Sim, but when I ordered....I didn't order a Dual Sim unit, nor do I want a Dual Sim unit.
2. No WiFi calling. While this one wasn't make or break and I was pretty much just hoping since WiFi calling is supposedly baked into the OS that it would work. Again, more of an annoyance, but coupled with the next issue...it's a pain.
3. No VoLTE. I luckily get signal now in places I never saw it previously, but I can't make calls. It's disconcerting to get a signal but not be able to make calls.
4. Constant Reboots. The phone seems to go crazy at times and reboots four or five times in a row. Even without a SD card...reboot. And...
5. SD Card Instability. When you add a SD card.... REBOOT. Different SD card..... REBOOT. Think about SD cards? REBOOT.
6. Outlook Issues. Constantly I get alerts that "My Account Settings are Out of Date" for each of my three mailboxes. Always seems to happen in the middle of the night and wake me up with the notification. But nothing is wrong with them. This never happened with my 830 running Insider Preview.
7. WiFi Issues. The phone doesn't seem to like the 5Gz network. Thought it might be my router, but same issue happens on other routers. Even replaced my router with a different one. Still happens. Also seems to stop connecting to "remembered" networks (both 2.4 and 5) for no reason at all.
8. Random Battery Drain and Scorching Hot. When I have the phone in my pocket or on my desk, it occasionally seems to get locked into running something, I think it's related to Windows Hello. The red light just sticks on and the phone heats up to the point it gets very hot to the touch. One time it was in my pocket and it actually started to hurt it was so hot.

It really sucks because you have such potential....

1. Beautiful Screen. I LOVE the screen. It is just beautiful and it will hurt to go back to one of the older phones.
2. Amazing Reception. I get bars EVERYWHERE, and if you have Tmo...you know how weird that is.
3. Fast as Heck. This phone is an anti-Resuming machine.
4. The Design. I know I'm in the minority, but I actually like the design of the phone. I wish the back wrapped around a little as the front is a bit boring. The only minor annoyance on the design is the logo seems to want to trap grime.

So it's not one thing....it's a lot of things. I want to love you 950 XL, but it's you...it's not me. I really hope sometime in the future we can try this again. Maybe when you're a little older and a little wiser. This is the honeymoon phase, I'm supposed to be completely enthralled by you....but spending so much money, time, and energy on trying to make this work this work isn't healthy. It's time to think about me, it's time to say goodbye.

 

[Siddharth Ramakrishnan]

Those who are getting rid of the phone what you guys do with that phone?

You just return the phone to the seller ? Or you list the phone for sale ?

In India we can't return the phone if we don't like the OS or we don't have the app we need.

 

[X-topher]

[*]No visual voicemail on T-Mobile. I understand that it's due to it being Dual Sim, but when I ordered....I didn't order a Dual Sim unit, nor do I want a Dual Sim unit.
[*]No WiFi calling. While this one wasn't make or break and I was pretty much just hoping since WiFi calling is supposedly baked into the OS that it would work. Again, more of an annoyance, but coupled with the next issue...it's a pain.
[*]No VoLTE. I luckily get signal now in places I never saw it previously, but I can't make calls. It's disconcerting to get a signal but not be able to make calls.

All of these problems are down to your network provider NOT Microsoft... The Phone works with them all

 

[X-topher]

[*]Constant Reboots. The phone seems to go crazy at times and reboots four or five times in a row. Even without a SD card...reboot. And...
[*]SD Card Instability. When you add a SD card.... REBOOT. Different SD card..... REBOOT. Think about SD cards? REBOOT.
[*]Outlook Issues. Constantly I get alerts that "My Account Settings are Out of Date" for each of my three mailboxes. Always seems to happen in the middle of the night and wake me up with the notification. But nothing is wrong with them. This never happened with my 830 running Insider Preview.
[*]WiFi Issues. The phone doesn't seem to like the 5Gz network. Thought it might be my router, but same issue happens on other routers. Even replaced my router with a different one. Still happens. Also seems to stop connecting to "remembered" networks (both 2.4 and 5) for no reason at all.
[*]Random Battery Drain and Scorching Hot. When I have the phone in my pocket or on my desk, it occasionally seems to get locked into running something, I think it's related to Windows Hello. The red light just sticks on and the phone heats up to the point it gets very hot to the touch. One time it was in my pocket and it actually started to hurt it was so hot.

All these problems look like user errors... How long does it take to reset your mail accounts, errr 5 mins? Have you tried locking the screen before you put it in your pocket? cheapo branded sd card? Is it formatted UHS-1? Its a dual band phone it swaps from 2.4 to 5 depending on which your router assigns it, I bet you have something else on the 5 ghz band anyway it would be hardly noticeable between the different bandwidths why is it so important to have it on 5 ghz?

 

[Vikram Kamath]

Seen battery test in GSMARENA.com and price in India, ur making right call ! Huge fan of Windows but too costly in India currently...

 

[macros_1]

All these problems look like user errors... How long does it take to reset your mail accounts, errr 5 mins? Have you tried locking the screen before you put it in your pocket? cheapo branded sd card? Is it formatted UHS-1? Its a dual band phone it swaps from 2.4 to 5 depending on which your router assigns it, I bet you have something else on the 5 ghz band anyway it would be hardly noticeable between the different bandwidths why is it so important to have it on 5 ghz?

I realize you are a Windows fan, but not everyone's issues are User related. I'll go through your accusations of user error one at a time.

1. How long does it take to reset your mail account? Not long at all, especially since every time the system alerts that my email accounts were out of date, there was no issue when I went into my accounts. However, my notification area was filled with "Your account settings are out of date". A reset of the account did not fix the issue.
2. Have I tried locking the screen before I put it into my pocket? Absolutely. The phone's screen was on the Glance screen and the Iris scanner was on when I took it out of my pocket. The same issue happened randomly through at night, though the phone wasn't quite the ball of molten lava it was when it was in my pocket. However, I'm quite sure you'll attribute these to being user error as well. I must have put it on my nightstand incorrectly....or maybe in the words of the late Steve Jobs, I'm "holding it wrong".
3. Cheapo Branded SD Card? Well, I cannot determine what you consider as cheapo, but I used both SanDisk and Samsung cards. Both were class UHS-1. Though you cannot format a card as UHS-1 (exfat, fat32, ntfs, etc.).
4. Why is it so important to be on 5ghz? I apologize if my previous note was confusing, but the issue was not that it was switching between bands. The issue was that it would not connect to Wifi networks automatically at times. I'd be home and it would just say WiFi was available, just not connected. I would have to open Wifi and click on the SSID to connect (no prompt for password as the profile was saved). This didn't happen all the time, but it was strange that I'd eat through my data because it would randomly decide to not connect.

In reference to your previous post, you are absolutely correct that Tmobile shares blame for the issues described. The only one that is purely Microsoft's fault is sending out Dual Sim units (which breaks Visual Voicemail). That was not a carrier issue, it was purely a Microsoft one. I really wonder what the business decision was to send them out as Dual Sim? When I pre-ordered, there was no mention of it.

As I stated, my decision to return the unit was a culmination of all the issues. If you have one and you love it, bravo for you! However your experiences are not necessarily indicative of the universe of 950 XL users as a whole. For others who are running into issues, I hoped posting my experience may be helpful that they are not alone or to help those on the fence make a decision. Obviously there are some who are very happy with the unit, while there are those who are not. Just because there are some of us who expected more of the phone and we're not willing to hold out hope that all issues are fixed, it doesn't make us any less of Windows Phone/Mobile fans, we're just pragmatic. Nonetheless, just got back from the Microsoft store and the phone is gone.

 

[macros_1]

Those who are getting rid of the phone what you guys do with that phone?

You just return the phone to the seller ? Or you list the phone for sale ?

In India we can't return the phone if we don't like the OS or we don't have the app we need.

In the US, the Microsoft Store has an open return policy that you can return it for any reason within 30 days. After that point, your stuck (and would need to sell to a third party).

 

[Cheeky_47]

This whole android stuttering and not running smoothly is such an old argument, 4 year old argument that doesn't apply anymore. Even Samsung touch wiz has improved so much, it was the long time offender and android across all devices is super slick. Windows phone fanboys really need to get over that claim...its an ancient case, much like Windows doesn't have a quick toggle or love tiles are still updated every 30 minutes (on my windows 10 pc live tiles actually take longer than 30 mins to update but I've been told on these forums case is otherwise on mobile).

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

I guess you didn't read my post properly... I said I owned a Note 4, and I can assure you that Android DOES stutter and lag, Touchwiz or not, (everybody knows this). Updates take horrendously long, (Samsung's fault I think...) and it needed a restart daily and it's cache cleared for it to perform consistently.

I haven't even mentioned rouge apps that sit in the background and just drain the battery... Yeah... Android has come a LONG WAY!

Doesn't matter how much hardware they throw at Android, it will always have these issues.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I guess you didn't read my post properly... I said I owned a Note 4, and I can assure you that Android DOES stutter and lag, Touchwiz or not, (everybody knows this). Updates take horrendously long, (Samsung's fault I think...) and it needed a restart daily and it's cache cleared for it to perform consistently.

I haven't even mentioned rouge apps that sit in the background and just drain the battery... Yeah... Android has come a LONG WAY!

Doesn't matter how much hardware they throw at Android, it will always have these issues.

That is incorrect. I had no lag when I used a 2013 Moto X for 6 months. I'm still using a 2013 Nexus 7 which doesn't lag either. As with anything YMMV. However, it is false to assume that all Android devices lag.

 

[Cheeky_47]

That is incorrect. I had no lag when I used a 2013 Moto X for 6 months. I'm still using a 2013 Nexus 7 which doesn't lag either. As with anything YMMV. However, it is false to assume that all Android devices lag.

Fair point, I only ever had Samsung.

 

[Joe McGee]

I have a 950 and it has same issues all over the place.
It's the last chance for window phone and I should have known better and waited.
I had high hope for this phone. So sad.:unhappy:

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

Wow what a bummer.
I looked at the 950XL in the store several weeks ago and while it seemed really fast to launch apps and use the camera, it was a tad smaller than my 1520 and really didn't feel "new" since I was already using Windows 10.
In fact, some of us are using a newer build of Windows 10 than the 950 series comes with. (perhaps try using preview on the device).

My 1520 is getting the ghost taps but I figured out how to make them go away by pressing hard on the corners of the screen really hard and that has stopped the problem for hours up to days at a time.

There are a few glitches with Windows 10 on the 1520 but overall it is also a nice device to use even though it is 2+ year old tech now.
I got the green one which is supposedly one of the last made 1520 series.

I had already decided to wait until next year when the price drops a bit and instead spend the money on Christmas.

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

Oh yeah, a lot of people are often in awe when I pull the 1520 out and use it.
Especially with the Windows 10 system.
It looks awesome and usually works pretty good.
Not that I try to brag about my phone, but people often just see it and ask what it is. So many people have no idea about Windows Phones anymore and face it, Androids and iPhones are pretty boring devices depending on what skinned over system might be on it (TouchWiz, versus HTC Sense, versus MotoBlur, etc).

The 2 or so year old iPhone 4 work has me carry is a total **** in comparison. Sucks to even have to use that thing.

 

[The Werewolf]

Would be shocked if anyone pays over retail for this phone.

Uh.. why would anyone pay over retail for any phone? If you're doing that - you're a terrible consumer...

 

[PsycheEye]

Lots of fickle people in this world. I can't imagine anybody actually buying a 950XL without already knowing what to expect, with a not-yet-ready OS in addition to the normal bugs and glitches to be expected with a new high-end device. The only way anybody even knew it existed was from reading about it on sites like this one. It's not as if any site hid the issues with the OS. And then being so impatient as to get rid of it less than a week later because the experience is less than perfect. I just don't get it.

Kind of shocking that some people actually seem to be fine with MS releasing such an expensive hyped up (well, for being MS) phone with an OS that is this buggy (or was when released, and still kinda is). As you yourself say: "with a not-yet-ready OS". And you mean that is something everyone should expect? Yeah.. Way for any company to take market shares with that strategy..

I love the 950 and 950XL, but i honestly didn't think they would be as buggy as they were/are.