Getting rid of my 950xl, anyone else?

[hingethunder]

It's great to hear so many people enjoying the phone, I'm sad that I was not one of those that took to it - thankfully MS have now refunded me so I am back to my 930 and will await the next great device they decide to make. I am still convinced the 950 & XL are not the devices that will change the fortunes of Windows Phone - On the most basic test of first impressions, if I close my eyes and put either 950 in one hand and either a 930 or Nexus or iPhone in the other and compare/feel the quality - the 950 devices would come dead last for me.

 

[TennisGuy45]

If you participate in more than just this thread (heck even this thread is enough) you will notice a trend of new accounts with similar name patterns and/or remarkably similar post patterns (language, tone, grammar) that are all bashing this phone and Windows 10 in general.

I fear its a small group of well motivated individuals trying their best to generate negativity.
What a pity their lives have no more meaning other than to waste time generating multiple accounts to post negative things on this forum. You'd think their time would be better spent elsewhere after posting their grievances. Instead more and more accounts are created to try and create the perception of more and more people upset.

 

[Gunbust3r]

I fear its a small group of well motivated individuals trying their best to generate negativity.

Yes, it's a grand conspiracy. Apple and Google are paying shills to undermine Microsoft's titan ~2% phone OS market share. :amaze:

 

[pallentx]

Yes, it's a grand conspiracy. Apple and Google are paying shills to undermine Microsoft's titan ~2% phone OS market share. :amaze:

No, not all conspiracy - these phones are not perfect. I've seen plenty of this in the past, and wouldn't be surprised if its happening here somewhat. Its not paid shills, just fanboys. It was really bad in the PS/Xbox early days. Bogus youtube videos, forum posts, etc. Both sides were doing it - pathetic.

 

[Will Gilliland]

Just a word to everybody about battery life. It's common for new batteries to behave erratically and drain quickly for the first few charges, and in some cases they can take several weeks to settle in. I know, we sell them for a living. Best advice is to charge overnight the first time, manufacturers recommend between 12-24 hours. Then drain fully and recharge fully 4-6 times for at least 8 hours. It seems to vary from battery to battery.

The problem starts because people want to play with their new phones as soon as they get them which is totally understandable of course, I'm no different to anybody else in that respect.

And checkout this article from Gizmodo on how to maximize battery life.

That said, it's smart to do one full discharge about once a month for "calibration," but don't do it all the time. Running the whole gamut on a regular basis won't make your battery explode or anything, but it will shorten its lifespan.

And as others have said, charge in the mid-range. These are Lithium ion, not Ni-Cad or Ni-MH so forget about traditional memory issues. Constantly draining them will shorten your battery life.

 

[David Parody]

Been using the 950xl fro some 10 days. Found it rather buggy, especially photos and cameras apps... have had to pull the battery out a few times as has become unresponsive. Micro SD card giving lots of problems (Scandisk 16gb) to the point I just pulled it out as it kept giving me some read error which the system wanted to scan to fix but never managed to do.

Hoping that some updates will fix fix the bugs... not enough for me to want to replace it though!

 

[Devan Hammack]

It's great to hear so many people enjoying the phone, I'm sad that I was not one of those that took to it - thankfully MS have now refunded me so I am back to my 930 and will await the next great device they decide to make. I am still convinced the 950 & XL are not the devices that will change the fortunes of Windows Phone - On the most basic test of first impressions, if I close my eyes and put either 950 in one hand and either a 930 or Nexus or iPhone in the other and compare/feel the quality - the 950 devices would come dead last for me.

That's *your* problem there. You cant judge quality with your eyes closed. Metal doesn't mean quality, and general feel does not equate to overall quality. That is personal preference, not quality.

 

[Devan Hammack]

Been using the 950xl fro some 10 days. Found it rather buggy, especially photos and cameras apps... have had to pull the battery out a few times as has become unresponsive. Micro SD card giving lots of problems (Scandisk 16gb) to the point I just pulled it out as it kept giving me some read error which the system wanted to scan to fix but never managed to do.

Well that's just plain wrong. Photos and camera app are pretty damn solid in my experience.
And what exactly are you doing that you have to pull the battery out? I have had my 950XL since Thanksgiving day (day before official release) and I haven't had to do that once! Then again, I know how to soft reset (havent even used that more than once or twice) so maybe the problem is you're completely unsavvy when it comes to tech.

I have a 64GB SanDisk card in mine.. no issues whatsoever. I have about 14GB of music and save all my photos/videos to it.

I call BS on your entire post.

 

[Sarveshwar]

There won't be another 'reboot'.

Even if you were the one 'running' Microsoft and tell me to believe that there will not be another reboot, I WILL NOT BELIEVE YOU.

 

[hingethunder]

That's *your* problem there. You cant judge quality with your eyes closed. Metal doesn't mean quality, and general feel does not equate to overall quality. That is personal preference, not quality.

If you are trying to sell a product to a fan, they might be able to look past these minor things. If you are trying to convert people from other platforms to your device, the first impression is poor and won't convince many. Personally, I have been on Windows Phone since the HTC 7 came out - I'm still here but this device should be better - and btw, I have only talked about the shell of this device, I have come across several software issues that don't exist on my 930. I see you calling BS on someone else's experience with the product - he's not wrong.

 

[Sarveshwar]

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

Get rid of 'these' customers?
This argument is so ridiculous. There's no need to reply to this at all. It's so stupid.

Replace 'them' with Apple customers?
My first reaction to this: In their dreams.

Now, the day Microsoft creates something good (example: Windows 7), people will come. More importantly, it is not in their hands to REPLACE customers who have less money to waste on electronics with customers who have more than more money at their disposal to have fancy toys. Once again, it's so stupid.

 

[Sarveshwar]

Seriously if you don't like the phone, return it and stop complaining.

No. He's the right to vent out his frustration with the device he's spent money on. He's not here to address you specifically so don't tell him or anyone else to 'stop complaining'.

Forums like this is a way to share their experience and make other people aware of the issues or features which may help them make the decision of having or not having the device.

So, please. Thank you.

 

[editguy]

I don't think the installed maps is as good.
So far have had no problems with Edge on the phone.

I actually prefer the "Maps" app. It is giving me more accurate directions than Here did.

 

[drtek]

I'm not going to Apple. Staying with my 1020 until something else comes along.

 

[cracgor]

What's the problem with the phone needing to be within a foot of your face to unlock it? Isn't that somewhere approaching where it would usually be anyway? To use a fingerprint reader you have to actually touch it. Just saying it seems to be a moot point to me.

I actually had a great experience with the iris scanner, but a fingerprint scanner is a better implementation for ease of use. I didn't believe it until I tried it. The possible situation where it is not as feasible to use is in a meeting or a classroom where you want to keep your phone under the table or something. The other benefits to the fingerprint scanner are that it is built into the on button, so it unlocks the phone as you press the button to turn it on. Interestingly, but unexpected mine lets you store 4 finger prints...so I can program it to work with my wife's fingerprint since at most I need two.

 

[cracgor]

Well that's just plain wrong. Photos and camera app are pretty damn solid in my experience.
And what exactly are you doing that you have to pull the battery out? I have had my 950XL since Thanksgiving day (day before official release) and I haven't had to do that once! Then again, I know how to soft reset (havent even used that more than once or twice) so maybe the problem is you're completely unsavvy when it comes to tech.

I have a 64GB SanDisk card in mine.. no issues whatsoever. I have about 14GB of music and save all my photos/videos to it.

I call BS on your entire post.

I really wish people would stop trying to be so negative toward people having a bad time with the phone. The reboot problem is real. I had it myself. You had to take the battery out of the phone because the phone would end up in a reboot cycle (windows logo, Microsoft logo, vibrate, restart again). Even though I had this problem, I assume when people tell me they have no problems with the 950xl, that they are being so truthful. I don't think there is a conspiracy from windows phone fans to save windows phone by posting overly positive experiences.

 

[editguy]

I really wish people would stop trying to be so negative toward people having a bad time with the phone. The reboot problem is real. I had it myself. You had to take the battery out of the phone because the phone would end up in a reboot cycle (windows logo, Microsoft logo, vibrate, restart again). Even though I had this problem, I assume when people tell me they have no problems with the 950xl, that they are being so truthful. I don't think there is a conspiracy from windows phone fans to save windows phone by posting overly positive experiences.

No one's being negative about people who are trying to get help with problems. What we're negative about is people like you that don't have the phone any longer and just continually post negative things about it as if your experience reflects everyone's experience. You've posted hundreds of negative posts and it provides no assistance to anyone that has the phone.

 

[chezm]

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.

Well, i will use the typical arugment that everyone here uses for Windows Phone...either you got a bad device, hard reset or return for a new one.

In all seriousness, i have had absolutely zero issues with Kit Kat and Lollipop on my previous Nexus 5, and zero problems with Lollipop on my S6. I have no idea what these rogue apps are...if you're refering to the processes that Samsung has installed and running in background, its very easy to either disable them or download an app to override the security setting. You dont think WP has "rogue" apps running in background as part of the "OS"?...Come on.

Cache can be cleared within the settings, no need to reboot (from my experience)...I only do this once my Cache is filling up (above 300mb). I wont deny service performance issues related to it, i havent really had any but will take your word for it as its been discussed in forums and its likely a carrier model problem.

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

Thanks for proving what i've been wanting to say without directly saying it. The generalization in that sentence says so much, its clear where your loyalty sits.

 

[anon(9709784)]

Now that we're almost 500 posts deep into this thread I spent ten minutes looking at who actually seemed serious about returning theirs. Apart from myself, these are the people that said they'd return it:

1. Brandon Keenan
2. JRDEMASKUS
3. cracgor
4. Sunstorming
5. donkiluminate
6. abyssartsstudio
7. coolbreeze78
8. Leovince1500
9. hzelaya
10. Burger Nog
11. HoosierDaddy
12. Me Again1
13. ALpHa.Q.RoUgH
14. Nischi85
15. jonstewart
16. JK-SC
17. Unauthorized
18. Chaitanya Polumetla

Five or six of these had fewer than three posts total, but they sounded serious. So about twenty guys/gals in this mammoth thread wanted to return theirs, and maybe ten did. Seems like the sky is not falling.

I returned my 950XL on Dec. 12th for a full refund including protection plan costs. It's a minimally functional device (ignoring Edge and apps) that isn't worth the cost of a laptop. I already commute with a Lumia 640 (at 1/8th of the cost of the 950XL), a dedicated camera, and a Surface Pro model (Continuum can't even begin to scratch the Surface of mobile productivity for me). The L640's performance is only noticeably slower in camera quality and processing, functions that I didn't buy the L640 to experience.

 

[ALpHa.Q.RoUgH]

Now that we're almost 500 posts deep into this thread I spent ten minutes looking at who actually seemed serious about returning theirs. Apart from myself, these are the people that said they'd return it:

1. Brandon Keenan
2. JRDEMASKUS
3. cracgor
4. Sunstorming
5. donkiluminate
6. abyssartsstudio
7. coolbreeze78
8. Leovince1500
9. hzelaya
10. Burger Nog
11. HoosierDaddy
12. Me Again1
13. ALpHa.Q.RoUgH
14. Nischi85
15. jonstewart
16. JK-SC
17. Unauthorized
18. Chaitanya Polumetla

Five or six of these had fewer than three posts total, but they sounded serious. So about twenty guys/gals in this mammoth thread wanted to return theirs, and maybe ten did. Seems like the sky is not falling.

Just to add since my name was on this list.

I returned my 950XL device today. It was good not great. I did have some of the other issues like two reboots and an edge freeze but other than that, the experience reminded me of my Surface Book. The announcement of a Surface Phone led to making the return a easier decision.

I will alternate between my 6S+, My 1520 on Insider 10.1 and my 920 on Insider 10.1.

I'm hopeful Microsoft will improve but just like the Surface products, it might take a couple iterations to get it finally right.