Hands-on Experiences with the 950XL

[narv]

So I went into the MS store today and they had the 950 XL on display in demo version. It's running Building 10546. It's pretty snappy and fast with none of the "Loading" bugs that plague the start screens now. Granted, it is running on 3 GB of RAM.

The phone was VERY light, and I'm used to holding my 920 but it fit well in my hand. I was able to use it with 1 hand for some parts but needed to move around for others. The on screen keys where really nice and easy to use. The lady showed me how to pull the back off and see the battery and everything was pretty easy but the device felt solid. The plastic really wasn't bad at all.

I checked the battery life too from battery saver. Unplugged at 100% it said ~16 hours remaining on battery life. It also had about 20 apps open from previous people using it. I also compared to a 640 XL and that one at 100% unplugged said 1 day 9 hours. But of course that was running 8.1. I'm hoping that is either a bug in the OS recording, a bug that can be fixed before RTM or the fact that it had 20 apps open and background processes etc.

I didn't like that 1 little icon in the action center that is on its own row though. It seemed so out of place. On my 920 all the icons (with WM10) line up but I guess on the larger display there is more room but I kind of wish they would fix that somehow.

I opened the camera and it was speedy to open and took a pretty nice picture, compared to my 920. It was clear but it wasn't as clear as I would have hoped. I didn't try the front facing camera and now that I think of it I wish I had.

I tried to restart the phone and it took a solid 45 seconds to fully restart, but the loading screens were new. The "Microsoft" logo in the loading screen was new too. Much more simpler with out the large blue icon (was the multicolored and said "Microsoft"). I didn't try the windows hello or anything but I messed around with the phone for a good 10 minutes, launching apps, playing around with it. Put it in my pocket to see how well it fit (since never had a phone that large before).

Overall I really loved it and I do look forward to it. I just hope the OS cleans up a bit more, but in all honesty I think 10546 would be a great daily driver (from the 10 minutes I spent). It also supported dual SIM cards for those interested. I hope that I don't get the "no 2nd sim" icon though the whole time since I will only have 1.

Also for those interested the lady told me they are currently accepting preorders at the store, even though they aren't online. So if you want to preorder your phone head into the MS store now!

 

[o4komodo]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

Isn't the notification bar expandable/collapsable? And can't you customize what's in it like in 8.1? (I never used w10 yet)

Man all this and no pics? =o haha thanks for the info though

 

[narv]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

I would have posted a pic but my 920 since the latest update has a 2 hour battery life, and it was at like 10% battery and probably would have died by the time I took it out and opened the camera up (it's also an inferno).

in WM10 it shows all possible actions from an "expand" menu. But you can customize the 5 quick actions. I'm referring to when you expand the action icons, not the 5 quick actions.

 

[Jazmac]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

I checked it out in the Las Vegas store. The resume screen was no where to be found. I pushed it hard to get that screen to appear but everything I pressed just popped into view.... like a BOSS

 

[Guytronic]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

The resume screen was no where to be found.

That's great news Jazmac!

Windows Mobile has been gaining weight for sometime now.
Finally a Microsoft phone that doesn't resume (hopefully)
It's about time the hardware started catching up.

 

[ttsoldier]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

I checked it out in the Las Vegas store. The resume screen was no where to be found. I pushed it hard to get that screen to appear but everything I pressed just popped into view.... like a BOSS

did it have any games running?

 

[Jazmac]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

did it have any games running?

I launched Candy Crush. Popped up like it was already running. It wasn't.

 

[narv]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

I feel like I need to go in and do a full test of the phone now. Test the browser and everything for resuming. Or just fast forward a month and have the phone and a new OS build to play with.

 

[Jazmac]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

That's great news Jazmac!

Windows Mobile has been gaining weight for sometime now.
Finally a Microsoft phone that doesn't resume (hopefully)
It's about time the hardware started catching up.

I didn't get to see what version of the OS it was running. I could kick myself for not checking. But the place was PACKED! What I really loved is that SurfaceBook OMG! You want one of those. That hinge floors me.

 

[Guytronic]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

Looks like I'll be heading up to the tiny MS store here to see what they might have for me to play with.
I get tired of looking at pictures.
Hard to beat realtime...
:smile:

 

[narv]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

I didn't get to see what version of the OS it was running. I could kick myself for not checking. But the place was PACKED! What I really loved is that SurfaceBook OMG! You want one of those. That hinge floors me.

That was the first thing I checked, the one at my MS store was running 10546 like at the NYC event. I'm sure yours was running the same.

I was the only person in my MS store... but it was also 6 PM on a Wednesday.

 

[Marcin Dabrowsky]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

Im off tomorrow looks like I'll be going to play first thing in the morning. Hopefully they'll let pre-order in Chicago.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[Jazmac]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

Looks like I'll be heading up to the tiny MS store here to see what they might have for me to play with.
I get tired of looking at pictures.
Hard to beat realtime...
:smile:

Bump the pictures man. The 950XL was surprisingly lighter than expected too.That I would have to get used to. Or get a case like a Speck to give it tiny bit of girth. But if you are the type to keep stuff in your jacket pocket, your set.

 

[narv]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

Bump the pictures man. The 950XL was surprisingly lighter than expected too.That I would have to get used to. Or get a case like a Speck to give it tiny bit of girth. But if you are the type to keep stuff in your jacket pocket, your set.

It really was light which means I'm hoping I don't fling it across the room since I'm used to a bulkier phone. For the cases though I want a mozo but I hope it has Qi in it... but that's off topic slightly.

 

[FXi2]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

I think the eye to the camera thing will be a bit unwieldy. Wish they'd pushed for fingerprint reader say under the glass or on the back. Would have made a payment system easier too.

 

[donebrasko]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

Someone please put a Verizon sim in one

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[TexasLabRat]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

I think the eye to the camera thing will be a bit unwieldy. Wish they'd pushed for fingerprint reader say under the glass or on the back. Would have made a payment system easier too.

it's an iris scanner, not a retina scanner. You don't hold it up to your eye..you just look at it from a "normal" distance that you would hold it while using it for web browsing or something. It has facial recognition algorithms to figure out that it's a face in the camera picture then it finds the eyes..does its IR picture thing and compares to the stored info. There are a couple of videos out now that show it in action for unlocking the phone..no reason to think it would be difference in combination with tap-n-pay authentication.

 

[Jazmac]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

 

[Noahma]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

I think I am going to have to make a quick visit to my MS kiosk lol. They did right by me with my 830. I will show them the love and buy the 950xl carrier free from them when I gather the funds as well. Now to find a way to throw in a band2 in there so my Wife does not notice.....

 

[CygnusOrion]

Re: My Experience with the 950 XL

it's an iris scanner, not a retina scanner. You don't hold it up to your eye..you just look at it from a "normal" distance that you would hold it while using it for web browsing or something. It has facial recognition algorithms to figure out that it's a face in the camera picture then it finds the eyes..does its IR picture thing and compares to the stored info. There are a couple of videos out now that show it in action for unlocking the phone..no reason to think it would be difference in combination with tap-n-pay authentication.

The real rub is how well will it work. TouchID on iPhone works most of the time, except those times when you only give it a partial print and then you have to re-orient your thumb/forefinger and try again. If this iris scanner works perfectly just by looking at the phone(which you do anyways when you use TouchID), then that's a game changer for Microsoft.