[Quick Impressions] Who Just Got The Lumia 950 XL?

[SaidOro]

My Lumia 950 XL just arrived yesterday.




First impressions:
1.- I love the quality of the plastic, it seems great in my hand! My wife says is same as Lumia 640XL ..... forgive her....she's Samsung fan.
2.- The screen is amazing, the colors, the brightness, best.
3.- I had to charge it three times yesterday as i was downloading apps and stuff...today all day working and it got home with 40%, hope will get better.
4.- It gets extremely hot when plugin in charger...mostly when is getting from 25-55%
5.- I had to "register" to Iris Scanner like 20 times...now it does the job amazingly even in a dark place and also with sunglasses on.
6.- It was really hard to get the last build installed, also market was really buggy.
7.- The earphones are pretty awesome, i expected really less. They surprised me.
8.- Had problems with my Sim Card, had to restart 4 times to get it configured.
9.- Notification about low storage solved with last build 10586.36 , i had it on fast ring.
10.- The camera works great, i'm a really bad photographer but...it gets the job done pretty good. Also i have to mention, i was having some video recording issues (like cam vids playing in slow motion or being cutted), it's solved now...i guess.

Also i want to mention, i hate that sound when playing stuff...it's like...a...POP...after listening to something. My lumia 820 had it, hope Microsoft solve it soon. Also the "case sound" like creaky...i solved it thanks to that WC post...with some scotch tape. Hey Microsoft, we need double tap function...now. WhatsApp is really buggy, i know it's app related...

So, in a resume. It's a great great phone, i love it. And i have the sensation that this is improving as we speak, hope so.

P.D. I can't get my free dock offer...hope it appears soon.

 

[cheetahwig1]

I didn't jump on the 950XL immediately, but decided after reading reviews to buy one unlocked. It's been three weeks now that I've been checking the Microsoft Store every day, and all it says is they'll email me when the phones are available again. And yet I see these headlines: "950XL now on sale in Jordan," along with country after country. How is it that they have enough to sell to all these other countries, and have none for weeks in the US? I'm getting tired of waiting.

 

[night26]

Two days with my 950xl review

So I pick up at 9:50 XL at the Microsoft store here in San Diego yesterday. I previously had an iPhone 6 S plus, and I currently have a LG V10., but after having all Windows Phones leading up to that (920, 1020, 1520) I just had to try the 950 XL. On unboxing I put on the insider build, I'm now up to the highest fast ring level. Everything seems to be working great, I haven't had any hang up's, the battery seems to work just fine, no restarts, and I love being back in Windows Phone. I'm gonna take some camera samples tomorrow alongside the V 10 Just to see what's happening. I've read that many are having troubles with a 950 XL, maybe I just got lucky with this version. I use Hulu Plus on a trip, about 2 hours worth of Seinfeld without any problems. Hooked up great to my Ford sync. I was even able to use Hey Cortana and send some texts via car Bluetooth. I'm also using the ring central doorbell software that is universal, and it seems to work better than the iphone or android version which is rare. Band 2 connected without a hitch.
Will update in a week, but as of today I am happy to be home on my 950xl .

 

[Pete]

Re: Two days with my 950xl review

Great news. Hope things continue to go well. I've really enjoyed mine for the past three weeks or so.

 

[garyhartaz]

Re: Two days with my 950xl review

Just wait until you get the delayed notification syndrome with your Band 2. Sometimes it will even redeliver alerts previously sent for no good reason!

 

[ronaldme]

Re: My initial Impressions of Lumia 950 Xl (INDIA)

bro i have contacted customer support and they said its not available in India. i am really sad with this. paying around Rs 50000 and you dont have features that are already part of windows 8.1 update 2.

Blame your carrier, they are the one who must activate it.

 

[donkiluminate]

Re: I Love My Lumia 950 XL Thread

I loved my XL for the weekend I had it and still dream about it but alas, I had to return it. I need wifi calling(I work in the basement of a hospital) and knew the XL didn't have it but I was hoping for a miracle that it would get reception, but nope. No luck.

I wound up getting an iphone but I still keep looking for a chance to sell it and get an XL again.

 

[ronaldme]

Re: I Love My Lumia 950 XL Thread

I loved my XL for the weekend I had it and still dream about it but alas, I had to return it. I need wifi calling(I work in the basement of a hospital) and knew the XL didn't have it but I was hoping for a miracle that it would get reception, but nope. No luck.

I wound up getting an iphone but I still keep looking for a chance to sell it and get an XL again.

How to use Wifi calling and Voice recording on the Lumia 950 XL - WMPoweruser

 

[ronaldme]

Re: I Love My Lumia 950 XL Thread

I loved my XL for the weekend I had it and still dream about it but alas, I had to return it. I need wifi calling(I work in the basement of a hospital) and knew the XL didn't have it but I was hoping for a miracle that it would get reception, but nope. No luck.

I wound up getting an iphone but I still keep looking for a chance to sell it and get an XL again.

How to use Wifi calling and Voice recording on the Lumia 950 XL - WMPoweruser

 

[SinrOne]

Hai!

Got my 950XL yesterday whilst on holiday in Rovaniemi(Lapland)/ Finland.

I switched from my Xperia Z2 which had gotten green pixels and blue areas on its screen. Booting up the device and setting it up seemed quite fast at first, but then ran into problems with installing apps , especially with the Lumia offers as i did with getting contacts from old phone.

This all ended up with 2-6 gmail links in contacts now, needed phone restored for Offers to work and headache with some apps.

Now that ive gotten the phone to work (still the gmail "links" showing in contacts), everything installed im pretty happy with my first ever Windows phone. Im hoping for this platform to go forward, loving the phones size and feel to it, camera is fantastic. Overall satisfied.

 

[donkiluminate]

Re: I Love My Lumia 950 XL Thread

How to use Wifi calling and Voice recording on the Lumia 950 XL - WMPoweruser

Thanks, I'm on tmobile and the last time I tried and checked it wasn't available.

 

[night26]

Picked up my 950 XL from the Microsoft store on December 20th. Just got an email today from Microsoft my dock is being sent out. I am excited to try continuum. Been using Windows Phone since the beginning, but switched over to iOS and Android with the lack of a true flagship. As a basketball coach on the way to the game I found out the game site changed, being able to send and receive text messages over my blue tooth in my car without having to pull the car over is exact reason why Windows Phone is better than all the rest period. I can understand why Android and iOS don't have this feature in their phones, it's the main reason I keep going back to Windows Phone again and again. I can live with a shortage of apps, just use moble sites. But I can't deal with not being able to send text from my car Bluetooth. Let's hope Windows 10 moble catches on in 2016

 

[QOAM]

Why doesn't someone do this. Those full body skins are to expensive... just want a wide piece of tape.

On my ipad mini I use one of those "no slip" bathtub sticky things .. They come in different colors and some come in clear but frosted .. I imagine Walmart has a bazillion.

 

[stefanopoda]

Got my 950XL on January 4th and love it. As I posted elsewhere, Windows 10 feels much more mature than Windowsphone 8.1 and after some time you just start to appreciate the consistency of the UI's behaviour between your laptop PC and your phone. The AMOLED screen is great, just a tad small coming from a 1520 rly:

This phone is a beast, and having used it intensively for the last week, there is nothing major to complain, except maybe Outlook missing Live-Tile notifications from time to time.

I love the design, that "boxy" black policarbonate and the metal ring around the camera gives the device an understated, down-to-business feeling and no, I won't buy a Mozo cover. I like the phone as it is.

Stephen

 

[signal-2-noise]

I was finally able to order the 950 XL yesterday from Microsoft Canada site. It has been continually sold out since launch. I've requested express shipping so hopefully will see it soon enough. I currently have a Lumia 930 which is a terrific phone running Windows 10 Insider. Since the 930 is great I was not going to bother with a 950 but then the specs got the best of me. Dual-sim capability, expansion SD card, larger AMOLED screen, and supported LTE band for Telus Canada makes it a much nicer daily driver than the 930. So I will keep the 930 as backup when I get the XL.

Impressions to follow...

 

[signal-2-noise]

Phone arrived yesterday! I opened the box and liked what I saw. The white version is a nice looking phone. My initial thought it looked rather big but when I layed my Lumia 930 on top of it the 950XL isn't really that much bigger. Holding it doesn't have a nice feel like the 930. Due to the thinness and polycarbonate build it feels light and cheap. I might have to do the Beats headphones scam and load the inside with metal weights to give it some heft ;-)
I find pulling the back cover off is not that easy. I also find it annoying since it's the only way to access the Sim and SDcard slots. I installed one sim from my 930 which is required before first launch per the setup guide. I also installed a 64GB MicroSDXC card.
The only thing I have done with the phone is to update it and install the Windows Insider app to get the latest "Fast" build. Once it was all set up I put the sim card back into my 930 to use as my daily until I get the 950XL set up the way I want.
I think my only real negative impression is the discovery that the phone does not support the "double-tap-to-wake" gesture. I kept trying and only found it it was non-functioning by seeing some posts here @ WPC about it. I find this odd since there is a function to double-tap-to-sleep albeit it has to be performed on the menu bar area.

Pros:
- Nice display
- More LTE Band support (compared to 930)
- SD Card
- Works with my Qi charger (I use Aukey)
- Replaceable battery (if you can find one)

Cons:
- Can't turn off 'no Sim2' notification icon
- Cheap feel
- No 'tap to wake' gesture
-Flaky 5Ghz Wi-Fi connection

Also of note is I tried using the Lumia Offers app to get the free Display Dock but when I click it a "something happened, try again" error occurs. Will have to investigate this one. I will be submitting my "cons" into the Windows Feedback community and maybe Microsoft can do something to improve these so-called 'flagship' 950 phones.

[Update] Discovered (as many other 950 owners have) that the 5Ghz band for wifi connection is unstable. Phone will often not reconnect or simply drop connection and a reboot of the phone temporarily fixes it. The 2.4Ghz band is fine. Good thing I have a dual band simultaneous connected router.

 

[andraeseus]

Just got mines 2 days ago. Only had one day (today) to really look at it and give it a quick spin to see what I thought. So far... this is the best friggan phone ever created. PERIOD!

 

[JaimitoFrog]

Been using it over 20 days now. So far I love the device, best Lumia I had so far (owned 900, 920, 1020, Icon). Install all the updates, non-insider. Most recent was the .29 OS build.

Pros:
Great screen
Light and thin
Fast camera shot to shot, and excellent picture quality. You won't miss the 1020.
Double tap to sleep (just read how to do it)
Dual SIM. Can leave my work iPhone6 at home.
Micro SDcard
NFC/Qi, USB C (have to buy new spare cables)
Windows 10 layout, appearance, can respond to text notifications on lock screen.
Windows Hello. Iris scanner can go through glasses or shades. It is slower than 4 digit PIN. Not sure fingerprint is better. On my work iPhone 6, I don't like the fingerprint access much.

Haven't tried Continuum, but got the Dock free.

Cons:
Stock cover creaks too much. Fixed it completely by black electric tape. I filled all the inside of the cover, cutting the tape to size and avoid contact with the NFC and Qi. It will take 2-3 layers. I highly recommend you all to try it. Makes the phone feel so solid. MS should have designed it better, like adding some foam padding. When I get my Mozo cover, I will do it on that as well.

Buttons don't feel the best, a bit cheap and sharp on corners. The press feel is fine, and they are responsive. The vol arrangement still takes time to get used to.

Photo processing when using Rich Capture is slow. Yes, you can take pics super fast in rapid frames, but it will take a moment for it to be all processed.

No double tap to wake.

No super bright mode like Icon, although I haven't tested 950XL under bright sun yet.

No supersensitive screen. Have to take off my gloves. It's like an iPhone now. Sucks.

Battery life a bit short. In fairness, it is similar to the Icon, 1020, but with a larger battery, albeit larger screen and faster processor, was hoping it lasted a bit longer. Still tweaking what I can by turning off some background tasks, skype, and 2nd SIM when I don't need to use it.

Windows 10 bugs. After changing a notification tune for an app, it can revert back to default after a soft reboot, or spontaneously. FB messenger is one of them. Other bugs like slow image download on Outlook mail, although this is also true on SurfaceBook. Another bug is same apps are listed multiple times when you look through background apps list. Also if you played a media player, and close it, the app shortcut still appears when you press the volume key. You cant turn it off. It will just disappear on its own time.

Some live tiles don't work, I blame that more on the Apps not being updated for W10.

 

[greynightshirt]

Just wanted to add that after 3 1/2 weeks with the Lumia 950 XL I sent it back for a refund. The most frustrating phone experience I've had since the Galaxy Note 1. Which was Android. Which should be saying something.

The only really great thing about the 950 XL and the one thing I will miss is the great camera quality. All in all I'm much happier now with the used L730 I bought to tide me over till the Surface phone comes out - or until I may switch after 3 very happy years on WP8/8.1.

*disappointed & sad*

 

[fdruid]

Just bought it and I'm finishing installing my stuff. The screen is breathtaking, period. I stare in awe at the most normal things like album covers in Groove or any pic in 6tag.

Phone is too thin for my taste, so I might use it with some simple silicon cover.

Performance is smooth and fast, everything works as intended. Phone charges to 100% really fast.

No real issues so far. Loving the experience.