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

[brabso]

The only functioning issue I had was the call quality seemed to be horrible but it's late now and it could have been interference from outside the phone. But the call I made was the worst I've heard in years: Everything I said I heard as an echo and my caller was breaking up like mad. I am going to assume this was a fluke call and not the phone.
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I'm afraid that's not a fluke call, see the other reviews in the lumia 950 forum. More people have problems with incoming calls and hearing echos, also 2 reviews on the internet mentioned the bad call quality. And i find this not a small issue but a BIG issue for the top priority what a phone has got to do

 

[Corvodin]

Could others share their experiences on the call quality, the red tint on white, and the battery life ?

 

[Padr1n0]

Picked mine up this morning at the Microsoft store. Now i have to cancel my online preorder. I've had about a whole day with it.
Bad Things First.
1. Windows 10 is simply not ready. Its really tough to drop 600 on a phone(education discount :winktongue and then be greeted with Loading.
2. Setup takes too friggin long. That whole "apps are still installing" thing is too annoying. When i get a new device i want to use it now, not wait around for it. iOS and Android don't do it. Windows shouldnt make me do it either.
3. Iris....meh.(see below)
4. Design is boring but im gonna get a case so not too important.
5. No double touch to wake.
6. I think i broke the camera button already.:unhappysweat:

GOOD THINGS!
1. Hello Michael - Iris is a gimmick but it is AWESOME!! Takes too long(compared to fingerprint) and you have to hold the phone to your face but when it works - which for me is 95% of the time, its awesome. The other 5% i only had to push turn it off and on, then try again. I also notice that when you have a toast notification, it wont unlock. This may be a feature.

2. That display - Crystal clear and oh so sexy.

3. Fast charging. When i was done setting up, the battery was around 17%. Got it to 78% in about an hour while getting dressed for a party.

4. WINDOWS PHONE - I love this OS so its clearly a plus. I missed Cortana major. Everything is fast. I did get a Loading on Start screen that took so long, i actually just gave up and rebooted the phone. Havent seen it since but looks like it's an issue after a reboot. It's unfortunately true.

5. Camera - Fast, focuses quickly and pictures are very detailed. FFC is miles better than my Note 4, Lumia 930 and iphone 6

6. Qi Charger - Havent tried it yet but cant wait to go back to using my built in charger in my office desk


Neutral

1. Dual Sim - Wasnt expecting this and dont really care. I actually would love to remove the icon for the 2nd sim if it isnt being used away from sys tray.

Overall, im a ****** so i love it. But i dont see why anyone from iOS or Android will convert. There isnt enough to convince the casual user. I wouldnt even recommend this phone at 600. At 300, we can talk but i understand what it does and i sorta undertsand

 

[Michkol]

How worm dose it get?
My s6 edge get really worm sometimes too.

 

[Christopher Ghalayini]

Here's my initial take:

Details: T-Mobile for 18 years. Last Nokia was 1520.3 (variant to work with T-Mobile LTE) with the WM10 newest build with .11.

Specs: Used it for 6 hours...updated all apps, even signed in with windows insider (a quick update happened but not the .11) So far smooth running...a lot better than WM10 on the 1520.3. I did not hard reset the 1520 so I believe the update to WM10 was a cross breed with 8.1 as I had settings for both (only WM10 worked), hey cortana worked part time (no hey cortana now), had visual voicemail built in 1520.3 (not present with 950xl), maps work wonderfully on 950xl (did not work at all on 1520).

Battery life has been poor...I'll give it a break in period like I did the 1520...we shall see. And I have been using it non stop.

Pictures are amazing...I though the 1520 was awesome but the actual living image picture quality is unreal.

So far, I like the phone. Kind of flimsy compared to my 1520 however the display is phenomenal and its a lot lighter The 950xl on T-Mobile is lightening fast so far. Edge is what it is...nothing special. I backed up my 1520 prior and imported it to the 950xl without any issue.



Hopefully an update soon to work out more little kinks. Will not sway me away from the phone...overall a good experience.

 

[badMojo69]

Love the phone. Windows Hello is not a joke and works in like total darkness for me with my glasses on. Battery seems great.

It's a little laggy and some of the apps are slow because they were not written for W10. Apps do take a long time to install relative to what I've experienced on other phones (windows included). The Edge browser works well.

I wish there was an option to never turn the screen off 5 minutes is not long enough. Also quiet hours should be listed under the display and notifications section and not Cortana. Last but not least the only thing I want is HearthStone, but it's not a deal breaking...not having access to my digital comics from Comixology was and now I have that so all is good.

 

[Joe920]

This phone is the phone you marry--it's all quality and has the goods inside where it counts but has no sex appeal.

You have a kind of pessimistic view of marriage. Anyway, carry on!

 

[Joe920]

But as I rotate the phone vertically towards me, it starts to turn reddish and while looking at straight at it, the white is reddish. As I continue to turn the phone, it becomes truer white. I did check the Color profile and it was standard. Changing it to vivid made no difference. I am worried if this is a hardware defect or nothing much to worry about. Any inputs?

When held at my normal viewing angle the bottom of the screen has a red cast. If I tilt the top towards me the red cast goes away and the whites are truer.

I see quite a few reports like this just in this thread (maybe five already?) so I made a poll to see if this is a general problem. I quoted your comments, hope that's OK. If not let me know and I'll edit the post.

 

[cab124]

Picked mine up from my local MS Store yesterday. So far, I really like both the hardware and Windows 10 Mobile and agree with many of the positive comments I have read above. The phone looks awesome, feels very light and thin, has an amazing screen, and the camera rocks.

One app-related item that I have not heard much discussion on (unless I missed it) is the voice-guided turn-by-turn directions in the new native Maps app. It still uses the data from Here, but integrates the functionality directly into the Maps app. Now, when I say to Cortana, "Navigate to home," it immediately begins giving me voice directions without having to launch Here or another app. I find the navigation UI in Maps to be really nice. Has anyone else had a chance to play around with this yet? I REALLY like this app.

There are a couple of concerns that I have though...

1. Not sure I like the microphone hole directly in the bottom of the screen.
2. Not sure I like having dual sim. Are there any disadvantages to this? Will speeds be the same as single sim?
3. When they opened the box in the MS store to set up the phone and transfer my AT&T account from my 640XL to the 950XL, they noticed that the box only contained a European charger. As it turned out, all of the white 950XLs that they had only had European chargers. So, they gave me a Nokia charger that they had laying around along with an extra USB-C cable. Is that ok? Is the charger that comes in the box needed for fast charging on the 950XL? I asked about this and they told me that it is not needed and that any charger can be used for the fast charging feature, but I am still not sure.
4. I also notice a pink hue to the lower half of the screen when looking at it straight on. It looks white when viewed off-angle.

 

[mranieri]

Ok..my .02...

I was very pleased with the fit and finish of this phone...it is comfortable and feels very sturdy. GG4 is great and the rear covering is a textured matte black..removing it was very easy and reveals the large battery. My battery life has been horrible so far....although seems to be getting better. I really hope its not a problem.

Windows hello works perfectly for me...took a while to figure out how it sees .me but now...its fairly instantaneous. Its about the angle.

Photos are beautiful....camera has minimal lag and honestly the detail is beautiful.

The oled screen is beautiful...there is a slight cyan hue on my device when I tilt the phone either up or down but it is not a problem.


I cannot report about in calls as I am still waiting for tmobile to send me my sim cards.

Wifi updates have been quick and have had no problems updating.

Win 10 has been trouble free for me so far....really enjoying the interface...love the look and feel. Very responsive. Fastest phone I think I have ever held.

The device was very warm at first but has settled in...nothing unusual

Basically I absolutely love this device. It's a great size for my hands and see me using it for a long time. Great Job Microsoft!

 

[feereless]

I'll chime in too.
Activating was kinda odd. As others have said, ATT said it is not an LTE device, but it definitely is. On cell data web pages load uber quick, so it's def lte. One MAJOR quirk that I have found found is the copy and paste feature. It works if you copy and paste within the same app, however if you want to paste in another app, it simply doesn't have that word in the clip board. Very annoying.

Battery life blows, but I'll give it a couple days ti break in. Display is beautiful. OS needs some work.. Loading from time to time and store crashes sometimes. Other than that the phone is lovely designed. Software will come in time. I think I'll turn off windows hello since it is pretty slow. I'll wait for an update.

 

[jdcodes]

I really like my new Lumia 950XL

Just wanted to share my personal review. The screen is amazing. Try setting the color profile to (Vivid). I travel all over the world so I have many pictures and videos of the places I have been to. Its so nice to finally see my videos and pictures in a beautiful screen.

So far everything is fast and fluid. I also got my email for the free dock. It took a while to receive the email.

My favorite app so far is Duolingo..wow I am learning German so fast. I also notice something about the audio. My previous phone is a Nexus 5 and when I connect my headphones the quality sounds much better on my Lumia 950 XL. I use Ultrasone PRO 900 headphones.

Setting up my phone with my BMW was easy. I can now play my songs without touching or doing anything to my phone.

I do hope they sell a blue battery case cover soon. To match my surface pro 4.

 

[ven07]

Re: I really like my new Lumia 950XL

Just wanted to share my personal review. The screen is amazing. Try setting the color profile to (Vivid). I travel all over the world so I have many pictures and videos of the places I have been to. Its so nice to finally see my videos and pictures in a beautiful screen.

So far everything is fast and fluid. I also got my email for the free dock. It took a while to receive the email.

My favorite app so far is Duolingo..wow I am learning German so fast. I also notice something about the audio. My previous phone is a Nexus 5 and when I connect my headphones the quality sounds much better on my Lumia 950 XL. I use Ultrasone PRO 900 headphones.

Setting up my phone with my BMW was easy. I can now play my songs without touching or doing anything to my phone.

I do hope they sell a blue battery case cover soon. To match my surface pro 4.

Nice to get some positive words for MS devices

I'm guessing you already found the equalizer settings?

 

[Likwidz]

Re: I really like my new Lumia 950XL

Had mine for about a full day and really loving it also. Coming from 930 and before that 1520, it does feel like an upgrade and lots of new features I can appreciate like improve camera, iris scanner, and although it is plastic like, the overall feel for the size of the phone feels great in hand.

 

[Zulfigar]

Re: I really like my new Lumia 950XL

I'm enjoying mine too, to the point that it's only been at full charge once because I can't put it down... Sorry phone. I'm coming from a 920, and actually amazed how fast I'm getting used to the size, and how nice it feels in my hand.

Overall, very impressed with this beast.

 

[stephanejap]

Welcome! And what a great phone to begin your Windows Phone experience on.

 

[anon(5383410)]

I'll chime in too.
Activating was kinda odd. As others have said, ATT said it is not an LTE device, but it definitely is. On cell data web pages load uber quick, so it's def lte. One MAJOR quirk that I have found found is the copy and paste feature. It works if you copy and paste within the same app, however if you want to paste in another app, it simply doesn't have that word in the clip board. Very annoying.

Battery life blows, but I'll give it a couple days ti break in. Display is beautiful. OS needs some work.. Loading from time to time and store crashes sometimes. Other than that the phone is lovely designed. Software will come in time. I think I'll turn off windows hello since it is pretty slow. I'll wait for an update.

The copy and paste issue exists on the 950 as well. I feel your pain.

 

[EMINENT 1]

Loving it. Setup was a breeze from a restore. Night and day difference from an 830, 1520, 920, 900, and even LGG3 user.

This one inspires me to use it and i've loved every minute of it so far. So light and not ginormous like the 1520. This one is perfect.

Hello works fantastic. I didn't even improve it a second time for when I put on glasses. It recognized me no problem. Amazing!

 

[houkoholic]

Setting up my 950XL now.

The first thing I compared it to was the feel of the back, and no it doesn't feel cheap. I lined up my 1020 and 1520 besides it and without picking the phones up just tried to stroke the back to get a feel of the material and they felt very similar - this is not the slimy plastic that Samsung used to use on phones like the Galaxy S1/2/3. The buttons though - those does feel and look a bit disappointing. The only thing now that I can think of when people say the phone feels cheap is that because the phone has practically no heft to it. Otherwise this is not a "plastic phone" that a lot of reviews are saying - it's the same polycarbonate that we are used to from previous Lumias. My order from MS Hong Kong came with a Jack Spade case, I put it on and thinks the phone is better without it because it is much closer to the Lumia feel I'm familiar with (been a user since 800!), but I may just leave it on for a week or so to see how I like it.

Iris recognition JUST WORKS and unlocks the phone in 1 or 2 seconds - and I wear glasses with 4.0 prescription with blue spectrum polarization filters, at distances of a feet away from my face. Something else is happening with other people's lack of success with.

The touch screen is beautiful and silky smooth, especially coming from a 1520 with worsening phantom touch issues.

Loving it, this IS a flagship!

EDIT: Some more impressions after full setup
* The ability to adjust flash *after* the photo is taken is amazing. Never have I found flash useful on smartphones until now, yes this includes the Xeon flash on the 1020.
* Tried wireless Continuum on my TV, it works alright. Surprised that Tweetium is actually Continuum ready.
* The phone does get warmish on heavy usage, not as hot as the 1520 and cools down much quicker. I have another S810 device in my house - a Xperia Z4 Tablet which doesn't have liquid cooling, and that thing doesn't cool down as quick as the 950XL and is hotter than the 950XL.
* Touch screen definitely better, no phantom touch issues at all.

 

[BrandonLiveuh]

Update 12/05/2015: I've since replaced my first 950xl with another due to performance issues. Updates on each point with second 950xl are added. MicoSD performance is likely a cause of all random reboots. More on that at the end of the post.

Got my unlocked dual sim 950xl at 11am on the 25 at my local Microsoft mini store/kiosk at the mall. I "pre-ordered" it with no money down and was given a reasonable expectation that they would arrive on the 25th as they eventually did.
Update 12/05/2015: replaced my first Lumia 950xl for another as it was very unstable with regular random phone reboots. No reboots on my second one so far in 3 days use.
My replacement at my local Microsoft Mini-store was painless and a bit fun as I got to shoot the breeze with the reps.

Initial impressions.

Coming from a 1520, the 950xl is much easier to wield. It's absolutely appropriate to compare the 950xl to the 1520 as they are both phablet class phones. The 1520 was too big to put in my front pocket without looking like I had a huge phone in my pocket. The 950xl is not like that. Sure you could see it slightly, but it doesn't make me self-concise like my 1520 did.

The screen is great. There is abit of discoloring when viewed at an angle but that is of no concern to me. It's so minimal it's barely worth mentioning. The resolution is perfect for what I intend to use it for, which is remote desktop in Continuum to my lab environment at home while I'm out on the road. More disappointing news regarding that later in the post though.
Update 12/05/2015: The second 950xl screen is identical in color performance and no defects.

This is my first dual sim phone. I’m going to love using my personal and work phone all in one device. The sheer convenience of it will be worth it. I use T-Mobile and AT&T. I have unlimited data and 100 minutes on T-Mobile and unlimited voice only on AT&T. The dual sim is giving me the best of both worlds.

The phone is too dang slippery. I live in Arizona, so moisture does not have even the slimmest chance of accumulating on my hands to allow the body of the phone to resist sliding right out my bone dry average size hands. So needless to say I got the $50 Microsoft protection plan because I don't believe in cases... except that Mozo natural leather back IS tempting me. I had the same issue with the 1520. I do NOT have the issue with the 640 as it has a glossy plastic back. I was hoping and praying that the 950xl had a plastic back like the 640 but no luck. This probably isn't an issue for anyone but those of us in extremely dry climates such as myself. So I'm on the look out for a form fitting clear grip tape (tape.. not case) to cover the bottom half of my phone back that won't stand out. I'm telling you.. there's a market for this guys. Why doesn't someone do this. Those full body skins are to expensive... just want a wide piece of tape.

It get's warm and sometimes borders on hot which concerns me. In the first day the device unexpectedly rebooted on me five times, maybe six.. again concerning. But when it rebooted it wasn't exactly hot so not likely it's due to anything other than overall system stability which hopefully will be addressed with system updates.
Update 12/05/2015: Second 950xl definitely seems much cooler but it seems only because I didn't insert a MicroSD. This seems to indicate to me that constant reads and writes to the MicroSD causes more processing then one might expect, and I tend to be a shutter bug with the photos of my family. I suspect the picture taking and subsequent auto uploading to OneDrive is the cause of most of my heat issues. I'm pretty sure this is the case because when I finally put in my MicroSD after a few days of use without it.. it immediately started to get much warmer bordering on hot. When I checked Onedrive on the phone and the web I saw that it was uploading all the photos that where on the SD card that I had taken with another camera. Mystery solved.

Camera is no better quality wise than the 1520 in any light. I would even say the 1520 slightly better. But it IS much faster between shots which I have always needed when taking picture of the kiddos.. they don't stand still for photos so you gotta have a fast camera. This is the first Windows Phone camera that totally works with my crazy kids. I'd post demo images but all I have are pics of the kids.
Update 12/05/2015: Correction, it IS slightly better than the 1520 in normal light. And WAY better than the 1520 in low light. Infact the images are quite amazing in low light as long as the subject of the photo does not move. But still you can forget great low light photos of kids and moving subjects because the shutter must stay open longer in low light to get great results... it become all the more important that the subject remain still during the photo taking. That rules out kids.

Continuum is disappointing as far as app compatibility. Only the Microsoft apps work with Continuum.
But MICROSOFTS OWN REMOTE DESKTOP does not work... what the Hell!
Now this particularly pisses me off because this is the one app by Microsoft that inexplicably doesn't work with Continuum and the my secondary use case for the phone beside photos of the family ... again... FRIG! How does this crap happen to me every dang time. I can't get over this. But of course I'm going to keep the dang thang and wait forever for it to support Continuum. Now I don't yet have the free Continuum dock.. so I'm using it wirelessly with my Xbox One. I've previously used my 1520 and 640 with the Microsoft Wireless display adapter and also just directly with the Xbox for Miracast streaming... and the experience is no different as far a lag/latency with mouse and keyboard input. It's literally identical. Continuum via wireless/Miracast is workable, but it starts to wear on you VERY quickly when you see that delay in mouse movement... as slight as it may be.. still you won't be able to shake it. So, I'll wait until the hardwired phone dock gets here. Although I get it for free... the expected shipping date according to the "Lumia offers" app which is pre-installed.. it will come in about 10-15 weeks... what! How convenient Microsoft. By then I will have extended beyond my product return/refund date. So if things aren't any better.. you're sure to have a sale. I don't like working like this. Oh well.
Update 12/05/2015: Got my Microsoft Phone Dock well within the 30 return date. Thank you MS. Immediately upon connecting it to my first 950xl is promptly rebooted within 3 seconds. Then rebooted after 30 seconds of video playback in "Movies and TV" app to a large screen. Than again after a few more seconds of video playback. Then yet again while tweeting in Tweetium. Props to Tweetium by the way for being Continuum compatible. NO Problems though with the second 950xl .. Please note that.

The touch input is not exactly buttery smooth either. After getting bit in the butt by my 640 and it's jumpy screen... I was quite anxious to get a PREMIUM phone without those sort of jumpy screen issues. No luck with the 950xl either. Dang it Microsoft, can you just make an excellent capacitive screen already! At this price point there is no excuse for this. Admittedly it's not bad but it annoys me that I see it at all. Do I need to remind everyone that this thing is $650. The issue is more pronounced when there's a lot of finer details on the screen like when your browsing text heavy sites or other reading material. My theory is that the screen is more responsive when the potential touch targets are fewer and larger and therefore interpreting the intended target and destination is a lot less harder to determine for the OS. But when there are more and smaller potential targets on screen the OS has to consider a larger number of potential start and end points for a touch and drag operation. I could be way off, but I can't figure it out. All I know is that I don't get these kind of problems on lower resolution screens with less densely packed capacitive grid patterns on them. Pro-tip: if you hold your screen at just the right angle in bright light.. you can see the grid of capacitive touch points. But, thank God it doesn't have the phantom touch issues I had on my 1520. On the 1520 it would often detect a tap when I would try to swipe. Good news no problem with this on the 950xl. You know what's funny, I never had any of these issues on any of my three $50 Lumia 521's. Go figure.
Anyway back to the 950xl.
Update 12/05/2015: Same issues with my second 950xl. It's jumpy when a lot of possible touch points on screen and very smooth on say the Start screen and "All programs" list. Something tells me that will never get fixed.

Windows Hello is working AMAZINGLY well. I wear glasses and it has almost no issue. I don't have to place it directly in front of my face. It doesn't have to be parallel to my face. It doesn't have to be a foot away. It IS VERY forgiving. I did improve the recognition 4 times intentionally so it could better recognize me. I have a feeling those having issues with Windows Hello only trained it once or twice despite the setup screen encouraging you to do more multiple times. I set my lock screen options to require login with Windows Hello on every power on. So I've tested it extensively over the last two days. It works 99% of the time. When it doesn't work is usually after I hold the screen at greater than a 45-degree angle to my face and more than two feet away and fail to correct my positioning within 3 seconds. But even when I am at those extreme angles and distance, it still usually still detects me. When it doesn't detect you, you can just swipe up and put in your pin but I find it's easier and quicker to just hit the power button on and off again real quick and it will try again and it usually works fine. Oddly, when I set the phone to require login after 15 minutes or more of power off/nonuse and I power it off and come back sooner than the 15 minute timeout... it will try to detect me anyway. But if I just swipe up it logs me in all the same. It is Beta so I suppose this is not exactly unexpected. When it doesn't work you can kind of anticipate it's not going to work. When it's trying to detect you it illuminates a red light in the top left hand corner of the screen which I believe is a visual indication that it's using it's Infrared light source that Windows Hello uses for Iris recognition. Either that or it's just to let you know the front facing camera is on so you're not surprised that it's watching you. This light comes on in both no-light and full sunlight either way. When it Doesn't work.. that light does not illuminate... so you know it's about to fail.
Update 12/05/2015: Same excellent performance with the second 950xl. I believe in Windows Hello.. IF you train it about 4-5 times. key is to hold it no more than 3 feet from your face, front and center.. and the most important... parallel with your face. This allows you to angle your head in just about any angle as long as your face is parallel.

Minecraft will not start a game. Taping on play causes the app to crash. I'll try removing my MicroSD and moving the app to the internal storage.. might actually fix it. I'll report on that later.. Heck, now that I think of it may address my overall stability and reboot issue. Again I'll report back.
Update 12/05/2015: Minecraft still will not start a game when installed on internal phone storage. Seems I was onto something with the Micro SD and stability issues.

By nature, I'm a complainer... so I complain about every little and not so little issue I find with technology. But that being said... I do REALLY like the 950xl. I Intend to keep it if I can get some assurance that my rebooting issue is due to needed updates to address stability. Since I sold my 1520 I preparation for my 950xl purchase... it makes it all that much easier to commit to this purchase which is fine with me. Anyway... it's late. If you read all this.. I apologize. I'm sure there are numerous typos and grammatically errors in this novel, but who cares. If you have any input or questions, I'd love to hear/answer them. May give me some ideas on what to test as I'm considering my option of returning the phone... I'm also a habitual product returner... but I DO want to keep this one.

Update 12/05/2015: Since getting my second 950xl it seems all of my random reboots and instability issues are totally gone. I attribute this to not inserting any Micro SD in the second one. I won't be able to tell if the Micro SD was the issue with the first one obviously because I returned it. But, I've had NO reboots in three days of use as compared to over a dozen in 4 days of use with the first one with a Sandisk 128GB Micro SD inserted.
On the second 950xl, for the first 2 days I had no MicroSD at all. In this last day I added a different Kingston 64GB microSDXC UHS-I (sorry don't know what class), and again had no issues. I'm thinking the 950xl has issues with my higher capacity Sandisk 128GB microSDXC UHS-I card. After a few days I'll swap them out and retry the Sandisk 128GB and see if my instability issues come back on the new 950xl. I'm pretty sure this is the issue with the Random reboots. I really need to figure this out because I hate having that uneasy feeling you get when you can't rely on your gadget.

Update 12/05/2015: It occurred to me that I never addressed battery life. I'm not going to say it's stellar, but I'm not saying it's horrible either. On the second day with full charge I didn't quite get through the day. But as my initial excitement and overuse has subsided.. I can definitely get through a day on a single charge. And now that my continuum dock has arrived, it charges as I use it so win win I guess. I suppose heavy phone users may not make it through the day but kind of hard to tell at this point.

Update 12/05/2015: Now that I've received my Continuum dock and the second 950xl. I can say that it's pretty exciting what you can do with it. But I am equally disappointed with what you can't do with it. No Remote Desktop. No Minecraft. It is important to note that browsing WindowsCentral in Edge in Continuum is extremely painful. The pages are too image , advertisement and gif heavy to perform even close to something called acceptable. It will eventually load pages but the man it sucks.

Seems I"ll need to move this post elsewhere as this was supposed to be an initial impressions post that has gotten way too long. I'll move it later.