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

How is the sound coming out of headphones? One thing that upset me, was the big drop in audio quality coming from HTC. My EVO was louder and had better quality.
 
Re: [Real Users] My Lumia 950 XL Detailed Review

Impressions after one day:


- You can no longer close the action center with the back button, since the on-screen buttons disappear with the action center open.

Swipe up from the bottom to make the nav bar appear or disappear.
 
Has anyone tested their 950xl with the Nokia QI wireless charger?


It does not work vertically on the stand, but it will landscape. The CR 200 car charger does not detect the XL. Damn shame as I use this everyday on the commute to top off my phone.
 
"Anyone else notice the back cover creaks when you pinch it using your forefinger and thumb on the bottom left corner with the screen facing you? There seems to be a slight gap that causes a noise. I am positive the back cover is attached as tightly as possible.

The creaking completely diminishes any impression of a high quality flagship device."

I had the same issue. I had to stick a small piece of foam (like what comes from the factory around the mics/earpieces) to take up the slack. It is like the back was a fraction of a millimeter off in the manufacturing of the securement tabs. I have contacted Microsoft support to see if a replacement back will solve the issue. They are supposed to contact me in the next couple of days.
 
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Display: This thing is phenomenal if configured properly or to your own taste. First of all most reviewers have said the 950 screen is dim. And I had the same issue at first with the 950 XL. Even if I put it to 100% it just looked dimmer than other phones. So I went into display and turned off auto brightness. Even when you swapped between 25%-100% the auto brightness would still take control making it dimmer (There should be an additional action button for auto brightness). If you remove it man you will see a super bright screen at 100%. Couple that with a nice colour profile and this puppy looks glorious. Although sometimes I notice some points where the screen will light up say a box of blue pixels. This happens during the microsoft logo at first boot very quickly. This is typically in the upper left corner. The same happens on some other app on the bottom corner super quickly at load. I hope it's just the software itself and not a sign of future problems.

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Thank you for this sincere quick review.
I just wanted to ask you about the brightness part of your comment, all of the reviewers said that the screen is dimm, depsite that microsoft mention in their official lumia 950 page that the phone has a "High brightness Mode". so did you found this mode in settings?? and is the screen readable in sunlight (both in automatic and manual mode)??

thank's again,
 
Just use the maps app in windows 10, it has most of the same functions as the nokia suite of apps. Satnav works great from Maps.
Does the Maps app have public transit, does it show subway and bus stops, and you can tap to show details of those stops? I'm asking because I take public transit daily, and Here maps and Transit are (were?) fantastic in that regard.
 
If you restore data from a previous lumia which had HERE suite apps installed, do they get installed on Lumia 950 (or XL)?

I'm asking this because I have all here apps in my Lumia 930. They work just fine with build 10586. If I restore to Lumia 950 XL, will they get installed?


Does the Maps app have public transit, does it show subway and bus stops, and you can tap to show details of those stops? I'm asking because I take public transit daily, and Here maps and Transit are (were?) fantastic in that regard.

No they don't. If I click a subway station in Windows Maps it won't show the whole subway line/grid as Here Maps does. That is why I need (not need but it would be nice to have...) Here suite installed...
 
Too bad that d-bag at the Verge couldn't figure out how to turn up the brightness for his "review". The display on this phone is phenomenal. The camera quality is the same or better as my old 1520, but the camera speed is night and day better.
 
Too bad that d-bag at the Verge couldn't figure out how to turn up the brightness for his "review".
I dislike The Verge as much as anyone, but the average user (even a reviewer on The Verge) should get a good experience without lots of tweaks. Looking at the lists of tips on reducing battery drain MS is not doing a good job of making a good impression on new users. I'm actually kind of curious how Apple is getting things set up without burning a hole in your hand and without draining the battery. Or maybe I just forgot how it works on a new iOS device, because I haven't used one in a while. Anyway, back to discussing the great and wonderful 950XL.
 
It does not work vertically on the stand, but it will landscape. The CR 200 car charger does not detect the XL. Damn shame as I use this everyday on the commute to top off my phone.

so the issue is the position of the QI coil on the phone does not correspond with the coil on the puck?
 
Thank you for this sincere quick review.
I just wanted to ask you about the brightness part of your comment, all of the reviewers said that the screen is dimm, depsite that microsoft mention in their official lumia 950 page that the phone has a "High brightness Mode". so did you found this mode in settings?? and is the screen readable in sunlight (both in automatic and manual mode)??

thank's again,

Yes the setting is in display for auto brightness. It's on by default. But when you lower the action buttons to change screen brightness it lets you go from 25%-100% much like PC version of windows 10. The problem is changing that 25%-100% has a minimal change when "auto brightness" is enabled. You have to disable it in the display settings then you can change the 25%-100% action button and really see it in action. If you keep the screen clean then it displays fine in the sun. However if it's smudged you may notice more glare. My guess is the light theme would work better in the sun. The less blacks the less reflection I noticed. Though the reflection doesn't stop you from being able to read the text or what not where it's written in white. I still haven't had a super sunny day that I have used this in due to it being close to winter and usually pretty cloudy and freezing here.
 
I'm going to wait a few months to see if the price drops. I'm not ready to committ to Windows 10 mobile, but I'm dying to try the XL as a daily driver.
 
First off I love the OS. The buttons are the only thing that feels cheap. That is taken care of as soon as you put a protective case on it. The camera is great. Accessing it through the dedicated camera button works easier than the new iPhone 6s. I was beating my wife to pictures during Thanksgiving and she has the 6s. I have tried Continuum through a wireless display adaptor. Pretty cool. I was streaming video from NBC and able to go back to phone and use EBay app without interupting the show. Every phone has its issues. I am expecting to find some. The only so far is Flash Video doesn't work in the phones Microsoft Edge. No way to turn it on in this version. What this means is the shows on CBS won't play. Other networks must be using HTML5 because they all work fine.
 
Re: 950XL Initial Impressions

Hi!
I got my 950XL 2 days ago and very disappointed!
First problem I was getting is notifications, but I found Quiet Hours is enabled by default and set for 24 hours.
Second problem is no way to configure separate ringtone notification for each email account on the phone. Only one ringtone for all email accounts.
Third problem is heating the room when using phone for long time or when it is charging. You can keep your coffee warm, using 950XL.
New problem is MS idea to combine Cortana and SMS laud reading SMS messages over Bluetooth. I never used and never will use Cortana. But from W10 SMS-to-BT doesn't work without Cortana enabled. For Cortana all services, like Location, microphone and many others must be enabled for Cortana to work. It drains battery VERY quick!
Additional to it, Cortana doesn't like to work with car microphones and couldn't understand commands.
It would be very nice to be able to disable Bluetooth MAP protocol and prevent phone send SMS messages to the car displays, where driver should switch attention from the road.
I'm using WP's since 2003 and really like them, but released 950XL pushed me and my friends return phones and continue to use our old 1520's and 920's until MS will make some changes and bug fixes.
Unfortunately, 950 model is not ready for users yet.
 
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A quick thanks to the guy who developed Tapatalk Classic for writing such an inefficient app that you can really notice how fast the 950XL is compared to the 1520. "mark all read" used to take four seconds, and now it 'only' takes two! :D