So I have been using it for a few days and it's definitely an amazing phone.
The design: I have seen both black and white and the black just looks so nice. The whole phone becomes really deep black and the microsoft logo and even the ring around the lens really pop, yet blend well enough with the black to give it a more premium look. The black has this rubbery look too.. The feeling is definitely in the same area where I would say is it is plastic with a slight rubbery/grippy feel. Honestly, unless they come out with some really cool back covers that I must have, I will be sticking with this black one. The white just doesn't create that full dark theme that the glass is going for. But everyone has their own subjective views. So not trying to put anyone else's tastes down. Just trying to explain my reasoning for why I really like the black over the white.
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.
1 Issue with the display is that it gets smudgy quicker and has a bit more stick to it than my lumia 830. On the lumia 830 my finger glides much easier no doubt.
Everything else:
* Big but feels more comfortable to hold than my lumia 830. No corners jamming into palm and wider grip allows a better cupping effect.
* Battery was draining fast but I found the culprits in my apps list. Photos/readit. Switched to baconit for now and have been closing photos task in task switcher. So far this has improved the battery.
*Unit gets a bit warm in some scenarios but never hot and the warmth is distributed very well. Looks like the 810 issues don't seem to effect it thus far. Played asphalt 8 on it for quite a while, settings are maxed out, looks gorgeous. Maintained warmth never got hot.
*Runs apps/games smoothly. Even noticed some games that I played on lumia 830 suddenly feel so different. As if more animations have been enabled and quicker fps. Guess most games are detecting hardware and automatically applying settings.
*W10 has been running well for the most part. I still will get a crash here and there but never have to deal with any resuming/loading screens.
*Windows Hello: Hell yah! Optimize at different distances, angles, lighting and you will get a pretty nicely working login that is super quick. I have optimized it so well I can turn it on without having to raise the phone to my face. I just need to make sure I can look at the red light at an angle the camera supports. And this you can figure out in optimization when you're trying to optimize diff angles/distances.
*No display dock so can't test continuum. I do have a tracking number and it has been processed already.
So thus far no major problems really. Hope to see MS release frequent official updates to the lumia 950 phones without needing to be a windows insider.
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