Real reasons for purchasing the Lumia 950/XL?

[anon(6078578)]

Because Microsoft has vision across all devices. Apple and Google, they just want to sell phones and make money. Microsoft genuinely wants to make my life easier.

I'm pretty sure they're not that altruistic.They're going in this direction because they're hoping to still be around and continue making money too

 

[wadedickinson]

Those are really good questions so here goes:

a) Is it because the platform and device are helping you achieve everything you want from your mobile device, in a way no other platform can, and how?

Well, I cannot kill anyone on the road with it's built in laser..... but otherwise... Seriously though, I really do like the platform. If I could have my old Palm Pre3 back and working I'd still be using it today but it's not supported anymore. So I moved to windows after taking a long hard look at Android and IOS. Maybe I just NEED to go against the grain, I don't know but I really do like a windows phone better.

However, this phone is not all I wanted: The design is somewhat lackluster: After a 2 year wait I expected something... grander maybe? with more innovation I guess, but it's actually an awesome device, fast, responsive, and light weight. I am not having most of the problems I've read about and I consider myself a power user, not just a casual user. There are a few bugs and the app gap is still annoying but mostly not a problem for me. The problem is that it's really a matter of taste, isn't it? I like watermelon and you like cantaloupe, and who are you or I to say the other is wrong. Most likely ANY smart phone out there will fill my needs: It is my understanding that the Android Groove Music app is better than the one for windows phone (my daughter says so anyway). But in fact I do get a little tingle of happiness whenever I pull my 950xl out of my back pocket to check the weather or read a book. Windows hello really works well most of the time and when it won't I just use the password (I have bifocal eyeglasses and I suspect in some lighting conditions it's confusing the sensor).

I've got a huge sd chip full of music and it accesses fast and easy. In 3 months I've had only one shutdown or crash. The new usb cord charges fast as hell. The battery lasts all day for me from 5 am music in the shower, headphone music at the gym, calls all day, emails, texts, pictures and interfacing with my xbox and office computer. I set it on the wireless charger when I can but it's not more than an hour a day. Usually when I plug it in at 10 pm I've got 25% battery and that feels like a good margin to me. (throw in much gps navigation though and those numbers all go away).

b) Were you suckered into buying something new and shiny because you are a part of this community and thought that was the in-thing to do, and if so do you regret it?

Do not regret it! Not once. Suckered.... maybe. My Surface Pro3 is just so amazing that I'm going to keep using the whole system Microsoft has so boldly created. I don't know if I will really use continuum though... the device arrived in only a week and it's still in the box. Maybe if I didn't have the surface pro3, but I don't know.

c) Bragging rights, and if so, how is it helping you achieve them?

Can't say I'm into bragging rights. At work I routinely tell people that I am the best at what I do, anywhere. I'm not really bragging, just stating the truth as has been played out over and over in the last 20 years. If someone wants to know about my phone I'm glad to share, otherwise I couldn't care less how they feel because it really works for me.

d) Any other reason.

My old 1020 was really ailing and I had been waiting for so long for a real flagship that I just walked in and bought it day one. No regrets. Some nostalgia for my 1020 (bright yellow like a bee!!), but no regrets. I use OneNote to keep a lot of data organized and up to date (3 novels in the works, All my finances, and about a hundred spreadsheets in progress. I play about 20 different games, search the web, watch Netflix, download music and listen, follow 7 podcasts, use GPS, take pictures and talk on the thing all day. I'm sure I could do all that on Android or Apple, but I'm comfortable doing it all on my windows phone.

Wade

 

[VermaEklavya]

What apps do you use regularly, or what apps can you not live without?
If first on the list is Clash of Clans or Snapchat, just keep the 6P.

Lol not a fan of Clash of Clans. Also never used Snapchat and don't intend to either.

The 6P does have USB C though. I am not fussed about which biometric login I use, as far as it is there - so both iris and fingerprint are fair game.

Most of the phones I have used over the past 8 years have had removable backs, but I have never had to replace the battery on any of them; though they were not very expensive ones to begin with, and I could simply replace the phone once I was done with it. I have been more careful over the past couple of years, and want to keep something valuable for longer, hence the move to, and consideration for, expensive phones.

I would always have one of those 16GB cards in any phone that I used 5 years ago, but mainly because the phone itself had only 4GB or 8GB internal (which was actually not so bad back then). But with my Note 3, I found my usage wasn't that heavy, and I could always simply connect my phone to transfer files to my PC and back. With the Nexus, I have 40GB free out of the 64GB, and I know I have the extra space for those times when I really want to capture important memories. But I also know I will be transferring them to my PC later for safekeeping, so that space would become free again.

Cool homescreen layout though! For what you can achieve by simply resizing the tiles; I will have to slap on a custom launcher, a couple of custom icon packs, then change icon and homescreen grid size, arrange everything in that layout, and on top of that create a widget at the bottom to get anywhere close. So two points to the 950XL for this and the camera :excited:

 

[Keith Wallace]

Hi sorry but most of you might not like this question. However with all the reports of bugs on the Lumias 950/XL and Windows 10 Mobile in general, it seems to me all those who bought these phones, did specifically so they could get some bragging rights in the community of Windows Mobile enthusiasts, on this and other similar sites. So I urge you to ask yourselves, and also let me know in the process, why did you really buy the new Lumia 950/XL?
a) Is it because the platform and device are helping you achieve everything you want from your mobile device, in a way no other platform can, and how?
b) Were you suckered into buying something new and shiny because you are a part of this community and thought that was the in-thing to do, and if so do you regret it?
c) Bragging rights, and if so, how is it helping you achieve them?
d) Any other reason.
I have an android phone currently (Nexus 6P), however I miss my older Windows Phone (8.1) and want to get a perspective here before I jump ship, hence only serious answers please.

To start, nothing about bragging rights exists in this. I loved my 920, but it was 3 years old. I wanted to upgrade from that ancient (by tech standards) hardware.

a) Sort of? I'm not app-driven like most, so I don't care that things like Snapchat are missing, and my dislike of Google as a company has me away from their services as it is. I love having the Xbox integration of the platform (though it mostly exists elsewhere too). I like having a nice camera, and the existence of a camera button does a LOT to get me taking pictures (convenience and such). I also think Continuum's a really cool feature, so having it around is a plus. It's mostly that I can do JUST ABOUT everything I want on W10M, and the exceptions are usually very minor. As a quick example, I'd be happy if Trillian came to the platform, but IM+ is a good-enough alternative.
b) No regrets here. I mean, there are unexpected annoyances, like the creaking of the backplate. There are expected ones as well, like a lack of choices for accessories. All told, the bugs are very minor for me (as in, I don't experience many, and those I experience don't cause much of an issue). Going back to a smaller, slower 920 that had battery life would be a legitimate downgrade that I would be bothered by. Oh, and I love having a 128-GB microSD card in this phone.
c) I don't really follow the question. This community, to be blunt, isn't worth bragging to. It's very erratic, and whichever route you take, you're going to get a bunch of praise and hate, just like society as a whole. It's not worth it to try impressing folks. However, I do think the camera is a meaningful positive, as is the microSD support. Continuum is probably the only real "wow" feature, and it definitely did accomplish that task when I showed it to my grandma (who got me the Display Dock for Christmas). I pulled up pictures I took in Disney World (our family trip last year), and she loved being able to see them.
d) The 920 was just too long in the tooth. The battery life was a joke, being lucky to hit 8 hours of moderate use. Idling on the desk, it was MAYBE 20 hours. The 950's much better in that regard, with maybe 18 hours of moderate use and 30 hours of idle life. The one other thing is that going the AT&T Next route means I can upgrade to the Surface Phone in the fall, if it happens. If I do that, I trade in the 950, and I've basically only paid $360 for the phone, rather than dropping $550-600 off-contract, then trying to sell the phone to pay for the Surface Phone later.

 

[anon(6078578)]

Thank you, a good perspective. I had a Lumia 520 three years ago, which btw was absolutely wonderful on WP 8.1! Post that I opted for the Note 3 (for the S Pen), and then got invested in the Android ecosystem. Now I have a Nexus 6P, which by all means is a superb Android device, and my Note has gone to my wife (she is very happy with all the shopping and to-do lists she can write on the screen :smile

I think I am judging Windows 10 Mobile based on the fact how crappy it was on the Lumia 520. Gosh those fabled resuming screens and super-lag! Then apps wouldn't update sometimes, and when they did some would break etc. I kept reverting back to WP8.1, and was astonished at the night and day difference. I tried using it as my daily driver on W10M, but would get frustrated by the end of the day. Since I could not do complete justice to the insider program, I shut my Lumia, and went back to my Android.

That experience taught me I don't have the patience to test out unreleased software. It also taught me that curiosity does kill the cat sometimes. I have not had the chance to restart my Lumia and install any latest builds yet (the last I installed was 10586.36) so I don't know what to expect currently.

So here is where my gripe lies - I am unwilling to jump ecosystems and put money down for a new phone, if I have to again enroll into the Insider Program (and I know I will want to, coz I'm the sucker that can't keep his hands to himself :amaze. People that say the issues have been ironed out, how feature packed and stable are the RTM builds compared to, in my case, a Nexus 6P on stock Android? Is it a good buy in its current state?

I followed a bit of a similar path, in gettng the Lumia 521 (T-Mobile's version of the 520). I then ended up getting an Android phone for a while until I got my Lumia 640 which pretty much fixed all the complaints I had about the 521, not that it was a bad phone.

The Lumia 640 really is the phone they really should've released as the upgrade to the 521 while it still had momentum and Windows Phone looked like it was starting to finally catch on. After the 521 there was nothing to upgrade for me on T-Mobile and I am not a Flagship buyer when a low to mid tier phone does everything I need.

Perhaps you could get a Lumia 640 and install W10M or wait for the 650 (if it's price reasonably though), that way you don't have to spend big bucks to get back in Windows Mobile and should it all not go as planned you won't feel like you've gambled your life savings.

 

[DeathMoJo]

I tried Windows 10 with my HTC One M8 and loved it. Decided i wanted a high end phone this time around so the 950 XL fit the bill due to its specifications and screen size. No regrets!

 

[erasure25]

Want new flagship phone. The ONLY option for Windows Phone is 950/XL

 

[lita_g]

I've never been a MS fan, but WP really got me when I got my Lumia 920 over three years ago. After so long it was time to upgrade, and the 950xl was at a fair price point.
I hate iOS, and I was weary of switching to android, so I figured it was worth a shot. The hardware is awesome, and it truly has some unique features. My gripe are the bugs though. I will spend some time this weekend tweaking it, if it doesn't get any better I just might return it and go back to my 920 until something else catches my eye.

 

[VermaEklavya]

Perhaps you could get a Lumia 640 and install W10M or wait for the 650 (if it's price reasonably though), that way you don't have to spend big bucks to get back in Windows Mobile and should it all not go as planned you won't feel like you've gambled your life savings.

if it doesn't get any better I just might return it and go back to my 920 until something else catches my eye.

Thank you very much. I have understood over the short course of this thread that I don't necessarily dislike the idea of Windows 10 Mobile. I am just wary of 'spending money' on something that hasn't proven its mettle yet. So I guess these are the two ways ahead of me:

a) Buy a 950XL, use it till the return period, and then either return it or sell my Nexus 6P, depending on which one I end up liking more. Just that I do not find any real use case for Continuum in my life currently, and hence will be comparing them as phones only.

b) Buy the 640XL, try Windows 10 Mobile, and decide whether I want to invest more in the platform. I might even gift that Lumia to my mom once I'm done. She uses a Samsung Windows Phone (7.8) right now (actually that was my first Windows Phone, and it was so easy to use that I let my mom try it. She loved it and took it from me. This was 2011. It was, and still is, her first and only smartphone. And it still runs superbly well, despite no more support from MS)

 

[VHMP01]

Well for the cost benefit; 950XL has equal or better specs than the Note 5, mi other option, I prefer policarbonate to metal simple because I got a Amzer protection doble case for it, after updates it's been pretty stable... So basically: it's lighter, dual SIM, big screen, good aspect to size ratio, good ppi, 8 cores, micro SD uo to 2Tb, 20Mb camera, stereo recording, USB-C, Iris scanner, bigger battery and all at a bit lower Price!

 

[VermaEklavya]

I like watermelon and you like cantaloupe, and who are you or I to say the other is wrong.

You sir deserve a huge SUPER LIKE and DOUBLE THUMBS UP! You are a dying breed and should preserve and propagate this attitude before it goes extinct

 

[VermaEklavya]

Well for the cost benefit

Well not really a cost benefit for me. I use a Nexus 6P. It has the same processor and RAM capacity, USB type C, same screen resolution and ppi, an even bigger battery, double the base memory (64GB), and fingerprint instead of iris scanning. All of that for $200 lesser than the 950XL here in NZ. The camera is also quite satisfactory for my needs. And like I mentioned somewhere here, removable battery and MicroSD support aren't deal breakers for me. Your input though is appreciated :smile:

 

[Alxgn]

In a year from now, if it goes under the 350$ level, maybe... but for now my opinion is NO... the 950 is a great device but it's not a sensible buy at this point of time. Furthermore, I do already own the 640XL witch does its job just fine and I'm sure it will continue to do so for the next 2 years at least. I'd rather wait for the new "surface" type phone, it's probably coming in 2017 (give or take a quarter..) and with full windows operating system, hopefully. And that, is something worth waiting for.

 

[zdenekvanik]

I was a little skeptic when considering whether to buy 950XL or not.
First reason was that my 920 was dated and could not cope with my needs.
I dont regret that I bought it, I dont have any problems that I had with 920 and WM10 combination like occasional crazy battery drain, resuming lags etc.
Personally Im very satisfied with the device and Im glad I didnt have to go the iOS or android way.

 

[mariusmuntean]

Had my 950 for a month. Nice phone, great camera, but the OS is terrible, a complete wreck! So I returned it.

 

[John McIlhinney]

Before I got my current 950 XL, every phone I had ever owned had been from Nokia. My first phone was a 5110 and my last non-Lumia was an E7. I was very happy with the phones I had at the time. When it came time to replace my E7, Nokia were full-swing into Windows Phone and I didn't see any reason to break my tradition.

I'm a .NET developer by trade so I figured that it made sense to get a Windows Phone and leverage the skills I already had to develop for mobile on that platform. The Lumia 920 was out at that time and the 925 was just about to come out. I liked the style of the 925 more so I waited a little while until Vodafone Australia, with whom I'd been contracted for a number of years, offered the 925. Happily they had an exclusive in Australia on the 32 GB model.

That phone served me well but I do like an upgrade so it was pretty much a given that I'd get a 950 or 950 XL when they were released. It wasn't about bragging rights but simply that I wanted the best Windows Phone I could get. I've been a Windows 10 Insider since the beginning and I'm very happy with Windows 10 on my desktop and laptop at home. I bought a Lumia 530 to test Windows 10 Mobile on and put it on my 925 as soon as I felt it was stable enough. I've never really had any issues with it, although I acknowledge that I've been luckier than some. I like Windows 10 on both PC and phone.

I've had very little to do with either iOS or Android. If I was to use either or both seriously then I might discover that I'd been missing something. I don't know. As it stands though, I find that Windows 10 Mobile on the Lumia 950 XL does everything I feel I need and I like it. That's why I got the phone: I like it and it works for me.

 

[Genio88]

For me it was the natural successor, i've always hated android, andi was a Apple guy when Steve Jobs was there and iPhone was a real revolution, i had the first iPhone 3G and then the iPhone 4, though iPhone 5 looks like **** so i switched to Lumia with the 730 just to try windows phone, i loved that it was pretty fast and snappy just like IOS, but it was a medium range phone and i needed a flagship, so i bought the Lumia 930, awesome device, i had it until recently when i bought the 950XL, i loved the 930 but i wanted something lighter and thinner and also a bigger screen, so the 950XL was the perfect choice, now i'm enjoying it, though windows 10 isn't really ready yet, i hope it'll be as soon as possible, cause it's the only thing which is holding the 950XL to be the best phone out there

 

[PrinceM]

I went from a Note 4 to the 950 XL because I

* was sick and tired of the lack of support from Samsung regarding updates for the Note-series
* was tired of Androids GUI
* found out that Continuum on 950 XL is one of the best things that have happened to phones since Iphone came out several years ago

I've never used a Windows Phone before the 950 XL.

 

[thinkitthrough]

"So I urge you to ask yourselves, and also let me know in the process, why did you really buy the new Lumia 950/XL?"

a) Is it because the platform and device are helping you achieve everything you want from your mobile device, in a way no other platform can, and how?
>>>>> Yes, for me the Windows mobile platform is superior in terms of user-interface, overall efficiency, and integration with the core get-the-work-done apps (MSFT Office suite, OneDrive, Office Lens, etc.). Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile devices come loaded with more capability built-in to the OS and MSFT's productivity apps preloaded, so there is FAR less need to load up on apps to get the job done - they are mostly already there. My current device (daily driver) is a 950, dual-SIM, unlocked, purchased at a MSFT retail store and activated on AT&T prepay.

b) Were you suckered into buying something new and shiny because you are a part of this community and thought that was the in-thing to do, and if so do you regret it?
>>>>> Not suckered, mine was a well-researched, deliberate decision. I was coming from an Android 4.1 device, had purchased a $50 Lumia 635 on prepay for a few months as a trial of WP8.1, determined that for me WP is where it's at, bought the 950 and ported my main number from Android phone to the 950. No regrets whatsoever, although I admit W10M was initially disappointingly buggy, as of 10586.29 less buggy, but still not fully baked.

c) Bragging rights, and if so, how is it helping you achieve them?
>>>>> This kind of thought never enters my mind, was absolutely not a factor for me.

d) Any other reason.
>>>>> FIRST, in my opinion Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile is for people who just want to get the job done and move on to the next task, or get the work done and go home and spend time with family. In my observations, both iOS and Android are, generalizing here, more for people who need or want to be entertained, and/or "be seen" with the coolest, mainstream device.
SECOND, I am enthralled with the way Cortana is so well integrated with Bluetooth headsets and wired earbuds. It enables vastly safer driving and vastly increased productivity, not just while driving, but any time one wants to have their hands free to do other work around the house/office/yard. Apparently it's just me, but I really can't believe that MSFT (as well as all WP/W10M reviewers, as well as these Windows-centric websites) never even mention Cortana's amazing capabilities that let me hear texts and dictate replies while driving, never touching or even glancing at the phone, allows me to safely dictate emails while driving, bring up traffic conditions webpages without ever touching the phone, and of course the expected capability to set reminders, etc. via voice commands. But what sets WP/W10M apart, as far as I can tell, is the automatic integration with connected BT headsets and wired earbuds/headsets (see Cortana > hamburger menu > notebook > settings > "Read incoming text messages aloud" > Bluetooth and wired headsets).

 

[NFLPLAYBOOK]

Both me and my wife have a 950xl. Got it for the expandable storage, removable battery, gorgeous screen, face unlock camera (though not as good as the one on my SP4), the camera, the size, and the convenient Qi charging. As for bugs and problems, I don't know what anyone is talking about. Zero issues so far with the phones. Windows 10 still needs some work though. I'm not a huge app person so this phone has far more advantages over any other phone on the market, including Continuum. It also has top rate internals. Better question is why would I not buy it.