To buy or not to buy?

[themad95]

Yes, definitely.

 

[Auric Jarrel]

I can't vouch for anyone else but this is the worst phone I've ever owned. Sucks down battery and overheats like a demon. No amount of hard resetting, firmware and software updates have been able to fix it. Crashing and auto-reboots aplenty, bad color balancing. It's just a bad device. I bought this phone earlier in the year to replace my HTC M8 Windows, because that phone would no longer be receiving updates. I'm all in on the Windows ecosystem but I wish I bought an Android phone instead, at least until a better Windows phone came around.

 

[xandros9]

I can't vouch for anyone else but this is the worst phone I've ever owned. Sucks down battery and overheats like a demon. No amount of hard resetting, firmware and software updates have been able to fix it. Crashing and auto-reboots aplenty, bad color balancing. It's just a bad device. I bought this phone earlier in the year to replace my HTC M8 Windows, because that phone would no longer be receiving updates. I'm all in on the Windows ecosystem but I wish I bought an Android phone instead, at least until a better Windows phone came around.

See if you can get a warranty replacement since you've ruled out hardware.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Greetings,

Yesterday I went to the Microsoft store and purchased the Lumia 950 (unlocked version). Stayed in the store for a while to fully charge the battery and then let the 950 install the latest updates.

WOW,,,, so far (less than 24 hours) I'm very impressed. Everything synced to my Microsoft account perfectly. I used the sim card from my other phone and everything worked fine with ATT.

I spent some time with the settings but do have two questions.

1. How do I turn off the live tiles?

2. For some reason my Edge favorites have not synced, any ideas?

Thanks in advance

I can't vouch for anyone else but this is the worst phone I've ever owned. Sucks down battery and overheats like a demon. No amount of hard resetting, firmware and software updates have been able to fix it. Crashing and auto-reboots aplenty, bad color balancing. It's just a bad device. I bought this phone earlier in the year to replace my HTC M8 Windows, because that phone would no longer be receiving updates. I'm all in on the Windows ecosystem but I wish I bought an Android phone instead, at least until a better Windows phone came around.

seriously what happened here? These are 2 polar opposites

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Greetings,

Yesterday I went to the Microsoft store and purchased the Lumia 950 (unlocked version). Stayed in the store for a while to fully charge the battery and then let the 950 install the latest updates.

WOW,,,, so far (less than 24 hours) I'm very impressed. Everything synced to my Microsoft account perfectly. I used the sim card from my other phone and everything worked fine with ATT.

I spent some time with the settings but do have two questions.

1. How do I turn off the live tiles?

2. For some reason my Edge favorites have not synced, any ideas?

Thanks in advance

They can't be turned off unless the app has an option- for example, 6tag (an excellent instagram app) has the option to disable live tiles. I'm also suspecting that disabling the app from running in the background can also disable the live tile

You're signed in on edge?

 

[Bobvfr]

OK I bit the bullet yesterday and ordered a 950 in white for my wife from the MS store with the free dock, to replace her two year old 830, I had forgotten it was her birthday in late October.

This will give us two docking stations in the house so it may be an idea to buy another monitor that is dedicated to the phones.............

I have to say, I hate other people using my PC and refuse to let her sit at my desk and use my desktop, If she didn't have a Surface Pro I would just tell her that from now on the 950 was her phone and her PC and see how she gets on with it :smile:

 

[City Guy]

Greetings

Just a follow up and a question

So far, the 950 continues to exceed my expectations. I personally think the WIN 10 phone operating system is light years ahead of the insanely popular device I formerly used. The Edge favorites are populating, although slowly, which as I have read on this forum is not unusual.

I do have another question, the micro SD card currently in the 950 is an older and slower version. I'm thinking of upgrading the card to high capacity 200 GB. Any recommendations?
And will I be able to transfer the data from the existing SD card to the new SD card, using this method:
Remove SD card from phone, place in desktop computer and move files to the desktop computer.
Insert new SD card into desktop computer and transfer files to new SD
Install new SD card in 950

Is there a better way to do this?

Finally, I'm still amazed that so many people have continuing problems with their 950. I suspect that the 950's they purchased have hardware defects.

I'm surprised that Microsoft appears to be discontinuing the 950 and 950 XL, the WIN operating system is great (FANTASTIC) compared to the iOS, and extremely useful. I really think that Microsoft will be releasing an updated version or the long rumored Surface phone in the near future.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Greetings

Just a follow up and a question

So far, the 950 continues to exceed my expectations. I personally think the WIN 10 phone operating system is light years ahead of the insanely popular device I formerly used. The Edge favorites are populating, although slowly, which as I have read on this forum is not unusual.

I do have another question, the micro SD card currently in the 950 is an older and slower version. I'm thinking of upgrading the card to high capacity 200 GB. Any recommendations?
And will I be able to transfer the data from the existing SD card to the new SD card, using this method:
Remove SD card from phone, place in desktop computer and move files to the desktop computer.
Insert new SD card into desktop computer and transfer files to new SD
Install new SD card in 950

Is there a better way to do this?

Finally, I'm still amazed that so many people have continuing problems with their 950. I suspect that the 950's they purchased have hardware defects.

I'm surprised that Microsoft appears to be discontinuing the 950 and 950 XL, the WIN operating system is great (FANTASTIC) compared to the iOS, and extremely useful. I really think that Microsoft will be releasing an updated version or the long rumored Surface phone in the near future.

Thanks in advance.

I think your transfer method would work but maybe not with apps

Secondly, I would recommend getting transcend if you can find it - I've never heard of anyone complaining about them (including me)

The 950 are no longer being manufactured for certain countries - I think that's the most clear answer - reasons? Low demand maybe

The OS will continue to be updated for a long time as there are no signs of them dumping such an integral part of the unified OS platform

 

[City Guy]

Greetings Chintan,

Thanks for the advice. How would you recommend that I exchange the SD for an SD card with a larger capacity?

 

[anon(9813806)]

I have a dilemma similar to the OP's
I own a Lumia 650 (even wrote a review somewhere around here, praising the phone). I'm fairly happy with it, but I wanna do something nice for myself and purchasing a new phone seems just about right. So while happy with L650, I really want a flagship phone this time around. Something that's fast and reliable (opening the Facebook or Messenger apps on my 650 can take several long seconds).
So I guess my point is, is it worth the upgrade? Is there someone around here who owned a lower/mid range Lumia and upgraded to 950? Does it run fast and smoothly? I guess I just can't tell if the slow performance of my Lumia is due to its weaker hardware or are just W10 apps generally slower than apps on Android?
See, I started doing some research on android phones for around 300-400€ (which is what I'd pay for the 950XL, approximately) and I already hate most of them. But if the software is faster and the overall experience better, I don't think my love for the Live Tiles and the general aesthetic of the W10M will keep me from switching.
Anyway, thanks for any advice or experience you might share.

 

[libra89]

I have a dilemma similar to the OP's
I own a Lumia 650 (even wrote a review somewhere around here, praising the phone). I'm fairly happy with it, but I wanna do something nice for myself and purchasing a new phone seems just about right. So while happy with L650, I really want a flagship phone this time around. Something that's fast and reliable (opening the Facebook or Messenger apps on my 650 can take several long seconds).
So I guess my point is, is it worth the upgrade? Is there someone around here who owned a lower/mid range Lumia and upgraded to 950? Does it run fast and smoothly? I guess I just can't tell if the slow performance of my Lumia is due to its weaker hardware or are just W10 apps generally slower than apps on Android?
See, I started doing some research on android phones for around 300-400? (which is what I'd pay for the 950XL, approximately) and I already hate most of them. But if the software is faster and the overall experience better, I don't think my love for the Live Tiles and the general aesthetic of the W10M will keep me from switching.
Anyway, thanks for any advice or experience you might share.

I have a 640, I tried the 950, and I would say that it is worth the upgrade. It does run smoothly, and also fast too. Some apps are slightly slower. If you can find it for a nice price, I would suggest taking a chance, The software still has general issues because it is new, but you wouldn't really notice them. If you don't care for the Display Dock, I recommend getting it secondhand.

You might wonder why I say "tried" and not that I own it. Short answer is the battery life didn't work for the way I use the phone personally.

 

[natna]

Do not buy the 950.

Mine overheats,
has bad battery/power management,
double tap to wake is lame,
auto brightness is not working well,
it shows black screen when they call me for 15-20 seconds,
make calls on it's own mind.

Every new update makes something worse.

Not even 80 usd chinese clones have so many problems...

 

[rusty502]

Had my 950 since January......love it......has gotten much better with time.....I have not experienced these issues....and I consider myself a heavy user.

Sent from mTalk

 

[Bobvfr]

My boy went to the UPS pick up shop today and they wouldn't give it to him so I managed to get off work a bit early, got it and it is charging and going through the setup now.

I will compare notes with you later on Natna, but if my 950XL is anything to go by I am looking forward to see how good it is, have you done a hard reset?

 

[vhl71]

My experience with Lumia 950. After using BlackBerry for a long time, it was about to get a new device since bb10 is dead. So about a year ago, i tried pretty much every android device out there only to return them. Couldn't stand android layout and felt is quite cumbersome to do simple things that I used to take for granted in bb10.

Then bought the 950 when it was launched a d was quite happy for a while. Then I got bored with lack of apps and the browser. The edge isn't really that good compared to Chrome or safari. Many of my regular websites won't work properly and the outlook email app is surprisingly better on android. I really missed the BlackBerry Hub where it's a one stop for all my needs. The BlackBerry keyboard is the best in the business.

So when BlackBerry announced dtek50 I ended up buying that and quite like it so far. It's still android but BlackBerry has done a great job of making it comparable to bb10. The hub works flawlessly and it's lot less cluttered that the other android versions.

So now hopefully BlackBerry can still release other android phones even though they've just announced they are no longer going to be making devices on their own. Hopefully like dtek they'll get the hardware from other manufacturers and put their OS.

 

[anon(9813806)]

Thanks for the reply, libra89.
Sadly, I think I'll still go with buying an android phone and just wait until MS gets its head back in the game and releases a great new device with fast and stable OS. It's gonna be painful

 

[natna]

My boy went to the UPS pick up shop today and they wouldn't give it to him so I managed to get off work a bit early, got it and it is charging and going through the setup now.

I will compare notes with you later on Natna, but if my 950XL is anything to go by I am looking forward to see how good it is, have you done a hard reset?

No I haven't.
I don't wan't to.

I noticed I had about 2Gb memory left and I freed another 4-5 gb. It started acting ok but after 24 hours the problem surfaced again without installing or downloading anything...

So as soon as I learn how to back up my contacts, I'm gona flash it with a previous rom.

 

[libra89]

Thanks for the reply, libra89.
Sadly, I think I'll still go with buying an android phone and just wait until MS gets its head back in the game and releases a great new device with fast and stable OS. It's gonna be painful

You're welcome.

Choose wisely, this is a great time to dabble there.

 

[mweflen]

I have a dilemma similar to the OP's
I own a Lumia 650 (even wrote a review somewhere around here, praising the phone). I'm fairly happy with it, but I wanna do something nice for myself and purchasing a new phone seems just about right. So while happy with L650, I really want a flagship phone this time around. Something that's fast and reliable (opening the Facebook or Messenger apps on my 650 can take several long seconds).
So I guess my point is, is it worth the upgrade? Is there someone around here who owned a lower/mid range Lumia and upgraded to 950? Does it run fast and smoothly? I guess I just can't tell if the slow performance of my Lumia is due to its weaker hardware or are just W10 apps generally slower than apps on Android?
See, I started doing some research on android phones for around 300-400€ (which is what I'd pay for the 950XL, approximately) and I already hate most of them. But if the software is faster and the overall experience better, I don't think my love for the Live Tiles and the general aesthetic of the W10M will keep me from switching.
Anyway, thanks for any advice or experience you might share.

My daily driver was a 1020 on WP8.1. I bought a 640 for $30 to use as a music player and try out W10M (Insider Fast Ring). I thought it was garbage early on, but each build got better. When the price drop hit, I got a 950 and put it on Release Preview to get the anniversary update (my 1020 was 2 years old and starting to show diminished battery life).

I can tell you unequivocally, the 950 is way faster than both of the older phones. There are almost never any "resuming..." screens. The camera is blazing fast compared to what I was used to, and takes very good (perhaps not great, compared to 1020) pictures. Facebook and Messenger are slow on the app side, not the hardware side. FB has focused on feature parity (finally), but not performance parity. We take what we can get, I guess. The W10M software is butter smooth and a joy to use on the 950. The screen is beautiful and the feel in hand is luxe.The back is uninspiring but not nearly as ugly as some have claimed. I have a clear TPU case and think my phone looks pretty swank.

Battery life is good enough to last a day, but not much more. On some days I take an hour long bus ride bus to work and have about two hours of heavy use on my phone. That will bring it down by about 15% each trip. Outside of those heavy hours, I lose maybe 2% per hour when idle, 3-5% per hour when doing light stuff like playing music or checking email. My conclusion is that the QHD display is the real battery killer.

Bottom line: if you don't really care for Android anyway and love the live tile interface (I count myself in this category), this is a no-brainer. It's a very good phone for not a lot of money (now). If, however, you're indifferent to OS and want the latest apps, and quality for the dollar, Android might be a better bet. There are some amazing mid-rangers coming from the likes of Honor, One Plus, LG, and so on.

I am also big on camera performance, and I am convinced that the 950 sits at the top of the pack with the likes of iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy Note 7. Since it is now half the cost of those flagships, but still is at rough hardware parity with them, it's a no-brainer on this score for me. Mid-range Android phones just don't satisfy me on camera, so they're a non starter for me personally.

 

[agaskew]

Nice post.

Summary: Don't buy an iPhone