Lumia 950/950XL flagships design - like it or not?

[BDub0817]

What is not flagship about these phones? SD808/810, 3GB RAM, 32GB w/MicroSD upto 2TB, IRIS Scanner, 20MP Camera (back), Front 5 MP, BT,WIFI,etc, 3300mAh battery.... Come on folks get out of here. Who has a phone with high specs that is considered a flagship? I bought a Galaxy s6 edge to play with (use it for UBER since the stupid app for drivers isn't on WP) and I have had it for about 2 months and it sucks. I have to reboot it a lot, the NAV locks up, OS has poor memory\resource management, heats up and it doesn't feel right in my hand. It is pretty to look at though. If it was for display great but to use not so good. It has a Physical button\Finger Print scanner on the front but that is just another point of failure. The button on the side feel a little flimsy. Now my Lumia ICON/930 shape perfect for hand, metal ring perfect design to give it that premium look and feel, color back another premium design queue. On screen buttons and flat feel volume rocker, power button and camera button that vary in dimension on the side perfect for single handed no look identification. No heavily used buttons on the face that have a high chance of failure. Can I dare to say a perfect blend of Design, Purpose and Function. No gimmicky BS such as wrap around screen edges used for notification, I haven't used that crap yet on my Galaxy S6 EDGE and trust me I know how to set it up but the OS is just unstable and the feature is gimmicky something else for me to touch by accident, sometimes differentiation can be a problem. The Lumia phones continue to follow a proven design that is driven by function first in my opinion. I probably will miss the metal surround but with a removable battery I understand design change. These are high-end phones no question, I challenge you to identify a phone that has better specs......

 

[pallentx]

I was hoping for a surface phone. The dark VaporMg material used on the first RT tablets would have been amazing! Even the silver from the Surface 3. But until I see one in person, I will hold back final judgment.

I love the look of the VaporMag, but my original Surface RT did not hold up to abuse well at all. A phone with that finish would look absolutely destroyed in a year.

 

[salazka]

first of all, some of your arguments are old and rested. i.e. will not lay flat. yes it will. face down. others are personal opinions i.e. "useless" it is not. it has a use, else it wouldn't be designed so. It is the housing of the camera.

Like on this phone

But I got to agree on one thing. The design is unsuitable for a "Flagship" device.
These designs do not look precious, do not look advanced, do not look rich. Do not reflect the ethos of Microsoft and its future technological proposition like other devices did. 920 was solid and minimalistic. Like Windows 8. 925 was svelte and with great finesse. Each and every device of the previous generation did look the part. These new devices clearly do not.

And that makes me think (a.k.a. speculate and that not in a very innovative manner) this: These are NOT the flagships you were looking for. There will be One. One that abides by the "One" philosophy of MS. Probably a Surface device that will match the design and philosophy of Surface Pro and this will be the champion of Microsoft Mobile design. As a designer I am not impressed by the design of these phones. They might be 100% solid, fast, advanced, but... they do not look like the companions of Surface series. A true flagship should. Like iPhone 6 looks very similar to iPad and other apple devices. And I am already leaning towards iPhone 6s. I speculate that we are going to see that phone presented along with Surface Pro 4.

 

[peachy001]

A continuity in the device language is appealing, and Apple are uniquely position to offer it with ease. The 950 devices were neither conceived nor designed by the Surface company. They have far more in common with the Nokia design language of the past. However, things will change. I strongly suspect that the high end and mid end devices will evolve to became more Surface consistent.

I would have preferred a unibody design in polycarbonate, buy this will do for now.

 

[chasvs]

I take it you just like to hear yourself talk with comments like that. You haven't even seen one of the new 950's and you make claims about how they don't look good enough for a Flagship phone. The images we've been able to look at have ALL been renders until the most recent slip by MSFT UK, and then those are only sales images. Let's give it a REST until they are released and we can HOLD them in our hands and decide just how suitable a Flagship device they are or are not!

 

[Zachary Boddy]

The things I liked most about my lumia 930 is the camera and quality video recording mics. These do not seem to have been greatly improved over the old 930. In addition to this the look an feel of the device lives up to a flagship one. The early leaks of the 950 show a lack of character and a lack of metal... too much plastic.

These phones should have massively upgraded cameras. Larger, updated sensors, with improved OIS and faster shot-to-shot speed.

 

[mikepalma]

To answer the OP, I don't like them and they don't look like a flagship. No reason (no compelling features and still app gap) for me to switch from my 1520. So, if I am not excited, and I live and breathe this stuff, my iOS friends will definitely not switch, particularly when they realize they will be giving up key features like tap to pay and will have less and worse apps - why would they switch...

 

[Marty89]

These phones should have massively upgraded cameras. Larger, updated sensors, with improved OIS and faster shot-to-shot speed.

They have a greater aperture f/1.9. So this will be a big step forward in imaging.

 

[peachy001]

I take it you just like to hear yourself talk with comments like that. You haven't even seen one of the new 950's and you make claims about how they don't look good enough for a Flagship phone. The images we've been able to look at have ALL been renders until the most recent slip by MSFT UK, and then those are only sales images. Let's give it a REST until they are released and we can HOLD them in our hands and decide just how suitable a Flagship device they are or are not!

I assume that was directed at the post above mine? I like the 950 devices, they are growing on me more each day. Now, if I could use the Xbox One as a Continuum dock, then MS has something very special.

 

[Bataar]

Once the phone is purchased, realistically, looks don't matter. No, I'm not a fan of what these phones look like. Yes, I think my Galaxy Note 5 looks a lot better. However, that's before the phone is in the case. Face it, the vast, vast, VAST majority of these phones will end up in cases. Once in the case, it doesn't matter what the back is made of or what it looks like or how many fingerprints the material will pick up. It's in a case!

 

[GusterBuster]

Those people saying that 950 and 950XL are beautiful phones are either blind or just a ****** to the highest level. Come on. It's ugly, uninspired and cheap looking. And those round edges makes me puke. We deserve a better looking phones than these garbage looking ones.

 

[RayWP7]

Hi, just a few remarks. The phones (for better or for worse) are not so unlike previous generations of Lumia. I wish we had the variety of color (not pastel or highlighter colors) as previous generations offered. I've owned many a Lumia 920, 1520, 830 and I have to say the metal band of the 830 is slick. But I think I like it because of its squarish design. It isn't practical. It dings hard and the paint wears. You don't have this problem with the poly-carbonate. In hand, poly-carbonate certainly does not "look" cheap or feel it. But as with all things subjective, I guess that is up to the individual to decide. I could see arguing "not ground breaking" since its a rehashed tried true and tested design choice, but not really just "cheap" and "uninspired." I honest to goodness think we should all reserve judgement until we have them to hold in our hands. I feel the same way about the software start button bar vs hardware.

 

[colinkiama]

Those people saying that 950 and 950XL are beautiful phones are either blind or just a ****** to the highest level. Come on. It's ugly, uninspired and cheap looking. And those round edges makes me puke. We deserve a better looking phones than these garbage looking ones.

They do look beautiful. Especially the 950 XL in white

 

[RayWP7]

Do you mean plug in the HDMI of a Continuum enabled phone into the HDMI-In of the XBO or some other method? To what end? Is the goal Office or Apps use on your XBO? It is an interesting request, for sure.

 

[signal-2-noise]

I'm not a fan of the giant camera lens but otherwise these phones *seem* fine. Still deciding between the XL phablet or regular 950 but either way I'll likely get one just because of the SD card addition.

 

[anon(9668900)]

If one looks carefully, one will realise that they look a bit better than they are rendered. They do have curved glass, and there are two layers: one for the display and the other for the rest of the stuff. At least for the 950.

 

[peachy001]

Do you mean plug in the HDMI of a Continuum enabled phone into the HDMI-In of the XBO or some other method? To what end? Is the goal Office or Apps use on your XBO? It is an interesting request, for sure.

Yep, something like that. Or perhaps via a dock/usb. Continuum seems to us the power of the phone. Not sure how it works.

 

[Murani Lewis]

Anybody else notice the just announce LG V10 has a similar ring around the camera as the Lumia 950 does? Makes one curious if there is a function to it.

 

[ScubaDog]

How foolish are you going to feel when 6 Oct comes and the devices look EXACTLY like that?

 

[xxNSDxx]

No. More of the same is not what MSFT need. Unless they're pricing these like the 640. Then cool. They can't be charging premiums just because it features Microsoft on the front. The ecosystem will come and that'll take time but no one is going to drop five hundred on this unless there is something really competing. A gussied up assistant isn't it. Though continuum might be.

All the specs are better than iPhone 6s. Please explain your ignorant comment. Microsoft phones have always been priced very competitive compared to the company that features an apple on the front.