Should I return my lumia 950 for the 830?

[anon(50597)]

I have the 830 with the insider preview of w10m on it. It runs fine though a little slow, at least compared to my iPhone 6.

 

[Lora619]

Go for it. Return the 950 and try the 830. If you aren't happy, repeat the process and go back to the 950. But if you ARE happy with the 830, then you've saved yourself a nice bit of money, and you'll probably be even happier about that.

I'm using the 830 myself, and I too was worried that it would be disappointing since I was used to much more expensive units, but that hasn't been the case at all for me. In fact there are a few things I even prefer about the 830. But the only way you'll know if that's true for you is to try it. You can pick up an 830 in great shape on ebay for around $100....cheap way to find out.

 

[Scott Haner]

For being Canadian, this is the same reason I'm still sticking with my 1020 for now (other than the camera), with no carrier subsidy I just can't justify upfront $750-850 CDN for the 950 or 950XL. For your options, the 830 would be a great phone and awesome saving too boot until maybe the 950's either come down in price, or a carrier picks them up (not looking likely).

 

[winphoneaddict]

I have an 830 that I was fortunate enough to pick up brand new for $150.00. The phone had never been activated. I immediately installed Win 10 Dev pre on it, and couldn't be happier. It's not super snappy, but far from slow. I believe it is a great choice in lieu of the super expensive 950, at least until we see some drop in that phone's prices.

 

[hughjazz44]

How about an HTC One M8? If the camera isn't important, the M8 is the best of the last generation. I'm running WP10 on mine, and it's running good with latest updates. The quad-core 2.3GHz and 2Gb of RAM crushes anything and everything WP can throw at it.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

How about an HTC One M8? If the camera isn't important, the M8 is the best of the last generation. I'm running WP10 on mine, and it's running good with latest updates. The quad-core 2.3GHz and 2Gb of RAM crushes anything and everything WP can throw at it.

Last generations best windows phone are the 1520 and Lumia icon/Lumia 930

 

[Ariel Takom]

Last generations best windows phone are the 1520 and Lumia icon/Lumia 930

Not exactly true though.

For hardware-performance, the M8 is up there with 930 and 1520.

Design wise, I guess it's down to personal preference. Full-metal -> HTC One M8, Full-plastic unibody -> 1520, Half-metal-half-plastic -> 930

Main Camera -> 1520, 930.

Front Camera ->One M8

Battery -> 1520

Size/handling -> 930, M8

Accessories -> M8 (mainly because it has a famous Android version)

Additional Stuff-> 930, 1520 (Wireless Charging)

So technically, the One M8 can be bundled with the 930/Icon and the 1520 as the best WPs of last generation.

 

[macros_1]

Had a 950 XL and returned it. I had given my previous 830 to my wife when I upgraded, so I had to use her old 925. For those who said that the Snapdragon S4 Plus of the 810/82x/92x/etc. is the same or better than the 400 in the 830, perhaps it is on paper...but in usage, there's no comparison. I used the 925 for two days before I went out and bought an additional 830. The performance of the 925 on Win10 was one notch below infuriating. While the 830 is no barnburner, it is good enough for me (no where near how fast the 950xl was though).

Obviously YMMV, but I think the 830 gets an undeserved bad rap for its SoC. Brand new @ $400+....it's a pretty meh value. But the last two I've found have been around $150 and it's a heck of a phone for that price (and substantially more stable than what I experienced with the 950xl).

 

[raycpl]

For those who said that the Snapdragon S4 Plus of the 810/82x/92x/etc. is the same or better than the 400 in the 830, perhaps it is on paper...but in usage, there's no comparison.
.. but I think the 830 gets an undeserved bad rap for its SoC.

Absolutely agree.


830W10 via mTalk

 

[Hugo Sundberg]

You can make your case as much as you want, but I made my decision long ago that the 830 was and is a poor product. It was marketed as a flagship, yet its SoC was not meaningfully better (if at all) than its predecessor (the 820) from 2 years prior. It was a low-end chip at the time it released, yet sold as something worthy of a high-end price tag of $450. Basically, it was a budget phone with a good camera and wireless charging.

I'm not going to start the argument of 830 vs. 950 because that's a laughable game to even try to play, the 950 would just take a massive dump on the 830. The 830 was overpriced, underpowered, and a phenomenal disappointment. Its only redeeming quality, in my eyes, was that it had some nice color options (I'd have liked the 950 to be sold in green and orange), but that doesn't make up for its price tag and hardware shortcomings. There's a reason they called it an "affordable flagship," then discontinued it 6 months later and pushed out the half-hearted 930, and it's that they knew it was disappointing and poorly marketed.

True, it is overpriced and marketing might have been exaggerated. But aside from that, I do really like the phone even with it's 720p non-clearblack display. Might be the looks and weight of the device that I like.

 

[fgaudet]

As Keith said, the 830 was overpriced, overhyped at release, but it doesn't make it a bad phone. The camera is great.
Got mine subsidised on Fido, otherwise I would have went for another phone. The 830 has been a mixed bag, every time I tried W10M it was a total disaster, and I had to revert to 8.1. Still waiting to see I should try the .71, but I'm leaning more on waiting some more. W8.1 works fine after all.

To the OP, if getting an 830, make sure to check to following points :

1. Top right corner of the screen : make sure it is not becoming unglued, this stops the proximity sensor from working and is hella annoying

2. Make sure the microphone works in calls : plug in a headset with inline mic, unplug the headset and confirm the in phone mic still works IN CALLS. There is a micro switch in the jack that can stay stuck and will mute your mic while in call. Also hello annoying...

3. Front facing camera (if important to you) : dust can get into the FFC (see point #1), check that selfies are ok and not blurry

If I had to replace 830 today, I would probably get a 640... Or a Nexus 6X ?