The Lumia 950 XL is a fast, well-built phone, which is the business user a lot of features. Continuum is a welcome addition for anyone who has no laptop with him and wants to drag. Windows 10 seems to be unfortunately still not finished so the phone is still very buggy and unstable.
Pros
- Sturdy, well-finished housing
- Fast in use
- Battery life after updates
Cons
- Unstable software
- Unreliable Wi-Fi
Final conclusion
Score: 4Per criterion
Range
Score: 4
InleidingTweakers and Microsoft gave me the option to select the 950 XL to test. Given that I private a iPhone 6 have and business with a Lumia 920 work, I had to make a choice. The Lumia 920 is the oldest and has some battery issues, therefore I replace these. I view this the phone,in this review, from the business perspective.Unpack & Get StartedWanneer the Lumia 950 XL, you will see a large box with relatively little content. You will find of course the phone, what is customary pieces of paper (‘get started’ & ‘product warranty’) and a charger with cables. It is notable that this time there are no earphones are attached. The ‘Get started’ guide if you without problems through the process of open sim places. This is not as intuitive as you’d expect, the Lumia has a slot at the bottom of the device that makes the rear loose fingers. This slot you can only find if you know what you’re looking for. Hereinafter, when the phone is open, it goes places very easy.
Because I’m from a Windows Mobile 8 phone upgrade, all goes pretty smoothly. You set your Microsoft account and then restore your backup from the cloud. After about 3 minutes you are on the corridor. Things like contacts and photos are in the meantime downloaded. Here you get no notification, so you sometimes have things missing that are later ‘out of nothing’ will appear.
Nice is that the apps that you have on the previous phone had, also neatly be downloaded. This is not particularly fast, but ensures that you do not so much need to do. Unfortunately, you do need the whole Home-screen reset. This ensures that you do not just trying to everything to get.
It struck me during these first steps that the phone very quickly to the touch. All the screens appear, quickly. I actually no a few times having to wait. Also noticed that the phone is not as “slip resistant”. I may be the brand new phone with 1 finger on my desk around to push. A check of the back shows that nothing is damaged, but that the edge on which the phone rests does not really have a lot of resistance gives as the device on his back.Windows 10Het first hour I noticed that the phone is very busy and the batteries wore. This is clearly the result of the sync and the download of a huge mountain of data. After about 20 minutes I was asked if I wanted to upgrade to the new version of Windows 10. This takes about 20 minutes but gave an even faster phone. Unfortunately, I noticed that my phone at that time very much battery vrat. The next day I was again asked if I wanted to upgrade. This took again 20 minutes, but it ensures a huge battery time.
Because I actually find that as a phone itself can determine when he upgrade, I have automatic upgrade turned on. This provides a few times a problem, but usually this goes very well. Unfortunately it is true that the new Windows upgrades a bit more unstable seem to be. The last few weeks I have several times a unsolicited reboot of the phone seen. The device boot happy quickly but this makes me a little worried.
A nice feature of the Lumia is ‘Hello’. A Irisscan reader what your “fast” the phone should let you unlock it. Also here you will notice that the Microsoft here of hard working. The quick unlock seems each week is better, but the distance at which the phone should keep is also available each week smaller. Nevertheless, this new software also its advantages. O. a. the detection in the dusk and the dark seems to improve. All in all it is a nice feature, but usually unlock I phone with the code.
It’s become clear to me that Microsoft Windows 10 Mobile to be very quickly wanted to release. Here and there there are clearly some shortcuts taken and everything is still not so good. But each new release is better. I hope also that they will be in Redmond this release frequency. The many spontaneous reboots baren me a bit worried, but hopefully this is temporary.Screen, Battery & Unit construction hardware-wise this phone is a gem. The screen feels very sturdy and the edges are nicely finished. And also the back is solid despite the fact that this is made of plastic. The camera sits neatly so disposed that the lens is not directly scratching and also includes a pretty good flash. On the side you will find a number of solid buttons with a clear reli lwa f. This ensures that the buttons are also easy in the dark of each other to make the distinction.
What is striking is the battery time after the Windows updates. During the cardio exercises at the gym, I watch often streaming video at the highest quality available. Via 4G, the phone shows a nice and stable image in which the battery is up to 10% in an hour backward. This money also if you combines this with a bluetooth hardslagmeter.
With quite heavy business use – 2/3 hours to call, emails to answer and photos of white boards – the phone usually 2 days without the charger be consulted. Even the bluetooth connection for hands-free calling, seems the battery is low to bother.Call, Skype, & MessagingQua call does the Lumia 950 XL exactly what used to be Nokia always did well: A nice clear sound without weird hiccups. The same feedback I got about the quality of the microphone in the speaker mode. Unfortunately at that moment the speaker rather metallic and therefore the phone is not really usable for instant conference calls.
Both call and Skyping is basically the same for the Lumia. The calls appear in the same lists of recent calls and you have the option to phone or Skype. You see the same deep integration in messaging. Here you have a central messaging app which you both allow text messaging as Skype. All of this is true both for Skype and Skype for Business, which simply means for the business user that he can consider to also all its internal communication via the Lumia smoothly.NFC, Bluetooth & ConnectiviteitDe Lumia seems to be all gimmicks on board to have good communication. It has a very stable 4G antenna where also arranged for 4G+ may be received. Documents download, Skype calls and streaming video is no problem. However, if you switch to Wi-fi, the wi-fi adapter often hang at the ‘3 stripes’. This seemed to be the beginning of a software bug, but after doing many tests, you will see for sure on the 2.4 Ghz band the speed is very fluctuating. At 5 Ghz seems to be the speed in my testing a lot more stable.
If you are making use of NFC and Bluetooth, you will notice that the phone is very spacious and is equipped with both memory and CPU: Handshakes e.d. go very, very fast. But also the transfer of files is super fast. Unfortunately, I noticed that the Skype calls are not always doorkwamen via Bluetooth to my car kit. This seems to be a software problem, but it is still and quite crucial for a lot of demanding business user.Continuum & Unified Windows ApplicationsWindows Continuum is the flagship of this phone. With a USB-C cable extend your phone using a small heavy box(Docking station) to a display. Then you can find a lot of your applications on a larger screen. It requires, however, that the applications ‘UWP’ applications are specifically designed to scale between different screen lying and even devices. This means in the base that you actually have your phone transforms into a portable desktop. Kracthig enough for surfing, using Word to work, and even PowerPoints to present.
So far, my experience here is very positive. The applications are fast, the dock is smooth, and even working on the machine actually feels like Windows 10 on the Desktop. Even more fun is it when you the Wireless Display Adapter picks up on this and do the same. A world will open up for you! The screen turns into a touch pad with any keyboard option. And if that is not so good work…. Then you ‘just’ a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth or the Dock via USB.
To make it even more fun to do I even have a small app developed. Microsoft has a very extensive tooling available on as .NET developer very easy also Windows Mobile to target to. In Visual Studio 2015 are the right templates to the application to create and set-up. Also, the XAML-language extended with a few simple tricks to auto-scaling to apply. Because of this, I got it in just a few hours of an application to which both ‘upright’ as in ‘landscape’ mode works. Also, with using some simple code playing video on the paired second screen.ConclusieDe Lumia 950 XL is a wonderful phone for anyone who as in the Microsoft-world. If you make the step to earlier Lumia I can heartily recommend. The set is going quickly via the backup service and the phone is huge, many faster than all previous Windows phones. He is also nice and solidly built.
However, if you have an iPhone or Android device, then the new features will be very limited to make the transition to car. It is then only interesting if you really something with the Continuum want to do. In that case, you can buy a almost complete PC (Note: if you are using Office want to create, you have an Office 365 subscription is required) and mobile phone in one. The number of applications remains still a bit behind, but because the apps can be shared between Windows 10 on the Desktop and on the phone, I expect that this is not a very long time going to take.
Used in combination with:
- Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter
- Microsoft Display Dock HD-500