Microsoft's new Lumia 950 XL is an attempt by the software vendor to refresh its Windows phone line-up. Looks-wise and build quality-wise, the Lumia 960 XL is gorgeous. It comes in a matte polycarbonate case, which feels sturdy but soft in the hand. The quad-HD screens are super-sharp, and performance on Windows Phone has always felt smooth, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor running inside at 2GHz.
The phone feels very familiar to anyone who's seen a Lumia or a Windows phone before. If you haven't, you'll probably be startled by the elegance. Yes, there's a camera bump on the back, but I've never had a problem with that kind of design. It actually tilts the phone a little towards you when it's sitting on a table, and it definitely says, along with the dedicated camera button, "this is a camera."
The 20.7-megapixel camera that comes with the device takes perfectly sharp photos. Low-light performance was excellent in a many shots. The optical image stabilization definitely helped. The phone is decently narrow for its size, giving it good hand-fit: the Lumia 950 XL is 3.06 inches wide with a 5.7-inch screen, and weighs in at 165-gms. The phone also comes with a MicroSD card slot inside the battery compartment, along with 32GB of built-in memory.
The phone comes with Windows Phone 10 operating system, which looks like Windows Phone 8.1, with live tiles (now with folders) forming a bold, elegant, effective grid. The Office apps, are finally fully featured. The phone also supports Continuum, which allows you to essentially turn the phone into a PC. For now, it seems to work primarily with Microsoft Office, though we hope third-party apps can support Continuum on phones soon.
Microsoft claims the 950 XL offers up to 11 hours of battery life for web browsing over Wi-Fi, or video playback. We were able to get around a day's worth of battery life, which is a bit low for a phablet running on a 3340mAh battery. If you use a Windows 10 computer at home or work, browsing around the Lumia 950 XL UI for the first time can feel very familiar.
The familiarity was something that was sorely missing in its Windows Phone OS. We think this is a huge win for Microsoft and means the Lumia 950 XL could be the perfect first smartphone for traditional desktop users, or Windows power users.
Microsoft Cortana, the company's voice assistant, has also been improved in Windows 10 Mobile. Cortana can identify a song that’s playing, track the latest flight information, provide info about local cinema, restaurant, sports and maps information.
The Lumia 950 XL is an awesome smartphone, packing in a beautiful Quad HD AMOLED display and a great rear camera. It also offers smooth performance from the SnapDragon processor and 3GB of RAM. However, it all boils down to one thing - apps. The collection of apps available on the Windows Phone OS platform is still way behind what is being offered on Android and iOS platforms. If Microsoft can manage to get its mobile app ecosystem right, they might have a superstar in their hands.
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