Microsoft Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM
This is one of the best Microsoft/Nokia devices ever built.
Ever since Microsoft entered the smartphone industry, it has failed to deliver the kind of ‘special’ things that you expected from a company of Microsoft’s stature, mainly due to one pivotal reason: the folks at Microsoft have just not done well enough to build a stable, simplistic and easy-to-use OS.
Anyway, Windows 8 is now history. Microsoft’s latest attempt at improving their Windows OS arrived in the form of Windows 10. Though it was a drastic improvement over the previously released Windows 8, it still had a definite scope of improvement.
Microsoft debuted its Windows 10 Mobile OS with the launch of two Lumia devices — the Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM phablet and the Lumia 950 Dual SIM. We’re here to talk about the former, so let’s get straight to it!
The Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM features a 5.7 inch Quad HD AMOLED display with Nokia’s ClearBlack technology for better sunlight legibility. This screen, which boasts a mind boggling pixel density of 518 ppi (and a coating of Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on top), looks absolutely gorgeous! The color reproduction is fairly neutral and brightness levels are also really impressive.
From a product design standpoint, one thing that really irritated me personally was the fact that all the buttons on this device are placed on the right, including the camera shutter button. It took me forever to figure out which button is which!
The rear cover is removable and contains two slots for nano-SIM cards and a microSD card slot, besides the 3,340 mAh battery, which is removable as well.
The 950 XL is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 810 chipset boosted by 3 GB of RAM. There’s a dedicated GPU in the form of the Adreno 530 alongside 32 GB of internal memory which is expandable upto 200 GB, thanks to the microSD card slot at the back.
This smartphone is amazingly snippy. Transitions between apps and interface animations are extremely fluid as well. The phone does heat up, but thankfully, it cools down just as fast due to the heat-pipe (running liquid cooling) and the plastic body.
Let’s now move to the game changer on this device — Microsoft’s Window 10 mobile OS. The design language hasn’t changed much, which should make it easier for existing Windows Phone users, once they upgrade.
The Settings app, despite it’s improved categorisation, continues to feel a little.. confusing. The phone comes with a bunch of pre-installed apps like Audible, Cleartrip, Facebook, Jet Airways, Lumia Creative Studio, Microsoft Office suite, Ola and Zomato.
Some new features on Windows’ latest mobile OS are Windows Hello and Continuum. Windows Hello is Microsoft’s iris recognition security feature, which allows you to unlock your device with just your face! And works surprisingly well. The headline feature of the Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM phablet, is clearly Windows Continuum.
Continuum lets you extend your phone’s display to a monitor or TV so that you can be more productive with work apps or even catch videos on the large HD screens.
But…. you do need an added accessory for this — Microsoft’s Display Dock (bought separately) which retails for INR 5,999. The beauty of Continuum is that you can run different apps on your phone and the big screen, at the same time — so you can snap off emails while your spouse catches Netflix all thanks to your new Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM.
There’s a 20 megapixel camera with an f/1.9 aperture at the back. This rear camera comes with OIS, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, triple-LED RGB flash and stereo sound. It’s got to be one of the best smartphone cameras I’ve worked with. The two-step shutter button lets you activate the camera app instantly and saving a picture is very quick. The video quality is also very good, even in low light. You can record quad-HD videos at 30 fps, and the quality is pretty impressive too.
At the front is a 5 megapixel shooter with an f/2.4 aperture and 1080p video recording. It clicks some really good selfies, if that’s what you’re looking for!
This device rounds off with some other interesting and niche features like fast charging, wireless charging, 15 GB of One Drive storage.
Overall, this is one of the best Microsoft/Nokia devices ever built.
Originally published at chip-monks.com.
