Geeks in Smartphones: Evaluation of Microsoft Lumia 950XL

IT 168 Evaluation When it comes to Lumia series smartphones, people will first think of Nokia, which has withdrawn from the smartphone market, and the colorful body design of this series of phones. Although Nokia chose the Windows Phone camp that was not optimistic in the two years of the rise of Android system, Lumia series mobile phones have won a lot of praise because of their personalized design. Including the original Lumia 800 and later Lumia 920/930, Lumia series is constantly exploring new designs according to market changes while inheriting classics. However, it is worth mentioning that it took a whole year and a half from the release of Lumia 930 to the official release of Lumia 950 series mobile phones. In this year and a half, the global mobile phone market has undergone earth-shaking changes, and even many big-name mobile phone manufacturers have begun to decline. Microsoft, which accepted Nokia, also realized the hidden crisis and launched a brand-new strategy of "One Win 10", aiming to connect smartphones and PCs more closely through Win 10 mobile system.

And our protagonist Lumia 950 XL today is the first flagship mobile phone after Microsoft implemented a new strategy. At the same time, it is also the first truly flagship mobile phone of Win 10. In the absence of a flagship mobile phone to attract users' attention, Lumia 950XL also shoulders the mission of promoting the ecological construction of Win 10 Mobile; At the same time, for other OEMs, the market performance of Lumia 950XL will also determine what kind of market strategy they should adopt. So, as a flagship mobile phone that plays an important role in Microsoft and even Win 10 mobile phone ecosystem, what are the important selling points of Lumia 950XL? Before starting today's evaluation, let's take a look at the hardware configuration of Lumia 950XL.

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Microsoft Lumia 950XL? Main parameter

operating system

Win 10 mobile version

Network standard

TD-LTE, FDD-LTE (Unicom 4G), WCDMA, GSM.

Fuselage size

15 1.9 *? 78.4 * 8. 1 mm

weight

165g

screen

5.7-inch 2560* 1440 AMOLED screen

camera

20 million pixels? Carl zeiss certified lens? F 1.9 aperture? PureView Pure Scene Technology for Fifth Generation Optical Anti-shake

processor

Snapdragon 8 10 processor with main frequency of 2.0GHz.

Body memory

Ram: 3gb rom: 32gb (supports expansion up to 2TB)

eigenfunction

Windows Hello (iris recognition) continuous function

battery

3340mAh (detachable), supporting fast charging and wireless charging.

Fuselage color

Black/white

listed price

5499 yuan

After reading the hardware parameters of Lumia 950XL, it is not difficult to find that the machine has reached the same height as many Android flagship stations in hardware. Whether it's a 5.7-inch 2K display, a Snapdragon 8 10 processor, or a 20-megapixel carl zeiss (certified) camera on the back of the machine, it's the top hardware configuration in smart phones at present. So, what is the actual experience of configuring such a powerful flagship mobile phone? After several days of trial use, the author has got a certain understanding of the machine, and as mentioned in the title of the article, the author thinks it is more like a "geek" in a smart phone. The reason why the word "geek" is used to describe Lumia 950XL is not because its actual experience disappoints me. On the contrary, some of its performances even exceeded my imagination. As for what kind of experience it is, let's understand it through detailed introduction later!

"Appearance part: the whole is slightly cheaper.

With the development of smart phones today, the appearance of mobile phones has occupied a higher and higher proportion in users' minds. In the past 20 15, the integrated metal fuselage and other configurations originally belonging to high-end models even appeared on the thousand yuan machine, and the mobile phone manufacturers only did this to cater to the tastes of the majority of mobile phone users. Under such circumstances, Lumia 950XL still adopts the detachable back cover design made of polycarbonate like many low-end models in this series, which has become an indelible regret in the hearts of many netizens.

▲Lumia 950XL screen accounts for a high proportion. Of course, in terms of styling, Lumia 950XL is still better than netizens imagined, especially when they saw the real machine. Thanks to the 5.7-inch AMOLED display, Lumia 950XL has enough internal space to accommodate all hardware, which makes the machine have an ultra-high screen ratio of more than 83%, and the front looks very visually impactful. In addition, the front of the machine adopts a special molding process, which makes the edge of polycarbonate material and the screen look like an approximate whole. This design is still worthy of recognition.

▲ The design of the frame seems to be integrated, but it is actually separated. The most successful design on the back of the fuselage is the camera position. For an increasingly thin smartphone, how to install a 20-megapixel optical anti-shake lens certified by carl zeiss is a headache for everyone. Microsoft chose to continue the previous "Oreo" design, but the xenon flash on Lumia 1020 did not appear on Lumia 950XL, because the xenon flash did have a great influence on the thickness of the fuselage. Another difference from previous generations' flagships is that Lumia 950 has a detachable back cover design. Considering that the domestic price of the aircraft has exceeded 5,000 yuan, this design has also been unanimously condemned by netizens.

▲ The back design continues the "Oreo" lens design. Regarding the detachable back cover of polycarbonate, I think it is necessary to explain two points. In fact, Microsoft has a purpose in doing so. First of all, polycarbonate material can make Microsoft easily solve the problem of signal overflow, which also makes Lumia 950XL easily get wireless charging and NFC near field communication functions; Secondly, Lumia 950XL with 5.7-inch large screen and built-in Win 10 mobile system is clearly positioned for enterprise-level business people, and the design of detachable battery also helps to bring more flexible endurance performance.

▲ The back cover and battery are detachable. However, even if we are so tolerant of Microsoft, the appearance of Lumia 950XL still has many shortcomings. First of all, Lumia 950XL designs the microphone hole under the front panel without chamfering design, which is easy to accumulate dust, thus affecting the call quality. A similar problem also occurs at the receiver location.

▲ The position of the microphone hole affects the appearance and is easy to accumulate dust. Secondly, Lumia 950XL adopts three-stage button design, and the power button is located between the two volume adjustment buttons, which has a high probability of misoperation; At the same time, all the physical buttons, including photo shortcut keys, feel very bad, especially the buttons are not chamfered at the top, and the buttons are relatively long and loosely attached to the back cover, which makes users feel awkward during use.

▲ The buttons are not chamfered, which is awkward. Moreover, because Lumia 950XL adopts the detachable back cover design, the camera position on the back cover needs to leave a large opening, so after installing the back cover, it is necessary to ensure that there is no gap around the camera and the seams around the fuselage can be very tight. Results The author found that every time his Lumia 950XL was buckled, uneven seams appeared in the camera position, which was visible to the naked eye and had a negative impact on the appearance of the whole machine. Of course, because the author uses an engineering machine, whether similar problems will occur on the mass production fuselage needs more feedback from netizens.

▲ There are uneven seams at the camera position. In general, Lumia 950XL is not like a flagship model in appearance because it does not adopt an all-metal integrated fuselage design; At the same time, because of the design of the detachable back cover, the performance of Lumia 950XL in details is somewhat disappointing. Problems such as buttons also reflect Microsoft's shortcomings in the details of the fuselage. For a flagship mobile phone, this appearance is obviously not enough.

Although the appearance of Lumia 950XL is somewhat disappointing, what really hinders it from becoming an excellent flagship mobile phone is actually Win 10 mobile operating system. Objectively speaking, Win 10 mobile phone operating system (including the previous WP system) is an operating system that people love and hate. Similar to the operating mechanism of iOS, it has a very smooth experience on generate on the basis of limited hardware. On the other hand, Microsoft's delay in the ecological construction of Win 10 mobile phone software has greatly reduced the experience of the system.

▲Win 10 mobile phone interface is more beautiful. At present, the Lumia 950XL in my hand is equipped with the latest version of Win 10586.29, which is only the "quasi-official version" of Win 10 mobile system, so there are still some bugs, and its performance and battery life have not reached the ideal state. So let's talk about the functional experience of Win 10 mobile system in the future. In this evaluation, we will focus on the development status of UWP universal application, as well as the actual experience of iris recognition and continuum function.

"The development of UWP is generally slow.

UWP is the abbreviation of Universal Windows Platform in Windows 10. This kind of application can run smoothly on various Win 10 devices including mobile phones, tablets and PCs. The biggest advantage of this kind of application is that developers can apply it to multiple platforms only once, and there is no need to design different software for different platforms, which further reduces the difficulty of application development. The universal application format of UWP is appx. This kind of software has the characteristics of fast startup speed and smoother operation, and the fluency will not be greatly different because of the difference of hardware level.

▲UWP applications run smoothly, but the current number is limited. At present, many well-known clients, including Weibo, mobile phone Taobao, car home, Sohu Video and Phoenix News, have launched the corresponding universal version of UWP, and its system experience is indeed much smoother than the previous old version of WP8. 1 platform. Take the mobile phone Taobao as an example. In the process of dragging the product page up and down, the software response is almost not stuck, which is even a lot of Android.

▲ Some commonly used Android applications are not available in Win 10 mobile platform. Because of Microsoft's "One Win 10" strategy, UWP universal application will become the mainstream application of Win 10 mobile platform. However, according to incomplete statistics, there are more than 100 UWP applications that can be easily searched on Win 10 mobile platform at present, and not many of them are really used by users, and even a large part of them are "pseudo-official applications" uploaded by third-party development teams. In addition, official high-quality applications such as Weibo and Netease Cloud Music, whose UWP versions have not yet landed on mobile phones, are currently only supported on the PC side. The influence scope is small and the development speed is slow, and the application of UWP is far from as prosperous as we thought. This situation may be the biggest problem facing Win 10 Mobile and even Microsoft at present.

"Iris recognition: interesting and practical.

Looking back at the 20 15 mobile phone circle, we can easily find a phenomenon, which we sum up as "the popularity of fingerprint identification". With the further popularization of fingerprint recognition function, many manufacturers began to look for new breakthroughs, while Lumia series, which has not been equipped with fingerprint recognition function, chose iris recognition. Iris recognition is a new biometric technology applied to smart phones, which mainly depends on the iris of our eyes to determine our identity. What needs to be pointed out here is that the iris is actually the area we commonly call "black eyes", so iris recognition and retinal recognition are still very different.

▲Lumia 950XL iris recognition sensor is located in the upper left corner. In Lumia 950 series models, iris recognition is also called Windows Hello, and users can set it in the login option in account options. The sensor for iris recognition is located in the upper left corner of the front of the fuselage. When this function is turned on, the red light at this position will light up. Compared with fingerprint recognition, the input mode of iris recognition is much more convenient. Even if it is necessary to improve the recognition difficulty, it is only necessary to scan the eyes repeatedly. In terms of recognition rate and accuracy, according to the author's actual measurement, as long as the posture is correct, the success rate will be above 90%.

▲ The input and reading of iris recognition is very convenient and fast. Of course, the correct posture mentioned here is basically the posture when we use the mobile phone normally, and the distance between the eyes and the mobile phone is about 30-40cm. As mentioned above, even if we wear glasses or even sunglasses, Windows Hello can identify you and then decide whether to unlock the phone. Compared with fingerprint identification, this identification process seems to be cooler, and this function will not affect the design of mobile phones.

Due to the time, it is impossible to make a more complicated test on the security of this function for the time being, but if we consider from the recognition principle, iris recognition should be safer. Because iris recognition scans a complete iris at a time, and fingerprint recognition can only scan a part of fingerprints at a time, it needs the help of corresponding algorithms to achieve decryption. In addition, the closedness of Win 10 Mobile is also a unique advantage, because the system is not as easy to be conquered as the Android system.

Continuum function: no one has ever played like this.

Speaking of the system experience of Lumia 950XL, the Continuum function has to be introduced to you. Continuum means "continuum", which also reflects Microsoft's Win 10 strategy. This function can make the mobile phone equipped with Win 10 mobile system become "PC" in seconds. Of course, users can't be helped to install the application of Win32 platform. Only the system interface of Win 10 mobile project can be made on the new display device, and it can be automatically adapted without affecting the functions such as calling. When this brand-new function appears, many analysts think it will be one of the development directions of smart phones in the future, and even say that Microsoft has once again come to the forefront of mobile terminals. So, is this really the case?

▲Continuum makes Lumia 950XL "PC" in seconds. After the author connects Lumia 950XL with the computer monitor through the monitor docking station, the interface of the mobile phone is projected onto the monitor smoothly, and the mobile phone also gives the operation interface of the "touchpad". With this "touchpad", you can operate the interface on the display; Of course, if you just play movies on the monitor (or other tasks that don't use the touchpad), you can also exit the interface on the mobile phone to do other operations, which feels that Lumia 950XL means "separation".

However, not all mobile phone applications can be migrated to the monitor to run in continuous mode. For example, in a big game like Wild Racing, you may want to have fun on the big screen, but it is really impossible at present. In Continuum mode, all applications that can run on the big screen will be highlighted, while incompatible applications will be dark gray.

▲ Not every application can be used under the Continuum function. Practically speaking, in addition to watching movies, perhaps using the Office suite on the mobile phone should be the most feasible operation, but the incomplete functions of the Office mobile version should limit your office. But some simple editing should be enough. It is worth mentioning that in Continuum mode, users can input text on the display without using the keyboard, because the system will automatically call the virtual keyboard on the mobile phone for users to use, and Microsoft's own input method is much better than some third-party input methods, especially it can quickly input sentences through the function of converting speech into text.

▲ The mobile phone can be used as both a touchpad and a keyboard in the input area. Continuum is really a good idea. Before Microsoft, no manufacturer could play like this. However, if you think about it carefully, you will find the disadvantages of this function, because this function will not bring any practical operation to Lumia 950XL at present except watching movies on the big screen. After all, there are usually PCs where there are monitors. It seems that such a thing as "becoming a fake PC" is a bit tasteless. Of course, because the Win 10 mobile ecosystem is far from prosperous, if Continuum can support more interesting and practical applications in the future, its prospects may be really limitless.

Generally speaking, because the Win 10 mobile system we are currently experiencing is not a real official version, many system experiences, including applications, are incomplete. From this point of view, the Lumia 950XL Continuum system experiences too many "future" elements, and the popularization and application of UWP still have a long way to go, and the iris recognition and continuation function also needs the recognition of more mobile phone users. Maybe Lumia 950XL can do better in the future, but it is obviously not enough for users who are looking forward to the new flagship.

Speaking of the camera function of Lumia series mobile phones, this has always been the pride of many WP fans. In the previous flagship models, the carl zeiss-certified lens with PureView technology and the highly playable Lumia professional camera application made it easy for users to take highly personalized and high-quality photos. The traditional advantage of Lumia flagship mobile phone in night shooting is also the source of "pride" in the hearts of many old users. However, many people will ask that Nokia has withdrawn from the mobile phone market. Can Lumia made by Microsoft still keep that "pure"?

From the hardware point of view, Lumia 950XL is still equipped with a 20-megapixel carl zeiss-certified lens. The lens is designed with 6 mirrors, the sensor size reaches 1/2.4 inches, the ratio is 16: 9, the aperture value is as high as F 1.9, and the ISO can soar to 128000. In addition, the camera supports optical image stabilization, Lumia and PureView pure view technology. It is worth mentioning that Lumia 950XL does not inherit the xenon flash design of Lumia 1020, but uses a relatively rare three-color temperature flash, which is closer to natural light than the xenon flash. More importantly, the three-color temperature flash can save the space of the fuselage thickness as much as possible.

▲Lumia 950XL uses three-color LED flash. In terms of software, Lumia series, which is completely oriented to Nokia, has evolved the original "Lumia Professional Photography" into the default camera program for this series of models, and has retained all functions to the maximum extent. It is worth mentioning that this Lumia 950XL brings rich continuous shooting modes, rich two exposure times to capture the same photo, short for dealing with moving objects and long for the still part of the image. The photo taken in this mode is like a GIF animation (JPG itself), and you can clearly see the whole process of the system processing a good photo. And the final proof is really excellent. Let's take a look through a set of night proofs!

▲Lumia 950XL proofs show details.

▲Lumia 950XL sample (click to view the original image)

▲Lumia 950XL sample (click to view the original image)

▲Lumia 950XL sample (click to view the original image)

▲Lumia 950XL proofs (click to view the original image) With the rich continuous shooting mode, the proofs taken by Lumia 950XL are extremely pure, the noise is controlled in place, and the color saturation has reached a relatively high level; At the same time, the light and dark positions in the picture are rich in details, and the white balance is also very accurate. From the overall effect, the proof level of Lumia 950XL is comparable to that of digital cameras. It is worth mentioning that in the process of use, the F 1.9 super-large aperture and the fifth-generation optical anti-shake technology have obviously improved the camera experience, and even if you take a picture with one hand, it will not easily cause the problem of picture jitter.

Overall, the camera experience of Lumia 950XL is beyond my expectation. The rich continuous shooting mode further improves the hardware level of the camera. The Lumia 950XL, which has been upgraded and optimized again, is fully qualified for most shooting scenes in daily life. Even professional photographers can get excellent playability through its super manual mode, which also gives Lumia 950XL the capital to compete with other camera flagships.

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Does Lumia 950XL support dual card dual standby? What about the memory card expansion?

Lumia 950XL is a dual card dual standby mobile phone. Open the back cover of the fuselage, you can see the two NanoSIM slots of the machine, and there is no difference between them. In terms of memory expansion, the machine can support 2TB memory cards at most, that is, at least 2000GB. . . Such a large memory expansion is estimated to be stronger for many years.

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Does Lumia 950XL support full netcom? What about the mobile 4G network?

Lumia 950XL does not support the full netcom function, and the 4G network only supports Unicom. Although TD-LTE network is also supported, it is only limited to 38 and 40 frequency bands, and does not support the 39 frequency band widely used in the early days. So in some suburbs, this machine often does not support mobile 4G. The author measured that after installing a mobile card in the suburbs of Beijing, it really does not support the opening of 3G/4G networks.

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What is the endurance of Lumia 950XL?

Lumia 950XL is equipped with a detachable battery with a capacity of 3340mAh, but its battery life is not ideal, and it has not played the battery life advantage of Win 10 mobile system for the time being. The author measured that the online video was cut off by about 25% in one hour (the highest brightness was plugged into headphones). Considering that Win 10 Mobile has not been optimized to the best state, its endurance should be improved in the future.

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Does Lumia 950XL support fast charging?

Lumia 950XL supports the fast charging function, but the fast charging function of this machine seems to be different from the current mainstream turbo fast charging. The machine is equipped with the original power supply with 5V3A output, and the charging speed is comparable to that of the current mainstream turbo fast charging.

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Does the Type C USB interface of Lumia 950XL support USB3.0 standard?

Lumia 950XL is equipped with a Type C USB interface, which supports the latest USB3. 1 transmission protocol, and theoretically it can reach a transmission speed of 700 m/s. However, in the process of actual measurement, because the PC only supports the USB 3.0 standard, the final transmission speed is also in line with the USB 3.0 standard.

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What is the heating control effect of Lumia 950XL?

As we all know, Lumia 950XL uses a Snapdragon 8 10 processor, and its main frequency reaches 2.0GHz. According to the author's experience, despite the adoption of liquid cooling technology, the body heat of Lumia 950XL is still close to that of other Snapdragon 8 10 models, which will cause certain heat when taking photos for a long time or running large-scale games.

"Summary and purchase suggestions.

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Generally speaking, the hardware level of Lumia 950XL has finally reached the mainstream flagship level of Android, but at present, the software ecosystem of Win 10 mobile system is insufficient, so it is difficult to exert its real strength. At the same time, the official version of Win 10 Mobile has not been pushed yet, and there is some uncertainty in the current system experience. In addition, the design of the machine also has the problem of insufficient details optimization, and the design of the plastic body looks cheaper. Of course, the brand-new Continuum function, the iris recognition function of Windows Hello and the better PureView photography experience are all a big selling point of this machine. Among them, the first two may also get a better experience in the future. "

Obviously, Lumia 950XL is not a mobile phone recommended by users who value design; At the same time, the machine is not suitable for heavy mobile phone users; Of course, if you are a photography enthusiast or someone who has strict requirements for taking pictures, then Lumia 950XL will never let you down. Lumia 950XL is not an all-around flagship in the traditional sense, but more like an anachronistic "geek" or "geek". As for how to choose, it depends on your preference.