Microsoft Lumia 950XL Review

The Microsoft Lumia 950XL is the latest flagship model from Microsoft. From the first impressions it is a wonderful high end device with a big screen made for the business minded type of users.

Running on Windows 10, the Microsoft Lumia 950XL can seem very normal if you are used to using Windows 10 on a PC or laptop.

The Microsoft Lumia 950XL is best suited for the business person who wants to check on work progress or even work even when away from the office or any computer. The apps and hardware on the Windows 10 powered device do exactly that. When you think of computer office work the most common applications to come to mind are word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and email. Take those away and you can make even the biggest corporation endure unimaginable losses.

So the Lumia 950XL has these cool features to help boost productivity both at the workplace and away from the workplace.

Powered by Windows 10

With Windows 10 on the Microsoft Lumia 950XL, switching from the desktop/ laptop version is not so that strange. With the same password logged in on the Lumia 950 XL as well as a Computer, synchronizing data across the devices becomes easy.

Normal Microsoft Apps are available

The normal Apps like Ms Word, Ms Excel, Ms PowerPoint and One note are available to make composing, editing, reading and presenting content even easier. And that’s from a mobile device because the Microsoft Lumia 950XL has the same editing tools that are available on a computer.

Microsoft Continuum

With Microsoft continuum users of the Microsoft Lumia 950XL can use their device as a CPU. With the Microsoft dock connected to the 950XL, the dock itself can be connected to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. The full screen view can now help in further editing, reading or making presentations. Check this video to learn more about the display dock and continuum

Furthermore it can now be used as an entertainment unit for watching videos. Normal use of the smartphone is not affected when connected to the Display dock so texting and phone calls can go on as usual.

Storage

The bigger storage space of 32 GB makes sure there is always space for your files.  With a Micro SD card the storage can be expanded to 200GB. If that’s not enough users of the Lumia 950 XL get 5GB free storage on One Drive cloud storage.

So of what use is bigger storage capacity without processing power.

CPU and RAM
With a 2Ghz Snapdragon 810 Octa Core Processor, the 950XL is a fast device.  I can confidently say that heating is not a problem. Even with a multitude of apps open, the heat produced is minimal. Thats the advantage that snapdragon processors have. Combine that with 3GB RAM and you have an impressive device.

Outlook app for synchronizing with email accounts straight from the Lumia device again helps with work productivity especially with workplace email accounts.

Of what good are all those cool apps and features without a good display. With its 5.7 Inch AMOLED screen every other phone I have touched needs to pull up their screen game.

4G

The Microsoft Lumia 950XL device I have for review uses a nano SIM in which case the battery must be removed before inserting it. Since the smartphone supports 4G speeds transferring heavy files is less time consuming.

The camera has an impressive 20MP rear camera that can shoot 4K videos at 30 frames per second. In fact the lowest quality video the Lumia 950XL can record is 720p videos which are also HD videos. As for the selfie camera it has a wide angle 5MP camera.

Other Additional Features

The Lumia 950 XL has a removable 3340mAh battery and the only accessories available are the Charger and USB Cable (With type C connector on one end).

The main advantages of the USB type C cable I discovered is that you can insert it any way and it will work. You know how you have to check if the micro USB port is properly aligned before inserting it? Well the Type C connector solves that problem and even supports USB 3.1 for faster file transfers. Microsoft should bring more of such cables in case someone loses the original cable.

And finally the Microsoft Lumia 950XL is available for aound Ksh54,000 in Kenya.