Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950XL revealed

That day has come when we finally see a long overdue Microsoft Lumia flagship. Now, for those of you wanting a Surface Phone … you might as well stop reading. That is not what we have here.

What we do have is two really nice looking Lumia devices – the 950 and 950XL. A lot of the specs are shared between the two devices, but there are some subtle differences that you need to know about.

Here is the launch video for the two devices.

https://youtu.be/snEIjWR4lQw

Lumia 950

This is smaller of the two devices at a pocket-friendly 5.2″. It still has a huge amount of power despite its smallish size. Most importantly, we have the introduction of the USB C connector to the Lumia range.

Here are the specs which look pretty darned good from where I’m sitting:

  • Operating system Windows 10
  • Exterior Dimensions: 145 x 73.2 x 8.25 mm
  • Weight: 150 g
  • Casing: polycarbonate
  • Colors: black, white
  • Physical buttons: power, volume, camera
  • Storage 32GB and up to 200 GB of expandable storage
  • OneDrive storage
  • Display Screen: 5.2-inch Quad HD AMOLED Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 display
  • Resolution: 2560×1440 (564 ppi)
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Touch: Multitouch
  • CPU Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 808 processor featuring Hexa-core CPUs and 64-bit support
  • Network Wi-Fi: MIMO, WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • Bluetooth 4.1
  • Cameras Rear-facing PureView camera with 20MP sensor, Zeiss optics, OIS, triple LED natural flash, and 4K video recording
  • 5MP wide-angle 1080p front-facing camera
  • Ports: microSD™ slot, supports up to 200 GB of expandable storage4
  • USB-C charging port for data, AV connectivity and charging
  • 3.5mm stereo headset connector
  • Battery: Removable 3000mAh battery, USB-C fast charging, wireless charging
  • Battery life: Standby 275 Wi-Fi browsing 9.5 2G talk 23.0 3G talk 18.0 MP3 playback 67.0 Video playback 1080p
  • Available in single-SIM and dual-SIM variants
  • Sensors: Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, Barometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Proximity sensor.
  • Location (A-GLONASS/A-GPS), Barometer, Cellular, Wi-Fi network positioning, Gyroscope

That sums it up for the Lumia 950.

Now the Lumia 950XL

This is the most expensive device in the Lumia range, and rightly so as it does come with the biggest screen of the new range at 5.7″. It shares most specs with the Lumia 950, but it’s just a bit bigger. We have a bigger battery and a the Snapdragon 810 v2 processor onboard. All of these things for me make it the one to go for.

Let’s have a look at some pictures of the device.

Specs.

  • Operating System: Windows 10
  • Exterior Dimensions: 151.9 x 78.4 x 8.1 mm
  • Weight: 165 g
  • Casing: polycarbonate
  • Colors: black, white
  • Physical buttons: power, volume, camera
  • Storage: 32 GB and up to 200 GB of expandable storage8
  • OneDrive storage
  • Display Screen: 5.7-inch Quad HD AMOLED Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 display
  • Resolution: 2560×1440 (518 ppi)
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Touch: Multitouch
  • CPU Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 810 processor featuring Octa-core CPUs and 64-bit capabilities
  • Network Wi-Fi: MIMO, WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • Bluetooth 4.1
  • Cameras: Rear-facing PureView camera with a 20-megapixel sensor, Zeiss optics, OIS, triple LED natural flash, and 4K video recording
  • 5MP wide-angle 1080p front-facing camera
  • Battery: Removable 3340mAh battery, USB-C fast charging, wireless charging
  • Battery life: Standby 300,Wi-Fi browsing 25.0, 2G talk 19.0, 3G talk 75.0, MP3 playback 11.0, Video playback 1080p 11.0
  • Ports microSD™ slot, supports up to 200 GB of expandable storage7
  • USB-C charging port for data, AV connectivity and charging
  • 3.5mm stereo headset
  • Available in single-SIM and dual-SIM variants
  • Sensors: Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, Barometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Proximity sensor
  • Power supply Microsoft USB-C Fast Charger (AC-100)
  • Location (A-GLONASS/A-GPS), Barometer, Cellular, Wi-Fi network positioning, Gyroscope

Microsoft also unveiled the entry-level device – the Lumia 550. It wasn’t given much stage time, but is a nice update to the 535 with some okay specs onboard.

Specs

  • Operating System: Windows 10
  • Exterior Dimensions: 136.1 x 67.8 x 9.9 mm
  • Weight: 141.9 g
  • Casing: polycarbonate
  • Colors: black, white
  • Physical buttons: power, volume
  • Storage 8GB and up to 200GB expandable storage7
  • Display Screen: 4.7-inch HD display, Resolution: 1280×720 (315 ppi), Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • CPU Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 210 processor featuring a quad-core CPU running up to 1.1 GHz
  • Wi-Fi: (2.4 GHz) b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 LE
  • Nano SIM (4FF)
  • Battery: Removable 2100 mAh battery
  • Battery life Standby Up to 28 days, 2G talk Up to 15.9 hours, 3G talk Up to 13.9 hours
  • Cameras and A/V, 2MP front-facing camera, 5MP rear-facing camera with AF f/2.4, 720p @ 30 fps video, and single LED flash
  • Ports: microSD™ slot, supports up to 200 GB of expandable storage
  • Sensors:  Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor
  • Power supply Charger AC-18
  • Location (A-GPS/A-GLONASS), BeiDou, Cellular, Wi-Fi network positioning

The phone supports 4G now and comes with a 5 megapixel rear facing camera plus a 2 megapixel front facing unit. It will not support Continuum as this is a feature only supported on the higher end devices.

We have not yet seen any UK pricing for these but we do know that they will be going to Carphone Warehouse and we expect to see information on other networks ranging the devices very soon. Both the 950 and the 950XL will support Continuum via the Desktop Display Dock which will be an added extra. That USB C connector will play a big part.

So, that about rounds up the phone news from the Windows 10 Devices event. Get more details below.

Prices? The 950 will be £499 and the 950XL will cost £549. You can’t buy them yet, but you can register interest.