Microsoft debuts Lumia 950 & 950XL phones, Display Dock, Band 2 fitness tracker

Posted:
in General Discussion edited October 2015
In addition to showing off new Surfaces, Microsoft on Tuesday also revealed two high-end Lumia smartphones, a redesigned Band fitness tracker, and a Display Dock for Windows 10's Continuum feature.


Lumia 950, 950 XL & Display Dock

The 950 is Microsoft's new flagship phone, with a 5.2-inch, 1440x2560 OLED display paired to a Snapdragon 808 hexacore processor and 3 gigabytes of RAM. The phone even makes use of liquid cooling, something usually reserved for high-end desktop PCs.

On the back is a 20-megapixel PureView camera with a unique triple-LED flash. A front camera for selfies and video calls, meanwhile, is rated at 5 megapixels. Other hardware features include 32 gigabytes of internal storage, a microSD slot, and a USB Type-C port, capable of restoring 50 percent charge in 30 minutes.

The 950 XL upgrades to a 5.7-inch screen and an octacore Snapdragon 810 processor. It should ship next month for $649 -- the regular 950 should ship around the same time for $549.

Both phones are among the first to come loaded with Windows 10, including features like Hello iris recognition and Continuum. When connected to an external screen, the latter lets phones serve as makeshift desktop computers capable of running universal Windows apps.




To simplify Continuum, Microsoft is also preparing the Display Dock, which offers HDMI/DisplayPort output and three USB ports, among them a Type-C connection. The other two USB ports allow people to connect a mouse, keyboard, and/or external drive. Launch details have yet to be announced.

Band 2




The updated Band switches to a curved OLED display, and now has a barometer for tracking elevation, in addition to existing sensors for heartrate, UV levels, and GPS. When paired with a device running Windows Phone 8.1 or later, it can make use of Cortana voice commands.

Bridging the gap with smartwatches, the Band 2 has support for apps like Uber, RunKeeper, Starbucks, and Twitter, and can monitor advanced information like VO2 max or shot detection during golf. Wearers can get email, SMS, calendar, call, and social media notifications.

In addition to Windows, the tracker also works with iOS and Android. It can be preordered today for $249, and should ship by Oct. 30.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 34
    rayzrayz Posts: 814member

    Well, they certainly know how to throw a spec-fest :wow:

  • Reply 2 of 34

    Great, now I gotta sit there and be amazed when that one friend gets a new Windows phone and has to show me all the bells and whistles that nobody cares about.

  • Reply 3 of 34
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member

    The Band slowly becomes one of the more interesting fitness devices, and the redesign is a huge step up. These phones will of course go nowhere, the Windows Phone market is in sub-$150 phones in prepaid markets. What is really funny though is MS's complete lack of progress in interaction... I guess they will still build devices that require mouse and keyboard for anything useful in the next century. And retina scanning in a mobile device in varying ambient light? That will be fun, too.

  • Reply 4 of 34
    Why does a phone have to be a PC?

    The PC made and will eventually cripple Microsoft.
  • Reply 5 of 34
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member

    So basically this chip is slower than last year's A8...

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/snapdragon-810-benchmarks,4053-4.html

     

    And you're paying how much for this phone?

  • Reply 6 of 34
    scapalscapal Posts: 16member



    They had it all wrong since Windows Mobile, considering the phone like a small PC running Windows with a small screen.

    Then they released their Surface and Windows 8, again making the same mistake, this time in both directions.

    Now they make it again, how useless and powerless is it to use your smartphone as a desktop, hey look I can make Windows run on my phone, with a big screen.

     

    The very reason Apple succeeded with their iPhone, is that it was a dedicated experience from the start.

    The same with the iPad, they were not the first to come with a tablet on the market, yet they were the first to make it totally different from a desktop with a layer of touch features. That is why they succeeded and the other didn't.

    Android then followed the same direction and put more nails to Windows Mobile coffin, burying it with siblings like the Nokia Communicator.

     

    Nowadays, people realise they can do more an more things on their iPad, sometimes even yet better than on their notebook or desktop, all because app have been designed to run on a tablet with a "relatively" slow specs, with the user experience and interfaces design in mind.

    Apple introduced many way to make the iOS device cooperate with their OS X brothers, iCloud, Handoff...

    They also take the better of each world to enrich the other, but they are not trying to end with one and only one OS X for all devices.

     

    It is so obvious, why nobody at Redmond does seems to get it????

     

    They have two obsessions at Redmond:

    - Put they legacy Windows OS on all devices, thinking that only some makeup will be enough 

    - Everything is a big database: look at Exchange storage model, Outlook mailbox storage, Windows registry and the holy grail (never found): WinFS. WinFS was promised to be the next filesystem since 2003 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS), it was a relational database as a filesystem. What they have in common is that you change a couple of random bytes and you are doomed, you know this if you ever had to repair a 100 GB Exchange storage, had a corrupt registry. What they also have in common is the pain to backup and granularly restore them.

  • Reply 7 of 34
    chelinchelin Posts: 106member
    A filsystem is a database..
  • Reply 8 of 34
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member

    Since the phones have Windows 10, I was hoping to see a dedicated control+alt+delete button. 

  • Reply 9 of 34
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Why does a phone have to be a PC?

    The PC made and will eventually cripple Microsoft.

    Already 'crippled'.
  • Reply 10 of 34
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    Full OS in a phone is dumb implementation.
  • Reply 11 of 34
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    sog35 wrote: »
    so damb expensive for a lumina.  LOL. they may sell 100,000 of these if lucky

    They're high end phones. At what price should they be?
  • Reply 12 of 34
    History so far suggests that it will be a tough slog for Microsoft. Probability is high that these things perform poorly in the wild and may not sell all that well, at least not initially (although the Surface is gaining some traction -- I am seeing a lot more at work).

    However, Apple should glance over its shoulder. In the longer run, Microsoft could be a bigger threat to Apple than Samsung or Google. They have a lot of resources, and they have a lot of smart people. Their primary problem recently was an utterly stupid senior management imprisoned in, and unable to look beyond legacy offerings, throwing money at pointless acquisitions. Today's senior management is vastly different than the Ballmer clown crowd, more disciplined.

    Moreover, they have hundreds of millions of users, with a massive proportion of them being Apple-haters (who also distrust or dislike Chinese and Korean companies, and are yearning to get back to owning a US brand). I am actually impressed by the media buzz they've generated today. Certainly not anywhere in Apple's league, but not bad at all.

    Apple should not -- and will not -- take this lightly. Nor should we.
  • Reply 13 of 34
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,695member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by fallenjt View Post



    Full OS in a phone is dumb implementation.



    Actually it isn't a full OS simply because this device can't run desktop Win32 apps. It only allows you to run mobile apps. Combined with a docking station, this enables one to use it with a big screen, KB, and mouse. But it doesn't make it a full OS.

  • Reply 14 of 34
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Liquid cooling in the Lumia? That what the toilet is for.
  • Reply 15 of 34
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,695member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post



    History so far suggests that it will be a tough slog for Microsoft. Probability is high that these things perform poorly in the wild and may not sell all that well, at least not initially (although the Surface is gaining some traction -- I am seeing a lot more at work).



    However, Apple should glance over its shoulder. In the longer run, Microsoft could be a bigger threat to Apple than Samsung or Google. They have a lot of resources, and they have a lot of smart people. Their primary problem recently was an utterly stupid senior management imprisoned in, and unable to look beyond legacy offerings, throwing money at pointless acquisitions. Today's senior management is vastly different than the Ballmer clown crowd, more disciplined.



    Moreover, they have hundreds of millions of users, with a massive proportion of them being Apple-haters (who also distrust or dislike Chinese and Korean companies, and are yearning to get back to owning a US brand). I am actually impressed by the media buzz they've generated today. Certainly not anywhere in Apple's league, but not bad at all.



    Apple should not -- and will not -- take this lightly. Nor should we.



    Agreed.

  • Reply 16 of 34
    jpellinojpellino Posts: 697member
    "Triple-LED flash?"
    Shame on them for not going straight to 11.

    "Different flash tones help balance out the brightness."

    Are interns writing sales copy now? Um, no... different flash tones directly help balance *color*. Having additionally-colored lamps will do little more for "brightness" than will just adding more lamps. If the camera has a lousy maximum aperture or iffy chip, then by all means throw more light at the problem.

    The Zeiss glass is a nice touch, though.
  • Reply 17 of 34
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    so damb expensive for a lumina.  LOL. they may sell 100,000 of these if lucky


    Have to pay to play.

  • Reply 18 of 34
    scapalscapal Posts: 16member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by chelin View Post



    A filsystem is a database..



    I wrote "relational database", they meant to have a SQL Server as the base of the filesystem.

    But yes a filesystem is a database.

  • Reply 19 of 34
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    boltsfan17 wrote: »
    Since the phones have Windows 10, I was hoping to see a dedicated control+alt+delete button. 

    It runs Windows.


    400
  • Reply 20 of 34
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    History so far suggests that it will be a tough slog for Microsoft. Probability is high that these things perform poorly in the wild and may not sell all that well, at least not initially (although the Surface is gaining some traction -- I am seeing a lot more at work).

    However, Apple should glance over its shoulder. In the longer run, Microsoft could be a bigger threat to Apple than Samsung or Google. They have a lot of resources, and they have a lot of smart people. Their primary problem recently was an utterly stupid senior management imprisoned in, and unable to look beyond legacy offerings, throwing money at pointless acquisitions. Today's senior management is vastly different than the Ballmer clown crowd, more disciplined.

    Moreover, they have hundreds of millions of users, with a massive proportion of them being Apple-haters (who also distrust or dislike Chinese and Korean companies, and are yearning to get back to owning a US brand). I am actually impressed by the media buzz they've generated today. Certainly not anywhere in Apple's league, but not bad at all.

    Apple should not -- and will not -- take this lightly. Nor should we.

    Couldn't agree more.

    I've said a few times - my company sold more Surface Pro 3 during 2015 than all other laptops and desktops combined. It is anecdotal because we are small company and we don't sell much hardware in general... but we have pretty much standard customers (for New Zealand) and I believe that our stats are well within trends. It is not just our customers anyway - we see potential new customers bringing Surface Pro 3 more and more often to meetings.

    One shouldn't underestimate the power of Microsoft presence in corporate spheres and platform it offers to launch Microsoft products into consumer spheres as well... or, at least, to re-establish them in everything-corporate. While Surface Pro 3 is, by far, the most common tablet we see among our customers today, iPhone is still THE smartphone among them. But all you need is a few exclusive features between WinPhone and Exchange (and other MS Services), and I will not be surprised to see WinPhone growing among businesses just as Surface is growing... and MS has more than enough means to achieve that; much more than Google, imho.

    Will they achieve it - will they try it at all - remains to be seen, but my point is that they have potential that shouldn't be scoffed at. People scoffed at iPhone when it was released. It was a different game back then, but eventually it boiled down to line of good products and good integration within ecosystem, and - at least on corporate level - no-one else has as diverse and well established platform as Microsoft does.
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