Using a Windows Phone in 2020? - Microsoft Lumia 950 - Review By The Idea of Technology

Here we go and welcome to the idea of technology. My name is Michael, and I use the Microsoft Lumia 950 as my daily driver for a complete week, just to get a feeling and impression what it's like to use the outdated Windows phone in 2020 and as well. I made a review about the uh Microsoft Surface, pro 7, and you can just watch it up here with the info card, and it won't want to clarify that. I really, really like Microsoft as a brand and as a company as well as a lot of their products, and because I got so much negative feedback about my Surface Pro 7. Why I review? Maybe it would be a cool idea to do a Lucia 950 review in 2020, but let's just get started right after the intro. So now, let's just get started with the hardware first, because what Microsoft did with the Lucia 950 was just really, really impressive back at the time.

So, just imagine this device was just released 2015. So it's now five years ago and still the hardware and the specs are super impressive. But let's just get started with the slogan: Microsoft just claims for this device, and it was just the phone that works like your PC and to be honest, they somehow um delivered exactly the slogan so on the outside. No glass, no aluminum, just polycarbonate, just pure plastic and that's just brings it to 150 grams exactly and which is just pretty light. But on the other hand it feels also pretty light and cheap, and what you get on the inside is just really impressive.

Back in the days it's a Qualcomm snapdragon 808. That means we get a dual-core with 1.82 gigahertz and a quad-core with 1.44 gigahertz. So it's just pretty good and a GPU with an arena 418, and this is all just boosted with memory of three gigabytes, and that was just huge back on the days and this additional storage of 32 gigabytes as well, and you also can attach just your micro SD card if you want to up to 200 gigabytes. So when it comes to storage and memory as well as CPU. This was just pretty much state of the art back in the days and what I also love and miss on the other side with just newer phones, is just a replaceable battery.

It sounds so easy, but you were able to just replace your 3 000 William hour um battery and just swap it out and just use it the whole day, or you can just charge really quick with USB type-c, which was not the thing back then. So it's just pretty high performing. If you think about that. My Surface Pro 7 from 2020 um from the beginning of 2020 just finally got USB type c and Microsoft was able to deliver extremely well-performing USB type-c part on the Lucia 950 back in 2015. , and the USB type-c part was just also state-of-the-art back in the days.

That means you were able to deliver power with 5, volts and 3 amps, and that was just 15 watts back in the days which was just super unique and if you compare it to all the android and iPhone competitors back then, so that was just pretty cool, but you will also able to use the USB type c port for certain different things. I will also cover in this video another way of charging as well um, if you just open the device you will see on the inside of the shell and that you were able to use QI charging, which was also just a thing for Nokia um back in the day. So that's just always something you would get with your Microsoft device as well as NFC also implemented. So you had just all the possibilities when it comes to go fully: wireless um with your Lucia 950. And what I also left, and it's absolutely the elephant in the room, and it's just way more important than you could imagine- is just this glorious and beautiful AMOLED display it's just so pretty um.

Honestly, I can't describe if it's five inches. So I, in my opinion, the perfect size I would love to see more devices in this size, because it's just fitting perfectly in the hand. Yes, the bezels everything could shrink down, but at the end, the 5.2 inches of 1440 by 2560. So it's w q HD at the end, when it comes to resolution, an extremely high pixel density of 564, pixels per inch, so really impressive, all just covered with gorilla glass 3, which is a little tricky because you just see a lot of fingertips really fast um. They are definitely improving on this side with newer devices where you just don't see any fingertips at all, but the complete display is just so, so good, and I really love it, and I would appreciate having this display in modern devices as well and next to the display there's something you also really need to cover in this video- and this is something Nokia and Microsoft as well was always just really, really good at is the cameras and once the cameras, I don't mean a couple of um rear, facing cameras like in modern devices, where you just have two three four or five different cameras on the back side of your phone.

This camera in the Lucia 950 is just perfect even nowadays, and when you compare it to modern devices, it can hold up pretty good and yeah. Some there are some downsides, but this 20 megapixel purview, size optics. Camera is just perfect when you think about it's from 2015, just think about it. It was also able to deliver 4k 30fps video back in the days, and that was just completely nuts just think about it. Even the front camera, even though it's not the best one, you could get up to 5 megapixels and 1080p videos.

So it's kind of usable. I have some weird wobble and when I use the front-facing camera for video, but at the end we can take a deeper look into photos and videos in one of the next chapters of this video here. But I just want to face that the rear and front facing camera was just also state of the art and just really impressive, even nowadays, and when we take a look at the cameras. There's also something I want to focus on in this video, because I my opinion, it's just unique. I use windows, hello, face recognition and, on all my devices every day, all my windows, PCs, whether it's my Surface Pro 7 or my tower PC at home, with a Logitech trio, um webcam.

I just love it and I also loved it. Since the first day I got my Lucia 950 and the windows' hello face. Recognition is not as fast as face ID on the iPhone in modern terms, but I just really love it and I love the idea of an iris scanner and infrared everything, so it just was really secure and, at the same time convenient to unlock your device even in modern terms. It's just super impressive and I really love using this device and if you were thinking what is this weird little shiny, looking thing on the back of my Lucia 950, it's the moth x and I founded this on Kickstarter and so on of the crowdfunding products I really appreciate and to have it. I have it on my iPad as well, and it's just pretty cute cool.

It's somehow like a pop socket. You can just use to use your phone um. Just when you hold it. It's more have more grip, as well as when you're just standing on your desk. You can just watch video in landscape, landscape or vertical mode, so this is just pretty cool.

I really love this and it holds super flat. You can just put some cards as well into it, so you can just use it as well um to have all your accessories and all your things you just need every day with you so um, the most x, um, just look it up. I put a link down in the video description. It's just pretty cool um, so just that you know. What's on the back of my Lucia 950.

So if we take a closer look on the back of the phone, you will notice. Yes, this is just one backfiring speaker, and it's just awful. So in modern terms, um this speaker is just super, super bad um. You will hear it. You can use it um for ring, ringtone or whatever but um.

Basically, it's just useless and what you also get on the back is just the single uh 20 megapixel camera. We just talked in a minute about and as well as some led um flash that are pretty good. Even when you go and completely darkness. You can really use this flash um to illuminate the scenes you just want to cover. Even stills are just in video.

So these are just pretty good, but now I think we just take a deeper look into the possibilities of this camera. Even though it's now five years old now I was just standing on my balcony just trying to capture some video and some stills and even some slow motion for you, and I must be honest when we take a look at this 4k 30fps footage I have here. I must be honest. I'm super impressed. Furthermore, I'm really impressed that this device was just made five years ago, and it still holds up that good.

When we look at the video and even though um the stills are just really impressive, but um first just focus on the video um, you really get the 30 fps and 4k, but on the other side- and I was just filming in bright- sunlight- the Lucia 950 overheats way faster than a canon r5, and this is just really ridiculous, and after I think two or three minutes of continuous recording I needed to cool down the device, and it would, it was shut down completely so um. Just keep this in mind. I was really impressed how fast this um hex core processor can heat up and the camera as well. It was a hard time for me to capture any video in bright sunlight because this device just runs super hot, but on the other side the image is just beautiful. If you look at the details, the contrast, the colors, as well as the mocha and even though this is just a smartphone camera from five years ago.

This is just perfect footage. You can really use on the other side, there's just some small wobbling and just shaking I just try to be as smooth as possible with my hand but um. Sometimes I just really had a bad time to try to do this and on the other side- and you also have 720p m 120 fps slow motion that you can use or could use. But just look for yourself. It's not really usable at the end of the day, but on the other side, shooting stills- and this is just probably the main focus of this camera, even though it could shoot 4k, but the main focus is definitely the ability to shoot stills and on this side, wow.

That was the complete hardware part, and I'm really impressed about the hardware. But now we get into the way trickier part and why the Windows phone was failing and Microsoft is not supporting this platform anymore, but first something I was really impressed about. When I was, I'm getting my Lucia 950 up and running, I really got another update for 2020. It was the update, 0 1 b for windows, 10 versions, um on the base of 1709, so windows 1709 for arm based phone devices, and I was really impressed that I still get an update for my just really outdated and not supported any more Lucia 950. But somehow this makes sense.

If you think about Microsoft is now on the side of arm-based devices with their surface um x line up, and I think they will just um put this way more into focus as well as apple will just completely support, arm based um devices and develop their own chips and just use their own PCs and on macs for this as well. But it was just really a unique approach for Microsoft to support windows arm base devices this early, and they failed, and I think they were just needed some time to figure a few things out, and now we're here with the Lucia 950, a windows based uh smartphone when you are the first time, unlocking your Lucia 950. With your face, you feel somehow familiar with the complete layout and what you can see on the screen, and it's just fascinating. Yes, you can get some um Lucia, 950 skins or themes from android as well, but on the other side it looks and feels somehow a little like iOS 14. I have the iOS 14 better on my um iPhone 11 here but um.

I must be honest. The app drawer, the widgets and the whole feel and look alike. I think apple. Just um took a few bites out of the um, not existing Lucia 950 and windows lineup and just implemented a few features that are that weren't that bad at the end, I think, and if you're digging any deeper into the um operating system, you will notice okay, this kind of looks and feels like windows, 10 and the settings menu. Everything is as well the same complicated with window like Windows 10.

So if you're really looking for something, the search doesn't find you anything and on the other side, you will just really need to know way to find your settings and just to really personalize your device. The way you really want to and on the other side, yeah the app store. Um, that's another story. I could um talk, maybe one hour about the Windows store at this point. The Windows store is just perfect when we look at windows, 10 PCs, as well as um, the Xbox lineup, but for the Lucia 950 and the complete Windows phone lineup, the app store was just always awful.

Just a fraction of the apps um that you can find on iOS or android, and the apps as well weren't that good and developed. So really, you can't rely on the Windows phone store at all, so um, it's a huge bummer and if you look at WhatsApp, for example, it's not supported anymore, so basically to use this Lucia 950, as your daily driver is really. You really have a awful and tough time to use it, because the apps that are still support, supported or at least running on this device is just really, really limited. The things I would use the Lucia 950 at this point is probably just media consumption, so you have a headphone jack, which is just pretty nice um yeah, it's not waterproof at all, but um you get a headphone jack. The AMOLED screen is just beautiful, and you can watch your photos.

Your videos, um, maybe even Netflix and Spotify, is still running so um. This is just really a good device for a meteor consumption. At this point, and I also love the idea of having a dedicated button for your camera as well um. I haven't talked about this um hardware part, but I really love this because, when you're outside, having gloves on your hands, um having a dedicated shutter button is just really, really worth it and on the other side, you also have a more um detailed, um ability to decide what you want to mute or how you want to set your volume on your meteor or on your device and ringtone as well. So this differentiation, just really I'm really missing on an iPhone and even on android devices, it's not always implemented and one last killer feature.

I just want to talk about on this. Video is windows continuum, so the idea was for Microsoft to use your Windows phone like a PC, and it was nearly powerful enough, and I really used it from time to time even made some presentation with it. So the Lucia 950 is just really focused on the complete Microsoft ecosystem, Microsoft, lineup, so OneDrive implementation, as well as outlook exchange online, whatever it's just really deep implemented into the Windows phone operating system, as well as the apps, are running just really smooth and windows. Continuum just took all these different parts and just made it together, so you have the chance to wirelessly or wired with a windows dock. I will just talk about in a different video, so um.

If you want to see me doing a video about the windows dock, I'm just subscribed to this channel. It would be really, really cool. You had the chance to just mirror your Windows phone to a huge screen and use it as a desktop, and that was just super unique. Somehow, like Samsung DEX um a couple of years later, you had the chance to use your powerful device. You have always in your pocket and all your, maybe all your data with you all the time you just can slap on your keyboard and mouse and just be able to use your Windows phone as a Windows PC just for basic work, um and get your stuff done.

So this was just pr pretty, pretty cool at that time, and I think this is just one of the killer features of the Lucia 950 till today. At the end, I'm still happy that I'm able to switch back to my iPhone 11 as my daily driver, because the Lucia 950 just gives you a lot of headache and a lot of trouble going through the whole day. It's somehow possible, and I would really like to see Microsoft coming back to phones again, because I think there is a niche between an iPhone and android device and for people that are really into the windows ecosystem and into the Microsoft ecosystem. That is definitely a niche for your productive and productivity phone at the end, and you're not really used to go for a blackberry, and you could use maybe a modern, uh Windows phone at the end, but we'll see what the future will bring from Microsoft at this part, and if you dislike this video, you know what to do. But if you liked it hit like down there get subscribed and enable the notifications with the bell icon.

So you won't miss any future video of the idea of technology- and I just want to say thank you very much for watching- have a great day bye. You.

Source : The Idea of Technology