Published in Mobiles

Microsoft unveils new Lumia 950 and 950 XL smartphones

by on06 October 2015


Liquid cooling, 20MP PureView camera and high-end SoCs

As expected and rumored earlier, Microsoft has officially unveiled its two new high-end Lumia smartphones at its Windows 10 event in New York..

The 5.2-inch Lumia 950 and the 5.7-inch Lumia 950 XL smartphones have been pretty much detailed earlier and there were no specification surprises. Microsoft managed to hide a thing or two. Both smartphones  feature a 20-megapixel PureView camera, "tablet class" liquid cooling, courtesy of the Surface team, USB Type-C connector and support for the new Display Dock for Continuum, a cool dock that turns your smartphone into a small computer, by providing all needed outputs and inputs.

The flagship Lumia 950 XL measures 151.9x78.4x8.1mm and weighs 165g, so it is not the thinnest smartphone on the market. It looks quite decent in some of the first hands-on previews. It is designed around a 5.7-inch QHD 2560x1440 resolution AMOLED display, which adds up to around 518ppi of pixel density. The display is protected with Gorilla Glass 4.

The heart of the Lumia 950 XL is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 SoC with four Cortex-A57 CPU cores clocked at 2GHz and four Cortex-A53 CPU cores clocked at 1.5GHz. It also features Adreno 430 GPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage expandable via microSD card slot and comes with a 3,340mAh battery.

microsoft lumia950XL 1

The smaller Lumia 950 measures at 145x73.2x8.2mm and weighs 150g. It features the same 2560x1440 resolution AMOLED panel with Glance screen and ClearBlack but at a slightly smaller 5.2-inch size, which adds up to an impressive 564ppi of pixel density. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

The Lumia 950 is powered by Qualcomm's hexa-core Snapdragon 808 SoC with two Cortex-A57 cores clocked at 1.82Ghz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.44GHz. It features Adreno 418 GPU and comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage expandable via microSD card slot. The Lumia 950 has a rather generous 3000mAh battery.

microsoft lumia950 1

Both new Lumia smartphones share  the new PureView rear camera with 20-megapixel 1/2.4" sensor, 5th generation optical stabilisation and Carl Zeiss f/1.9 lens. It can record 4K videos and comes with a triple LED flash, which should provide much better lighting in low-light pictures. Both smartphones have a front 5-megapixel camera, although the Lumia 950 lacks front LED flash.

Both will feature 802.11ac dual-band dual-antenna WiFi, USB Type-C port, standard sensors, support for Qi wireless charging and, of course, Windows 10 Mobile OS.

The bigger Lumia 950 XL will be priced at US $649 while the Lumia 950 will sell for US $549. Both smartphones are expected to ship next month.

 

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Last modified on 07 October 2015
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