In terms of imaging, the legendary Lumia 950 XL is still relevant in terms of specs in 2017, I'd argue, even if it's hard to buy one new. Here I've pitched it against the very latest, hot off the press OnePlus 5, with dual rear cameras. The latter claims telephoto capabilities, but how will it perform against the world champion, especially since zoom is one of the 950 XL's few weak points?
The OnePlus 5 is the hottest ticket in the smartphone house right now, with Snapdragon 835 internals and dual camera with optical zoom, all at less than £500. And it's in the house for review elsewhere, so I thought a head to head comparison with the closest (though obviously ageing) Windows 10 Mobile handset was in order. And yes, don't worry, a camera comarison will also be along shortly...
With more and more of the 'old' Windows Phone 7.x/8.0/8.1 Silverlight-based applications starting to be no longer officially supported (by the company or developer), a common scenario now is that you try to reinstall a favourite app on a new Windows 10 Mobile phone (or one that's been newly reset) and you see that it's no longer in the Store. Don't panic though, as in most cases you can still get this app 'back'...
Regular reader Marcus Koebberling posed a good question to me earlier this week: "Which Windows 10 Mobile apps do you actually use (regularly) and/or are pinned to your Start screen? Plus which Android apps do you miss most on your Lumia 950XL?" Which seemed as good a launching off point as any for a June 2017 'state of play' feature for AAWP...
Admittedly this is all model-specific, but the classic Lumia 1020 is a perennial favourite around these parts and... I have exciting news. Lumia Camera v4 (a.k.a. Lumia Camera Classic*) is back in the Microsoft Store! It seems that someone at Microsoft (probably a 1020 fan) has joined some dots up and pushed through the hooks and approvals that means that, even for 1020s upgraded to the Creators Update through slightly dubious means(!), Lumia Camera, with the 1020's 'dual capture' and 'reframing' tricks, are now a 'go' for 2017, with a version of Photos that plays nicely with it all.
My series 'Anatomy of a Lumia photo' (here's #1) has proved popular, even though I cheated with the HP Elite x3 instead for #2. #3 had a lovely clock, #4 was all about framing, and in #5, I got down and dirty with nature. For #6 it's nature again, but this time with a dilemma to solve...
We've heard a lot about 'Project Neon' and the future look and feel of Windows 10, but what it is, what it requires, and where it will appear, all seem to be subject to quite a bit of confusion. So here I'm trying to draw all the strands together - here's how 'Neon', or 'Fluent Design System' as it's now officially known, manifests itself on phones, if it's needed at all.
With every rating that the much-quoted DxOMark site puts out for phone cameras, the more I think that it's missing a healthy dose of real world experience and use cases. Not to mention a few key phone models (e.g. Lumia 950). Given that I've tested the majority of recent smartphones for AAS and then AAWP, usually against the best of the competition, I wanted to aggregate my experience into my own 'Top 10' camera-phones of all time. 'SteveMark', if you will.
I did promise (several times) that I was working on a chart explaining where Windows 10 Mobile was going - and here it is. In short, future development of the current branch for mobile will probably end this Autumn, but that shouldn't detract from the continuity of updates to anyone running the OS, in terms of security fixes and applications, even into 2018 and beyond.
Yes, yes, I did a piece just over a week ago comparing imaging on the new LG G6 with the Lumia 950 XL and... well, it wasn't even close. But a) the Galaxy S8+ is also now in for review, with an acclaimed phone camera, and b) some commenters took exception to my using a particular resolution on the G6. So we have a new comparison, a three-way head to head, and all at maximum resolutions. Can the spanking new multi-frame Galaxy S8+ camera finally provide a challenge to the mighty Lumia 950 XL?
