About a decade after Nokia launched the Lumia 930, Microsoft finally managed to follow up with a flagship smartphone. OK, it may have been just a year and a half, but it sure felt like ages.

Following the Nokia acquisition Microsoft put out an innumerable amount of entry-level 4- and 5-series Lumias, with only the 640 and the 640 XL grazing the midrange. Still, the 930 remained heirless month after month, the successor awaiting better times. Those have finally come with the arrival of Windows 10, and not one but two models were just announced in the high-end 9-series.

The Lumia 950 XL is Microsoft’s answer to the growing number of Notes and Pluses, packing the absolute best hardware available. A 5.7-inch QHD AMOLED display, Snapdragon 810 chipset, and 3GB of RAM are par for the course of today’s flagships.

Microsoft builds on top of that with a new 20MP PureView camera with Zeiss-branded glass, OIS and triple LED flash, though we’re not really seeing actual RGB colored diodes. And what better way to cater to power users than offer them swappable batteries and a microSD expansion slot?

These are more of a necessity really, if you’re going to take full advantage of what’s perhaps the best feature the Lumia 950 XL has to offer (and the plain 950, too). Continuum turns your phone into a portable Windows 10 PC for everyday tasks thanks to the small box of connectivity that the Microsoft Display Dock is. That, and a monitor/TV you need to have already. And a keyboard. And, possibly a mouse, though you could use the phone itself as a touchpad. How cool is that!

Anyway, the Lumia 950 XL might be the only computer you’ll need. What do you think of it?

Then comes the slightly lesser Lumia 950. Slicing half an inch off the display diagonal, the regular-sized flagship comes with the Snapdragon 808 and… that’s about all the difference. Camera, Continuum, USB Type-C, you get the whole experience in a smaller package. So does the Lumia 950 tickle your fancy?

But wait there’s more. The Lumia 550 got no more than 10s of Microsoft keynote time, but it deserves more attention as it brings a pixel-rich 720p 4.7-inch display to the masses. Although admittedly the rest of the specsheet isn’t overly exciting, the $139 asking price is. What do you…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1VLY7GC
via IFTTT

Microsoft stole the show this week with the first flagship Lumia phones in a year and a half. We wonder if it was really the new Surface Pro 4 and especially the Surface Book that got the attention while the Windows 10 Mobile phones just shared the spotlight. Gionee had a flagship of its own to launch this week.

The Microsoft Lumia 950 XL brings a huge 5.7″ AMOLED screen of QHD resolution, more compact and sharper than the Lumia 1520 that it replaces. This is also the first camera with PureView camera in a long while – the Lumia 640 XL had Carl Zeiss lens, but lacked a large sensor and optical stabilization.

The Microsoft Lumia 950 has a smaller screen, 5.2″ AMOLED with QHD resolution, and mostly the same hardware. It has the same camera, but the chipset is Snapdragon 808 instead of the S810 on the 950 XL. There’s liquid cooling to keep both chipsets from getting hot under the collar.

Part of Microsoft’s pitch is that the 950 family can use a Display Dock to create a proper desktop experience. For security, Windows Hello uses an iris scanner instead of a fingerprint reader.

The company even snuck in an entry-level device. The Microsoft Lumia 550 sits between the 530 and 640 with a 4.7″ 720p screen. It’s not an AMOLED as early rumors suggested though. Anyway, it runs Windows 10 Mobile on a Snapdragon 210 chipset. The camera has no fancy qualifications, it’s a regular 5MP/720p shooter.

Gionee Elife E8 boasts an AMOLED screen even bigger than the 950 XL. A 6″ QHD screen and 24MP camera with OIS and phase detection autofocus will give the large Lumia a run for its money. The Elife E8 is powered by a MediaTek Helio X10 chipset with 3GB of RAM and a roomy 64GB chipset.

Last week we saw two Nexus phones – the 6P by Huawei and 5X by LG. The Nexus 6P is the first all-metal Nexus and it goes head to head with Android flagship phablets with a 5.7″ Super AMOLED screen with QHD resolution, the same display unit as the Note5.

The 6P along with the Nexus 5X have new 12.3MP cameras with large pixels, which promise an impressive image quality. No OIS this time around though. Anyway, the 5X has a polycarbonate body and a 5.2″ 1080p screen. Both Nexus phones have fingerprint readers.

LG unveiled a new flagship, the LG V10. It has a dual-screen – actually one panel with the top left corner cut off to make room for two selfie cameras. Those are used for switch between wide and narrow selfies. Like the LG G4, the V10 is powered by a Snapdragon 808 chipset, but has 4GB of RAM. It uses the same 16MP OIS camera, but with improved software.

.news-item .n-left {
float: left;
width: 25%;
text-align: center;
}
.news-item .n-right {
float: left;
width: 75%;
}
.news-item a { padding-bottom: 0; padding-left: 0; }
#review-body .news-item .n-right h2,
.reviews-item .n-right h2 {
clear: both;
padding: 0 0 3px 0px;
font: 400 19px Google-Oswald, Arial;
margin-top: -4px;
}
.n-right p {
margin-top: 25px; line-height: 155%;
}
.news-item {
padding-top: 10px;
padding-bottom: 0px;
border-top: 1px solid #ccc;
}
.news-item p { margin-left: 0; }
.n-right h2 .phone-name {
display: inline-block;
width: 325px;
overflow: hidden;
vertical-align: text-bottom;
}
.n-right h2 a {
text-decoration: none;
color: #000;
}
.flat-button{
text-align:center;
text-decoration: none !important;
font: 400 22px Google-Oswald,Arial !important;
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
font-size: 150%;
padding: 20px 60px !important;
display: inline-block;
white-space: nowrap;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
margin: 10px 0;
-webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;
-ms-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;
-moz-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;
-o-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;
transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;
color: #fff !important;
}
.flat-button-1 {
background: #0CADA7;
}
.flat-button-1:hover {
background: #0A948F;
color: #666666 !important;
}
.flat-button-2 {
background: #FF7E47;
}
.flat-button-2:hover {
background: #EE7440;
color: #666666 !important;
}
.n-right .rank-info {
display: inline-block;
font-family: “Google-Oswald”,​Arial,​sans-serif;
font-size: 18px;
font-weight: 100;
}
.n-right .rank-info .current-rank {
font-size: 23px;
}
.circle {
background: none repeat scroll 0 0…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1Qi81ZD
via IFTTT