Two new Lumia handsets were announced by Microsoft today both of which are dubbed as flagship Windows 10 smartphones. The Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL are the first handsets which will be running Windows 10, an update that is long overdue for the older Lumia smartphones.
The Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM, as the name suggest is the larger out of the two and features a 5.7-inch QHD (1440x2560 pixels) Clear-Black AMOLED display and is powered by a Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM. For storage there is 32GB of inbuilt memory which can be expandable via microSD card to up to 200GB. The Lumia range has always been quite good when it comes to photography and Microsoft has gone for a 20MP PureView camera with a Zeiss f/1.9 aperture lens along with the company’s latest 5th-generation OIS (Optical Image Stabilization).
There is also a triple-LED RGB flash which is said to fill in more a natural light in pictures. For the front camera, there is a 5MP camera with a wide-angle lens. As for the Lumia 950, there is a 5.2-inch QHD (1440x2560 pixels) Clear-Black AMOLED display, and is powered by a more nimble Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor with 3GB of RAM. The same camera pair is used on the 950. Both the handsets will come with dual-SIM card slots and will support 4G LTE networks. Apart from that, the handsets will come with wireless charging support, fast-charging (50 per cent battery in half an hour) and the new USB Type-C port.
Windows 10 brings in a more unified system to the new Lumia handsets which is similar to the full PC version. The most attractive feature is Continuum which allows a user to connect the smartphone to large display through a dock, which converts the smartphone into a full PC without hampering the usability of the handset. Microsoft claims that the handsets are loaded with enough power to work as an everyday PC and let you be more productive. The handsets will also have Microsoft’s voice assistant ‘Cortana’ and Windows Hello feature which can unlock the device using an iris scanner.
The smartphones are priced at Rs 43,699 for the 950 and Rs 49,399 for the 950 XL. Both the handsets will be available from December 11 on Amazon.in with pre-bookings starting today. As a limited offer, the company is offering the Continuum dock free of cost which will last till the stocks lasts. The dock will be available as a separate purchase for Rs. 5,999.
It is Microsoft has slowly increased the gap between its launches and has substantially reduced the number of handset offerings in the market. There was a time when the company (Nokia back then) offered smartphones ranging from Rs. 5,000 to about Rs. 32,000. But now it seems that the strategy of stocking up the market with a variety of models is not the way to go.
