Microsoft Lumia 950 Review: Can a Smartphone Be Your PC?

Microsoft gives the mobile market another try, this time with a phone that turns into a computer

Joanna Stern

The Wall Street Journal

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Biography Joanna Stern
@JoannaStern
JoannaStern
[email protected]

Nov. 20, 2015 9:06 a.m. ET

48 COMMENTS

One day I’ll tell my grandchildren of life during the Great Gadget Identity Crisis.

“You had the phablet—phone plus tablet. The tablet with a keyboard? Tabtops. And don’t forget the laptops with tablets for screens. We called those ... laplets! It was not a pretty time, kids.”

The crossbreeding continues. On Friday, Microsoft MSFT 0.46 % began selling the Lumia 950—a smartphone that can become... a desktop computer. Before I go any further, can we all agree not to call it a phoneputer? Good.

The Lumia 950, the first premium phone released by Microsoft since its acquisition, of Nokia, NOK 1.65 % runs Windows 10. Yes, the same software Microsoft released earlier this year for laptops and desktops—except with a mobile-friendly interface on the smaller screen. Its Continuum feature allows the software to bend and stretch to different screen sizes.

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The Lumia 950 becomes a desktop computer. Photo: Drew Evans / The Wall Street Journal

Smartphones are becoming more and more powerful. They’re already the primary computer of many people in the U.S. and abroad. So why lug around another computer just to use when you’re at your desk? Microsoft says it’s not pushing Continuum as the answer to everyone’s needs, but let’s face it, without a trick like this, why even consider a Windows Phone?

After failing miserably to compete with the iPhone and the Android army, Microsoft’s latest mobile phone strategy is to lean on what it knows best: traditional, get-work-done computing. And it’s seriously impressive how this phone takes to monitors and keyboards. It makes the idea of our phones being our main computers seem far from crazy.

But this isn’t the Hail Mary Microsoft needs. For now, it’s simply too limited as a computer—and a phone.

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The Lumia 950 scans your iris to unlock your phone. Photo: Drew Evans / The Wall Street Journal

As a Phone

If you’re still thinking of Microsoft as just a software maker it is time to stop. The Lumia 950, like the Surface Book and Pro, proves that it is right up there with Apple AAPL 0.44 % and Samsung SSNHZ 0.00 % when it comes to making gadgets.

The Lumia 950’s phone hardware is top notch. The 5.2-inch, 2560x1440-pixel screen is bright and crisp. Despite having a plastic—sorry, “polycarbonate”—back, the phone feels well made. The battery inside lasted me until my 11:30 p.m. bedtime, and the USB Type-C port charges it up in less than two hours.

Microsoft nailed the camera, too. Leveraging Nokia’s imaging prowess, the 20-megapixel camera quickly snapped very crisp, detailed and well-lit photos—indoors and out. In low light, it consistently took better shots than the iPhone 6s, though not quite as good as Samsung’s Galaxy S6.

And like Apple’s new Live Photos, Microsoft’s Living Images snaps a little video when you take a shot. I just wish it was smart enough to not record video of still subjects. I have a beautiful video clip of a stationary burrito if anyone would like to see it.

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You know what the iPhone doesn’t do though? Make me feel like James Bond. The infrared sensor on the front of the phone along with the Windows Hello software, scans your iris to unlock your phone. In good lighting it worked well—but it takes a hair longer than the best fingerprint sensors. Also, it refused to let me in once it got dark out, or when I was wearing glasses.

And none of those tricks ease the pain pain of software bugs and a terrible app experience. Because Windows Phone lost so badly in the smartphone war, key apps are either missing or crazy out of date. While Microsoft’s apps—Outlook, Maps, Weather—are all good at the essentials, I had to reach for my iPhone to pay for my latte at Starbucks, SBUX 0.86 % check in on my Nest Cam’s live video feed and order my dinner through Seamless.

Worse, the apps that are there seem to have been abandoned. Instagram, still in beta after nearly two years, doesn’t allow you to record video. Twitter TWTR -0.19 % lacks many of the new features, including GIF support. Facebook FB 1.00 % Messenger is a pale version of its iOS and Android self, and it kept crashing. I could go on. Microsoft says its tools for developers to bring their Web, iOS and Windows desktop apps over to the platform might help improve the situation. Soon it will provide a “bridge” for Android developers to port apps as well.

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With Windows 10, the Lumia 950 becomes a desktop computer when docked. Photo: Drew Evans / The Wall Street Journal

As a Computer

I spent most of my week using the Lumia—not out and about but right at my desk. Plug it into the $100 Microsoft Display Dock, attach a monitor, mouse and keyboard and you’ve built your own desktop. No screwdriver required!

I’m amazed just how the software adapts. Up pops a Windows 10 desktop on the bigger screen. Tap the phone’s Continuum app and the screen even becomes a trackpad for the cursor. Crazy enough, it’s actually better than what’s on most Windows laptops. Two-finger scrolling was smooth, and pointing and tapping was more responsive.

The rest is… well, Windows! There’s a Start Menu in the bottom left corner and a taskbar along the bottom to show you open apps. Hovering in the top right corner shows brings up the “X” and “—” to close and minimize windows. Shortcuts work, too. For instance, Alt+Tab brings up the new Windows 10 open-app view.

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When docked, the Lumia 950 becomes a trackpad. Photo: Drew Evans / The Wall Street Journal

All together, this made for a decent basic desktop computing experience—decent enough for me to write this entire review and not spend every minute pining for my laptop. Word, Excel, PowerPoint all look and feel like they do on a laptop, and the Edge Web browser loads desktop sites instead of mobile ones.

The problem is, despite the hexa-core processor and 3GB of RAM, the system feels out of power. Having just five or six open tabs reminded me of the dial-up modem days. Not only were sites slow to load over Wi-Fi, but the entire system and browser got bogged down. Besides, Google’s Chrome is just a far better desktop browser, feature-wise.

But that’s not the worst of it. Remember those app problems? Because this is Windows 10 Mobile and there is no Intel INTC 1.05 % chip inside, Windows desktop apps don’t work. That means no downloading the desktop version of Spotify or Slack or iTunes. You can’t run mobile apps on the big screen, either. For example, I couldn’t open the Windows Phone Spotify app in the desktop PC mode, but I could run it on the phone while I did work on the computer monitor.

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Microsoft's Lumia 950 is the first phone to run Windows 10. Photo: Drew Evans / The Wall Street Journal

Microsoft’s own apps—Outlook, Office, Maps, Weather—are what the company calls “Universal Apps.” They’ve been written to work on Windows 10 phones, tablets, laptops and desktops and everything in between. Microsoft is betting that app makers will begin to release their own Universal Apps, especially now that there are more than 110 million devices running Windows 10. But since those Windows 10 PCs can run standard desktop versions of popular software, the developer incentive to go universal is a little shaky.

If phones will one day replace our computers, we’re going to choose the phones with the apps and services we already love. Unfortunately for Microsoft, right now those are iPhones and Android phones, which already work great with Microsoft’s own apps and services.

It feels like the Lumia 950 is a proof of concept that might help Microsoft get momentum for its new strategy. But I can’t recommend buying a $600 proof of concept. For now, your phone stays ... a phone.

Write to Joanna Stern at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @JoannaStern.

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48 comments

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Jennifer Tsan user

I just purchased a Lumia 950 yesterday after reading your review and some others. I would like to confirm that the iris scanner does indeed work with in the dark (all lights were off at night) as well as with my glasses on. It does take a max of 3 seconds to scan and unlock, but it does seem niftier than I originally thought it would be.

Robert Crawford subscriber

I am not feeling the love. I bought a Lumia Icon when it was first released with Verizon as the carrier. Now Microsoft finally comes out with an update and guess what. They have released it exclusively on AT&T; (which does not have good reception in my area). So, I am feeling totally abandoned by MS. Why would a company take a group of people who liked their product (Icon) and then cut them off from a migration to the updated product. Not sure if I will buy another Windows phone.

Charles Hawkins subscriber

@Robert Crawford Your problem is not Microsoft, but Verizon. They are exerting their power of distribution to extract concessions from Microsoft. Verizon is betting that you will stick with them over the phone manufacturer, so they will "reject" phones from manufacturers as they are doing with the 950. I am in the same situation as you, but I have decided to switch away from Verizon as this seems to be a rejection of me, by not selling at least one Microsoft phone. ATT now supports Wi-Fi calling in the home, so coverage is not as important to me now. Also, Verizon has not supported the Icon since the very beginning.

William Thomson subscriber

Let me admit first that I am biased. But biased from the position of years of experience. Or maybe I am just getting old and cranky. I have migrated back to an all Microsoft ecosystem, from hybrid, Apple and Microsoft.

The only real beef with Microsoft is over the lack of software (app) development and that is over stated. Everything you can legitimately need to do is possible on Microsoft. Sure I use Nest and I have to use my browser on my phone to change the temp of my vacation home. But really, folks, how often am I doing that and how hard is it to log in via a browser instead of an app?

There are some disappointments. I have to make check deposits using my wife's Apple. But how much longer is that going to last? Checks? So many of the must have apps are gimmicks or fads. A few, like Uber, are transformational, but very few.

Apple pay? There is a whole world of competition coming down the pipe. There will be a Microsoft solution soon.

I look forward to the Lumina 950.

Jamilla Graves user

"Having just five or six open tabs reminded me of the dial-up modem days. Not only were sites slow to load over Wi-Fi, but the entire system and browser got bogged down."

I could have written the same sentence about my experience using Windows 8.1 on the HP Stream 7 tablet. Devices with limited RAM can load Windows, but they choke when you actually try to use even low capacity apps. My Stream 7 became unusable after I installed the Microsoft Office suite. It had threatened to do so when running the Chrome browser, which I deleted. I haven't decided whether to delete the Office apps and use the tablet as a reading device only, or, give up on the Stream 7 entirely. Employees at the Microsoft Store warned me not to upgrade to Windows 10. Customers who have have suffered completely frozen tablets.

My little tablet is virtually a throwaway purchase. It came with an Office 365 license and a $25 Microsoft Store gift card for less than $100. However, I wouldn't dream of spending $600 on a smart phone to have the same disappointing experience.

Bryan Lopez subscriber

Joanna, after seeing what MSFT has been doing for the past 18 months and with the commitment Nadella made to Windows Phone it does not take too much to work out that these phones (950 & 950XL) are for the Windows Phone fans.

Apple clearly makes the most profit on phones. As opposed Samsung who sell many more yet rake in very little in profits. Nadella decided to "tack" instead of going head to head with Apple and Android. I think the 950 and the 950XL are completely usable stop gaps until such time as MSFT introduces Intel based Surface Phones. These devices will be for the Windows devotee and the Enterprise (PC apps).

Technology has a habit of changing - as I have found in my 40 odd years in the business. No product or technology is safe. And if you rely on only one product for the major portion of profit (Google - Search, Apple iPhone) then you better get busy looking for other income streams.

Heck have a look at the WSJ and see how much it has changed (owners and profit streams)

Milton Scritsmier subscriber

" Soon it will provide a “bridge” for Android developers to port apps as well."

Unfortunately, that doesn't look to be the case. Mary Jo Foley, a well-known Microsoft analyst, reports that the Android bridge won't be happening anytime soon, and perhaps never.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-may-have-detonated-its-android-on-windows-phone-bridge/ .

DAVID WOODBURY subscriber

This is a great idea. Motorola did something similar a few years ago but this is much closer to being usable. If key Windows applications were available for this, it would signal the start of the post PC era.

Terry P. Carriker subscriber

This is best deal / value now. I have this model.... very pleased. About $ 60.00 ... Excellent !!

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/AT-T--Microsoft-Lumia-640-Black--No-Contract/productID.320816400

Dan Laroque subscriber

Windows 10, huh? I discovered that if I added windows 10 I would need to buy a much much larger hard drive. My wife has windows 8 and it is really truly annoying. I'll let others buy a Lumia 950.

Windows programming is not concise and clean. They load machines up with code and more code. Updates get to be annoying, then another update. Then you have to buy the next update and you still wish you had Windows 7.

Gates for decades sells unfinished products. MS is like buying a car and then showing up to find no tires. "Sir, the tires are an extra $400." "And the spare tire?" "Sir, another $200." "yeh, but how do I drive it away with no tires?" ..."Sir, here is the 1-800-Bil-Gates Help Desk. They can help you with all of your needs."

I'm a guy that has had MS products since ?1986. Never get a new MS product...ever, never, not at all, ...

Grant Holzworth subscriber

@Dan Laroque Agree completely. Been there and done that to...too many times for me to admit. Never again. Same goes for Volkswagen's after two lemons; one in 1980 and the second in 1987. Never again.

Jeffrey Davis profilePrivatesubscriber

I have waited for my new 950, my 4th WP. Many of the comments are spot on, Microsoft needs to pick up the base and not rest on their software position. I have had them all and have been happiest with my WP device.

I think that Joanna is reviewing these phones for the wrong people. These phones are made for Windows fans and they are the first step in significantly improving business productivity. Windows fans will love these phones, as you can see in some of the comments. The longer term vision is that there will be no difference between the devices and how they operate, and how the UI looks. This is the first step. Microsoft can be faulted for taking so long to get here, but the vision is becoming clearer. This is WAY different than Apple and Google, and it shows promise. Some people think that Microsoft will bring out an Intel version of these phones and will be able to run even desktop software. Competition is good.

Richard Lettman subscriber

I'm on my third Lumia phone (a 1520) and I love it. As a small business (construction company), we are seeing more of a need to communicate and share across one platform, where practical. We're installing new Windows 10 desktops and tablets for the office staff and that has been very well received despite some hiccups.

Guess what phone our field technicians will be getting to test (along with docking stations)? We're impressed with Windows 10 . . . very impressed.

Dee Madhavpeddi subscriberprofilePrivate

Who wants to carry a laptop to work if you have a phone in your pocket...

Jay Hemmady user

I'm not sure how practical the retina scan is. If I simply glance at the phone to see what time it is or see who's calling will it automatically unlock? What about pulling it out and glancing to only put it away - is it unlocked?

The idea of deliberately touching (fingerprint reader) or entering a pin, to me, is a much more reassuring approach to unlocking my phone.

How about glancing at the phone while touching the on-off button. That would prevent accidental unlocks.

On Continuum - I could use a simple USB cable to connect to any PC/Laptop (iOS, Win, Chrome) to allow me to switch to the "Phoneputer" as more practical than a dock and to have to unwire and rewire guest computers. But then again using the same guest PC/laptop to connect to O365 might be even more practical!

@Jay Hemmady

On your concerns regarding the iris scan's practicality: there is actually a "glance screen" feature on the Lumia, which enables you to check the time, date, and the detailed status notification of a chosen app without even touching the phone (hence, "glance.") I have used it extensively. It has a motion or light sensor where you can wave over the phone (or take it out of your pocket) and the information will appear. I find it quite useful during meetings when I don't want to be obviously checking the time.... The iris scanner only comes up when you press the lock button itself (therefore implying you're ready to unlock your phone). You can also turn off the feature on the iris scanner that automatically moves away from the lock screen after unlocking the phone. I hope this helps.

Bryan Downs subscriber

This looks more like an enterprise solution versus something for a home user. Microsoft's cloud based Active Directory, applications, Azure and storage along with Windows 10 ability to use them will make this a shoe in for the enterprise. It could dominate the enterprise if they put enough processor and RAM in it.

Alan Maxwell subscriber

I am just waiting for the power to get there. Can't wait to only carry a phone meeting to meeting, no laptop required.

James Brouillette subscriber

I love being able to pull up any file on my Windows phone that is also on my Surface (which I use as a laptop) through OneDrive. Also, the automatic upload of photos and videos to OneDrive saves a lot of time. Joanna missed the most important aspect of Windows 10 on the phone: Developers can develop one set of code for all Windows 10 devices, whether phone, tablet or PC. How novel of an idea is that? We have taken a huge step back with multiple ecosystems: Apple, Android, Windows where you have to create separate applications for each, even though they are the same application.

Arthur O'Connor subscriber

Did you use the Lumia photo app or the default Windows photo app? On my old 920, the Lumia app photos exceeded any other phone up until new devices were released this summer. The Windows app photos on the 920 were far inferior. I needed to go into Settings and make the Lumia app the default instead of the basic app. The Lumia app allows you to add "lenses" to get additional features, like panorama, multiple shots from a single press, on-the-fly editing, sharing, etc. Probably because you are used to an iPhone, you failed to mention the 950's real camera button. I find this to be a major convenience. When the phone is asleep, just press and hold the camera button and the device wakes up in camera mode, ready to shoot. If it is inconvenient to tap the screen, just press the camera button to fire the shutter. Speaking of tapping the screen, you know you can spot focus the Lumia camera app by tapping the screen first, resulting in vastly improved photos.

Ben Shull subscriber

What took so long to get this to market.

I want to be able to issue a phone to each of my employees that allows them to plug it in at any desktop (just like this), however, we will need Citrix support for some of our back office work. We would love to replace laptops with this.

Why can't the docking station offer additional ram, etc. We have already seen this done with ReadyBoost.

What about encryption of business data at rest on the device?

Who cares about Spotify or Slack or iTunes when in desktop mode. Let the employee keep personal apps on the phone personal. The separation between personal and business on the phone is a great idea (e.g. Use business when on desktop mode, and personal when on phone mode).

John Ciriello user

I appreciate your mostly unbiased review. It's hard to find these days.

I'll be getting the 950 XL (because for $50 more than the 950 you get a free continuum dock and a better looking phone with 2 more cores). I currently have android and windows phone and have had iphones in the past. I stick with windows phone because hands down the UI is the best of the three, like others have said it never bogs down. I'm sure iphones are like this but androids are still a joke when it comes to smooth experience.

I've come to realize that I don't use apps so the lack of popular apps has no bearings on me, it's important for people to realize that the reason there are a lack if windows phone apps is because Google buys the app makers and directs them not to develop for Windows. Really a shame that google is such a baby.

The 950's camera is the best of any new phone hands down which is why I've waited so long to upgrade from my lumia 1020, nothing else is up to the task (probably 1020 is still better)

john noonan user

@John Ciriello Google is far from responsible for the apps that are missing from WP. Yes, they have bought a few devs and cancelled their WP apps because there wasn't a large enough market to justify maintaining the app, but that is very far from the full reason for Windows app deficiency.

Also, there are a lot of mobile phones with cameras that are in the same league as the 950.

@john noonan I suggest you educate yourself. Google really is the reason for a lack of popular apps on windows phone. Other articles suggest it has nothing to do with Windows Phone rather google's worry that losing an android user to windows phone would mean losing them in a lot of other google realms.

David Seuss subscriber

@John Ciriello @john noonan My company develops business apps for iPhone, Android, Windows, and BlackBerry. We are cross-platform because our enterprise clients often have a BYOD strategy so we can't predict the user mix at a client. Comparing our experience on the different platforms, the Android platform is well-designed for app development and there are better development tools available for Android compared to certain others. We have found Google easy to work with from a development viewpoint, being much more attuned to the needs of developers than certain others, and have never had any pressure or even a vague suggestion from Google to not support Windows.

BRADFORD POWELL subscriber

I had alternated between Samsung and Apple a few times over the past 8 years and feeling adventurous I bought a MS Nokia phone a year or so ago.

I have to admit that I loved how simple everything was. It never bogged down and everything just felt intuitive.

The thing I quickly realized is with these phones your not really buying the hardware, you are buying a device that lets you access the overall App environment.

MS has a nice App store but I found that just too many of the apps I was accustomed to using on a daily basis either were not offered or in the case of Waze (I have a long commute) the app existed but in a much older version and software updates were no longer offered.

I eventually paid out of pocket and went with a new Iphone which has been great.

If the Apps MS offered matched what you can find with IOS or an Android I would be a Nokia phone guy all the way.

I will mention that when my daughter recently needed a simple phone there was no better choice than Nokia.

Stanley Jones subscriber

Can't imagine anyone using this thing, even if they gave it away. let alone spending $600. It's like a return to the horror days of Windows 95 and "You've Got Mail." Ugh!

@Stanley Jones You act like $600 for a phone is a lot... It's not. If you want a budget phone go spend $50 and get the Lumia 640, hands down the best new option at that price point as well.

Justin Murray subscriber

Processor miniaturization hasn't reached the point where we can effectively abandon our PCs and laptops. This is much like how laptops a decade ago were woefully pathetic compared to the desktop cousins. Until we can fit a full, desktop powered processor into a cellphone, we'll still find need for two devices.

@Justin Murray

SAAS should be able to help us bridge this gap.

Manoj Singh subscriber

@XAVIER L SIMON Windows10 is going great in my house hold. Updated 5 laptops and no issues.

Edge browser is not fully baked in but love the direction they are going. It needs few more iterations to be on par with other browser but once I migrated my bookmarks, it has become my daily driver.

Did not see issues with IE that you are talking about. Firefox is running good and I use that as backup browser.

Apple makes good product and you should look at them too. I have tried them mostly for laptop but is has become boring. Wondering when they will bring something exciting.

looks like they are trying to follow Microsoft - iPad Pro

Good to see competition between companies. Good time to be a consumer.

RAJESH D SAJNANI subscriber

@XAVIER L SIMON sounds like an Apple guy. I've used both OSX and Windows products, and they both have pros and cons (oh, yes - Apple's Safari is not exactly the world's best browser either, and OSX apps like Mail, Calendar, iPhoto are antiquated and buggy compared to competition).

What you need to do is stop losing your files and save them to the cloud. Does that make me someone who works for a cloud company? Sure..whatever.

Bob Shields subscriber

The photo comparison here is misleading, as evidenced by the changing existence and location of shadows. A few seconds in time changes everything!

Many independant technical lab tests have confirmed that the iPhone has a better camera.

Shekar Chandrasekaran subscriber

@Joanna Stern:

For whatever reason, I hated a paid, biased reviews of Walter Mossberg, as it was too lob sided. I have come back to reading Tech reviews after you have started doing it. Like other readers have commented, they seem quite balanced, there is a sense of humor, and the videos exuberate the body language that clearly communicate your thoughts.

I have become a fan of Tech Reviews for WSJ again.

Michael Klein subscriber

Am I missing something here? I keep hearing about the App Gap and I admit I have an IPhone for work and a Windows phone for personal use. In those instances where an IPhone App does not exist for Windows, I call up the actual website on my Windows phone and create a live tile and pin it to Start. Then instead of having the site "lite" version" which is the App on my home screen, I have instant access to the website which allows for more flexibility. Apps are nice and pretty but I have yet to be excluded from anything I need or want on my Windows phone because an App does not exist.

Tyler Link subscriber

How about "crazily out of date" instead of crazy out of date?

FRANK DEUTSCHMANN subscriber

Clever, but looks like it would have been more desired in 2010.

And,biggest disappointment with "Universal" apps is that they arent: Universal apps won't run on Windows 7, so if you build software for Fortune 1000 companies, you aren't going to be switching to Universal apps any time soon.

Evan Steele subscriber

These tech review videos by Joanna Stern are remarkable. They are a great mix of humor, passion, and tech savvy which makes them a must watch. Thanks for the great content!

George Modica subscriber

@Evan Steele Agree completely. They are as informative as they are a pleasure to read!

Ashton Laurent subscriber

I love the idea of this, but I'm glad you tried it first. I'll look to MS for future innovations, but for now, I'll keep what I have.

John Yungton subscriber

@Ashton Laurent It's taking MS forever to become an Apple knockoff, Win 10 is the kickoff in that direction, we'll see if they get distracted by their own size.

@John Yungton @Ashton Laurent Lumia 950 as "Apple knockoff"??? Apple does not have anything that can combine OS where software changes based on display type.

Talking about knockoff, how about "iPad Pro with keyboard and pencil"

John Scarbrough subscriber

I love my windows phone, Nokia 1520, the only thing I miss are a handful of apps that I do not use daily and for that I have my old iPhone 5. Daily calls, texts, news, market info are simple. One Drive lets me get all my files. Photos are superior to the iPhone. Cortona and Sri are a push. Microsoft has some real advantages over Apple for power users. The market may segment and the power user group will be smaller and likely go Microsoft since Apple is so difficult for enterprise work. As a person who has tech curiosity I have enjoyed the Windows phone, I was just bored with the iPhone since it has really changed very little in the last 4 years. Competition is a good thing. The phone-computer is coming no doubt. The Surface broke new ground and is doing quite well but got bad reviews initially.

David Henry subscriber

"it refused to let me in once it got dark out, or when I was wearing glasses."

You think maybe some lowly nerd pointed out this problem and the jocks at the board table said 'beat it geek' and now MS has a somewhat useless gadget on the market. Congrats MS.

JORDAN ROSENBERG subscriber

You know what I really want in my camera phone? Better optical zoom. I don’t care about megapixels anymore. Don’t know why I chose this article to say that, it just crossed my mind.

AARON MURRAY subscriber

@JORDAN ROSENBERG Don't hold your breath.

@JORDAN ROSENBERG My Lumia 1020 has optical zoom. One of if not the only, phones to have it. Look how well that sold :( I will miss optical zoom on the 950XL i'll be getting. Still nothing beats my 1020 for photos... RAW image on a phone :)

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