

The bodywork feels very nice to the touch - almost luxurious - and as with the 550, both flagships felt very well built. They proudly feature the Microsoft logo on the rear, minus the wordmark, along with distinguishing design details around the camera module. The Lumia 950 and 950 XL look marginally better in the flesh, helped considerably by the attractive detailing on the reverse of each device. I have personally been criticizing Microsoft for some time for its unimaginative, ‘same-again’ approach to handset design, and the many leaks of the two devices in recent weeks had me rolling my eyes at how bland they appeared. Like the 550, the new flagship Lumias will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s seen one of Microsoft’s Windows Phones before. However, when I attempted to take a photo of this screen, I was told off by a Microsoft staffer who really didn’t want me capturing that on camera.!
MICROSOFT DISPLAY DOCK FOR WINDOWS 640XL WINDOWS 10
The only really interesting thing that I found on the device was that it was running a Threshold Wave 1 (TH1) build of Windows 10 Mobile specifically, build 10240, labeled as a “Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview”. It breezed through the OS fairly effortlessly – although that’s certainly to be expected of a brand new device with only a handful of apps pre-installed. Still, the phone felt solid and well built, and brought to mind both the Lumia 540 and Lumia 635 in its design and construction. It looks like many other low-end Lumias, it has pretty low-end specs, and it lacks some of the higher-end features in Windows 10 Mobile, such as Phone Continuum. Honestly, I was bored of the 550 as soon as I picked it up. The broad consensus – perhaps unsurprisingly – was: “who cares?” And indeed, the announcement of the 550 today was so brief and fleeting that even Microsoft appeared indifferent to its arrival. While queuing for the event, a few of the assembled journalists outside the event discussed whether or not the 550 might make an appearance today.
