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Microsoft Starts Selling Lumia Windows Phones Again (theverge.com)
After removing its Lumia devices back in June, Microsoft has started selling them again at the company's online retail store. According to Windows Latest, Microsoft U.S. Store is selling the Lumia 950 for $399, Lumia 950 XL for $499, Lumia 550 and Lumia 650 for $139 and $199 respectively. From the report: A Microsoft Store sales agent confirmed to us that Lumia phones are back in the store on February 4 after a long gap. "They are recently back this early February. Specifically, on February 4th 2018," Microsoft sales team told us. Rumor had it that Microsoft wanted to sell as many Lumias as possible until stores ran out of stock, but it looks like the plans have changed or the company is selling the remaining stock which they recently discovered.
Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well. It's still a better phone OS than the other two.
Posted via a Windows Phone 10 Alcatel Idol 4S.
I don't respond to AC's.
But I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone. Android vendors don't patch their shit, instead they recommend you buy a new phone. iPhones are way too locked down for me. The only real question I have is will a windows phone do the few simple tasks I need the phone to do? I'm sure it will but I'll have to learn the tools available in their system. Lucky for me, all I need is a windows PC to see. I trust Microsoft more to keep their phone OS patched then I do Android vendors.
Theyâ(TM)re gone sold out
Seriously, with all the dickery MS has pulled over the years with their phones, just how much of a glutton for punishment would you have to be to sign up for this? And how stupid would you have to be to expect anything but the worse?
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Call me when they start to manufacture them and support them with software updates.
Most likely a new intern discovered them on an unlabeled shelf in a warehouse.
To be fair, my local computer store has always had the Lumia 950 in stock, I am assuming because no-one wants one.
I have just had a look and the specs are fairly compelling really:
Display resolution: WQHD (2560 x 1440)
Mass memory: 32 GB
RAM: 3 GB
Expandable memory card type: MicroSD
Replaceable battery: Yes
That looks pretty good for $500 of my local money (an iPhone X is $1799 for comparison).
Still, it's Windows phone, so I won't be buying one.
Someone probably came across a couple pallets worth in the back of a warehouse that had been forgotten about, so they're trying to sell at least some of them rather than write them off completely.
And I agree with the others. Windows Phone was surprisingly good. If it had a more robust app ecosystem, it could have given Apple and Google a run for their money. Android, now matter how much Google improves it, always has this "not quite finished" feel to it, and iOS is generally very polished, but is also very "look but don't touch." Windows Phone inhabited a kind of happy middle ground. More flexibility than iOS, and more polish than Android. It wasn't perfect by any stretch, but it had a UI that was designed around specifically for a touch interface, instead of trying to shoehorn desktop "mouse & keyboard" concepts onto a phone. The catch, of course, was generally second rate apps, when you could even find one.
I bought an HP Elite X3 on a sale for about $250. I'm a sucker for certain gadgets that I think represent a significant point in history and I didn't want a refurbished model down the road. I think Windows 10 mobile is fairly polished. It's a fluid experience. Navigation of the OS and app's have a consistent feel. The downside is what most know, the app ecosystem is weak and the store search is horrible. You can search for an app by exact name and not even see it in the results even though it exists. The latter is inexcusable. What's unique about the HP is the dock and laptop. I ordered the dock too (because this stuff is firesale at HP) and am thinking more and more that there really is something to continuum. I demoed it a bit in an MS store a while ago and found it to be laggy but none of the salespeople could confirm it was set up properly. They were happy to show me an Xbox though. But to me, to be able to dock your phone, and have a desktop experience available to you for basic document editing or lightweight app use would be incredible. Apple and Android could accomplish a similar feat in their own way. You have all your native phone apps, cloud connectivity, local storage, and the added benefit of a portion (or all) of a desktop experience if the phone is in an appropriate dock or peripheral.
MS needed to push the dock and their Windows Phones as alternatives to bog standard desktops and laptops. If all you run is O365 and a browser, you don't need more power than what's in a phone - plus you save $$$ by not paying for Windows OS licences, and should have advanced device management via an MDM/Intune.
MS were not working cross platform collaboratively enough.
So I finally replaced my WinPhone about 2 weeks ago. I loved my WinPhone - they're just so good. If I had known this a couple of weeks ago I would've waited.
I figured we would find their remaining inventory buried in the New Mexico Desert next to all those E.T. Cartridges...
I had a Lumia 650 for about 6 months before my toddler got a hold of it and smashed it. Great phone, I highly recommend it. Nice camera, the built-in applications do most of what you need. But $200 is a lot for a two year old phone with basically no third-party apps. Even the vendor only supports it half-heartedly.
So yeah, nice toy but that's about it.
Long time ago in a galaxy far far away I had an Android phone. It still sits in one of the cubby holes in my desk for when I want to play with Android programs. I bought a Nokia 550 with windows 8 on it. Later, when my wife finally broke the Motorola Razor VC3 she stole from me, I gave my wife the 550 and bought a 640. When my wife dropped and broke her 550, I bought her a 640. I now have a broken wrist from trying to take the 640 away from her. Mine runs Windows 10, hers Windows 8.1. She will not let me update her phone.
I have been looking at the Android phones in preparation for the eventual failure of my 640. I could find nothing comparably spec'd in a price range I was willing to pay. I am not enamored of the Android phones, will not buy an Apple phone, but will by a 950 XL to replace my phone.
I am glad that MS is again selling Windows phones.
And the resellers are getting to return their unopened/unsold stock.
Yeah, it's pretty much New Old Stock.
They stocked a lot to inflate numbers, now they "found" them...
aaaaaaa
And it was good.
It all started when my wife one one those. Because of her friend has one. Any way it was simple, speedy and tough very tough.
And I was very late for smarphone and still uses old nokia 1110 anyway. When I need a navgation I was give up old nokia and buy new one a 1320 and still using it. It cost me around $300 maybe less.
After four years it still takes beat. Battery stil good and good enough for reading ebooks, navigations etc. Still same windows problems need reboots maybe one per month.
I'm not fond of social app, mobile browsing etc.
Vell it was good phone, maybe lack of apps.
History repeat himself.
It was not how good you are, it was who found first.
[My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]
And they had to be delusional to think everyone would jump ship from established ecosystems.
Actually, they were not dellusional.
They knew they would need to at least enable accessibility to one of the major ecosystem : They knew they needed to find a way to let users run Android apps.
They simply failed at implementing this succesfully.
WSL - a.k.a. Bash in Windows - is what Microsoft managed to salvage out of the remnant of this failed attempt.
They managed to get support for a few key Linux APIs, the bare minimum to get console applications ELF working and a bit of networking (so enough to run Bash, some webserver to do tests on it, etc.)
But way too many missing bits to get the full android stack up.
Can't blame them. Unlike other similar projects (Myriad's Alien-Dalvik that gives android apps support on Jolla's Sailfish OS) they can't rely on an actual Linux/Android kernel underneath.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
another alternative to consider would be Sailfish OS from Jolla.
(A full blown GNU/Linux, with a nice sleek QML based interface, and the commercial version supports Android 4.4 Kitkat apps).
Currently, they sell official installation images "Sailfish X" that you can install on select Sony devices part of their official "Open devices" efforts (currently : Xperia X, the Xperia XA2 is planned in the near future)
Their own venerable Jolla 1 smartphone from 2013 still gets the latest updates (and thanks to QML being much more lightweight, still manages to remain more or less fluid in native apps and a few android apps).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Why would Microsoft continue to invest the amount of money in a product that is entering a highly saturated market dominated by two 600 pound gorillas? The only thing I can think of is that we have company executives that think stretch goals/BHAGs and a lot of happy talk can make miracles happen. The more rational thing to do is admit your competitors do it way better than you can and focus your attention on something you can do well that will actually make a profit. But what do I know?...
We'll make great pets
You can't rely on these people, and there's no proper support in sight anyway.
I had to abandon my Lumia 950 back in October last year because the Creators Update basically rendered it useless. Edge would drain the battery flat in a couple of hours. The OS also became less stable and responsive. I tried a few factory resets but nothing worked.
It's sad, because the hardware (particularly the camera) is awesome, I love the UI and the OneDrive/Office/Outlook integration was a breeze. I just couldn't risk missing calls because the screen wouldn't respond or Edge had drained the battery in the background.
Don't do it: just buy a mid-range Android phone as close to stock as possible.
Dear Android OEMs, please take a lesson from MS and start selling your 2-year-old designs. Enough of this 21:9, buttons-on-the-back BULLSHIT!
Get your next museum piece while they last. You can put it on a shelf next to your Zune, Windows Mobile, and Windows CE devices.
We all know there's still a market for flip-phones - if all you're going to use it for is making and receiving calls, I don't know what would be so wrong with these. It's easy enough to ignore apps you're not going to use anyway.
Personally, I don't care about the phone functionality, so I got a Lumia 640, unlocked, and no sim. The argument I keep making (here and elsewhere) is that it's a better camera than any of the standalone cameras I've ever owned, and paid more money for. It's also better a GPS than any standalone GPS device I've ever owned, and paid more money for. Maps can be downloaded and used offline, the map app's fine, and I can't really think of anything to improve the way it provides driving directions. And while I might've paid less money for standalone MP3 players, they're all much inferior.
And unlike *all* 4 Android-based devices I've ever owned, it still gets security updates on a regular basis. Whereas my Android devices have never got a *single* OS patch, which means now-ancient vulnerabilities like Heartbleed are still present. Android does *much* worse as abandonware than my "dead platform" Lumia have ever been.
All this to say, if I had any inclination to believe my phone would stop working any time soon (which it doesn't), I just might snap another one up as a replacement.