Editorial/Rant: Lumia 950/950 XL’s Design, In a World of Glass and Metal

Since the latest leaks and renders have given us a pretty decent idea of what Microsoft’s upcoming flagships, the Lumia 950 and 950 XL are set too look like, there’s been a lot of debate (and hate) about the phone’s look and design. A large number of you have even flat out called the phones “ugly”, which I won’t deny nor defend; but I think the problem is not just with the design, but with the build material too.

What started out as a reply to comment inspired me to write a slightly sprawling post to try and gather why I (and hopefully you as well) find hte Lumia 950/950 XL so unattractive. The full editorial can be found at our sister site GeekOnGadgets, at the link below

http://geekongadgets.com/2015/09/30/editorial-in-a-world-of-glass-and-metal-can-microsoft-get-by-with-another-polycarbonate-flagship/

Below is a short excerpt from the original post:

The fact that Microsoft have continued to stick with polycarbonate in their upcoming flagships is certainly questionable, no matter the “quality” of polycarbonate , customers will inevitably equate it with plastic. When Nokia released the Nokia N9, their first polycarbonate phone (and certainly one of the first phones to embrace the color revolution of smartphones), it was nothing short of innovative in terms of design, and build quality. Of course that was a different time, when the iPhone 4S was still one of the few phones to incorporate glass into their devices (besides the screen obviously).

Since then times have changed, yes I certainly stood by the Lumia 920 (even with its weight issues), declaring that it was an obvious evolution to the Lumia family, and of course at the time everyone else was still using cheap plastic in their phones. Since then however Nokia experimented with incorporating a mix of metal and polycarbonate into their phones, and it was definitely a success; starting with the original Lumia 925 which came with a slim profile and a metal frame, to the Lumia 930 and 830 which carried the same tradition (not to mention the beautiful limited edition gold variants of them).

With all that has been said, and after comparisons I can’t help but feel like the 950/950 XL are a disappointment (I stress that I mean this in terms of design/build and not the actual phone), as we have been conditioned to expect a certain amount of metal or glass in the most elite of phones. N

Read the full post HERE

Tags: featured

Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone