With the successful launch of Windows 10 on the desktop out of the way, much of the attention focused on Microsoft MSFT +0.13% has shifted to Windows 10 for Phones. At this point it has been nearly two years since truly new, flagship devices—packing cutting edge hardware—launched on Microsoft’s smartphone platform.  In some industries, that’s not a very long time, but in the mobile space two years in an eternity. Consider that in roughly the same amount of time, Samsung has pushed out four iterations of its Galaxy S devices (the Galaxy S4, S5, S6, and S6 Edge+) and you’ll understand how strange it is for a company like Microsoft to not attack the high-end of the market with a consistent influx of halo devices. A number of low-end and mainstream Windows Phone-based devices have been released, but no high-end products.
With Windows 10 for Phones due to arrive in the not-too-distant future, fan of the platform have been clamoring for information about new devices that’ll compete with the latest from the Apple AAPL +0.88% and Android camps. While official specifications and information haven’t been released, images of Microsoft’s upcoming flagship Lumia 950 and 950 XL devices have hit the web, and they look promising.
Lumia 950 XL
The Microsoft Lumia 950 XL, 5.7″ Windows 10 Smartphone.
The Lumia 950 and 950XL were codenamed “Talkman” and “Cityman”, respectively. As their model numbers suggest, the 950 and 950XL are similar, though the XL model is packing a larger screen. According to the most recent leaks and rumors, the Lumia 950 features a 5.2” screen with a native resolution of 2560×1440. The Lumia 950 XL, however, features a larger 5.7” display with the same resolution.
The SoC powering the devices is reportedly Qualcomm QCOM +0.00%’s Snapdragon 808 with Adreno 418 series graphics. The Snapdragon 808 features dual ARM Cortex A57 cores at up to 2.0GHz and quad A53 series cores with 64-bit support. The 20nm SoC also has support for hardware based HEVC playback at 4K, X10 LTE with 3x20MHz fully integrated LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation, USB 3.0, BT 4.1, and 802.11n/ac WiFi, among numerous other features. The Lumia 950 and 950 XL are also rumored to have 3GB of LPDDR3 memory, 32GB of internal storage (which can be expanded via microSD cards), 5MP front and 20mp rear camera, wireless charging support, and USB Type-C connectors.
Lumia 950
The Microsoft Lumia 950 , 5.2″ Windows 10 Smartphone.
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