science

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Microsoft Lumia 950 XL rather than just read about it. In short: The Microsoft Lumia 950 XL (codenamed Cityman, a reference to the old Nokia Cityman) is a smartphone developed by Microsoft Mobile, officially revealed on October 6, 2015 and released on November 20, 2015 alongside the smaller Lumia 950. The Lumia 950 XL is the successor to the Nokia Lumia 1520 and is among the first phones to natively run Windows 10 Mobile.

Key takeaways

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Microsoft Lumia 950 XL to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Microsoft Lumia 950 XL from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Microsoft Lumia 950 XL (codenamed Cityman, a reference to the old Nokia Cityman) is a smartphone developed by Microsoft Mobile, officially revealed on October 6, 2015 and released on November 20, 2015 alongside the smaller Lumia 950. The Lumia 950 XL is the successor to the Nokia Lumia 1520 and is among the first phones to natively run Windows 10 Mobile. The phone is primarily aimed at users desiring a flagship device.

Hardware The Lumia 950 XL has a polycarbonate frame with a removable back shell, allowing access to the battery as well as SIM and microSD card slots. The phone is available in two colors, black and white, although third-party replacement shells are available in different colors and materials.

Internals The Lumia 950 XL uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994 SoC which combines four 2 GHz Cortex-A57 and four 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 cores in a big.LITTLE architecture, allowing more computationally intensive workloads to run on the faster "big" cores while threads with less priority run on the slower "LITTLE" cores. The SoC also includes an Adreno 430 GPU and is cooled by a heat pipe that dissipates heat inside the phone. The phone has 3 GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and 32 GB of internal storage which can be expanded with microSD cards up to 256 GB in size.

Display The Lumia 950 XL has a 5.7 in (140 mm) AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560x1440 (WQHD) and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Pixel density is 518 ppi. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 4 and features ClearBlack technology for improved sunlight visibility, as well as double tap to wake, but unlike earlier Lumia flagships it does not support some features like Super Sensitive touch.

Camera

The Lumia 950 XL has a 20 MP PureView-branded rear-facing camera, containing a 1/2.4 in BSI sensor with 1.12 μm pixels and phase-detection autofocus, a 6-element Carl Zeiss lens with a f/1.9 aperture and 5th-gen optical image stabilization, and a triple-LED RGB flash that can adjust to match the color of ambient light. Maximum image resolution is 4992x3744 pixels (18.7 MP) in 4:3 aspect ratio and 5344x3008 pixels (16.1 MP) in 16:9 aspect ratio. The camera can also capture oversampled 8 MP images, optionally with a full-resolution DNG file that enables more post-processing possibilities. The camera supports video capture at up to 4K (3840x2160) resolution, as well as slow-motion video at 120 fps, albeit at a reduced resolution of 720p. The front-facing camera has a 5 MP sensor and a wide-angle f/2.4 lens, supporting video capture at up to 1080p resolution. The camera also supports Windows Hello through iris recognition with the help of an infrared LED.

Connectivity The Lumia 950 XL supports 4G LTE technology with maximum transfer speeds of 300 Mbit/s (150 Mbit/s for the dual-SIM version). Other wireless connectivity options include dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, and wireless screen projection via Miracast. Physical connectors include a 3.5 mm audio jack, as well as a USB-C connector for charging and data transfer. The latter supports USB OTG, enabling the use of peripherals like mice, flash drives or external microphones, and USB-C fast charging.

Other The Lumia 950 XL supports wireless inductive charging using the Qi standard. The AT&T version also supports the PMA standard. With either the addition of a Microsoft Display Dock or by connecting to a Miracast receiver, the Lumia 950 XL is compatible with Windows Continuum, a technology that allows users to connect their devices to an external monitor for a desktop-like experience.

Software The Lumia 950 XL originally launched with Windows 10 Mobile Version 1511. Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile Version 1607 (Anniversary Update) in August 2016, Version 1703 (Creators Update) in April 2017 and Version 1709 (Fall Creators Update) in October 2017. The phone received software updates until January 14, 2020. Third-party developers have managed to port Windows 10 ARM and Windows 11 to the Lumia 950 XL, enabling the phone to run a full desktop version of Windows. Linux and Android have also been ported, but not all hardware features are working in these alternate operating systems.

Known issues The phone has issues with AT&T's LTE network when users do not first insert a SIM card before going through the phone's setup procedure, Cortana can cause echoes during voice calls, and the phone has been reported to have Wi-Fi issues and to experience reboots. After firmware updates the known cause of reboots have been attributed to bad or worn batteries. The back cover produces a creaky sound in the corners. It can be fixed by adding some sticky posts to the inside of the back cover.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Microsoft Lumia 950 XL

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Microsoft Lumia 950 XL claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Microsoft Lumia 950 XL before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Microsoft Lumia 950 XL ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Microsoft Lumia 950 XL

In research: Microsoft Lumia 950 XL appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Microsoft Lumia 950 XL in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Microsoft Lumia 950 XL is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Discontinued flagship smartphones, Microsoft Lumia, Mobile phones introduced in 2015, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Microsoft Lumia 950 XL outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Microsoft Lumia 950 XL in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Microsoft Lumia 950 XL means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Microsoft Lumia 950 XL out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Microsoft Lumia 950 XL in simple terms?

Why does Microsoft Lumia 950 XL matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Microsoft Lumia 950 XL?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Microsoft Lumia 950 XL.