Lumia 950XL to Nexus 6P

[Martog]

I've been using WP since the 8.0 days on an 822, then 928, to the Icon, then 1520 so I could get from VZW to AT&T for the 950 XL, and honestly my favorite two phones were the Icon and 1520, the 950 XL I got, well WM10 has it shares of issues besides shrinking market share and lack of apps. I used iOS up to I think 5 or 6 on an iPhone 5, and prior I had the Blackberry Storms (oh so bad of devices). This will be my first stint on Android and after having if i wanted freedom with the 950 XL of firmware (carriers control that still) and OS, which I had on iOS, was nice, so I wanted to get a carrier unbranded phone as I say stuff it to the carriers here in the US.

I actually do have the 6P, got it yesterday, but not used it on the carrier yet, still playing around with it. I did not update it to 6.0.1 after seeing the whole LTE debacle, quite a shame it is not fixed yet.

I do miss the live tile notifications, honestly the Android stock way doesn't seem to cut the mustard for notifications for individual apps, I was used to on iOS or WP to have some sort of notification on the app versus having to open the notifications up. I saw Nova Prime was up for 0.99 so I grabbed it and have been playing around with it and widgets to get it setup the way I want. Since i mostly have Office 365 + Exchange accounts, I went with Outlook and was pleased TeslaUnread worked with it to give unread badges notices, and I used YouMail for VisualVM and that has a Widget, plus Nova Prime with Tesla has ones for phone and texting, all excellent.

Is there anything like Glance from the Lumia phones? Something I missed a lot when I had my Icon, glad I got it back with the 1520 and 950 XL.

Lock screen customization was something else I enjoyed. I noticed I can disable the lock screen on the OS, would another lock screen, just tossing out Microsoft's Next, work with the Finger Printer reader and does this affect Android Pay? Which was dead easy to setup as I had a CC on file with Google when I bought the phone.

I did see a way to bring in my SMS from WP via an app, so I'll have to do that, I have a few years of SMS on there that I'd like to keep, I had to backup my iOS using an app and save it to my PC long time ago so I still had something if I need reference (mostly for work).

I downloaded Piktures as the Google Photos app was a bit of a shock without having albums that didn't show all photos unless you tapped it, though when the update comes through I'll poke at it again.

Custom Ringtones, I take it there is a folder that can have files dropped into from my PC? I tried MTP mode and my PC wouldn't see the phone for transfer, only the PTP mode, any idea on this?

Is the default camera app generally sufficient or should I look for something else?

Any other tips or anything I should be looking for? And from what I read I should not install the FB app? Not that I honestly really ever use it on mobiles, just messenger.

I'm kind of mystified at the touch sensor being on the bottom of the phone, I either have to pick it up or tap in my PIN, I like Samsung and Apple's approach with a home button with it built in.

 

[bjrosen]

The fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone is really nice, it's in just the right place for your index finger to touch it when you are holding the phone, give it a little time and you will grow to like it.

For moving files between your PC and the phone I recommend using Dropbox or a SAMBA export from your PC, don't bother hooking the phone to the PC with a USB cable, it works fine but it's less convenient then doing it over WiFI. To move files around the phone and your network I recommend that you install ES FIle Explorer, it will allow you to see all of the directories on the phone as well as the shared folders on your network and your cloud drives. The free version of ES File Explorer has a better UI than the paid version (Pro).

 

[Trigati]

The fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone is really nice, it's in just the right place for your index finger to touch it when you are holding the phone, give it a little time and you will grow to like it.

For moving files between your PC and the phone I recommend using Dropbox or a SAMBA export from your PC, don't bother hooking the phone to the PC with a USB cable, it works fine but it's less convenient then doing it over WiFI. To move files around the phone and your network I recommend that you install ES FIle Explorer, it will allow you to see all of the directories on the phone as well as the shared folders on your network and your cloud drives. The free version of ES File Explorer has a better UI than the paid version (Pro).

I'd recommend File Manager from ZenUI. ES File Explorer has been adding a *lot* of bloatware recently. File Manager accesses local, network, and cloud files without any bloatware at all.

 

[Martog]

Oh it's nice when I'm holding it, I'm just thinking on when it's laying down, it'd be kind of nice to have it on the front. So much better than the iris scanner on the 950 XL, it looks kind of silly to a point unlocking the phone, though i've gotten some good reactions from it.

Honestly I think using MTP is a little easier for me anyhow, I'm used to doing it with my Lumia's, just plug in and there's everything you need. It's not that it's un-intuitive, I've just found attaching to a PC and transferring was quick and easy for me. Though tonight MTP decided to work and I got my ring tones over and now to work on music. And the ringtones, that's kind of annoying to have to put some in RingTones Folder or some in Notifications, is there a good app to manage this maybe? Just used to on WP sticking everything in one folder and all notifications all can see that one folder.

Also is the built in music player any good or no? The WP8.1 was decent, Groove I never got used to, and been so long since I used iTunes on iOS.

 

[Martog]

I'd recommend File Manager from ZenUI. ES File Explorer has been adding a *lot* of bloatware recently. File Manager accesses local, network, and cloud files without any bloatware at all.

I was trying out ES File manager, and I browsed to my QNAP NAS with it, it didn't prompt me for credentials, instead it left me dumb founded why it lacked such a basic feature. I tried File Manager, tried to access a protected share, bam, username and password right away. Kind of silly a very well downloaded app like ES wouldn't have such basic functionality. Also ES has "Windows" and can only have 12 open at once, with no clear way i saw of closing them easily, so ES goes bye bye.