With the holiday season quickly approaching, many smartphone users are wanting to upgrade or try something new altogether. Microsoft is hoping to capture this market with some new Windows 10 phones that include the Lumia 950, 950 XL, and the affordable 550. Yet the release date for these phones has not been yet made official, but here is what we know of potential release dates for the Lumia 950, 950 XL, 550, plus their carriers, price, and specs.
So who will be carrying these phones? At this present time, it looks like just AT&T. It doesn't look like Verizon will, Sprint is unclear, but T-Mobile could. According to Softpedia, the safest bet for purchasing the Lumia 950 and/or Lumia 950 XL would be at the Microsoft Store.
Right now, the Lumia 950 is available on the Microsoft Store from AT&T with a "coming soon" release date, as well as with a new contract or without a contract. As for the unlocked edition, it is also on the Microsoft site for a price of $550. As for the 950 XL, there doesn't seem to be any carried information available on the Microsoft site, but the price is going to be $650.
As for the Lumia 550, it doesn't seem to be available as of yet on the Microsoft store, but it is planned to be downright affordable as it can with a price tag of $139. Redmond Pie calls it a budget device and will bring Windows 10 for a lower price. It has a 5-inch screen with a quad-core Snapdragon 210 CPU with 1.1 GHz. There is also a 5 Megapixel camera.
As for the specs of the 950 and 950 XL, the Lumia 950 will have a 5.2 WQHD (1440 x 2560) OLED display, with the inside being a Snapdragon 808 and 64-bit Hexa core. It should have about 3GB of RAM, and it will have a 32 GB variant. As for the cameras, it has a 20 Megapixel camera on the rear and a 5 Megapixel camera on the front. The battery will be a 3000 mAh detachable one, and it will also have a USB Type-C charging port as well as Qi wireless charging.
The Lumia 950 XL has the same type of OLED display with 1440 x 2560 resolution, but it will be much larger at 5.7 inches. The inside will be powered by a Snapdragon 810 with an identical 32 GB storage option and 3 GB of RAM. It will have the same 20 Megapixels for the rear camera as the Lumia 940, but it will have a triple LED flash. We'll assume that the front-facing camera has the same specs at 5 Megapixels. The battery has a bit more mAh at 3300, and it is removable with the USB Type-C charging port and Qi Wireless charging.
The Lumia 950 and 950XL are expected to have a release date sometime either in the last week in October or the first or second week in November. As for the 550, that is planned to be out "before the holiday season", so the latest consumers will see it is December.
