Microsoft Lumia 950 XL Review: The Windows 10 Mobile Flagship

Name: Microsoft Lumia 950 XL
Brand: Microsoft

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, March 29, 2016, 11:15 AM EDT

AnTuTu’s latest benchmark returns a number of scores—too many to graph so we’re including a look at all the numbers in a table. This test measures subsystem performance in various areas like Database IO, Storage IO, CPU (Int. and Float), GPU, and RAM (speed).

AnTuTu Benchmarks

General System, CPU and Subsystem Performance

AnTuTu puts the Lumia 950 XL right about in the middle of the pack, ahead of the Nexus 6P, but behind Apple's and Samsung's flagship phones. The UX test result, however, isn't indicative of real-world use. The user experience and fluidity and speed of Windows 10 Mobile is clearly superior to iOS and Android. Windows 10 Mobile runs well on generations-old hardware. And on the Lumia 950 XL with its relatively fast SoC and 3GB of RAM, the OS is smooth as silk.

GFXBench

Android Graphics Benchmarks

To get a feel for how graphics performance on the Lumia 950 XL compares to other devices, we used GFXBench, which has been one of our standard graphics performance benchmarks for a while now. In order to ensure V-sync and resolution aren’t limiting factors, we compare off-screen test results.

The fillrate test here puts the Lumia 950 XL near the top of the charts. In the T-Rex off-screen benchmark, the phone finishes about in the middle of the pack, however.

Tags: Mobile, Microsoft, smartphone, lumia, Windows 10, 950 xl

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com