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lumia

A new Android telephone comes out every other day with some fantastic hardware spec that presumably makes it amend than all the other phones out at that place. Windows Phone has had a much more than modest release cycle due to its slower adoption. Now Microsoft is announcing its Windows 10 flagship Lumia devices in hopes of spurring adoption of the platform. The Lumia 950 and 950XL are the almost powerful Windows-powered phones nonetheless, and they take one matter the competition doesn't — liquid cooling. Seriously.

The Lumia 950 is a modestly sized phone by today's standards. It has a 5.2-inch 2560×1400 OLED screen, which is only a little larger than the 5.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S6. Information technology'south non articulate what OLED panel Microsoft is using, but it'due south unlikely information technology will be a match for Samsung's current generation technology. Microsoft is likewise using an updated 20MP PureView photographic camera on the back with improved optical image stabilization, a triple LED flash, and a Carl Zeiss lens. The 950XL has the same 20MP camera on the dorsum, just the screen is a 5.7-inch OLED of the same resolution. They both as well have USB Type-C ports with quick charging.

The new Lumia phones nonetheless look like Lumias, merely the internals are much more interesting. Both phones will take 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, but the system-on-a-scrap (SoC) configuration will vary. The Lumia 950 volition have a hexa-core Snapdragon 808. That chip has four (Lilliputian) Cortex-A53 cores and two (big) Cortex-A57 in a big.LITTLE configuration. The large cores are faster and use more ability, but the Niggling ones are perfect for efficiently running groundwork processes. The 950XL will take the more than powerful Snapdragon 810 with four Cortex-A53 cores and four Cortex-A57 cores.

lumias

The Snapdragon 810 has a reputation for heating up chop-chop, which might exist why Microsoft has opted to bring the phase-change liquid cooling technology from the Surface tablets over to its phones. We can surmise a bit near how this volition piece of work based on the Surface. In these devices, the liquid cooling system consists of a thin copper heatpipe connected to the processor. There's h2o within the heatpipe, which turns into vapor every bit the CPU ramps upward. That vapor travels through the heatpipe to a fan that cools it off and lets it condense into liquid h2o again. The Lumia phones won't have a fan, and so information technology's non clear how Microsoft is going to radiate off all that heat. There may just be fins on the heatpipe with larger surface area someplace in the device.

If Microsoft can keep the Snapdragon 810 cool, information technology might be a worthwhile upgrade over the 808. In many Android devices, the 810 has to throttle downwardly aggressively as it heats upwards, ending up not much faster than the 808. Windows on phones is already a snappy experience, even on mid-range devices. With a full-speed Snapdragon 810, it might be completely lag and stutter free.

Both phones will run Windows 10 out of the box, and they're aircraft side by side month. The smaller Lumia 950 will toll $549, while the larger and more than powerful Lumia 950XL will become for $649.