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Microsoft Starts Selling Lumia Windows Phones Again (theverge.com) 111

Posted by BeauHD from the last-ditch-effort dept.
After removing its Lumia devices back in June, Microsoft has started selling them again at the company's online retail store. According to Windows Latest, Microsoft U.S. Store is selling the Lumia 950 for $399, Lumia 950 XL for $499, Lumia 550 and Lumia 650 for $139 and $199 respectively. From the report: A Microsoft Store sales agent confirmed to us that Lumia phones are back in the store on February 4 after a long gap. "They are recently back this early February. Specifically, on February 4th 2018," Microsoft sales team told us. Rumor had it that Microsoft wanted to sell as many Lumias as possible until stores ran out of stock, but it looks like the plans have changed or the company is selling the remaining stock which they recently discovered.
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Microsoft Starts Selling Lumia Windows Phones Again More

Microsoft Starts Selling Lumia Windows Phones Again

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  • Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well. It's still a better phone OS than the other two.

    Posted via a Windows Phone 10 Alcatel Idol 4S.

    • Re:Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well (Score:5, Insightful)

      by omnichad ( 1198475 ) on Monday February 26, 2018 @08:51PM (#56191581) Homepage

      It really is a decent OS, but I wouldn't say better than the alternatives. They really wanted world dominance or nothing, without any patience for getting there. And they had to be delusional to think everyone would jump ship from established ecosystems.

      • And they had to be delusional to think everyone would jump ship from established ecosystems.

        Actually, they were not dellusional.
        They knew they would need to at least enable accessibility to one of the major ecosystem : They knew they needed to find a way to let users run Android apps.

        They simply failed at implementing this succesfully.
        WSL - a.k.a. Bash in Windows - is what Microsoft managed to salvage out of the remnant of this failed attempt.

        They managed to get support for a few key Linux APIs, the bare minimum to get console applications ELF working and a bit of networking (so enough to run Bash

    • Certainly not better SUPPORTED than the other two, if they keep abandoning it then changing their mind.

      • Have you bought an Android phone lately? Most come similarly a couple years out of date OS wise and will also see few if any updates after you buy it.

        • Sure, if you buy a cheap Chinese phone. My LG G6 is current, and will be updated to Oreo. And I have an app ecosystem I use, have invested in, and that serves me well, with services I use and that give me value. Not so much with Windows Phone.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AK Marc ( 707885 )
            I don't think my S3 ever got an update. Never again Samsung. My Oppo gets regular updates, and an official channel for unofficial updates.

            Apple lost me when the 3G was unsupported about 9 months after the last new ones were sold in stores. Yes, that includes security updates. Screw you Apple.

            Sadly, not buying again after being screwed means I can generally buy from a company only once (especially for phones).
        • The last phone that I bought recently after my Moto X died was an HTC 530. It came w/ Marshmallow, and got upgraded to Nuggat. May not have Oreo, but it has the main thing I needed: the ability to format the SD card as internal memory.

        • I just turned on my Galaxy Note 4 after several years of it being just buried in a drawer. Turns out that they have been issuing security updates this entire time. Sure, Android 5 is out of date, but it's rare to find an app that doesn't work with it as most are built against Android 4.0 these days (before 4.0 was technically 2.3, and you can find plenty of apps that support that even.)

          Unlike Windows Phone, Android never broke app compatibility between major versions; developers only have a need to increase

    • Only better if you prefer tiles that flip even when you're not finished reading it and it only opens the app when you tap it, vs widgets which are fully interactive (i.e. a scrollable calendar) and tapping the event/email/stock quote opens that within the app rather than simply starting the app and then having to find it.

      Also if you like wasting bezel space on an ultimately useless search button that other phones got rid of 8 years ago, windows phone is great.

      Actually there are TONS if reasons why the UI wa

    • Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well. It's still a better phone OS than the other two. Posted via a Windows Phone 10 Alcatel Idol 4S.

      How is it alive? Last year, Microsoft not only yanked the phones from its mall stores, they also stopped all updates to the OS, and disabled WiFi in the OS. I was pretty much forced to switch back to Android, despite hating Google.

      If Microsoft wants to be taken seriously in any market, the least they need to do is not sabotage an existing user base of anything for any reason - be it Windows 7, Windows Phone 8, Windows 10 Mobile, Xbox, Windows CE or whatever

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        Microsoft not only yanked the phones from its mall stores

        I bought this phone in a Microsoft mall store this winter.

        they also stopped all updates to the OS

        Nope, got one [microsoft.com] last week.

        and disabled WiFi in the OS

        I'm posting this over wifi now.

        Is there like some tech version of Infowars that you spend time reading, or something?

    • Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well.

      Oh, and about that:

      https://support.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com];

      The OS will be fully dead and buried on December 10th, 2019 (unless you have windows phone embedded handheld edition, then it's some time in 2021.)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well. It's still a better phone OS than the other two

      Some one is off their meds again.

  • Call me crazy (Score:2, Informative)

    by AlanBDee ( 2261976 )

    But I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone. Android vendors don't patch their shit, instead they recommend you buy a new phone. iPhones are way too locked down for me. The only real question I have is will a windows phone do the few simple tasks I need the phone to do? I'm sure it will but I'll have to learn the tools available in their system. Lucky for me, all I need is a windows PC to see. I trust Microsoft more to keep their phone OS patched then I do Android vendors.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ecuador ( 740021 )

      I bought a Windows Phone 7 for my wife around 2015 since we found a great deal on it. And it was actually quite good, she thought the OS was better than Android, especially the much snappier feel of the UI & apps compared to Android phones with similar CPU/price. Well, OK, I guess that is not hard, as Android is not that good an OS (and that would be putting it mildly if you had tried something like the Nokia N9).
      BUT, then came the Windows Phone 10 update, which was almost mandatory (some things which I

      • Unlike on PCs, phones did not upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile from Windows Phone 8. I had their entry level Lumia 520s, and that was one of those that couldn't be upgraded, despite having the same 8GB of storage. I had to get a phone that had W10M preinstalled, which I did w/ the Lumia 550.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ecuador ( 740021 )

          It was a Lumia 535, it came with Windows Phone 8.1 (not 7, my bad), it was most certainly upgraded to Windows 10 (and shelved soon after). It was much better off with Windows 8.1 as I said - not due to it being a better OS (it probably wasn't), but because with the update a few of the most useful apps disappeared or replaced with inferior ones.

      • My partner had a Lumia 1020 and really liked it. The UI designers made a few questionable decisions, but it was better than iOS or Android. Nokia's Here Maps was pretty good, but was spun off to a consortium of German car makers and discontinued for Windows Phone. It never got an update past 8.1, so died for the same reason as my old Android phone: it no longer supported newer versions of TLS and older ones were increasingly being disabled for security. This meant that she couldn't connect to things lik

    • Re:Call me crazy (Score:4, Informative)

      by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Monday February 26, 2018 @09:57PM (#56191879)

      I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone

      Just keep in mind that security patches are scheduled to be discontinued on December 10th, 2019, per Microsoft's website.

      https://support.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com];

      On that date, the final nail will be hammered on the windows phone coffin, unless you're a windows 10 mobile enterprise customer, (do any exist?) then you get patches until some time in 2021.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        That's for versions already released. I imagine they'll release another version long before the earlier ones run out of support. Microsoft hasn't said that they're discontinuing Windows Phone 10.

    • But I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone. Android vendors don't patch their shit, instead they recommend you buy a new phone.

      LineageOS is cheaper than buying a new phone if your device is supported and Google malware (Google Play Services) is completely optional.

      I trust Microsoft more to keep their phone OS patched then I do Android vendors.

      A fully patched Microsoft phone still comes bundled with Microsoft malware.

      • Unfortunately, though Google Play Services is completely optional, that means that you're limited to apps from F-Droid. That means a bunch of things like airline apps are unavailable. And if you install Play Services, then there's no way of preventing it from spying on you, because it runs with insane privileges. I'd love to have a version of LineageOS that supported the Play Store but properly sandboxed all of the apps that come from it so that they think that they're the only thing installed on the dev

        • Unfortunately, though Google Play Services is completely optional, that means that you're limited to apps from F-Droid.

          It is trivial to download APKs from Google store and sideload them so long as they are free or license enabled and not separate purchased versions.

          Never had any issues with app availability without play store however YMMV I'm not a big smartphone app user.

    • But I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone. Android vendors don't patch their shit, instead they recommend you buy a new phone. iPhones are way too locked down for me. The only real question I have is will a windows phone do the few simple tasks I need the phone to do? I'm sure it will but I'll have to learn the tools available in their system. Lucky for me, all I need is a windows PC to see. I trust Microsoft more to keep their phone OS patched then I do Android vendors.

      What are the tasks you need to do? For me, the minimum that a phone has to do is VOIP/video calling in addition to the normal, and from what I know, WhatsApp hasn't dropped support for it. But most banking apps ain't there or ain't fully functional as Android or iOS: try depositing a check, for example, on a Lumia, if you have a bank that has no nearby offices.

    • another alternative to consider would be Sailfish OS from Jolla.
      (A full blown GNU/Linux, with a nice sleek QML based interface, and the commercial version supports Android 4.4 Kitkat apps).

      Currently, they sell official installation images "Sailfish X" that you can install on select Sony devices part of their official "Open devices" efforts (currently : Xperia X, the Xperia XA2 is planned in the near future)

      Their own venerable Jolla 1 smartphone from 2013 still gets the latest updates (and thanks to QML bei

  • What kind of masochistic idiot would buy one? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) on Monday February 26, 2018 @09:08PM (#56191653) Homepage

    Seriously, with all the dickery MS has pulled over the years with their phones, just how much of a glutton for punishment would you have to be to sign up for this? And how stupid would you have to be to expect anything but the worse?

  • To be fair, my local computer store has always had the Lumia 950 in stock, I am assuming because no-one wants one.
    I have just had a look and the specs are fairly compelling really:
    Display resolution: WQHD (2560 x 1440)
    Mass memory: 32 GB
    RAM: 3 GB
    Expandable memory card type: MicroSD
    Replaceable battery: Yes
    That looks pretty good for $500 of my local money (an iPhone X is $1799 for comparison).
    Still, it's Windows phone, so I won't be buying one.

  • Probably just found a bunch (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Someone probably came across a couple pallets worth in the back of a warehouse that had been forgotten about, so they're trying to sell at least some of them rather than write them off completely.

    And I agree with the others. Windows Phone was surprisingly good. If it had a more robust app ecosystem, it could have given Apple and Google a run for their money. Android, now matter how much Google improves it, always has this "not quite finished" feel to it, and iOS is generally very polished, but is also very

    • NOS (Score:2)

      by stooo ( 2202012 )

      Yeah, it's pretty much New Old Stock.
      They stocked a lot to inflate numbers, now they "found" them...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by l20502 ( 4813775 )

      More flexibility than iOS

      Hahaha, I'm not an iOS user but even Apple got rid of the itunes requirement to sync files, added an adblocker and is generally more hackable than a brick like WP

      more polish than Android.

      Are you referrering to the same WP where apps and contacts are nicely sorted but settings menus are a lowercase lists of randomly placed items?

  • I bought an HP Elite X3 on a sale for about $250. I'm a sucker for certain gadgets that I think represent a significant point in history and I didn't want a refurbished model down the road. I think Windows 10 mobile is fairly polished. It's a fluid experience. Navigation of the OS and app's have a consistent feel. The downside is what most know, the app ecosystem is weak and the store search is horrible. You can search for an app by exact name and not even see it in the results even though it exists. The la
  • MS needed to push the dock and their Windows Phones as alternatives to bog standard desktops and laptops. If all you run is O365 and a browser, you don't need more power than what's in a phone - plus you save $$$ by not paying for Windows OS licences, and should have advanced device management via an MDM/Intune.
    MS were not working cross platform collaboratively enough.

  • So I finally replaced my WinPhone about 2 weeks ago. I loved my WinPhone - they're just so good. If I had known this a couple of weeks ago I would've waited.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DogDude ( 805747 )
      You got rid of a phone because you thought other people were getting rid of their phones? What sense does that make?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by stooo ( 2202012 )

      it's still a dead end platform from the Software side.
      Didn't they pull the plug recently on the server for the "live" tiles ?

  • Long time ago in a galaxy far far away I had an Android phone. It still sits in one of the cubby holes in my desk for when I want to play with Android programs. I bought a Nokia 550 with windows 8 on it. Later, when my wife finally broke the Motorola Razor VC3 she stole from me, I gave my wife the 550 and bought a 640. When my wife dropped and broke her 550, I bought her a 640. I now have a broken wrist from trying to take the 640 away from her. Mine runs Windows 10, hers Windows 8.1. She will not let me up

    • Dropped it? You do know these are the easiest phon a to work on right? Parts are extremely cheap , you can replace a screen in less than 10 mins, the back covers snap off and many colours are available. I really hate that MS abandoned the platform, for business , there was nothing better, having Office on a phone was pretty nice, too bad it's all dead and just hasn't fallen over yet.......

      • This is a few days late, but it deserves a response just because of the level of misinformation you are showing.

        I wrote dropped, but did not say why or what happened afterwards. My wife and I were working on a commercial lawn job together. She dropped the phone, I ran over it with a commercial 42 inch mower.

        You jumped off the deep end about how it could be fixed, and how easy it was without having the facts. A common failing of many people.

        So please, ask for information before jumping off a cliff.

        .

  • And it was good.

    It all started when my wife one one those. Because of her friend has one. Any way it was simple, speedy and tough very tough.

    And I was very late for smarphone and still uses old nokia 1110 anyway. When I need a navgation I was give up old nokia and buy new one a 1320 and still using it. It cost me around $300 maybe less.

    After four years it still takes beat. Battery stil good and good enough for reading ebooks, navigations etc. Still same windows problems need reboots maybe one per month.

    I'm

  • Why would Microsoft continue to invest the amount of money in a product that is entering a highly saturated market dominated by two 600 pound gorillas? The only thing I can think of is that we have company executives that think stretch goals/BHAGs and a lot of happy talk can make miracles happen. The more rational thing to do is admit your competitors do it way better than you can and focus your attention on something you can do well that will actually make a profit. But what do I know?...
    • They stayed committed to xBox and became profitable. My guess is there are too many bean counters running microsoft now.
  • You can't rely on these people, and there's no proper support in sight anyway.

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