Security and identity theft are major concerns these days, with numerous high profile attacks, making two factor authentication for all your email, PIM, banking, and even social accounts mandatory. But relying on a phone number and SMS codes as the 'second factor' has a huge weakness - 'social attacks' on your phone network, with someone pretending to be you and thus gaining control over your SMS and number via a new SIM card, inserted in their phone of choice. Enter the concept of 'authenticator' apps on your phone, which work well but are a pain to set up more than once. Well, no more, since Microsoft Authenticator can now backup and then restore your established authenticated account keys. Here's how it all works.

One point of clarification before getting going: there's nothing magical about using Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator or even Joe Bloggs Authenticator from some third party - they're simply ways of storing the special tokens that are given to you online for each account you register, and they all use the same time-based verification methods so that your login attempts are all limited to 30 seconds per generated code and thus making sure that criminals can't use these codes after the fact. Which is why I can share the screenshots below without worrying about my own security!

Now, in practice, I wouldn't recommend using 'Joe Bloggs Authenticator' (or similar) because you just don't know what the developer is doing with your information, even if what is kept isn't actually enough to do a full login with one of your accounts. So I'd always recommend you go with a major developer like Google or Microsoft.

A typical start to setting up 2 factor app authentication, here in a Desktop browser...

... followed by the vital QR code. This is used by your authenticator app, as shown below.

Now, while Google's tool works well enough, Microsoft's equivalent just leap-frogged its rival with a huge new feature: cloud backup of your accounts and tokens. In other words, if you get a new phone and want to use Google Authenticator, you'll be frustrated by having to go into every single service all over again and request a new QR code to get a new token generated in the application - it's a right pain and takes time, especially when you have half a dozen accounts established with two-factor logins.

But Microsoft Authenticator now offers cloud-based backup of these accounts so you can replace your Android phone, install the Microsoft Authenticator app and tap on 'Begin Recovery' and, within seconds, all your accounts and tokens should be back with you, for easy two factor authentication day to day. Well, in theory. It mostly works though, as you'll see.

NB. Windows 10 Mobile has a Microsoft Authenticator UWP application and you may be getting excited at this point. However, calm down, since this application is too old to get the cloud backup/recovery features and I'm not optimistic of an update. So this tutorial is for anyone moving up from a Windows phone to an Android phone (or iPhone, in theory all this works on iOS too, though I haven't tested it).

Here's a walkthrough then. Step zero is, of course, to install the Microsoft Authenticator application from the Play Store, so let's assume that this has been done.

A couple of helpful intro screens... (or tap 'Skip' to get to the application proper!)

Tap 'Add account' to get going for real, then tap on a Microsoft account or 'Other account' - I'm starting out with my Google account here, followed by Microsoft and then PayPal, but it doesn't really matter which order you add accounts in.

On the Google site on your desktop, head into two step authentication set up (as shown at the top of this article) and then show the QR code to your phone's camera. As shown above right, this auto fills in the right token and then starts showing login codes, each valid for 30 seconds (11 seconds left in this screenshot)...

At this point let's see the backup feature, it's on the '...' menu, top right. You'll be asked to sign into your Microsoft account again - in order to enable the saving of your authenticator information to your Microsoft cloud storage.

A confirmatory pop-up and your accounts should now be backed up, and will hopefully stay backed up while you keep adding accounts; (right) the Settings pane lets you disable or re-enable backup at any time.

Here I've now added my Google, Microsoft (of course), and PayPal accounts. And no doubt more to come in time; (right) on a brand new phone, you just tap 'Begin Recovery' and sign in with your Microsoft credentials. And the accounts should all come flooding back!

Now... I've been testing this on a number of Android phones and while recovery does work, not all accounts seem compatible, and thus don't show up on the new phone. I suspect that an update to Microsoft Authenticator might solve this, and it's early days.

Well worth a try anyway, it's free in the Play Store. It's all free and if, like me, you do change phones fairly often, for whatever reason, then switching from Google's to Microsoft's Authenticator should save quite a bit of time and trouble each time.

2019 really has been the year of the folding phone - and not for the right reasons. The idea of a phone-sized device that unfolds to become a tablet (and vice versa) is such a tempting dream that we've been talking about as an industry for the last three years. Arguably 20 years if you include the Nokia Communicators, which unfolded to become a mini-laptop, in effect. We've seen attempts at a folding phone/tablet from Samsung and Huawei and with concepts from others, yet none of these approach the common sense of what Microsoft was patenting and prototyping back in 2016 for its reputed Surface Phone. So why hasn't someone else designed along similar lines? After all, a twin glass hinged unit would be cheaper and far more durable than bending plastic.

Writer's note: this is an update from an article from back in April 2019. If you've read that and remember it then don't worry, there's quite a bit below that's new and updated, but apologies for any repetition anyway!

If 2018 was the year of the notch, 2019 is claimed to be the year of the folding phone - for good or bad, as it turns out. Now, I saw the benefit of notched screens (you get to use the ears either side of the central notch for extra content), and had no issues with the iPhone Xs Max and Pixel 3 XL, for example, the latter used extensively.

And, in theory, I can see the benefit of folding screens, as we'll come to below when looking again the Andromeda/Surface Mobile patents. The sheer geek value in taking a phone and unfolding it horizontally has appealed to most of us throughout the smartphone years. The old Nokia Communicators wetted the appetite, two screens and a full QWERTY keyboard,  there were outrageous designs like my old Nokia N93, which folds in about four different ways, also with two screens but with T9 keypad and centred around a barrel super-camera (for its day, 2006-ish).

Then, more recently, we had the Android-running Gemini PDA, just the one screen, but a true clamshell design. Then the ZTE Axon M, at least in the USA, so I haven’t touched one, an attempt at two separate external screens coming together to form a mini-tablet. It gained universally poor reviews, though, with the large hinge gap proving a barrier to tablet use, with worries over damage to both screens in day to day use, and with many software issues in the unusual form factor. ZTE was onto something though, and I'll come back to this below, obviously.

Samsung, after a six month delay, is now in production with its Galaxy Fold. A small external screen for taking calls and looking up quick things, plus a folding 7.3” AMOLED panel inside. There’s a battery in each half of the phone, as it were, so both halves are the same thickness. The concept’s certainly appealing - a phone sized phone much of the time and then a relatively large square display when you need it - so web browsing, social media, gaming, watching media, and so on. But the display folds around a very tight radius of curvature and this is the obvious weak point, mechanically.

Then there's Huawei's Mate X, also delayed and yet to hit production, with a single huge 8" folding display that curves around the outside of a hinge. This has the benefit of a larger radius of curvature than in the Galaxy Fold, so there's less likely to be damage from repeated folding, but with the downside that the fragile/soft folding panel is always exposed, so it's susceptible to damage.

The Galaxy Fold was tested by prominent media back in the Spring and found to be appallingly unreliable, with debris and detritus easily getting 'under' the folding display and with the display itself seemingly held together by a fragile layer of peelable plastic. It was a PR disaster for Samsung and the release date was pushed back to... well... now, with production Folds just starting to be tested, hopefully not to destruction. The Fold gained end caps on the hinges to stop dust ingress and a screen protection layer that's now embedded under the bezels and thus less likely to come (or be peeled) off. 

The early Folds failed in a week, I estimate the new reworked Galaxy Folds to last a month. Yes, I'm that pessimistic - physics is very much against its design. Early reviews of the fixed up hardware are still cautious, plus there's still the £1900 price tag to be wary of.

Is it just me, or does this just look.... 'wrong'? The angles, the gap, the whole concept.... 
_{(photo credit)}

The Huawei Mate X may well be slightly more durable, given the larger fold radius, but there are still issues with using plastic with a central crease rather then oleophobic glass. And an even higher price tag, at £2000.

Hinges

The most interesting part of the Galaxy Fold launch (I was there) for me was the brief animation of the special hinge mechanism designed to space the two rotating phone sections. Ditto the Mate X, which also has a special collapsing mechanism to ensure tension is kept equal around the whole of the screen curve as the Mate X is opened out.

Mechanisms, hinges. Lovely. And something that Microsoft has been expert at, with the variable kick stand on the later Surface Pros and also the tilting mechanism in the Surface Studio. 

At which point, I again raise the question to all manufacturers and designers, why not forget fragile, expensive folding displays altogether and go for two standard glass displays but with curved edges that rotate using a double-hinge to come together to give the illusion of a larger tablet display when needed? This is exactly what we saw in the patents for Surface Mobile in 2017 and 2018 and also rendered nicely by designer David Breyer:

Although the tablet mode is marred a little by the join of the two curved screen edges, I think the use of oleophobic glass rather than 'squidgy' plastic more than makes up for 'being able to see the join'. And, after all, you can clearly see the 'creasing' in the Galaxy Fold and Mate X

And this was Microsoft's patent for the idea, showing the double-hinge above (in flyout) and below (in more detail):

Yes, yes, very Nokia E90-ish. But clearly showing the way the display wraps around, yet keeping the gap minimal between the two flat(ish) glass panels.

In this patent sketch, the optical refraction effect at the display curved edges shows how light can be 'bent' to provide continuous display right to the edge/join.  I don't think that a screen join could ever be removed from sight altogether, but it could certainly be disguised in this way...

A final patent sketch from Microsoft, this time showing again how the double hinge would work in cross-section, including the sprung detent in tablet mode (though I don't see why other detents couldn't provide (for example) a laptop mode, too...

When closed, in similar manner to the Galaxy Fold and Mate X, the Andromeda/Surface Mobile design could either be in dual-screen mode (shown below left) with perhaps only one active, or fully protected (shown below, right), giving no access to the displays for dirt and knocks:

Now, obviously, my points here are illustrated with patent sketches and artist renders alone, but wouldn't you agree that a dual 'flat' screen, double-hinged design like this would be far more practical and likely to survive in the real world than something based on soft and fragile folding plastic? 

And that's before we get into how much we all enjoy using our modern glass-screened, oleophobic-coated smartphones in 2019. To go back to swiping on plastic screens (anyone else remember the resistive touch 'squidgy' plastic screens from the Nokia 5800 and N97 circa 2008?) is going to be a huge leap back in terms of user experience.

Mind you, a high quality hinge with optically refracting curved glass screen edges isn't going to be cheap either. Certainly over £1000 but maybe coming in cheaper than the Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X. Would manufacturers be able to license the patent from Microsoft? Surely the answer's yes here, especially as Microsoft doesn't seem to be using it (though note the event next month, we all live in hope!)

As I postulated back in April, if you're aiming for a Galaxy Fold or Mate X then you're going to be 'Folding it wrong'.

Tomorrow is a big day in the phone world, of course - worldwide availability of the new iPhones. Leaving aside the 'Pro' devices, well over £1000 (though I've got one in for imaging tests and general review), the 'iPhone 11' might well be the perfect point to jump 'all in' on iOS, given the impending cessation of Windows 10 Mobile updates and given the low price on the '11' and the maturity of its internals. Yes, yes, I personally am Mr Geek and thus will always go to Android, open file systems, and customisability - but for the non-geeks, maybe Rafe is right in choosing iOS and maybe tomorrow is the day?

Although there's a little life left in Windows 10 Mobile in terms of updates and support, new hardware is non-existent, plus repairs and spares for older hardware are heading the same way - so it makes sense for everyone to be aware of the best of the rest from other platforms. I'll cover Android again in the future, but for now let's look at the best of iOS for a vaguely sensible price. Apple's OS does resemble Windows Phone in many ways in that it's all locked down and every application is sand-boxed. Apart from the lack of a live tiles equivalent and the lack of a user file system (however trivial), there's more in common than you might think.

So I'm comparing here to the new iPhone 11, available tomorrow from £729 inc VAT in the UK. Imaging is better than ever, audio is better than ever, battery life knocks it out of the park, and it even comes in a Lumia-esque range of colours!

As usual, I've shaded in green an obvious 'win' for either device. Any row where a winner would be totally subjective is left uncoloured. Or, where all devices are utterly excellent but in different ways, I've given each a 'green'(!)

[By the way, if you're viewing this feature on a phone then the table may well cause you problems. Try viewing in landscape mode? Failing that, go view this on a laptop or tablet!]

Verdict

Wait for it... Adding up the green 'wins' (for fun?!) gives a score draw, at 9 apiece. This is, I think, the first time I've scored an iPhone level with a Lumia and marks the gradual falling into lack of support for the latter, in terms of both hardware and software, along with significant improvements on the iPhone front, here in terms of value, imaging and battery.

The usual caveats apply about totally different ecosystems, and going where the services and apps you need live - you could argue that the 'Applications and ecosystem' row should have double or triple weighting, for example! Plus several of my scorings can be argued either way, such as me rating the 950 XL as (theoretically) more durable and (self?) repairable than the iPhone, yet without any waterproofing at all. 

But my headline is appropriate, I think. A line has been crossed. With Apple dropping the price for the 'value' iPhone and simultaneously making it far more capable, we have reached the point (or will tomorrow, as I write this) where I'm happy for the first time to recommend an Apple smartphone as a direct replacement for a Lumia 950.

Your comments welcome.

(photo from CNET, see their galleries. Here we see the translucent wide-preview in the camera UI and also the Night Mode in the viewfinder)

The Apple iPhone 11 Pro is in for review for The Phones Show and its camera system is something special. Three matched and synced lenses, and with some clever software, but how do they stack up against the rest of the best in the imaging world, including AAWP's champion Lumia 950, but also throwing in Google's acclaimed Pixel 3 XL (now under Android 10) and Huawei's zoom champion P30 Pro? I'm in search of high IQ (Image Quality) here, under a wide range of lighting conditions.

It was tempting to pitch the Lumia 950 and iPhone 11 Pro head to head, with our comparator, and maybe I'll do just that in a future article. But context is everything and with the 'industry leading' (according to some) Pixel camera now under Android 10 and with Huawei's camera algorithms now mature (though still over-eager, in my view), I'm opting for a four way comparison. Yet again, the question I'm asking is: if a Lumia 950 owner wanted to keep the same IQ and yet needed to jump to another smartphone platform, which one, and which device to target?

As usual, all shots are handheld and on full auto (other than turning off auto-flash) and at (PureView/pixel-binned) default resolutions. All AI aids (from the Lumia 950's fairly simple HDR to the Pixel and iPhone's HDR+ and Smart HDR, to the P30 Pro's 'AI enhancer' system) were left turned on, to see how the manufacturers wanted to treat each scene.

It should also be noted that the iPhone 11 Pro and Huawei P30 Pro have extra, useful, wide angle lenses, but these aren't matched by the Lumia and Pixel, so we'll leave a direct comparison of these from the equation, for now. Although the Lumia and Pixel don't have telephoto lenses, they do have a workable software zoom, through PureView smart cropping and multi exposure combination, respectively, so I think zoom is fair game for comparison here.

Test 1: Sunny landscape

A doddle for any phone camera, of course, with masses of detail to examine in gory detail. This is the rather picturesque Oracle in Reading, UK. Here's the scene from the Lumia 950:

And here are 1:1 crops from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

All four crops are pretty good in this light, of course, but the Lumia just takes the win on purity. Look closely and the Pixel's output is slightly processed and also a little muted, the P30's image has the usual Huawei over-sharpening that ruins delicate detail (as in the tree), while the iPhone 11 Pro's output looks promising but straight diagonals (e.g. in the white fencing) have 'jaggies'. Anyway, let your own eyes be the judge and yes, grab the originals if you're keen, to do your own checks and analysis in the photo editor of your choice.

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 10; Google Pixel 3 XL: 9; Huawei P30 Pro: 9; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 9

Test 2: Sunny landscape, zoomed

The same Oracle scene. I've gone to 2x, at which level three of the phone cameras are happy, but in the P30 Pro's defense and assuming that if you wanted to zoom then you probably wouldn't mind more of it, I've allowed the P30 Pro's 5x periscope zoom lens.

So here are 1:1 crops from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

Unsurprisingly, the Lumia 950 and Pixel's 2x zoom is imperfect, in each case with some guesswork - the Lumia's attempt comes off as too 'blocky', while the Pixel's is too 'vague'. In contrast, the optical zoom of the iPhone 11 Pro (2x, but incredibly precise and sharp) and the P30 Pro (5x, though over-sharpened and over-processed) produce more - and better - zoom. The P30 Pro has to win this, but not by a landslide - the iPhone's output is very satisfying and useful, whereas (as I've pointed out before) 5x zoom is overkill for many situations and the Huawei can't use its telephoto beneath this zoom factor.

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 6; Google Pixel 3 XL: 6; Huawei P30 Pro: 9; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 8

Test 3: Landscape no.2 - greenery overload

A pretty canal lock and a favourite place to snap in the sun. Here's the scene from the Google Pixel 3 XL, for reasons I'll explain below:

And here are 1:1 crops from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

Now, you could argue that the Lumia 950 XL's shot renders greenery best, but the iPhone runs it close and I have to dock the 950 XL a point or two because of the yellow cast, seen clearly here on the grey concrete, which appears almost orange as a result! I know the Lumia was trying to represent a warm sunny day, but it clearly goes too far. Then there's dynamic range, with the bright sun on the stonework causing some blow out on all but the Pixel 3 XL's shot.

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 7; Google Pixel 3 XL: 9; Huawei P30 Pro: 8; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 8

Test 4: Interior detail overload

The church in Sonning, with masses of detail to latch onto and pleasant interior lighting in places (thanks to it being sunny outside still!). Here's the scene from the Lumia 950:

And here are 1:1 crops from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

Don't be swayed by the dramatic attempt by the last three camera phones to extract the carved patterns in the wood of the pulpit - it's impressive, but unrealistic and they couldn't be seen in such detail with the naked eye. This focus on increasing contrast and sharpness is a modern trend, of course, and it adversely affects other items in a scene. So the flowers here, for example, look more natural in the Lumia photo and more artificial in the others. I realise that it's a small 'hill to die on', but I want my greenery to look real and not like it's from a colour photocopy.

The colour differences in the wood are interesting - the Lumia (unusually) gets the wood about right to my eyes, along with absolute purity, while the others lighten the wood and also introduce noise (or noise plus smoothing in the Huawei's case).

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 10; Google Pixel 3 XL: 8; Huawei P30 Pro: 8; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 8

Test 5: Interior detail, zoomed

Look, if I just tested phone camera with no zoom (or wide angle) then the four year old Lumia 950 XL is going to keep winning, even in 2019. Because it's main PureView camera (at least, unzoomed) is that good. So we'll give the others a chance again, by looking at zoom (2x or 5x, in the P30 Pro's case) in the previous church interior setting and see where we get to.

And here are 1:1 crops from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

Similar to the previous zoom test, the Huawei's 5x periscope zoom is in another class (if you actually need to zoom in that far) and so has to win here, even if there's that odd 'noise reduced and then sharpened' processed look. You're optically that much closer, etc. The iPhone 11 Pro's genuine 2x telephoto does very well though, not blowing out the window too much and producing clear detail. One step back, the Pixel's shot is more contrasty, though not in a good way, and the Lumia actually brings up last place here - I did say that zooming wasn't its strong suit!

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 6; Google Pixel 3 XL: 7; Huawei P30 Pro: 9; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 8

Test 6: THOSE flowers...

In the church I was struck with a couple of amazing bunches of artificial flowers, loads of colours and detail, a perfect subject. I picked the best lit. For this test shot, levels of detail were similar, so I decided to judge based on the whole shot and colour balance, which seemed to be the main differentiator.

So here are scaled versions from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

Here again, I find greater accuracy and pleasure in the Lumia 950's photo - the colours are richer, but not overdone, the exposure is spot on, etc. In contrast, the Pixel 3 XL version is colder and somehow muted, while the P30 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro versions ramp up the brightness over-zealously, all reducing the visual impact of the real life colours.

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 10; Google Pixel 3 XL: 9; Huawei P30 Pro: 8; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 8

Test 7: Indoors, artificial light

Inside a store, loads of candles, with indifferent lighting, and with detail that deserves cropping in on. Here's the scene from the Lumia 950:

And here are 1:1 crops from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

All four crops are pretty good, though the Pixel's slightly narrower field of view gives it a slight advantage here in terms of the clarity of text, while the Lumia does the best job on the background colours and general purity. The P30 Pro perhaps tries too hard to lighten up the scene, while the iPhone shows a very slight 'fuzzing' (as also seen in the diagonal rails in the first example above), perhaps a sign that its imaging algorithms need a little fine tuning?

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 10; Google Pixel 3 XL: 10; Huawei P30 Pro: 9; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 9

Test 8: Pub time!

A very tricky night time shot, with dark and bright areas. Here's the scene from the P30 Pro, which seemed to have the best dynamic range here, using its Night mode. The Pixel 3 XL also has a multi-exposure 'Night Sight' mode, as does the iPhone 11 Pro, though the latter can't be selected manually, it's used if the phone thinks light is low enough, etc.:

And here are 1:1 crops from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

It's something of a sign of the times that even the Lumia 950 XL's legendary night time prowess is now being defeated by multi-exposure 'night modes' in today's flagships, using capture times of up to five seconds in this case, taking dozens (hundreds) of shorter exposures and then aligning and then combining them in a second or so of advanced processing. Doing things this way, actual 'exposures' can be as long as is needed to grab enough light, plus dynamic range can be much higher because the extremes of light and dark are set in software, not dictated by sensors and optics.

As a result, the 950 XL's photo isn't as crisp as I'd like (only PDAF in the focus department), plus its 1/7s exposure could really have been upped to gather more detail. The P30 Pro has excellent dynamic range, quoting a 5s exposure time, but it goes (as usual) so far overboard in the processing department that details are somewhat ugly, with even the white-painted bricks over-obvious in the crop. The iPhone 11 Pro gets the scene more balanced, though quotes exposure as 1/8s, which can't be right. 

The win has to go to the Pixel though, with its more mature Night Sight system, quoting 1/4s exposure, even though actually capturing the scene took four seconds! Go figure... You can't trust EXIF data anymore! The Pixel's shot is balanced well, with impressive detail - look at the colour on the red flowers on the right of the crop, for example.

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 6; Google Pixel 3 XL: 9; Huawei P30 Pro: 8; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 8

Test 9: Dead of night

Few light sources and my standard night time test. The Lumia 950 has always ruled the roost here, but I think the 2019 night modes on the other phone cameras will have something to say! Here's the scene from the Pixel 3 XL:

And here are 1:1 crops from, in order, the Lumia 950, the Google Pixel 3 XL, the Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, click the phone names here for the original JPGs, to do your own analysis:

All very interesting. The Lumia 950 XL produces a shot that gives a good idea how dark it was, plus there's actual detail in the greenery, but spoils things with a little yellow cast. While at the other extreme the P30 Pro goes for such a long exposure that you can see quite a few stars! Wow. However, it then ruins many scene details with over-zealous noise reduction and compensating sharpening. The Pixel's shot is very useable, with colours nicely balanced and neutral, but the surprise here is the iPhone 11 Pro's shot, which includes the brightest stars again, but also produces a hyper-real result that almost turns night into day, including greenery that's not too offensive. And just look at the detail captured, including, I think, part of the Plough constellation?(!) Exposure is quoted in EXIF as 1/2s, but I remember that it actually took around four seconds in real time. So, again, don't trust EXIF data anymore!

It was a surprise becase Apple said at the iPhone 11 Pro launch that its Night mode was intended to be restrained and representing reality, unlike the hyper-reality of the Pixel's Night Sight. Hmm....

As for scoring, I guess it depends on the effect/shot you wanted to capture! I'd have given the iPhone 10 pts, but because there's no way to turn Night mode off, you're stuck with hyper reality, it seems - and that's not always right!

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 8; Google Pixel 3 XL: 9; Huawei P30 Pro: 8; Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 9

Verdict

Adding up the scores (all out of 90) gives:

• Huawei P30 Pro: 76
• Google Pixel 3 XL: 76
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 75
• Lumia 950 XL: 73

All very close then, and it shows that 2019 imaging flagships have definitely caught up to the best of Lumias, at least if you factor in zoom and night modes. Which I think you have to do. And I haven't even gone into the excellent wide angle lenses of the P30 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro, which add another creative dimension again.

(In fact, the iPhone includes a cool feature where, having taken a standard shot, if you accidentally chop something out of the frame and wish, after the fact, that you had taken a wider angle photo, you can multi-touch ‘out’ inside the Photos ‘Edit’ cropping UI and - magically - information from a ‘behind the scenes’ wide angle shot is spliced in around your main shot. When this works - and saves the day - it's reminiscent of the best of the Lumia 1020 back in 2013, with its 'reframing' feature.)

Comments welcome. I still don't think we can say that the absolute 'purity' of the Lumias has been bettered, but the competition are getting ever closer in this department, all the while pulling out computational photography miracles from multiple lenses that blow the mind in terms of results.

Yes, yes, another imaging feature... I wasn't planning on including the (now) six year old Lumia 1020 in my round of relevant iPhone 11 Pro imaging comparisons, but AAWP readers asked for it and so here goes! As it happens, there's common ground, since both offer zoom, both offer reframing (in different ways), and both phones are, I argue, unashamedly camera-centric.

I covered the Lumia 950 XL versus the iPhone 11 Pro here, so you might want to read that feature first. Suffice it to say that the iPhone 11 Pro's three 12MP cameras cover the zoom spectrum with aplomb, and without too much in the way of artefacts. Maybe not quite 'PureView' image quality levels, but pretty darned good.

Now, it's perfectly true that the 1020 is irrelevant to most people in 2019 in terms of being a viable main device. But I'm featuring it here because it's a classic data point, a reference design against which all the computational photography gadgets after it are measured.

The reframing function mentioned above is that on the iPhone 11 Pro, if you accidentally chop something (a tower, a person's arm, whatever) out of the frame and wish, after the fact, that you had taken a wider angle photo, you can multi-touch ‘out’ inside the Photos ‘Edit’ cropping UI and – magically – information from a ‘behind the scenes’ wide-angle shot is spliced in around your main shot. This isn't exactly what the Lumia 1020 offered (I'd argue that the 1020's feature is more useful), but it's certainly reminiscent.

As before, I've deliberately thrown in some tricky shots and zoom 'asks' in the scene selection, to test the USPs here, all photos were taken on full auto and handheld, as a regular user would do. No tripods or RAW editing sessions needed!

Notes:

• I've also shot in 4:3 at the default output resolutions on each, leaving headroom for lossless PureView zoom on the 1020.
   
• The 5MP shot from the Lumia 1020 and the 12MP shot from the iPhone 11 Pro, added to field of view differences, especially when I start throwing in zoom tests, do mean slightly different crop framing below, but you'll still be able to compare what each phone camera has achieved.

Let's pit the results against each other, using our Famed Interactive Comparator (FIC). All 1:1 crops are at 900x500 for comparison, though I've put up the originals on my own server, for you to download if you want to do your own analysis.

Test 1: Sunny detail

My standard suburban test shot. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 1020:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 11 Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

I'm going to call a score draw here, with the Lumia's lower resolution output being slightly too warm, so that's two small strikes, but then the iPhone's higher resolution output shows sharpening on the greenery that's less than perfect. Nowhere near as savage as on a Huawei phone, but I'd still like to have seen something more natural and closer to reality.

Nokia Lumia 1020: 9 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 9 pts

Test 2: Sunny detail, 2x zoomed

The same shot but with the 2.5x PureView zoom on the Lumia and the 2x telephoto on the iPhone. You can grab the original zoomed photos from the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 11 Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

This is interesting, because I'm going to claim that both photos have exactly the same amount of detail, even though the iPhone's image looks a lot 'sharper' to the eye. In other words, if you were to sharpen up the Lumia 1020 photo in an editor, you'd get to the same place as the iPhone 11 Pro. So which one do I give the win to? Both have the same level of native detail. I think another draw is in order, they're both excellent!!

Nokia Lumia 1020: 10 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 10 pts

Test 3: Sunny macro

A flower at close range (around 30cm), shooting into the sun's arc, quite a tricky shot in terms of dynamic range and focus, since the flowers were also moving in the wind. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 1020:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 11 Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

A win here for the iPhone and its greater dynamic range, thanks to six years of sensor advancement and the use of exposure stacking. The Lumia 1020 struggles with the brightest flower petals and its lower output resolution counts against it slightly in terms of detail. Natural bokeh is good in both cases.

Nokia Lumia 1020: 8 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 10 pts

Test 4: Tricky (animal!) portrait

In a gloomy bedroom, with curtains partly closed, a model guinea pig, willing to be my photographic, err... guinea pig! Portrait mode on the iPhone and I'm just relying on optics for the Lumia. Here is the scene, from the 1020:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 11 Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are scaled crops (because a 1:1 crop would have been just too close!), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Despite the use of the iPhone 11 Pro's 'Portrait' mode to get better bokeh, it doesn't quite get the pig's rear or its front left paw right, and this is a win for the big lens and big sensor in the 1020. The colours are interesting - the Lumia's is slightly too orange, the iPhone's slightly too brown - reality is between the two!

Nokia Lumia 1020: 10 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 8 pts

Test 5: Moody scene

Moody lighting, corner of a pub, stretching what the sensors can do without resorting to long exposures. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 1020:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 11 Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The 1020 gets points for its shot being admirably free of noise (though after all, that's what PureView is all about), but its lower resolution shows it up again - oh, for an 8MP or 12 MP output from the 38MP sensor! The iPhone 11 Pro's image has noise and artefacts, but also significant extra detail, as you'd expect from a 12MP sensor. The iPhone also has higher dynamic range (again), thanks to the exposure stacking system, as you can see from the owl's eye.

Nokia Lumia 1020: 7 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 9 pts

Test 6: Add a face!

The same scene, but this time with a human being - no model available so just me! Here is the scene, from the Lumia 1020:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 11 Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

As with the still life shot, the iPhone has more noise but also more resolution and more detail. However, a test below unleashes the 1020's Xenon flash, can this make the difference?

Nokia Lumia 1020: 7 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 9 pts

Test 7: And now zoom

The same scene, but this time zoomed in by 2x or so... The Lumia loses its PureView oversampling, but the sensor should be able to cope at 1:1, while the iPhone managed to keep using its telephoto - in very dark conditions the main sensor is used. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 1020:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 11 Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Both shots are only borderline useable, have noise and uncertainty in these lighting conditions, and could do with some Photoshop work! A lower scoring draw...

Nokia Lumia 1020: 7 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 7 pts

Test 8: And now with Xenon!

The same scene, but this time with flash forced on, on the 1020 (the iPhone's LED flash wouldn't have made a difference at the 2 metre shooting distance) - surely Xenon can help? Here is the scene, from the Lumia 1020: You can grab the original photo from the Lumia 1020 for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Xenon does indeed close the gap, though at the cost of a slight (typical) Lumia 1020 flash 'yellow cast'. But it's all crisp and noise free now. Pros and cons for each crop, but the 1020 just edges a win overall.

Nokia Lumia 1020: 9 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 8 pts

Test 9: Dead of night

The iPhone 11 Pro includes a Night mode, where exposures are stacked over a couple of seconds, but will it do better than the Lumia 1020's big sensor and famous 'ball bearing' OIS? Here is the scene, from the Lumia 1020:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 11 Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The 1020's night time prowess, itself dramatically better than the competition of the time in 2013, is now outgunned by modern processing power. At the expense of a little noise, the iPhone 11 Pro's Night mode (captured over about 3 seconds) brings out seemingly impossible levels of detail. You could argue that the Lumia got closer to 'what the eye saw' because it really was very dark, but yo ucan't help but be impressed by the what the iPhone achieves here, even from a technical standpoint.

Nokia Lumia 1020: 7 pts; iPhone 11 Pro: 9 pts

Verdict

For the record, the scores add up as:

1. Apple iPhone 11 Pro (2019): 79 pts (/90)
2. Lumia 1020 (2013): 74 pts 

On the one hand, for a six year old camera phone to come so close to a late 2019 imaging flagship is in itself very impressive, showing that the Lumia 1020 was ahead of its time (as was the Nokia 808 before it). On the other, across all subjects and light conditions, the best in the world of phone imaging now win out, at last. The iPhone 11 Pro, in particular, has really impressed me. The trio of lenses (note that we didn't even see the wide angle one in action here, though that's terrific too) and immense multi-exposure computational power puts it ahead of just about anything at the moment (though Google's Pixel 4 next month might change that).

I have to say that I find it quite amusing that the tech industry is falling over itself in 2019 to embrace concepts that were commonplace back in the early days of Windows Phone - from well over six years ago. For every naysayer that slams Windows Phone for its weaknesses, remember that it also led the world in several ways, not least UI responsiveness, dark themes, and augmented reality mapping!

1. Respond, damn you

One of the core tenets behind the 'ground up' coding of Windows Phone's interface was that it should be responsive. Back in the mid 2000s, phone processors were slow and actions were driven by the user pressing buttons. So you'd press a button and wait for the thing you wanted done to happen. So if it took a second or so for the phone to do something then that was part of 'normality'. It's like pressing the standby button on a TV remote and waiting a couple of seconds for the set to come on. Or pressing the power button on a kettle and waiting a few seconds for any noise of heating action. Button interfaces are by their very nature not tied to expecting an immediate response.

The Apple iPhone, in 2007, for all its other limitations of the time, enabled capacitive touch on a smartphone, and with it the expectation that the UI should follow whatever your finger dictated, in as close to real time as possible. And Apple put in a far faster processor than was in its competitors devices, with absolute emphasis on response time, i.e. never leave the user waiting. They even put up bogus interim screenshots of an application that was being launched, to try to cover up the second or so's genuine loading time.

Windows Phone, four years later did a number of things right (hence this article), one of which was to also prioritise interaction with the user. So 'metro' panoramas could be dragged backwards and forwards, lists could be swiped through (etc) with instant response from the UI, whatever the processor was trying to do behind the scenes. 

To its credit, Apple kept on doing the same, with modern iPhones still giving the impression of the UI being buttery smooth, but Windows Phone deserves credit for doing the same, even in a world of 2010 and beyond where Android phones of varying speeds and responsiveness came and went.

2. Hello darkness my old friend

So... it's late 2019 and the phone world is (rightly) turning dark, so that AMOLED screens can drain less power and so that human eyes don't get blasted with white in the middle of the night. Plus 'dark' is 'cool' now, apparently.

All of which we were saying a decade ago though, in my case with the early AMOLED screens under Symbian and then with Windows Phone in general. From the beginning, Windows Phone had a system wide light/dark theme selection and almost every application adhered to this.

Yet it's taken eight years or so for the rest of the industry to catch up, I'd argue. Some Android manufacturers were 'theming' their phones from about 2016, but Google - and now Apple, with iOS, are finally officially 'dark'-enabled in their very latest OS versions.

3. Where now?

I had to chuckle seeing people lauding Google's apparently imminent introduction of Augmented Reality into Google Maps, the idea being that when in a city, you can raise the phone so that the camera shows a 'live' view and then the software overlays landmarks and even navigational instructions on top of what the camera 'sees'.

Which all sounds great, except that I reported right here on the LiveSight integration into HERE Maps in 2013, i.e. six years ago, with a very similar idea and implementation on Windows Phone. 

True, the Windows version only handled points of interest and not real time navigation, but do remember that this was 2013 and the rest of the world has, in theory, had six years and vastly more computing resources in order to catch up. 

______

So, three ways in which Windows Phone was impressing and leading the way all those years ago. And there were more - the People Hub and integrating multiple social networks into your contacts. Still a stunning idea, but understandably torpedoed not just by the eventual dissolution of Windows Phone itself (to the simpler methods in Windows 10 Mobile) but also by the ambition of the social networks themselves to have more control over their own data. Plus Nokia Maps, becoming HERE Maps, and the Drive functionality, with full offline navigation for most countries in the world, many years before Google and Apple tried to offer the same. And, of course, the rightly lauded Start screen with its live tiles.

So raise a glass for Windows Phone, which in a surprising number of ways really did represent the future, all the way back in 2012 and 2013. Even if its market share and tech world acceptance never really reached the same heights as its competitors, who had a head start on the world stage and were far better resourced, so the eventual result was understandable.

Comments welcome - am I viewing the early days of Windows Phone through rose-tinted spectacles, or is there truth in my assertions?

PS. Some bonus retro links on the hardware front, articles from the AAWP back catalogue that you may have missed... The 10 worst Windows phones of all time - what were they thinking? and The Top 5 Windows phones... ever!

In the continuing search for reasonably priced replacements for Windows 10 Mobile smartphones, the name Xiaomi keeps popping up, offering high end specifications at very low prices. In that vein, I've managed to get my hands on the new Mi 9T Pro, its flagship at only £350 or so in the UK, which is amazing. So how does it compare, blow by blow, with my top specced W10M handset, the Alcatel IDOL 4 Pro?

As usual, I've shaded in green an obvious 'win' for either device, I honestly have no idea which way this one's going to go (as I start to compile the feature)... Any row where a winner would be totally subjective is left uncoloured. Or, where both devices are utterly excellent but in different ways, I've given both a 'green'(!)

Verdict

Adding up the green 'wins' gives a resounding 11-3 score in favour of the much newer device, of course, though the IDOL 4 Pro still holds up well in many ways, certainly for playing back music and media, for a phone which started life in 2016 (in the USA). The big question is, of course, whether I'd recommend the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro as an upgrade from an Alcatel or top end Lumia? The price is certainly right, the computing power undisputable, there's a lot to like. As often is the case (especially for AAWP readers), it will probably all come down to how good or bad the camera system is - and that means another feature, comparing the Mi 9T Pro to a Lumia 950 XL. Watch this space!

Following my detailed general head-to-head between the Windows 10-powered IDOL 4 Pro and a new budget-priced flagship, the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, earlier in the week, I did promise an imaging shootout too, this time with the Lumia 950 XL. Does the Mi 9T Pro measure up in the imaging stakes as a Lumia replacement? Let's find out...

The triple camera system on the Mi 9T Pro looks qualified to compete, but I did note - worryingly - that none of the lenses have OIS, a definite sign of cost cutting by Xiaomi. Understandably, given the cost of the phone, but how much will this impact results, especially against the still competitive Lumia 950?

As before, I've deliberately thrown in some tricky shots and zoom 'asks' in the scene selection, to test the USPs here, all photos were taken on full auto and handheld, as a regular user would do. No tripods or RAW editing sessions needed!

Notes:

• I've also shot at the default output resolutions on each, leaving headroom for lossless PureView zoom on the Lumia and also getting the advantages of oversampling and noise reduction, in an attempt to match the extra lenses on the Xiaomi!
   
• The 8MP shot from the Lumia 950 (at 16:9) and the 12MP shot (at 4:3) from the Mi 9T Pro, added to field of view differences, especially when I start throwing in zoom tests, do mean slightly different crops below, but you'll still be able to compare what each phone camera has achieved.

Let's pit the results against each other, using our Famed Interactive Comparator (FIC). All 1:1 crops are at 900x500 for comparison, though I've put up the originals on my own server, for you to download if you want to do your own analysis.

Test 1: Sunny detail

A sunlit church scene. Here is the scene, from the Mi 9 (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Much as expected, the Lumia wins by a nose with lower levels of edge enhancement, though (also as usual) the Lumia has a very slight 'warmth' to its colour handling. Still, the sun was out and low in the sky, so why not? The Xiaomi camera over-exposed by half a stop, I'd say, though it's worth noting that - as on the Lumia - there's a 'Pro' mode where you can tweak everything as you like it. Still, you have to live with the edge enhancement and that's a little ugly at the pixel level, even if not as obnoxious as on the Huawei phones.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro: 8 pts

Test 2: Sunny detail, 2x zoomed

The same scene, but 2x zoomed on the Mi 9T Pro and roughly 2x on the Lumia (hard to be exact, given the UI!) You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

I'd expect the 2x telephoto to beat the 950's 1.5x PureView zoom plus extra lossy digital zoom, and it does, but only by a whisker. The edge enhancement again plays a part in the Xiaomi image, such that its zoomed shot is only marginally better the the 950 XL's.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 8 pts; Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro: 9 pts

Test 3: Greenery (nature)

One of the ways of showing how much detail is actually captured is to shoot a scene with plenty of greenery, i.e. nature. Can the algorithms cope with leaves and almost infinite detail? Here is the scene, from the Mi 9:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

As with the church scene with artificial detail, again the Mi 9T Pro struggles, with edge enhancement effectively blurring out the most intricate natural details. Mind you, even the Lumia 950 isn't without blame here, compared perhaps to early PureView masterpieces like the Lumia 1020. Still, a definite win for the Lumia 950 XL here.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro: 7 pts

Test 4: Nature take two!

Because it's me and I'm obsessed with Image Quality (IQ), I've gone for another shot which includes loads of detail. Here is the scene, from the Mi 9, both photos taken here in portrait format to suit the scene:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

As with the previous photo test, the extra edge enhancement is all too obvious - see the mortar between the bricks in the crop, for example. Though the mass of leaves and flowers don't suffer quite as much as I'd expect. Still a win for the Lumia, but only by a single point here.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro: 8 pts

Test 5: Macro time

Let's try something very close up, less than 30cm. We should also get great natural bokeh at this distance. Here is the scene, from the Mi 9:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Both came out very well, with the Mi 9T Pro's edge enhancement working to sharpen up macro detail. The Lumia crop looks 'softer' - and it is - but it's also more natural. Top marks all round though.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro: 10 pts

Test 6: Low light

Let's move out of sunlight and head indoors. Part of my daughter's toy shelf in a gloomy, unlit bedroom with curtains closed. Here is the scene, from the Mi 9:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Even though the Mi 9T Pro camera feigns sharpness here, there's clearly dramatically more digital noise in its 1/20s exposure, while the Lumia uses its OIS to achieve a 1/7s exposure and its PureView oversampling to virtually eliminate noise. The Mi 9T Pro is unusual among flagships in not having OIS at all, but then again you have to consider the price, I guess.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro: 6 pts

Test 7: Night time

Dead of night and raining hard to boot - how much harder could I have made the test?! Here is the scene, from the Mi 9:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Simply no contest between the 1/5 exposure with OIS and PureView on the Lumia 950 and the 1/15s exposure with no OIS and truly horrible noise and artefacts from the Xiaomi phone camera. Best not take the Mi 9T Pro out after dark then. And this is probably the biggest nail in the coffin of the phone as a possible Lumia 950 replacement.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro: 5 pts

It's worth noting that the Mi 9T Pro has a 'night mode' too, so let's try that on the same scene. Here's the comparator again, you can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Just terrible. No real comment and no bonus points!

Verdict

For the record, the scores add up as:

1. Lumia 950 (2015): 63 pts (/70)
2. Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro (2019): 53 pts 

It's becoming abundantly clear that if you want to get remotely close to a Lumia 950 in terms of phone imaging then you need to turn to a Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy flagship in the Android world, or to the (even more expensive) iPhone 11 range in the iOS world. The one inexpensive option that compares is the camera in the budget Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL, so £350 upwards - this doesn't match the Lumia across the board, but it's at least in the same league and without huge expense.

The Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro has terrific specs as a smartphone generally, but the camera set up is hugely disappointing once the sun goes down. Oh well.

Last weekend I went hands-on with Samsung's brand new Galaxy Fold in London. Yes, it runs Android and this is being published on AAS and AAWP, but I believe it's a very relevant current data point in terms of mobile computing on the go. Not least because it's a modern equivalent to the Nokia Communicators of old. But it also paves the way for thoughts on where Microsoft is going next with its Surface Duo...

The concept of a communicator predates what we know as a smartphone today. An all-in-one design, folding to give quick functions outside and then a larger screen and (usually) keyboard inside. Great battery life, always-on connectivity. The device for all occasions and needs.

Nokia was the big champion of the idea, of course, with the Nokia 9210i shown in a group shot below (from the London meetup) with the 9500, E90 and E7, all Nokia flagships of their day (2000, 2004, 2007, 2010), with the E90 being the closest in physical feel (size/materials) to the new Samsung. At the Fold launch six months ago I was struck, near the stage, by how much the Fold looked and sounded to the E90 as it opened and closed. Definitely, in my eyes, a spiritual successor, even if from a very different stable!

With all this in mind, I was keen to compare the various communicators in person and - unsurprisingly - the E90 was indeed the closest match. This was a 12 year old Nokia device running Symbian (S60 3rd Edition) and - obviously - with QWERTY keyboard rather than second (or curving) screen. But the feel was almost identical in the hand when closed and, when trying to type using the landscape touch keyboard on the Fold, I got much the same 'ultra-mini-laptop' vibe:

Nokia 9210, 9500, E90, E7 and Galaxy Fold together and closed... The earlier communicators match the Fold's length better but in the hand the E90's metal and general weight, plus the width and depth, seem closer...

...and opened up. It's all about the screen real estate!

The Galaxy Fold opened up for business in laptop mode... Yes, the coated folding plastic is rather reflective, but in the device's defense, we were under strong natural and artificial lighting. 'Keystrokes' have haptic feedback from the device's vibration engine.

As with the older Communicators, when you're done you just fold the device in half along a longitudinal axis and you're back to something that's extremely pocketable...

...and almost identical dimensions in width and depth to the old Nokia E90.

The asymmetry needed by the folded screen (around a minimum radius) looks odd, but you don't notice it in the hand or in the pocket. It's a Samsung mind trick!

Now, while there's a lot to be said for physical QWERTY keyboards, they're not smart in the way that software keyboards have been since about 2008. We've become so used to virtual keyboards that auto-correct our most common typing mistakes and even predict the phrase we're about to type next that it seems somewhat quaint to try plastic keys rather than glass. Or, in this case - famously - plastic (folding) screen!

More importantly perhaps is that all the space taken up by a physical keyboard is now available for content. Unfolded, the Galaxy Fold is a game changer with a 7.3" diagonal display, equivalent to a 'mini' tablet. The screen is AMOLED and vibrant and can display up to three running Android applications at the same time, in 'tiled' form. I haven't got a photo of this in action, but YouTube is your friend here for various videos on the device.

In person, the Galaxy Fold is a lot more impressive than it sounds, especially if you've watched Zac Nelson's famous durability test. Yes, if you try to dent or scratch the folding plastic then you'll succeed. But Matt had been handing this out for dozens of people to try over the last fortnight and there wasn't a scratch or blemish on the display:

The 'crease' in the middle is interesting in that it's both inevitable and evident to the touch every second of use. And yet the mind quickly learns that this is just part of the display and a necessary evil for a tablet that folds to be super-narrow in the pocket. I was expecting the plastic to seem somewhat 'clammy', but it really wasn't. Either because Samsung has coated it with something oleophobic or beause the plastic used is merely friction-free.

At each hinge end is an extra t-shaped piece of plastic fairing that aims to stop dust and debris entering the hinge system and getting under the display - this seems to be doing its job though, admittedly, this device has only existed in retail form for a few weeks, so it's early days. Also shown below is part of the in-box clip on 'carbon fibre' case. This looks and feels a million dollars and also doesn't show fingerprints, unlike the native Galaxy Fold itself:

The OS and interface is Android 9 with Samsung's One UI gestures and layout and it all works pretty well. Almost every application fills the unfolded display just fine, almost every app also works in landscape (including using virtual keyboard) if needed, and it's just the home screen itself that doesn't 'rotate' (an Android quirk for years).

Now to relevance on these sites. AAS readers will have moved to new platforms quite a while ago, but the closeness of this design to the classic communicators will hopefully be of direct interest. Yes, the Galaxy Fold is insanely expensive (best part of £2000), but it's something to keep an eye on. Especially if the expected Galaxy Fold 2 next Spring also brings along S-Pen stylus support, bringing yet another way of interacting with your smartphone to the table.

AAWP readers will also be interested in something that folds and is cutting edge, not least because the recently announced Surface Phone Duo also folds, albeit using two panes of glass, so we do seem to be entering a new era in terms of smartphones that physically transform. I'll have more thoughts on the Duo shortly, don't worry!

In the meantime, your comments welcome. What do you think of the Galaxy Fold, have you had hands-on at a shop yet, and does it bring back memories for you too?(!)

PS. Thanks to Matt Miller (shown below, bottom left, @palmsolo on Twitter) for bringing the Galaxy Fold to the meet, and thanks also to Rafe Blandford (shown below, top right) for his input and comments. Also pictured (other than myself, below, top left) is Gavin Fabiani Laymond (@gavinsgadgets on Twitter):

The dust is settling around Microsoft's shock announcement of the Surface Duo, running Android but with much of Microsoft's UI ideas. Some see the Duo as the next Holy Grail device, some see it as the ultimate betrayal of Windows Phone. As usual, the truth is somewhere in between, though I do have multiple worries over this new 'not a phone but kind of is' Surface product.

All about the Duo

We don't actually know much about the Surface Duo, other than its dimensions. Two 5.6" screens (with an 8" diagonal unfolded), USB Type C data/charge, a capacitive fingerprint sensor on one edge... and that's it. At the moment there's a single internal camera, for video calls and selfies(!), but nothing external, though this may change in 2020 - Microsoft has plenty of time for tweaking (and Panos Panay's personal proto [black] Duo has an external camera).

So niceties like chipset (probably Snapdragon 865), RAM (probably 8GB), storage (I'm guessing starting at 64GB), speakers, imaging, wireless charging, stylus support, and so on will have to wait well until next year. So for the moment it's all about the two screens.

Now, there have already been Android smartphones with two screens, the idea isn't totally new. The ZTE Axon M was in many ways extremely similar to the Surface Duo and Android itself ran much the same - applications could run on either display or span both, and the phone worked in various orientations and modes, mostly user-selectable:

The ZTE Axon M in action, two years ago!

ZTE didn't follow-up though, so the Axon M had a limited release and is now archaic. And of course the Surface Duo is going to be more polished, massively so, in terms of hardware and software. Or at least we hope so. Microsoft has a good head start:

• It has allowed a full year (i.e. until Christmas 2020) for third party developers to get onboard with adapting Android applications to do something sensible with two screens, and for its own launcher team to create and hone a front end that's smooth, bug free, and uses both screens optimally.
• It has two years of experience with its existing Microsoft Launcher - this is highly thought of and a very viable front end for any existing Android smartphone.
• It has a wealth of hugely popular Android applications, three of which have now passed a billion downloads. Think Outlook, OneDrive, Office, etc. When it became apparent that Windows 10 Mobile wasn't going to be developed beyond 2017, Microsoft pushed huge development resources behind its nascent Android teams and it's starting to reap the rewards now, in 2019, by way of extra Office 365 subscriptions, a big money-spinner.

Whereas the user had to make choices about 'modes' with the Axon M, I fully expect that everything will 'just work' on the Surface Duo, in that applications will recognise the device's position and configuration and expand or adapt as needed. In the various two-screen demos we've seen so far of the Duo, we've seen:

• different applications on each display (e.g. OneNote and Excel)
• one application presenting complementary views (e.g. Outlook, showing email headers on one screen and email contents on the other, or an email's contents on one and an opened link on the other)
• one application filling both displays in a contiguous fashion (notable the main launcher). 

Other than 'dragging a pane towards the centre hinge', there have been few clues as to how to make sure each application does what but I'd hope that it's largely automatic, i.e. following common sense. Much as it is on the also-folding Samsung Galaxy Fold that I previewed recently - there's very little to set up, applications just fill the giant unfolded display. Yes, this is different because it's genuinely one screen component, but the underlying software principles are very similar. And on both, with the (Fold or) Duo in landscape mode (i.e. one screen above the other), if you tap into a text edit field then you get the bottom screen changing to a 'full size' typeable keyboard.

All very cool then. And, while Microsoft could ship this now with many of its own applications that support the two screens, only a handful of third party apps do likewise (we've seen Amazon Kindle, but few others). And the goal is to have the user delighted by not only having the vast number of applications available in the Google Play Store, but having all the most popular ones taking advantage of the two form factor. This may or may not take the full year, but there are other factors, such as waiting for new chipsets and (maybe) new camera technologies, for final inclusion.

What about Windows (Phone)?

It seems, with my Windows Phone enthusiast hat on, that the obvious thing to do in terms of software for the Duo (née Andromeda) would be to take the existing Windows 10 Mobile OS builds, which already work well on ARM chipsets and which already support different display sizes and configurations, and to update and polish these instead. And, to be fair, this would work. I can immediately imagine the Duo running Windows 10XM (or whatever it might have been called by now), with all the Microsoft first party applications working superbly on day one and with hundreds of great UWP applications also raring to go. 

However, and the legendary Rudy Huyn makes the point eloquently here, 'hundreds' is not enough in 2019. Even 'thousands' wouldn't have been enough. It only takes ONE application that the user really, really wants (say a companion/setup application to a favourite appliance or an app for their specific bank) and the experience is already soured and the user looking elsewhere. Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile owners here on AAWP have become used to not doing quite as much with their phones as their friends on iOS and Android. Yes, the UI has some lovely points, yes, you're free of Google's privacy-peeping and Apple's control, but at some point the gaps in the ecosystem start to become painful.

Panos Panay, questioned around the Duo launch, emphasised this over and over again - 'apps' were the key. Even if said application hadn't been tweaked by its developer to play nicely with the Duo's two displays, it would at least be available in the Play Store and it would at least run, even if only on the one screen. So no chance of being caught out, as one might be with Windows.

With iOS only available (obviously) for Apple phones, Android was thus the necessary choice. And Google is relaxed enough about manufacturers skinning its OS that Microsoft is going to be able to make the new launcher close enough for that on the other Surface devices that Android itself won't be quick such an obvious change from the Windows a user already knows.

So, with the best will in the world, continuing Windows 10 and UWP applications was never going to work in this IoT, connected-everything, authenticated-at-every-turn age. Despite many of us wishing it would happen. (I'd add that it's at least partly Microsoft's fault for specifying the Lumia 950 range with an iris scanner and not a fingerprint scanner - very futuristic but totally impractical. And yes, it was late in the day, but I think we'd have seen 950s with Hello-capable finger scanners inspire a fair number of hooked-up UWP apps.)

As to what will become of Windows Phone UI staples like the Start screen with live tiles, or 'Metro' panoramas, we've seen both ideas evolve with successive Windows 10 desktop branches. Perhaps toned down, but the ideas aren't totally forgotten. I wonder if any of the Start screen DNA will make it into Microsoft's launcher for the Duo?

Commitment and Competition

As intimated at the start, things won't be plain sailing for the Surface Duo - folding and dual screened smartphones are very definitely a 'thing' now, even if ZTE has forgotten its Axon M. LG's 'V50 Dual Screen' pictured below offers twin displays right now, if in slightly accessorised form:

So there may be nothing directly eating the Surface Duo's lunch right now, but by the end of 2020 there will be a lot of competition. I'd expect a dual or folding device from most major phone manufacturers by then. Samsung, in particular, which seems to have at last nailed the Galaxy Fold, will be on its 'Fold 2' by then and, given that it's the largest phone manufacturer in the world, this will the solution to beat.

A year is a long time in mobile, mind you, and if the last few years have taught us anything then it's that Chinese manufacturers will leap in and copy a design and offer a similar product at a fraction of the cost. Yes, there's a big software component to Duo, but I'd expect a variety of sub-£800 phone/tablet/folding hybrids from Xiaomi, OPPO and others by the time Duo actually launches.

There's also the issue of Microsoft's commitment to a project. The famous Lumia 950 launch in 2015, itself watered down from what the 950 range could have included, was followed by fairly half hearted development of the interface, with most branch updates only offering fixes. Secure, yes, updated kernel, yes, but revolutionary or optimised it wasn't. Head back a few more years and there are still users upset that Microsoft couldn't deliver Windows 10 Mobile to their 8.1 devices or keep updating 8.1 itself. And then there's the whole Windows Phone 7.5 upgrade fiasco, where architectural reasons meant no software upgrades to 8.0. And should we head back to the early 2000s and lack of commitment to Windows Mobile, as it was then, resulting in a too-late switch to a next gen touch OS, what became Windows Phone?

In short, Microsoft has a bit of history at not following through on mobile plans. Given the high profile tease last week, I'm really hoping that it can pull Surface Duo off. It will certainly help that most of the Android underpinnings already exist.

________

Comments? Can you wait a year? Do you want to? And what similar solutions are you employing in the meantime?

PS. See also ZDNet's guide to how development for Duo will work. Plus WC's 'History of Andromeda'. And, for a third party semi-hands-on video, look at CNet's coverage here (also the source of a couple of images above).

The Samsung flagship for 2019, the Galaxy Note 10+, was launched a month or so ago, but I'm just catching up with it now. I'm expecting similar results to those from the Galaxy S10 series earlier in the year, but I know how much you like my Lumia 950 shootouts - can the triple-camera-ed Note 10+ surprise us by keeping the edge enhancement dialled back?

The 2x telephoto in the Note 10+ and the main dual aperture camera are also the same, ostensibly, as in last year's S9+ that I've done shootouts with here many times, in various ways, against various Lumias. So there should be nothing too shocking in terms of hardware - though software improvements can make a big difference, especially in low light, as we may see below. There's a wide angle lens too, but there's nothing comparable on the Lumia so it's hard to test - suffice it to say that the wide angle lens is excellent, should you want to shoot landscapes that way...

As before, I've deliberately thrown in some tricky shots and zoom 'asks' in the scene selection, to test the USPs here, all photos were taken on full auto and handheld, as a regular user would do. No tripods or RAW editing sessions needed!

Notes:

• I've also shot at the default output resolutions on each, leaving headroom for lossless PureView zoom on the Lumia and also getting the advantages of oversampling and noise reduction, in an attempt to match the extra lenses on the Note 10+
   
• The 8MP shot from the Lumia 950 (at 16:9) and the 12MP shot (at 4:3) from the Note 10+, added to field of view differences, especially when I start throwing in zoom tests, do mean slightly different crops below, but you'll still be able to compare what each phone camera has achieved.

Let's pit the results against each other, using our Famed Interactive Comparator (FIC). All 1:1 crops are at 900x500 for comparison, though I've put up the originals on my own server, for you to download if you want to do your own analysis.

Test 1: Sunny detail

Some flats nearby, with oodles of detail. Here is the scene, from the Note 10+ (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

I'm afraid that one look at the brickwork or at the plant in the window confirms that Samsung's gone all out on the edge enhancement again. At the pixel level here it's quite ugly. You can argue that 'it doesn't look that bad', but compare it with your own eyes against the Lumia's WAY more natural-looking detail. Samsung, I'm disappointed.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 8 pts

Test 2: Lake side greenery

Natural detail is hardest for camera phones, of course, so let's try that, here in early morning sunshine. Here is the scene, from the Note 10+ (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Edge enhancement is again an issue, though less pronounced, though the ripples on the water end up far too err... watery, on the Note 10+ shot. While the Lumia has its own issue, the well known golden colour cast. Still, I prefer the Lumia's more exact detail overall, so a small win again.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 8 pts

Test 3: Now zoomed

Let's try a 2x zoom, using the optical zoom on the Note 10+ and the PureView (plus some digital) zoom on the Lumia. You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Success for the Note 10+ at last, with its telephoto lens unsurprisingly defeating the part lossy zoom on the Lumia. Clearer details, less artefacts, etc.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 6 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 8 pts

Test 4: Sunny macro

A gorgeous red flower in a tub in the garden. Here is the scene, from the Note 10+ (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central scaled (because 1:1 makes no sense at this distance, you'd only get one petal in!) crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

A score draw here, both flower renditions are pretty good, though (interestingly) I was also shooting these scenes with the new iPhone 11 Pro and it pulled out significantly more contrast - I'll come back to the iPhone in a future article because it's about to get a huge imaging update ('Deep Fusion').

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 9 pts

Test 5: Low light, indoors

A real test of what can be captured in low light, testing OIS in particular - this was an unlit corner of a gloomy living room. Here is the scene, from the Note 10+ (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

A dramatic victory for the Lumia, as your own eyes can verify above. The Lumia keeps things amazingly 'clean', with almost zero noise or artefacts, while the Note 10+ produces an image with appalling errors at the pixel level. My understanding was that the Galaxy shoots multiple images and then merges them, for better quality, plus it also has OIS, but it's all for naught when the software can produce inferior results like the crop above.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 7 pts

Test 6: Dusk house

Domestic detail in daylight, but overcast and very late in the day - again an exercise in pulling out detail from gloom. Here is the scene, from the Note 10+ (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Although the OIS in both shots makes sure that roughly the same amount of light is gathered, I'd invite you to look at the blue pot and brickwork beside it in the Note 10+ crop - the artefacts are out of control in the Samsung software. Again very disappointing and I'd point out that the Note 10+ has been out now for a couple of months, so image processing really should be a lot better than this. In contrast, the PureView algorithms in the Lumia produce something that's super-clear and super-natural.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 7 pts

Test 7: All the fun of the fair

Shot, obviusly, in very low light and with huge neon challenges! Here is the scene, from the Note 10+ (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

This is turning into a bit of a whitewash... or rather pink wash, with the Note 10+ producing a horrible pink-tinged image full of pixel-level noise, artefacts, and edge-enhanced faux-detail. The Lumia 950 gets the colours right, and has far, far lower levels of artefacts, despite the challenging conditions.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 6 pts

Test 8: Super low light colours

An attractive gate at night. Here is the scene, from the Note 10+ (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

This ones closer to call - the Lumia produces a natural image which looks stunning as a whole but a bit 'soft' when viewed in crop form. While the Note 10+ applies its usual edge enhancement and this works better here, to sharpen up details. It goes a bit too far, as you can see from the gate pillars on the right of the crop, with artefacts very visible. But I'm going to call a draw overall.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 8 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 8 pts

Test 9: Dead of night

Shooting down an alley in a churchyard, with minimal lighting. Here is the scene, from the Note 10+ (because I was shooting it at 4:3, this give more of an impression of more of the set-up):

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Yes, yes, very spooky, graveyards at night.... Both phone cameras do pretty well, with the Lumia doing all the hard work in its initial PureView computations, while the Note 10+ relies on multiple captures and a pass of both noise reduction and sharpening. I think the Lumia edges it to my eyes - artistically, anyway.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 8 pts

Test 10: and now.... in Night mode!

The same scene, but manually turning on 'Night mode' on the Note 10+. You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and Galaxy Note 10+, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then Note 10+ (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

I think the Note 10+'s Night mode gets an extra point here for effort, but the shot looks artificial and what details that are brought out end up 'enhanced' to the point of losing what detail was being surfaced. Needless to say, the Lumia 950 shot looks accurate to what my eyes saw!

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; Samsung Galaxy Note 10+: 9 pts

Verdict

For the record, the scores add up as:

1. Lumia 950 (2015): 90 pts (/100)
2. Galaxy Note 10+ (2019): 78 pts 

As someone who's been using the Galaxy S9+ for much of the last year, I have to say that the Note 10+'s camera system disappointed me. No doubt the physical hardware is very capable, but the output is ruined by over-zealous edge enhancement and (in low light) noise reduction. I guess I should test the 'old' S9+ against the Note 10+, but that's outside the scope of AAWP!

It should be pointed out that I didn't test the wide angle camera on the Note 10+, for the reasons stated above, and that this works pretty well. But it's all a bit pointless given the issues with the image processing software generally.

The quest goes on for Lumia owners who want to move to a smartphone on a future-proof OS that also has a camera that's not a downgrade from the 950. Right now, the only device I can recommend is the iPhone 11 Pro range. And that's mightily expensive. 

Watch this space for more features.... I'm not giving up in my quest to find a range of upgrade options for you all!!

Whether you have/had a Lumia 1020 or 930 or 950, one of the core 'must haves' for you is probably cutting edge imaging - the absolute best photos possible from a phone. iPhones have been gradually 'coming up on the rails' in this regard and with the new iPhone 11 Pro I showed a few weeks ago that its cameras are right up there, and even exceeding those of the Lumia 1020 and Lumia 950. I'll revisit the subject when the 11 Pro's 'Deep Fusion' update hits, but in the meantime here's a feature comparison across the board between the flagship iPhone 11 Pro and the similarly sized previous camera champion, the Lumia 950. Cost notwithstanding, maybe the time is now right to move to an iPhone (and not just the cheaper '11')?

Although there's a little life left in Windows 10 Mobile in terms of updates and support, new hardware is non-existent, plus repairs and spares for older hardware are heading the same way - so it makes sense for everyone to be aware of the best of the rest from other platforms. I'll cover Android again in the future, no doubt, but for now let's look at the best of iOS and never mind the cost. Apple's OS does resemble Windows Phone in many ways in that it's all pretty locked down and every application has to be approved and then, when installed, is also sand-boxed and can't affect other applications. The only real downside is the lack of a live tiles equivalent. Plus you can't expand storage with a microSD (or similar) card.

I've reviewed the iPhone 11 Pro in video form here and text form here, if you want to dive deeper into the device. Or just read on for a blow by blow comparison with the Lumia! The killer feature here is the camera system, with three high quality cameras, all in one unit internally, and aligned and calibrated at the factory for perfect zooming from 0.5x to 2x and without heavy image processing. Plus video capture that's astonishingly clear and with audio capture that's as good as the best of the Lumias. So if snapping and filming has been one reason to stay with the best of the Lumias then maybe the iPhone 11 Pro will be a good replacement.

As usual, I've shaded in green an obvious 'win' for either device. Any row where a winner would be totally subjective is left uncoloured. Or, where all devices are utterly excellent but in different ways, I've given each a 'green'(!)

[By the way, if you're viewing this feature on a phone then the table may well cause you problems. Try viewing in landscape mode? Failing that, go view this on a laptop or tablet!]

Verdict

Adding up the green 'wins' (for fun?!) gives a convincing win to the iPhone 11 Pro at 10 to 6. And, significantly, two of the wins are for imaging - this is one of the few times when a Lumia 950 hasn't out performed a competitor in the camera department. So take a moment to acknowledge that. See here for my initial Lumia 950 and iPhone 11 Pro shootout, along with a couple of other contenders. I'll be revisiting this, with just the 950 very soon.

The usual caveats apply about totally different ecosystems, and going where the services and apps you need live - you could argue that the 'Applications and ecosystem' row should have double or triple weighting, for example! Plus several of my scorings can be argued either way, such as me rating the 950 as more durable, shockproof, and (self?) repairable than the iPhone, yet without any waterproofing at all. 

Your comments welcome.

Forgive a little rant, but I thought my general level of 'cross-ness' over the behaviour shown below might a) help guilty developers mend their ways, and b) attract your attention to what I consider to be shady practice when getting users to download applications from the Microsoft Store. PS. This news post is normally £399 to read, but today it's absolutely free!!

We have a shop near us in Reading, UK. It sells tiles and other bathroom furnishings and it's a pretty good store generally. But outside is a sign proclaiming:

"So what?", I hear you say. The thing is that this sale sign has been there since we moved to the area, 24 years ago! So the sale has basically been on for a quarter of a century! I guess, technically, the items on sale must be changing and that they're not breaking any laws, but.... it's a bit misleading.

And much the same applies to a growing number of items in the Microsoft Store (for example on Windows 10 Mobile, though I think the developers are aiming to catch out desktop users mainly...) Developers have had the ability to reduce prices for a short season on the Store since the beginning. So, for example, something that normally costs £7.49 is 'on sale' for 30 days for £1.49 - and that's a great reason to pick the application or game up if you've been eyeing it up anyway. It's a win win, for developers and users.

The sale reduction looks sensible and believable and there's zero deception involved. £7.49 is a commercial price for an application or game which is fully working and with no ads or essential in-app-purchases. And you're getting the full caboodle for a bargain price. What's not to love?

Turning back to retail, you'll recognise another scenario. In a shop (online or physical) you'll see an item that should be, say, £50, i.e. that's the street price and one which sounds about right in terms of value for money. And in the shop you'll see "Was £99.99, now only £49.99!!!!" So, in the end, the price of the item is right, but you know and I know that the £99.99 'original' price was completely inflated and artificial. It's just.... a marketing trick.

Right, back to the Microsoft Store on your phone. Here's the thing. Over the last year I've spotted the behaviour below. Applications promising utterly ridiculous original prices that no one in their right mind would ever have considered paying, but with the price struck out and 'Free' quoted. And permanently so. Zero intention of the original (or indeed any price) being valid then. And with "Offers in-app purchases" in small print:

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for applications which are free to download and then with IAPs (In App Purchases) to enable premium functions. Yes, they can sometimes be annoying, but the developer deserves to be paid and at least it's (usually) clear what you're getting for the IAP quoted. But what's this "Was £165, now free!" story all about? And it's not just one developer, either. Here are other examples:

So £84 and now free all of a sudden? No wait, not all of a sudden, it's always been like this in the Store.

As with the 'Sale' stories above, this behaviour in the Store isn't breaking any Microsoft rules, I'm sure. But it's... not playing cricket, to use a British cliché. And I'd like to point out to any developers who have followed through and are reading this now - I've never reviewed, plugged or listed any such application here on AAWP or on other channels. 

Much as I routinely slam, with undisguised bile, games with stupid £100 IAPs, I completely ignore such titles. My gut feel is that the developer is trying to 'pull a fast one' and that if they can't be trusted to list their application properly in the Store then I won't trust them to deliver me bits and bytes for installation on my phone. Or those of readers.

Data points welcome though. Have you spotted many more of these in the Store? Do you also instinctively pull away? Or have you installed one and was it, as I suspect, some sham wrapper for an online service or other trivial code that only exists to extort money?

And if such a developer (WalkinApps and Kingloft quoted above) wants to respond, why do you put in these phony offers? Why not just price your application as free from the start with reasonable IAPs? 

It's a fair cop, the headline is a bit sensationalist, but it does link the two smartphones after a fashion, in that they each do interesting things with extra screens. Plus there's the extra link in that Microsoft's new Surface Duo ('Surface Phone') will be a two screened hinged affair, albeit available in a year's time, and the LG V50 Dual Screen is available right now, but with some of the same ideas.

Although there's a little life left in Windows 10 Mobile in terms of updates and support, new hardware is non-existent, plus repairs and spares for older hardware are heading the same way - so it makes sense for everyone to be aware of the best of the rest from other platforms. The LG V50 is particularly interesting for its Dual Screen supplied accessory/form factor - for anyone wanting a Surface Duo a year early then this will give much more than a taste of what's to come.

As usual, I've shaded in green an obvious 'win' for either device. Any row where a winner would be totally subjective is left uncoloured. Or, where all devices are utterly excellent but in different ways, I've given each a 'green'(!)

[By the way, if you're viewing this feature on a phone then the table may well cause you problems. Try viewing in landscape mode? Failing that, go view this on a laptop or tablet!]

Verdict

Adding up the green 'wins' (for fun?!) gives a resounding 12-3 win to the much newer device, of course. Imaging is still up for grabs, so I'll report back on that in due course. The whole Dual Screen thing is indeed a glimpse of the sort of thing a Surface Duo might be capable of, though it's so clunky in terms of both hardware and software here that I really couldn't recommend it as a silky smooth 'folding' experience today. LG has done what it could, plus its solution is quite robust, but from my own hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the latter is a much more immersive and intuitive system.

The Surface Duo will be a different beast again, of course, with tightly integrated dual screen awareness out of the box for all its major applications, plus the hardware will be a lot slicker and sleeker.

Comments welcome though - would you consider a LG V50 Dual Screen for what you use a smartphone for?

Your comments welcome.

Last week, I pitched the new LG V50 ThinQ, with its Dual Screen system, against the Lumia 950 XL, showing that the LG flagship is a fast and capable Android device with interesting, if quirky, possibilities. But there was a question mark over its camera system, so let's rectify that now with a traditional imaging head-to-head against the 950 XL. Has LG messed up its image processing, or is this a return to form?

On paper, the shootout should be pretty equal, in that the 2x telephoto will pull ahead of the Lumia for zoomed shots, while the Lumia's image processing heritage plus its PureView oversampling will deliver purer results. But let's see, I'm always open for surprises (as the iPhone 11 Pro showed, a phone which I'll come back to shortly).

As before, I've deliberately thrown in some tricky shots and zoom 'asks' in the scene selection, to test the USPs here, all photos were taken on full auto and handheld, as a regular user would do. No tripods or RAW editing sessions needed!

Notes:

• I've also shot at the default output resolutions on each, leaving headroom for lossless PureView zoom on the Lumia and also getting the advantages of oversampling and noise reduction, in an attempt to match the extra lenses on the Note 10+
   
• The 8MP shot from the Lumia 950 (at 16:9) and the 12MP shot (at 4:3) from the LG V50, added to field of view differences, especially when I start throwing in zoom tests, do mean slightly different crops below, but you'll still be able to compare what each phone camera has achieved.

Let's pit the results against each other, using our Famed Interactive Comparator (FIC). All 1:1 crops are at 900x500 for comparison, though I've put up the originals on my own server, for you to download if you want to do your own analysis.

Test 1: Sunny detail

A nice sunlit church, with oodles of detail. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and LG V50, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then LG V50 (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

I'm afraid that one look at the brickwork or at the plants confirms that LG's gone all out on edge enhancement again. Why do companies DO this?? The short answer is that such edge-enhanced photos look 'sharper' on a phone screen. But they look a right royal pig's breakfast when shown larger or when cropped in for any reason. Sigh.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; LG V50: 8 pts

Test 2: Sunny zoomed

The same scene, but this time using 2x zoom - telephoto on the V50 and part lossless, part digital zoom on the Lumia. You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and LG V50, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then LG V50 (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The tables are turned here, with the 2x telephoto easily outpacing the part-lossy zoom on the Lumia - and, curiously, the zoomed shot on the V50 doesn't seem anywhere near as ruined by edge enhancement as the photo from the main lens! 

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 7 pts; LG V50: 9 pts

Test 3: Sunny macro

. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and LG V50, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then LG V50 (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The Lumia's shot looks a bit more natural, but both phone cameras bring out all the detail and colour that you'd expect, so I'm not going to split them on score here.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; LG V50: 9 pts

Test 4: HDR test

A different church, shooting almost into the sun - to the eye almost a silhouette, but modern phone algorithms mean multiple exposures and a degree of HDR, to bring out detail in the shadow. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and LG V50, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then LG V50 (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Taken as a whole, the V50 photo looks like a stunning piece of HDR - hyper real and dramatic, but look sclosely, as here, and you can see that the edge enhancement is again a problem, plus the colours in the stonework are way too red. In short, details look like a photocopy of reality, whereas the Lumia's crop looks very real.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 10 pts; LG V50: 8 pts

Test 5: Low light, dusk

Suburbia after sunset, a good test of low light performance. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and LG V50, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then LG V50 (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The V50 doesn't do terribly here - five years ago this would have been good enough, but the Lumia 950 range raised the bar in 2015 and it's still ahead today. And yes, I tried the V50's 'Night mode' too - this didn't help. The V50's edge enhancement adversely affects the finer details, there are artefacts galore, and the colour of the brick houses is just wrong - too red/orange. In contrast, the Lumia 950 serves up its classic 'brighter than reality without going over the top' image and it wins this comparison easily.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; LG V50: 7 pts

Test 6: Low light close-up

A pretty little white moped, but shot under street lights at night. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and LG V50, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then LG V50 (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Two very different approaches to this scene - the Lumia gets much closer to reality in terms of light levels and the white metal is shown reflecting the warm incandescent street lights, but there's something to be admired about the 'pedal to the floor' way that the V50 shows the moped brighter and whiter, plus it brings out numerous details in the handlebar set. At the expense of artefacts and ugly edge enhancement, as usual. But yes, looking at the two photos side by side, I'd pick the V50's as the winner here. Surprisingly so.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 8 pts; LG V50: 9 pts

Test 7: Night challenge

Floodlit church at night, big challenges in terms of plucking detail from darkness. Here is the scene, from the Lumia 950:

You can grab the original photos from the Lumia 950 and LG V50, for your own analysis.

To look at the images in more detail here, here are fairly central 1:1 crops, from the Lumia 950 (top) and then LG V50 (bottom), just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

And so we come to the money shot. The point at which phone cameras' true abilities are revealed. Look at the crops above and you'll see some rather ghastly noise and artefacts from the V50's main camera (look at the car door panels in particular). This is what happens when you rely on post-processing to enhance edges - it sees 'edges' in low light noise and then all hell breaks loose. In contrast, the Lumia 950's PureView processing does its usual oversampling pass and it's done, with a tremendous shot that easily bears cropping in on.

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: 9 pts; LG V50: 5 pts

Verdict

For the record, the scores add up as:

1. Lumia 950 (2015): 62 pts (/70)
2. LG V50 (2019): 55 pts 

Aside from the terrible night shot, the V50 camera software didn't do too badly. I've seen worse. But LG are just as guilty as Samsung as over-enhancing their JPG output to 'pop' on phone screens and never mind the actual image quality. I've said this before and it bears repeating, when the Lumia 950 arrived I was critical that its output included too much sharpening - compared to the likes of the Lumia 1020, which remains super-pure. Yet, by comparison, today's smartphone cameras are dramatically worse in in the over-sharpening, edge-enhancing stakes. They make the Lumia 950 look like an original 40MP PureView device. It's all relative!

It should be pointed out that I didn't show the wide angle camera on the V50, because there's nothing to compare it to on the Lumia side, and that this works pretty well. But although wide angle shots are fun and full of novelty (as in, how did you get this shot?!), I agree with Google (for one) that if you're going to add another lens to a camera system then I personally would rather have a telephoto. With the added benefit that such systems are easier to compare to classic Lumias, as here.

The quest goes on for Lumia owners who want to move to a smartphone on a future-proof OS that also has a camera that's not a downgrade from the 950. Right now, the only device I can recommend is the iPhone 11 Pro range. And that's mightily expensive. And which I'll come back to when its 'Deep Fusion' upgrade rolls out (in the next week or two?)

Watch this space for more features.... I'm not giving up in my quest to find a range of upgrade options for you all!!

Four months is a long time in the phone world - I last opined on this topic in (only) July, yet my picks have changed significantly! I've pitched this as my top picks for smartphones to replace a Lumia 950/930 or perhaps an IDOL 4 Pro or Elite x3, going forwards into 2020 as Windows 10 Mobile stops being supported and as services gradually start to wind down. I've tested just about everything on the market and here's my verdict, with just one eye on price and value for money as well (though this isn't critical).

As per my previous intro, it's always good to plan ahead. I should also say that I'm a in privileged position in that I own (or have been loaned) quite a number of smartphones across all OS over the last few years, as part of my reviewing jobs - but this does put me in a good place to assess what's good and bad in terms of recommending a replacement for, say, a classic and much-loved Lumia.

It's not just a question of degree, either, i.e. whether getting something expensive running Android will be faster or larger or have better battery life - there are genuine step change aspects which mean that one might be forced to another platform whether one likes it or not:

• Biometric support for logins. Good examples of this are being able to log into banking applications with one tap of a fingerprint on a sensor or a glance at the front camera, or being able to tap-to-pay at a terminal in a shop. Yes, Lumias have iris recognition and yes, the IDOL 4 Pro has a fingerprint sensor, but in both cases there's simply not the same degree of integration with applications and services, and by a huge margin.
   
• Specific applications that can't be accessed at all, even via a browser. Snapchat comes to mind, but I'll bet there are many others, for more serious uses. When you need a particular application (or, hey, a game) and it simply doesn't exist in any form under Windows 10 Mobile then your hand is forced.

At which point, the question becomes, what to move to? A cynic might say 'Almost anything else', but I argue here that anyone steeped in Lumias, in particular, will have certain expectations of a replacement device, over and above the biometrics and ecosystem factors just mentioned:

• Excellent camera, not too much artificial enhancement
• High amplitude stereo microphones, for recording music, for example
• High contrast screen that works well in daylight
• Qi wireless charging
• microSD expansion, for keeping hundreds of GB of media on hand and instantly swappable
• 3.5mm audio jack, ideally, for plugging in headphones and auxiliary systems (cars/hi-fi, etc.)
• plugging it into a Windows computer (or Mac) should let you drag and drop content in either direction - typically bulky media (movies, music). All Windows phones do this as a matter of course (at least to a Windows PC), most Android phones do too (with a permissions dialog to accept in the UI), while iPhones show their photo/video content at least and iTunes/Music/etc. can be used to sync media and more with a mouse click.

Not all of these are givens, mind you, in 2019's phone landscape. For example, Google Pixels (running Android) and Apple iPhones (running iOS):

• aren't expandable in terms of storage - you buy the capacity you need and that's your limit
• haven't had a 3.5mm audio jack for years - so Type C or Lightning DAC/dongles are needed (they're not expensive, but are easy to lose!)

In terms of interface, Android is the way to go, not least because it's utterly trivial to change the 'launcher', your primary interface with the phone, right down to using the first party 'Microsoft Launcher' and effectively getting quite a bit of the Microsoft feel and the Microsoft services. (See also, from 2017, my detailed look at using Microsoft applications and services on Android.) There are even launchers like Launcher10, which actually emulates Windows 10 Mobile.

But which phones should you look out for? Which ones satisfy most of the expectations above and will be the best fit for you?

I'll try to pick devices at different budget points and I'll even include some older alternatives that can now be picked up at bargain prices second hand or via clearance channels, though you've held off buying a replacement phone this long that you'll probably have built up some savings or at least the momentum of trying to come in at or near the flagship level. Anyway, options aplenty below!

Note that I haven't recommended any of the new breed of cheap Chinese phones (Xiaomi, Oppo, etc.) as, while they're often cracking value for money, the position in terms of support and updates isn't up to what a Lumia owner might require. We've been used to monthly OS updates for even three or four year old phones, so let's stick to the 'Western' (non-Chinese) big boys here, in the justified hope of decent support and thus longevity. I've also temporarily withdrawn my recommendation for the Huawei P30 Pro due to uncertainty as to this phone's future in terms of updates, amidst the whole 'Donald Trump vs China' trade/entity war.

In no particular order, I'd suggest:

Samsung Galaxy S10e £669

(or S9+ second hand for £400?)

This year's Galaxy S flagships were marred a little by the use of in-screen fingerprint sensors, which are still unreliable in my testing and which have now been found to be flawed in terms of authentication accuracy, with some banks not allowing the S10, S10+ and Note 10 ranges to even install their applications. Happily, the cheapest (hooray) of the S10 phones retained a traditional capacitive fingerprint scanner, integrating it into the power button, and this works superbly. The 5.8" screen sounds large, but it's 18:9, so the phone is actually very pocketable. There's no telephoto camera on the 'e', but the camera's still pretty darned good.

In terms of the requirements, the Galaxy S series meets them all, of course, including a 3.5mm audio jack. If you're OK with Samsung's UI tweaks and occasional service nudges, then I still maintain that the S series flagships are a good fit for ex-Symbian, ex-Windows phone users.

Galaxy S10e together with a Lumia 950, for size comparison...

Apple iPhone 11 Pro, from £1049

Yes, it's the first time I've recommended an iPhone as a Lumia replacement and for good reason - the camera system in this year's iPhone 'Pro' is that good. With plenty of input from ex-PureView man Ari Partinen (who's now ex-Apple, but that's another story) and a team of - literally - thousands at Apple, the iPhone 11 Pro's photos, from all three lenses, aren't massively ruined by over-sharpening (as is common on many modern camera phones) and have admirable IQ (Image Quality) all round. With a big camera update ('Deep Fusion') imminent as I write this, its photos are only going to get even better, with pro-level handling of light and texture. Watch this space.

Clockwise from left: Lumia 950 XL, Pixel 3 XL, Huawei P30 Pro, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro...

On the biometrics front, the iPhone X range introduced the world to genuinely useful face unlocking - foolproof and fast, and this is still in place on the 11 series. I've used every authentication system since the start and Apple's Face ID (now aped by Google, below) is the most convenient. No worries about finding the fingerprint sensor, if you're looking at the phone then you're in. And also into a great many applications, I've been impressed by how many third party iOS applications tie into Face ID to make sure you're allowed into their contents.

Add in the best stereo speakers (with true Dolby Atmos surround sound - really, the width of the sound stage has to be believed) on a mainstream phone and also the longest battery life (verified by me) and it's only iOS itself, plus the price, that add doubt. See above for my comments on operating system, but if you're OK with the sand-boxed nature of iOS (more so than Windows Phone, anyway) then the iPhone 11 Pro, as a long term phone investment, is worth every penny. You'll get warranty and support and updates for at least four years, so yes, this is an expensive, but very safe option. Remember the old Stella Artois slogan? "Reassuringly Expensive"!

Google Pixel 4 XL, £929

Due here shortly for review, though many reviews from US-based journalists are now online, the Pixel 4 range from Google is brand new and has received both plaudits and brickbats. The XL is the one to get, for the larger battery, with the smaller one being very challenged in the charge department. The Pixel 4 XL is expensive, mind you, almost up in iPhone land, yet with more compromises, arguably. Where the iPhone 11 range does everything it can to extend battery life (successfully), the Pixel 4 XL uses its Snapdragon 855 chipset, 90Hz refresh rate display and Soli radar system (for hand gestures) with gay abandon, resulting in the battery life issues that have been widely publicised. Still, it should get through a day if you're careful, and you just know that Google will optimise and fix things in their monthly updates - Pixels always get better and better performance and battery life as they age. Perhaps paradoxically!

As usual, you're getting updates straight from Google on day one, to the OS, to its first party exclusive applications (e.g. the on-device Assistant, the Pixel 4 Camera, etc.) and support for - like the iPhone - a good four years. So buying a Pixel is also an investment.

For the last year or so I've recommended the Pixel range to Lumia owners wanting to keep a great camera in their phone and the '4' is no different, adding genuinely lossless zoom (part software, part hardware) to at least 5x. 

In switching to an infrared face unlock system for the Pixel 4 range, Google joined Apple in using what is probably the most foolproof and quickest way to authenticate with a phone and with applications, but do note that Google implemented it in such a way that not all third party apps (including banking) are compatible, at least not yet. So if you're tempted to head to a Pixel 4 for 2020 then you are advised to wait - or at least check with your preferred banking and password applications!

Pixel 3a XL £469

(or Pixel 3 XL second hand for same amount)

Google's budget range of Pixels is immediately appealing for two reasons (other than the halved prices!) - the same excellent camera system as the flagships (see my Lumia 950 head to head), plus the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack, something you often lose by paying more... Build quality is excellent, though all in plastic, and there's the usual huge benefit of Google's guaranteed three years of updates, including at least two major new Android OS versions.

From the requirements list, the main misses are Qi charging (perhaps price-driven) and lack of card expansion. But then Pixels (like iPhones) have always preferred to just have integrated storage, for simplicity.

Authentication, for access, online banking, passwords, etc. are via a back of device fingerprint scanner and this works very well, helped by a suitable TPU case that guides your fingertip, in my experience. But all fast and convenient.

Nokia 7.2, £250

I've reviewed a fair number of the 'new' Nokia handsets (produced by OEMs in China under the guidance of Finland's HMD Global), though this '7.2' is brand new and I haven't handled it yet. But Nokia has built up a similar reputuation for quality as it did in the old Symbian and Windows days - good materials and solid construction. Moreover, this new 7.2 has an awful lot going for it in terms of specs and value for money, as the cheapest pick here. You can't really go wrong!

A mid-range chipset, the Snapdragon 660, will be easily fast enough, while keeping battery life good, 4GB RAM is fine for a low impact Android OS build, and you can add storage via microSD in the way in which you've done in the past. The 6.3" display is 1080p and 19.9:9, with the only slight downside that it's  LCD and not AMOLED. But then that's what you'd expect at this price. 

Everything's modern and future proof (there's also a 6GB RAM 128GB storage variant, note), with USB Type C, NFC and there's even a 3.5mm audio jack, something you don't get with the iPhone and Pixel flagships. If you've been a Lumia imaging lover then note the main camera has ZEISS optics and a large 1/2" 48MP sensor, so we're potentially in PureView-esque photo realms (I'll report back if this arrives for review). Plus there's a trendy ultra-wide lens as well.

As with the Pixels above (and also the Samsung), the Nokia phones should get years of security updates, so this is another good long term bet.

_____________________________

PS. Having mentioned 'second hand' several times, you may wonder where's the best place to look/buy? eBay is obvious but also full of pitfalls, with scammers and locked/blocked phones not uncommon. In terms of curated sellers, sign up to MeWe (a replacement for Google+, effectively) and then into the 'PSC Classifieds' group (when challenged for admittance, quote my name and the URL of this article as your way in). Then there are second hand shops which offer guarantees, such as CeX in the UK.

A couple of days ago I included the brand new Pixel 4 XL in my top five Lumia replacement phones - despite the much publicised shortcomings in terms of battery life and lack of ultra-wide camera lens. I believe Google can fix the battery drain in software and I've always prioritised zoom over ultra-wide imaging anyway. And now it's time to dive into detail - if you're thinking of jumping ship to Android and availing yourself of the latest in PureView-esque imaging and zoom facilities, then here's my comparison between Google's latest and the classic Lumia...

Although there's a little life left in Windows 10 Mobile in terms of updates and support, new hardware is non-existent, plus repairs and spares for older hardware are heading the same way - so it makes sense for everyone to be aware of the best of the rest from other platforms. The Pixel 4 XL is interesting (despite the price) for being 100% Google and having the most up to date Android implementation in the world - and guaranteed updates for many years.

As usual, I've shaded in green an obvious 'win' for either device. Any row where a winner would be totally subjective is left uncoloured. Or, where all devices are utterly excellent but in different ways, I've given each a 'green'(!)

[By the way, if you're viewing this feature on a phone then the table may well cause you problems. Try viewing in landscape mode? Failing that, go view this on a laptop or tablet!]

Verdict

Adding up the green 'wins' (for fun?!) gives a 10-8 win to the much newer device, of course, though despite my somewhat provocative scoring(!) I think some people will be surprised by how close the four year old Lumia gets to the latest and greatest from Google! Imaging is still up for grabs and this will be a crucial battlefield for many readers, so I'll report back on that in due course!

Your comments welcome.

This could be the one readers have been waiting for. The classic modern day PureView Lumia camera phone versus the upgraded (Deep Fusion) iPhone 11 Pro versus the brand new Google Pixel 4 XL. All three employ multi-exposure, multi-pixel sampling and other computational tricks. The Lumia is obviously the old boy here, hailing from 2015, but as I start the shootout I've still no idea which will win out. I guess it depends on how much zooming I test! (PS. I include a Halloween bonus shot, just for fun!) (Updated: with 'party' shot, by request)

...Of course, I do have to zoom in some of the tests. After all, the iPhone 11 Pro has a dedicated 2x telephoto, and the Pixel 4 XL has a high megapixel 2x telephoto with multi-capture software zoom to take that up to a genuinely 'lossless' 5x. In theory. And, in such company, the Lumia 950's limited 1.5x lossless PureView zoom is going to struggle. But hey, it'll pick up points in low light, right?

As ever, the idea is to try and point people towards a successor to the 950 when the time comes. Your comments welcome below on which of the two contenders here you'd choose.

As a basic recap on imaging specifications:

In short, it's going to be a good fight, though the two latter phones will win out on zoom. As usual, I'm going to ignore the wide angle lens, since results there are more for fun value and aren't even focussed.

Test 1: Sunny suburbia

A nice easy starter (don't worry, light levels will get challenging below!) for the three devices. Just garden and house detail in hazy sun, here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

Very close results here, though the Lumia 950 steals it (just) because the greenery looks more life like. The iPhone 11 Pro definitely drops the extra point because diagonals still have a jagged look, with no anti-aliasing smarts. Which is odd, given all the Deep Fusion AI, you'd have thought the algorithms could handle a simple plastic drainpipe?

Scores: Lumia 950: 10; iPhone 11 Pro: 9; Pixel 4 XL: 9pts

Test 2: Sunny suburbia, zoomed x2

Also easy, the same scene but zoomed in by 2x. So just the telephoto on the newer phones and just a little digital zoom on the Lumia. Here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

The artefacts introduced by the digital zoom on the Lumia are a little ugly, of course, so a couple of points lost right there. The iPhone and Pixel results are very similar, each have small pros and cons, but a joint win here.

Scores: Lumia 950: 7; iPhone 11 Pro: 9; Pixel 4 XL: 9pts

Test 3: Maximum detail landscape

Loads of detail and a more challenging light scape - cloudy with a brighter sky behind this church. Here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

Differences here in white balance, certainly, with the Lumia's typical warm cast and more natural colours from the iPhone and Pixel. Details are similar for all three phones, but I'm going to break a three way tie but putting the iPhone just in front, thanks to incredibly crisp yet realistic texture capture.

Scores: Lumia 950: 9; iPhone 11 Pro: 10; Pixel 4 XL: 9pts

Test 4: OK, now up to 3x zoom!

Time to stretch all three phones in terms of zoom now. I went to 3x as closely as I could on each (you can see that I didn't quite make it on the Lumia, no thanks to the UI!!) Here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

A clear hierarchy here, as I'd expect. The 950 XL struggles with zoom again, while the extra telephoto lens on the iPhone 11 Pro means that the digital zoom doesn't have to work too hard. While the hybrid multi-exposure ('jiggle') zoom on the Pixel 4, allied to the telephoto lens, produces visibly superior results, with no real artefacts or jaggies.

Scores: Lumia 950: 7; iPhone 11 Pro: 8; Pixel 4 XL: 10pts

Test 5: Crazy (5x) zoom

One last zoom test, here in overcast conditions, focussing on a phone mast about 50m away and then trying to zoom in to 5x, or as close as the UIs would let me get. Here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

Interestingly, the Lumia almost-all-digital zoom isn't as bad as I'd feared, but it's still blocky and clearly in last place here. The iPhone's now 3x out of its comfort zone and it's showing, with noise and ambiguity, but the Pixel 4 XL, despite its nominal 2x telephoto lens, does a great job at using hand wobbles in real time to produce subtly different shots which can be combined for higher resolution output or, as here, for genuinely good zoom. I'm impressed!

Scores: Lumia 950: 5; iPhone 11 Pro: 7; Pixel 4 XL: 9pts

Test 6: Nature macro

Some nice leaf detail, close up, in gloomy Autumn lighting, here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

Detail from all three phone cameras is excellent, so a genuine three way tie here!

Scores: Lumia 950: 10; iPhone 11 Pro: 10; Pixel 4 XL: 10pts

Test 7: Toy Textures

Some toys in a basket in low (artificial) light, focussing in on the white rabbit (well, it used to be pure white, but it's a much-loved 15 year old animal now, so....!) Here's the whole scene, darker than the scene would lead you to believe, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

Colour cast issues here for the iPhone, the toy rabbit comes across here as too yellow. But on the other hand, its Deep Fusion pixel-level processing does a pretty good job of handling all the fur and the string whiskers. Pros and cons. Oh dash it, another three way tie overall!

Scores: Lumia 950: 9; iPhone 11 Pro: 9; Pixel 4 XL: 9pts

Test 8: Indoor gloom

Just trying to challenge the light gathering of the phones, a painting on a white wall in gloomy light (curtains closed!), here's the whole scene, again darker than the scene would lead you to believe, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

A perfect result from the Lumia, showing what PureView oversampling can do - zero noise, crisp and realistic results, etc. The Pixel gets closest to the actual colour of the wall, albeit with too much contrast in/on the painting itself, while the iPhone tries too darned hard to bring out texture, showing dappling on the wall itself to perhaps match the perceived material of the canvas! Creditable efforts all round, but the Lumia takes the win easily overall.

Scores: Lumia 950: 10; iPhone 11 Pro: 8; Pixel 4 XL: 8pts

Test 9: Still life shade

Some random objects on a shelf in a gloomy corner of the house - remember that I'm trying to really challenge these phone cameras! Here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference (though note that the wall is actually paler and more green than blue - naughty Lumia!):

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

At last we're getting some really significant differences in output - in terms of the objects, the Lumia wins with its PureView oversampling, but the wall isn't that colour and the angel statue is far more muted in real life. Meanwhile, in iOS land, the iPhone 11 Pro absolutely nails the colours but overdoes the texture and contrast a little. The Pixel 4 XL falls behind here, with the wall even bluer and with poor contrast on the main subjects - oddly. 

Scores: Lumia 950: 9; iPhone 11 Pro: 9; Pixel 4 XL: 7pts

Test 10: Weak indoor lighting, book detail

Loads of textures and colours in this random bookshelf, shot at about a metre in a dimly lit living room, here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

Astonishingly clear results from the iPhone 11 Pro's Deep Fusion imaging pipeline, bringing out almost too much texture and clarity, i.e. it's hyper-real. But with three photos taken in what was much dimmer light than the shots would make it seem, I think I have to give the iPhone the win, if only for sheer effort.

Scores: Lumia 950: 9; iPhone 11 Pro: 10; Pixel 4 XL: 9pts

Test 11: Night time light extremes

A street side shot with lamp, sign and greenery, shot at dead of night, here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 (on full auto!) for reference - on the iPhone it used Night mode automatically, on the Pixel I had to switch to Night Sign explicitly:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

As you might expect, the two multi-second exposure sequences on the iPhone and Pixel come up trumps here, but the Lumia still gets some credit for doing everything in one single exposure, I think. of the two night mode shots, the Pixel 4 XL's is cleaner and brighter - just look at the leaves, look at the lack of noise in the sign, look at the clarity on the LED dot pattern. Just amazing.

Scores: Lumia 950: 8; iPhone 11 Pro: 9; Pixel 4 XL: 10pts

Test 12: Dead of night

My traditional night time suburbia test - again night modes are allowed, here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

A few notes of explanation - the small blue highlights are internal reflections inside each camera and all three phones have this somewhere in the shot, so I'm discounting these completely. Also, note that the homeowner in the distance (inconsiderately!) turned an extra room's lights on when I got to the Lumia's test shot, so discount the extra light around the distant car! With all that said, there are clearly differences in noise reduction, in sharpening, in preservation of detail - and.... I'm not prepared to declare a winner, since they all have pros and cons. It's a subjective decision, so make it yourself. An all round tie here. The Lumia is perhaps the weakest of the three renditions, but then it took its shot far faster and in one go (you can even see a person walking along and not being blurred out), so that's got to count for brownie points.

Scores: Lumia 950: 9; iPhone 11 Pro: 9; Pixel 4 XL: 9pts

Test 13: Spooky Halloween!

Appropriately test 13(!), here's a mock grave set up on a nearby lawn, shot in almost complete darkness and needing some zoom, since I didn't want to tresspass on the lawn too much. An almost impossible shot to get overall, so I wasn't expecting much!! Here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively. (You can click the device names here, which are linked to the original JPGs, in case you want to download them and do your own analysis.)

Amazing that any of the shots came out, considering the lighting, but they all get Halloween points here. The iPhone 11 Pro goes so far in lightening the scene that a lot of the atmosphere is lost, the Lumia's shot is very noisy, but then you'd expect that at 2x zoom and with no oversampling possible. While the Pixel 4 XL does a pretty good job of keeping noise under control and keeping some of the dark and spooky atmosphere.

Scores: Lumia 950: 7; iPhone 11 Pro: 8; Pixel 4 XL: 9pts

Test 14: Party time! 

My infamous 'moving subject, low light' party mock-up test, with flash forced on, here's the whole scene, as shot on the Lumia 950 for reference:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Lumia 950, iPhone 11 Pro, and Pixel 4 XL, from top to bottom respectively:

Remember when shooting my party scene always resulted in a Lumia landslide? Those were the days of the 1020, with Xenon flash, and the 950 never quite got close. Looks like the iPhone 11 Pro has though, with clever software picking out extraordinary amounts of detail and getting the colours spot on. Meanwhile the Lumia does pretty well, with just a little blurring and with quite a lot of 'yellow cast'. And the Pixel 4 XL has some blurring, especially in the bottle. 

(Note that 'people' shots like this are a big reason I avoid doing test human subjects, as you can never 100% replicate the pose and (in this case) motion between test snaps.)

Scores: Lumia 950 XL: 8; iPhone 11 Pro: 10; Pixel 4 XL: 7pts

Verdict

[Updated with party test scene added!) Adding up the points gives us some kind of quantitative verdict:

1. Apple iPhone 11 Pro: 125 pts (/130)
2. Google Pixel 4 XL: 124 pts
3. Lumia 950: 117 pts

Clearly the top Apple and Google camera phones are neck and neck and, having being saying publicly for the last month that the iPhone 11 Pro had the best camera system in the world, I have to report that I think it just got pipped by the brand new Pixel 4 (and 4 XL). True the latter doesn't have a wide angle lens option, but if you do any zooming at all in daily use then the Pixel 4 XL has serious imaging chops.

Interestingly, if you exclude the test shots that involve zoom, the Lumia 950 almost wins, showing that 2015's PureView oversampling system still is top of the world when it comes to image quality and purity. And perhaps shows that despite the iPhone's Deep Fusion and the Pixel 4 XL's HDR+ improvements, they could still learn from what Nokia and Microsoft's engineers were doing half a decade ago!

Comments welcome then. I think that either of these would do well as a Lumia replacement, with just a few caveats. But what do you think?

PS. I do have to mention that, although the Pixel 4 XL impresses hugely in many ways, it's too early for anyone to buy it - because its face recognition system isn't supported by almost every secure application you're going to want to use. Give it three months!

Two months on, here is the November 2019 update to the AAWP directory of curated UWP applications, those with native Windows 10 UI and which support different orientations, Continuum and even use on laptop or tablet. Do please get involved in the comments to let me know of anything which has stopped working, or even of UWP apps not on the list.

With regards to the 'curated' bit in the title, all of these titles have been personally checked or recommended by a trusted reader of the site. See below the table for some helpful notes and background.

NB. I've included (and marked as such) the new Store-packaged PWAs (Progressive Web Applications). While not UWP, they're in the same category in my mind, and install in the usual way, but working with the Edge engine on Windows 10. Note that I've also included a few PWAs which haven't been professionally packaged in UWP wrappers - they're usually here because they're so fully featured or are for a major service. But don't let that stop you seeking other PWAs out too, via our Flow stories and via portals like Appscope.

Directory updated 4th November 2019

General 8 Zip AppRaisin  CAS Preview Clipboard Cleaner Cloud Drive! Connected Devices  Cortrigga DailyPic Digicam Remote.test Disk File Searcher Download App Later Dropbox  Dynamic Theme edgeTile Feem v4 - Share Files Offline FieldWire File Cards Files&Folders Pro File Renamer GDrive.NET Hand Off Hopic Explorer Instabullet MEGA Privacy PAWA PDF Conversion Tool PDF Reader PDF Wizard Perfect Flashlight Perfect Tools QuickProfile Random Tool Rar Zip Extractor Pro Roamit Share 2 Print Share.it Share me Files Torrex Web Tiles Woopiti Zip Opener	Productivity/Office Action Note Choshim Diary Chronos Calendar Clipboard Manip Count-It CV Sampler Denna Diarium FileTag 2 Foxit MobilePDF Keep To Do Markdown Editor - Write Beautifully Microsoft To-Do Modern Flashcards Nimbus Note NotepadX  OCR Text Detection Tool Office Lens OneCalendar  One Task Paperly Power Planner PPT Sampler Project Studio Revent Scanner for Docs Pro ScribePad ShapeResume Share 2 Print SharePoint Slack  SMS to Excel Speech Central: Voice Reader Spreadsheet Conversion Tool Textnotes Tiles for Outlook Todoist Track Goals WorkingHours WP Message Backup
Commercial Travel/Movie Booking AirBnB PWA London Travel  SkyScanner PWA Travel Currencies Trivago PWA	Communications and IM Facebook Messenger FlowMail HipTalk Universal  Loadkit Download Manager  Read My Mail Skype TeamViewer  TeamViewer QuickSupport Telegram PWA Unigram X (Telegram) Viber  Video Optimizer for Whatsapp
News and Web AAWP Universal Ark View Coc Coc Browser Dailyhunt Daily Mail Online  FeedLab  Flipboard PWA GHub U GNews - Google News Reader Hypersonic iNi Reader Latermark for Pocket mAloud Monument Browser MSPoweruser Newsflow Newsreader for BBC News News Live Tiles RSS Live Tiles Shiye Browser Short.y Speech Central - Voice Reader The Verge News Vivid Windows Central	Reference/Language Anki Universal Astronomy Hub Binocleo CodeHub Collection Keeper Diccionario Dicionário Português Earthquake Watch Elements - The Periodic Table  Flights Radar FlowDict  GeoQuiz Hear it first! ISS Finder Kiwix JS Offline Wikimedia reader Mobile Studio U NASA Picture Galleries onePedia Perfect Dictionary Planetarium 3D Small Media Manager Reloaded Songbook Pro Speaking Recipes Star Walk 2 Terrae Motus UrbanDict WikiMed Wikini Yandex.Maps
Shopping/Banking AliExpress Shopping BitPay Boots UK PWA CryptoChart Flipkart i-bank pass Loyca My USPS (USA) My Giffgaff NBG Mobile Banking (i-Bank) Packages Tracker Tangerine Bank (Canada)	Social 6tum - Tumblr client Aeries  AIR for Facebook Baconit Disqus  Facebook Friendica Harvester Messenger  HipTalk Instagram  LightSocialPro MALClient Meme Generator Suite Ouga (Tumblr) Perfect 9GAG  Perfect Flicker Pinstar Piny Quarrel (Discord) Readit ReddPlanet Saver for Instagram PRO SlimSocial for Facebook Tik Tok TopicStack Tumblast Tweet It!  Tweetium  Twitter  Ouga - Tumblr Winsta (Instagram)
Personal Navigation/Travel AroundMe Backroads Cartograph Maps Pro Findery PWA Flights Info Flights Radar GeoMeterPro 10  GPX Tracker GPX Viewer and Recorder Just Buses (London) London Travel  Pocket Map (Norway) SG iBus (Singapore) Sygic GPS Navigation Traffic TripAdvisor TripAdvisor Hotels Flights and Restaurants Uber (PWA) Volvo On Call Wikivoyage by Kiwix WinGo Maps Yandex.Maps Zenit	Settings/Internals/Utilities 8 Zip Lite / 8 Zip  AIDA64 Battery Bar Graph CodeHub DataCounter DOSBox Interop Tools IP Network Scanner PRO Kirik Battery LAN drive Landiskape PhoNetInfo  Remote Desktop Specs Analysis Speedtest Wifi Analyzer Wifi Analyzer Tool
Sports/Exercise/Health Break Reminder 10 Diabetes Analyzer fitbit  Fitbit Coach Fit Timer Fitness Foundation GoodDoc  Insulin Buddy PWA Perfect Workout Mr Pillster Pillbox ScoreBall SofaScore LiveScore True Fitness	Privacy/Secrecy/Security 9Zen Universal Locker Bytewarden File Hasher Hacked? HideImages KeePassReader KeePassWin Keeper Password Manager Master Password Microsoft Authenticator Mobile Vault mSecure OneLocker  OTP Manager Passkey Password Hello Personal Files  Secret Mind
Weather-related/Lighting HueDynamic for Hue Huetro for Hue MeteoStation Suntime - Sunrise & Sunset Vieather Weather Notify Yandex.Weather	Time related  Break Reminder 10 Jack of time My Big Days Realarm Special Day Countdown Stopwatch Yokto Timer ++ WorkingHours World Time Clock
Calculators and (numeric) Converters Calculator2 Travel Currency	Finance (tracking/analysis) EtherWallet Money Lover - Money Manager Money Tracker Pro UMeter (Uber)
Camera replacements/aids 1Shot camera  Office Lens  Photo Scan  ProShot  QR Scanner  Scanner One	Music/Speech recording/tuning Airyware Tuner  Audio Media Conversion Tool Ax-Exp DIY Piano Chordle FL Studio Mobile 3  MeeDJ Metronome+ Music Stack My Piano Phone Perfect Recorder Piano10 Sound Recorder Hi-Res Talkinator Auvid Tuner
Music playback/streaming /downloading/FM 8 Soundcloud ABC Radio FTW! ACG Player Audiocloud  Deezer Music Duplex FM Radio Jiosaavn Media Player for gMusic Pro Media Tag Mini Radio Player Moodflow Musbox Napster Neutron Music Player Next-Player Playcast Songify Spodicast Music Spotify WPW Spotimo Tidal Unofficial Valve Player VLC YouTunes! Z Music Player	Imaging/Graphics 10Lapse Perfect 9GAG   Afterlight Auto Face Swap Backup for Instagram Colory DrawNotes  DSLR Camera Photo Effect Fliky Fresh Paint  Fused Double Exposure  GeoPhoto GDrive.NET  Image Raw Image Resizer  Imgur4Windows Inkodo Instagram  Likegram for Instagram Monocle Giraffe (Imgur) Perfect Flicker Photo Box Pro Photo Resizer Photo Scan Photo Shader  Photo Stacking Pic Collage ProGet QRafty QR Code Light Scanner Resize Image Saver for Instagram PRO Screenshot Join SketchMaster Spirality SpotBright  Tapershop Vector Conversion Tool Wallpaper Studio
Podcast related/Audio-book Audible  Audiobooked  BookListener Booxio BringCast  Grover Pro  MyPodcasts  Podcasted Podcasts (Beta) Podcast+ Pro  Podcast Lounge 2	Media (Video) and Entertainment Awesome Tube Best Player Cast To Crunchyroll Dailymotion Duplex File Downloader Movier myTube!  Perfect Tube  Playcast PushTV Scorpio Player Small Media Manager Reloaded TorrentPlatinum Trakter Tubecast PRO  TubeGet TVPlayer TV Show Tracker Unstream (Twitch) Video 360 Vime - Ultimate Vimeo Client VLC  zTwitch
Reading/PDFs/comics Comic Show Cover - Comic Reader Fiction Book Reader Limited Foxit Mobile PDF  Freda KNFB Reader LightReader PDF Assistant Pro PDF Reader PDF Viewer Plus Perfect PDF Reader Tankobon Xodo PDF Reader & Editor	Video editing/sharing Animotica - Video Editor Auvid Tuner

This then is a bookmarkable page of the top few hundred applications that should be a useful aide-memoire after a hard reset if rebuilding a Windows 10 phone from scratch or, perhaps more appropriately, a great place for a new Windows 10 Mobile user to start.

Some notes:

• FAQ: I don't mark new entries as 'new' in any way because there's no point - you already know what they are as we've featured them on the front pages of AAWP over the last month or so. These reference pages are just that - for reference. For newcomers and for people looking up recommendations.
• Thanks to the AAWP community for suggestions so far (e.g. in comments below and on previous pages), this is a crowd-sourced project!
• Not included (obviously) are games. They're here (for both 8.1 and W10M). Also not included are applications which come with every phone, such as the core Windows and Lumia apps.
• Yes, I know that a couple of entries are in two categories. Just trying to be helpful!
• Implemented as a table, I've kept the width right down, now with just two columns, in order to be phone-friendly. In other words, you can view this article on your phone and, depending on the link and the item, dive right into an app, its page and then download it. In theory!
• If you're after the original WP 8.1 app directories, they're here: Photo/Media/Reading and General.

_____________________________________

You may have noticed that when Google launched the Pixel 4 series recently, it emphasised the 'astrophotography' capability. Essentially, when the phone's mounted in a tripod of some kind (and thus not moving), the software switches into 'astrophotography' mode and allows exposures (presumably at crazy low ISO) of up to four minutes. Does this work? And what happens if you try the same on an iPhone 11 Pro? Or even... a Lumia 950? In short, don't get your hopes up for any of them!

The Pixel 4 XL, on a tripod, in the middle of a four minute exposure!

This is all a little niche, but I couldn't help but shoot a comparison shot on a cold and clear night in the UK, in Autumn. To my eyes, I could only pick out a handful of stars, not least because I wasn't prepared to stay out in the cold for half an hour so that my eyes adjusted further. But also because I live near Reading, a major city in the UK, and there's substantial 'noise pollution'.

At which point I should summarise the major stumbling blocks in the whole concept:

• you need a cloud free night sky (that's much of the year out in the UK, at least)
   
• you need to be away from any artificial sources of light, ideally over ten miles away!
   
• for best effect, you'll need something picturesque to be silhouetted against the night sky, at least if you want a jaw dropping image
   
• at the end of the day, you're 'only' going to end up with a photo of the stars and, I hate to break it to you, these have looked much the same for millennia (aside from trying to spot where the various planets and the ISS are today). Moreover, NASA and many others with way higher end equipment than a 2019 smartphone camera have already photographed the night sky in gory detail and the results are freely available.

There, that's dampened your enthusiasm a little, I'll warrant?!

Still, there's a bit of geek cool in having a go, so that's what I did. Using a tripod mount/grip for each and using the longest exposures each software solution allowed, I pointed the phones upwards and did my best.

Don't expect miracles, but in order of effectiveness we have:

Lumia 950 (2015)

Here's the overall image taken in a four second exposure, the longest the manual mode allows (and with ISO set to its minimum of 50):

You'll note immediately that it's essentially black, with just a few small points of light for the brightest stars, even on a 4s exposure. Yes, this is how dark the sky really seemed to my eyes, but in the context of an article on 'astrophotography' I guess it's a failure.

[update] As you'll see in the comments below, it's been suggested that I should have left the ISO alone! The UK is cloudy for the next few days, so feel free to email in (slitchfield@gmail.com) any 4s exposures of the night sky taken with a Lumia 950 in your country and I'll consider adding them here. I did try another attempt in a mainly cloudy, but equally dark, sky just now with the Lumia 950 XL on auto-ISO and it ended up at 400. The next chance I get with no cloud I'll try again and - hopefully - gather eight times the light without too much noise or lightening!

Looking at 1:1, for completeness:

...there's not much more to be seen and, interestingly, the stars do appear to be streaked a little. This shows the movement of the night sky due to the Earth's rotation in even just those four seconds. Which is also pretty cool.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro (2019)

The iPhone 11 Pro now has an optional 30 second maximum exposure in its Night mode - you have to manually scroll through the exposure slider - and this also does auto-alignment of the images captured, essentially eliminating any movement of the stars in the sky, since software resets everything in the scene to be motionless. 

So we're getting somewhere in terms of capturing more stars, but at the expense of reflected light in the atmosphere from urban lights nearby. So mixed success, I think. Here's a 1:1 crop:

Ouch. The iPhone's Night mode is clearly optimised for more earthly things - it's brilliant on night time street scenes and urban landscapes. But the algorithms can't really cope with the nothingness of space, which is - apparently - really dark and really big!

Pixel 4 XL (2019)

Ah yes, the reason for this article. Google put in a special 'astrophotography' mode into the Pixel 4 XL camera, wherein it detects when it's on a tripod in really dark conditions and then optimises everything to capture stars. To the extent that it allows a whopping four minute exposure (not a constant exposure, but many shorter ones, which then get aligned). Here's my best effort:

To be honest, at first glance this isn't massively better the iPhone's 30 second attempt, but closer inspection shows that there is a lot better control over noise, showing that there is genuine optimisation for this specific use case. Here's a 1:1 crop:

Stars may be blurry specks here, but there are more of them and they're set against a largely black backdrop, which is also good. So yes, I can confirm that the Pixel 4 series does a neat line in basic, really basic 'astrophotography'.

However...

But... take a look at the actual detail present even in the Pixel 4 shot - it's not exactly useable at full resolution, while there are - literally - millions of other photos of the exact same night sky, the same constellations, online, all of higher quality. So, ultimately, what's the point?

For most of us, the end goal might be to shoot a night time landscape of a holiday destination, or loved ones on a restaurant balcony late in the evening, that sort of thing, with the hope that a few twinkly stars might adorn the background and add atmosphere. And any decent flagship smartphone camera with OIS should manage there, without a tripod. Even if - in the Lumia's case - it was made four years ago!