It’s been one heck of an exciting week with the launch of the Lumia 950 and 950XL, two new flagship Windows 10 Mobile handsets, as well as controversy with AT&T and T-Mobile. This is our weekly Windows 10 news feature where we recap the biggest stories from the past seven days.
WinBeta has obtained screenshots of an upcoming candidate build of Windows 10 Mobile and can reveal a number of additional changes you can expect to see if this build does pass internal testing. First up, it appears Microsoft is allowing users to adjust the size of text on screen, kind of like DPI management on a PC or laptop that supports it. On a device with a high resolution, making the display text small will allow you to have more columns on the Start Screen, and apps will display more content on screen at one time. So for example, Lumia 930 users can finally enable 4 columns on Start, much like the Lumia 1520 can.
Devices with a lower-resolution screen can still take advantage of text resizing, however in most cases it will not give you an extra column on the Start Screen. It will however adjust the amount of content displayed within apps at one time, which is fairly nice. Other changes include additional options when enabling Developer Mode.
Finally, according to our sources, the upcoming build has improved upon overall operating system performance, meaning the lock screen bug is near to non-existent now and the Notification Center lags less when swiping down after not using it for some time.
Microsoft was expected to roll out a new build this past week, but a big issue came up causing a high crash rate. You can read more about that here.
Microsoft revealed in a comment on its official Microsoft Lumia Facebook page that Windows 10 Mobile will begin rolling out to existing Windows Phone devices in December, which would mean we’re just 2 months away from having the final bits of Windows 10 Mobile rollout globally. The rollout for Windows 10 Mobile is slightly different compared to desktops and laptops, instead of having a set date, it’s up to carriers when handsets will first receive the upgrade.
According to our own sources, Microsoft has entered the final stages of development, meaning they are now focused on fixing bugs and giving the operating system a bit of a polish. The very latest internal builds are no longer branded as “Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview” and are instead simply branded as “Windows 10 Mobile”, which of course is in preparation of the upcoming RTM.
Microsoft unveiled the Lumia 550, 950 and 950XL during the October 6th Windows 10 devices event in New York City. You can check out our fantastic in-depth look at the two new flagship devices here.
Unfortunately, controversy swirls around the availability of the new handsets. It seemed like AT&T was going to be the only carrier to have the device, creating outrage towards the other carriers for not caring about Microsoft’s mobile platform. That is until T-Mobile CEO John Legere called out Microsoft via Twitter for being unwilling to bring the flagships directly to T-Mobile. Microsoft responded by saying they made the decision to have AT&T carry the Lumia 950, without going into why. You can read about this story here.
Stay tuned for yet another exciting week of Windows 10 Mobile news!
Windows 10 Mobile news recap is a weekly feature that highlights the top stories from the previous week. You can keep up to date with all things Windows 10 Mobile by bookmarking our dedicated page.
