The Lumia 950 and 950 XL share most core specs below, though the XL has the larger screen and battery, and a different processor with eight cores rather than six.

Unlike a lot of flagship phones today, they’re both made of plastic, not metal. The don’t look or feel as premium, but they also won’t pile up with fingerprints. Straight sides make them easy enough to grip and handle.

The three power and lock buttons on the right spine are metal, though, as is the dedicated camera button along further along the side. I like these a lot, both to trigger the camera and to take the picture. Other competitors are starting to add their own quick-launch camera functions, like double-tapping the home button. Regardless, I’m happy to see this here.

  • Windows 10 Mobile operating system with Cortana voice assistant
  • 5.2-inch AMOLED screen with 2,560×1,440-pixel resolution
  • six-core Snapdragon 808 processor
  • 20-megapixel PureView camera
  • 5-megapixel front-facing camera
  • 4K video capture
  • USB Type-C fast-charger
  • 3,000mAh removable battery
  • 32GB internal storage with up to 200GB in microSD storage

Windows Hello: Logging in with your eyes

Fingerprint readers are having a moment, but you won’t find one on either new Lumia 950 phone. Instead, there’s Windows Hello, which uses biometric data to authorize your login in the form of iris recognition. After registering your eye, the phone’s front-facing camera is able to detect your unique characteristics from others.

It all happens through a processor that Microsoft has licensed from chipmaker Intel, and a depth-sensing camera that relies on infrared cameras to identify your features.

Windows Hello will launch on the Lumias in beta, but will work right out of the box. As long as the phone is close enough to your face, it happens quickly. It emits a red light when it’s sensing, then, once the phone recognizes you, it flashes your name up top — “Hello, Jessica” — and then you’re in.