Windows 10 Mobile Build 14946 Hands-on: Review, Unmentioned changes, Issues & Installation experience

Microsoft last pushed Windows 10 Mobile Build 14946, the latest Redstone 2 Build to devices of Windows Insiders in Fast ring. You can read the official changelog of Build 14946 by clicking here. We were also able to find some unmentioned changes & upcoming features in Build 14946. Read them here.

Now we share our Impressions of the build including performance, multitasking, gaming, navigation demo, bugs & Installation experience. We have also demoed the unmentioned changes.

Build 14946 Installation Experience:

The Installation experience has been far from ideal in case of the Build 14946. Many of our readers have faced issues with installation of the build on their devices. This is especially worse if you have an extra language pack installed. We were lucky however as on Lumia 640 XL, it took around 40 to 45 minutes for the build to get downloaded, installed, data migrated and the devices getting up and running.

Microsoft has however fixed the language pack issue now and in case it failed too many times for you earlier, you can try to upgrade now.

You can refer to our common issues and errors fixing guide for more. You will be usually notified for a restart when the download has completed in background. You can check our tutorial on how to prepare for upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile.

Build 14946 Hands-on Impressions (Performance, Multitasking, Gaming, Battery Life & more):

We have used Build 14946 as a daily driver. Build 14946 seems to be a typical Fast Ring Build with new changes and features but lots of bugs and issues too.

You may end up doing a hard reset after installing this build. In our case Microsoft Edge, Mail, WhatsApp Beta stopped working after updating to this build. You can refer to our Backup and reset tutorial if you need to do a hard reset.

Once you have done hard reset Build 14946 impresses with its performance and responsiveness yet again. Check our hands-on demo.

It was found to be fluid during normal daily smartphone tasks like start-screen navigation, apps list scrolling, opening and closing of settings, handling calls, texts and more.

Even after hard reset we faced random reboots couple of times, a first for even Redstone 2 builds.

Coming to other routine and important stuff, Mobile Data and WiFi connections work fine on our devices after hard reset.

Mail app has been running into issued and you may face a range of issues. System-wide sharing seems broken again.

Microsoft Edge has also started running into issues with hint of the new feature "Snoozing". We noticed Tabs crashing during heavy browsing.

Gaming works fine and multitasking with even two games open in background is rock solid

Video Playback and streaming works fine

Multitasking for apps works impressively and apps resume really fast from background. Apps don't crash in background while multitasking

Battery Life degradation is noticeable in the Build 14946

Major Bug & Issues:

Bluetooth functionality needs a UI overhaul with control options like allowing "which devices to connect automatically" or "manually". There should be option to manually search for Bluetooth devices

As mentioned above if you haven't done a hard reset you may face a range of issues and bugs. Hard reset makes it better

Mail app is running into issues even after hard reset. Sharing is broken.

Random Reboots may happen when doing heavy stuff

In a Nutshell:

We are running Build 14946 as a daily driver on our devices. If you have stomach for bugs / issues but stronger love for new features upgrade to it or else move to Slow / Release Preview Ring. Future builds may bring even more bugs.

We also want to make it clear that it is our hands-on experience with the build and your experience may vary and may be better or worse than ours. We recommend hard reset, if you are facing lots of issues. You can read our guide to fix commonly known Windows 10 Mobile upgrade, installation and usability issues. Read our Full Redstone 2 Coverage here:
Source: Windows 10 Mobile Build 14946 Hands-on: Review, Unmentioned changes, Issues & Installation experience