Windows 10 Mobile Build 14905 is the first-ever Redstone 2 build released by Microsoft for Insiders in Fast ring. You can read the official changelog of Build 14905 by clicking here.  The build also has its share of known issues that you can read by clicking here. Being the first build of Redstone 2, Build 14905 brings many under the hood structural changes.

Now we share our Impressions of the build including performance, multitasking, gaming, navigation demo, bugs & Installation experience.

Read our Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary update review and massive changelog + hands-on demo of changes vs Threshold by clicking on the links below.

Anniversary update Review (Video too)

Anniversary update Massive changelog & Hands-on demo of new features vs Threshold

Build 14905 Installation Experience:

While many insiders didn’t get the update due to an issue (later fixed by Microsoft), the Installation experience has been good for us in case of the Build 14905. It took around 40 to 45 minutes for the build to get downloaded, installed, data migrated and the devices getting up and running.

In case it takes too much time for you try a soft reset or plug-in the phone and it may work finally. 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 14905 Hands-on Impressions (Performance, Multitasking, Gaming, Battery Life & more):

  • The Build 14905 hands-on has been a good experience for us. While it may be assumed to be buggy and crash-prone due to underlying Windows one-core related code changes, it is not the case.
  • It was found to be stable and responsive during normal daily smartphone tasks like start-screen navigation, apps list scrolling, opening and closing of settings, handling calls, texts, Mails and more. We haven’t faced OS level crashes with it.
  • Coming to other routine and important stuff, Mobile Data and WiFi connections work fine on our devices.
  • Store app however ran into apps update issues after the Build 14905 installation and we shared a temporary fix for it.
  • Native apps like Maps, Camera, Outlook Mail & Calendar etc work fine.
  • Sharing however seems broken in places. It may crash frequently while trying to share images and other stuff.
  • Microsoft Edge is stable and works fine on Build 14905
  • Video streaming and playing also works fine without any issue like flickering faced on very early builds and we have demoed it too.
  • Gaming also works fine and multitasking with games open in background is rock solid
  • Multitasking for apps works impressively and apps resume really fast from background. Apps don’t crash in background while multitasking

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.
  • Sharing seems broken in places.
  • Apps update issues in Store

In a Nutshell:

We are running Build 14905 on your daily driver devices and it has not really let us down. There are some issues (known + what we found) but you can easily live with it as an Insider.

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.