"Windows 10 Mobile is dead!" is a common mantra these days. But I'm here to say that you'll have to pry my Lumia 950 XL from my cold, dead hands. Here's why.

"Windows on phones" might be in decline, but there was a point where it felt like the ecosystem genuinely had some momentum, particularly in Europe, where Windows Phone took some key market share milestones in countries such as Germany, Italy and the UK. That's all behind us now, however. Microsoft purchased Nokia's phone division a couple of years back and quickly set about dismantling its hardware strategy. You know the story. When you combine the cancellation of McLaren, the lack of enthusiasm from third-party devs, hardware makers, carriers and arguably Microsoft itself, fans have found themselves in an awkward position. The free-fall decline of "Windows on phones" as an entity led to Microsoft's current "retrenchment," while it repositioned itself for the next attempt to enter the market. We can argue for hours about Microsoft's Windows Phone strategy, but I'm not here to discuss that today. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more

My first Windows Phone: The underrated HTC 8X.

Following this week's Ask Dan episode where our dapper editor-in-chief discussed those of us who still use Windows 10 Mobile, I thought I'd offer some reasons why I stick around, and why I'm still hopeful for the future. I primarily write about Xbox, and there's no rule that anyone here has to use a Windows 10 Mobile device. But I do so 100 percent by choice. Here are five reasons why.

1. Windows Phone isn't dead In terms of marketability, Windows Phone might be dead in the water, but it's not for those who still use it. Microsoft continues to update and work on Windows 10 Mobile, despite the fact that it's near zero percent market share.

So why the updates? Microsoft clearly has plans to re-enter the mobile market in the future, and frankly, the company has no choice. As consumers shift increasingly to mobile devices as their primary computing solution, Microsoft can't afford to ignore this section of the market if it wants Windows as an OS to exist anywhere beyond the enterprise. Microsoft clearly has plans to re-enter the mobile market in the future, and frankly, it has no choice. This is partially why it has been steadily injecting its apps and services onto the dominant mobile platforms: iOS and Android. There will come the point, however, when iOS and Android threaten Windows itself (should Apple and Google ever get it together). Which is why we believe CShell, combined with Windows 10 on ARM and new hardware categories defined by the Surface Phone will set the tone for Windows on mobile devices in the future. The continued development of Windows 10 Mobile and UWP is an important pillar of that future strategy.

The infamous "Surface Phone" patent.

I'm simply not a huge app guy anyway. Windows 10 Mobile has the stuff that I require for work, such as Uber and Slack. It has the social media apps I use, including Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp. These apps are sometimes behind in features versus their iOS counterparts, but the same is often true for Android users, who end up waiting for feature parity. Things have been pretty good lately, though. WhatsApp began rolling out its new Status feature almost as soon as it was announced, and Instagram has been pretty hot with the updates too. Who needs Snapchat? Of course, the situation could change. Some major services have abandoned the platform, but others have jumped on board in their place. And I've rarely encountered a situation that couldn't be solved with a mobile web service. There are often times when I find myself lamenting the fact that I can't jump on the latest crazes, such as the impossibly dumb kawaii-filter app Meitu. And last summer's Pokemon Go assault was a bitter reminder that our platform choice often leaves us deprived of the latest games. But those moments are fleeting. Even Snapchat's signature features are being slowly devoured by Facebook's platforms, most of which are fully supported on Windows 10 Mobile. tfw you're a Windows phone user pic.twitter.com/qtLuGr8ydy — Jez (@JezCorden) July 7, 2016 It has always been a bit of a revolving door situation, but with UWP here to stay, hopefully, the situation will improve as Microsoft begins to ship new product categories that encompass the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). 4. Dat interface I find Android and iOS to be so hideously bland and ugly that I can't bear to see myself using them. Apple's iOS, in particular, is so impossibly plain, and its lack of customizability makes me feel that the visual brand is more important to Apple than the users' abilities to personalize their devices. I know Android is far more customizable, but without some hardcore tinkering (that I simply can't be bothered with, you're not doing much more than placing a skin over the OS. "Icons on a grid" is just soooo Windows 95.

Gorgeous.

Windows 10 Mobile's interface prioritizes information first, with standardized Live Tiles that can also be configured and displayed in various ways. Every single Windows 10 Mobile home screen looks different, and each one says something expressive about the user without looking like a total mess. Android widgets are a clunky, almost archaic approach to this end, and they also lack the ordered customizability I've grown accustomed to on Windows 10 Mobile. This level of personalization extends into apps, too, displaying your accent color and light or dark theme across services such as Groove, Readit, Twitter and more. For me, Windows 10 as a platform simply strikes a balance between standardization, customizability, and sheer beauty that neither Android nor iOS really approaches. 5. UWP I still don't think Windows 10 Mobile has seen the fruits of Microsoft's labor when it comes to the UWP. We've been waiting for years at this point, but establishing new development paradigms is certainly not something that happens overnight.