It takes some impressive sleuthing to find a smartphone that is not running the Android operating system or iPhone’s OS X. These two systems and have come to dominate such a large percentage of the market that it seemed impossible for any other company to edge its way in. Samsung is trying to carry out just this feat with their new Focus running Windows Phone 7. It was an aggressive move in such a daunting market but luckily for Samsung, this bet seemed to have paid off with a great phone.
The specs on the Samsung Focus are very similar to many other smartphones out there. This 4 oz. phone has an impressive 4′ super AMOLED screen and runs on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Pictures and video are quite respectable with a 5 megapixel camera, LED flash, 720p video capture, and a responsive auto focus.
With the specs out of the way, this phone can be seen as an interesting mixture of new features and improved features. The touch screen swiping, minimizing, and tapping feels natural for anyone who has been playing with any iPhones or Droids lately. The biggest change is the continuously updating feeds on the home screen of the phone. Samsung took the idea of the Android Widget to a whole new level. Xbox live accounts, multiple emails, Facebook, Twitter, and contact lists all have designated icons which can update and notify the user at any moment. It also comes preloaded with a respectable amount of Windows Office programs such as an Excel and OneNote.
This Samsung Focus is surprisingly attractive, intuitive, and useful smartphone for a companies very first venture into a new operating system. While Samsung had some minor omissions that could get troublesome, such as no copy and paste in the email, they are few and far between on this Windows phone.
Kelly, March 21, 2011
Nice, simple review for the phone. The firmware needs some updating, but the phone itself is great. I've been using it for a few months now.