Deep analysis: Surround wins.
I think every single person on the internet is going to disagree with me, but...
having played around extensively with both the Surround and the Focus, I preferred the Surround.
Here's why:
The biggest draw for the Focus is the Super AMOLED screen. My question is, how many people have actually compared the S-AMOLED right along side the LCD? In my opinion, the LCD is actually BETTER. Despite all the hype I've read about it, I went to an AT&T store and stood messing around with both phones for 20 minutes, comparing just about every aspect of the phones right next to each other. I was buying the phones outright, so they were the same price. I left with a Surround.
Screen
Here's the thing with S-AMOLED. Yes, it has deeper blacks. Colors are debatably "better", but I found them oversaturated and less accurate (than LCD). The colors may be subjective, I can MAYBE see why some might prefer amoled here. But the worst was the brighter colors, namely whites. I put both devices on the highest brightness setting and opened the Office app, which uses a white background with bright orange lettering. With the devices right next to each other, it was indisputably obvious that the Focus was duller, darker, and washed out. The difference in quality of lighter colors and white between the two devices was MUCH greater than the difference between blacks.
Judging these three (blacks, colors, and whites) as a whole, I thought the Surround's LCD beat out the Focus's AMOLED. And this doesn't even take into account my next point...
The Focus amoled is GRAINY. Pictures looked fine, video looked fine, but when it comes to small text and icons, the resolution and individual pixels are immediately apparent on amoled. For an idea of what I'm talking about, check out this site:
AMOLED vs LCD – Can the Naked Eye Tell the Difference? | Android Phone Fans
I don't know if the Surround has a "Super" LCD like the one pictured, but I noticed a similar effect anyway. Compare the edges of the calendar icon. The LCD is clearly straighter and smoother. This effect continues throughout the interface, and it gives the Surround a much more flat, papery look. This accents the WP7 tile interface much more nicely.
So, overall, I would say that I undoubtedly preferred the Surround's screen to the Focus. (Don't get me started on the Quantum though... that was easily the worst).
Winner? Surround.
Now, the screen is the main feature of the Focus! With that out of the way, what's left?
Form factor. Sound. Memory. Speed/Responsiveness. Build quality.
Form and Build
Focus takes form factor easily. It is lighter by a long shot, and marginally thinner (not as much as I expected though). As much as I preferred the lightness of the Focus, this was offset by the build quality. The focus definitely felt cheaper with its plastic glossy casing, as opposed to the Surround's metal front and hard rubber back.
Winner? Both, depending on your preferences.
Sound
Obviously, the Surround wins on sound. It's MUCH louder, and both Dolby Mobile and SRS Wow have their benefits. In my home testing, I found that Dolby Mobile actually did a decent job of simulating virtual surround with both music and video using the built in speakers when you keep your head within a 5-8 inch distance from the screen. I have reference quality headphones, so when I plugged in, music sounded better without effects; however, I could tell that with lower quality headphones, SRS would definitely add a nice "oomph" to the sound. Using SRS with the built-in speakers sounded like garbage though.
The Focus, on the other hand, is quieter and has none of these features.
Winner? SURROUND
Other
The Focus has expandable memory, which is really nice. If you're planning on using that though, definitely go with a class 6 microSD card so that you don't experience slower load times (as reported by users using slower Class 2 cards and such). 16GB onboard storage with the surround is plenty for me, with both Zune pass streaming and Netflix instant streaming at my disposal.
In speed tests, the two were nearly identical when I launched apps and did page loads over 3G. The difference favored each one at different times, and it was so small it's really not worth mentioning.
Winner? Who cares.
Conclusion and Wrap-up
I basically wrote this review because I went through this decision process heavily myself, and wanted to share my differing perspective on the internet, which seems to be very one-sided right now. I'd hate to see HTC get punished for making a better phone. After reading such rave reviews for the focus and anaemic reviews for the surround, I was completely planning on getting the focus. It was only when my place of work didn't offer the Focus that I settled for the Surround. However, I was still tempted by the Focus, so I went to an AT&T corporate store that had them in stock to test for myself. Like I said, I could have walked out with it, but in the end I decided not to.
The screen is, in my opinion, overhyped. The LCD on the Surround is quite arguably better. The build quality is better. The sound is better. The only real definite advantages to the Focus are expandable memory and form factor. But I would easily say that the trade-off is in the Surround's favor, especially if you're any kind of media enthusiast.
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