Music Questions

[Melk]

How is the battery life while listening to music? Good while just playing music? Bad while listening and texting/running apps?

Is the audio output good too?

 

[subarunut]

I have to say that I have been quite impressed with this phone. I did a test with it and got about 7hrs of use with mostly video, streaming muisc, some texts, and a couple calls. I was flabergasted. My old iPhone would last about 2hrs MAX on battery when playing video.

I also do the same thing with all electronics that I own that have batteries, I condition them first off. Compleatly charge, discharge, charge again and do it about every year. It keep sthe batteries fresh that way.

 

[anthonok]

Sweet. Im currently using an iphone 4 and battery is amazing so the longer the better on the focus.

 

[subarunut]

and unlinke the iphone, you can get a secondarry battery and get it charged up as a backup

 

[Melk]

How is the audio output quality with headphones?

 

[subarunut]

haven't tried earphones yet. Aux in in the car sounds great as well as speakers at my desk at work sound great as well, though I have to boost the volume up a lot.

 

[lucazzo]

Things I've noticed about the battery in general:

-Takes a long time to charge. Then again, I'm comparing to my former phone, a BB Bold, which would charge completely in half hour and last a couple of days.
-Using the Focus for just calls, txt, and minor data will let the battery last comfortable throughout the day.
-I haven't had trouble with music sucking up battery, which was a concern of mine. No issues at all there. Battery lasts beautifully.
-How to absolutely kill the battery: games. The combination of processor usage and screen being lit up will definitely suck up battery quickly.

 

[Melk]

Yea, I have a Zune HD(LED) which is very similar to WP7/Samsung Focus (AMOLED). I noticed it does take awhile to charge up (also coming from a Blackberry (Pearl) user, it charged up fairly fast when plugged in to the wall/dock vs computer.
On the Zune HD, the apps did kill the battery fairly quick, but yea, everything else didn't hurt the battery too much. Good to hear it carried over.

I'm still very curious to know how well the quality is when listening to music with headphones. I'm about to sell my Zune HD, but first I'd like to know if the quality is decent enough for a hardcore music like myself.

 

[lucazzo]

Regarding sound quality, I've had no qualms about it although I do find the maximum volume with earphones to be a tad too low for my taste. I'm guessing this is a design decision to avoid people from blasting their eardrums (as I'm prone to do). I'm not saying that it's low in general, but I sometimes want to blast Metallica at ungodly volumes. Took all of two days to get used to the new level.

Also noticed that it depends on the native amplitude of the mp3/wma file. Some files that I know I've normalized will sound a tad lower than others which I haven't.

Addendum: I wouldn't quite ditch the Zune until you thoroughly try it on your own, but I'm already looking into investing on a 32GB card and make this my portable media player.

 

[Melk]

Thanks, and another, how is the bass from songs? Is it deep and crisp?

 

[lucazzo]

Sorry, can't help you very much there since I can't say I listen to anything with "intense" bass like drum n' bass or house =(

I've had no reason to complain about anything I've played, though. If earphone quality has anything to do with it, mine are $15 El Cheapo from Radio Schack.

 

[spitothec]

Thanks, and another, how is the bass from songs? Is it deep and crisp?

That's going to be based (lol) MUCH more on the headphones you're using and less on the phone itself. The headphones that come with the Focus are acceptable, but they're not going to please any audiophiles.

 

[anthonok]

and unlinke the iphone, you can get a secondarry battery and get it charged up as a backup

Something that shouldnt have to be done I Have no problem buying an extended battery to use but I will not buy a "spare".

 

[Melk]

That's going to be based (lol) MUCH more on the headphones you're using and less on the phone itself. The headphones that come with the Focus are acceptable, but they're not going to please any audiophiles.

Oh I know, I already have great earbuds and head phones, but even when I plug them in to my BB Pearl, the bass sounds like ****, which I hope isn't the same case with the Focus. Probably isn't, but I'd like to make sure.

 

[electricbopeep]

I have a 2nd gen Zune 80 and a Samsung Focus. I listen to a wide range of music and I like heavy bass as much I like discovering subtle sounds in songs that I've heard many times before but *I am not an audiophile*.

I did a very unscientific side-by-side comparison this morning. Initially I was using the stock Zune headphones with my Zune and the stock Samsung headphones with the Focus. I was surprised that the Focus sounded much crisper but then I realized that my Zune earphones have taken a beating (more than I realized) and proceeded using the Samsung headphones for both devices for a fairer comparison.

Volume - I think a 16/17 volume setting on the Zune is about the equivalent of 30 (the max) on the Focus.

Sound - Better on the Zune but pretty good on the Focus. I compared about 7 songs that have a wide range of instruments, complexity, bass, etc. (soca, bhangra, rock, ch'abi, and electronic/dance). When I listened closely, it seemed like the Focus slightly distorted the synth on the electronic song. The Focus produced bass which was pretty deep but not as crisp as the Zune. I could hear the different instruments in songs on the Focus but they were more muddled than the Zune. Once again, I'm not an audiophile, so I don't know how to describe the differences that well.

I think you should keep your HD, listen to the differences yourself and judge from there.

I currently use my tv as speakers (don't judge me lol) so the only time I get to listen to my music in depth is on my portable device. That being the case, it's a bit disappointing (though not surprising) that the Focus's fidelity isn't on par with the Zune's. However, it's good enough that I'll probably retire my Zune.

Another thing that you might want to take take into account is that the Zune implementation on the Zune HD differs from that on the WP7. If you're into music discovery, the differences are particularly significant. Here's a video that outlines them - YouTube - Windows Phone 7 vs Zune HD.

I held out on getting a Zune HD because I figured that WP7 would mirror its functionality. It seems to me that the only reasons to have a dedicated player should be battery, storage and perhaps output quality. Samsung did what was expected by producing a device that doesn't have great sound quality but Microsoft complicated matters by making Zune less refined and feature-rich on WP7.

 

[sugg391]

Volume Problems

Volume - I think a 16/17 volume setting on the Zune is about the equivalent of 30 (the max) on the Focus.

I'm surprisingly disappointed by the volume on the Samsung Focus. Compared to my iPod touch I think the Focus's 30 (max) is about 75% of the iPod touch. The strange thing is that this only happens with music that I've transferred to my Focus. If I'm listening to music through youtube, recorded videos, slacker the sound is generally fine. Until it gets patched and I can put some memory in it I think I'll be keeping my iPod around....

 

[subarunut]

I have the exact opposit. All of my music is either losless or 320kbs and it is ouder than videos, podcasts and youtube. Slacker on the other hand is a LOT quieter.

 

[electricbopeep]

I'm surprisingly disappointed by the volume on the Samsung Focus. Compared to my iPod touch I think the Focus's 30 (max) is about 75% of the iPod touch. The strange thing is that this only happens with music that I've transferred to my Focus. If I'm listening to music through youtube, recorded videos, slacker the sound is generally fine. Until it gets patched and I can put some memory in it I think I'll be keeping my iPod around....

I have the exact opposit. All of my music is either losless or 320kbs and it is ouder than videos, podcasts and youtube. Slacker on the other hand is a LOT quieter.

Interesting. I'll have to check that out. I have an ipod touch 2g but I've never listened to any music on it, just podcasts ota. I haven't noticed a difference between music downloaded/synced through Zune and YT content but I haven't listened that closely either. I do seem to remember that Slacker was quieter (although I must admit that I haven't used it much on my phone since there's no multitasking).

Also, I should clarify that in my previous post, the max volume on the Zune 80 2g is 20.

 

[tuffluck]

i personally feel like the quality is better than my previous iphones, though much quieter in terms of max volume. that's a trade-off i guess.

as for battery drainage, music playing requires very little processor work so if you ran your music all day i doubt you'd see a huge difference in battery life when compared to no music on at all.