I am posting this comparison for anyone else who cares to listen. This is my take on upgrading from a Samsung Focus to a Lumia 800. I have owned the Lumia for about 2 weeks and the Focus for about year before that.
Screen:
The Lumia's screen is clear and bright. It is amazing how easy it is to view in sunlight compared to the Focus. The Focus suffered from extreme glare in the sunlight and I found myself needing to turn to put it in my shadow or shadow it with my free hand. The screen on the Focus is recessed in the casing ever so slightly. This actually worked out for me because I put a Zagg invisibleShield on it so it ended up being flush with the casing. This allowed it to last a full year of heavy use without a hint of peeling or lose ends that I had on my iPhone 3G.
When the device is off you can see fingerprints and smudges on the Lumia's screen but they all disappear when the screen is on. I don't know what magic they worked to accomplish this but I hope they use the same tech in future phones.
Going from a 4" screen to a 3.7" one did have some getting used to. I tend to make more typing mistakes.
Camera:
The camera button on the Focus felt cheap (because it is, I have taken it apart and seen it) but it was very easy to feel the 2 stages of the button press. On the Lumia it takes more finesse to tell when you are pressing the button in half way. It does take amazing pictures and has more modes and settings available than the Focus did. My only gripe about the Lumia's camera is that it doesn't seem to focus well when taking video. Sometimes I get better results when I switch to picture mode, focus, then switch to video mode to record.
Specs:
I never thought the Focus was slow about zipping through the OS but when I started using the Lumia I was just amazed at how everything seemed to load faster. Animations seemed smoother as well. I had a 16Gb SD card in my focus bringing the total storage capacity to 24Gb. I do miss having that much space for movies and music but after going through my library it was easy to find a lot of content that I didn't listen to that much anyways. I still have 8Gb free if I want to add more stuff.
Hardware:
The main difference I found was build quality. The Lumia feels like a premium device. Very solid in hand and fun to show friends. The Focus felt cheap and plasticy which made it lighter. I was getting a full days use of the Focus after a year and a little more than that with my Lumia. I hope it gets even better with the firmware improvements. The rubber case that Nokia provides is also nice because it protects the phone without adding bulk or taking any of the pleasing design away.
I don't like a few of the hardware decisions Nokia made. One is the button placement. I have to search for the sleep button because it is right next to the volume buttons. Also, the volume up and down buttons are not very distinct. If I try to turn the volume up or down without looking at the device I have to feel around to make sure I am pressing the right one. We all know about the USB flap too.
Wrapup:
On my iPhone it seemed like every update Apple released made using it harder. Especially when the iPhone 3Gs came out. From then on even built in apps like mail and messaging would crash. My wife is getting a taste of this on her iPhone 4. iOS gets slower and slower with each update. I dumped the iPhone and will never look back.
I have two quotes from my wife and sister-in-law that both use iPhone 4s that pretty much sums it up. First, my wife opened the box after it was delivered and called to tell me it arrived. "This phone is gorgeous!" Second, after my sister-in-law played with it for a little while she said, "I didn't like your old phone but I like this one." (She is a die hard mac addict BTW). I am very happy with my new Lumia and grateful Microsoft sent it to me. I have not decided if I will keep my Focus as a development device or sell it.
After coming from an iPhone 3G, I am happy I waited for WP7 and pleased with the Samsung Focus overall. I love my Lumia though!
Screen:
The Lumia's screen is clear and bright. It is amazing how easy it is to view in sunlight compared to the Focus. The Focus suffered from extreme glare in the sunlight and I found myself needing to turn to put it in my shadow or shadow it with my free hand. The screen on the Focus is recessed in the casing ever so slightly. This actually worked out for me because I put a Zagg invisibleShield on it so it ended up being flush with the casing. This allowed it to last a full year of heavy use without a hint of peeling or lose ends that I had on my iPhone 3G.
When the device is off you can see fingerprints and smudges on the Lumia's screen but they all disappear when the screen is on. I don't know what magic they worked to accomplish this but I hope they use the same tech in future phones.
Going from a 4" screen to a 3.7" one did have some getting used to. I tend to make more typing mistakes.
Camera:
The camera button on the Focus felt cheap (because it is, I have taken it apart and seen it) but it was very easy to feel the 2 stages of the button press. On the Lumia it takes more finesse to tell when you are pressing the button in half way. It does take amazing pictures and has more modes and settings available than the Focus did. My only gripe about the Lumia's camera is that it doesn't seem to focus well when taking video. Sometimes I get better results when I switch to picture mode, focus, then switch to video mode to record.
Specs:
I never thought the Focus was slow about zipping through the OS but when I started using the Lumia I was just amazed at how everything seemed to load faster. Animations seemed smoother as well. I had a 16Gb SD card in my focus bringing the total storage capacity to 24Gb. I do miss having that much space for movies and music but after going through my library it was easy to find a lot of content that I didn't listen to that much anyways. I still have 8Gb free if I want to add more stuff.
Hardware:
The main difference I found was build quality. The Lumia feels like a premium device. Very solid in hand and fun to show friends. The Focus felt cheap and plasticy which made it lighter. I was getting a full days use of the Focus after a year and a little more than that with my Lumia. I hope it gets even better with the firmware improvements. The rubber case that Nokia provides is also nice because it protects the phone without adding bulk or taking any of the pleasing design away.
I don't like a few of the hardware decisions Nokia made. One is the button placement. I have to search for the sleep button because it is right next to the volume buttons. Also, the volume up and down buttons are not very distinct. If I try to turn the volume up or down without looking at the device I have to feel around to make sure I am pressing the right one. We all know about the USB flap too.
Wrapup:
On my iPhone it seemed like every update Apple released made using it harder. Especially when the iPhone 3Gs came out. From then on even built in apps like mail and messaging would crash. My wife is getting a taste of this on her iPhone 4. iOS gets slower and slower with each update. I dumped the iPhone and will never look back.
I have two quotes from my wife and sister-in-law that both use iPhone 4s that pretty much sums it up. First, my wife opened the box after it was delivered and called to tell me it arrived. "This phone is gorgeous!" Second, after my sister-in-law played with it for a little while she said, "I didn't like your old phone but I like this one." (She is a die hard mac addict BTW). I am very happy with my new Lumia and grateful Microsoft sent it to me. I have not decided if I will keep my Focus as a development device or sell it.
After coming from an iPhone 3G, I am happy I waited for WP7 and pleased with the Samsung Focus overall. I love my Lumia though!
And its gonna be an upgrade From my foucs . only one thing i will miss on Lumia 800 is the large screen.
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