Focus to Focus S, my experience s far?

[krislv]

My original Focus got dropped and the screen cracked so I went and picked up a Focus S. Playing with the new phone over the weekend, I have noticed a couple (annoying/frustrating) things:

E-mail: I use Exchange for my work e-mail and Yahoo for my personal e-mail. For the exchange account, e-mails should be received as shortly after bring delivered to my inbox. For my yahoo account, every 15 minutes. This worked great with my old phone. With my new phone, I found that if I don?t touch my phone, I won?t receive new e-mails unless I manually force a sync to fetch new messages. I have tried to factory reset the phone, and reconfigure my mail clients and still can?t get it to work right. With my old Focus, I could wake the phone up every couple minutes and check and see if I had new mail without unlocking and forcing a sync.

Voice & Data: I have had a heck of a time getting data when not connected to wi-fi, despite being in areas where the phone indicates full bars / 4G. I have verified that data is ON, and have tried resets, including factory resets. In areas with decent voice coverage, I found the S to consistently have fewer bars, and more dropped and unable to complete calls.

I have also noticed that for most tasks, I have not noticed any difference in performance between the 2 phones. The old Focus seems just a snappy as the S with the quicker processor. Anyone else having similar problems? I local place could replace the screen on the Focus for a pretty penny, or I could buy a new unlocked one for a little more. Either seem far more enticing than keeping the S at this point.

 

[davidkhou]

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm (or my IT manager is) having one **** of a time getting my phone to sync with exchange server. It's sad to say that I'm the only WP7 phone in an office of blackberrys, iphones, and androids and they all sync without a problem. I don't know why MS makes it so hard to sync with its own products.

My other account is on hotmail and it syncs fine, every few minutes; don't need to manually force check.

 

[krislv]

I set everything back up on my original Focus, and e-mail is working like it should again. I also like how the original Focus feels in the hand, compared to the S. The S seems too thin, and too light. Now what to do about the cracked screen. Replacement screen/LCD costs about 170 installed, and an unlocked one is about 240. Either options seem better than keeping the S for 600. Hopefully Nokia has some decent offerings in the spring.

 

[jeremyshaw]

The Data issues, download Network Profile from the Samsung App zone (either that, or the other network app - the description of the application I mentioned, will tell you which one to download).


After downloading it, tell the app to setup you up with "AT&T 3G." Fixed all my Celluar data issues.

I dunno why


Either way, I returned it due to the power charging latency (happens about 25% of the time) and WiFi issues I had (it also took a long time vs the Focus to find a WiFi station, too).


Went back the day after, and got a HTC Titan without having to pay the restocking fee.
I, too, loved the feel and appearance of the original Focus. It seemed like a true, menacing, black slate with data that magically appeared on it's surface, and almost radiated the feeling I got when I imaging the monolith from 2001... The Focus S.... not so much. Only benefit I had from the Focus S was the screen size made is easier for my big hands to type on.

Have fun.

 

[randywintle]

I'm not seeing any of these issues with gmail,hotmail and exchange accounts syncing...

Also, as far as your issues with coverage, haven't seen it or heard many complaints.

 

[jeremyshaw]

I'm not seeing any of these issues with gmail,hotmail and exchange accounts syncing...

Also, as far as your issues with coverage, haven't seen it or heard many complaints.

I've had it with the Focus S and initially, the Focus. Maybe I need to replace my SIM card, lol. I've had it with me since the old moto V300 was still a "decent" phone.

 

[Cartman]

No issues with email here. I have noticed an increase in speed with certain apps and games...Plants vs Zombies, gMaps Pro, TV show....actually most apps launch faster which leads to less anoyance...especially TV Show...that things a pig if you have a lot of shows.

 

[baseballbert]

'p
H

 

[Rob41664]

My Focus S works just fine with our Exchange 2007 without any issues. I used the wireless manager from the samsung zone to make sur emy APN was correct and I can tell a difference in the speeds between my old Focus and my S. I also bought a Titan to compare the 2 since it has had such good reviews but so far have been very disappointed. The build is great and the screen is good but too many call quality issues and it is slower for some reason than my S. I know there have been tests run since I and another user reported in the Titan forum about it being slower than than the Focus but I reset both phones to factory and installed only the bandwidth app on both and the rersults are the same. I am getting better reception and speed on my S.

 

[dalals4u]

I have a Focus S and my co-worker has a Focus. I had an iPhone 4 before and was waiting for the 'iPhone 5' to be released as I was up for an upgrade. I'm an IT Manager for our company and we had been messing around with our wireless "standard" for a bit. It used to be only Blackberry's (a Curve and a Bold) as all we support on them are voice and data/email... no apps. As others wanted iPhone's we gave in. We then wanted to look at Windows Phone 7, so we got my co-worker a Samsung Focus. I loved that phone (he still has it), so when the new iPhone was revealed to be a 4S I decided to skip it and wait for the Focus S (not the Titan... to large for me, or the Lumia 800... wanted something larger than the iPhone), and I'm glad I did. I haven't seen any issues with syncing immediately to Exchange 2007 (I get emails on my device before I get them in Outlook) or Gmail. Everything syncs immediately. Also, fake-4G works well just about everywhere in the Portland, OR area for me.

That being said, not a ton of difference between the Focus and Focus S... but I do love the size of the screen and the SAMOLED+. I miss the camera from the iPhone though... the one thing that I truly do miss. It was quicker and, from what I can tell, took better pics. I think the 4S betters the latter, so I imagine that is a great camera.

 

[Silverdogz]

I have a Focus S and my co-worker has a Focus. I had an iPhone 4 before and was waiting for the 'iPhone 5' to be released as I was up for an upgrade. I'm an IT Manager for our company and we had been messing around with our wireless "standard" for a bit. It used to be only Blackberry's (a Curve and a Bold) as all we support on them are voice and data/email... no apps. As others wanted iPhone's we gave in. We then wanted to look at Windows Phone 7, so we got my co-worker a Samsung Focus. I loved that phone (he still has it), so when the new iPhone was revealed to be a 4S I decided to skip it and wait for the Focus S (not the Titan... to large for me, or the Lumia 800... wanted something larger than the iPhone), and I'm glad I did. I haven't seen any issues with syncing immediately to Exchange 2007 (I get emails on my device before I get them in Outlook) or Gmail. Everything syncs immediately. Also, fake-4G works well just about everywhere in the Portland, OR area for me.

That being said, not a ton of difference between the Focus and Focus S... but I do love the size of the screen and the SAMOLED+. I miss the camera from the iPhone though... the one thing that I truly do miss. It was quicker and, from what I can tell, took better pics. I think the 4S betters the latter, so I imagine that is a great camera.

Um, why wouldn't you be using say... an actual CAMERA.

 

[dalals4u]

Um, why wouldn't you be using say... an actual CAMERA.

For... what? Taking pictures with my phone? I take pictures with a camera when I want to take pics with a camera, and I take pics with my phone when I want to take pics with my phone. No one is comparing taking pics between a camera on a phone and an actual digital camera. I'm stating my single annoyance with my Focus S. To be more specific... the iPhone would take a pic immediately (after auto-focus) whereas the Focus S (and many other phone cameras) have a delay between pressing the button and when it actually captures the image (again... after auto-focus). This is the one thing that bugs me most between the two.

Since this thread wasn't even about taking pics, again, I have seen no issues with Exchange sync times (or Gmail for that matter) or 3G/4G reception. I configured our Exchange 2007 server and Activesync and everything seems to be replicating very quickly.