Some questions

[unity04]

I'm thinking of getting the Samsung Focus here in Canada on Rogers and have a few questions:

- Will this phone be upgradeable to the Mango update? If so, do you think it'll run the update slower than the new phones coming out that come with the update already installed?

- Does Rogers allow users to update the Focus with the NoDo update? If so, have you experienced any issues with the update?

- How's the alarm on the phone? Can you set it to vibrate and also play sound when the alarm goes off?

- Is the ringer on the phone loud?

- Is there an LED notification light?

- Lastly, in general, are there any known common bugs?

Thanks!

 

[Adiliyo]

1. the phone will be upgradeable to mango, there should be no performance hit at the OS level. the only catch (right this second) is that rev 1.4 phones are not updateable yet, but msft/samsung is working on a fix, once the nodo update fix is completed, mango should go smoothly.

2. i'm on att, so i don't know, i do know att has issued the update for rev 1.3 phones

3. the alarm isn't very loud, but i haven't tried to fiddle with it, as i tend to wake up pretty easily from alarm sounds anyways. it doesn't vibrate and i haven't found an option for it, but it could be there....

4. ringer is okay, not super loud, but i think there's some hacks to make the phone's speaker louder.

5. no LED notification

6. personally i haven't experienced any bugs, and i have the nodo update and a 32gb sd card in it. if i could change anything on the phone, it would be to make the speaker louder for rings/alarms. the phone is soooo smooth and quick. the camera is also very nice.

 

[jimski]

Newer phones will have slightly upgraded processors, but it should not be that noticeable running Mango. Maybe a 2-5% improvement overall bit hard to quantify without running a test tool. All existing WP phones will be upgradeable to Mango.

To clarify, the Focus was built with two different internal memory chips, one being hardware rev 1.3, the other rev 1.4. You can identify this by looking at the label under the battery (have to remove the back cover). The phones appear to perform the same but rev 1.4 devices were putting out an error during updates so Samsung is working on a verified fix before putting out the NoDo update. Hopefully it won't be very long before this issue becomes history.

The alarm starts out softly and then ramps up in volume after each repeat of the alert tone. Each sequence of tones are preceded by a double vibration burst (at least that how my Surround work), so like vibrate, vibrate, tones, pause, vibrate, vibrate, tones, pause, etc. Some users would prefer that the alarm started out a full volume but this is not user adjustable.

My Surround has an LED for charging/charged, low battery & missed call. Think the Focus has an LED (at least for battery charging) but not sure of its full functionality.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[Adiliyo]

As far as I can tell there is no notification or charging led on the focus.

 

[Kebero]

Nope.

Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express

 

[enahs555]

If you look at the top left on the front of the phone (to the left of the ear piece) with a bright light, it looks like there are actually two LEDs there, they are just not active?

I always thought they were put in, but there was no OS capability yet to use them. This is just random speculation, but maybe they will become active in Mango?

Heck, there is enough information in the specs, that my screen protector has two cutouts right there in those spots not to cover them up, whatever they area?

 

[firedancer1189]

While they appear to look like LED's they are in fact not.

One is a proximity sensor that shuts down the screen when you put it up close to your face to talk so you don't accidentally end the call, mute it, etc.

The other is a light sensor. It dims or brightens the screen depending on ambient light conditions.