Why I'm keeping this phone

[mailman27]

So I'm thinking of getting a Focus S but reading about some of the issues here has given me pause. I'm also considering a Titan as it seems many have/are. Went to the AT&T store today and played with the two side by side. I'm torn...here are my thoughts:

Focus S: Nice feel to the screen, and the screen is the same size as my wife's Inspire so there was some familiarity to me for navigating web pages in terms of finger placement. The auto-dimming feature was out in full force even though I was standing in a single spot in the store with static light conditions. I turned it off as after about a minute. I actually liked how thin the phone was and the tactile feel of the back panel was nice too. The plastic feel of it didn't bother me as I had a Blackjack II for 2 years and that phone took everything I threw at it and laughed. I did accidentally click the camera button a couple of times. That was a bit annoying, but that could probably be solved by training myself not to or by a decent case down the road. The phone didn't seem as bright with with white background websites. No issues with the keyboard as the phone was on mute.

Titan: This phone is solid. The metal casing has that solid HTC feel just like my wife's Inspire. It is on the heavier side, but doesn't feel thick at all. In terms of how the screen real estate affects the user experience, I found text to be very readable if slightly pixelated, but the real problem came with one-handed use. Holding it with my right hand, as I would reach across the screen with my thumb the fleshy part of my hand where my thumb meets my palm would often touch the bottom corner of the screen and instead of a scrolling motion the phone would sense a multi-touch zoom type of motion and pinch to zoom. It happened to me several times. My hands are on the smaller side so YMMV. The webpages with the white backgrounds popped out and were very easy to read at arms length. I browsed the marketplace and looked at Fusion: Sentient screenshots. The screens were brighter on the Titan but there was some slight stretching/jaggies that weren't present on the Focus S.

In conclusion, I thought my hands-on would solve this for me but it didn't. I really like both phones but I have a few concerns. Coming from an iPhone owner, multiple OEMs are not something I am used to dealing with. Among the WP community which phone is more likely to me supported with patches/fixes in the future? HTC or Samsung? Does one of these makers have a better WP reputation when it comes to rolling out updates and other support? What are you're thoughts on the cameras of the two since that was something that is important to me but I wasn't able to try out?

Thanks for your thoughts and I hope to pick up one of these great phones from AT&T this weekend and join the WP7 family

 

[edboogie78]

When it comes to smartphones I have come to expect a good audio experience and having used my iPhone for years met that expectation. I recently purchased a Focus S and to be frank the audio quality is a big let down for me. The more I think about it the more I lean towards exchanging it for the Titan since the audio, I've read, was far superior. The Focus S just doesn't have the bass and the popping when switching tracks is annoying.(the latter can be fixed by using Bluetooth connection I read). I compared the two at the AT&T store. I liked everything about the Titan, but it's poor video quality and the durability of the screen. Not having gorilla glass is a big turn off . I actually found a couple of scratch marks on the screen and it left me wondering what would happen to that screen when I finally do drop the phone if I owned it. I hope there is a fix for the Focus S because I'm favoring this phone over the Titan, but not by much.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

 

[armedtank]

When it comes to smartphones I have come to expect a good audio experience and having used my iPhone for years met that expectation. I recently purchased a Focus S and to be frank the audio quality is a big let down for me. The more I think about it the more I lean towards exchanging it for the Titan since the audio, I've read, was far superior. The Focus S just doesn't have the bass and the popping when switching tracks is annoying.(the latter can be fixed by using Bluetooth connection I read). I compared the two at the AT&T store. I liked everything about the Titan, but it's poor video quality and the durability of the screen. Not having gorilla glass is a big turn off . I actually found a couple of scratch marks on the screen and it left me wondering what would happen to that screen when I finally do drop the phone if I owned it. I hope there is a fix for the Focus S because I'm favoring this phone over the Titan, but not by much.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

I'm going thru the same dilemma with the popping while switching tracks and subpar audio quality. I'm leaning towards keeping my Focus S since it does everything else so well and just using my iPhone 3GS as my music player, it has 32GB of space now that i've wiped it clean, should last me a long time just using it for music....

 

[edboogie78]

I was thinking the same thing with my iPhone...here's to hoping for a miracle firmware update from Samsung .

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

 

[yunchikan]

i wonder if the popping sound is the same popping sound i have on my HTC Surround.. if i have my headphone plugged in with no sound playing, it keeps doing this popping sound. it can get annoying but im used to it after using it for a year.

 

[jeremyshaw]

A popping sound is a DC spike, normally due to the DAC/AMP starting up or shutting off. Good DAC/AMP designs normally minimize, or completely negate, the DC spike.