MY thoughts on the Focus S Post your Focus S reviews.

erike3198

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I got the original Focus on Ebay as a hold over phone until the new iphone 4S came out. I installed the mango dev update and ended up loving windows phone. I kept the focus and just got the focus s. The original focus after mango was extremely snappy, the perfect size too for me.
The new Focus S, is very thin, and not comfortable to hold in my hand, I'm hoping that a case (when one comes out) will make it feel better in my hand. The UI, seems to lag compared to the original focus when scrolling, and its not due to anything that I am doing. The start screen used to fling up and down so smoothly, and now its much slower, it's possible that it has to do with screen sensitivity and not processer. I also feel that the brightness changes for no apparent reason, and its annoying. The front facing camera, as of now has no Tango, which is annoying, I think it should come out today though. Downloading is quicker due to the 4G.

The charging port is now on the bottom, which makes it easier to hold the phone while its charging, and will hopefully will allow for a dock too.

The screen, doesn't seem much of an improvement to me, I wouldn't notice any improvement.

I was charging my Focus constantly, afraid to remove from charger in fear it would die. The Focus S, seems to last longer so far.

The buttons on the phone feel much cheaper and easier to hit them by accident since they petrude more from the sides.

Typing, I guess is easier since the keyboard is larger, but also harder to do with one hand. So far i noticed an issue with the keypress sounds not working on every keypress. makes me feel like I am not pressing the keys, but I am.

So far am I am disappointed in the lag, disappointed that it took me hrs to set transfer everything, from my original focus, (no transfer) had to do everything 1 x1. very tedious process. i can't find any case, (I'm looking for a a hard case and holster specifically), but even silicone cases are not easy to find.

Not the best review here, but overall, my opinion is that it's actually not much of an upgrade at all. Mango worked great on the original Focus, and I feel like maybe I should have just waited till nokia came out with something of higher quality and better spec'd.
 

J4rrod

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First, at least for me, there's not even a hint of lag. It's just as smooth as ever. However while it's charging it does act odd, I.e. lags, stutters a lit. Not sure why, but this does not happen while unplugged at all. However this morning after charging all night it did act weird unplugged, but a restart promptly fixed it.

The phone is very thin and solid feeling. I think it feels amazing in the hand.

While there's no Tango, there is video call in the Samsung Zone in the Marketplace.

The screen is the same sexy Super AMOLED screen except .3" bigger.

The hard buttons on the phone are much more solid and sturdy than on the original Focus and I haven't accidentally hit them once.

Keypress sounds do need fixed.

And dude if you look on eBay there's a million silicone cases of all different colors.

Sorry man, I disagree with you almost 100%.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express
 

erike3198

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There is lag when plugged in, and whats terrible is that in the ATT store where they are on display, its lagging REAL bad.

I am not looking for the silicone ones, I want the hard cases with a holster.
 

gravage

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I was waiting and waiting for this phone. It seemed like the perfect phone to me: A Samsung Galaxy S2 with WP7 on it, as long as it had the same camera.

I have taken numerous comparison shots with this and the iPhone 4s and a lot of the Focus S's shots come out better. Figure that one out. My GS2 always took better photos than my iPhone 4, so I expected the camera to be good, but I'm definitely satisfied with the quality.

I have noticed the lag, as well. I never thought about it when it was plugged into power. But even when it's unplugged, I notice a slight lag when typing on the keyboard. Lag that I never had on the original Focus. It's barely perceptible, but it's there and a bit disappointing.

Overall, I love the phone and the OS. I just wish more people would give it a chance. This phone will fail if it doesn't get some advertising love. The AT&T store I went to only had two in stock (on launch day, right after opening) and they didn't have one on display. They didn't even have any posters up advertising it as being in store. It's no wonder Windows Phones aren't selling.
 

anon(5324511)

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I went with this phone instead of Titan like I originally planned. What made me swap? I went to the ATT store and saw it and was like WOW! I did notice the lag on the store model but just assumed it was a store model. I tested the lag when plugged in and YES, it does have that lag. But, when unplugged..silky smooth. The screen is dim compared to my Focus. However, after NOT comparing the two..I don't even notice now. The battery on the Focus S is super!! OUTSTANDING!! With the amount of fooling with it yesterday and it never even going dead, my Focus would've been dead hours quicker. The storage is great..I've never been spoiled enough to have more then 8GB of storage on a phone and now with 16GB..I have all of my zune pass music and 2 full length movies and about 15 live games!! 7GB left over =) EEEEEEEE!! Will I have buyers remorse, NEVER!! I was extremely happy with my Focus and now even more so with the Focus S
 

anon(5324511)

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Yes I have wifi on, but still the only time I see any type of lag is when I have my power connected and that is with wifi or no wifi. And it's more like video type lag..like a motion blur that I am seeing. It doesn't jut jut jut but more like bluuurrrrrr....
 

kevm14

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So is the consensus that all lag issues are when charging only? What remains, just the synchronization of the keyboard noise or is there still some kind of lag there, or elsewhere, when unplugged? Trying to characterize this issue...I will try one tonight if my local store did what they promised.
 

Duvi

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I'm definitely checking this phone out today. After I pick my son up from school, I'll stop by my boy's store to see what kind of deal I can get.
 

theefman

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Yes I have wifi on, but still the only time I see any type of lag is when I have my power connected and that is with wifi or no wifi. And it's more like video type lag..like a motion blur that I am seeing. It doesn't jut jut jut but more like bluuurrrrrr....

Sometimes I notice a slowdown when I'm connected to the mains and wifi is on, seems like its trying to sync wirelessly but my pc is off and thats the only time i've seen this on my DVP. Just a theory.
 

timGSU

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I have to weigh in on this as well. I spent at least 30 minutes in a AT&T store comparing the FOCUS to the FOCUS S and here is what I found:

SCREEN:

- The original focus screen is way less crisp than the Focus S. The screen on the Focus S is smooth, you won't notice the grid like appearance that the original Focus has.

The brightness follows the same model as the Galaxy S II, and will take time getting used to. If you don't like it, you can revert back to Focus like brightness. Just turn off the extra setting and then turn off auto-brightness. I personally used my Focus on LOW with auto-brightness off.

BUILD:

- Its a Galaxy S II build basically. 4.3" is getting up there in size but isn't as obnoxious as 4.5" and 4.65" phones. Fits well in my hand, but your mileage will vary. I do think that 4" is the sweet spot for screen size....but EVERYTHING is trending bigger these days!

I'm somewhat disappointed that Samsung re-used the Galaxy shell, as I liked the uniqueness of the original Focus, but its not bad by any means. This same shell on Android has sold 10M+ phones, so it can't be bad.

SPEED:

- Everything seems to launch quicker, as noted by starting the same apps on the original Focus and the Focus S side by side. I didn't notice any scrolling lag, I might have to go back and re-test.

Thats all for now, I'll post more later.
 

greenjbhsd

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I am really liking my phone so far. I was on the fence between the S and the Titan, but in the end I figured that 4-4.3 is the sweet spot for me. Any bigger is just heading to a tablet.

That said, the phone has been very responsive. It shows far less lag than my GS2 and iPhone 4 did. It is light, almost too light, and the screen is very nice to look at.

Overall Mango is meeting my needs. One area that is a little odd is setting up webmail (outlook) as it does not play nice at all if the certificate has expired, which for almost every company it seems to be the case. The IE9 version of webmail stinks and is almost unusable.

Outside of that:

Pro - nice screen, fast, responsive, OS is clean and refreshing to interact with. Audio is clear and as I use the OS more I am seeing how features are integrated very well, such as facebook. The battery is lasting my about 10 hours (will then be at 35% - roughly) with light to moderate usage (60 minutes of podcasts, email, 50 texts, some web surfing, etc).

Cons - I need to get used to the camera button. Apparently that is where I rest a finger. Feels good in the hands but it is a little soft feeling in the build. Likely due to coming from a glass phone to plastic. Limited, if any, cases available. I expect to break this phone due to the manner I handle my electronics of this type.
 
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Tapiozona

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So I'm having a hard time with this lag in the UI. I spent a very long time in the store today comparing the S to the original Focus (Luckily they're side by side at my local AT&T store) and the lag in the UI is quite noticable. It never stood out to me until I did the side by side, but not that I've done it, I can't unsee it anymore.

I even unplugged the charger from the S and though it may have improved fractionally, it was still no where as near to being as crisp and responsive as the Focus. Typing was almost another area where you could notice the delay. On the Focus each key press was tight and quick. On the S it felt soft and floaty. Hard to describe but there was a delay (ever so slight) but once you compare side to side, it was definitely annoying. (again, something you can't unsee, once you experience it).

Sucks because I absolutely love the phone but this could be a borderline dealbreaker.
 

kevm14

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I just came back from an AT&T mall store. This was my fourth visit to an AT&T store and I FINALLY got to play with a Focus S.

I had plenty of time with the phone and this was my most in depth look at WP7 yet. I feel like my thoughts are all disorganized so I will start with what is most on my mind...general public WP7 perception/knowledge.

As I stood there playing with the phone, there was a group of probably 30-something guys and I overheard one guy ask about the Focus S. The rep basically sort of snottily mentioned that no one cares about it. So I look up at the guy who asked, and I go "this is pretty damn good." So he walks over and his buddies follow. We get into a discussion about WP7, Mango, Android, iPhone and all that. It was, frankly, a huge relief to finally meet someone else who was enthusiastic about the platform. He told me he actually has a Focus but his sim card is currently in, I think, an iPhone because of apps like LogMeIn that he needs, and aren't on WP7. He was adamant that he'd switch tomorrow if that was no longer an issue.

I actually don't think this describes most people, which is good. He seemed to agree that WP7 was a really fresh design, and he even went so far as to say he still plays with the Focus all the time, and going back to his iPhone is like going back in time. I thought that was interesting.

He seemed to be right up on his tech news, so he was aware of the AMOLED funkiness. I showed him the brightness adjustment as well as the dim-on-lots-of-white setting. Fortunately, the screen does look pretty good cranked up.

Onto the screen itself:
I'm still not sold on super AMOLED plus. I haven't used a Titan or anything but I think I'd really prefer that screen in a 4.3 size. The white balance of the screen was actually pretty much ideal from STRAIGHT on. Look at the phone at any angle at all on a very white screen (think any webpage) and guess what - blue tint. That kind irks me because wasn't AMOLED supposed to be the be-all end-all to viewing angle inconsistencies??

It's still a nice screen but I think it is clear that the best LCDs against the best AMOLED is really more of a crap shoot. I think I prefer accurate colors and bright whites (even nearly all white) with consistent power consumption, than super dark blacks. Blacks are important when watching a movie in a dark room on a flat screen TV, NOT on my cell phone.

Other thoughts:
I did confirm that there is something funky going on with the phone with power plugged in. It seems to be a change to the way the phone reacts to capacitive input. You see it when scrolling and when typing. When unplugged I thought the screen was responsive (though I found myself having to retap more times than I expected but my current phone is actually resistive so this would be my first capacitive touch screen). Typing seemed bad at first but then, somehow, I tried again later and it worked really well. Strange.

I like the size of the phone and in my hands, I COULD use it one handed, but not as fast or efficiently as two hands. I wonder if the Titan would just be one size too large.

I am also torn about the form factor and weight: on the one hand, I totally appreciate that this phone is way more durable than any glass-backed iPhone 4. I also appreciate the effort to reduce weight, and thickness, things that almost always cost money. But, I still prefer the way the Focus Flash feels and kind of wish that was a 4.3". I also don't really like the rounded edges of the S and found myself hitting basically every button by accident at one point or another (especially when plugging or unplugging the power jack). But, it had the security spider thing on it so that isn't really fair. I also liked the hard windows button on the Focus Flash.

I knew this before, but I'm a little bothered that IE9 doesn't resize blocks of text for reading at different magnifications. I know that's partly a speed thing, but not all websites use the exact same font size and scrolling back and forth after every single line is really pretty lame.

I didn't like the camera button. The first stage for focus required not just pressing through the first detent, but pressing oddly just a little more to get it to actually focus. Then when I snapped the picture, I felt there was a bit of lag. I thought it would be more instantaneous. I have two dSLRs and a pocket camera (from a few years ago) that will blow away any smartphone so this is hardly a big issue, but I thought I'm mention it anyway. I also don't have a Facebook account (or anything else, making me half wonder if WP7 is a waste) so I'm not the best example of a "tech savvy" person.

Oh, the speaker seems a little lame. Maybe average. Titan seems to be better here, at least based on reviews and videos.

I may think of something else so I'll chime in later if I do.

Overall I like the phone and I think 4.3" is about the right size for me. But I am worried the form factor won't grow on me, and there's really no way to predict that now.
 

Dave Blake

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So I'm having a hard time with this lag in the UI. I spent a very long time in the store today comparing the S to the original Focus (Luckily they're side by side at my local AT&T store) and the lag in the UI is quite noticable. It never stood out to me until I did the side by side, but not that I've done it, I can't unsee it anymore.

I even unplugged the charger from the S and though it may have improved fractionally, it was still no where as near to being as crisp and responsive as the Focus. Typing was almost another area where you could notice the delay. On the Focus each key press was tight and quick. On the S it felt soft and floaty. Hard to describe but there was a delay (ever so slight) but once you compare side to side, it was definitely annoying. (again, something you can't unsee, once you experience it).

Sucks because I absolutely love the phone but this could be a borderline dealbreaker.

Is it lag you are seeing or is it a difference in scrolling speed. If I flick the screen on my Arrive and my Focus S at the same time the Focus S screen stops moving before the screen on the Arrive. That's not lag. I like the way the Focus S does this on my other 2 phones I always had to tap the screen to get it to stop scrolling or it would pass what I needed. Its nice on the start screen but it's not so nice on long web pages. Its a bit of a trade off I guess.
 

Tapiozona

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Is it lag you are seeing or is it a difference in scrolling speed. If I flick the screen on my Arrive and my Focus S at the same time the Focus S screen stops moving before the screen on the Arrive. That's not lag. I like the way the Focus S does this on my other 2 phones I always had to tap the screen to get it to stop scrolling or it would pass what I needed. Its nice on the start screen but it's not so nice on long web pages. Its a bit of a trade off I guess.

I noticed it the most when I pressed and held on the screen and quickly moved it up and down, up and down. I guess it could be screen sensitivity as well. The Focus would zip the moment I moved the screen. The S seems to accelerate and take a fraction of a second to reach zip speed. I guess that could be what you described above but I noticed it more when first moving, rather than when the moving came to rest.

Touch/screen sensitivity would explain the keyboard/typing problems however.
 

dangish

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My only gripe is Tango not being available. Also, the video call app in Samsung Zone isn't available to me, so...

I love the Focus S and don't notice any lag.

Working for the 2 companies that have something to do with this phone makes me less picky and more biased towards WP7. (MS and att)

I've tried every OS and I love WP7.

Also the lack of accessories is a disappointment but only on the case makers.
 

dragonfire6

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...

Don't have a review yet, just wanted to say that my Samsung Captivate ALWAYS lags when plugged in... It takes me at least twice as long to accurately send a text or enter a website name...
 

mapexvenus

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First off, some of my feedback is subjective, so feel free to disagree but don't get your panties in a twist :)

What I don't like:

- The screen quality and size is really nice, but I am not sure about the colors. Red does not look like red to me on this phone.

- The phone does feel cheap and plasticy. It does not feel solid and it has slipped out of my hands at least twice in the past two days of owning the phone. Thankfully I haven't dropped it yet, which is a good thing because I don't want a scratch on the device when I return it.

- I experience an audio interference whenever I change tracks in the Zune player or the track changes automatically. This in and of itself is a showstopper since the 'pop' that occurs every time a track changes could damage my very expensive car audio system which I hook the phone up to via an aux jack. I have not experienced this problem with the HTC Trophy which I had for a few weeks, or my iPhone and iPod.

- I agree with the OP about the buttons.

Now on the positive side:

- Call quality is great
 

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