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Hi, I wanted to know what you guys think of the Focus and is it a worth getting?
What are the ups and downs of windows phone 7?
Is there any major hardware issues that I should consider before getting one?
Thanks in advance
I bought the phone outright from Rogers for $630.00 and I don't have a single regret! I think WP7 is gonna be a VERY strong competitor against ios and android by the end of the year. Microsoft needs a few updates to give the devs more control to create better apps, it needs some more user customization, and as most complaints would be it doesn't have copy & paste (which I dont care about at all)
All these are coming in updates soon and once the ball really starts rollin' I think WP7 will be a major success.
Is it worth buying the Focus? ABSOLUTELY! I love the phone, its so fast, fluid, and feels great.
I have new hopes for MS now, and I think Im currently leaning towards WP7 more than android and ios.
just my opinion,,,,hope this helps.
Sweet! You won't regret it IMHO.
My top 5 tips for the Focus (extra important for someone like me outside US warranty cover):
1. TAKE TREMENDOUS care clipping on/off the rear plate-phone back. It is plastic, with a couple of tiny plastic clips holding it in. Break these.....replacment back plate or blu-tac required!
2. Think long and hard over a case (I got a body glove - review on this site). This can be a slippery little sucker once the back plate gets some natural body oils / sweat / humidity etc on it. It has such a small form factor – cases do not weight it down too much in my opinion.
3. Add expandable memory at your own risk until MS offer a certified list / approved card process. If you do – load up the phone above the 8GB limit ASAP to test stability over a week or so. If you add heaps of apps and custom info and then need to hard reset, you've wasted a decent amount of time.
4. Use the Samsung Profile app (marketplace) to move the MMS capability over to your preferred carrier if outside US (eg Telstra Australia = worked for me).
5. Remove the AT&T bloat/software if outside US App support.
From one very happy Aussie Focus owner.
Thanks guys I'm see about getting one in a few weeks.
So no custom roms for this device yet, no ones working with this or any of the WP7 phones?
Think again
Noz85 said:
Thanks guys I'm see about getting one in a few weeks.
So no custom roms for this device yet, no ones working with this or any of the WP7 phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are, like me, a former WM 6.5 guy who liked to flash custom ROMs and are thinking about a WP7 device, you are on the wrong path my friend. Custom ROMs on a WP7 device? Have you not read anything in these threads? I went to the Focus from a FUZE with a 6.5.5 Energy ROM, and tweaked and upgraded constantly, including my apps. I did this becuase I wanted to and thought I needed to. It was insanity and I realize this now that I have the Focus. I no longer need to do that, and no longer want to do that. My apps update on their own, the OS will too, and I would like to see some OS updates but don't need them. If what you want to do is tweak, customize and burn new custom ROMs, look elsewhere than WP7.
While we're on topic, how is the call quality?
Call quality
mcorrie1121 said:
While we're on topic, how is the call quality?
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Click to collapse
The best of any smartphone I've ever used - Kaiser, Rhodium, iPhone 1st gen and 3GS. It REALLY sounds good. MUCH better radio than any of the other mentioned phones, as well, in terms of reception and coverage on AT&T in my location.
wspaw said:
The best of any smartphone I've ever used - Kaiser, Rhodium, iPhone 1st gen and 3GS. It REALLY sounds good. MUCH better radio than any of the other mentioned phones, as well, in terms of reception and coverage on AT&T in my location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
that I can definitely agree with! Excellent call quality!
Samsung Focus WP7 pros and cons
Check Youtube video: "The Dark Side of the Samsung Focus"
I am hearing some a mono tone noise in the background while using my Bluetooth headset, such as Jawbone Icon, Sound ID5 etc.
The App store is still at its infancy. The interface is sometimes sluggish and crash without response especially on 3rd party apps. There is no VOIP applications yet because MS hasn't released the API. The screen of the Focus is sometimes way too sensitive that I have to do a factory reset or complete shut down of the phone.
CONS:
- Bluetooth + 3G call interfere with WiFi signal.
- Camera Settings are Not Saved after usage. I have to re-set 720P for video everytime!
- No video upload to social network nor Youtube yet.
- No dedicate Youtube app beside the mobile web interface. I really like the latest Youtube app in Android where you can have full screen in landscape and a small video still running on top with comments and related links at the bottom.... too bad it's only limited to Froyo or above version.
- Bluetooth Remote Control Protocol (No track change, No Volume Control)
- No Hidden WiFi SSID
- No native multilingual input support such as Chinese text and voice input yet.
- Voice control sometimes forces you to quite to the home page and need to press and hold the Windows Button again.
- No HTML5, Text rendering engine is sometimes very slow which results in unreadable pixelated form when zoomed in.
- Lacking confirmation before shut down when press and hold the power/sleep button. Both iOS and Android prompt for shut down not WP7.
- Charging time is very long. Sometimes it takes 8 Hours to charge from 0 % to 100%.
- Volume Button sometimes gets stuck depending on the surrounding temperature such as too cold at around 56ºF.
- Capacitive Buttons at the bottom are sometimes too sensitive which causes quitting a game and need to be restarted all over again.
- No Multitask or limited multi-task yet.
- A lot of games need to start from the beginning instead of pausing the state when quitting the app accidentally.
- No free turn-by-turn Navigation system.
- No Skype, fring, not even official Windows Live Messenger client yet (Zune HD has Windows Live Messenger already).
- No Front Facing Camera for video call
- Cannot change theme by default (without jailbreaking)
- Only Vibrate twice then ringtone instead of vibrating and ringtone simultaneously.
- No Threaded email
- Hard to manage tons of apps if MS still keep the same Metro UI without implementing some kind of folder system.
- Apps only sorted in Alphabetic order
- Text Message does not show nor highlight the phone number of the contact. I often get confused on which number did the caller call from, Google Voice, Mobile, Office, or Home??
- Cannot SMS to pager, home, and other category number except Mobile. Unless you type it in manually or go through the contact list.
- SMS doesn't use two colors or styles to distinguish you or the person you are trying to SMS to.
Pros:
- (Just Discovered) Able to record HD video with voice during any phone calls! No other Operating System can do that well and smooth. iPhone blocks the video capture during phone call, Symbian doesn't allow voice but video, Android camera is totally disabled, while the iOS allows you to take picture at least but not video.
- Thinnest and lightest WP7 phone
- 4" Super AMOLED screen
- Nice and loud speaker
- Chrome bezel and back cover.
- in-line and in-ear headphone with mic and volume control included
- Pin Apps, Songs, Website, People, etc to Home screen
- Large icons for touch
- Fast loading for MS's native interface
- Great Start for version 1.0 of the WP7. There are plenty of improvement and I'm sure MS will tackle the above issues in future updates.
Nice review, squarejp - thanks for sharing that.
User experience on the Focus is somewhat varied, I would say. Some prefer the plain glass "feel" versus having a third party screen protector like Zagg's InvisibleShield (my preference) on it, for example.
My experience with the Focus is that is an awesome phone. WP7 has some challenges ahead but I am optimistic (even if naively so) that most, if not all, of the issues will get hashed out over time. I'm very pleased with this phone and can't wait to see what the future holds for it!
Thanks guys looks like a solid device. I wasn't really looking to mod it just figured I'd ask. I got the aria for Modding anyways.
sent from my HTC Intruder
squarejp:
Some of Your cons seem to be a matter of personal preference, not an actual limitation of the phone. two colour sms? c'mon, if you can't tell that the bubble on the right is you and the bubble on the left is your sms partner, then Metro is obviously lost on you.
The best thing about this phone is what JamesAllen has said. it just works, you don't have to dicker around with it (that is unless of course you're taking it from one network to another).
If you want something to enable you to use the features most people expect in a smartphone while being able to enjoy an unlimited data plan, this is definitely a great phone.
Check out the Real CONS on Youtube.
Search "The Dark Side of The Samsung Focus"
Bluetooth + 3G interfere with WiFi signal.
Highly recommend this device and OS.
Put my nightmare X10 right back in the box.
can I chime in
the ONE thing that drives me crazy about the phone is the small landscape keyboard. I can live with almost all of the other nuances. My captivate keyboard spread accross the bottom of the screen and was really easy to type on. the landscape keyboard on WP7 is just too small.
I hope Motorola reads this thread so they can start working on the next update. I reserve the next post for adding future updates by me or other members.
Fingerprint Scanner
Pros
It works pretty good to the point I have decided to actually use it again. In Froyo you had to unlock the screen before using the scanner but in Gingerbread the scanner automatically unlocks the screen too which is very nice and practical.
Only if Motorola made it to work on Froyo then they didn't need to remove this feature in Atrix 2 because of the bad feedback.
Cons
When the screen is unlocked the left icon on the bottom dock gets highlighted with a rectangular border around it.
Email
Pros
I have never managed to get hotmail to sent emails on Froyo. Everything started to work on Gingerbread with very easy way to setup hotmail accounts -- just enter the email and password and the email client does the rest. I'm very pleased to have one account per email now instead of two in Froyo.
The emails in Outbox that requires to be resend due to a connection failure for instance has a new feature that let the user to know what the app is doing. A green arrow on the left side of the email appears while being send. Also a long press on an email would pop-up a menu with various options including Resend option.
Cons
Disabling the suggestions does not stop the email client to show suggestions. I always found Motorola does this where disabling something does not work until the next update. I wonder why? Are you collecting data on us Motorola?
I preferred the ability to add email(s) at composition time from contacts in Froyo. If I am sending an email to someone that don't remember any part of the email Motorola has made it very difficult by using the suggestions feature. Now Motorola force me to think contacts before think about the email itself. How about sending to multiple recipients? Not a good implementation Motorola. Please return the old style please.
Launcher & Menus
Pros
I like the new Dock far better than the old one that I was even embarrassed to show my old screen to anyone. The simplicity of it works for me very well and if I needed something more fancy I know where to find one.
Haptic feedback now works correctly when is disabled. I often disable this feature to save battery (every mV counts).
Cons
Putting Battery Manager and Data Manager under the same menu item didn't appear the best of options.
Cellular Radio
Pros
I really can't comment about the signal quality as I think T-Mobile have major network issues in central London, UK. However, I'm yet to notice battery overheating due to signal problems.
Cons
Noticed this a couple of times where setting the Network to 2G only didn't change the cellular icon on status bar.
Wifi
Pros
The slow download with Market app is solved.
The Wifi appears to play much better coming back from sleep.
Battery
Pros
The battery life noticeably last longer than before. I would estimate additional 2 to 3 hours over the same usage pattern. I'm very pleased about this improvement. Still carry three spare batteries though.
Cons
Even though the new battery driver manages the faulty batteries Motorola produced and sold, hundred of thousands of them, better but the problem is still there. The improvement can be found when the phone is restarted. The new driver reads the correct charge level but still fails to maintain the charge level correctly during the use.
Dialpad
Pros
Just did a quick test for this review and very pleased to report the previous problem with punching numbers during a call is sorted now.
I don't mind the new look either.
Contacts
Cons
I don't like the integrated contacts the way has been implemented. The old one was much better.
I don't like the bold fonts with contact names. Any chance an option is added to the settings to turn it off please?
Those also don't like the new contacts have you managed to find alternatives?
Camera
Pros
I have previously mentioned about the noise level the camera app adds to the taken pictures in comparison to other camera applications. It seems the problem is gone.
Cons
The new camera driver seems too sensitive to the lights now. Cameras are not the subject I'm good at maybe someone else with better understanding of cameras can contribute to this thread please.
Performance
I don't feel any noticeable difference between the two in home launcher term. I freeze a lot of applications that is why.
Opera Mobile on Gingerbread is incredible. With strong 3G signal I cannot tell if I'm on Wifi or 3G really.
Apps opens up much quicker, very noticeable with heavy duty apps like camera, navigation, and media players. First time ran quadrant benchmark I scored 2501.
I'm really happy with the performance of my Atrix for the remaining of my contract, over a year to go.
Task Manager (OS feature)
Pros
It looks better than the same offering in Froyo.
Cons
Am I the only one thinks some apps are actually not being shown when view the list but a minute or so later the app shows up in the list?
Market App
Pros
For one very strange reason I was never able to view the second screenshot of the app in the gallery. This problem has been resolved.
Unexplainable Issues
1. Rebooted the phone and the startup process never passed the boot animation. Pulling the battery didn't solve anything but wiping the cache from Android Recovery Mode did.
2. After changing a hotmail email settings all email accounts stopped sending out emails including non-hotmails. Wiping the cache and resetting up the emails solved the problem out. I removed all the accounts before wiped out the cache, maybe that wasn't necessary. Also maybe at that very moment T-Mobile had issues. Took me a while to re-setup everything again.
3. Out of the blue the phone restarted itself. I have frozen many apps so I didn't expect that one. I have noticed one reboot so far. Is there any boot logger app where I can monitor if my phone reboot itself when I'm not using it? I guess a good project for me as soon as I get the time to learn the Android development environment.
Boot time
Cons
The startup of Atrix on Gingerbread is considerably slower than when it was on Froyo.
Also examining the dmesg log using OSMonitor app I noticed constant warnings about the CPU clock speed, all sort of debug messages, and error messages. Is anyone else has noticed them and are these messages something to worry about?
Edit: attached few screenshots for the sharp eyes of kernel developers. Thanks.
Text Messaging App
Pros
The layout improvement are a welcome and always liked what Motorola offered.
Cons
The character counter disappears while typing. It is an important feature to work properly all the time.
Home Launcher #2
Cons
While in Messaging app upon returing to the home screen the shortcuts disappear. Navigating to next or previous home screen and then returing back to the original screen then the shortcuts reappear again. I have experienced this twice so far.
Further testing revealed defrosting blur.res was not the solution. Also the shortcuts disappearance has nothing to do with which app was being active.
I hate to burst your bubble but I doubt Motorola checks here without reason...
And this was sent to my email from motorola when I wanted to get them the idea of selling Factory Cables and SBK's to fix hard bricked Atrix's:
Motorola said:
We are always gathering input from owners from calls, e-mails, the Web and other sources. We do apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you and want to assure you that Motorola does value your feedback. We open a record for all consumer contacts which are then routed to the proper department for any further research.
However, if you would also like to submit any ideas you may have regarding the design of our future products, you may contact our new ideas group in one of three ways:
Mail:
Motorola, Inc.
External Relations
Intellectual Property Section
Law Department
1303 E. Algonquin Road
Schaumburg, IL 60196
Telephone:
847-576-5184 (This is a voice mail system that is reviewed weekly)
Email:
[email protected]
Please note that to protect the rights of our customers and Motorola, our New Product Idea line requires customers to submit the following information and then they will send you a packet to properly submit your idea.
First and Last name
Complete mailing address including state, province, country and mailing code if applicable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plus: People have made custom ROM's that fix the problems that you listed...
Hello
(Quick introduction : I am new here, but I've been a proud Yotaphone 2 french user for half a year now, I don't develop on it, but such a clever+smart+phone gives me the itch to)
First, THANKS to the Yota teams. I am very happy to see that Yota still develops and deploys updates, and the last one contains a lot of good things. At least, they addressed some of my own frustrations with their beautiful device :
+ Double-tap to unlock both screens
+ New backscreen widget with "Mobile data" switch
+ New small clock widget with date + battery level
+ New Events widget to display Agenda Events
+ Backscreen e-mail app allows switching accounts
+ Better sorting of the Yotaphone parameters
+ New parameters
+ No more useless "External" stockage category in the parameters
+ Some more new apps which I haven't still tried for lack of interest
So far, everything works better than usual for me with these new settings and apps. They even took the time to improve some french translations.
I feel that autonomy is the same overall, or maybe slightly better. I also feel that double-tap unlock is slower than the swipe, but it's much handier to me.
Some regular backscreen apps (Messenger and E-mails) look sluggish recently, but these slowdowns also tended to occur before, time will tell if something's wrong.
This is the end of my contribution to this forum, hope this can help someone.
Thanks for the info! I wonder which is the better firmware to run with at the moment: 1.87aEU or 1.112RU? Has anyone tried both?
Thanks for the quick review. It sounds good. Me I'm still sticking with Kitkat for the moment, seeing the drainage issues on LP. The new features you mention sound good though. Would it be possible to simply add these new widgets on Kitkat too? I´m especially interested in the Yotagram app/widget. Can someone upload it so I can try it out? thx
When you hand your phone to granny to take a photo of you, can she get the job done? Rate this thread to express how you deem the Planet Gemini PDA's camera software. A higher rating indicates that the software is easy to use, fast, uncluttered, and inclusive of advanced features for when you need them.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Basic android. No extras, as expected.
yes, quite basic. That is not bad, but it would not help granny
Until now the software is not ultimately polished. The gemini keyboard app for instance is buggy, the NOTES app is not very nice, but functional. Time will show if that gets better. Until now this is beta...
A lot of the software is pretty buggy. I think it's mostly usable for my needs, but I'm waiting for the lineage OS port to work better (RIL) and then I will be switching and running mostly emacs for all my needs in termux.
The SMS app is too full of trivial options. An Android smart phone problem apparently."Android apps for Ludddites" would be a good idea, everything in capitalis quadrata black and white , no bubble options.
I like to handle one sms at a time, not to have a whole past library open. the Google chrome browser risks getting a list of search finds instead of a website if one is not precise enough. More so than the same browser on a laptop. The planet ribbon of options does not show in its entirety, and there is no specific setting for phone volume, only for riingtones while for those, it claims that an aac format is unreadable. Integration with filehandling on a laptop works fine while a simple usbto usbc adapter + mouse makes it possible to avoid the imprecision of a touch screen. On the positive side, net connection is easy & stable.
p.
neoluddite corrigendum
PAUL h. said:
The SMS app is too full of trivial options. An Android smart phone problem apparently."Android apps for Ludddites" would be a good idea, everything in capitalis quadrata black and white , no bubble options.
I like to handle one sms at a time, not to have a whole past library open. the Google chrome browser risks getting a list of search finds instead of a website if one is not precise enough. More so than the same browser on a laptop. The planet ribbon of options does not show in its entirety, and there is no specific setting for phone volume, only for riingtones while for those, it claims that an aac format is unreadable. Integration with filehandling on a laptop works fine while a simple usbto usbc adapter + mouse makes it possible to avoid the imprecision of a touch screen. On the positive side, net connection is easy & stable.
p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I discovered that when entered at another point in the menu, an aac soundfile was not rejected, but succesfully decoded.. My previous criticism, however, still stands. Usage as phone is severely hampered in noisy envionments; yes background noise is suppressed when transmitting, but received audio cannot be increased. Not in the general sound settings, not under accesibility, not even in the "about phone" menu. In contrast, the subroutines ("Apps" to initiates), are still too full of options of dubious utilitythat cannot be disabled. Otherwise it still can imitate my old psion 5 except for the lack of precision by having to use a touch screeen. (Arrow keys inoperative on the display).
p.
yet another corrigendum
PAUL h. said:
I discovered that when entered at another point in the menu, an aac soundfile was not rejected, but succesfully decoded.. My previous criticism, however, still stands. Usage as phone is severely hampered in noisy envionments; yes background noise is suppressed when transmitting, but received audio cannot be increased. Not in the general sound settings, not under accesibility, not even in the "about phone" menu. In contrast, the subroutines ("Apps" to initiates), are still too full of options of dubious utilitythat cannot be disabled. Otherwise it still can imitate my old psion 5 except for the lack of precision by having to use a touch screeen. (Arrow keys inoperative on the display).
p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found that receive- end volume can be adjusted when on the phone. Well hidden feature.
I am struggling with the file handler which seeems to have delete and print as its main features. perhaps the google store has an MC - like file handler? The gemini hardware is stable and androids subroutines disappoints equally stably. SMSs do not appear in order, but new ones are announced and the first line is visible but otherwise need searching to discover. Most inconvenient.
p.
addendum:
Most unusual (since men are presumed to never read instructions), but I have now bothered to seek info on how to use the inconvenient touch-screen and discovered how to deleta all extraneous junk info. One prsistent gripe is that the presumtive capacitive sensing is not sensitive enough to always react in the same way, and for tiny script, babyfingers seem to be necessary. Otherwise, the machine works well enough to replace my previous phone. One final gripe: Googles insistence on spying on pictures . diary etc. even if I will only ever transmit texts.
p.
I start this thread to get an overview for the 20-50 USD smartwatches and smartbands. I need guidance what band/watch to buy next. Most models have their pros and cons. It would help a lot if there would be an open firmware development. Since the companies come out with a new model every 3 days (feels like) there is no update process to get out the most of the HW.
I own 2 bands type V19 (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/4000003060782.html), I basically can recommend those.
Since one died recently I made a teardown to look the HW inside (
). For those who get bored go to 13:00 for HW view.
Now I think of a replacement and tend to buy some W3. I think the HW is a lot similar to V19.
I would be thankful for any feedback, maybe there are more advanced models out, and even ones with 'open' firmware support.
Key features I like are:
-continous HR monitoring
-Lorenz plot
-SPO monitoring at night
-ECG functionality
-Many alarms to program
-Count Down /Stopwatch
-Stepcount
What I dislike:
- Disturbing light during night (Display), more advanced lock function.
- No local ECG without App (Display could be used resolution 135x240pixel)
-No export of data
-One button operation with so many modes to toggle through, could be improved a lot with customization.