Review: Samsung Focus with Windows Phone 7
The Samsung Focus comes with a nice selection of messaging options, and these all work very well. Still, the phone is missing some essential messaging tools that business users might find crucial. There are no IM clients available yet for Windows Phone 7 as of the publication time for this review. We rely on IM often at my job, and most of my corporate friends say the same. Specifically, Office Communicator was a huge draw for Windows Mobile, and many of my WinMo friends use it extensively, but it is not available for WP7, at least not yet. Ironically, there are clients for OCS for the iPhone, so if you rely on Office Communicator and you can't wait for a WP7 client, the iPhone might be a better choice.
Windows Phone 7 does come with a fine text messaging app that displays messages in a conversational, threaded view with picture messages inline with the text. The contact list has a problem with text messaging. You can send a message directly from the contact entry, but only to the number designated “Mobile.” Personally, I have designated plenty of mobile phones as “Work” numbers for people who only use cell phones, but Windows Phone 7 won't let you try to send a text to those. If you go to the messaging app and type in a person's name, only their Mobile numbers will appear. You have to type a Work number manually, and since WP7 has no copy and paste, (yet,) you'd better have a good memory for numbers.
The Samsung Focus also has a fine email client, though again, business users may find it wanting.
I like that the Focus keeps your email accounts separate, so you don't have to mingle your corporate exchange account with your personal Gmail. Emails also show up with HTML in tact, and the entire messaging interface looks fantastic. Microsoft uses a slightly rounded, sans-serif font that is crisp and easy to read, especially on the Focus' wonderful display.
You can flag a message for follow-up, and messages sent as urgent will also retain that label. The email app has separate lists for flagged and urgent messages, too, so you can find them quickly. I'd like to be able to add a message's contents directly to the to-do list to help me remember important tasks as they are sent my way. Also, WinPho7 did not find much older messages that are stored on my email server. Searching my inbox, I could find messages synchronized from the last few days, but the email app would not search the server for messages from a year ago.
I did like that the phone caches messages as they come in, so you don't have to download the entire message in steps, as you did on Windows Mobile. So, if you need to read through a large group of messages on a flight, you don't need a plane with Wi-Fi; the text of those messages will already be on your phone.
The Samsung Focus does not do a great job notifying users about new messages. When you get a new message, the phone plays a notification tone or vibrates, and that is all. There is no indicator light and no notification on screen, unless you are looking at your Start screen. You don't even get a message popping up to tell you that you have new mail. If you miss the tone or the vibration, you'll miss your message until you go back to the Start.
The virtual keyboard on the Focus also needs some work. It looks nearly identical to the stock Android keyboard, though it does seem to perform a bit better. Usually, the phone did a fine job keeping my taps on target. If I was off a bit, the phone would offer suggestions for spelling correction above the keys, and sometimes, though not always, it would auto-correct a word for me. Strangely, auto correction did not work system wide. For instance, using the app Seesmic for Twitter, there was no auto correction available. The landscape keyboard is a huge disappointment. It is no larger than the portrait keyboard. Instead, it leaves empty space to the left of the keys, and fills that space with a tiny clock and other notification symbols.
Windows Phone 7: Hands-On
Samsung Focus
