Samsung Focus Win Phone

All articles on this site are by Harry Skevington unless otherwise noted with another byline

Samsung Focus Windows 7 phone for AT&T

The Samsung Focus is Windows 7 SmartPhone with a number of interesting features. The Samsung Focus is slim and looks very sleek with a much shiny black. There is a lot of plastic in its approximately 2.6 wide, 0.4in thick, 4.8 in tall format. The Focus weighs only 4.2 oz and has a 4” screen that is very bright. My testing of the Touch screen function gave me great feedback. I seldom had to touch something more than once. The differences between the Focus and other current Smartphone products including Android and iPhone did cause me some minor pain at first. I am not always flexible when it comes to changing my ways. I assume it was an artistic decision but the overlapping of text and photos when you are in an area like People, Music, and others was a little annoying. I did get used to most of those differences but it took a while. Am I in a rut or are there issues that could cause users to be unhappy?

webwinliveconnect-tophone

You NEED to creat a ZUNE account (or one using your Hotmail account). Without Zune you will be unable to update the phone, Work with music, videos, easily access your photos, and other apps.

Update Phone using ZUNE account
I tried to do updates with Zune on my Dell desktop and was unable to connect to open the Zune area. I then went to the ThinkPad, plugged in the phone, and was connected to Zune with no issues. Once I connected to the ThinkPad the update screen opened automatically. An update showed as available and it would take approximately 22 minutes. The update had a date of March 2011 and includes: Add Copy and Paste, Faster start and resume times for Apps, Improved category search in marketplace, and a performance tune-up. Your phone is rebooted after the download is installed. During the update a backup is created on your main computer. The total time required using the ThinkPad was exactly 22 minutes.

Music
On the other hand Zune walked me through syncing albums and singles as well as audio books from the Zune area to the phone. Easy as pie! NOTE: Although I took the wired route you can sync wirelessly. Music plays well through the phone speaker, connected to the stereo system in our car, or when using a headset. Books are fine as well. Be sure to carry a charger and a cable that plug into any external sound system and another than connects the phone to a power supply in your car so you don’t end up with a dead battery when you need to make a call.

CAMERA - Auto Focus - 5.0 Megapixel- 4x digital zoom - LED Flash
The camera is in the middle of most phone cameras. It does a good job if you hold it steady. Auto Focus worked fine. Zoom was not the best. Additional camera settings: AF Mode, White balance, Image Effect, and Contrast. Flash modes were not accessible by tapping the touch screen. You had to tap the little Gear icon to bring it up. To see more sample photos CLICK HERE for my Samsung Focus Flickr Set

webslidesamsungfocus

More on Photos
I attempted to do my usual simple USB connection with the phone and my computer so I could cut and paste all photos into a folder on the Desktop. I had no success. It did not appear on the My Computer list. I then connected the Phone to the ThinkPad and Zune opened. I can see the 35 photos but could not just highlight them all and copy them to a folder on the ThinkPad. I could sign up for cloud storage for the Focus phone and send the photos there. I decided to set up a CD burn list and burn the 30 some photos/videos to a CD. I know I could have attached a few to some emails and send them to myself but 36 photos make that a painful effort. I then copied the contents of the CD to my work folder. There may be a way to just copy the photos from the phone directly to a folder on my computer but I could not locate it. I then uploaded all videos/photos from the Focus to my Flickr site. Maybe I missed something but this seemed to be much more time and effort to get a simple task completed. I hope there is a way that I just did not find to make this easier.
Link to MY Flickr site to see PHOTOS taken using the Focus PHONE

I approached the Samsung Focus Windows 7 phone for AT&T as a new owner. I had no preconceptions good or bad. After a few weeks with the phone I can see it has a number of very positive capabilities. Zune, although foreign to me, is very helpful. The Samsung Focus is decent option for those who want to try something other than Android or iPhone. The recent update that came through Zune did add or improve some of functions. If you are a Windows/Microsoft person who enjoys games and runs their software on your main computer I think the Samsung Focus Windows 7 phone might be a fit for you. At least take a look at it.

For more info on the Samsung Windows 7 Phone from AT&T CLICK HERE
For more info on the Samsung Windows 7 Phone from Samsung CLICK HERE


	Harry Skevington has been involved with electronics since 1981. He has taught, written for, and provided support to, computer users since 1985. Information that will help consumers with buying decisions is more important than ever due to the current convergence of computers and other consumer products . Harry attends CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas on assignment as a working press writer each year to find and write about emerging technology that seems to fit the needs of his readers. Contact Harry

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