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Samsung Focus vs. HTC Surround

L

Lazarus52980

Senior member
I purchased a WP7 HTC Surround based on the review from this site, but I am not sure I am as happy with it as I could be. Who out there has a Samsung focus? Is the battery life really as bad as it seems? The battery life of THIS phone seems bad enough...
 
Lazarus52980 said:
I purchased a WP7 HTC Surround based on the review from this site, but I am not sure I am as happy with it as I could be. Who out there has a Samsung focus? Is the battery life really as bad as it seems? The battery life of THIS phone seems bad enough...
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I am having the same thoughts..

On a full charge, listening to music for about 30 minutes, moderate web browsing (maybe 5 pages max), and fairly heavy texting resulted in the battery diminishing to the 10-15% region in just 5 hours.

This is fairly disappointing. I love WP7, but given my lack of choices at TELUS (and the fact that I have two weeks to try this phone before I am stuck with it) I might be switching to an iPhone 4.

I have also noticed that after fully charging the phone and taking it off the charger, so little as a single text and flipping through the menus a few times will reduce the battery life from full on the meter.

Notes: I have WiFi and Bluetooth off, and I have screen brightness set at medium. Push email for one account, updating every 15 minutes for 3 accounts.
 
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On a side note for this. Did anyone who got the Focus have issues with the SD card? If you got it working, what SD card did you use that worked correctly?
 
Lazarus52980 said:
On a side note for this. Did anyone who got the Focus have issues with the SD card? If you got it working, what SD card did you use that worked correctly?
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Adata 16gb class 6. Pulled it out of my Sony Ericsson X1 and popped it in the Samsung.
 
I love my Surround. The only amount of time that I had any buyer's remorse was when I let myself be convinced that the Focus was THE phone to get on AT&T from what the internet masses were saying. However, that ended when I actually went to an AT&T store and messed around with both side by side for a long time. I could have returned my Surround but I didn't want to. I think it's the better choice. If you want further convincing, check out my review http://forums.wpcentral.com/samsung-focus/176441-focus-surround.html
 
mittortz said:
I love my Surround. The only amount of time that I had any buyer's remorse was when I let myself be convinced that the Focus was THE phone to get on AT&T from what the internet masses were saying. However, that ended when I actually went to an AT&T store and messed around with both side by side for a long time. I could have returned my Surround but I didn't want to. I think it's the better choice. If you want further convincing, check out my review http://forums.wpcentral.com/samsung-focus/176441-focus-surround.html
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You registered here just for that? Way to go, you came the opposite conclusion as the entire rest of the internet. I hope you didn't pay $200 for the surround, since you can already get it for $99 due to poor sales.
 
crhayes said:
I am having the same thoughts..

On a full charge, listening to music for about 30 minutes, moderate web browsing (maybe 5 pages max), and fairly heavy texting resulted in the battery diminishing to the 10-15% region in just 5 hours.

This is fairly disappointing. I love WP7, but given my lack of choices at TELUS (and the fact that I have two weeks to try this phone before I am stuck with it) I might be switching to an iPhone 4.

I have also noticed that after fully charging the phone and taking it off the charger, so little as a single text and flipping through the menus a few times will reduce the battery life from full on the meter.

Notes: I have WiFi and Bluetooth off, and I have screen brightness set at medium. Push email for one account, updating every 15 minutes for 3 accounts.
Click to expand...

I have the focus.... listening to music 75% of the time, some moderate texting, web browsing and gaming I will last the entire work day (8hrs) plus 5 or 6 more at home before it gives me the battery warning indicator (I should say though I am on wifi at work and at home). I am pretty impressed with the battery life of my focus.

No bluetooth and I only have my one main email acct active with push.
 
Nebor said:
You registered here just for that? Way to go, you came the opposite conclusion as the entire rest of the internet. I hope you didn't pay $200 for the surround, since you can already get it for $99 due to poor sales.
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it's not like I haven't been in these forums before, I just never had anything to say. So yes, I did come to the opposite conclusion as the 'entire rest of the internet'. What's your point? This guy is saying he's getting buyer's remorse and I'm telling him that there's no need. I'm guessing you didn't read my review, but basically what I said is that I had the choice to buy either one at full $500 cost, and I walked away with the Surround. The SAMOLED is way overrated, and that's the major reason anyone would want the Focus over any other phone.

I could post my reasoning why in full, but I didn't feel like being obnoxious so I just linked it with my review (see a couple posts above). I would actually really enjoy seeing a thoughtful rebuttal to my conclusion, so please, take a stab at it.

EDIT: In addition, the only reason the Surround is suffering from poor sales compared to the Focus is that the only people buying WP7 at this point are tech nerds like us. And most of us made our decision before we even went into stores from reviews on the internet. And... I guarantee you that Engadget's loud opinion (Focus: 8/10; Surround: 6/10), along with the immediate jizzing that SAMOLED induces, was 90% of the internet masses' buying decisions.
So I decided to think independently by testing myself. I welcome your independent counter-points, if you have any.
 
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I really hope you didn't pay $200 for your Surround, as they're now available for 1 cent on Amazon.

And my decision to get a Focus was entirely influenced by Engadget's review. But when I got a chance to play with all 3 AT&T models several weeks ago, I thought the surround was silly for having a slide out speaker. Why didn't they make a normal phone, but so much thinner? My last device (Sony Ericsson X1a) was an HTC, and I really like HTC's stuff in general. I've never been a fan of Samsung's cell phones. But the LG was small and felt like a child's toy because of the rubber surfaces.

If they come out with the Dell Venue Pro on AT&T bands, I'll probably pick one up. I didn't realize how much I'd miss having a physical keyboard. I'm so much slower and it's difficult to do while driving.
 
I did pay $200 for the surround, but only because I knew that I could for $30 more, trade it in for the Focus if I didn't like it (which I should be doing in a few hours). I will try to post again on Monday about what I think of the Focus and the differences.
 
@Nebor
I'll definitely go with you on the Venue Pro. If that ever hits AT&T, I'll most likely drop my Surround in an instant for it.
P.S. I paid the off-contract $500 for my Surround. I have an AT&T dealer line and don't get upgrade pricing.

@Lazarus
Please do post your thoughts. I genuinely prefer the Surround and I'm interested in the opinion of a person who has owned both.
 
I like both of them. At a second look, i retract my original statement about the Surround's screen looking better, the Focus is the winner there.

However, I prefer the weight and feel of the Surround over the Focus, as well as the 16GB base storage and the kickstand. The Focus feels cheap to me, and although, based on my 5 minutes with them in the store, I could type a little better on the Focus, I wasn't crazy about the power button placement.

Conversely, I am not sure how i feel about the volume button placement on the Surround.

Plus there is the fact that I can get the Surround for nearly free on Amazon right now, whereas the Focus is $200 and I would have to wait a while to justify that.
 
I will agree that the Focus feels cheap. Especially coming from my all metal SE X1a, which I could throw against the wall without consequence.
 
Well, i ordered my $0.01 Surround off Amazon, should get here Tuesday or Wednesday. I am coming from a first gen iPhone running 3.1.3 and I am personally a Mac OS X guy, so I will let you guys know my thoughts if you are interested.
 
TheStu said:
Well, i ordered my $0.01 Surround off Amazon, should get here Tuesday or Wednesday. I am coming from a first gen iPhone running 3.1.3 and I am personally a Mac OS X guy, so I will let you guys know my thoughts if you are interested.
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By all means. Please check in and let us know how it's working out.
 
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