Camera, Music, Battery, Wrap-up

Camera

The Focus Southward carries the aforementioned 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash as the Galaxy Southward 2. The camera is a significant upgrade over the 5 megapixel unit in the Focus and Focus Flash, and thankfully, the Focus South takes much better photos than the Focus Wink, which was surprisingly disappointing. Just similar the images captured by the Galaxy South 2, the Focus S' pictures have vibrant colors and lots of item. The Focus South doesn't focus as chop-chop equally the Galaxy Due south II, but it was accurate the vast majority of the fourth dimension. The Focus S' two-stage camera central allows you to open the camera from anywhere, including the lockscreen, simply since the push button protrudes so far from the phone's body, I found that I accidentally opened the camera on occasion.

The 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) video recorded with the camera was not as impressive as the stills captured. The video camera does non have continuous autofocus or zoom controls, and the microphones captured a bit likewise much background noise. For the price, we would expect a bit better Hard disk drive video functioning than it currently offers.

The front-facing photographic camera can be used for cocky-portraits and video within the camera app, or used for video calls with a third-party app such as Tango. Windows Phone 7.five does non currently have native video calling features.

Music

The Samsung Focus Due south features Microsoft's Zune music player and desktop syncing software to load tunes onto the phone itself. The Zune player offers a very bonny interface, and the more than I use it, the more than I like it. Playback tin can exist controlled from the lockscreen, and the app will search the web for relevant images to display while music is existence played. Microsoft's Zune desktop software makes information technology easy to get music on the phone, and it supports syncing over Wi-Fi.

Additionally, the Focus S supports Zune'southward subscription music service that offers unlimited streaming of tunes for $10 per month. There is too a built-in FM radio that requires the use of headphones (the headphone wire acts every bit the antenna) and sure enough, Samsung has included a set with the Focus Southward. All in all, the music feel on the Focus S is quite good, but fifty-fifty with twice the internal storage of the Focus Flash at 16GB, those with large music libraries will probable pine for more than space since Windows Phone devices do not support conventional microSD storage expansion.

Bombardment

Samsung has equipped the Focus S with a one,650mAh battery that claims offers 6.v hours of talk fourth dimension or about 10.iv days of standby. In my usual bombardment of tests, including syncing multiple email and social networking accounts, the Focus S did not have whatsoever trouble lasting a total day, fifty-fifty with a fair amount of gaming and listening to music while streaming over Bluetooth to an external speaker. Those that aren't as hard on their phones might exist able to get the Focus South to last into a 2d day, merely most people will have to accuse it every evening, as is all likewise mutual with today's smartphones.

Terminal Thoughts

The Samsung Focus S is an impressive and enjoyable smartphone to utilise. While information technology is not perfect by whatsoever means, and it suffers from Windows Phone's continuing growing pains, it has some really great qualities that arrive worth a expect for anybody in the market for a new smartphone. The only existent negative might be its price ($199 on contract), since the Focus Flash offers a very similar user experience for significantly less money upfront. All the same, if you are able to go over the sticker shock, you will be rewarded with a larger, nicer screen and a much improved camera, not to mention a friendly user interface and decent battery life to boot.

Pros: Corking display, snappy performance, thin design.

Cons: Unimpressive video recording, virtual keyboard lag, smaller app selection.