After a few years - almost 4 - I just replaced my sony ericsson w300i flip phone with a samsung focus.
First off, this phone is thin and light. It's on par with an iPhone 4 I'd guess, definitely smaller than the original iphones, and much smaller/lighter feeling than the droid X and droid 2.
The speaker is ok, it definitely sounds different than the 4 year old flip phone it replaced, but I haven't ever had a problem understanding anyone, so I'll just chalk it up as being "different", not necessarily bad though. No one's complained about being able to hear me, so I assume I sound fine on the other end, too.
Onto the software...
The software doesn't do much, but what it does, it does very very well. My friend asked me if she could see my "not iphone" and spent a few seconds looking at it, before handing it back saying it was better than she expected. that's about how I feel about it. On first glance, it's much better than anything I would have expected from MS, but when you start digging and using it, you begin to notice the flaws, such as the lack of customizable ringtones or alerts, and its inability to connect to my campus' wireless.
Microsoft's mac sync tool works well enough, although I eventually connected it to my PC, so I can use Zune's wireless sync ability and leave it charging in my bedroom overnight. However, I did play around with it, and I was very impressed with its ties with iLife. For example, you can sync albums, faces (I don't think you can do that in Zune, for example!), places, etc. The music and video sync was equally as impressive.
app wise, there's not a whole lot yet, to be expected. The worst part though, is the store design itself kinda sucks. It's like walking into a wal*mart or target, and having the cold food and bicycles on the same shelf.
At the risk of parroting everyone else, it's no iphone yet, but it's a worthy competitor, especially for a first gen OS. I like where Microsoft has gone with regards to using tiles to display info, however I have yet to see an instance where a tile beats an iOS icon with a badge.
Ask me anything, and I'll answer as best I can. If you have a specific question about an application, as long as it's free, I'll install it and tell you how it looks/works/etc.
mod note: I wasn't suer if this belongs in Apple, Industry, and Internet Discussion, or elsewhere. I opted to leave it out of the iPhone section to try to stop a flame war from starting, however if you feel the need to move it, feel free to.
Everyone else: Please, lets try to keep flaming to a minimum. I'm doing this because I like the MR community, and want to give something back. Keep it civil.
As I use the phone more, I'll just keep adding interesting points to this list.
First off, this phone is thin and light. It's on par with an iPhone 4 I'd guess, definitely smaller than the original iphones, and much smaller/lighter feeling than the droid X and droid 2.
The speaker is ok, it definitely sounds different than the 4 year old flip phone it replaced, but I haven't ever had a problem understanding anyone, so I'll just chalk it up as being "different", not necessarily bad though. No one's complained about being able to hear me, so I assume I sound fine on the other end, too.
Onto the software...
The software doesn't do much, but what it does, it does very very well. My friend asked me if she could see my "not iphone" and spent a few seconds looking at it, before handing it back saying it was better than she expected. that's about how I feel about it. On first glance, it's much better than anything I would have expected from MS, but when you start digging and using it, you begin to notice the flaws, such as the lack of customizable ringtones or alerts, and its inability to connect to my campus' wireless.
Microsoft's mac sync tool works well enough, although I eventually connected it to my PC, so I can use Zune's wireless sync ability and leave it charging in my bedroom overnight. However, I did play around with it, and I was very impressed with its ties with iLife. For example, you can sync albums, faces (I don't think you can do that in Zune, for example!), places, etc. The music and video sync was equally as impressive.
app wise, there's not a whole lot yet, to be expected. The worst part though, is the store design itself kinda sucks. It's like walking into a wal*mart or target, and having the cold food and bicycles on the same shelf.
At the risk of parroting everyone else, it's no iphone yet, but it's a worthy competitor, especially for a first gen OS. I like where Microsoft has gone with regards to using tiles to display info, however I have yet to see an instance where a tile beats an iOS icon with a badge.
Ask me anything, and I'll answer as best I can. If you have a specific question about an application, as long as it's free, I'll install it and tell you how it looks/works/etc.
mod note: I wasn't suer if this belongs in Apple, Industry, and Internet Discussion, or elsewhere. I opted to leave it out of the iPhone section to try to stop a flame war from starting, however if you feel the need to move it, feel free to.
Everyone else: Please, lets try to keep flaming to a minimum. I'm doing this because I like the MR community, and want to give something back. Keep it civil.
As I use the phone more, I'll just keep adding interesting points to this list.
- The volume control is system wide: Changing the ringer volume changes the music playback volume
- The volume buttons work even when the phone's screen is off
- If you turn the screen on, the audio playback controls are on the lock screen
- In the Zune (music) app, seach will search the store, not the device
- Found my first bug: bing Maps put me about a mile away from where I am, and consequently turned my 5 minute walk into a 9 minute drive.
- Missing (more) features in the music player app, that are in the zune, such as smart DJ and a jog style control for fast-forwarding.
- The games have the ability to be amazing. The Harvest - a MS Game Studio title - blows any other cellphone game I've seen out of the water, graphics wise
- Everything is touchable. Like Aqua is lickable, you can touch just about anything here.
- The playback volume for music seems a bit low...
- The alarm doesn't seem to wake me up. Maybe there's a setting I can change, but setting an alarm and sleeping through class doesn't make me happy.
- The power button doesn't always turn the screen on. This is a major bug, as it's happened to me twice now.
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