The

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

Focus (also known as the SGH-i917 and Samsung Cetus) is a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...

which runs Microsoft's

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

operating system. It features a 1 GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processor, a 4.0-inch

Super AMOLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescent material, and active matrix ...

screen, and 8GB of internal storage (expandable to 40GB with a 32GB

microSD Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDi ...

card). As of November 2011, it is the 4th lightest and thinnest

, behind the Samsung Focus Flash, HTC Titan and the Samsung Focus S, a more high-end version of the original Focus.

History

Release and marketing

The Focus was released on November 8, 2010, along with the HTC Surround on

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

. It was marketed by Samsung as being the only Windows Phone to feature a microSD card slot. The Focus was also released on November 8, 2010, on

Rogers Wireless Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian wireless telephone company headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The company had revenues of just under $15.1 billi ...

in Canada, Rogers handsets differ in appearance as they lack carrier branding instead of having the Samsung logo appear at the top where the AT&T logo would normally appear.Samsung Focus
- Rogers Canada. The Samsung Focus is no longer available on Rogers Wireless as of March 20, 2012.

Successor

The successor to the Focus is the Samsung Focus S, released in November 2011, featuring a larger 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus display. The Samsung Focus Flash is also listed as a successor in the US; in other countries, however, it is a successor to the Omnia.

Features

Display

The Samsung Focus features a Corning

Gorilla glass Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning, now in its seventh generation. Designed to be thin, light and damage-resistant, the glass gains its surface strength, ability to contain flaws, and ...

display like its Galaxy S cousins. The display is much brighter than LCDs and reduces power consumption. The high contrast ratio between dark and light colors produces exceptional quality even in sunlight. The nature of the capacitive touchscreen can cause some issues as some have noted placing the phone on a plush surface will make the display very unresponsive. However normal hand-held usage is very responsive.

Software

The phone was released with

and AT&T Navigator, AT&T Radio, AT&T myWireless and AT&T Uverse which can be uninstalled. The device also shipped with Samsung's "Now", also known as, "Daily Briefing" application which displays weather, news, and stocks.Topolsky, Joshua. (2010-10-22
Samsung Focus review
Engadget.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-09. The phone is capable of upgrading to Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango).

Languages

At the time of its launch, the Rogers version supported English and French, while the AT&T version also supported German, Spanish, and Italian. The Windows Phone 7.5 update added support for Korean to both variants.

Reception

The Samsung Focus received positive reviews. It received a 7 out of 10 rating from

Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editor ...

stating, "The Focus is kind of the everyman of the Windows Phone line. It doesn't really have any fancy features and isn't especially stylish... but it gets the job done ... At the end of the day, a lot of people will find that the Focus hits the sweet spot – for us, it just slightly misses the mark."

CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

gave the phone 4 out of 5 stars and stated, "Anyone looking for an alternative to the iPhone, but who wants better multimedia features and a more organized user interface than Android offers, should look at the Samsung Focus ... which has all that plus solid performance and a sleek design."

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' ( ) is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the subsite '' io9'', ...

praised the phone for its

display and the thinness and lightness of the device although noting, "The glossy plastic and fake chrome isn't just tacky, it makes a phone loaded with high-end technology feel cheap. SlashGear said that the Focus "might well be the best Windows Phone device in the (North American) market."

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the presen ...

said that the Samsung Focus is "probably the best of the Windows phones." In its annual Readers' Choice Awards 2011, PC Magazine gave the Samsung Focus the highest overall score among AT&T smartphones, besting the Apple iPhone.

Expandable storage issues

The Focus is marketed as the only Windows Phone that has a microSD card slot but many users found that installation can be tricky. The SD card used in the Samsung Focus must meet certain performance requirements, such as random read and write speeds, which cannot be determined with the speed class alone. When inserting a new SD card into the Samsung Focus, the phone must be reformatted and reset to factory settings.

has informed customers to buy a "Samsung Focus approved" microSD card in order to use the slot.Samsung Focus users should wait for certified SD cards according to AT&T
Phonearena.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-09. After inserting an SD card, one cannot remove it as the card integrates with the phone's memory; doing so will completely erase the phone along with the card.

References

External links

Official Samsung Focus homepageSamsung Focus on the AT&T website
{{Samsung smartphones, android=yes, symbian=yes, wm=yes, wp=yes, tizen=yes, bada=yes, limo=yes, palm=yes Windows Phone devices Samsung smartphones Mobile phones introduced in 2010