[Windows Phone 7 General] denizen08:
Just a few points from my own research on HTC and Samsung WP7

First off I want to disclaim that I haven't had any experience with any WP7 devices just yet because I live in the Philippines and it has only just been released here under Smart Telecom and the only device they're offering is a Mozart - not exactly my first choice - so I'm waiting for my Samsung Focus to arrive Monday next week. But I've been excited as hell ever since I first got word of this device in an MSP talk and I have been researching on which device is best thus far for the OS is still debuting to the world (its a total rework away from Windows Mobile in more ways than one). That being said I'll follow up with my experience when I get my hands on my device. :)

HTC is a relatively new company to venture into the Mobile Manufacturing World and compared to Samsung the latter has had quite an experience not just with mobile phones but with other electronic devices, so expect many features of the phone essential to user experience to be ways better off. In particular: body design, display, and battery (battery management is handled by WP7, but the cells are definitely from the Samsung stock), and camera.

However, we should give HTC the benefit of the doubt. They seem smart enough to know what consumers want to have actually produced and sold quite a number of phones and I'm sure they will improve on future devices. I just don't think this quarter's release of WP7 devices for HTC is worth my buck when Samsung has something to offer.

But here are my arguements against Samsung:

I got a glance at a S-Amoled demo and I have to tell you the screeen is too damn vivid! The colors are literally jumping out at you at full brightness. This can be a good thing when outdoors as ANY screen usually have glare or interferrence from external light sources (the Sun being the most prevalent). Normally you wouldn't want to pump the brightness of the display at max anyway to conserve battery, so why not? If the S-Amoled screen works best with that kind of setting then all the better!

From experience with older Samsung mobiles the flash for the camera on most Samsung phones regardless of MegaPixel rating is lacking. It doesn't do a very good job with regards to light compensation or lighting up things well, especially when its dark as night, despite the camera being good as it is.

Also, on the topic of SD-cards and Internal Flash memory: The WP7 OS was initially designed to operate soley on internal memory, but future updates and OS revisions will support SD-cards (Microsoft has to if it wants to survive the SmartPhone business). Therefore, most WP7 devices including Omnia 7 only have internal memory. The only reason the Focus supports SD-cards is that the phone itself forces the SD-card to be seen by the OS as if it was a built-in internal memory device (in layman terms: Samsung cheated with the SD-card feature). This is the reason why most SD-cards burn out quickly on the Focus.

In my opinion, my first choice of WP7 devices are the Omnia 7 and Focus. Second only are the HTC models. Only because the Omnia 7 is thus far available only in Europe and that USA is more accessible for me did I choose Focus. The availability of an SD-card slot in the Focus is a plus for me too, despite the bug.