yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Phone 7 General] rcklss1:
Hey guys... Ive had both the Samsung Focus and the HTC Surround... not sure which i want to keep though... Surround is louder which i like ringtone wise and i like the soft touch back.. I liked the screen, camera and thickness of the focus more though.... Just looking to see what other peoples thoughts were or maybe what your determining factor was...
[Windows Phone 7 General] John973:
focus, compare the screen of both phones side by side and you'll clearly see the difference
[Windows Phone 7 General] action_efn_jackson:
Compare them side by side using office or email and you'll notice the surround looks better. The surround does better with the lighter colors. Size really isnt a factor because even though the Focus is thinner (less then an 1/8 of an inch) because when you compare all 3 dimensions the Surround is actually smaller. Both are good picks. Just go with your gut and I'm sure you'll be pleased either way.
[Windows Phone 7 General] z33dev33l:
do you use your phone as a multimedia device or a business device? Thats kinda what it comes to.
[Windows Phone 7 General] jwzg:
Been using a Surround for more than a week now. It feels substantial but not clumsy and has excellent build quality. I thought the Samsung felt cheaper and had a more pixilated screen. Vote for Surround.
[Windows Phone 7 General] cbebop7:
The ATT store I went to had the Focus and Surround side by side.. played with both and bought the Focus eventually. The Focus is really very thin and light and you wont even fell it in your pocket. Also even though its basically all plastic it does not feel cheap.
[Windows Phone 7 General] LordLugard:
Definitely keep the Focus.
[Windows Phone 7 General] FL5:
The way that I decided between the two (well, three for me) was to stand at the AT&T display and play around with both. With one in each hand, making the decision was really rather easy for me.

I was really impressed by the Focus. The large, pretty screen made me happy. I bought one.

Honestly, my impression of the Surround was that it was a terrible joke gone awry. It makes absolutely no sense to me, and it boggles my mind that the Surround was ever manufactured, much less brought to retail. Every time I see one, I want to slap Ralph De La Vega for polluting my potential choices with garbage like that instead of bringing over quality equipment.

That being said, lots of folk really seem to thing that the Surround is not a miscarried fetus of design, and as such what you should take away when considering your personal device should be what matters to you. Think about what you do or want to do with your phone on a daily basis, and apply that to the choices you have at hand. I ended up choosing the Focus, but you may decide that something else fits your desires better.
[Windows Phone 7 General] jh20001:
I'd hate to be the one to bump a thread but I too am looking at these two devices. I have always used qwerty phones (I have the Tilt 2 now) and HTC. However now AT&T only has the LG to choose from for a kb and its screen is small, quality is nominal compared to the other two and the kb feels horrible to the touch (and cheap).

Now I am trying to figure out which of these two phones (Focus/Surround) I want.

Focus: I like the focus for its larger screen, lighter weight and the fact that is has 1gb internal sys mem (sys mem, not storage mem). However all of the store displays of all AT&T stores I went to have a slight image burned onto the screen. They told me the screens are on 24/7 but still...the other phones don't have that. Also it lacks 50% of the space since it doesn't have the 8GB card in it.

HTC Surround: I like the brightness a little more on this screen, plus the HTC software (ie, youtube). The sound is a better obviously and it has the extra 8GB card. The screen is a little smaller though, it has way less sys mem (not storage mem), and less talk time (battery life)...at least based on specs.

I need good images, accurate keyboard for a touch kb, use it for business and space....well I have a 8GB SanDisk so I'm sure it would work in the Focus so space isn't much a concern. Battery life is important as I use my phone a lot. Also important is speed....the HTC has 1/2 the sys mem pretty much as the Focus does...yet I haven't heard anyone make any comments about this yet.

PS: Oh! and I can get the HTC Surround for 1 penny but the Focus is $99.....so that also obviously adds a little imbalance.
[Windows Phone 7 General] prjkthack:
Speed is never mentioned because its not that big of an issue. Windows Phone 7 was designed specifically for these devices and as such, has a minimum system requirement, and because of that, they both work very well on any of the devices on the market currently. The extra memory doesn't make much of impact on performance.

To be honest, aside from the SAMOLED screen, the Focus looks boring and feels cheap. Also, Samsung's track record for supporting their own devices has been subpar at most, for this reason alone I steer away from Samsung devices unless its a Samsung TV.

The Surround doesn't win any design awards, but I do think it looks better than the Focus and doesn't feel cheap. The speaker, while not really useful, is great for pumping out music and video (which is good since WP7 is a media-centered device). Not to mention the awesome support that HTC devices get from HTC, from software to updates, HTC has a much better track record than Samsung.

And when it comes to smartphone battery life, I think its safe to say you're not going to get great battery life period. You are gonna have to plug in your phone at least once a day, and anyone expecting it to last any more than that will be in for a surprise. So I usually ignore battery life when looking at phones (unless the battery life is really dismal).

Obviously they both have their ups and downs and its up to you to decide whats most important to you. The screen burn-in issue on the Focus is one I've heard before, so that actually would bother me quite a bit. I haven't heard any issues with the Surround really.
[Windows Phone 7 General] jh20001:
I just hope if I were to choose HTC, if it will last with good use until the end of the day. I am perfectly fine with charging my phone ever night. It's just when I have to charge it i the middle of the day and wonder if I even have a charger near me that bothers me. My tilt 2 has even had this issue (although usually it does ok).
[Windows Phone 7 General] The Gate Keeper:
can't speak much for the surround but i have a HTC 7 Trophy and it lasts through the day. however, i use mine for radio for like 6 hours of the day and by about 7pm it's dead, so i charge it at work. but still, that is using the radio for 6 hours...
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
which one is having trouble getting updated? get the other one.
[Windows Phone 7 General] jh20001:
lol, this has been another factor in choosing. It's the Samsung Focus that has been having troubles. That alone has put a lot of favor towards the surround for me and installs a lot of negative assumption in Samsung's build quality.
[Windows Phone 7 General] tiny17:
Why don't we wait and see how a real update is handled. If NODO comes out at the same time for both devices (even if it was delayed because of the Samsung), it really doesn't matter, because both received the update at the same time.

Weighing in on the question at hand. The Focus takes some of the best pictures of any smartphone on market today. If that is important to you, then that is reason enough to get the focus.

The Focus has a very nice screen, with gorilla glass. The battery life is top notch. The external speaker isn't bad. Fast NAND memory that may likely be more reliable.

The Samsung simply has higher quality components, even though the two devices share many of the same components.

Now, I do have the Focus, but when buying a WP7 device I wasn't bound to any single carrier, so I was able to research out all the devices thoroughly, and the Focus is the one I went with.
[Windows Phone 7 General] jh20001:
Well I do know that I thank all for their feedback. I have decided to order the HTC Surround. There has been good reasons for both sides to get either phone but the more I read online, the more I see people complaining about the screen burn-in issue as well as upgrading windows and the history of Samsung's own efforts to update their products.

Once I have the Surround I will share my own feedback to help contribute to the pot of knowledge.
[Windows Phone 7 General] mKTank:
Get the Focus. Its faster, has better specs, better battery life, better screen, etc.

Sent from my Samsung Focus using Board Express
[Windows Phone 7 General] onesikpuppy:
I have a Captivate at the moment but am considering a Focus, no other phone is even in the running. I have been spoiled by the Samsung screen.....nothing else will do. I've looked at the surround but it just can't compare.
[Windows Phone 7 General] tiny17:
I really think this is going to end up like the whole plasma screen burn in issue - something we will hear about for years to come that is more of an issue in word than in reality. Regardless I hope that the Surround works out for you.
[Windows Phone 7 General] doejohn531:
As a Surround user, I can say that the battery life is terrible. I love the phone although with moderate usage I still end up having to charge it around 5 PM if I plan on going anywhere that evening. Or if I make any long phone calls.
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
Better Screen is very much an opinion. I'll take the 4.3in lcd over the energy sucking super amoled any day. Heard complaints about netflix not working well with the S. Amoled screen.

I can see the concern. If you are like me and leave your screen on all the time while it's plugged in, you could get some issues if you have the same thing on your screen for hours. Like there are a couple of apps that override the lockscreen to use your phone as an alarm clock. One of the default setups, is a blue digital clock where several onscreen items won't be changing (settings button, etc). I think leaving this on all night could cause a problem. It is something to be mindful of.

But doesn't the focus get the worst battery ratings due to the S Amoled screen? I know htc batteries are a little smaller but...
[Windows Phone 7 General] ogracia:
Runaway from Samsung

Sent from my HD7 T9292 using Board Express
[Windows Phone 7 General] doejohn531:
That very well may be true. I think I'm just sad about the battery life in comparison to my old Tilt 2.
[Windows Phone 7 General] mKTank:
The Focus gets the best battery life. The SAMOLED doesn't suck much battery life given that most of WP7 is black.

SAMOLED being a better screen is very much...

...not an opinion, but a fact.

The Focus is also the thinnest, the lightest, and has the best viewing angles.

In short, the Focus is essentially the master class when it comes to WP7, at least until Nokia starts pumping out some handsets.

Thanks for playing.
[Windows Phone 7 General] tiny17:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Windows-Phone-7-devices-battery-life-comparison_id14272

The Surround is rated at about a half hour longer battery life. That being said, sAMOLED is more efficient in darker colors. So if you are doing less web browsing, and heavier gaming, or other such things which don't have as much white, the battery life difference may become negligent.

If reading text on a white background is going to be a huge part of what you do, then an LCD screen (like on the surround) may then become preferable due to text looking better on an LCD, and better battery life. Where as sAMOLED lends its self to video/pictures, and I would argue gaming.
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
It's a prettier screen, sure, but its quite noticable smaller, with bigger pixels, color saturation problems, burning problems and problems playing netflix properly.

Everyone has their own opinions on what they want out of their screens.

Even my wife who went from an hd2 to a vibrant is disappointed.

It's kinda like the plasma vs lcd vs dlp for hdtv's.

I would never ditch my dlp t.v. strictly because of sports. We have a 240mhz refresh rate samsung lcd and it sux for watching basketball.
[Windows Phone 7 General] John973:
I have a focus, I've had it since the day it came out. I have not one complaint, my screen isnt burnt in, netflix works amazingly, I'm not even sure how you can compare the surround to the focus, theres no comparison.

Lets be serious a slide out speaker? What kind of joke is that, the 90% of the time the speaker is slid in the sound gets muffled by the screen... what a genius design.

At first I wanted a surround but damn am I glad I got the focus instead. Theres a reason why the surround only cost a penny.
[Windows Phone 7 General] mKTank:
He just haven't tried/used a Focus and is talking out of his ass. The Focus has no issues with Netflix and it has a higher PPI. Color is better on it as well, and the burn in problems are indeed problems...if you keep your screen on one thing for hours at a time.

He seems to have some kind of vendetta against Samsung. Too bad he's wrong.

The ONE thing that HTC devices have over the Samsung devices is that they have nicer app exclusives. But everything else is worse by a long shot.
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
from the mouths of focus owners:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=891035

http://forums.wpcentral.com/samsung-focus/177357-screen-burn.html

I'm not saying that the focus is a bad phone, just that its not for everyone. That's why we have choices. And from what I've heard, the surround has the best speakers for a phone right now.
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
my wife has a vibrant, and she's not impressed either. Same screen as the focus, so I have played with super amoled. I'll take size over slightly better quality anyday.

And no I don't really trust samsung. Longest of the top end android phones to get froyo and all the update problems are from what OEM??? (which apparently is caused by 1 version of their bootloader)

Oh, and as far as more ppi, maybe that's due to 1 color per pixel on amoled devices vs 3 colors per pixel on lcd.

HTC isn't perfect, but they also haven't let me down yet either.
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
Samsung's problem isn't the screen, but rather Samsung software/firmware. The SAMOLED screen is the best thing on any phone. Saying otherwise is rediculus.
[Windows Phone 7 General] z33dev33l:
I own both devices and can only describe the surround as HTC's attempt at a joke. I mean really? A huge slide-out speaker that isn't even as clear as the Venue Pro's hidden behind a miniscule washed out and somewhat dodgy screen? Not to mention the form factor and weight. It's hideous. The only thing I enjoyed on that phone was the equalizer button. Even the kickstand on it is a joke, if I used it frequently I'm pretty sure I would've just snapped it off by now. The Surround is just bad.
[Windows Phone 7 General] mKTank:
The Focus is still a better phone. OP, get the Focus.

Sent from my Samsung Focus using Board Express
[Windows Phone 7 General] Avandor:
Get the Focus.
[Windows Phone 7 General] jaraya13:
Dude I had a Surround for about 3 weeks (after I lost my first Focus) and it was worst nightmare ever. I bought a Focus right away. I do recommend a Focus hands down.
[Windows Phone 7 General] uncled1023:
I currently am using the HTC Surround. I don't see what everyone's issues are with it. It is sturdier, has been rated as having a better battery life, and the speakers are far superior to any other phone. If you love media, which WP7 is all about, then you will love the Surround. Watching netflix movies with the dolby speakers, leaning on its kickstand, is like your own private movie theater.

The focus may have the AMOLED screen, but whoopdefreakindo. its not that cool.

In the end, if you want a solid, well built media device that will do everything you want and more, get the surround. otherwise, fall back to the focus.
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
don't say that. You'll be ridiculed...

:eek:

everyone loves the focus, so it must be the best phone since it has the oversaturated S Amoled screen!!
[Windows Phone 7 General] z33dev33l:
When I first saw renders of that device I thought it was a joke. So many months later I saw it and yeah... still not so impressed. They talk up the speakers as though they're a huge selling point and yet the venue pro get's just as loud and isn't near as fuzzy as the dolby surround sound. Pair that with a miniscule screen for watching those netflix movies and a kickstand many people have snapped off due to it being under the sliding mechanism and you have a train wreck of a device. I'm not a huge Samsung fan and as a whole the Focus is only second best in the US released WP7 devices but I'll go with the better of two evils there.
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
sorry, no one can take you seriously when you continue to rate the dvp as the best wp7 device. The renders and idea of it were the best, but the execution was utter fail.
[Windows Phone 7 General] z33dev33l:
I am sorely aware of the device flaws with a number of these most of which were due to the stock memory card. If you're in the general pop that got a perfectly functional device though then it is truly astounding. Dell dropped the ball on some of the basics. It sucks but it's true. As far as Windows phone devices went pretty much everyone did. HTC's devices are terrible remakes of android devices and are just cheap. Everything HTC has aside from their processors are outdated garbage. I mean the screens are just terrible, AMOLED all the way, SAMOLED is good too but it's a bit blue for me, Samsung's is just another galaxy S firmware issues and all, LG... well, they're LG, and Dell put a crappy memory card in their 16 gig devices. I am still on my first venue pro and my only complaint thusfar is the camera. Aside from that this is as close as it comes to a flawless phone and there's no way I could downgrade back to all of the seemingly lower class Windows Phone devices. Thank you for bringing up a comment completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand though. That totally helps the forum community.
[Windows Phone 7 General] uncled1023:
Even though I do support the surround the most, I do want to bring up a point. One of the main reasons WP7 will be successful will be because of the requirement of certain specs from the hardware, no matter the carrier or manufacturer. Each wave of new phones should all be pretty much alike, just tweaked a lil differently for different tastes. Yes, some will love the Focus for its Amoled screen. Some will love the surround for its solid feel and regular screen, while others will like the 7pro because of its slide out keyboard. It all depends to taste. But the end result will be that all of them will perform the same, run the same os, and have nearly the same experience.

So just pick what ever one has the features you like, end of story.
[Windows Phone 7 General] jmerrey:
btw, one of those links is a thread started by me. Yes, there is a small amount of burn in on my screen, only visible on white screens. However, I would put the blame on myself, as I can remember times that I tried my best to keep the home screen on for hours at a time. After seeing another wp7 device(lg i think) w/o samoled, I wouldn't even consider anything else. Plus, it's nice having 24mb of storage ;)
[Windows Phone 7 General] jh20001:
I would hope it's more than that :) heh (It's obvious what you meant)
[Windows Phone 7 General] jmerrey:
oops! yeah, 8+16=24gb ;)
[Windows Phone 7 General] jh20001:
So far I am really digging the surround. I like how I was able to transfer all my contacts/calendar to Windows Live and it auto populated on the phone. I was worried about the anti-outlook sync they decided to run with.

I really do wish it would sync or at least connect with SkyDrive for office docs OTHER than notes. I'd like excel spreadsheets and word docs sync to the phone without having to email each individual one to myself.

I don't know if Zune works with me just yet since I can't get the d**n app to install on my PC. It gives me what appears to be the notorious error about 90% of the way through and no trial and error has fixed it yet based on online reading. So *shrug*....may have to jailbreak this thing to get music/videos on.

Remote Desktop apps.....*sigh* it's going to bug me not having my VNC on my cell. I manage a lot of PC's and a few servers so it's important I have this feature.....this is a patience thing since it's a new OS and that's a complicated app with how restricted WP7 is.

I am an audio geek so I am not so comfortable not being able to customize the ringtones for appointments and the such....ringtone/sounds management is very limited. Of course I knew about this going into WP7 ahead of time.

I think a better app list would be nice. Something with categories or folders.

So really my only steams aren't model specific, but WP7 in general. WP7 still has a lot to work on. The HTC Surround though...I'm liking it. The battery could be better but I won't complain yet as reading everyone else's chatter about it, it appears the battery improves once you have been charging it for a week or so (conditioning), so we'll see :)
[Windows Phone 7 General] amtrakcn:
3 Point I cannot agree

1.Samsung actually supports their device fine. Just check how frequently they update the firmware of Galaxy S. Altough still not as good as HTC but getting update should not be a problem. The only uncertainty is AT&T...

2.Battery life matters. My Focus lasts two days if the usage is not that heavy. I don't have a Surround to campare with but my Captivate only lasts half the time under same extent of usage.

3.Focus looks cheap in photos but holding it in hand feels much better.
[Windows Phone 7 General] amtrakcn:
I know HTC does well in upgrading their devices but Samsung does well too. Only 3 of the 4 US variants (Why just US? The identical phones in other areas did not have such delay) of the whole Galaxy S line updated to Froyo later than 2010. Also Galaxy S is the first to have stock Gingerbread except Nexus devices.

The difference btweeen screens is that LCD screens usually have full pixels while SAMOLED uses Pentile to simplify control (Atrix 4G has pentile too, though it's LCD).

Why so much Samsung hate? HTC is good at software development but they usually don't use the top hardware. Recall how long they used TI's OMAP750/850 that made WM phones extremely slow.
[Windows Phone 7 General] MartyLK:
Same here. Since having a 4.3" HD2, I have been incredibly impressed with that size since. I had the first gen iPhone with it's 3.5" display and had eye strain issues viewing it for any lengthy period of time. I didn't know that going to a 4.3" display would make such a huge impact on eye strain relief but, it did. I can watch videos on my HD2 all day long and not have nearly the eye strain I had with my 1st gen iPhone. My HD7 is the same way. I can view its display all day long...browsing websites, watching videos and all...and still be fine. Since getting my iPhone 4...with the same size 3.5" display...I have a hard time reading it. It's significantly more difficult to play games or watch videos on it than my HD7.

Even though the Focus has a larger display than the iPhone...4" vs. 3.5"...I would still choose a phone with the larger display. The HD7 display isn't as bad in real-world conditions as some make it out to be. The quality of image is still stunning even though it doesn't have the extreme viewing angles an AMOLED has. And, by the way, those pictures in that post make a point to show the display in it's least favorable setting, which nobody would watch at a constant angle as that.

My suggestion is for the OP to go see for himself. Does the OP want extreme viewing angles with a smaller screen, or does he want a nicely vivid and sufficiently impressive image on a larger display?
[Windows Phone 7 General] mKTank:
More like: Does the OP want a 4" screen with better colors, better contrast, and better viewing angles or does he want a 4.3" screen with worse colors, worse contrast, and worse viewing angles?
[Windows Phone 7 General] z33dev33l:
Neither device comes close to 4.3 inch o_0