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Samsung Focus (Cetus)
8.0
final rating

reviewed on
purchased on
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Criteria Comments Rating
  • Reception and call quality Clear phone calls, good reception in the Seattle area. good
  • Display The glass is smooth to the touch, images clear, size fairly nice, as well as very responsive to touch and typical use. great!
  • Battery life The phone typically runs my day unless I am playing a lot of games or using a lot of apps. good
  • Camera No comments —
  • Ease of use The Windows Phone experience is wonderful. Between the hardware buttons and UI, there isn't a phone to beat it. great!
  • Design and form factor The phone is kind of a chunk, search button is far too often hit, and I have accidentally pushed up my volume when putting it into my pocket. so-so
  • Portability (size / weight) Light, fair size, though I wouldn't mind a slimmer package like the next generation Samsung Focus S has. good
  • Media support I'm a Zune Pass user, plus Amazon MP3, so everything I need is supported. Podcasts are supported on the device directly. good
  • Durability So far, so good. The device has no visable marks after a month of use, though the back does tend to become fingerprint prone. good
  • Ecosystem (apps, accessories, etc.) The app selection is good, though there could be a wider selection of big names, as well as improvements on many apps, even ones made by companies themselves. so-so
Detailed review
This has been the first smartphone I've owned, so take that into consideration. Still, between the Windows Phone OS and the Samsung hardwate, I've been pretty pleased. The integrated experiences with Facebook and Twitter work quite well, though I occasionally had issues with Twitter where all of those updates would disappear for one or two rounds of updates. The camera isn't amazing, or good, but gets the job done and, if you use the photo filter apps, you don't really need it to be perfect. Apps overall are good, though you have to dive through a bit of, lack of a better word, trash before you find the gems. Still, plenty of good apps exist, and there appears to be more coming by the day, so Microsoft truly just needs to filter out the good ones better, or maybe I just need to find purpose for the apps.

In all, it's an excellent phone with a great OS, though because of the age at this point, any of the 2nd generation hardware will probably treat you better, such as the Samsung Focus S, or even the upcoming Lumia in the states (or ones available if you live elsewhere).