First impressions: Samsung Focus – Windows Phone 7

I’ve been using a Samsung Focus for a little under a day now. Check out the slide show above (or see the set in Flickr) for the phone itself, several pictures I’ve taken with it, along with pictures from my iPhone and digital camera for comparison.

I’ll check it out more before a longer review, but here are some quick impressions:

• Like everyone says, it is a pretty looking phone operating system.
• The tight integration of Facebook and contacts is interesting. I was looking up someone to call and noticed that you can go see their Facebook updates to. If it integrated with more things (Twitter?) it’d be kind of like having Gist built into your phone.
• Adding both my personal GMail and RedMonk GMail was quick and easy. It even synced my primary calenders on those accounts without much fuss.
• Zune software doesn’t work on OS X which is not good for me. Thankfully I have a Windows machine at the office.
• It sucked down my Google contacts lickity-split, which was awesome: no need to import contacts.
• I was able to do most everything (initial setup, for sure) over the air – no need to hook up to my computer. I really like this. I had to hook it up to my Windows box to get music and podcasts on it.
• The actual hardware itself is light and nice. It does feel too plasticy – compared to the iPhone and Droid 2 metal, heavy feel – but I’ll see: a $500+ wedge of plastic is weird to hold, but nice.
• I’ve noticed several of mobile websites I use that are not WP7 ready. Google Reader, for example, seems to have the feature phone mobile interface: where there’s numbers and # signs next to everything.
• While I don’t like micro-USB (I have tons of the larger one and I loath getting new wires), I like the fact that the phone uses a standard USB cord instead of (as with the iPhone) some weird proprietary thing.
• I’ve had it plugged in all day and the power icon is flashing, but either the battery is the slowest charge ever, or it’s not charging.
• There’s no Evernote on WP7, so I tried using OneNote. It seemed cool, but the syncing didn’t work after “jiggling the wires” a few times on the live.com, desktop, and phone setup.
• I’ve had several calls (and txting) on it, and they’ve been a-OK, very clear actually and nothing dropped yet. It works with my MicroCell just fine.

After more time using it and checking out options, I’ll write a more in-depth review. Maybe we’ll do a recording about it since I know Stephen has one as well.

Disclosure: Microsoft is a client and sent us these phones.