Hardware
Inside the box you will find the main target two, a USB cable with a cube-shaped wall adapter, an in-ear headset and a combine of knowledge pamphlets. Anyone at home with T-Mobile's Galaxy Blaze 4G may feel a way of déjà vu as they look at the main target two for the primary time. The devices are similar in style, however the main target two falls victim to our all-too-common grievance with Sammy-bred phones: it feels simply somewhat too plasticky. Samsung traded the Blaze's brushed-metal accents and textured battery cowl in favor of a literally slick "Gloss Pure White" end. the general style ethos remains intact, though, that the device a minimum of feels pleasing in hand. you will find a 4-inch (WVGA) Super AMOLED show up front with Windows Phone's normal trio of backlit capacitive buttons on top of rock bottom edge. colours on the screen seem vibrant with gobs of distinction, the black levels are terribly deep and you may get fairly sensible viewing angles. Tilt the device concerning a hundred and fifty degrees, however, and you may begin noticing some color shifting.
Here's the thing: having the non-Plus sort of Super AMOLED suggests that you are obtaining PenTile, and it's simply noticeable. Once you have seen a show like those belonging to the main target Flash or perhaps the four.3-inch Lumia 900, it makes the 800 x 480 resolution look worse than it very is. It's particularly obvious on curved borders and text, creating what ought to be a swish white seem like grid paper. we have a tendency to found that it irritated our eyes and was tougher to specialize in than comparable displays while not it. The attention-grabbing takeaway is that the main target two encompasses a slightly higher ppi than the Lumia 900 (233 pixels per in. vs. 217). it might be wise to grab a glance at this phone personally to check if you'll live with it.
With that detailed, it is time to maneuver somewhat below the show. The capacitive buttons are ultra-responsive just like the ones we have a tendency to experienced on the older Focus models, and also the device's vibration motor left us with unquestionably higher haptic feedback than the Lumia 900. That said, that level of responsiveness becomes a pain in Landscape mode, where we have a tendency to repeatedly found ourselves accidentally exiting out of Netflix into Bing rather like with those different Focuses. Another quirk that'll surely annoy some of us is what quantity the buttons remove darkness from -- they are jarring indoors, being brighter than the show on its highest setting. By the way, do not count on the vibration motor to be refined throughout a quiet meeting; we have a tendency to noticed it makes a boop pitch that'll simply be amplified if set down on a table.
The back of the main target two lays claim to a 5-megapixel sensor, LED flash and speakerphone. scraping the skinny, snap-on battery cowl reveals a micro-SIM slot and a one,750mAh battery to stay the handset juiced. A chunky stripe of chrome plastic wraps round the edges of device calling it quits its milky white complexion. On the proper, it homes an influence button and a two-stage shutter unharness, together with a volume rocker on the left. All of the buttons have a lovely click while not being too stiff, however they are doing feel simply a bit wobbly like we have a tendency to noted on the Lumia 800. The shutter button feels particularly nice, however, solely requiring a lightweight faucet to grab a photograph while not inducing any shake. That leaves us with the highest of the device, where there is a three.5mm headset jack and secondary noise-cancelling microphone, and also the bottom that homes the most microphone and micro-USB port.
If you caught our initial hands-on, one purpose that also resonates with us is how tiny it feels in hand. Despite having a 4-inch screen, it does not appear abundant larger than the Galaxy S or perhaps an iPhone 3GS. It's as long as you place these devices back-to-back when it becomes apparent the main target two is larger. we have a nifty chart that goes over the key specs of the main target two below, compared to the Titan II and Lumia 900 for perspective.
Performance and battery life
It's obtaining tiresome to notice that a brand new Windows Phone performs concerning a similar because the others on the software front, however that is precisely the case here. Given the hardware restrictions which will stay in place till Windows Phone eight hits, you are left with a one.4GHz single-core CPU, an Adreno 205 GPU and 512MB of RAM to run your phone. As such, there are not any surprises here, with the device averaging a WP Bench score of eighty seven.2 when 10 runs -- predictably not so much behind each different Windows Phone we've used.
Performance is sometimes swish, however it isn't ultra-zippy just like the latest iPhone and prime tier of Android flagships. it isn't possible to be a problem as long as you are not an extreme power user -- heck, a minimum of 3 Engadget editors manage to use Mango devices as their daily drivers, thus we actually mean it after we say "extreme." Apps usually load fairly quickly, however we have a tendency to sometimes experienced load-screen hangups whereas making an attempt to access basics like Messages and Twitter. except for that and a few delicate stuttering when swiping around, we'd be hard-pressed to mention any of the Windows Phone flagships perform materially higher. the most concern we've with the main target two rests with its 8GB (6.51GB user-accessible) of non-expandable storage. Despite having powerful connectivity, it leaves us to assume that Samsung is forcibly positioning an otherwise solid device into the newbie smartphone owner territory -- that, or it's hoping you're keen on SkyDrive.
Using a Lumia 900 alongside the main target two, we actually did not notice abundant of a distinction between their running times. As long as you are not tethering over LTE and HSPA+ for concerning 3 hours daily like we have a tendency to do, you may simply be ready to eke out over a day's value of life -- see you later as Mango's battery saver is turned on. Even adding during a light-weight quantity of Netflix streaming, a couple of calls, texting, many camera shots and light-weight browsing, we have a tendency to may in all probability build it through a traditional workday while not an outlet. That said, the main target two managed to last eighteen minutes longer than the Lumia 900's four hours and twenty nine minutes in WP Bench's CPU-intensive battery rundown. it isn't a whopping achievement by any suggests that, however if battery life is your main concern for a Windows Phone then look no any.
Speaking of radio signals, let's observe speeds. Using BandWidth, we have a tendency to were ready to record LTE throughput as high as concerning 10Mbps down (with peaks up to 13) and 5Mbps up in San Francisco. Tethering to a laptop in Midtown Manhattan, the most effective we have a tendency to managed was around five Mbps down and four Mbps up in line with SpeedTest.net. Considering we have seen upwards of twenty one Mbps down on the Lumia 900 and Titan II, we're disappointed that, in our LTE trials, the phone could not build it out of the speed zone that is common for HSPA+. internet browsing in IE9 is sometimes simply peppy enough, however as our most correct SunSpider score shows (7,058ms +/- zero.3 percent), it is a bit slower than the remainder of the pack. we have a tendency to experienced load times in way over a second to completely load pages over WiFi with the Lumia 900, and also the results are not any higher here. you will not catch any checkerboarding, however scroll down an extended webpage and you may be greeted by a ocean of white for a second or 2.
Lackluster speeds aside, we have a tendency to came away quite impressed with the audio quality on the main target two. Compared to the Lumia 900, the device has abundant less hiss within the signal and somewhat less grit to overall sound, with headphones plugged in. though WP7.5 still cannot seamlessly transition between 2 tracks while not a fast pause, we have a tendency to did not expertise any popping like we have a tendency to do with the 900. Unluckily enough for Nokia's flagship, it does not stop there -- the main target 2's earpiece made clearer audio, while not the slightest hints of metallic tones just like the Lumia produces. Even the speakerphone sounds clearer, creating the 900's sound somewhat muddier and condensed compared (it's sound is noticeably thicker, however). apparently enough, the main target two conjointly encompasses a hotter volume output (at least within the lower volume settings) through its headphone jack, needing solely to hit three or four out of thirty when the Lumia required to be close to fifteen to attain a similar output. With each devices, though, callers on the opposite finish did not have any complaints concerning hearing us. The Lumia 900 is actually a decent performer within the voice quality department, however there is no question that Samsung's lower-tiered device comes out a step ahead. And in case you are wondering, the included in-ear headphones are basically (save for the inline remote and mic) what you'd get with a Galaxy Player: passable at best.
Camera
Let's begin this section by stating that, no, this 5-megapixel shooter will not rival your Canon S95s. It will have some redeeming qualities, however, particularly when pit it against the Lumia 900. Once you get into the main target 2's live screen, the 900's look awful by comparison -- the framerate is smoother whereas panning, and also the dreaded pink center that different WP7.5 devices suffer from is a minimum of less obvious. The Lumia 900 will turn out sharper pictures with a lot of data and a wider angle because of its 8-megapixel sensor and 28mm lens, however the main target two never slipped up with auto white balance just like the 900 will on nearly each shot.
Its distinction levels are somewhat over the highest on auto and highlights tended to urge blown out simply, however you'll continually modify your settings because of Windows Phone's plethora of manual choices. Low-light performance from the main target is suitable.The images made are noticeably less noisy than the Lumia, however the shots do take off somewhat darker. The lens conjointly suffers from some extreme flare-ups when any bright lights from cars and also the like are introduced, thus do not bet on something apart from artsy leads to those forms of things. we have a tendency to were ready to achieve higher bokeh from the macro mode on the main target two than the 900, however it had had an inclination to specialize in the background in difficult light-weight things. The time it will take to catch focus with each devices is concerning the same: not significantly fast. you would be more happy simply whipping out a standalone camera if you are hoping to catch moving subjects, as you are results can continually have somewhat of blur. you may conjointly notice a 4x digital zoom, however we'd steer away from it because the results are worse than the VGA front-facing camera. Speaking of that, it will do okay for videocalls. Pictures? Spare yourself the grief and do not even opt for it. Overall, the cameras onboard are simply adequate and also the Lumia's results are largely higher -- even though it suggests that some additional tweaking to form it happen.
Let's observe moving pictures currently. That rear shooter is additionally capable enough to capture VGA and 720p HD video (30fps). Video quality, just like the photos, is simply adequate to urge the task done. colours come back through naturally, however you may even be addressing a good quantity of rolling shutter, lens-flaring, blown-out highs and wobbling from the slightest movements (there's no image stabilization to talk of). so much as we are able to tell you are conjointly stuck with a hard and fast focus, however fortunately, exposure is continuously adjusted automatically. The audio results for video, not like the remainder of of the phone, comes out as compressed garbage to be blunt. As you'll hear in our sample video, our blabbering simply clips the signal because it tries to complete the traffic whizzing by. you may conjointly notice that the birds chirping sound a lot of like harsh squeals, which the general sound is tinny. the foremost annoying side we have a tendency to controlled is that video defaults to VGA, that means you will likely miss several quickly-passing moving if you would like to shoot in HD.
Software
Remember Windows Phone seven.5 Mango? Yeah, it's precisely the same Metro-styled UI with Live Tiles and sparse customizability choices you either love, hate or have learned to measure with. Samsung and AT&T have added their usual array of bloatware apps, however you'll delete all of them to liberate a lot of of that spare space for storing. On the AT&T front, there is U-Verse Mobile, Family Map, Navigator, YPmobile and surprisingly helpful Code Scanner, whereas Samsung packs in its usual currently news and weather aggregator and Photo Studio editor. not like most crapware we have a tendency to really found ourselves using these 2 Samsung additions a good deal -- the currently application simply trumps Redmond's baked-in weather app. you may conjointly notice these and different exclusive bits within the AT&T Featured and Samsung Zone sections among the Marketplace, leaving us to once more surprise why they need to return pre-loaded on the device within the initial place. Notably, Samsung's free Photogram app gave us access to some nifty filters like HDR and Glow, which provides you a lot of choices additionally to the likes of Lomoshot and Dreamshot found in Photo Studio. We'd be remiss to not mention that Photo Studio conjointly allows different goodies sort of a Panorama mode.
Wrap-up
We're very at a toss-up with the Samsung Focus two. we discover ourselves reluctant to fall in love with the present crop of devices because the next version of Windows Phone looms ever nearer, however geez will the main target two tug on our geeky heartstrings. When it comes right down to it, we have a tendency to feel like Samsung is taking part in love games with us on this one. you have currently got a $50 possibility for an LTE-capable Windows Phone which will outlive the batteries of the $100 Lumia 900 and $200 Titan II and outperform a minimum of one on audio quality, marred by a PenTile show, a paltry 6.51GB of user-accessible and non-expandable storage, and slow LTE speeds. Furthermore, the general package does not function a compelling upgrade from even the sooner Focus models unless your heart is ready on LTE and tethering. a day that we have a tendency to catch up with to Apollo it gets tougher to suggest the likes of the Lumia 900 and also the HTC Titan II on AT&T's network, creating the lower-tiered Focus two an excellent tougher sell. there is no question that the main target two could be a solid very little handset, however we have a tendency to even have little doubt that when faced with a two-year agreement the Lumia 900 continues to be the most effective bang for your buck if you'll pony up the additional $50.
Spec Data
Design
Device type: Smart phone
OS: Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
Dimensions: 4.79 x 2.47 x 0.43 (122 x 63 x 11 mm)
Weight: 4.30 oz (122 g)
the average is 4.1 oz (118 g)
Display
Physical size: 4.00 inches
Resolution: 480 x 800 pixels
Pixel density: 233 ppi
Technology: Super AMOLED
Colors: 16 777 216
Touchscreen: Capacitive, Multi-touch
Features: Light sensor, Proximity sensor
Battery
Talk time: 6.00 hours
the average is 9 h (521 min)
Stand-by time: 10.4 days (250 hours)
the average is 21 days (495 h)
Capacity: 1750 mAh
Hardware
Processor: Single core, 1400 MHz
Graphics processor: Yes
Built-in storage: 8 GB
Camera
Camera: 5 megapixels
Flash: LED
Features: Auto focus, Geo tagging, Panorama
Camcorder: 1280x720 (720p HD) (30 fps)
Features: Continuous autofocus in a video, Video calling
Front-facing camera: 0.3 megapixels VGA
Multimedia
Music player:
Filter by: Album, Artist, Playlists
Features: Album art cover, Background playback
Radio: FM
Speakers: Earpiece, Loudspeaker
Internet browsing
Browser: Internet Explorer 9
Supports: HTML, HTML5
Built-in online services support: Facebook, Twitter
Technology
GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
UMTS: 850, 1900, 2100 MHz
LTE: 700 MHz Class 17, 1700/2100 MHz
Data: LTE, HSPA (unspecified), UMTS, EDGE, GPRS
Positioning: A-GPS
Navigation: Yes
Phone features
Phonebook: Unlimited entries, Caller groups, Multiple numbers per contact, Search by both first and last name, Picture ID, Ring ID
Organizer: Calendar, Alarm, Document viewer (Office 2007, Office 2003, PDF), Calculator, World clock
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Threaded view, Predictive text input
E-mail: IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Direct Push e-mail
Connectivity
Bluetooth: 2.1, EDR
Wi-Fi: 802.11 b, g, n
Mobile hotspot: Yes
USB: USB 2.0
Connector: microUSB
Features: USB charging
Computer sync, OTA sync
Other features
Notifications: Music ringtones (MP3), Polyphonic ringtones, Vibration, Flight mode, Silent mode, Speakerphone
Sensors: Accelerometer, Compass
Voice dialing, Voice commands, Voice recording
Availability
Officially
announced:
