Customer reviews from Samsung US
Samsung - I917 Focus Mobile Phone (Unlocked) - Black
Average customer rating
4.4
(868 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 868 reviews
5 Stars
535
4 Stars
224
3 Stars
47
2 Stars
29
1 Star
33
87%of customers recommend this product.
(
686 out of
785)
Customer Reviews for Samsung - I917 Focus Mobile Phone (Unlocked) - Black
Customer Rating
4
on February 5, 2011
Posted by: FunGurl
jsut got his phone today and i love it so far.. i had the Iphone and went to this Focus and couldnt be happier :)
Pros: Built-in speakers, Bright display, Inexpensive, Durable, Lightweight
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
4
Performance
5
Design
5
Value
5
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
4
Awesome Phone - With a Slight Design Issue
on February 7, 2011
Posted by: Travelor
from Riverside, CA
Expertise:Expert
I have been a Samsung Cell Phone User for many years. Most Recently upgraded from the BlackJack II to the Samsung Focus.
The biggest reason for the upgrade is to move to the next best/greatest Window Phone 7. Being a Zune Pass User/Owner/Subscriber I know that a lot of the changes made to the Windows Phone 7 OS were to accomadate the latest and greatest Zune Experience as well as integrate the Zune Experience.
I read several hundred, if not thousands of reviews, and finally made my decision to get the Samsung Focus. I am very pleased with my decision and have only one "REAL" issue to point out.
The Back Plate - Battery Cover - After removing the back plate - battery cover it can be difficult to get it back together and in fact I find that I can not get the bottom section to fully seat onto the back of the phone. See Attached Video.
Overall I am very happy with the Focus - It is very sleek and responds to both voice and touch commands seamlessly. I look forward to many years (at least 2 years) of use of this device
Pros: Bright display, Lightweight
Cons: poor battery cover - back plate design-connectors
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
5
Performance
5
Design
2
Value
4
(click to see the video)
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
3
Get an iPhone
on February 8, 2011
Posted by: kcebttocs
from long beach
Expertise:Intermediate
I weighed this phone against an iPhone for about 2 hours in a store and finally decided to go with a Focus. I settled on it because I thought the apps and ease of use was the same but I know how bad the call quality is on the iPhone. The phone quality is good on the focus, but it lags in a lot of different areas.
For starters, you HAVE to have unlimited data to use this phone. I have 200 mb/month and i used that downloading necessary applications (countdown timer, stopwatch, youtube, etc) in 2 days. The phone comes with no games. It also uses tons of data when you use the Bing search built in on the phone, the Now weather and news app, the built-in facebook page and email. The email app is very easy to use and makes emailing almost as easy as texting. The marketplace feature is generally easy to use, but I feel like there should be SOME useful apps built in, and there aren't many. Going back and forth from one app to the next is confusing. It doesn't cascade your open apps and all open apps use even more battery. There is no way to know what you have open. The Explorer app is the same way. Explorer is not especially easy to use. Unless you save everything as a bookmark, you can't revisit a page you were on the day before. There are no settings and it doesn't play flash videos at all.
The battery is awul. If you use it like they market it, the battery will be dead 2/3 of the way through the day. If you have a usb port in your car, the car will likely fight between charging the phone and trying to play music and drain the battery even more.
The camera produces good quality when you can actually get it to focus. Pressing the camera button while the phone is locked makes it very easy to take a picture, but you have to hold it down halfway to focus it and doing so can be tricky. You also have to be perfectly still. It is not remotely as easy as they make it out to be by saing all you have to do is pull the camera out and click and you will get a 5.0 mp pic.
The zune music feature is confusing and not very easy to use. You can't create playlists on the phone. Pretty much, all it does is play songs. You can repeat and shuffle, but that's it. Samsung says you can import playlists from your computer, but I have not tried that yet. One thing they did right was make it able to play m4a files.
Overall it is an average phone- good for some things and definitely not for others. The camera and call quality are probably better than an iPhone, but the ease of use and apps are definitely better on the latter.
Pros: Bright display, Realistic color, Lightweight, bing gps even better than google maps
Cons: Too big, Did not meet expectations, very few useful built-in apps, seldomly displays pictures in received messages, exiting applications is confusing, battery life
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Features
3
Performance
4
Design
4
Value
2
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
4
my office
on February 8, 2011
Posted by: Frodiggs
very capable phone. Camera and video are amazing and this review is not without merit to WP7 of course.
Pros: Bright display, Inexpensive, Realistic color, Lightweight
Cons: too small slippery
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
4
Performance
4
Design
4
Value
4
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
4
Where is my LED flashlight app??
on February 8, 2011
Posted by: Napoleon421
I recently switched from an iPhone, to the Focus... I like it a lot. It has great features. But, where is the LED flashlight app? The HTC surround WP7 has an HTC flashlight app that utilizes the LED camera light. Why do I have to steal my girlfriend's phone in the dark?.
Pros: Built-in speakers, Bright display, Inexpensive, Realistic color, Lightweight
Cons: no led flashlight? seriously?
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
4
Performance
5
Design
4
Value
5
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
3
Conflicted
on February 9, 2011
Posted by: Anonymous
from Southbridge, MA
Expertise:Expert
I don't typically review products because I tend to be too picky, but in this case I waited impatiently for Windows Phone 7 and chose the SGH-i917 Focus based on many reviews. In hindsight, I probably would have waited for second round hardware.
The software is great, Samsung's apps are relatively useless though. By biggest issue with the software is that if the Marketplace app crashes (which happens a few times a week), everything that ties into it does as well: Zune, Xbox, etc.. Rebooting the phone seems to correct this for a while, but it is an annoyance to have to do so so often.
My biggest gripe is the hardware. The screen is gorgeous, a perfect fit for Windows Phone 7 and that's the only good part. The phone feels cheap. You can't hold it in landscape without accidentally touching one of the capacitive buttons (Back, Start, or Search) or bumping the Camera or Power buttons, making watching video on that gorgeous screen a frustrating task. The micro-usb power outlet on the top increases the feeling that the phone is cheap and poorly designed when you have a cable dangling out. The rear firing speaker is unusably loud, the is no quiet setting. The headphone jack is unusably quiet, even for phone calls. The battery takes hours to charge even when using the AC adapter
The software is great, Samsung's apps are relatively useless though. By biggest issue with the software is that if the Marketplace app crashes (which happens a few times a week), everything that ties into it does as well: Zune, Xbox, etc.. Rebooting the phone seems to correct this for a while, but it is an annoyance to have to do so so often.
My biggest gripe is the hardware. The screen is gorgeous, a perfect fit for Windows Phone 7 and that's the only good part. The phone feels cheap. You can't hold it in landscape without accidentally touching one of the capacitive buttons (Back, Start, or Search) or bumping the Camera or Power buttons, making watching video on that gorgeous screen a frustrating task. The micro-usb power outlet on the top increases the feeling that the phone is cheap and poorly designed when you have a cable dangling out. The rear firing speaker is unusably loud, the is no quiet setting. The headphone jack is unusably quiet, even for phone calls. The battery takes hours to charge even when using the AC adapter
Pros: Bright display
Cons: Poor quality, button placement
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Features
1
Performance
4
Design
2
Value
4
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
5
Fantastic phone worthy of your time!
on February 9, 2011
Posted by: evilgeniusmojo
from New Jersey
Expertise:Expert
I've had this phone for two weeks now and I must say, I'm VERY impressed and happy with it. I switched from the iPhone to this and I've never been happier. I love how the phone is integrated with my facebook and keeps everything organized. Setup was a breeze. Some people may have concerns about battery life, and it could be a problem with heavy usage and nowhere to charge it, but I still couldn't be happier with this phone. Some of my friends called my crazy for switching to the new WP7 OS, but I have faith in Microsoft. I love Windows 7 so getting a Windows Phone 7 was a no-brainer. Samsung and Microsoft, you've made me a happy man!
Pros: Built-in speakers, Bright display, Inexpensive, Durable, Realistic color, Lightweight, windows phone 7 os
Cons: battery life isn't great
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
5
Performance
5
Design
5
Value
5
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US
Customer Rating
5
Great Phone
on February 9, 2011
Posted by: WarEagleMP
from Texas
Expertise:Intermediate
I was looking at Windows 7 phones because I wanted to upgrade to a smartphone and I liked the windows concept. I chose Samsung because I have had Samsung phones in the past and have not any problems with them. This is one great phone. It is easy to use. Takes great pictures. I have downloaded several apps from the marketplace and they do real well on this phone. I have recommended this phone to a coworker and he purchased it. He is extremely happy with it as well.
Pros: Bright display, Durable, Realistic color, Lightweight
I would recommend this to a friend!
Features
5
Performance
5
Design
5
Value
4
Written by a customer while visiting Samsung US