Samsung Focus beats AT&T iPhone in nearly every category in PCMag reader survey

May 26, 2011 | By Surur

pcmag

Despite the upgrade issues the Samsung Focus is widely felt to be the best Windows Phone 7 handset in USA. It seems Microsoft’s PR about user satisfaction for Windows Phone 7 handsets are true after all, with Samsung Focus users more satisfied with their phones than iPhone users on AT&T.

The handset also beats the iPhone in reliability, reception, call quality, text messaging, email, web browsing, and gaming, and equals the phone with the iPod in it for music player. In fact the only category where the iPhone leads is app availability and quality.

The Samsung Focus is even more likely to be recommended than the iPhone by its users.

In fact the handset has the highest overall score next to the Verizon iPhone, which appears to lack the AT&T iPhone’s reception issues.

The PCMag reader survey is not your usual web poll, but in fact uses invitations sent out to readers at random to complete an online survey administered by Equation Research and has been running for several years, and therefore have some validity.

The survey also compared all the smartphone OSs on all the platforms, and found Windows Phone 7 again only second to the iPhone in overall score (8.4 vs 8.1) and very far ahead of Windows Mobile (6.4) indicating that Microsoft has certainly succeeded in their goal of putting user experience first.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged AT&T, iphone, samsung focus

Skillit

If those number on the side of the device are the numbers of user interviewed than this is pure bullshit, is statistically meaningless, look a the sample on the iPhone, it’s over 20 times bigger…

Anonymous

the sample size is statistically significant. even if it wasnt, do you really think the focus would stray far from where its at? if anything the focus should be higher
http://www.twitter.com/wixostrix WixosTrix

But if you look at the other devices they too have much lower users than the iPhone too and they still didn’t fair as well as the Focus
Fred

Poor Skillit iPhone fanboy got his feelings all hurt. Amazon and AT&T website rate the Focus at 4.3 out of 5 with over 500 votes. People like the Focus and WP7. Is your brainwashed Apple mind too biased to admit it.

Skillit

If those number on the side of the device are the numbers of user interviewed than this is pure bullshit, is statistically meaningless, look a the sample on the iPhone, it’s over 20 times bigger…
Anonymous

awesome. meanwhile, biased sites like engadget gave the focus a 7 out of 10 rating. meanwhile, they give devices like the new htc android a 8/10 even though it has last years froyo, fugly UI with a clock occupying half the screen, and a fragmented OS with mostly wallpapers in its app market and abysmal battery life.

the focus is the best phone money can buy right now. best OS + best screen+ Best hardware and great size/dimensions/weight.

zzz

Exactly.

Anonymous

I honestly don’t understand how people can stand the android UI as you so eloquently described.

Anonymous

because its an app launcher, not an OS. its a palm pilot UI with widgets forced in.

Microsoft employs graphic designers, psychologists, and user interface researchers. they spent millions on the user interface alone Google does not, they had computer engineers draw the fucking UI. android being a side project means somethign like the UI is not getting attention like at microsoft. google is an ad company, not software

zzz

Exactly.
http://www.facebook.com/dgorun Daniel Gorun

Do some research. “UI with a clock occupying half the screen,”
That’s a user option you don’t have to have it. The beauty is you can customize Android OS phones unlike the iOS

zzz

This is why I keep saying Samsung Focus/Omnia should be *the* device MS should push more of. (In some sense, I think AT&T did that with their commercials.) It’s a really really great phone. Everyone loves it either on first sight or playing with it for couple minutes. It’s the best marketing tool MS has right now. Just awesome S-amoled screen, great form factor, rock solid software and hardware. My wife dropped hers five times now (without a case) and it still rocks.

Having said that, I think Samsung needs to get some new people in their firmware group. Their continued goof ups during the update process (for Android too) cannot be allowed to continue.

zzz

It’s a shame that AT&T has a lock on Focus and people on other carriers can buy it. WP7 would have had a lot more sales and buzz if Focus (or equivalents) were available on all carriers. If you are looking to jump in on WP7, I highly recommend switching to AT&T to get this phone. Can’t beat the $0.01 price. I suspect MS is subsidizing a good portion of price to get this phone in people’s hands.

zzz

Obvisously i meant “can’t”.
Anonymous

thats because at&t literally designed the phone with samsung. why would they give that away?

Anonymous

I have an HD7 and if I read this report correctly PCMAG lumped it in as an Android device when scoring Tmobile phones. If I read it right.
To be fair to the iPhone…they were the ONLY phone to be scored in EVERY category and in the categories they were lower than the Sammy in, it’s more AT&T’s fault than theirs.

zzz

” in the categories they were lower than the Sammy in, it’s more AT&T’s fault than theirs. ”

It’s not AT&T’s fault that iphone scored lower than Focus in coverage, gaming, etc. Coverage issue of iphone is well known and documented. You must be one of those peole who believe whatever Steve Jobs tells you to believe.

Anonymous

You must be one of those people who flunked statistics and reading comprehension. Or you will in the future.

Anonymous

iphone ranked lower in gaming, app quality, availability, and everything other than call quality?

btw samsung focus is on at&t, and the sample size was statistically significant.

you fail.

Anonymous

I own an HD7. I think I wrote that earlier.
How were the Samsung scores for tech support and repairs?
zzz

Stop digging when you are in a hole. You made a ridiculously stupid statement about at&t being at fault for iphone scoring lower than Focus. But I forgive since you own an HD7. lol
Anonymous

Wow. You call me ridiculously stupid and then forgive me. Thanks. Look – all I’m trying to say is that we didn’t win WWII here. I hate chest pounders and blind fanboiz of ALL types. This is indeed great news but it’s not anything to bash bash bash the iPhone over. We’ll be throwing Mangos at all the other guys soon enough.
Watch this video…It’s Superbowl worthy….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZML1LzClT4&feature=player_embedded

Anonymous

You must be one of those people who flunked statistics and reading comprehension. Or you will in the future.
Jerryberg

The second I saw that WP7 scored higher in Gaming I knew the review was Bias because I have gamed on both iPhone 4 and WP7 and I can say that the iPhone 7 easily kills the WP7 for gaming. It has tens of thousands of games and they are interchangeable with the sister device (iPad) and most of those games are very high end titles like BattleField, Need for Speed, etc that mirror there console counterparts in graphics and performance. I’m not sure how any device could beat this experience.
Jerryberg

The second I saw that WP7 scored higher in Gaming I knew the review was Bias because I have gamed on both iPhone 4 and WP7 and I can say that the iPhone 7 easily kills the WP7 for gaming. It has tens of thousands of games and they are interchangeable with the sister device (iPad) and most of those games are very high end titles like BattleField, Need for Speed, etc that mirror there console counterparts in graphics and performance. I’m not sure how any device could beat this experience.

Paul

Considering the upgrade issues, that’s a very impressive result. Good job Samsung and MS.
http://twitter.com/DHRYDER305 Junior

Im confused now. I was wanting the HD7S, but it seems like the Focus screen is still better than that. Maybe I should just upgrade to a Focus (have a surround)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1554987923 Jason Morris

I was waiting for the HD7s myself. I thought the Focus was just going to be a temporary phone but now that I have had it for a while – it will take a lot for me to trade it in. Very happy I went with WP7 and the Focus.

Skillit

People you are reading to much in to this, besides the obvious bias in the iPhone sample size (over 20 x bigger) Only the Samsung WP7 and HTC – Android samples have a significant p value for statical Analyses (Motorola – Android also has if a very low standard is used).

There is also the huge problem of lump OEM and OS for each sample, there is only two Samsung WP7 device, But there are Android devices ranging form 299 to free on contract and there are people with 3 generations of iPhone still on contract on the time of this research.

They compare the pontual release of WP7 ( given that they were all released at the same time and have overall the same hardware) with several generation and price ranges of products form the other platforms.

Overall this doesn’t read very well as a consumer preference research, they should have had a better control of sample sizes and separated by device (lumping OEM is only good when analyzing on the consumer preference on a single OS due to different hardware requirements for the different OS’s).

zzz

Good point about the lumping. But sample size is plenty big enough for Samsung (like you said) and iphone’s large sample size “bias” is nothing bad for the survey. Back to the lumping issue, most owners of iphone use 3GS and 4 models now. It’s a pretty fair comparison to Focus IMO. Heck, 3GS may have even helped iphone’s average a bit because iphone 4 comes with the serious antenna design flaw and coverage issue while 3GS does not. Also, relative ratings between Focus and Android phones on AT&T seem pretty consistent with users’ comments and ratings seen in Amazon’s review system. Obviously, users of WP7 here are not surprised by that one. Although the study could have been more detailed, I believe the results do reflect the overall situation pretty well.
Jerryberg

Couldn’t have said it better myself. They simply say “iPhone” not “iPhone 4″ so now there is a ton of noise from the iPhone 2G, 3G contaminating the bottom line. Since they still sell the cheaper 3G of-course people are not going to be as satisfied with it. The statistics need to be checked again with iPhone 4 as the only phone rated and both for Verizon and AT&T. I bet the results would look a lot different

Anonymous

It wouldn’t be a “surprise leap to the top” to anyone who has actually used both devices…

barnacules

Agreed

http://www.facebook.com/geracie Jon D Geracie

i have had all types of phone and have played with the iphone multiple time and have several family members with android both are nice os’s but as far as smoothness and speed wp7 rocks the focus is awesome the music service and game keep getting better i boost my gamerscore everyday even being away from my xbox plus its the only wp7 phone that takes my 32 gb catagory 4 micro sd card flawlessly i used to cook roms for my phones all the time wasting time customizing the phone and with wp7 i dont care about that ANY MORE
Michael hansen

lie stupid read the picture
apple iphone 2371 contracts
windows phone 7 92 contracts
who sold most phones,,
SupaGuest

My brother-in-law traded in his iPhone for a Focus and is very happy with his choice. He had complained about lost calls and the like and the focus seemed to have solved that problem. I have had a Focus since launch and my wife has not touched her iTouch since getting hers.
http://www.facebook.com/michael.fishler Michael Fishler

I love my focus. it is the best phone i have ever owned. MS store just needs MORE APPS!
http://twitter.com/bricklanetweets Brick Lane

wp7 is ok but i prefer android. really depends on the ecosystem you have been using for a long time. some have itunes, some google services and bis services. msn? do people even use it? wp7 seems like is targeted for the xbox generation, if they can get half the users to get on the wp7 bandwagon MS will be minted!

Sim Only Deals
phonatic

XBox Live Games rule on this mobile platform. It is far and away the best mobile gaming platform out there with the cloud tie into XBox Live and all your XBox achievements with a ton of new features coming soon in the Manago release.
Frmonsibais

it would be alot better if adobe flash player was available for it. other than that it smokes the iphone.
Frmonsibais

it would be alot better if adobe flash player was available for it. other than that it smokes the iphone.
Frmonsibais

it would be alot better if adobe flash player was available for it. other than that it smokes the iphone.
http://www.iphonespyreviews.org iphone spy app

I can’t wait to see that Apple event. iOS design philosophies are deeply rooted. should be very interesting to see how far Apple changes things up. “overhaul” maybe too strong of a word.