Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/4045/lgs-optimus-7-samsungs-focus-reviewed-a-tale-of-two-windows-phones



The Bad News

How do you even begin to compete with Apple or Google? Both companies have a knack for identifying the wrong way to do something and doing the exact opposite. The latter tends to give away much of its innovation while the former somehow makes it cool to charge handsomely for it. In fact, Apple is the first company I've seen to take the pace of innovation offered by Moore's Law and pair it with an equally aggressive expected upgrade cycle. These are formidable opponents.

As much as I believe that HP, Microsoft or Nokia will step up to the plate and retake marketshare from these two, I just can't see it - at least in the short term.

I'd love to be wrong about this as I believe we desperately need competition to prevent the mobile web from turning into Apple's web and Google's web. But I'm afraid for companies like Apple or Google to lose significant marketshare at this point, they need to screw up. They have to do something very wrong. And no, antennagate wasn't enough.

In the early days of 3D accelerators NVIDIA caught up to and eventually surpassed 3dfx by executing frustratingly well. Like clockwork, every six months NVIDIA would have a new GPU and eventually 3dfx was left in an uncompetitive position. Coincidentally the past three years of AMD's near flawless execution has caused NVIDIA a similar sort of pain.

Apple has adopted a 12-month product cycle for its iOS devices. Every summer Apple drops a new iPhone and I'm guessing every Q1 we'll get a new iPad. Sprinkle in a yearly OS update and you've got the makings of a good execution plan. So long as Apple sticks to the formula of quickly adopting new hardware and improving software, the iOS platform will be a difficult one to dethrone.

Google feels a little less structured but we've seen a steep ramp with frequent software updates. If anything Google gets to enjoy an even more aggressive hardware roadmap as Android smartphone manufacturers have typically been the first to adopt new SoC IP. The first dual-core smartphones will run Android and the first Moorestown based smartphones will run Android. Apple has only been similarly aggressive with adopting high performance GPUs in its phones but Samsung changed that this year with the Galaxy S.

And then we have Microsoft. Windows Phone 7 was much, much, much better than I expected. I imagined it being more like iOS 2.0 and what I got instead was something within striking distance of iOS 4. Sure there are some missing features: Hack-free tethering, copy & paste, multitasking and faster hardware, but if you actually use a Windows Phone it's really not bad at all.

A New Hope

Ever since I flew to NYC to grab my first Windows Phone, I haven't had a desire to go back to my iPhone. Looking at the core OS alone, Microsoft did a wonderful job. The OS is easily just as smooth and as fast (if not smoother, and faster) than iOS. Even the lack of iOS style task switching isn't all that bothersome thanks to WP7's back button. It's not perfect, but Microsoft did a great job at creating an appliance-like smartphone. Which, I might add, is impressive for a traditional PC company.

The shortcomings are enough to make me want to keep an eye on the platform, but not fully commit to it yet. As I concluded in our Windows Phone 7 review, the app story is disappointing. There are far more big name apps than I expected, but almost all of them are slow and none of them support background operation, notifications or anything that could make them feel like a part of the OS.

The performance of some 3rd party apps is particularly troubling. I'm not sure whether that's part of the developer learning curve or inherent to the current instance of Windows Phone 7. Either way, if you depend on a lot of 3rd party apps you're better off looking at Android or iOS today.

Since our review posted I've met a number of people who aren't sold on Android but refuse to buy an iPhone. Every one of them has been impressed by Windows Phone 7. It's honestly the iPhone for everybody else.

The only aspect of purchasing a Windows Phone that's more difficult than jumping on the iPhone bandwagon is choosing hardware. While the OS may be polished, nearly all Windows Phone manufacturers took the safe route and launched relatively uninspired designs for WP7. I'm sorry to say that none of them quite live up to the total package of the iPhone 4. You make sacrifices in battery life, material quality, camera quality or all of the above. The OS may be solid, but there's still a lot of work that has to be done to achieve perfection.

If you are planning on making the jump before the next generation of Windows Phone 7 hardware, there are reasonable options today. While the perfect Windows Phone may not yet exist, there are some devices that are good enough.

Unlike choosing an Android phone, performance and UI aren't differentiating factors for Windows Phones. They all run the same OS and use the same 1st generation Snapdragon SoC. As a result, they all perform identically. There are no OS level carrier/OEM customizations. The best either can do is supply preinstalled apps. Other than that, the difference is all in build quality, battery life and the hardware in general.

Brian posted our review of one of the more unusual Windows Phone 7 devices a couple of weeks ago: the HTC Surround. Today I want to provide a quick look at two other options: the very popular Samsung Focus and the LG Optimus 7.

Physical Comparison
  Apple iPhone 4 Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate LG Optimus 7 Samsung Focus HTC Surround
Height 115.2 mm (4.5") 106.17 mm (4.18") 125 mm (4.92") 122.9 mm (4.84") 119.7 mm (4.71")
Width 58.6 mm (2.31") 63.5 mm (2.5") 59.8 mm (2.35") 65 mm (2.56") 61.5 mm (2.42")
Depth 9.3 mm ( 0.37") 9.91 mm (0.39") 11.5 mm (0.45") 9.9 mm (0.39") 12.97 mm (0.51")
Weight 137 g (4.8 oz) 127 grams (4.5 oz) 157 grams (5.54 oz) 119 grams (4.2 oz) 165 grams (5.82 oz)
CPU Apple A4 @ ~800MHz 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird 1 GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 1 GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 1 GHz Qualcomm QSD8250
GPU PowerVR SGX 535 PowerVR SGX 540 Adreno 200 Adreno 200 Adreno 200
RAM 512MB LPDDR1 (?) 512 MB LPDDR1 512 MB LPDDR1 (448 system, 64 GPU) 512 MB LPDDR1 (448 system, 64 GPU) 512 MB LPDDR1 (448 system, 64 GPU)
NAND 16GB or 32GB integrated 2 GB, 16 GB microSD (Class 2) 16 GB integrated 8 GB integrated 512 MB integrated, 16 GB (Internal Class 4 microSD)
Camera 5MP with LED Flash + Front Facing Camera 5 MP with auto focus and LED flash 5 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 720P video recording 5 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 720P video recording 5 MP with autofocus, LED flash, 720P video recording
Screen 3.5" 640 x 960 LED backlit LCD 4" Super AMOLED 800 x 480 3.8" LCD 800 x 480 4" Super AMOLED 800 x 480 3.8" LCD 800 x 480
Battery Integrated 5.254Whr Removable 5.55 Whr Removable 5.55 Whr Removable 5.55 Whr Removable 4.55 Whr

If you haven't read our Windows Phone 7 review I'd encourage you to do that before going forward as I won't touch on anything we've already covered there.



The LG Optimus 7

The Optimus 7 is the first LG phone we've ever looked at. In fact, it's the first device we've received directly from LG. I will say that out of all of the smartphone makers, LG is at least the most forthright about its products. We got very little marketing associated with the phone, just blunt statements about what it is and what it isn't:

"Look, you already know Microsoft has put some very strict guidelines on the hardware for these smartphones so the challenge from the start was how to physically stand out in a field where specs are going to be virtually the same.

Optimus 7 has a couple points we're quite proud of, namely:

1) 1,500mAh user-replaceable battery
2) 16GB memory
3) Solid and substantial "feel"

But we recognize hardware differences aren't enough to stand out among more-than-capable competitors like Samsung and HTC. The user experience is what we think will separate one device from the next in the WP7 world.

And in this regards, we think we have a solid strategy of delivering software solutions which are unique to just our WP7 device:

1) Play To
2) Scan Search
3) Voice to Text for SMS

And we're proud of the fact that we don't load Optimus 7 with a lot of "LG apps" or a fancy animated UI which gets old in a few weeks. :-)

But Optimus 7 isn't "optimal" in all aspects, either. Maybe we should have offered a bigger screen. Which isn't to say we don't think 3.8" isn't big enough, we think it's a good trade-off for usability and long battery life. But you know how people react when they see a 3.8" next to a 4.3".

Well, it's our first attempt, I'm sure we'll learn a lot from this experience."

I have to say, if all companies behaved like LG I might just be out of a job. Other than the screen, LG's assessment of its own phone is shockingly accurate.

It does have a solid and substantial feel to it, the Optimus 7 is very well built. Weighing in at 157g, it has all of the weight of the iPhone 4, plus a bit extra. It's not what I'd consider too heavy, just hefty.

The weight is all in the materials. You get a solid metal housing and a brushed aluminum backplate. The back cover is spring loaded; press down on the release button and it'll pop up slightly.

The Focus is thin and wide. I appreciate the thickness but I'd prefer it if Samsung opted for a narrower design. LG on the other hand I believe got the form factor down pat. A lot of this is personal preference, but I do believe the sweet spot for Windows Phones may be around the 3.8-inch mark. All navigation elements in the OS are big enough where you don't need a huge screen to get around quickly. And the larger screen doesn't really add anything, particularly at the same resolution. I don't believe the same is true for Android phones, but for WP7 I don't believe bigger is necessarily better. Funny that the ideal Windows Phone size is very similar to the iPhone, given how similar Microsoft and Apple's OS design philosophies were.

LG opted for physical buttons on the Optimus 7. It's actually more like a really long rocker switch than three individual buttons, but it works well. You get confident feedback from every button push.

All Windows Phones must have a physical camera shutter release button. On the Optimus 7 this button protrudes more than I'd like. I found myself accidentally hitting the camera button while fumbling around with the phone.

As an aside, while I appreciate the requirement for a hardware shutter release, I do believe it's a mistake not to allow for a software capture button as well.

The battery is huge for the Optimus 7. The 3.8-inch HTC Surround has a 4.55Whr battery, while the 4.0-inch Super AMOLED Focus has a 5.55Whr battery. The Optimus 7 falls smack in the middle of those two. You get a 3.8-inch low power LCD display like the Surround but with the battery capacity of the larger Focus. As you may have already seen, the Optimus 7 delivers the longest web browsing battery life of any of the three Windows Phone 7 devices we've tested thus far.

The Optimus 7 ships with 16GB of internal NAND and there's no user accessible microSD slot to change things. The larger NAND capacity does work well on WP7 because of how media-focused the OS is. It arguably provides a better audio/video playback experience than the iPhone.

I'll get to the software in a moment, but LG does ship some of the more useful apps I've seen from a Windows Phone 7 OEM.

Unfortunately the Optimus 7 isn't headed for any carriers in the US. It's available in Canada, Europe and Asia.



The Samsung Focus

I spent more time with the Samsung Focus than any other Windows Phone prior to launch. It was the thinnest, it had the most eye catching screen and felt the most like a modern smartphone. It should, after all it’s lineage comes from the Galaxy S sans the Hummingbird SoC. Like the rest of the WP7 devices the Focus is based on Qualcomm’s first generation 65nm Snapdragon SoC.

The Focus is very thin but by virtue of its 4-inch Super AMOLED display has a larger surface area than the iPhone 4.


A cellular sandwich: LG Optimus 7, Samsung Focus, Apple iPhone 4 (from top to bottom)

Externally the Focus is made almost entirely of plastic with very carbon-fiberesque stripes on the back. The plastic construction makes the WP7 flagship very light, although some may find it too cheap feeling. The screen and the OS are what stand out about the Focus, not the physical construction of the phone itself.

Underneath the back cover you’ve got a microSD slot to expand beyond the integrated 8GB of NAND.

Along the top edge you’ve got a micro USB port with retractable cover, similar to what we’ve seen on the Epic 4G. This is much preferred to the cheap feeling dangling cover from the Optimus 7.

The three WP7 buttons are activated via capacitive touch. The buttons are clearly etched in the plastic and light up when touched. There’s a tasteful amount of haptic feedback when you tap them as well.

One issue that I’ve always had with the Focus is that it takes a ridiculous amount of time to fully charge. Over 7 hours. A quick Google search reveals that other Focus owners have had this problem, but not all. Microsoft indicated that the problem might appear with certain USB cables or wall charger combinations, but regardless of what I tried I had the problem. Buyer beware.



The Screen, oh the Screen

With Android I found that larger screen devices made up for the shortcomings in the default Android keyboard. It's a big part of why I liked phones like the EVO and Droid X. Smaller handsets like the Nexus One were just harder to type on.

With Windows Phones, the exact opposite is true. The larger the phone, the harder it is to type fast on - at least for me. I make more mistakes on the Focus' 4-inch screen compared to the Optimus 7's 3.8-inch screen. I can type well on both, I'm just faster on the Optimus. If you have larger hands than me I can see the Focus being perfect.

Screen size is obviously just one part of the equation. While I believe LG wins there, Samsung easily takes the quality crown. The Focus uses the same Super AMOLED technology we talked about in the Epic 4G and Fascinate reviews. Super AMOLED layers the touch sensor directly on the AMOLED display, reducing glare significantly and moving the display closer to the face of the smartphone. You don't really notice the latter until you compare it with a standard AMOLED or LCD screen like LG's, but once you do it's a big difference.

Display Brightness

Display Brightness

The biggest advantage the Focus has is in contrast ratio. AMOLED displays are truly off when displaying black, so you technically get infinite contrast ratio. Combined with Windows Phone 7's vibrant theme colors you get a phone that's extremely eye catching. While you don't get the pixel density of the iPhone 4, the display is arguably better to look at in my opinion thanks to the contrast ratio. Everything just pops.


The Focus, contrasty

Even visibility outdoors is improved thanks to the close layering of the touch sensor and AMOLED panel. Unfortunately the Focus doesn't get very bright so you have to keep the phone at full brightness for it to be useful in the sun.

Display Contrast

LG on the other hand falls short in the display department. The TN panel used in the Optimus 7 feels dated by comparison. Colors aren't vibrant, the contrast ratio is sub par and viewing angles are terrible. If you're not looking directly at the phone blacks will appear grey and at extreme angles there's a lot of color shift. Usually when you're using your phone you are staring directly at it, but the poor LCD quality is noticeable if you've got the LG on your desk for example.


Samsung Focus (left) vs. LG Optimus 7 (right), note the poor viewing angle of the Optimus

I have no complaints about the Optimus 7's build quality or screen size, in fact in those two areas LG is ahead of the pack, but the LCD is a disappointment.



LG's Software Bundle

This is the way smartphone competition is supposed to work. You get a single, well done UI, and the manufacturers compete based on design choices, form factor, build quality and bundled value.

LG delivers build quality, screen size and attempts to offer additional value with its software bundle. Optimus 7 owners get access to three LG specific apps on their Windows Phone 7 device: Panorama Shot, Play To and Scansearch.

The Play To app allows the Optimus 7 to act as a digital media server capable of streaming content to any DLNA digital media renderer. This can be anything from an audio receiver to a HDTV, as long as they are DLNA compliant DMRs.

Launching the Play To app gives you a list of content types. You can choose from music, photos or videos although you can't stream content from your Zune Pass.

Pick the content you want to play, then pick the device you want to play it on. The device list is enumerated according to any DLNA compliant renderers that exist on the same network as the Optimus 7. For me the Optimus 7 discovered by Sonos Zone Players as well as my Samsung HDTV.

To push photos or videos to the TV I just choose the content I want to play, I get a message on my TV telling me what's going on and I'm good to go.

Data has to go over your WiFi network so there are obvious bandwidth and range limitations, but the Play To app is a great way to get content on your phone onto DLNA renderers in your house.

Photos stream well. The default view is a slideshow mode, although you can pause the slideshow and push individual photos over the network. It takes a couple of seconds for each photo to get pushed out to the TV. Don't expect anything instantaneous. There's no support for rotating photos either, so if you take any photos in portrait mode using the phones camera expect to be looking at them sideways on your DLNA compliant TV.

Videos stream via Play To just as easily as photos. Once more this is a great way of getting videos you've made with your phone onto a larger screen without any copying/syncing. There is a few second delay before you get started.

Music streaming works for content you have stored on the device as long as it's DRM free. Unfortunately that means you can't turn your Zune Pass equipped Optimus 7 into a jukebox of unlimited proportions.

Panorama Shot is exactly what it sounds like. It's LG's own camera app that lets you stitch together five photos for a single ultra wide aspect ratio shot. Once you take the first shot in a panorama you get a red outline on the screen telling you where to position the phone for the next shot. The process continues until you have taken all five shots required, you can't stop short.


Panorama Shot - first image


Panorama Shot - second image, note the guide to help line up shot #2

Then there's a lengthy stitching process on the camera. Remember we're still dealing with first generation Snapdragon silicon here.

The final product is workable but honestly doesn't look very good:

Panorama Shot produces 2.55MP images at 3656 x 698, but the resulting file size is only 1MB - there's a lot of compression at work here (although technically less than the camera's 5MP images).

Like many 3rd party apps on Windows Phone 7, the Panorama Shot app isn't very fast. The live viewfinder runs at what looks like 15 - 20 fps.

Scan Search is the final member of LG's app bundle for the Optimus 7. You get an augmented reality interface that uses your GPS location and data connection to find and mark points of interest on your screen (e.g. nearby restaurants).



Samsung's Software Bundle

The Focus is AT&T’s flagship Windows Phone 7 device, and as such you get a bunch of AT&T apps on the phone: AT&T FamilyMap, myWireless, Navigator, Radio and U-verse Mobile. Some of these require plan support (e.g. AT&T’s Navigator turn-by-turn navigation software).

The Focus also ships with Samsung’s Now app:

It’s a useful app that integrates feeds from AccuWeather.com (showing your current weather conditions) and Reuters (for news). You also get a stock tracker.



Camera

Comparing smartphone cameras isn’t as easy as you’d think. You can take a bunch of shots in similar settings with different phones, but as with most things in this industry the manufacturers are all engaged in a high stakes game of tradeoffs. The obvious tradeoff up front is sensor quality vs. cost, once you make that tradeoff however there’s a lot more to worry about.

Much of how these cameras behave is up to software. There are certain things the iPhone’s camera does extremely well, and other things it just can’t ever seem to get right (e.g. white balance in certain types of CFL light). There’s also the debate of capturing reality vs. capturing what looks good. Oversaturating colors and employing TV-maker-style tricks come to mind here.

The Windows Phone 7 cameras we’ve played with have all been able to produce decent photos for web use. Given enough light and a very steady hand, you can even produce some sharp enough shots for small format prints.

I mention needing a steady hand because you are forced to use the physical shutter release button on the phone itself. The act of pushing down the button is often enough to blur a relatively slow rolling shutter.

Despite Microsoft mandating that all Windows Phone 7 devices have at least a 5MP camera, and supplying the default camera app, settings do vary between devices. For example, the HTC Surround allows you to set capture resolution but not compression level. The Focus and Optimus 7 let you do both.

The Optimus 7 adds a bunch of scene settings driven by LG’s own customizations, while the Focus has an option to enable “wide dynamic range”. The full breakdown of what you can do on these three phones is in the table below:

Windows Phone 7 Camera App Settings Comparison
HTC Surround LG Optimus 7 Samsung Focus
Scenes Intelligent Shot AF Mode
Effects Beauty Shot White Balance
Resolution Panorama shot Image Effect
Metering Mode ScanSearch Contrast
Flicker Adjustment Photo Resolution Saturation
  Brightness Sharpness
  White Balance EV
  Color effect ISO
  Quality Metering
  Anti-shake Photo Quality
    Wide Dynamic Range
    Photo Resolution
    Anti-Shaking

It’s perplexing. Given how strict Microsoft has been elsewhere in the OS, even mandating what Start screen tiles OEMs/carriers are allowed to customize, this seems like a tremendous oversight. At the bare minimum all WP7 devices should have the same basic options to control things like JPEG quality and white balance.

The Focus has more normal camera settings while the Optimus 7’s settings are more geared towards scene control. The settings do tangibly change the image you get out of the camera in both cases.

Resolution options are also somewhat different between cameras. Although all three cameras have 5MP sensors the resolutions exposed vary among vendors:

Windows Phone 7 Camera Resolution Settings Comparison
HTC Surround LG Optimus 7 Samsung Focus
VGA (640 x 480) 1M (1280 x 960) VGA (640 x 480)
1M (1280 x 960) 3M (2048 x 1536) 2M (1600 x 1200)
2M (1600 x 1200) 5M (2592 x 1944) 3M (2048 x 1536)
3M (2048 x 1536) 16:9 1M (1280 x 720) 5M (2560 x 1920)
5M (2592 x 1944) 16:9 2M (1920 x 1080)  
  16:9 3.6M (2560 x 1440)  

All three phones above feature a 4:3 5MP sensor. Only the Optimus 7 lets you shoot in a cropped 16:9 mode however. Samsung also crops its 5MP mode to 4,915,200 pixels, while the other two phones give you 5,038,848 pixels in their highest resolution mode. It’s not a big deal by any means, but curious nonetheless.

So how do these phones function as cameras? Both feature an LED flash, although the Optimus 7’s lens/flash cluster looks a bit fancier. As I mentioned before, I’d say both phones are easily capable of web quality photos; using the high resolution for detail in smaller photos vs. enabling huge images.


Samsung Focus


LG Optimus 7


Apple iPhone 4

I’d argue that the Focus generally produces better looking images, at least more colorful, better exposed and marginally sharper ones.


Samsung Focus


LG Optimus 7


Apple iPhone 4



Camera - Video Performance

All Windows Phone 7 devices are capable of shooting video in either 640 x 480 at 30 fps or 720p at 24 fps. The latter is a limitation of the first generation Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. HD video performance is a little frustrating as a result. Quality here is decent but nothing earth shattering. It’s again, enough for web use but not much more.

The Focus appears to have better video quality as well based on the samples below:

Unlike the Surround, I didn’t have any issues with my videos sounding like they were under water with either of these phones. Audio also sounds less compressed in the VGA streams compared to the HD streams.



Battery Life & OS Performance

As we’ve already said in our Windows Phone 7 and HTC Surround reviews, performance is identical between WP7 devices. They all have the same amount of memory (512MB shared between the CPU and GPU) and the same 1GHz Scorpion core in a 65nm Snapdragon SoC. Handset vendors aren’t allowed to customize the OS or UI to the point where performance would be affected either.

In general Windows Phone 7 OS performance is great. The UI runs at an extremely smooth 60 fps nearly all of the time. First party apps run very well however performance in 3rd party apps is hit or miss. I suspect with faster SoCs and more experience developing for the platform, this will only improve.

SunSpider Javascript Benchmark 0.9

Rightware BrowserMark

I am curious to see whether OS performance and responsiveness will suffer as Microsoft updates the OS similar to what we’ve seen with iOS.

Battery life is pretty straightforward. While the Focus has a very contrasty Super AMOLED screen, it comes at the expense of power consumption, especially when displaying white. Our web browsing test wreaks havoc on Super AMOLED devices as there are a lot of white pixels in the web pages we use to test. As a result the Focus delivers the worst battery life of any Windows Phone we've tested thus far.

Thankfully WP7's default theme is predominantly black. Other than the email and IE mobile apps, the majority of the OS is mostly displaying black pixels. So while the Focus doesn't do well in our web browsing battery life test, in general usage the phone lasts longer than you'd expect. I'd say you can plan on charging the phone at least once a day for moderate usage.

The LG Optimus 7 on the other hand does extremely well across the board. It has the same sized battery as the Focus, but with a much more power efficient display.

3G Web Browsing Battery Life

WiFi Web Browsing Battery Life

3G Talk Time Battery Life



Final Words

From what I’ve heard the Focus is doing very well on AT&T (for a Windows Phone), and it’s unsurprising. You get a beautiful screen, a very thin form factor and a phone that’s generally pleasant to use.

What bothers me is the length of time some Focuses are taking to charge and the overall size of the device. I feel like 3.8-inches is the sweet spot for Windows Phone 7, which brings us to the LG Optimus 7.

The Optimus 7 has the form factor although it is thicker than I’d like. Build quality is excellent however it falls short in the display department. Ideally I’d like to see something built like the Optimus 7, with the thickness of the Focus and a display on par with either the Focus or iPhone 4. Toss in a more expensive camera sensor and you’ve got the makings of the perfect Windows Phone.

Users who want to jump on the Windows Phone bandwagon today will probably opt for the Focus. Those wanting more however will probably want to wait until 2011. While Microsoft chose to launch with a first generation Snapdragon SoC, I would be surprised if WP7 didn’t make the jump to dual-core SoCs alongside everyone else next year.

 

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now