NEW ORLEANS—LTE speeds don't have to come in a giant package. Samsung's latest entry in the Focus line of Windows Phones, the Focus 2, delivers AT&T 4G LTE in a device that's noticeably smaller, and occasionally cheaper, than the competing Nokia Lumia 900.
The Focus 2 is a slick white plastic oval, with a tapered top and a chrome band around the edge. Tap the power button and the 4-inch, 800-by-480 Super AMOLED screen turns on. This is the right size for an 800-by-480 display, and it looks sharp. The Focus 2 isn't super-slim, at 11mm, but it feels warm and comfortable in hands that might find the Lumia 900 a bit too large.
Windows Phone Mango performs similarly on most devices, and this is a standard AT&T build: five chunks of AT&T bloatware (Code Scanner, FamilyMap, Navigator, U-Verse Mobile, and an account management app) and access to the Samsung Zone in the marketplace, which includes an Instagram clone, photo editor, and wireless utility.
The 1.4-GHz, single-core Qualcomm processor, combined with AT&T's very fast LTE network, zipped through most tasks I gave the phone within my 10-minute hands on, including loading PCMag.com quite swiftly. The sample unit I tried had 6.2GB of free storage; there's no memory card slot. The 5-megapixel camera records 720p video, but I saw significant blur in low-light shots.
The build quality here is okay, but not great. It's all plastic, and while it feels firm and solid rather than creaky, the chromed plastic edges look cheap, and the backlight under the virtual buttons at the bottom of the phone bleeds into the white plastic around them. This doesn't have the premium design you'll find on the Lumia 900, which is also made of plastic, but spectacularly high-quality plastic.
I have one major concern about the Focus 2: upgrades. Windows Phone 8 "Apollo" is coming less than six months from now, along with what rumor says will be an absolute flood of new phones. Microsoft has been annoyingly coy on whether existing Windows Phones will be upgradeable to Apollo, which is supposed to support more powerful processors and other additional features.
While the Nokia/Microsoft relationship seems solid enough that Microsoft will do everything it can to make sure the Lumia 900 is well-provided-for, it's not clear whether other phones will get special treatment. With Apollo just a few months away, it's hard to argue for signing up for a new two-year contract with this phone.
The Focus 2 will go on sale May 20 for $49.
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