Posting my impressions in this thread.. per Rainbird's request. was too big to put on his wall
Its the best phone I've ever used. I've played with an EVO before and its a little clunky, but works good. Iphone is too app oriented and locked down for my taste. I've had windows phones since the beginning, but the hardware was always too weak to run the OS. It was also pretty clunky. What I loved about it was how open it was, what the Android is like now, but that was also its Achilles heal. The hardware really wasn't regulated and you could have lesser specs than other phones. that's where window mobile failed form the beginning.
M$ approach to widows phone 7 is a mix between Iphone and Android. It loses some freedom like it had before, but you'll hardly miss it. The UI is so snappy. If you've ever used a Zune HD before, that is almost exactly what this phone is like. The features in the phone are integrated so well.
This version of Internet Explorer is the best browser I've used. very snappy and loads quick. you can also have 6 different webpages open at one time. this is awesome when you want to look at porn and browse VGChartz. Unfortunately VGChartz has been broke since 2.0 and you cant post in threads.
copy and paste is currently missing but the next update will fix that in a few months.
As far as keyboards on phones go, I used to live by the keyboard. After trying the virtual keyboard on windows phone 7, you'll hardly miss it. you can type so fast and it fixes your words for you. when you flip the phone sideways you can use two thumbs to knock letters out quick.
One thing that i love is being able to share your agenda with other people with windows phones. you just add contacts as attendees and the agenda gets emailed to them and then it gets thrown into their calendar on their phone. me and my girlfriend love this feature. We also love using email as txt, so it doesn't use up the txt on the txt plan.
The camera is awesome, with the filmstrip view. After taking a picture, you can upload it straight to SkyDrive, email or txt it to someone. pictures that you upload to SkyDrive get shared with your contacts who also have windows phones.
You can import your Facebook account, Live account, Yahoo account, Google account and the phone merges all of that together into one profile for a person, you just have to link it.
Netflix, pretty damn spiffy..
As far as games, Harvest and Ilomilo are awesome. you also get thousands of other games and apps.
FM radio built in. Zune, IheartRadio, Slacker, last.fm... you'll never run out of music
GPS mapping, the mapping is fantastic. Voice Navigation is sure to follow.
Go with the Samsung Focus. It has an amazing screen, most RAM/ROM and an expandable memory slot. Don't install just any microSD into this slot though, wait till M$ certified ones get released. But seeing as you dont live in the US, get the Samsung equivilant if you can. If you cant, The LG has some pretty nice exclusive features, like voice to text and smart scan or something where it shows you points of interest and if you point it to the sky it tells you the weather.
I've noticed that ever since I got my phone, I have been using it less. They didn't lie in the commercials, like I thought they did.. haha.. This is due to the home screen having Live tiles.. these tiles update with content when you get something new or a contact has something new to show. Everything is right there for you at a glance. These tiles area also customizable as you please. You can even delete operator installed content.
