Selecting a Windows Phone device

Of the very many people I know who have Windows Phones, all of them except one opted for the Samsung Focus.  The odd person out happens to be me, who chose the LQ Quantum. 

My choice was simple.  The Quantum is the one with the hardware QWERTY keyboard and I badly wanted a phone with that feature.  I'd used the virtual keyboard on my Zune HD to know that the virtual keyboard on the phone would be fine for entering one or two words into a text box, but not for anything longer, such as typing an e-mail.  The virtual keyboard on my Spring Design Alex e-reader is better, but that's only because the screen is considerably larger.  Whereas reviews of the Quantum indicated that the keyboard does not slide out easily, I haven't found that to be the case.  It takes just the slight push that one would expect, yet has never slid out when I didn't want it to do so. 

I subsequently learned that the Quantum has twice as much memory as the Samsung Focus.  However, the memory on the Focus can be expanded with a memory card, which the Quantum does not support.  I noticed that as a result of users querying about how to get the memory cards to work properly in the Focus. 

That discovery has left me in some awe of the buzz around the Focus.  The Focus seems to be sold based on being a bit lighter and having a slightly larger, brighter screen.  The Quantum has the hardware keyboard in addition to the virtual one provided by the operating system, and twice as much built-in memory. 

Thus, the choice seems to be between two more qualitative benefits of feeling lighter and seeming brighter, against the binary benefit of having a physical keyboard and the more quantitative benefit of having more memory.  Of course, being lighter is a decidedly quantifiable benefit, too, but one that only matters if the quantifiable weight difference is actually noticeable when carrying the device around.  So whereas there is a quantifiable weight difference, the selling point is actually the qualitative one of the device feeling lighter. 

Yet 99% of consumers in my experience are opting for the Focus.  Wow!   And all but one of those are men, who, stereotypically, are meant to be charmed by quantitative characteristics. 

Let me be quite emphatic.  I'm sure that all of the current Windows Phone models are terrific, and I'm ecstatic with mine. 

My point is merely that whoever built the buzz around the Focus is worthy of a big commendation.  The evangelism for that device has been an overwhelming success.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 02, 2011
  I found myself torn between these two models myself. In the end, I ended up buying out my Rogers contract just so that I could get the LG Quantum with Bell, I am very happy with my decision, who cares how light a phone is, you barely notice when its in your pocket anyway? The screen on the Quantum is much brighter than the HTC Surround too, so its not even like the Quantum has the worst screen out of the bunch,