Windows Phone 7: Samsung Focus

Even after the iPhone's smash success, Microsoft was slow to respond. Windows Mobile 6.5 launched a year and a half after the iPhone debuted, and while it added an app store and a refreshed interface, at its heart the software hadn't much changed, a fact for which Microsoft later apologized when it reorganized its mobile leadership and started over.

The Samsung Focus best epitomizes the result: a brand-new operating system with a bold, urban look. The Samsung-made Windows Phone 7 handset is glossy black and sleek, with a 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.

Yet as top-tier as the Focus was nine months ago, it and its brethren have now fallen to the middle of the pack led by 4G-enabled, dual-core handsets. On the software side, the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update this fall will help deliver a much-needed boost, but the OS has kinks to work out regardless.

Release date: November 8, 2010