Performance
This is another tight category due to the limitations of the Windows Phone operating system. Microsoft's mobile OS does not support multi-core chips, so the processors of all three phones are single-core, Snapdragon 2 chips that offer very similar performance. Likewise, all three of the devices also have the exact same Adreno 205 GPU and 512 MB of RAM.
I would probably call this one a wash, but if I had to pick, I would go with the Titan II since its benchmark numbers are a little higher than the competition. Using WP Bench, the Titan II turned in marks of 94.5 against the Lumia 900's 92 and the Focus 2's 87.2, which puts the Lumia 900 in the middle and the Focus 2 at the bottom. I'm fine with that, especially since I was looking for an excuse to slight the Focus 2 for having a wimpy 8 GB of (non-expandable) storage (the Titan II and Lumia 900 have 16 GB). It may not really have any bearing on performance, per se, but it's definitely a flaw that needs to be accounted for somewhere, right?
Camera
When it comes to cameras, resolution isn't everything, but it just so happens that the 16-megapixel camera of the Titan II is hands-down the best of the bunch here. Yes, the high resolution certainly helps, but I was a particularly big fan of its BSI sensor that helped with taking pictures in low-light. Graininess and noise generally abounds whenever you take a picture with a smartphone camera in a setting with anything less than perfect lighting (or, you know, outside), but this wasn't the case with the camera on the Titan II. Equally impressive was its ability to take sharp close-ups while creating a shallow depth of field.
The camera on the Focus 2 -- with the Microsoft-mandated, Windows Phone minimum resolution of 5 megapixels -- isn't nearly as great as the one found on the Titan II, but it's solid enough, especially considering that the Focus 2 is a cheap handset. At $50, you would expect the camera on this phone to be something of a throwaway, but I've seen worse, as color saturation is decent and the auto white balance works well.
The same can't be said for the Lumia 900. Some would argue the camera on the Focus 2 isn't that great and that the Carl Ziess optics on the Lumia 900 outstrips it, but I don't agree. The amount of issues I experienced with white balance when using the camera on the Lumia 900 was a huge deal-breaker for me. Whites always had either a blue or orange tint to them, depending on their surroundings, and the way bright colors were surrounded by auras or halos that were tinted the same color made for really awful looking pictures. While it's true that, overall, the Lumia 900 takes sharper images than the Focus 2 (it sports an 8-megapixel camera), its very serious white balance issues cause the Lumia 900 to rank slightly lower than the Focus 2 in my book.
Battery Life
In general, the battery life for all three devices is quite good for 4G LTE handsets. There's probably still some progress to be made, but it seems that the technology has finally been around long enough for device manufacturers to at least start figuring out ways to keep it from absolutely crippling battery life.
But of the three, I'd have to say that the Lumia 900 served me the best. Now, I know the numbers -- at least according to WP Bench -- say that the battery life of the Focus 2 is clearly the best. However, when it comes to battery life, I prefer to go by real-life usage rather than the numbers of an app that is designed to drain the battery as efficiently as possible. Different processes drain the battery at different speeds, and as far as my type of usage goes, the Lumia 900 had the longest average battery life.
That being said, the battery lives of the Titan II and Focus 2 are both still good, they're just not quite as impressive as that of the Lumia 900. Again, I know this goes against what the numbers say, but the Focus 2 technically netted me less usage time (on average) than the Titan II, so I suppose I would rank it lower, as far as how well it worked for me. Credit where credit is due, though: the Focus 2 is the only phone out of the three with a removable battery, and that's something that definitely works in its favor.
Conclusion
Obviously, there are certain elements in play here that are pretty much a wash, and they're also some of the most prominent features of the Nokia Lumia 900, the HTC Titan II, and the Samsung Focus 2. All three run the exact same version of the Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, with no skins or UIs, and they share the same data connection quality, as they're all on AT&T's 4G LTE network. They also all have the same flaw of non-expandable storage, per Microsoft's restrictions.
But once you look past the similarities imposed by Microsoft's mandated spec limitations, you can see the clear strengths and weaknesses that each of the three phones have with regards to one another. For instance, the Lumia 900 has a much weaker camera, in my opinion, than the other two devices, while the Focus 2 easily has the worst screen of the three. After balancing out all of the factors in play here, though, I would venture to say that the Lumia 900 beats out the competition to become the reigning champion of this head-to-head-to-head.
I personally may not like its bizarre build, but I'm trying to be objective and recognize the fact that the "beautifully different" design is a big selling point for fans of the phone. And aside from the weak camera, it's a wonderful device: it has consistently strong battery life, a beautiful screen, and performance that is easily among the best for Windows Phones. And even though WP Bench shows that the Titan II is more powerful, real-world usage will show you that the performances of the two are virtually identical. And all of this for a mere $50? -- or lower, since Nokia is constantly putting it on sale. What an absolute steal.
Between the remaining two, the Titan II takes the cake, but only by the narrowest of margins; for the Focus 2, there's no shame in losing here. It's a budget phone that sells for a mere $50, yet it gave the Titan II a very serious run for its money. The only reason the Titan II edged it out is because the Focus 2 has a display that I can't stand and the Titan II has a fantastic camera...and that's coming from someone who doesn't understand why anybody would try to do even remotely serious photography with their smartphone. I may still be of that belief, but the impressive camera of the Titan II definitely garnered more respect from me than any other smartphone camera I've come across.
But I can understand if the $200 price tag of the Titan II is too much for some if you can't find it on sale. So just know that in the event that you can only afford to shell out $50 for a Focus 2, you'll still be getting a perfectly competent Windows Phone Mango device, even if I did rank it as the lowest of the three phones here. To be fair, that only happened because the competition was so stiff; really, all three smartphones are solid, dependable devices.
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