Samsung Focus S & Flash: Official Images, 1.4GHz Mango Devices Shipping This Fall

The one area Microsoft hasn't touched while upgrading Windows Phone has been the SoC requirements. The platform launched with 65nm Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs featuring the quite-slow Adreno 200 GPU.  Despite the age of the hardware, Microsoft has done wonders to make Windows Phone feel very responsive but as Qualcomm gets ready for the ramp to 28nm it's going to be increasingly difficult to ship 65nm hardware on a high-end device. The next wave of Windows Phones (while we wait for the presumably Krait based major upgrade in 2012) makes the jump to 45nm with Qualcomm's Snapdragon S2. You get better power consumption characteristics, higher clocks and a much faster (nearly 2x) Adreno 205 GPU. 

Samsung will be among the first to ship this second wave of Windows Phone devices (running WP7.5, codename Mango) with its Focus S and Focus Flash. Both feature a 1.4GHz Snapdragon S2 SoC. The Focus S has a 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus display, while the Flash uses a 3.7" Super AMOLED (non-Plus) screen. The devices have 8MP and 5MP rear facing cameras, respectively. The Focus S is 8.55mm at its thinnest point, but no word on the rest of the dimensions.

We can expect to see both devices this fall, although I'm guessing it'll be worth waiting for Krait versions in about a year.