Our Verdict
TheSamsung Epic 4G($250 with a two - yr declaration from Sprint , as of August 20 , 2010 ) stands out from its Galaxy S sibling for a few reasons . Unlike the others , it has a forcible keyboard and a front - face camera , and it ’s the second phone to run on Sprint ’s 4 yard net . How does it heap up against the other 4 G twist , the HTC EVO 4 grand ? And how does it equate to other mega - smartphones in the Android world ? Read on .
Design
Recently , I ’ve review three speech sound with hardware keyboards : the BlackBerry Torch , the Motorola Droid 2 , and now the Epic 4G.Keyboard end watch ? Not so much . Out of all of these speech sound , the Epic emphatically has the best keyboard . The keys are nicely space and have a expert clickiness to them .
If you do n’t feel like using the physical keyboard , you have even more options on the touchscreen . you may apply the TouchWiz keyboard , the Swype keyboard , or the native Android keyboard . I regain the display quite responsive , and big enough to typecast on well .
Like the other Galaxy S phones , theEpic 4Gsports a 4 - inch Super AMOLED display . Samsung ’s Super AMOLED engineering put hint sensors on the exhibit itself , as fight back to create a separate layer ( whichSamsung ’s previous AMOLED displayshad ) , fix it the thinnest display technology on the mart . Super AMOLED is fantastic — you really have to see it in person . Colors burst out of the display , and vitality appear lively and smooth . Some reviewers have note that colouration look oversaturated , but I do n’t really listen the essence . The display also does quite well in smart outside light , too , though the phone ’s glossy hardware sometimes reflects a killer spotlight .
TouchWiz 3.0 interface
The Samsung Epic 4 G runs Android 2.1 ( “ Eclair ” ) with Samsung ’s own TouchWiz 3.0 user port . Overall , this interpretation of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older loop , which we saw on phones such as the Samsung Behold II for T - Mobile ( a phone that was irksome and difficult to sail ) .
Although this version is an melioration , I encountered some familiar issuance with TouchWiz 3.0 . Despite the 1GHz Hummingbird processor , the phone lag slightly when I flip through carte and scrolled down contact lists or World Wide Web pages . Here ’s hoping the Epic will get a stop number boost when it receive the upgrade to Android 2.2 ( “ Froyo ” ) .
Like HTC and its Sense offer , Samsung has its own social media collector . Social Hub combines stream from your Facebook , MySpace , and Twitter calculate into a unmarried panorama . It is a useful lineament if you need a simple elbow room to keep track of your networks . One random feature is Mini Diary , which lets you create blog entries with photos , conditions info , text messages , and more . When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S , I could n’t envision out how to get my entries off the twist . Samsung adopt up with me after my original reexamination , gratefully , and confirmed that you may indeed send entries ( though only those with exposure ) to various societal networks or send them to friends via school text . After you create an introduction , you press the Menu key fruit in the bottom - forget street corner , and it gives you MMS and Publish options . If you choose Publish , you may send your item to Facebook or MySpace .
My boastful problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is overdone — so much so that the termination does n’t even appear or sense like an Android telephone . to boot , the skin sometimes interfered with the speediness of the Epic ( see the “ Performance ” plane section below ) . According to Samsung , the entire Galaxy S family will be upgradable to Android 2.2 .
Camera
We put the 5 - megapixel camera of the Epic 4 G through a modified interpretation of our PCWorld Labs test for point - and - shoot digital tv camera , along with the iPhone 4 , the Motorola Droid X , and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our run panel was not very impressed with the pic quality of the Epic , as it earned the dispirited grade out of the four and an overall word score of Fair . It polish off before of the EVO 4 G in pic quality , but landed in last place in our color - truth , edge , and distortion tests .
In my own hand - on tests outdoors , I was pretty impressed with the range tone . Colors await shiny and natural , and item were sharp . Only a svelte minute of granularity appear in the shots ; I had to look really closely on my monitor to see it .
On the other hand , the Epic adopt second lieu in overall telecasting quality . Its performance skewed intemperately toward adept carrying out in bright light . harmonise to our panel , its bright - light footage face a moment underexposed and more or less grainy in a full - screen view , but great at smaller size . The autofocus searches a little before lock on to a crisp image . In down sparkle , the footage was a touching too turbid and undefined to earn a dependable rating . Once the Epic gets an acclivity to Android 2.2 , you ’ll be able to use its flash as a Inner Light while capturing video . Perhaps this will desexualise the yield .
The handset ’s microphone , meanwhile , picks up audio a bit too well : On the Epic our audio cartridge clip vocalize far too loud and blown out , whereas some of the other smartphones in our comparison scarce pick up the audio frequency at all .
Out of all the powerful smartphone television camera I ’ve try out late , those of the Galaxy S headphone have the sporting , most user - friendly interface . Unlike with theiPhone 4 , here you could pick from a all-inclusive diversity of shot modes ( Vintage , Smile Detection , Panorama , Continuous , and many more ) and well pluck the camera ’s scope accord to your environs and field .
Notably the Epic also has a front - facing camera for make television margin call . Sprint has preinstalled Qik on the Epic for your video - gossip pleasance . I was capable to test Qik only over 3 M , and its timber was too jerky to really carry on a conversation . I suspect the caliber is much good over 4G.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music instrumentalist is touch - well-disposed and easy to navigate . It showcases album art nicely , too , with an iTunes Cover Flow - style exploiter interface . Sound was white over my own earbuds , and comme il faut via the external speaker unit .
One of the most challenging features of the Captivate is the Samsung Media Hub , which will come with all of the Galaxy S speech sound . Media Hub is Samsung ’s solvent to iTunes , a storage for purchasing music and telecasting . Unfortunately , Media Hub is not yet available to drug user right now ; harmonise to my striking at Samsung , Media Hub will plunge this downfall . client will be able to download the service via an over - the - air update .
Unlike the EVO 4 gibibyte , the Epic does not ship with YouTube HQ — a big disappointment . YouTube HQ is a feature that enhance certain YouTube videos ’ calibre tremendously . Unfortunately , without HQ , YouTube video are almost completely unwatchable on the Epic . With such an unbelievable screen , this omission seems like a enceinte inadvertence .
Performance
Like the other Galaxy S phone , the Epic 4 G is powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU . For the most part the Epic was incredibly tight , but I did encounter some horse barn in the user interface in one finical action . I portion out one of my Gallery photos with a friend via Gmail . As the phone was deliver the message , I attempted to browse through more gallery images . The Epic start to stutter and suspend between the image . I then closed the Gallery app and attempt to open another — the earpiece altogether freeze for about 20 seconds . I was able-bodied to double this job a second prison term when I tried to send another image . My contact did receive both image , but it was disturbing to see the telephone set halt up like that as I was render to station an attachment .
One of the big deals of the Epic 4 gigabyte is evident in its name : It ’s the second 4G - support phone on Sprint . And as with the other handset , the HTC EVO 4 G , you may use the Epic 4 gm as a mobile 4 G hotspot and get in touch up to five Wi - Fi - enabled gimmick to it . regrettably , we were unable to prove the 4 GB performance on the Epic , as Sprint ’s WiMax connection is n’t switched on in the San Francisco Bay Area yet . I ’ll update this review once we go over the Epic in a 4G - supported area .
Browsing the entanglement over Sprint ’s 3 one thousand web was sufficiently speedy , however . Call quality was also quite skillful , though I heard a snatch of atmospherics on the stemma in a few call .
Out of the Galaxy speech sound I ’ve test , the Epic 4 gibibyte is definitely the best , and it ’s surely one of the top Android phones available . The nicely designed physical keyboard , paired with the 4 G goodness and front - confront photographic camera , makes it hard to baffle . The material motion is whether it ’s a good choice than the HTC EVO 4G. It ’s a near call , but the Epic 4 G slightly edges out the EVO .
As a multimedia system machine , the Epic wins . Although the Epic ’s exhibit is smaller than the EVO ’s , its tone is good . The Epic also supports more video codecs , such as Xvid , DivX , and H.264 formats ( the EVO does n’t ) . Then again , the Epic does not have an HDMI port wine , while the EVO does . In the camera department , the EVO ’s 8 - megapixel snapper wins on image timber , but I like the Epic ’s user interface better . As for Android skins , it ’s really a subject of penchant . And when it get to input , the Epic emphatically wins for havingthreesoftware keyboards as well as a very good hardware keyboard .
Again , though , it is a faithful call , and the biggest difference between the two is the price : After a $ 100 ring armor - in rebate , theEpic 4Gis $ 50 more than the $ 200 EVO 4G. But on top of that , as with the EVO 4 G , you must buy a data architectural plan for your Epic ( Sprint ’s limitless architectural plan is $ 70 , which is less expensive than AT&T or Verizon ) , as well as pay a $ 10 fee for 4 G ( even if 4 K is n’t support in your surface area ) . And if you want to apply the fluid hot spot , that ’s an extra $ 30 every month .
