The brightest star in the Galaxy S lineup is here. Read our full Samsung Epic 4G review.
Samsung Epic 4G Overview
The Samsung Galaxy S constellation is a driving force this year in the smartphone universe, but the Samsung Epic 4G is the brightest star in the lot. The phone receives some fairly impressive features that the other three phones—Captivate for AT&T, Vibrant for T-Mobile, and Fascinate for Verizon Wireless—do not get. The Samsung Epic 4G is the only Galaxy S phone to feature a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and front-facing camera. Like the Fascinate, the Epic 4G also features a flash/video light. Let's also not forget about the fact that the Epic 4G is, well, a 4G phone, which is about as fast as you can get today. However, the 4G reception pool is very shallow since the technology is so fresh. The Samsung Epic 4G is also the second phone ever to be announced with 4G capability, as the launch of the HTC EVO marked the beginning of 4G madness. So now Sprint users have a very important decision to make—HTC EVO or Epic 4G? We'll iron that out for you.
Samsung Epic 4G Design
From a design perspective, the Samsung Epic 4G took the road less traveled while the Captivate, Vibrant, and Fascinate jumped on the same aesthetic bandwagon. The Epic 4G's rounded corners and thicker body suggest that it's hiding something, and that something is a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard. Not only is slide-out action smooth and snappy, but the Epic 4G's keyboard actually resided amongst the premiere QWERTYs we've tested. The layout is nice and wide, and keys are spaced out enough to even compensate for larger hands. In conjunction with Android's spelling and word correction, we were able to fly through messages just as quickly as the onscreen touch keyboard, if not quicker.
Let's take a look at the Samsung Epic 4G's screen, a four-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen with WVGA resolution (800 x 480). But it's the high contrast ratio that really puts the Epic 4G on top of its competitors. The Epic 4G's screen has a 50,000:1 contrast ratio, which optimizes the dynamic range, supporting movies and gaming to the max. Compared to the iPhone 4's Retina display, our multimedia experience on the Epic 4G was superior. However, we preferred browsing and reading on the iPhone 4's Retina display because of its superb 326 pixels per inch (3.5-inch screen with 960 x 460-pixel resolution) screen. The Samsung Epic 4G also wins when you stack it up against the HTC EVO, which offers a larger 4.3-inch screen, but lacks Super AMOLED technology.
Just like its other Galaxy S siblings, the Samsung Epic 4G has a built-in 3.5mm headphone jack, side-mounted Power/Lock button, volume control rocker, and a USB terminal that is concealed stealthily by a sliding plastic panel. The plastic back panel is fairly cheap and flimsy, and that's where the battery and 32GB capacity MicroSD card slot hide. However, the right side of the phone houses a button that is missing on all three other Galaxy S phones, and that's a dedicated Camera Shutter button. Then, take a glance under the lens of the 5-megapixel camera, and check out the built-in LED flash/video light, which is also missing from the Captivate and Vibrant. The cherry on the sundae is the Samsung Epic 4G's front-facing camera. Even though the front-facing camera is a 0.3-megapixel VGA resolution, the Samsung Epic 4G is the only Galaxy S phone to offer one. Keep in mind that the HTC EVO has a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.
The Samsung Epic 4G runs TouchWIZ 3.0 on top of Android 2.1, so our browsing and navigation experience was one of the best. But after just reviewing the Motorola Droid 2, which features Android 2.2, we're anxious to get a second chance with the Epic 4G running the upgrade. Like the Captivate and Vibrant, there were times when the Samsung Epic 4G's interface would get caught up in Lag Land, flicking jerkily up and down during web page scrolling. We'd love to see a 2.2 upgrade in the near future, and the HTC EVO has already received one.
We could tell the 1GHz Hummingbird processor wanted to fly at warp speed, and hopefully the Android 2.2 upgrade will make the Samsung Epic 4G a bit snappier. However, the Samsung Epic 4G does have a slight edge over the HTC EVO, which runs a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The Epic 4G also has 512MB of RAM, so it's right up there with the iPhone 4 and HTC EVO 4G. We had full access to the Android Market, which offers over 70,000 different applications and the 2.2 upgrade will let users save apps to a microSD card.
The Samsung Epic 4G features Social Hub, which is basically an acquaintance station that allows you to filter how much of your contacts you would like to be exposed to on a daily basis. We could combine our Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Google contacts into one mega list, displaying profile pictures and names. To call a particular contact, all we had to do was swipe their name to the right, and swipe it left to text message them. In order to avoid the inevitable cavalcade of useless information being spouted by thousands of Facebook friends, Samsung offered Buddies Now, which allowed us to throw our favorite contacts into a separate Rolodex—a definitive crap filter.
TouchWIZ 3.0 is a fairly straightforward interface. We get 7 home screens with the ability to add widgets, folders, shortcuts, and bars by simply pressing and holding a screen. We could also shuffle icons around easily and the Google search bar offered Voice Search. We could set up a POP3, IMAP, or Exchange account for email and the setup process was easy. One thing we found particularly helpful was the fact that we could create an icon for our Gmail Inbox, which was a direct ride right to our mailbox. We got pinch to zoom in the camera Gallery, in addition to Internet browsing.
Samsung Epic 4G Multimedia/ Voice Quality/Battery Life
Tucked away in the Applications segment of the phone, we found a handful of Sprint-related services: Sprint Football, Sprint Hotspot, Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV, and the Sprint Zone. Honestly, with the rolling boil of applications being ladled from the Android market and the upcoming Media Hub, the Samsung Epic 4G is stacked with multimedia options. The Samsung Epic 4G supports Sprint Hotspots with up to 5 devices and 4G access, of course for monthly service charges. That's $10/month for 4G access and $30/month for Hotspot functionality. So if you're going to use the hotspot function to connect other devices to the 4G network, it costs $40 extra per month on top of the potential $100/month unlimited plan. Basic YouTube and video watching was great, though we long for the ability to watch our videos in the browser, which is a characteristic of the Android 2.2 upgrade.
Voice quality on the Samsung Epic 4G was great, just like the Captivate and Vibrant. Noise cancellation was top notch, and we never experienced any major static. Unfortunately, we weren't able to experience 4G, but we saw demonstrations earlier this year at CTIA, and we can tell you that when 4G technology matures, users will ultimately begin to experience speeds and response times they never thought possible on a cell phone. As far as battery life, the Samsung Epic 4G performed just like the Captivate and Vibrant, which was more along the mediocre spectrum. The Motorola Droid 2 outlasted the Samsung Epic 4G by double, so we know that the Epic 4G is definitely not a marathon juice provider.
Samsung Epic 4G Still Image Quality
The Samsung Epic 4G's camera interface was one of the best we've ever played with on a phone, next to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's, which you'll see next week. We got a handful of Scene modes and Effects to play with, the ability to adjust the Exposure, White Balance, ISO, and Auto Focus (Macro), and the Samsung Epic 4G gave us Image Stabilization. Unfortunately, the Samsung Epic 4G could not match the iPhone 4's camera, and we tested them in the same shooting conditions. The good news is that it beats the Motorola Droid 2, so the phone resides on the higher end of the digital imaging spectrum. In bright light and Macro mode, the Samsung Epic 4G really managed to shine, but anything outside of ideal shooting conditions was rendered mediocre. Low light was rough with noise, unless we employed the built-in flash. Even then, some of our images were highly blown out, due to an overzealous flash.
The Samsung Epic 4G's video quality was about on par with the Captivate and the Vibrant. We experienced jerky motion at times, noisy low light, and an overall lack of detail. We discovered that the Samsung Epic 4G recorded videos at peculiar framerates like 29.65 or 29.72fps, and never a solid 29.97 like the iPhone 4. Because of that, we feel that motion took a hit. Either way, compare both phones using the videos below.
iPhone 4 720p Samples
Samsung Epic 4G: The Final Answer
2010 is a good year to be a Sprint customer. Not only do they get the ultimate HTC EVO 4G to choose from, but now there's also the Samsung Epic 4G. The iPhone 4 has certainly taken a hit this year, thanks to the volume of stellar devices emanating from the Android family. The Samsung Epic 4G is one of the best phones we've tested to date, and it's certainly the best Galaxy S model. The Epic 4G brings all of the goodies we loved on the Captivate and Vibrant, and adds a slide-out QWERTY, front-facing camera, LED flash, dedicated Camera Shutter button, and 4G capability. Tack on a great EV-DO service, and the Sprint Epic 4G is one of the premiere players in the club.
If you're looking for a great do-it-all phone, then the Samsung Epic 4G will most likely be the answer. However, those craving a larger 4.3-inch screen, HDMI connectivity, and a better front-facing camera will gravitate toward the HTC EVO. Keep in mind that the Epic 4G also has a superior screen. It's definitely worth holding out until the Epic 4G ships to compare the two in person because each phone is matched in its pros and cons. But there's no dancing around the bush in Sprint's backyard—the Samsung Epic 4G and HTC EVO 4G are two of the hottest phones on the market to date.
Price and Release Date
The Samsung Epic 4G for Sprint will be available on August 31 2010. It'll cost $350 with a new two-year contract. A $100 mail-in rebate will be given when signing up for qualifying plan.
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