Samsung Epic 4G Android Phone (Sprint) - Finding The Best Android Keyboards and Supplies here

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Harkanwar Anand (New York, New York) –

  

  

I have been playing around with both phones and because I belong to Sprint for the rest of my life’s tenure, I shall let you know that these are the two best phones available in the market but let’s compare which is better at what.

Appearance – The Evo 4G does not have a slide-out QWERTY keypad like the Epic. The Epic despite the keyboard is about an ounce lighter in weight and that says a lot about the AMOLED screen and the absolutely flawless design on this phone. The charging port is located on the TOP of the phone and also has a little slide you need to drag open before accessing the MICRO USB/Charger. The phone looks a terrific black (like the best looking iPhone, oh yeah we care, no sarcasm) when the screen is not on. UNLIKE THE EVO, the standby key is on the right hand side of the phone and does the same thing. On first appearance, the design of the Epic is mouth watering. I’ve always found Sidekick like phones cheesy and even that DROID from VERIZON looks very plastic to me but I shall diss no more, the Epic might just win on this account (but I know plenty of Evo users who would disagree but this is my opinion). Because of size, weight, 4-inch screen (Evo’s 4.3), design of the slide out, the Epic wins this round.

Call Reception / Loud Speaker -> While playing music, I noticed the Epic was a little louder than the Evo is but at full volume, it can be a tad too loud too which is obviously such a WELCOME FEATURE. The Evo has a loud speaker alright and also a dedicated home page where you can easily play your music but what matters is the sound because both phones offer excellent customization.

Battery Life – This is one of the primary reasons the Epic is likely to do good. I fume when I hear people say the DROID X has a better battery life than the Evo. On Epic, the AMOLED screen ensures you don’t need to charge this phone more than once a day. I managed to make this last for atleast a day but I did find the battery readings to be inaccurate from time to time. Maybe this happened because I was trying the phone on Airplane mode and then switching to CDMA so that could be it. There was a difference in the battery life, sometimes the bar would be short and sometimes substantially longer. Maybe it is just a software update that is required but at the end of the day, You can have all the features on a phone but what matters a lot is battery life and the Epic takes this round too. By getting the Evo you will need to buy an extra battery unless you like carrying your wires everywhere you go. If you’re getting the Evo make sure you get an extra battery charger and oh save yourself some money and NEVER INVEST ON EXTENDED BATTERIES. You wouuld think Samsung and HTC are more clever than not to have come out with the extended battery in the first place. Feel free to discuss, throw things at me on the comments column.

Screen Brightness – HTC Evo is about AS BRIGHT AS THE SUN, absolutely incredible brightness, it’s like watching the most expensive HDTV sometimes. The phone even on low brightness is surprisingly bright and I always appreciate brightness. While the Epic is not dull, I’ll be lying if I say the screen is as bright as the Evo or even comes close to taking this round. The Epic has a jaw dropping display but the brightness and screen quality while you’re on a webpage makes Evo the winner here. The brightness may come at the price of battery life but when you drive a HUMMER, you worry not about the battery life but about the drive.

Build Quality of Plastic on the BACK – The Evo certain feels a little more solid and smooth. The back on the EVO is better than the INCREDIBLE. Evo’s kickstand is an added feature but the quality of the plastic on the Evo is 15% better than the Epic when you’re holding the back though Epic is quite good as it is. **Caution** Do not remove Epic’s back size by the SPEAKER, you may damage the phone cause you’re such a strong individual, locate a small opening at the end and then LIFT UP the back plastic covering the battery. The back is obviously not RED like the HTC EVO.

Bundled Accessories – Epic comes with a 16gb card, in ear earphones, a thicker BASIC manual I haven’t opened and read yet. The Evo comes with an 8gb card and no earphones. They both come with a Micro USb Cord which coverts into a wall charger. I have tried and used almost all earphones bundled with phones and have never seen any Sprint phone with such good quality “in-ear” earphones which provide NOISE CANCELLATION. An excellent extra for the fifty bucks you pay depending on where you’re buying the phones from. 16gb is like having 2 x 8gb cards.

Mobile Hotspot – DRAW

Task Killer App – If you hold the home button down on the Epic, an excellent task killer pops up. It is so easy and fun to use that this alone was a big big big…

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S. Samra (Los Angeles, CA) –

  

BEFORE YOU READ BELOW PLEASE READ THIS: Make sure you set aside time to play with this. Your girlfriend or wife is going to hate you for it if you don’t. ……haha..trust me I learned from experience.

I was a blackberry user for years, and I never wanted to switch. But I wanted to see what 4G was like. Sprint is testing 4G in many more markets than are on their website (Many places in the San Francisco area and Los Angeles). Here is a break down of the pros and cons

1. Once you get use to “Swype” typing, you’ll never use the keyboard. I bought this phone becaue of the physical keyboard (since I came from a blackberry) but I never use it. “Swype” is great. Go look up a video.

2. Battery life is pretty good despite what people say. Since the Amoled screen does not use power with black pixels. I made my wallpaper solid black. Improved battery life drastically. Trust me on this! …..Now if you use 4G it drains your battery quickly. See below. Also charging time takes a long time. It takes maybe twice as long to fully charge this phone than a blackberry and the MaH is only slightly stronger (1500). Use the “Power Widget” to very easily turn on/off things like 4G, Wifi, Adjut brightness. This will help greatly.

3. 4G..It drains your battery, and mean quickly. God’s honest truth……3G is fast enough. I mean 4G was cool to test out, but it really doesn’t make a difference when browsing. Maybe downloading music or video (yes) but how often do you do that. When it comes to apps and browsing 3G is fast enough. I teathred my phone to my laptop, and the 4G speeds were barely faster than 3G. 3G speeds were about 1MB per second download. 4G was 1.2. Now if you run a network speedtest on the phone at [...], it’s fast…4-5 MbPS.

3. Customization – Awesome, nothing like it. I love it. No complaints. You’ll love it.

4. Feel of the phone – Overall a little too thick for me. Once you add it the protective case, that thing aint goin in your pocket. It makes it to thick. So if you like a thin phone, this one is not for you. As I mentioned above, with the “Swype” technology you’ll never find yourself using a keyboard. The keyboard also “wiggles” around a bit…..

5. Charging Port – Kinda funny that’s its on top of the phone, but not a big deal.

6. Bluetooth – Great Quality (3.0 BT technology). Good reception from a number of Bluetooth pieces I’ve tried. It’s also cool streaming podcasts /music to your bluetooh. Cool feature.

7. Apps – App market is great. Again customizing this phone is one of the greatest features. Apps will randomly start for some reason. I don’t know if they suck up battery life or cpu usage. The sprint guy told me they don’t.

8. Unlocking the phone – PHone has an auto lock. You have to touch the power button and then slide the screen to unlock. Get an app on the market for this called “Screen Mode” to customize this. Now I can lock / unlock my phone by just hitting a button.
9. Youtube videos are great to watch on here you can watch them in HQ. Sometimes when you do, you’ll have to reset your phone for it to work. I know it sounds funny, but this is a minor flaw. Youtube in HQ is great!

10. E-mail and Web Browsing. Seamlessly hooked up to my company’s exchange. So much more superior than using a blackberry in that regard. The way you can view the e-mails and attachments are great. Also synced with Yahoo and Gmail. Again. Awesome. No complaints.

11. Web Browsing – NO other phone like it! plain and simple it’s great.

12. The google search feature. I know this is available on other droid phones. But the voice activated or type features are awesome!

13. Phone reception / quality – Perfect.

Overall. If you can get over the thickness you’ll love it.

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Eric Prodzenski “yodude” (chicago,il) –

  

The initial plan was for me to upgrade to the Epic and my mom to the Evo (family plan) That way I got to get hands on with both phones and make my decision. Unfortunately, ma wasn’t eligible for an upgrade so my master plan was foiled. Damn you Sprint, Obviously with the Evo being out of stock everywhere.. I was happy to get the Epic, since it was the phone I was leaning towards. Plan B- I figured Through B.B. I could start with the Epic, switch to Evo and back to Epic on day 30.

Epic- As a previous Palm Pre guy, I liked it in the hand. It felt good and very simliar to the the rounded shape of the Pre, only bigger. Noticeably bigger.. but what great phone isn’t now days. As someone who has never used ONLY a virtual keyboard, I figured between that and the Super Amoled screen it was a no brainer, Epic all the way. The screen is Unreal. As said in each and every review, there’s no question there. The keyboard initially had me saying “eh”. It was very roomy, the exact opposite of the Pre. So it took me some time to get use to.. but once I did, I’ll take that keyboard over the Pre’s anyday. As for the phone and its software, Wasn’t giddy but very nice.. However Android won me over. Wow, I thought WebOS was decent but Im a Droid dude now.. And probably for life. So this added to the excitement of the Epic most initially.

So its time to see if this phone can act as my new daily phone. I played with it alot, but not to the extreme and the first thing I noticed was “Crap, this battery is defintely worse than the Pre” but also expected from Epic or Evo reviews. Uncharged at 8am this phone was screaming for the charger by arrival home at 5pm. Which from some reviews I take that as good, as other (defected?) phones say they only got 3-5 hours before needing juice. Now here was a big hang-up for me. From 8% battery the Epic took 3.5 hours to fully charge to 100%?? WOW! My Pre took 30-45 minutes so this was definitely a distraction. But Im one who usually charges my phone while sleeping so I just figured I’d use the phone less, and make it last the day. That never was achievable but I figure I’d figure something out later because I did like this phone.

Day 10- I did encounter a major software issue with my phone that my AOL account would not push my emails. All settings were set correctly, and it would push for a couple time then stop. So I Figured it was about time to put myself on a waiting list at B.B for the Evo, as planned. To my surprise they had one. Guy at the store says he’s never seen that happen, and sure enough 5 minutes in while changing phones, a guy comes in asking for the Evo. First Impression and I cannot explain why but… Giddy. This phone just felt better right off the bat. Better in the hand.. better first 30 minute impression playing with it.. This phone just right with it powered on or off. But I didnt want to get ahead of myself. My main issue was.. Battery. I thought the Epic was bad but heard this was even worse?! My plan initially was if I liked the Evo better.. I could always go with the 3500 MaH extended battery. The Epic has one on its way too, but for both it adss bulk.. And the last thing the Epic needs is bulk. So after playing with the Evo for about an hour with a Smile pastered on my face for unexplainable reasons I decided to charge it up and give it a test run the next day.

Ok so.. I drilled this phone! Work was slow that day and I was on it almost ‘all’ day. Kinda like I was the first day with Epic only just alittle more. First impression.. by 5pm my phone still had 46% Battery. What??! I thought this battery was suppose to be worse. I really wanted this thing drained so I could see how long it took to charge. So I turned on everything.. 4G, GPS, internet.. just to drain the battery. By 10:30pm I got it down to 6%. I figured ok.. let’s test it. Put it on the charger and checked it at 11:30pm. Mind you like clock work the Epic, would charge roughly 30% battery per hour, so after one hour charging the Evo… from 6% to 72%. Ok I’m in love! Not only is the battery better than almost any phone ive ever had, it charges 2 hours faster than the Epic. On top of that, my AOL emails pushed as set in my preferences. This phone had me at hello and I admitted to what I thought after first laying my hands on the EVO… This phone will not be traded on day 30.

Breakdown:

Screen- Epic screen is like watching an HD tv.. Its awesome! But the Evo’s isnt too shabby either, and will not have you thinking damn I REALLY wish I had the Epic’s screen. As well the .3 difference in screen size is noticeable nice.

Keyboard- Epic has a great keyboard and my biggest fault to the Evo is the fact I havent gotten use to using the vitual one yet. if ever?.

Battery- No contest. Epic= Terrible! Evo= Great! Light to medium use I could probably find a way to make the Epic’s power supply last a full day. Under the…

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