Official Galaxy Series Review Thread

[CozBoogie]

Sprint's Epic streeted today and is the latest member of Samsung's Galaxy Series.

Post of your reviews of your device (pics are always nice too). Be sure to let us know which Galaxy phone you're rockin' and all other important info.

Things to consider for comment:

• Aesthetics
• Screen
• Hardware
• Phone - including bluetooth & speakerphone usage
• Overall User Interface & Samsung TouchWiz
• Signal quality (Compared to other devices)
• GPS
• Social Networking
• Email/Calendar
• Battery Life
• Performance
• Media (music, movies, DLNA)
• Samsung Widgets reviews
• Swype vs. Samsung onscreen vs. physical keyboards.
• Camera (both still & video)
• How the it compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable)
• Disappointments (if any)

late,
Coz

[Vassago]

I thought I would do a more advance review now that I've had it for 24 hours and tested out many many features, much to my need for sleep's disapproval. So, here we go...

Appearance

The phone is surprisingly lighter feeling and less bulky than it looks. All of the controls are easily reachable. The slide-out keyboard is amazing and beats my HTC Touch Pro's keyboard with it's velvet touch keys. Having the charger port on the top of the device took some getting used to, but I like it much more than on the botton, as it was with the Touch Pro.

Screen-wise, it's by far the most beautiful phone I've ever seen. The colors are vivid and the blacks are dark. I've had no issue with viewing my phone in direct sunlight in the Florida sun.


Phone - including bluetooth & speakerphone usage

I can't comment on bluetooth as I don't have a bluetooth device. (I know, get with the times, right?)

The Speakerphone is loud and clear and with the tests I performed, I had the phone a few feet away and the other party could also hear me clearly. It's decent for a radio speaker, but of course it's not meant to be one. Headphone jack is loud and clear using with mp3s and Pandora.

Overall User Interface & Samsung TouchWiz

The interface takes some getting used to when coming from an HTC Sense powered phone. With a few tweaks and widgets, it can be customized to be much better than Sense in my opinion, it just takes a little work. I highly recommend Beautiful Widgets ($1.99 in market) if you miss your clock/weather/calendar home screen from Sense. It actually performs better and has more options. Other than that, the phone response quickly and is FAST!

Signal quality (Compared to other devices)

I've seen no drop in signal compared with my HTC Touch Pro. 4g is only sporadically available and unofficial in my market, but I've been able to use it 98% of the time flawlessly and it is FAST! No more waiting for videos to load on Youtube and webpages and downloads are almost instant.

GPS

The GPS was able to pinpoint my location for use with Beautiful Widgets (for weather and location) quickly and accurately. Sprint Navigator and Google Maps work very well and I have seen no issues with either.

Social Networking

Social Networking on this phone is incredible. It comes with a widget that combines Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace updates into one, allowing you to view and respond directly from the widget any friend or follower updates. You can also update your status across your choice of one or all three networks.

For Facebook, make sure you update your Facebook app to the newest one for updated features and bug fixes that fix the notifications screen. The Facebook app is by far better than the one modified to work with my Touch Pro. Using 4g, it's quick and painless. Even on 3g, it's pretty fast to download updates.

The Myspace app is about useless compared to visiting the site. The site has more options, such as viewing friend updates.

The syncing of contacts between Google, Facebook, Myspace, and your phone contact list is amazing. You can "link" contact information across all networks and you have the option of only showing friends with phone numbers or all friends in your contact updates. Make SURE you sync your accounts through the contact menu if you want it to auto-sync by going to Contacts-> Settings-> Accounts and add an "Integrated contact account" from the top, for some reason it didn't work when going through the settings menu for me.

Email/Calendar

I don't really use either feature, but it does sync your calendar from Facebook and Myspace into the phone's calendar.

Battery Life

Battery life for me has been stellar. I haven't really put the phone down all day today and it's still half-way charged. Of course, you can save battery life by using a non-live wallpaper or one with more blacks, due to the AMOLED screen.

Performance

FAST! FAST! FAST! When running Pandora, downloading updates, and surfing market at the same time, it's still fast! I cannot complain about the speed or performance of this phone at all.

Media (music, movies, DLNA)

Pandora and Slacker Radio install handy widgets that show you a mini version of their full app while they are running, so you still have control of it from a home page while surfing other stuff, very nice features. I can't comment on movies.

Samsung Widgets reviews

Beautiful Widget - The only widget/app I have paid for so far and well worth the money ($1.99). It creates a clock/calendar/weather widget very similar to the SenseUI clock, but with far more options. You can set the widget to open different apps, depending on where you touch it, or stick with the defaults. It's reads weather info from Accuweather. It can detect your location through GPS or Network and you have the option of turning them on or off. The clock and weather graphics have templates and styles you can download for free, including flip clocks and are fully customizable. You can also set the background graphic transparency.

Other must-haves of course are Shazam, Pandora, Slacker-Radio, Key Ring, Advanced Task, and Astro File Browser.

Swype vs. Samsung onscreen vs. physical keyboards.

The only reason why I waited for this phone to come out instead of buying the Evo was for the physical keyboard. I must say, I am not disappointed. This keyboard responds fast and accurately and the keys are laid out very similar to the Touch Pro, so the learning curve is not too high. I also must say, Swype is AWESOME! For times I don't feel like or can't use both hands, swype works very well and doesn't take long to get used to. I'm already finding myself using it far more often than I thought I would. The keys are much larger on the bigger screen, so it's easier to hit the key you are aiming for.

Camera (both still & video)

The daytime pictures are amazingly brilliant. Honestly, I've seen pictures taken with the 8mp Evo and these compare. Pictures in darker settings requiring a flash surprisinly look pretty good as well. This still won't replace a stand-alone camera, but for unexpected occasions where you find one necessary or random shots of nature, it's wonderful.

How the it compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable)

I can't even compare. Goodbye Winmo, hello Android and Epic. This phone truly is EPIC!

Disappointments (if any)

There are always disappointments. The settings can take a little while to get used to if you don't know what you are doing. You must choose to allow mass storage browsing on the phone/sd card when connected to a pc. The generic widgets that come with the phone are somewhat disappointing, but easily rectified by downloading more.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I can't rate this phone any higher than a 10, but I certainly would. I haven't found any problems yet.

[Johnny.Bravo]

If I had to sum up the Epic in one word, that word would be FAST. I had a TP2, and then tried out the HTC Hero for a couple of weeks. There is no comparison. I haven't had it long enough to comment on all the features but at the end of the first day I absolutely love this phone. Impressive screen, both size and resolution.

I tried out the Asphalt 5 demo...extremely responsive, just like playing a racing game on the Wii.

One thing I don't like is the choice of default ringers. I hate ringers that sound like computerized Muzak. I want a simple LOUD beeping type ringer. I'm sure I will be able to fix that easily though.

The keyboard is really nice, definitely better than the TP2 - its bigger and I really like the feel of the keys.

And my GPS works perfectly. Sprint Nav and Google Maps had me to within 3 meters in a matter of seconds.

All in all, its way way better than any phone I have ever had before . On a scale of 1-10 I give it a 10.

[clockcycle]

Ok just got back from the Sprint store playing with the Epic. Comparing it to my Version 3 (epson) screen EVO and their version 2 (nova) EVO.

Initial comment, whoa this thing is lite. Checked to see if it was real not a dummy demo, then checked if it really had a battery in it.. lol

First, as mentioned in a separate thread I made today, why is the power/data cable on top of the phone... It's kinda weird having it attached to the car charger with the cable dangling from the top.

Screen-wise; The Epic I was looking at has an amazing screen, colors, contrast, clarity, very nice. The Evo with the version 2 (nova/pink hue) screen looked very nice next to it as well, but the Epic still wins IMO. The Evo with the version 3 screen (epson/mine) looked dull and washed compared to both (boo hiss hiss boo). As far as a the 4.0" vs 4.3" it's noticeable but isn't a big deal.

Thickness, sure it's really not that much thicker than the Evo. But it's rounded shape give it the visual illusion of being thicker, where the Evo visually looks thinner.

Evo feels sturdier, beefier, solid because of it's weight. The Epic feels like it's empty, a toy, the materials also give off that impression.

Snappy, responsive, similar to the Evo, it's just that screen clarity that the Epic has with both side by side that just wins.

The vibration/tactile feedback feels kinda weird, like the Intercept's, but not like the Moment's. Come to think of it, it feels and looks like a bigger Intercept.

Oh, the camera. The Epic's colors were just better, it's focus is quicker. My Evo's colors looked dull/washed when looking at the screen, but that's not to say the pictures would have ended up looking better looking at them through a PC. As I was looking through each phone's screens, it's not a fair comparison of the end result.

The Keyboard, nice, but didn't use it, swype is just great.

Don't get me wrong, I am still impressed. It is a worthy phone. Wish it was thinner, less rounded and just a tad heavier.. If I could, I'd get one..

-CC

[themuffinman]

Thats a good right up clockcycle, I have an evo as well but my sister got an epic the other day and I finally got to spend some quality time with it. The screen alone is insanely amazing, and that alone is worth the price of admission. It was like having a top of the line pioneer kuro plasma tv in my hand with such dark blacks and amazing contrasts. But I just didn't like how light it felt, I literally felt like I was gonna break it if I held it too firm. I played a few 3d games and I was pretty impressed with how well it handled more complex 3d type games compared to my evo which quite frankly didn't perform as well. The keybored is nice, better than the tp1(still one of the best keyboards to this day) but not quite as good as the tp2 which is still king of the smartphone hardware keyboard IMO. The charger port on top is just wrong, talking with it being plugged in just felt unnatural and uncomfortable. All in all navigating the phone itself seemed very smooth and responsive, couldn't really see a difference between the epic and the evo in that department and browsing the web seems the same as well. Also like others have said, use in direct sunlight seem fine to me. I could use both my evo and my sisters epic in direct sunlight with no visability issues but I will say this though, if you are in a dark room the epic seems to be alot easier on the eyes but thats just me. Samsung definitely hit a homerun with this phone and I hope it sells just as much as the evo. I know this isn't an in-depth review but this is just my experience with the phone over a half a day or so.

[sp4rtan5]

One word review. Epic.