My Thoughts of the Epic after a week

[gTen]

Since I'm back from my trip I figure I write a short review of what I think about the phone..now since everyone knows I'm somewhat pro Galaxy S i'll try to keep it as harsh as possible to be fair :P

Screen

Ok, the screen is pretty much amazing...the colors on it are out of this world...are the colors saturated..yes..but is it too much..nah...just by looking at it once makes me feel empty every time I pick up my TP2..did I mention the colors are amazing? lol

I even was able to watch movies on it..and after showing it to a friend of mine who said they'd never watch a movie on a cellphone due to the small screen said they wouldn't mind watching it on that phone. I personally usually watch movies on my laptop when flying on an airplane but this time around I just watched them on the phone :P

There is one downside in the movie watching..when watching one of the movies which had a dark night scene...it made it kinda hard to see..mostly since the black is so good..maybe too good lol...of course it may have to do with the quality of the video I was watching as it as only 360p and not of the highest quality...overall though its definitely worth it..

Now for the Pen-Tile..is it noticeable? yes..does it subtract from the experience? not really...You notice the Pen-Tile usually when you have straight lines..mostly when the lines are pure white. You also can notice it on certain fonts, otherwise it is mostly unnoticeable unless you really try...one thing to note is there is some jaggedness on small unzoomed in text..but it is perfectly readable...I never once had a problem reading the text...on bold text and other fonts or when zoomed in enough..it isn't even noticeable...you gotta try it for yourself to tell but overall I can't say it detracts from the experience.

One thing I really like is the live wallpaper on this phone..my favorite 2 are the beach one (which i am using now) and the grass one(would use this one but no effects when I click on it and I mostly like the night scene)...I mean clicking on the rippling water is addictive...:P

Design

The design of this phone is actually pretty good...the back cover has a very nice feel to it and it is curved a little for comfortable grip. Overall I would say its on par if not better then a TP2 on the outside and on the inside is definitely better as things are more compact..when I first picked up my epic I couldn't believe I was holding a phone.its so light that after I took my TP2 out of my pocket it felt like a brick..don't get me wrong I never once felt my TP2 as being heavy..but at that moment it did :/ (yeah I know its a psychological thing after holding something lighter)

Now as for the captive buttons..I heard a few reviewers mention some lag..and I can say it is not the case..there are just a few scenarios that Ive noticed can cause this misconception.

1) When you recently press a button and try to press one again fast
2) When the button lights just turned off and you press a button

Both of these can be fixed if you do a firm press on that button..my guess what happens is since captive buttons respond to sliding over them and not only press they have a short internal timeout. But either way not once did a firm press directly on a button ever fail.

Edit 2: One thing to note is if your touching the screen, the capacitive buttons won't work until you let go.

One thing I do kinda wish is that they included only 3 captive buttons over 4..or at the very least put the samsumg logo underneath the buttons..I installed Sims 3 on the phone (yes I was that bored as I had a phone with no internet..but since I heard it was made specifically for the Galaxy S I figure give it a shot)..I can't count how many times I clicked on the Search key and got tabbed out when doing fishing...probably need a key lock app or something when gaming to fix...but either way I would probably have preferred the Search key wasn't there (even though I know its a requirement)..I either way have a search on my homescreen and I would have rather had easier access to the menu key when using only my right hand. maybe i'll remap the search key into a menu key as well :/

Edit1: I just remembered, One little design flaw I found is the location of the 3.5mm port..they should have placed it to the right of the USB port rather then left...when playing games and using a 3.5mm port it kinda gets in the way a bit when holding the device :/

Keyboard

The keyboard is definitely not as good as a TP2..but it isn't bad either..and definitely better then say the mogul I had..the keys are a bit flat, lined up and keys are by a bit not as wide as TP2 keys but I actually enjoy using the Epic's keyboard...I actually started using the keyboard more when surfing the web and fund it very convenient as it loads fast and I can type without taking up the screen..the only thing I kinda wish they would have done with the keyboard is there is a lot of empty space by the borders so they could have made the keyboards bigger. Not saying they are small now..they are fine..but would have been better if they were bigger, mostly considering the space is there. Either way, the keyboard is definitely one of the best I've used.

UI

I kinda like the UI, it would be nice to have TW3 so we can customize those 4 icons..but otherwise its pretty good...it doesn't bring all the stuff Sense UI does, but I'd rather get widgets and add only what I want rather then the whole package..its very straight forward and simple. I never once noticed and lag and it is fairly neat.

Reception

Only got to test this for a day..but so far its on par with the TP2..I have a bit of 4G where I am with 500kb/sec download and 1mb/sec upload..the irony...lol

Battery

The battery is ok..I didn't really get much chance to test it cause I was using WIFI here and there which has a toll on the battery life. When watching movies I found that it used up around 10% battery for 30mins of watching..but this was at max brightness..(in airplane mode)..Once I get to use it around more often for other things I'll update this.

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Ok I guess thats the basics for now..I'll finish the rest of it a bit later..I think I went over most of the basic as far as phone design.

[revaaron]

huh... I thought with all the excitement before it's release, you would have posted more about having sex with the phone. That was the first thing I did with the phone. It's a conscientious lover... even when I fished too quickly.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by revaaron

huh... I thought with all the excitement before it's release, you would have posted more about having sex with the phone. That was the first thing I did with the phone. It's a conscientious lover... even when I fished too quickly.

I was away on a business trip..so I didn't have a chance >.>..so instead I had to write an unbiased review(to the extent that I could)...sucks I know..

[dumpringz]

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Epic : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; SPH-D700 Build/ECLAIR) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

have u had the keyboard issue occur to u where it doesnt recognize inputs ?

[gTen]

Originally Posted by dumpringz

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Epic : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; SPH-D700 Build/ECLAIR) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

have u had the keyboard issue occur to u where it doesnt recognize inputs ?

Not really..but when using toremore RDP for some reason it did not take the input for some reason..since I really did not have time to see the problem I just used my TP2 instead...but aside from that instance I had no problem with input on the physical keyboard.

[Vertigo]

I like everything on this phone except for battery life and the usb port on top, other than that no complains. I also took my phone on a trip and battery was horrible and don't get me started with how long it takes to charge this thing, my wife couldn't use hers cuz I was using both batteries... lol

[siptang1227]

I think I'm buying two additional batteries for this thing...

[gTen]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

I like everything on this phone except for battery life and the usb port on top, other than that no complains. I also took my phone on a trip and battery was horrible and don't get me started with how long it takes to charge this thing, my wife couldn't use hers cuz I was using both batteries... lol

I don't particularly mind the USB port being on top too much..but I will admit that being used to the usb port being on bottom I by habit take it out holding upside down and wonder where the power button went :P lol...but thats just out of habit and will most likely get used to it in time.

Though you reminded me about one thing when you mentioned the USB so I updated my review with "Edit 1" under "Design"...

But overall, yeah its a great product..right now only thing I'm missing is Froyo and TW3..otherwise it meets my expectations...as for battery life, didn't get much chance to test it..did you do any tweaks to improve it yet?

[Vertigo]

Originally Posted by gTen

I don't particularly mind the USB port being on top too much..but I will admit that being used to the usb port being on bottom I by habit take it out holding upside down and wonder where the power button went :P lol...but thats just out of habit and will most likely get used to it in time.

Though you reminded me about one thing when you mentioned the USB so I updated my review with "Edit 1" under "Design"...

But overall, yeah its a great product..right now only thing I'm missing is Froyo and TW3..otherwise it meets my expectations...as for battery life, didn't get much chance to test it..did you do any tweaks to improve it yet?

Nothing special just the usual suspects, wifi, 4g, BT and GPS... Brightness all the way down to 0. I did a hard rest using my MSL and it got a little better but not that much.

I have noticed that the battery reading is a little mess up. main battery indicator shows a different reading than the indicator in the camera.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

Nothing special just the usual suspects, wifi, 4g, BT and GPS... Brightness all the way down to 0. I did a hard rest using my MSL and it got a little better but not that much.

I have noticed that the battery reading is a little mess up. main battery indicator shows a different reading than the indicator in the camera.

Well 4g taking up energy is a given due to having none full coverage..it does do idle to help levitate it but doesn't help when in active use.

Haven't tried BT or GPS much yet..but as for WIFI..if you use it a lot maybe this is the issue:

http://pocketnow.com/android/fix-sam...wifi-sleep-bug

Don't know if the fix apply to the epic or not though..

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Oh by the way I gave it a little thought and realized that maybe USB on top is actually a good idea..if they know how to make use of it..aka lets say you want to have accessories such as an IR port or a credit card swipe, a mini projector and etc..top actually make sense..the only time that it is an issue is when connecting to a pc thats on the bottom or a stand...otherwise even connecting a usb is a lot easier from the top as you dont have to flip the device or bend your hand in a weird position just to see where the usb port is..