Database Users

Up for upgrade. Epic or Evo

I am up for an upgrade in a week and have been weighing my options for a while and am currently leaning towards the Epic, but was hoping to get some insight from the Epic community and hopefully some people that have used both phones. My main concern with the Epic is that of Sammy and their history of not supporting hardware. I still have a bad taste in my mouth over the Instinct(great hardware, terrible software and support). I don't care that much about the home screen part of either or the mail app as I will be using GMail and LauncherPro. One question I have is how many serious and talented linux devs are there that work on the Epic? I know most of the Hero devs went to the Evo. I currently have a Hero running CM6. I like some parts of Sense, but it's performance was a major turn-off and was what made me turn to ASOP. As far as the keyboard goes, I am undecided on whether I will actually like/use it or not. The only thing I see myself using it for is gaming emulators. Another concern is I have heard something about GPS issues, have they been fixed or acknowledged? I am open to input and am truly on the border here. Also, has a root been found for the epic yet? This is a big one for me so that I can at least remove the sprint crapware.

I would say go for the evo. Not long ago I was in the same boat a you. I did a ton off research, and played with both phones extensively. I chose the evo, and it its the most amazing phone I've ever seen. Now that htc uncapped the fps, there is really no problems. The epic is great, but imo the evo is better.
Sent from my Htc Evo

I own both. I prefer the Epic for the keyboard. However, I dislike its screen for late night bed surfing lol. All AMOLEDs are way too bright in the dark.
Couple other noticeable things for me:
Screen: Epic for brightness/colors, however EVO has better responsiveness (assuming hardware/software issue for Epic)
Screen FPS: Epic, but they just released official fix for EVO
Text input: Epic since it has hardware keyboard in addition to touch
Battery life: EVO hands down, my Epic seems to die too fast and I never used any type of battery saving application on EVO
Power button location: Blows on Epic, why did they put it on the side??
Phone Size: Epic is lighter and smaller
ROM Development: EVO because its a HTC device, but I hope this changes soon

And I'd go with the Epic. I got my girlfriend her first smartphone 3 months ago and got her the Evo. Played with it for a few weeks and definitely liked the phone. Then I came up for an upgrade and I had the same decision to make. I ended up chosing the Epic as it seems it is a fewer months older and has a few slight upgrades over the Evo, but not much.
The Epic screen is ridiculously amazing. They do NOT compare. I love having a hard keyboard, and I text a lot more because of it. It's been two phones and about 3 years since I had a keyboard, but I picked it right up and my fingers flew.
Touchwiz is very nice, but I got rid of it after a few days, well actually the 3rd day once I rooted. I did the same with Sense on my Hero, like it, but I rather go completely customizable with a custom launcher.
Another great thing about the Epic is the notificatoin settings bar. You can adjust a few settings like wifi, 4g, bluetooth, brightness and airplane mode all from the pull down bar. And it even works without Touchwiz, which was a surprise to me. This feature alone gives me a big vote for epic over evo.
It seems the Epic's cpu runs a little faster/more efficientyly than the Evo's. The battery life on both is about what you can expect, if you use it a lot, plan on charging it during the day. Are you into rooting and getting the most out of your phone? Then you can get extensively better battery duration.
Right now, there isn't a lot of extra stuff you can do on a rooted Epic, but the phone's only been out a few weeks and the Evo has a jumpstart on developmental stuff. Also, the Evo is already on 2.2 where the Epic is still on 2.1, although rumors have it getting 2.2 in the next month.
Gps issue is definitely a problem on the Epic. I use my GPS about 5 times a day as I travel to different sites for my job. There is a delay in getting a good lock, but there should be a fix for this soon, and it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I usually get a lock within a minute. But I'll be happy when I get that instantaneous lock again.
One thing the Evo definitely has on the Epic is a bit bigger screen, .3", and HDMI out. That function is disabled on the Epic for some reason. I've heard a few reasons, but who knows. I use the DLNA option instead as my TV is new enough to support it.
I came from 3 generations of HTC phones before this, so it was hard for me to leave HTC. In the end, either way you're getting an awesome phone. so good luck with this decision!

epic camera owns the evo. period

I own both and would say EVO hands down. I thought the physical keyboard would be for me as that was the hardest to get used to on my EVO but after using both extensively I'd get the EVO. Where a few people like being able to adjust wifi/bluetooth and whatnot from the upper status pulldown, on the EVO it's a widget called "Power Control". To me this gives the same ease. Having both the EVO and the EPIC side by side I wouldn't say the EPIC screen blows away the EVO. Colors seem more blue on the EPIC and amoled is nice but I'd take my EVO any day for the .3 larger screen + it doesn't look bad at all.
Now if you're HEAVY into games and that's the main purpose for your phone then I'd recommend you get the EPIC. GPS isn't as big of an issue as people make it out to be BUT that being said there's been a few times when I needed it *now* and was waiting for about 3-5 minutes which I am sorry is NOT cool. The EVO locks on almost instantly, and most places I have tried indoor as well (obviously in a concrete office building it's not going to work... but at home in my bedroom it works fine).
I would suggest that you go to a Sprint store and really play with both for ~20 minutes each...
'tuna

monadzback said:
epic camera owns the evo. period
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Not true
Sent from my HTC EVO using XDA App

basically epic if u like physical kbs or evo if not

sling said:
Not true
Sent from my HTC EVO using XDA App
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Yes it is.

Having owned, and done extensive reviews and research on both I can conclude that the Epic's camera is much better than the Evos. The saturation, contrast, and white balance are all superior. Not to mention the video camera is only bested by the iPhone4.

I owned the Evo b4 the Epic. I liked the Evo, because the development for the device is amazing. The kickstand on the Evo is also great and comes in handy. Now that the 30fps caps is removed, it is even a greater phone.
I chose the Epic for a smaller form factor in phone size. I had to use two hands to use the Evo and my fingers would not reach across the screen without touching my skin. The Evo camera is not as good as the Epic, 23 fps vs 29/30fps at a constant rate. I like have an option of a physical keyboard to use only *if* I am typing a long email, playing a emulator or just getting tired of using the on screen keyboard. The AMOLED screen pwns the LCD screen and the Epics GPU is amazing, I run everything smoothly on my Epic.
In my opinion they are both great phones, but if you prefer a bigger form factor and a great development scene go for the Evo. If you prefer a great overall device that has everything built in for a phone then choose the Epic.

sling said:
Not true
Sent from my HTC EVO using XDA App
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Yes it is.
http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog/2010/09/epic-vs-evo-the-cameras/
The EVO can't shoot HD video in low light situations. It goes at around 10-15 FPS. It's blurrier during the day. It over saturates the colors. The 8MP on the camera is totally pointless because the quality of the camera doesn't measure up.
My Epic takes much better pictures than my EVO. But regardless... there are far MORE IMPORTANT reasons to get a phone.

drewX2 said:
I own both. I prefer the Epic for the keyboard. However, I dislike its screen for late night bed surfing lol. All AMOLEDs are way too bright in the dark.
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lol I agree! I own both also and the super AMOLED is way too bright even at its lowest setting. I do love both devices equally though
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

monadzback said:
epic camera owns the evo. period
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Have you owned both? Care to give any reasons/data explaining why?
hydralisk said:
Yes it is.
http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog/2010/09/epic-vs-evo-the-cameras/
The EVO can't shoot HD video in low light situations. It goes at around 10-15 FPS. It's blurrier during the day. It over saturates the colors. The 8MP on the camera is totally pointless because the quality of the camera doesn't measure up.
My Epic takes much better pictures than my EVO. But regardless... there are far MORE IMPORTANT reasons to get a phone.
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Apparently you haven't used cm6 on the EVO. IT does wonders for the camera and does things that no other camera app does as of yet; touch to focus while in camcorder mode....I get 24ish fps in 720p in low light with cm6.
Look, I own both, they both have their pros/cons but NEVER ever would I say one owns the other. It almost like Mac vs. PC they both do some things well....and others not so well.

Epic, is my vote, root is already out. Out of the box, epic is so much better. I still have my evo, but I never pick it up.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

My pick is the Evo. I got the Epic at launch, but it never felt right for me. I was also annoyed at the current bugs, which I can confirm it has. I just didn't have faith in Samsung to come out with a fix for them all, especially in my 30 window.
I returned it for the Evo and was amazed how much more I liked the Evo. Just feels like the better phone imo. Battery life is much better on the Evo than the Epic for me too.
Good luck.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Either one you pick you wil be happy. I ended up going with the epic for the better screen, better processor and gpu and the keyboard. Even though im starting to use the screen keyboard alot more now that i installed the droid x keyboard.. i take the train to work everyday so i watch movies and play games on a daily basis.. and despite the screen size disadvantage the epic has.. movies look so much better.. and believe me i've tried both
Sent from my Epic 4g using Tapatalk Pro

jok3sta said:
Either one you pick you wil be happy.
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Agreed! They are both good machines(?), err phones. As I said in an earlier post, it'd be stupid to not go to Sprint and really play with both for like 10-20 minutes each. Download quadrant, neocore, your favorite app(s), etc., etc. and run it all on both and make an informed decision. Most Sprint employees (around were I live) recommend the EVO, that said, don't let a sales person sway you one way or another.

spiicytuna said:
Agreed! They are both good machines(?), err phones. As I said in an earlier post, it'd be stupid to not go to Sprint and really play with both for like 10-20 minutes each. Download quadrant, neocore, your favorite app(s), etc., etc. and run it all on both and make an informed decision. Most Sprint employees (around were I live) recommend the EVO, that said, don't let a sales person sway you one way or another.
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I plan on it. I have been to best buy twice, but for some reason in their great wisdom they only have mockups so you cant play around with them. I am going to buy it at best buy so I get my reward points and better returns.

I have both, bought Evo, really liked it, but when the Epic came out, tried it, loved it, gave Evo to hubby.
Handsize and feel is important to me, the Epic fits hand better, buttons are in more convenient place for one hand usage, Love Swype, love screen, rooted but staying with Touchwiz because its so smooth (and waiting for 2.2
before I mess with other roms). The pics are awesome, as are some of the apps, especially Google Sky. It actually runs a little faster than Evo in opening apps.
Now hubby loves Evo, bigger feel in hands, screen, but to me, colors look more washed out. However, he is color blind so can tell no difference.
I came from rooted Hero, so like Touchwiz better than Sense. Its a comfort zone, they are both great, play with them, if we didn't have two to chose from, everyone would like the one choice they have.
P.S. My only wish would be no keyboard on Epic and thinner, never use it with large on screen keyboards and Swype.

Evo switchers are you satisfied?

I just want to know if you are happy about giving up your Evo and getting the Epic or if you regret the switch? Also please tell of any other experiences you've had with it so far

Yes. I still miss Sense sometimes but I calmed that itch with launcherpro full and fancy widget. It doesn't give you the full sense experience with core apps modified but its good enough for me. Hardware is amazing compared to the evo
Better screen
Better camera
Better hd video recording
Cpu/gpu amazing!!!!
I thought I was not gonna like the keyboard but it was so useful for my university classes (I even coded some c++ homework assignments on the epic and ran it on my schools computer)
Gps is still a downer... it works but unreliable
Overall, I don't regret the switch

Yes, but I miss the 4G speeds I had on my EVO and HDMI. Had more resources with HTC dev team too.

I was one of the people that got the HTC EVO 4G on the day it was released... man was that a big mistake. Honestly, it was one of the worst phones I've ever used. I hated the build quality, it was super flaky. I actually went through 2 EVOs within my first two weeks or so because the USB port stopped charging.
Of course, yeah at first when I got the EVO I thought it was cool and all but the coolness wore off pretty quickly when I started to see all the many flaws it had, to name a few, the FPS cap (FINALLY fixed), build quality, very laggy with HTC Sense UI, things like that. I eventually took the phone back because I actually paid full price so that I wouldn't use up my upgrade and it definitely wasn't worth wasting my money on. After having an EVO, I really started to look down on HTC. They used to be the only brand of Android phone I would ever get, but now I won't touch them ever again. I went back to my HTC Hero and after that went semi-bad I traded it in for a Samsung Moment just to not deal with HTC anymore.
Once I heard about the Epic 4G I was stoked, I thought this phone is gonna beat the **** outta the EVO... I was right, I am so glad I switched! The only thing I wasn't looking forward to with the Epic was having a built in keyboard and I rarely ever use it, ever, but I guess its still nice to have on occasion. Don't believe when people say, "If you want a hardware keyboard, get the Epic, if you don't get the EVO...", I didn't want a hardware keyboard but I still got the Epic just because the hardware overall is much much better!
Anyways, sorry for the long post but yeah, I switched from the EVO and I will never look back.

Still have the EVO but it sits on the shelf now. I haven't looked back either. Screen is so much bigger on the EVo, but camera and video capture is so bad on the EVo The keyboard is nice though I don't use it at times. Epic very satisfied

I just made the switch and don't regret it one bit. When this phone gets froyo it is going to smoke the evo. With baked rom this phone is amazing compared to evo.
I have not used my keyboard once yet but it will be nice with snesoid and etc.
Overall very happy with my switch.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the responses everyone! Definitely sounds like a keeper and a nice upgrade to the Evo

is it true the evo has faster evo 3g than epic?

churro7 said:
is it true the evo has faster evo 3g than epic?
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Yes. Epic currently has an upload speed capped at 150 kbps. I have an evo and an epic right here and I just did a speed test on both.
Evo: 1570/646
Epic: 1404/116
Other than that, I generally prefer the epic. Less laggy, even after the evo's 30 fps cap fix. Better gpu. Screen is slightly smaller but less washed out. I don't even use the keyboard for typing usually but it's great for games. The only other things better about the evo are community and vendor support. And the kickstand of course.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

i just switched from the evo to epic. seems pretty good so far. screen diff noticable though, colors better. update in a week.

it sucks at home i usually top out at 600 but around town or even at my buddies down the street we top out at 1.7mbps

Vandam500 said:
I just want to know if you are happy about giving up your Evo and getting the Epic or if you regret the switch? Also please tell of any other experiences you've had with it so far
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I'm more than satisfied with the Epic. I had the Evo for 29 days, so I got a good impression of the device and its faults.
The smooth responsiveness of the Epic is great compared to the Evo, which was laggy at often choppy (using menus, scrolling apps list etc). The Evo had touch response lag also, the Epic does not.
The screen on the Epic is also a nice improvement over the Evo. Being .3" smaller is worth the brilliant colors and black blacks of Super AMOLED goodness.
Gaming on the Epic is also far better than the Evo, everything just runs smoothly, and it's responsive. The Evo always felt like it was struggling in 3D games, and the touch input lag made some games un-enjoyable.
Having the keyboard is not a major deal for me, but it's nice that it's there for certain situations. I use Swype most of the time.
Battery life is better also.
The Epic has its faults too, but to me, they are less egregious than the Evos.

dever76 said:
I'm more than satisfied with the Epic. I had the Evo for 29 days, so I got a good impression of the device and its faults.
The smooth responsiveness of the Epic is great compared to the Evo, which was laggy at often choppy (using menus, scrolling apps list etc). The Evo had touch response lag also, the Epic does not.
The screen on the Epic is also a nice improvement over the Evo. Being .3" smaller is worth the brilliant colors and black blacks of Super AMOLED goodness.
Gaming on the Epic is also far better than the Evo, everything just runs smoothly, and it's responsive. The Evo always felt like it was struggling in 3D games, and the touch input lag made some games un-enjoyable.
Having the keyboard is not a major deal for me, but it's nice that it's there for certain situations. I use Swype most of the time.
Battery life is better also.
The Epic has its faults too, but to me, they are less egregious than the Evos.
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Really? The battery life is BETTER? how is that possible. If you use the phone (epic) normally at all it barley lasts a full work day and it certianly wouldn't last into the afterwork party time which is when it's VERY important!!

J3ff said:
Really? The battery life is BETTER? how is that possible. If you use the phone (epic) normally at all it barley lasts a full work day and it certianly wouldn't last into the afterwork party time which is when it's VERY important!!
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try a different kernel.

My Epic easily lasts me all day long.... but for those times when I'm doing heavy duty movie watching or game playing, I keep a spare battery handy. Small and easy to carry around.
It definitely lasts longer than the EVO's did, even with a different kernel.
So far I'm much happier with the Epic than I was with the EVO....... but I'm a speed freak and the EVO's processor was just too outdated for me.

J3ff said:
Really? The battery life is BETTER? how is that possible. If you use the phone (epic) normally at all it barley lasts a full work day and it certianly wouldn't last into the afterwork party time which is when it's VERY important!!
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Why are questioning what he said about battery life? Are disappointed that he said the battery life is better? You seem to really not like the EPIC. So take it back. Why do you keep the phone? Are you here just trolling to be negative or are you here to contribute to the community?

I got the evo on release day. It was my first smart phone. I thought it was bad ass. I dropped it in the toilet and then my problems started. I called sprint to issue an insurance claim. I told them I lost it. They told me I didn't have insurance on the phone. After fighting with them for a a week about it they told me they if I signed I new 2 year contract I cab get another evo as I upgraded again. They also credited my account 150. I couldn't find another evo any where. Then I found out bout the epic. I haven't looked back yet.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I got my evo on 6/12, just picked up my epic 9/25. It was long enough for me to realize that while the evo is quite baller, especilly coming from the G1, it was undercooked.
We all know the problems it had/has. The one that gets me the most though is having all that power and still having to cap the framerate. That, and the insane compression of mms images, but that's a sense issue.
So far I'm REAL ****ing happy with it. I really missed a good hw keyboard. The screen and camera are mighty impressive and touchwhiz isn't nearly as offensive/intrusive as sense (its more like a theme imo) when you get adw on it.
This thing is going to set the standard once it receives 2.2.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

itsmebryan said:
Why are questioning what he said about battery life? Are disappointed that he said the battery life is better? You seem to really not like the EPIC. So take it back. Why do you keep the phone? Are you here just trolling to be negative or are you here to contribute to the community?
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listen bryan, I'm asking him because I am playing with the IDEA of trading the epic for the evo. however if the EVO is WORSE on battery in stock form then I guess I should just go jump of the Brooklyn bridge

J3ff said:
however if the EVO is WORSE on battery in stock form then I guess I should just go jump of the Brooklyn bridge
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Let us know if you get 4G on the way down.

Want to switch to epic

Cons and pros
Evo
pros
LCD I could go either way on
Big screen
Great community support
Sense
Cons
Hard to type
LCD
No keyboard
Epic
Pros
Super amoled
Keyboard
just the right size
Superior processor
Battery life
Cons
Bad com support
People say it feels cheaper
Touch wiz
Obviously I'm leaning towards epic but can anyone just tell me how much better it is? O and does epic have cm and snap?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

i just switched from evo to epic friday. i like the epic, the colors are better, the keyboard is awesome. youll notice the screen size diff at first but then itsfine. no CM or snap yet, just really like 3 roms out right now. but itll get better. in my opinion its ab tter switch, but ive always needed the keyboard. if youre fine without a keyboard then its not that great of a diff.

4wesome said:
i just switched from evo to epic friday. i like the epic, the colors are better, the keyboard is awesome. youll notice the screen size diff at first but then itsfine. no CM or snap yet, just really like 3 roms out right now. but itll get better. in my opinion its ab tter switch, but ive always needed the keyboard. if youre fine without a keyboard then its not that great of a diff.
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Yeah I figured. I really hope it gets better
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Oh nd hows the battery life? Thats my main concern
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

The community support is not bad...we actually have quite a bit..its just the device has not been out as long and a lot of people are not used to HTC, most of the development now is being done by people who did development on other Samsung devices such as the Moment. The developers who came from HTC are doing things but not as quickly as they are not used to it.
That said, I usually used custom roms before but for my Epic I'm pretty happy with Stock and Root for backup and Tethering.
What do you mean by cm and snap? if cm is Cyanogen then its coming...
The battery life is OK, better if you configure Juice Defender or use energy saving Kernal and maybe kill mediahub..but stock vs stock Epic has a bit better battery then Evo

Yeah I meant cyanogen and what bout set CPU
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Crossrocker said:
Yeah I meant cyanogen and what bout set CPU
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pretty sure theres a kernal thatssets it to overclock when needed. better batter life with that kernal too. ive only tried one so far so cant say bout the other one(s)

i like my epic a lot, i havent gotten a chance to experience the EVO in full yet, but i know from having the mts that htc makes some of the best quality phones. Samsung did ok on this one, as far as physical build and keyboard ill give it a 7/10. 4 inch S-AMOLED screen is crazy.. but i cant wait til sprint/htc does a similar to the epic, because that will be truly epic

I was deciding between Evo and Epic too before finally getting an Epic. To me software is something that can be improved upon but hardware is what it is and cannot be changed. Samsung's support is not on par with HTC but they've pushed 2 updates out already in the last month, so maybe there's hope. And with simple tweaks I've got GPS working nicely as well as fairly good battery life (airplan mode and disable drm). So far I've been happy with the phone and I think it'll be amazing once Froyo is out.

I'm staying with evo.. epics got problems
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I took my evo back to the store a few weeks ago and traded for an epic. I was not impressed with the hardware of the evo. I would much rather have the cpu and gpu of the epic for future games etc..
Run the ocean waves live wallpaper on the evo and see for yourself, it starts chugging and epic runs it flawless...

Crossrocker said:
I'm staying with evo.. epics got problems
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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Evo has problems too..it boils down to which problems you prefer Evo problems or Epic problems (no pun intended lol)
For me personally I have no problems yet on my Epic :/

gTen said:
Evo has problems too..it boils down to which problems you prefer Evo problems or Epic problems (no pun intended lol)
For me personally I have no problems yet on my Epic :/
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What problems does the EVO have these days?
From my understanding, the light leakage has been address, 30 fps caps been lifted and wifi fixed. Is there anything else?

Crossrocker said:
I'm staying with evo.. epics got problems
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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iv been running my epic problem free for over a month

crabjoe said:
What problems does the EVO have these days?
From my understanding, the light leakage has been address, 30 fps caps been lifted and wifi fixed. Is there anything else?
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Video capture is still horrible, audio doesn't sync with video at times, taking pictures with low light has not improved. If the EVO fixed that i'd still be on it. Camera sucks on the EVO.

Well, if you're still wavering... the Epic's keyboard looks nice, but IMHO it was compromised into uselessness thanks to the flat keys with almost no space in between. The problem is that I can't use my thumbs to effortlessly type on it, because I keep hitting two or more keys. Had they compromised its appearance a bit by using keys that were 2/3 as wide and long (with the same center pitch), or significantly raised the keycap centers, it would be fine. Unfortunately, they didn't, so it's not. By the same token, holding it with my left hand and using my right index finger gets tiring quickly, and the phone wobbles due to the screen's weight if I try to type on the keyboard while the phone is laying on a table.
The keyboard design of the Epic just has me shaking my head wondering whether they even bothered to test its usability with real people before committing to the design, or whether they told their designers, "make it look pretty in pictures, and keep the profile low" and decided that actual usability didn't matter.
Sigh. I can't wait for 3D printers to become cheap enough to enable things like aftermarket retrofit parts for things like the Epic that come from the factory "not quite right" by design, but could probably be hacked into comfy usability if there were a cost-effective way to make custom plastic parts in small quantities. Then someone could just make a kit that let you disassemble the lower half of a stock Epic, then reassemble the circuit board in a new bottom enclosure that made the keyboard nicer to use, and maybe added a slide-latch to lock the slider closed for added solidity when it's stowed...

I owned an evo up till the epic came out. I switched because I worked on the processor inside the epic and wanted to own something that I helped to make.
I had a lot of reservations about switching. Chief among them was the support that Samsung would give the phone. I read the horror stories about the moment, but decided to jump in.
Well two updates in I'm gonna go ahead and say that the epic is already at a point where I am as happy with it as I was with my evo. It took 5 months to get my evo to a point where the battery life was acceptable and the phone was running smooth. As of yesterday, I've resolved my battery issues (clean install of the latest update and no restoration of original settings). All this while running 2.1. I'm giddy with excitement over what 2.2 could bring.
In my opinion, people that list touchwiz as a negative simply havent experienced it for themselves. I never liked HTC sense and always preferred ASOP. That said, once you replace the touchwiz launcher (which really is pretty crappy), you're left with things that touchwiz, in my opinion, does better than sense. For one, there are the shortcuts that allow you to toggle wifi, 4g, gps and bluetooth in the dropdown notification menu. This allows you to toggle these settings in any app without exiting to the home screen. Then theres the brightness slider on the notification bar that I use more times than I can count. When you get down to it, the only thing sense has going for it are the widgets. And the widgets can all be had, at a small cost, on the epic 4g via launcherpro plus and beautiful widgets.
The screen is amazing, the keyboard is more useful than I thought it would be. As is the hardware camera button. The only glaring defects are the GPS and the capacitive buttons. Now dont get me wrong, these two are pretty serious and potentially dealbreaking problems. But I have faith that the GPS can be fixed. And as far as the capacitive buttons go, I'm slowly getting used to them...
Thats my take, for what its worth. Good luck w/ your decision.

Epic vs shift?

My upgrade comes through on March 1st.. I've looked into each of these phones with great detail. This is what I've come up with in a nutshell. And I want everyone's professional opinion as ill be using this phone for a year or two.. thx guys and gals..(is there a girl on xda yet? ;p)
Stock pros of shift: pocket friendly, higher quality exterior, possibly more support on xda, I heart HTC.
Stock pros of epic 4g: better battery life, amoled screen, front facing camera, video card for twice the gaming potential
Both are 99.00 on Amazon with upgrade eligibility (so is the evo, but I don't need a tablet just yet, 4" is quite enough for me) .. I use sprint im not switching its cheap.. I'd rather have a steak then slightly improved cell service. I have wifi at home anyways..
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

My wife has a shift and I have an Epic. Her phone is more stable and her camera takes noticeably better pictures. The keyboard is also better on the shift as sometimes the keys skip on the Epic. As far as froyo is concerned it is much more stable on the Shift as well.
When on the shift section of xda I noticed a lot of people got the phone for their wives and not for themselves. They say games don't run as smoothe on the shift such as psx rom.games. and there is no phone on the market that I've layed my hands on that has a prettier screen than the epic. The colors are just plain and simply better. The phone isn't the eye catcher the epic is
I would go personally with the Epic in hopes of sprint and Samsung getting their act together and fixing the numerous bugs that are associated with it. You'll definetely have a love hate relationship with the epic but I believe in the long run you'll be better off with it.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

At this point id say wait for the next round of phones as there'll be dual core options. Also, my gil has the evo and i the epic and they are about the same size overall, not too much difference.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

jirafabo said:
At this point id say wait for the next round of phones as there'll be dual core options. Also, my gil has the evo and i the epic and they are about the same size overall, not too much difference.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can wait for the next round of phones I would, since they'll probably be out this summer. If you can't, the Epic is a good phone. I'm currently on EB 13 and I did a fresh install and then loaded all of my apps manually. There's still problems with the sport mode in the camera, Time without signal (TWS) being high unless you do the airplane mode toggle, and the camcorder being a little sluggish in low light. These aren't deal breakers for me, because I don't really use the phone for low light recordings or sport mode and I'm fine toggling the airplane mode. However, it would be nice to have this fixed. I haven't experienced any of the other bugs people have claimed, so I'm still very happy with the performance of EB 13, but I'm not holding my breath for a fix. I mainly stay on EB 13 because the battery life for me is drastically better than 2.1 and the performance is no worst than 2.1. The screen is a lot better as well.
Like I said before, I hope they fix the problems, but I wouldn't buy a phone assuming they will......

IMO, it all boils down to this..
If you want a KB, get the Epic, if you don't get the EVO
The EVO shift is simply not a high end phone, no matter how it was marketed.
It is not a matter of speed, but just a lack of to many high end features.

I would really say it boils down to you really wanting to mod it I have an epic and I've been pretty happy with having it rommed to froyo until. Although some of the hardware glitches or software do kinda get annoying. I still think it's pretty descent.
The shift I'm assuming is a descent phone as well and I heard the keyboard is way better then epic, so it really comes down to preference I really think.
Best advice I can say is go to the sprint store and play with both of them for about 30 minutes, like literally 30 minutes.

I own both. Epic has a nicer screen and is faster for games. Shift seems to be better for literally everything else.
But if you like to tweak endlessly, Epic may be more your speed.

Epic by a gazillian times. The screen is simply amazing! And the gpu screams. Along froyo with ext filesystem, it even beats the super dual core tegra Atrix phone. Trust me... Epic is hands down best. I owned a Evo and a shift. Both underperform compared to Epic.

Thanks a lot guys after reading I think I may just wait for next row of phones.. when do you think they'll come out?
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.

Brah the epic is a MAN PHONE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UB2DtU0UOo
The shift is something I would recommend to my grandma. though i wouldn't recommend a android phone to any tech impaired person( as my grandma is, fuuuu dont even get me started.)

From what it seems, the Shift is a less expensive/toned-down alternative to the Epic and Evo. So you're more or less comparing two differently classed phones.
Also, I love the keyboard on the epic. It's very roomy and comfortable, especially with its five rows. Plus, the Super AMOLED screen is gorgeous and a serious selling point. And regarding support on XDA, the Epic has nearly 10 times more threads and posts in each sub-forum.
I've never actually owned a Shift, but just from the numbers it seems the Epic is a much better deal, especially since they are the same price on Amazon. But waiting for Sprint's next lineup of Android phones seems like a good choice as well.

cpcormier3 said:
There's still problems with the sport mode in the camera... and the camcorder being a little sluggish in low light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if it makes a difference to you or not, but thete is now a fix fir the cameta issues in eb13. Keepin' the faith that sprint will release a more stable update soon. In the mean time get the epic and trust in the great devs we have here.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Gersonian said:
Not sure if it makes a difference to you or not, but thete is now a fix fir the cameta issues in eb13. Keepin' the faith that sprint will release a more stable update soon. In the mean time get the epic and trust in the great devs we have here.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol screw samsung and sprint for updates. Devs for the win.
From My Samsung Epic Using TapaTalk.

Shift out performs evo.. epic has it beat on the graphics end. at least according to benchmark apps. I think I'm going to go with the shift for now... ill just add another line late this summer to try and get another phone..
professoroak said:
From what it seems, the Shift is a less expensive/toned-down alternative to the Epic and Evo. So you're more or less comparing two differently classed phones.
Also, I love the keyboard on the epic. It's very roomy and comfortable, especially with its five rows. Plus, the Super AMOLED screen is gorgeous and a serious selling point. And regarding support on XDA, the Epic has nearly 10 times more threads and posts in each sub-forum.
I've never actually owned a Shift, but just from the numbers it seems the Epic is a much better deal, especially since they are the same price on Amazon. But waiting for Sprint's next lineup of Android phones seems like a good choice as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.

Heavy
I've had the Epic and the Evo, not the Shift tho. But I've played with the Shift for a while and one thing that surprises me is HOW HEAVY it is! For the weight difference, I'd almost just get the Epic. Regardless... if you want a billion ROM's that's hard to decipher and just really be confused most of the time, get an HTC. Tho, I will say their stock ROM's hand Samy's rear to them. The build quality on all three phones I would say are on par with each other.
The GPS on the Evo is AMAZING! I ALWAYS get a quick lock (within 5-10 seconds of opening up maps), and after 15-20 seconds, it's accurate to 3m (9 feet!), the Epic, not so much. After about 30 seconds, it'd lock, and only be accurate to 20m (60 feet!?!). As for using navigation on the phone, again, I would buy a garmin or tom-tom before I'd use the Epic's navigation.
Bottom line, yeah, if you need a phone that just works, any HTC is the way to go. BUT, the screen, size of keyboard, how good it plays games, did I mention the screen quality? are unmatched on the Epic. Hardware-wise (beyond maybe the GPS), the Epic is unbeaten.
noskoviak said:
Shift out performs evo.. epic has it beat on the graphics end. at least according to benchmark apps. I think I'm going to go with the shift for now... ill just add another line late this summer to try and get another phone..
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The answers to all of your questions in this thread. A very nice debate between some of us hardware nuts. (I won. )
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=907182

noskoviak said:
Shift out performs evo.. epic has it beat on the graphics end. at least according to benchmark apps. I think I'm going to go with the shift for now... ill just add another line late this summer to try and get another phone..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Untrue. Stop using Quadrant and Linpack (outdated benchmarks that are optimized for Snapdragon) and you'll see that it is simply not the case.
MHz for MHz, the Qualcomm MSM SoCs are slightly more powerful than the Hummingbird, but at 800 MHz they still fall behind the 1 GHz S5PC110.

I was using smartbench what do u think of that one?
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

I got the shift by the way... and I'm am loving it. Superior device imo.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Shift is good, but the epic is on a whole other level, in terms of hardware. Stock the shift has the better software, but if your going to mod your phone with some of the awesome xda dev software.......that's where you'll see what I mean by being on a whole other level. Don't wait to long to trade your new shift in and get a real upgrade

Epic 4g vs evo shift?

My upgrade comes through on March 1st.. I've looked into each of these phones with great detail. This is what I've come up with in a nutshell. And I want everyone's professional opinion as ill be using this phone for a year or two.. thx guys and gals..(is there a girl on xda yet? ;p)
Stock pros of shift: pocket friendly, higher quality exterior, possibly more support on xda, I heart HTC.
Stock pros of epic 4g: better battery life, amoled screen, front facing camera, video card for twice the gaming potential
Both are 99.00 on Amazon with upgrade eligibility (so is the evo, but I don't need a tablet just yet, 4" is quite enough for me) .. I use sprint im not switching its cheap.. I'd rather have a steak then slightly improved cell service. I have wifi at home anyways..
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

I can feed you two different opinions. Stock or rooted/custom.
I, am one of the firm believers that a phone's true potentional is never stock. Therefor should not be judged on stock.
I will not speak about the epic 4g in terms I do not know, so there will be more opinions on the shift.
Everyday, I hear how small/slow the development is going on the epic.
The epic, without a doubt has a better GPU.
Development, will continue to be pushed on the shift for the next few years no matter what. Think about how long it took the epic to get 2.2, now there is gingerbread and honeycomb....The shift already has gingerbread. Every major release, will come to the shift. While the epic will either not recieve it at all(mixture of samsungs support and the devs dying down, no offense).
In real world performance, there is nothing the shift can't handle right now that's out there that the epic can.(In my opinion, nothing to back this up since I don't know everything that's out there).
The shift, can get fairly incredible battery life, it took me 27hours to hit 31%, using it quite a bit on 245-1.5ghz conservative on the 1.8ghz kernel.
It took rytesyde a lot longer to hit that low on the 1.5ghz kernel(undervolted farther). Point being, if you want to use your phone for a full day, it's fine. If you forget your charger for a weekend, your phone will make it if you don't use it much(Mine drained around 1% an hour when not in use, my overall average was 2.9%/hour on fairly heavy usage).
I know what you mean on the amoled screen, but I really haven't had much of a desire for it unless I was in the bright sun.
I would go with the shift because it has more development and support.....
Although, I would honestly go as far to say the epic has better hardware.
I would say more, but it's 6am and I'm getting sleepy.
edit: Oh, just looked at the froyo epic update. It seems that the update was buggy(surprise from samsung?). They're not very good at updating their devices. It really comes down to, what you want. No one here would discriminate if you went with the epic.

as a former samsung and moment owner. personally i will never own a samsung phone again. the shift just works out of the box. and the devs on the shift just keep making it better. all the deving on the moment couldnt fix all the problems it had. to me the epic isnt anything but a huge moment lol. and from i am reading sprint has already yanked the OTA update to froyo. imagine that lol

HTC > Samsung..that's all..no comparison
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

The Keyboard Settled it for Me
I've spent a couple of days on the same question. I finally settled on the Shift.
I stopped by my local Sprint store to get each in my hands. The Epic's keyboard had awful tactile response. I handed it to my son to get his opinion and he handed it back shaking his head. He said he couldn't feel the keys, couldn't tell if they were depressed.
That clarified what I was thinking. The HTC model also felt superior, even w/ the funky keyboard slide. I can't put my finger on why.
The Shift keyboard was much better, even with only 4 rows. I'm coming from a Touch Pro. I'll have to cope w/ missing the 5th row.
It didn't help Epic's cause that I kept coming across threads (ie AndroidForum) about Epic dropping/adding keystrokes.
Epic clearly has a superior GPU. However I wouldn't take advantage of it; in my regular use.
Epic's 1GHz Hummingbird and EvoShift's 800MHz Snapdragon look like a pretty even match; despite the clock difference.
I'd wish for a larger screen on the Shift; but it isn't to be.
Of course I'd also wish for a Dual Core Processor - as long as I'm wishing.
Like the above poster, I don't give the stock ROM any weight because it isn't sticking around. I found a lot more development for the Epic than I would have thought - and less development for the Shift than I would have hoped. But the Shift is recently introduced. It likely needs some time for the chefs to work their magic.
I tried to find reasons to prefer the Epic. But holding actually holding an Epic and a Shift in my hands almost decided it - all by itself.
Looks like I'll be Shifting in a few days.
NV

Want an easy answer to your question? Go over to the epic general section of this forum and read about the latest fiasco and read the general section in the evo shift and compare what the people are talking about.
For example, the epic people finally got an official version of froyo, but to many people, it's worse than the last official version update.

herbthehammer said:
Want an easy answer to your question? Go over to the epic general section of this forum and read about the latest fiasco and read the general section in the evo shift and compare what the people are talking about.
For example, the epic people finally got an official version of froyo, but to many people, it's worse than the last official version update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah there are reports of it bricking their phones

The Epic 4G may look like a better phone, specs wise, but Samsung clearly has no idea what they are doing when it comes to software updates. The Froyo update they pushed a few days ago is another in a long line of disasters for them. It was also the last straw for me. I dumped my Epic and went with the Evo Shift. Best decision I ever made. Yeah, the screen is smaller and the processor is a bit slower but, trust me, the Shift is a much nicer experience.

xiaNaix said:
The Epic 4G may look like a better phone, specs wise, but Samsung clearly has no idea what they are doing when it comes to software updates. The Froyo update they pushed a few days ago is another in a long line of disasters for them. It was also the last straw for me. I dumped my Epic and went with the Evo Shift. Best decision I ever made. Yeah, the screen is smaller and the processor is a bit slower but, trust me, the Shift is a much nicer experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Number wise the processor is slower but performance wise it can meet with the humming bird prossecor or beat it
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Where did u get the pro of the epic having a better battery than the shift? I highly doubt it as I very heavily use my phone and still get an easy 15-17 hrs of use out of it before it starts to get close to 20%
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

DWake014 said:
Where did u get the pro of the epic having a better battery than the shift? I highly doubt it as I very heavily use my phone and still get an easy 15-17 hrs of use out of it before it starts to get close to 20%
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and i doubt the epic gets better battery life than the shift. i doubt it gets better battery life than the POS moment i had

The battery life on the Shift is definitely better than it was on my Epic.

foxsdaddy67 said:
and i doubt the epic gets better battery life than the shift. i doubt it gets better battery life than the POS moment i had
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm considering blowing up my old moment.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Lol yeah a block of C4 and my moment makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside
sent from my EVO Shift 4G

I got the battery info from phone arena but I'm sure they use advertised statistics rather then do there own testing... I figured on the shift myself.. honestly I went there and messed with each for like 15 mins.. shift felt better all around.. I posted this on the epic forum as well.. some there suggested waiting for next round of android phones before upgrading. What do you guys think? Is sprint coming out with something worthy of my patience this summer.. I've been using this hero for about 3 years.
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.

noskoviak said:
I got the battery info from phone arena but I'm sure they use advertised statistics rather then do there own testing... I figured on the shift myself.. honestly I went there and messed with each for like 15 mins.. shift felt better all around.. I posted this on the epic forum as well.. some there suggested waiting for next round of android phones before upgrading. What do you guys think? Is sprint coming out with something worthy of my patience this summer.. I've been using this hero for about 3 years.
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ummm, 3 years? You sure about that?
Scent phrum mie fone!

EDIT: My bad 2 years and three months I have been using an android phone that was designed with 1.5 in mind. Started a T-Mobile plan for the mytouch. in between there I did try out webos and even rim again. Sorry westicle you were right for the most part I didn't mean to exaggerate... just feels like forever with all the newer better phones coming for less. When I can still buy this old trusty turd from sprint for more then a shift.
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.

The hero was released october 2009. That's less than 2 years ago.
Scent phrum mie fone!

noskoviak said:
I got the battery info from phone arena but I'm sure they use advertised statistics rather then do there own testing... I figured on the shift myself.. honestly I went there and messed with each for like 15 mins.. shift felt better all around.. I posted this on the epic forum as well.. some there suggested waiting for next round of android phones before upgrading. What do you guys think? Is sprint coming out with something worthy of my patience this summer.. I've been using this hero for about 3 years.
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm still using my opening day touch pro, and hittin f5 on every mobile site trying to find out if i should wait or get something. it's brutal.

well i traded my epic for a shift days before the official froyo came out for the epic
i was a little weary giving up the 'more expensive hyped' device for the shift despite a generous cash supplement w/ the trade
but oh baby...now that i hear the epic froyo is failing i am happy to be off the samsung failboat
my shift came loaded with a 1.5ghz rom so i never tested stock htc
the battery life of the shift was underpar to the epic at first
but now that i am running bcnice kernel with mikshift i am easily surpassing the epic battery performance
i liked the shift more from the moment it was in my hand regardless of all other factors
and now its running faster/smoother/longer than the epic ever was
my biggest pet peeves of the shift:
1) no number row on the hardware keyboard...you have to double press the fn key
this is a huge pain in the ass as i enter numbers all day with lots of spaces in between...logging error codes on the machines i service...uhg...
i'm slowly migrating to the input panel but i hate input panels mostly
if i was an input panel fan i would have bought an evo...duh
but you cant have everything
2) the volume buttons are a little close to the center of the phone
had to remap the volume down to 'nothing' because i was always pressing it
all i really hope for in the future is that htc releases an android version of the old wm mogul...i loved the rocker switch/scroll...and no other phone has ever replaced that devices satisfaction with 13 hardware buttons in addition the hardware keyboard...and dedicated hardware wifi switch...please HTC wake up and smell success
HTC M3 - Android dual-core qwerty phone w/ rocker switch,5-row kb & endless buttons
yes please