For anyone trying to decide between the Evo and Epic, here is my take after having each for at least 2 weeks as my primary phone. These are just my opinions as everyone has different tastes
I must be an exception to the rule...I switched from a Palm Pre to the Epic for a couple weeks. I liked swype so much I decided to drop the epic for the evo.
After using an Evo for two weeks I traded it back for an Epic and I like the Epic much better for a few reasons.
First I didn't care for HTC Sense. I like the gallery, email, music player, calendar, and various apps included with the Epic better than HTC's versions. Also, HTC doesn't ship a file browser or task manager whereas Samsung does. Some people will say "just install one from the market" but those typically all have ads. I realize you can remove the ads with a host file, but that’s beside the point. These are basic OS functions that should be included.
Second the Epic feels much faster. Scrolling is smoother and games run better. Froyo or not, it’s faster.
Third…contrary to what you may believe it is MUCH easier to root an Epic. With the Epic you can essentially take the long way or the shortcut 1-click method but the Evo HW0004 currently there is only a long somewhat difficult root process.
Fourth, everyone complains that the dev community is so much better for the Evo. I would argue that this community is really top notch and has been extremely helpful and understanding to new users such as myself. I saw a lot more flaming going on in Evo forums.
Finally the hardware: Something overlooked by many, the Epic is way more comfortable to hold. Turns out rounded corners are round for a reason. After browsing the web & xda for about 30 min on the Evo I noticed the center of my palm, right where the bottom corner rests was a tad sore, almost felt bruised. This is not a problem with the Epic with its nicely rounded body and curved back. Also the earpiece is much better on the Epic, its louder clearer and is more comfortable up to the ear. And yes, the samoled screen is worth the 0.3” loss in size.
I wouldn't even consider the Evo Shift at this point. I'm shocked to see so many people recommending it over the Epic which to me is well worth the higher price.
If they fix the keyboard issues, GPS issues, and battery life issues I would agree with you that the Epic 4G is definitely the best phone on Sprint. If a Droid or the iPhone had even one of these issues, all of the media outlets would be up in arms and there would be mass returns. They are all MAJOR issues. For some reason, Samsung is allowed to get away with it on the Galaxy S devices. People are not really returning their devices in large numbers (as far as I know), and all of the reviewers gave the Galaxy S devices very high scores.
The reality is this is essentially a device with alpha or beta quality software on it, that is not getting fixed until at least six months after release. I am not buying Samsung again for mobile phones.
I have to agree with op. Best phone i ever had, and i have had quite a few smartphones. even before official froyo, it runs much smoothr than the few evos i played with. Gps, keyboard is perfect for me. And the screen is amazing.....
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Stock Evo vs. Epic battery life is within 5% I would say. I couldn't tell any difference in my usage. Probably because I am almost always within Wi-fi range which makes a big difference.
Keyboard on the Epic doesn't impress, I'll agree with you. Thats probably why I use swype most of the time. It is very handy to punch in passwords though.
GPS is better on the Evo. If you are a road warrior I would avoid the Galexy S line. That said, if you enable GPS & wireless networks it will place you on the map within 30 seconds, but it is definitely not as accurate as the Evo. Supposedly Samsung is working on improvements.
Thanks for bringing up some points I didn't include!
thechicgeak said:
If they fix the keyboard issues, GPS issues, and battery life issues I would agree with you that the Epic 4G is definitely the best phone on Sprint. If a Droid or the iPhone had even one of these issues, all of the media outlets would be up in arms and there would be mass returns. They are all MAJOR issues. For some reason, Samsung is allowed to get away with it on the Galaxy S devices. People are not really returning their devices in large numbers (as far as I know), and all of the reviewers gave the Galaxy S devices very high scores.
The reality is this is essentially a device with alpha or beta quality software on it, that is not getting fixed until at least six months after release. I am not buying Samsung again for mobile phones.
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A. The keyboard is the only legitimate argument you have here.
B. Most users who buy the epic(and yes, the users who root and are members of this forum are the minority) do not see a GPS problem. I didn't even notice one till I started reading this forum and trying to replicate the problem. I have two friends with Epics, and they have never complained of the GPS not working.
C. The battery is no worse than the Evo, and that is a fact. Read on both forums and you will see that everyone gets VERY comparable operating times. Unfortunately with screen this big and clear, you aren't going to get the battery life of other phones. Have you seen the screens on Evo and Epic compared to iphone and droid? They are night and day difference, and the product of that is battery life.
If you go to the Droid forums you will see complaints as well, however because 80% of the public does not have the same demand as the users of forums like this, the complaints are not escalated as highly. The high end techies complain about everything that is not perfect, cause techies are never satisfied, I should know, I am in that boat. However, that does not mean we are holding a inferior piece of hardware/software. Outside of this forum, I have never met a normal person dissatisfied with their Epic or Evo.
I was in a sprint store last week getting a replacement Epic so while waiting i did about 15 seperate 4g bandwidth tests with the floor demo and my replacement Epic comparing it it side to side with the Evo. I'm disappointed to say not only did the Evo best the Epic every time in some instances it nearly doubled the speed. It regularly was 1-3 megabits a second faster and the fastest speed for a Epic was 7.2 megs and the Evo was 10 megs. I also noticed that even though we were in a full coverage area the Epic would go from full to no bars for some unknown reason. The Evo must have a better antenna or the Epic has some reception issues. Has anyone else tested this out?
swanysto said:
...C. The battery is no worse than the Evo, and that is a fact. Read on both forums and you will see that everyone gets VERY comparable operating times. Unfortunately with screen this big and clear, you aren't going to get the battery life of other phones. Have you seen the screens on Evo and Epic compared to iphone and droid? They are night and day difference, and the product of that is battery life...
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Click to collapse
I'm going to chime in here and state that the Epic's 45-nm S5PC110 is ~20% more power efficient than the EVO's 65-nm QSD8650. The SAMOLED on the Epic does eat more juice than the EVO's LCD when cranked all the way up or when displaying lots of white pages, but when displaying dark colors and blacks it can sip less energy.
swanysto said:
A. The keyboard is the only legitimate argument you have here.
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Agreed, the keyboard is junk on this device. I am not sure if it is software, hardware, or both that causes the missed keys. Hopefully it is just software issues...
swanysto said:
B. Most users who buy the epic(and yes, the users who root and are members of this forum are the minority) do not see a GPS problem. I didn't even notice one till I started reading this forum and trying to replicate the problem. I have two friends with Epics, and they have never complained of the GPS not working.
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I can see how for some people, the GPS issues are not a big deal, but it is for people who do not want to do any sort of hacking whatsoever to help decrease the long lock times. Not the end of the world, I'll grant you that, but my point is that this would not be accepted on any other major mobile phone, so why is it so accepted on the Galaxy S devices? Look at how up in arms people were about the iPhone 4's relatively minor "death grip" problem.
swanysto said:
C. The battery is no worse than the Evo, and that is a fact. Read on both forums and you will see that everyone gets VERY comparable operating times. Unfortunately with screen this big and clear, you aren't going to get the battery life of other phones. Have you seen the screens on Evo and Epic compared to iphone and droid? They are night and day difference, and the product of that is battery life.
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Click to collapse
When it works as it should, it can have great battery life (mine under DK28 works great and I get around 20 to 30 hours on a charge with moderate usage). That being said, there are problems in the software that, on some phones under certain conditions, cause absurdly bad battery life (10% battery drain or more per hour while idle, which is how mine was until I upgraded to DK28 and how my friends' Fascinates are) and cause the phone to heat up considerably while idle. I have only ever heard of this happening with Galaxy S phones. Either way, frequent updates from Samsung and getting the latest Android release reasonably fast would mitigate this complaint for me, but that doesn't happen, so it is a legitimate complaint.
swanysto said:
If you go to the Droid forums you will see complaints as well, however because 80% of the public does not have the same demand as the users of forums like this, the complaints are not escalated as highly. The high end techies complain about everything that is not perfect, cause techies are never satisfied, I should know, I am in that boat. However, that does not mean we are holding a inferior piece of hardware/software. Outside of this forum, I have never met a normal person dissatisfied with their Epic or Evo.
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I will agree that many people expect too much out of their smart phones. 20 to 30 hours is not enough for many people. That being said, 10 hour battery life doing absolutely nothing with the phone is completely ridiculous, and it is a legitimate software problem with the Galaxy S devices.
EDIT: Some grammar changes
I believe every phone's capabilities have to do with their "abuse" levels. Higher the abuse, lower the satisfaction. And, with higher abuse there will be more frequent visits to the Sprint store than usual.
I got my Epic on the day it came out (8/30/2010) and I have to admit this is a very beautiful phone with nice features. And the custom roms just spice it up even more (with less abuse of course)
If you have 10% drain an hour then you have app issues or something running in the background. On eclair I was getting 60 - 80 hours with no problem. On froyo it has been 20 - 30 hours now with ext 4 its up to 55 hours
Our stock standby time is 300 hours evo is like 200.
Epic 4g Quantum Rom Ext 4
Since im replying from my phone and I don't feel like editing a quote I'll just say that the gps is a MAJOR issue as I was never able to use it until I started having my phone. Considering gps is such a basic feature nowadays that is unacceptable.
Sent from my ext4 Epic 4G running Bonsai4all 1.1.3!
so far so good
I'm always tempted by the path not chosen, but so far the Epic has done everything I've needed it to do.
I drive for a living, and while the GPS does take time to lock, it does lock. Otherwise I can find myself on the map and plot my route on the map to at least start my travels until it does lock. I consider this to be standard GPS protocol :/
I could really care less about the keyboard, but for some reason Sprint has designated the slider as their form factor of choice since the PPC-6700. It misses keys, and I thought it was just me, but I'll just have to factor that in and type more carefully. But only the form factor and the OS have been real temptations for me.
I was in the market to replace my Flip camera, and when i saw the video comparisons between the Evo and the Epic, I knew I would be very disappointed with the Evo. And while it may not matter to some, I appreciate the dedicated 2 step camera button.
I'm also feel I'm in the minority when I say that I really like plug location. I leave the phone plugged in while I drive, and it's nice to not have to stow the phone upside down and have to hold it around the plug. This has been a plus with every Samsung phone I have had, the ability to charge it in the upright position. And I cannot tell you how much I adore the slide cover of the plug.
The screen looks great from any angle even in bright light I can see it better than I could ever see the screen on my TP2.
Now, is the phone light and cheap feeling? Possibly. But I would rather drop a light phone than a heavy phone. Think about it. I already dropped it once trying to take a picture of something on the floor. Wood floor, no harm, lesson learned. But the phone seems well put together, and it should last at least the year before I can upgrade to, whatever.
4G, eh, whatever. I play with it in Chicago, and it's iffy at best. They basically tacked on an extra radio, and I mostly pretend it's not there. However, it does grant the ability to do simultaneous voice and data, which will be a plus if this network ever expands and takes hold.
So even though I am sick to death of waiting for Froyo since I'm checking on it every day, I still know I made the right choice as far as what Sprint has to offer.
docdg said:
I also noticed that even though we were in a full coverage area the Epic would go from full to no bars for some unknown reason.
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This happens to me all the time. Months ago there were some posts postulating that this problem may be because the Epic's network defaults to "WCDMA preferred" under the advanced network settings, and WCDMA, despite its name, is actually a protocol for GSM phones, not CDMA phones. The thought is that it preferentially periodically goes looking for these networks it cannot connect to.
I have found that switching this setting to "CDMA auto" causes my "time without signal" to drop from ~50% to about 4%, so there's probably something to that argument. Unfortunately the phone seems to change itself back, especially when it reboots, and in any case I still get the bars dropping away quite often, even after changing this.
Phreddo said:
I'm also feel I'm in the minority when I say that I really like plug location. I leave the phone plugged in while I drive, and it's nice to not have to stow the phone upside down and have to hold it around the plug.
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I also like the plug where it is, though I didn't think I would when I got it. It is so much nicer than a bottom or side plug, not only when plugged into the car, but also when plugged in anywhere else, especially at the computer.
I really like my Epic over the Evo. My cuz has an Evo and it looks and feels so big and square, I really don't think I'd like carrying that thing in my pocket, like I carry my Evo. And for me, Evo's screen is actually larger than needed. I lived without a keyboard for two years with my HTC Touch and now, I can't go without a keyboard. I personally find Swype to be inaccurate and I constantly had to make adjustments. I use the android keyboard when not typing on the keyboard.
edonnelly said:
This happens to me all the time. Months ago there were some posts postulating that this problem may be because the Epic's network defaults to "WCDMA preferred" under the advanced network settings, and WCDMA, despite its name, is actually a protocol for GSM phones, not CDMA phones. The thought is that it preferentially periodically goes looking for these networks it cannot connect to.
I have found that switching this setting to "CDMA auto" causes my "time without signal" to drop from ~50% to about 4%, so there's probably something to that argument. Unfortunately the phone seems to change itself back, especially when it reboots, and in any case I still get the bars dropping away quite often, even after changing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too noticed that in the settings. When I switch to CDMA auto, the bars were almost always full or close to full even when I was in areas that historically gave me a bad signal. Unfortunately, the phone swtiches back to WCDMA and I go back to my normal, high-and-low signal.
One final note as I am actually switching to an evo today. On the topic of task killers the one included with the epic is crap. It does not show programs samsung does not want you ending and so I've always used advanced task killer. To me GPS that works and manufacturer support far outweigh the need for a manufacturer supplied task killer.
Sent from my ext4 Epic 4G running Bonsai4all 1.1.3!
kenvan19 said:
One final note as I am actually switching to an evo today. On the topic of task killers the one included with the epic is crap. It does not show programs samsung does not want you ending and so I've always used advanced task killer. To me GPS that works and manufacturer support far outweigh the need for a manufacturer supplied task killer.
Sent from my ext4 Epic 4G running Bonsai4all 1.1.3!
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Click to collapse
I think I'm switching to the Epic but I haven't considered the GPS issue. I just assume I'll get a good one. lol. To me, the screen, the still and video camera are reasons to switch. Though the dev community doesn't seem as robust for Epic and the manufacturer support clearly isn't there as well.
dwd3885 said:
I think I'm switching to the Epic but I haven't considered the GPS issue. I just assume I'll get a good one. lol. To me, the screen, the still and video camera are reasons to switch. Though the dev community doesn't seem as robust for Epic and the manufacturer support clearly isn't there as well.
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You can get GPS working you just have to be on DK28. If you like the phone by all means get it. It comes down to opinions and my opinion is that there really isn't anything I like about the Epic. Its got great graphics and a good camera but I have a 42" flatscreen+a PS3 for gaming and I have a 12mp camera for pictures, I don't need my phone to do those things. Sure, having a hardware keyboard is great but considering I have to slow my typing speed down so I don't miss letters and how much I've come to love swype I don't really want/need it anymore. I've said this in the Evo Shift vs Epic thread and I'll say it here: Go try both phones. If you like one more than the other, buy it. Manufacturers and Carriers are always going to skew their descriptions and spec sheets to get you to buy something, so just go with what you want.
jbadboy2007 said:
If you have 10% drain an hour then you have app issues or something running in the background. On eclair I was getting 60 - 80 hours with no problem. On froyo it has been 20 - 30 hours now with ext 4 its up to 55 hours
Our stock standby time is 300 hours evo is like 200.
Epic 4g Quantum Rom Ext 4
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I am not quite sure exactly what it is, but it seems to be restricted to Galaxy S phones. I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out what was causing it on my phone, and while I have heard of people like you who got good battery life in 2.1, everyone I know who has a Galaxy S device has this issue. Judging by the fact that for me and others, 2.2 has cleared up the issue, I am guessing there is a fix specifically for this in that update.
For the record, I once ran logcat to see if I could pinpoint the issue. It seemed that Google Sync was querying Google's servers CONSTANTLY even though I had configured to push in GMail, so it could be an issue with Android or the GMail app itself, but why it seems to manifest on Galaxy S devices with alarming frequency is beyond me.
Related
So a friend of mine recently picked up a new phone, and elected to get the Moment. I've seen people trash the Moment on these boards, but can I get some clear reasons why he should switch to the Hero or pony up the extra hundred bucks for an Evo?
It's his first smartphone, and he's not particularly tied to either the camera or the keyboard, but he's not a particularly easy guy to convince of something. Thanks.
The moment is the only android phone I would classify as a functional brick.
No offense to those who dig it. I like a physical kb too but the moments kb is (imo) a very poor design. Also, slider phones that don't tilt at all just don't feel natural to type on.
The thing is huge width wise too. I don't use a holster or belt clip, I keep my phone in my front left pants pocket. The evo is enormous but it's thin, fits in my pocket perfectly.
http://androidforums.com/samsung-moment/33738-why-do-people-prefer-sprint-htc-hero-over-samsung-moment.html
&RoidRage said:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-moment/33738-why-do-people-prefer-sprint-htc-hero-over-samsung-moment.html
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Good thread.. but its a little outdated.
Now we have OC kernels that run 32mhz slower then the moment, not much of a difference. Also we have darchdroid, basic android system like the moment has, so its not "laggy" because of sense UI. Also the hero has this site for support, which gives it a huge community.
The Evo.. thats a whole nother story, i would get one in a heart beat if i could. And soon any kinks/bugs will be worked out, specially if you are rooted flashing custom roms, which are worlds better then htc.
We had one guy from here (xda) get a moment (they didnt have a replacement hero for him). And he was ok with it at first, about a month later, he absolutely hated his Moment and wanted to get a Hero again. He has a thread somewhere about it.
Why I dont like the moment is a personal and hardware standpoint. My pet peeve is when the spacebar divides up the keyboard so that drives me insane but that is complete personal bias
4 things you look at from an engineering stand point.
0. Accessibility - It doesn't have to provide desired effects, just USEFUL effects. The battery life (when I had one) was horrid - 5 hours max on a battery charge. Meaning when battery is dead - it doesn't even provide useful data.
1. Reliability - It does what it is supposed to do. When you need it to do it.
Again the battery, and its random CDMA lock ups that require a reboot.
2. Safety - this stands on its own. It can't get anyone hurt.
The thing is a brick, it would cause some sort of back injury lugging that heavy thing around.
3. Security - varies for different things.
this is a cell phone...all are pretty insecure when someone has physical access, not moment specific. But I figured I would throw in the 4th one. And when you get pissed off at it and sling it out a window and someone finds it - it become insecure.
Of course all IMHO.
The moment will always have its place in my heart.... next to my mother in law and the red headed step child
/sarcasm
My girlfriend has the moment and absolutely loves it. She has always loved Samsung phones though.
I told her she could always use it to break a window if needed.
neuro_genesis said:
My girlfriend has the moment and absolutely loves it. She has always loved Samsung phones though.
I told her she could always use it to break a window if needed.
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That was the one benefit I out weighed with the Hero and the Moment.
With the Hero, if I ever drive my car into the lake and need to call 911 -i'd be dead before the dialer started up. However with the moment which also had similar things happen - I could just break the window.
Lets see, I owned a moment for 3 weeks and just went back to the Hero.
My quibbles with the Moment
1) battery life is PITIFUL
2) the phone is very heavy
3) The phone randomly would have data lockups where EVDO would just QUIT working, but the phone wouldn't indicate there was a problem with signal, only fix is reboot
4) The battery indicator software is pathetic, it would show 80% for like 4 hours then just DIE. Even with tweaks the battery code would only show increments in 5%.
5) There is no XDA portal for the Moment.
gunnyman said:
5) There is no XDA portal for the Moment.
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That's because forums with a large presence like this can often sway users form one phone to the next.
My personal experience with the Moment is even though it has a stronger processor it does lack a bit of the umph that the Hero has, but I just don't think the right people have their hands on the kernels and ROMs and such, so the Moment may never be as badass as the Hero in terms of its modifications and things. You can easily make or break a phone's popularity by just the hands that the phone is in.
gunnyman said:
Lets see, I owned a moment for 3 weeks and just went back to the Hero.
My quibbles with the Moment
1) battery life is PITIFUL
2) the phone is very heavy
3) The phone randomly would have data lockups where EVDO would just QUIT working, but the phone wouldn't indicate there was a problem with signal, only fix is reboot
4) The battery indicator software is pathetic, it would show 80% for like 4 hours then just DIE. Even with tweaks the battery code would only show increments in 5%.
5) There is no XDA portal for the Moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying there will be???
j/k
gunnyman said:
Lets see, I owned a moment for 3 weeks and just went back to the Hero.
My quibbles with the Moment
1) battery life is PITIFUL
2) the phone is very heavy
3) The phone randomly would have data lockups where EVDO would just QUIT working, but the phone wouldn't indicate there was a problem with signal, only fix is reboot
4) The battery indicator software is pathetic, it would show 80% for like 4 hours then just DIE. Even with tweaks the battery code would only show increments in 5%.
5) There is no XDA portal for the Moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, this is great. Thanks for your responses guys.
sheagk said:
Ah, this is great. Thanks for your responses guys.
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Click to collapse
The best reason to stick with the Hero is the Dev community. The moment and hero are dead as far as further support/software improvements from sprint. The Devs here with the addition of Cyanogen's team will help insure the Hero is a great phone for a lot longer than the handful of devs on the Moment.
I almost bought the moment because it looked like a nicer phone to me. But the day i went to sprint they were out of them so i got a hero instead. I don't regret it but id love a phone will a hardware keyboard. The moment doesn't have alot of development for it.
just doesn't quite say it.
Like I've said in my previous posts, when it comes to samsung supporting ANY of their phones, well you don't get any. They make buggy phones which have problems after a few days of use, and then instead of recalling or updating kernels/roms, they just totally ignore the customers and run off with the money. The "legal" alternative of scamming.
And they have done the same with samsung epic.
http://www.talkandroid.com/13036-samsung-epic-already-having-issues-on-launch-day/
It's not the issues per say, but it's the fact that they KNEW about the issue, and ignored it. I know evo had some issues from the start as well, but this was usually do to a bad batch and htc didn't know about this until mass release. BUT samsung knew about this issue before they even released the phone.
tl;dr: samsung is a crap company when it comes to phones, they don't support their products, and will screw you over when they get the chance.
wrong forum buddy.
timtlm said:
wrong forum buddy.
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I'm sure he meant to post that here since the Epic is supposed to be a competitor to the Evo.
Either way: I love my Evo and I wouldn't trade it for the Epic. I don't like Samsung's UI.
timtlm said:
wrong forum buddy.
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Click to collapse
no, not really. People are comparing evo to samsung epic, and to me it seems like a right forum to warn everyone about the problems with the epic. I had a chance yesterday to trade my evo for a samsung + 25$. I was thinking about it since my evo has a broken 4g, and the only reason i thought about it was the processor speeds, but after reading that article upon many others, I was re-assured that I will never buy another samsung phone.
my favorite are all the posts of people saying "i bought the phone an hour ago it pwns it is so leeet" now give them a few dys they will be the ones going back and shouting "omg this phone sucks my back button doesnt work ... wth screw you samsung".
I just have to say this....and YES the pun is intended.
EPIC Fail!
Well... I guess this isn't really any different then the screen seperation issue and the light spot on the lcd over the processor and the power button crack on Evo's. I am sure testers ran into all those problems. it is a matter of what is going to cost more; retooling and redesigning a few pieces of the phone and replacing it on 100,000 handsets, or replacing a few thousand handsets that run into the issue.
I'm sure my numbers aren't really in the ballpark, but you get my drift. Every company has to make decisions like this.
skydeaner said:
Well... I guess this isn't really any different then the screen seperation issue and the light spot on the lcd over the processor and the power button crack on Evo's. I am sure testers ran into all those problems. it is a matter of what is going to cost more; retooling and redesigning a few pieces of the phone and replacing it on 100,000 handsets, or replacing a few thousand handsets that run into the issue.
I'm sure my numbers aren't really in the ballpark, but you get my drift. Every company has to make decisions like this.
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Click to collapse
I don't buy in the lcd separation bs. I saw people take pictures of claiming about separation and it looks fine to me. If it was separating, then the touch screen wouldn't work as well and you would be experiencing more problems than "dust settling under the screen".
As for the hairline crack on the power button, most of the people that had it, didnt even know about it. Sprint techs probably didn't know about it as well.
Actually, this is a whole other ballpark. You could argue that the Evos were pushed out the door for launch, but Samsung released the first Galaxy S phone in the beginning of June in Europe, and every issue Epic users are running into now were discovered back then. Three months ago. Three months and no fixes for their new phone. They knowingly released a defective phone, will probably never fix it, and will move on to their next phone in January. So long suckers! Oh, and watch this space for complaints about the keyboard Oreo. The only reason this is new is because the Epic is the first Galaxy phone with a keyboard. I mean, you didn't think they'd get that working properly out of the gate, did you?
Sorry for all the FUD, but I'll probably have Gingerbread on my Evo before the Epic gets froyo.
Hanson68 said:
Actually, this is a whole other ballpark. You could argue that the Evos were pushed out the door for launch, but Samsung released the first Galaxy S phone in the beginning of June in Europe, and every issue Epic users are running into now were discovered back then. Three months ago. Three months and no fixes for their new phone. They knowingly released a defective phone, will probably never fix it, and will move on to their next phone in January. So long suckers! Oh, and watch this space for complaints about the keyboard Oreo. The only reason this is new is because the Epic is the first Galaxy phone with a keyboard. I mean, you didn't think they'd get that working properly out of the gate, did you?
Sorry for all the FUD, but I'll probably have Gingerbread on my Evo before the Epic gets froyo.
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.
hhahaha CLASSIC
samsung couldn't (and still can't) do flip phones right (had a couple, they would always break; switched to sanyo, i've had that sucker for >4 years and I still bring it out of the box as a backup from time to time, and everything still works on it), why would we expect them to do smart phones any better? they just do not make quality product. burn in on the screens, wow - basically one of your hot selling points is the AMOLED screen, and it has huge burn in problems in less than a month? and they are mass producing these things? no epic for me, and no samsung AMOLED for me on any phone, thanks.
love my evo. no, HTC is not perfect, not saying that at all. but they do make a better quality product than sammy any day, hands down.
Quick off-topic question. I am seriously considering the EVO. However, I need Wifi to work. Are there still issues with poor Wifi signal on the Evo or has this been resolved?
After the froyo update, I went from 2 bars on my couch sitting 20 feet from my router to full bars and I can now go into the bedroom and still get signal. I used to switch to my Diamond and use Opera Mini whenever I was in the bedroom, but that's no longer an issue. 3G signal got stronger as well.
Or was there a different wifi issue you were referring to?
Yeah, WiFi is big for me too and I noticed a while ago it seemed to be better than when I first bought the device. But I thought this was done some time ago. But yeah, WiFi is good.
Hanson68 said:
After the froyo update, I went from 2 bars on my couch sitting 20 feet from my router to full bars and I can now go into the bedroom and still get signal. I used to switch to my Diamond and use Opera Mini whenever I was in the bedroom, but that's no longer an issue. 3G signal got stronger as well.
Or was there a different wifi issue you were referring to?
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same thing, getting full bars in two rooms down. About 2 or so bars throughout the house.
After some research I went with the EVO. I have no problems with wifi throughout my house or any other issues with this phone. I came from the Samsung Moment and that phone was a nightmare, no updates to fix the known issues, they deemed it EOL after the 2.1 update. Even with a ROM rooted it was bad. I am half expecting the same with the epic.
Delete this post, I posted in the wrong forum (FAIL).
I purchased the Epic to compare it to the Evo. It really is a great phone, but I think I'm going to stick with my EVO. There were small issues I had that may have been no problems for others, but to me they were dealbreakers. The screen truly does wonders and makes the EVo appear washed out. However, the size is noticeable when compared to the EVO. They realistically could have kept the screen the same size as the EVO had they made the "SAMSUNG" on the front smaller. The email would also never update without a manual refresh, the touch screen buttons are hardly responsive. The email was a big issue to me. However, the biggest deal breaker was the battery. My battery life on the Epic was worse than the EVO. Not a huge deal since Im always near a charger. However, the battery would take hours to charge. My evo could be completely shut down and charge from 10%-100% in about an hour tops. The EPIC took several hours.
That said, the phone is incredibly snappy stock. I would love to see what developers can do with it, but I dont think I have the patience to wait. I'm a regular flashoholic on my EVO.
chino0131 said:
y. My battery life on the Epic was worse than the EVO. Not a huge deal since Im always near a charger. However, the battery would take hours to charge. My evo could be completely shut down and charge from 10%-100% in about an hour tops. The EPIC took several hours.
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Once again I'm calling BS EVO will not fully charge in 1 hour.
hooover said:
Once again I'm calling BS EVO will not fully charge in 1 hour.
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Well I don't know about one hour but my phone usually charges in about two hours.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Im going to be coming over to the Epic from the hero. Just wondering if it is worth it or not yet. I still see there are issues and all, but I dont mind that. As long as samsung is diligently working on a fix. unlike HTC, I hope samsung is a tad better.
mroneeyedboh said:
unlike HTC, I hope samsung is a tad better.
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That's debatable - Samsung's history is not great in fixing things.
That said, as a new Epic owner myself, I do feel like some people are getting a little crazy about a few issues that for most people are going to be relatively minor or even unnoticed. The two issues that come up a lot are GPS and the 3G upload speed. Both of these *seem* to be relatively simple fixes; the GPS issue just seems to be relying on outdated data cache (solution: flush the cache), while the upload speed seems to have been broken with an earlier software update... meaning it should be easy enough for them to fix it again. *Should be* being the key phrase. If Samsung doesn't see the cost benefit from doing so, then they will just keep advertising and selling the phone as is.
In actual practice, I haven't yet run across a situation where these issues have really affected me, though it does annoy me that I can't really do video calling if I wanted to, and that if I shot a video and wanted to directly upload it to YouTube or something, I probably couldn't really do that either. But these are hypotheticals; these are not things I normally do every day. As for GPS, I've been using it for turn-by-turn directions and haven't had any problems, though I know what the problem actually is and that I might run into it at some point. But my dedicated GPS unit had this same issue and I dealt with it for the first year that I owned it (at which point it too received an update... that I paid $80 for).
I'm still in my return window but there isn't really a phone I'd want to return the Epic for. I need a keyboard and the only other phone that really appeals to me is the Droid 2, but I don't want to pay extra for Verizon's plans. So I'll probably just keep the Epic and hope they fix the issues; it's not like they're real killers the way I use the phone. Overall this is a great phone. Sucks up juice a little more than I'd like, but it's insanely fast, has a screen that might even be *too* good (the screen uses most of the battery, and I don't need perfect black levels on my phone), has the best keyboard available on a phone right now, and is generally just a pleasure to use as long as your usage pattern doesn't run into those couple issues it has.
badasscat said:
In actual practice, I haven't yet run across a situation where these issues have really affected me, though it does annoy me that I can't really do video calling if I wanted to, and that if I shot a video and wanted to directly upload it to YouTube or something, I probably couldn't really do that either. But these are hypotheticals; these are not things I normally do every day. As for GPS, I've been using it for turn-by-turn directions and haven't had any problems, though I know what the problem actually is and that I might run into it at some point. But my dedicated GPS unit had this same issue and I dealt with it for the first year that I owned it (at which point it too received an update... that I paid $80 for).
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Why does everyone say that they can't do video calling?
I constantly Fring camchat with my friend on her Evo on 3G. She says the video quality isn't perfect on her end, but its never prevented me from video calling! Even on low bars (1-2 bars) i still can comfortably have a conversation over the webchat.
mroneeyedboh said:
Just wondering if it is worth it or not yet.
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Yes.
Not if u plan on using 4g indoors.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I think this phone is great, the gps is good enough but it could be better, I never use the gps inside my house, so I don't really care the indoor, now once I step outside it only takes couple second to lock me.
About the 3g, well I have the same issue but most of the time I'm in a wifi (House, work) so I don't really care about it, but I would be nice if they have some fix to it...I don't get 4g neither in house and work, so don't care about it either.
The I came from the TP2 and just android itself made me jump to this phone, I really hate the keyboard compare to the tp2, so far I haven't use video calling from phone to PC which is what matters to me (please skype hurry up).
The screen on this phone is just great!!! Perfect for movies (not from the Hub, too expensive) I got the movie from my bro hd2 and they look great, now I need to get avatar from my friend I see myself using the phone for movies so much but whenever I want to its totaly worth it.
For games, well its fast! The response to me its awesome, I don't usually play on my phone but I just download a game Caligo Chaser and its a very addictive game (rpg), but the graphics on the game looks very good on the Epic.
I would say keep the Epic, its a good phone, i will be keep her for a good 1 year and that's when my upgrade is due and I'll get a new one, just like I did with my tp2. The problems with the epic are so minimal compare to other phones, every phone that have release will always have problems, and that's how it always will be. I hope sammy won't take too long to fix it tho.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
You won't notice the gaming difference until you load up toonwarz or another graphically intense game. I believe most 2D games will run the same on most phones with a relatively new processor... though it goes without saying that everything looks great on the SAMOLED screen
Thanks guys. I dont plan on doing any uploading or 4g tethering inside my home. just using the internet at work etc.
Also kinda sucks on the battery life. What are people getting roughly with battery life?
Im also coming from the hero to the epic becuase of the physical keyboard. I cannot stand the lag on hero's keyboard. Is there any lag etc with the physical keyboard?
mroneeyedboh said:
Thanks guys. I dont plan on doing any uploading or 4g tethering inside my home. just using the internet at work etc.
Also kinda sucks on the battery life. What are people getting roughly with battery life?
Im also coming from the hero to the epic becuase of the physical keyboard. I cannot stand the lag on hero's keyboard. Is there any lag etc with the physical keyboard?
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I came from the Hero as well. Trust me, you'll be satisfied. I was running Darchstar's Cyanogen and whatever the nfiniteFX ROM was on my Hero and I THOUGHT I didn't notice any keyboard lag, but coming to the Epic, I realize I was completely wrong. There is no lag anywhere on this phone as far as I am concerned.
Just what I wanted to hear. haha One thing I did notice is that the hero lags up in general after a while IMO. Does the epic seem to do that so far?
I to came from a Hero, loved that little phone, the Epics screen is just. Insane to say the least. The camera quality to top notch, better than the Evos, I have done personal tests and have seen this. The battery life could be better but with updates those will help, its still a very new phone!
Well it's pretty much the best phone on the market right now. That said, there are issues. Make sure before you take your phone home that the capacitive buttons work. They either do or don't in most cases anyway.
I had 2 bad ones and an evo before switching to this on. Some people including myself have noticed image retention but i think thats a rare issue with the epic. Also the GPS is not good until the froyo update (hopefully). All that aside this is the best phone i have owned. Google Navigation works pretty well though and endomondo tracks very well as well.
I hope this helps.... Like I said i also had the Evo and once you see the Epic screen you wont like anything else. My new one is pretty solid and I 'm happy with it. I just want the flipping update already.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
mroneeyedboh said:
Also kinda sucks on the battery life. What are people getting roughly with battery life?
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I'm getting about 14 hours with regular use. I could probably stretch that if I needed to. If I use it really heavily, including navigation, I might only get 8-10 hours.
In regular use that's long enough for me to go through a normal day, come home and just start charging it for the night once it gets really low.
But this is the first phone I've owned that I've actually bought a car charger for, just in case. If I see it getting low during the day, I will charge it on my way home from work.
This is not great, but my wife's iPhone is actually worse. She can't make it through a full day no matter what she does. Her phone is charging right now and it's 7:30PM; that's pretty normal for her. With me, it's not a regular thing to do that, it's only if I've been playing with it all day.
Also, like all phones the battery takes a few cycles to show an accurate charge. So when you first get the phone, it seems REALLY bad. I got like 5 hours on my first charge. But over time the gauge gets more accurate and you figure out little tricks to maximizing the battery (like dark wallpaper; bright pixels use a lot more power on an amoled screen), and it improves a lot.
Well, good news guys. I am starting as a cell phone tech repair at a local store here and can't seem to decide between a HTC Evo 4G or Samsung Epic 4G. They both look awesome.
I am also with T-Mobile with the HD2 and love HTC products but the Samsung Epic looks tempting. I feel so indecisive now.
Any help here?
I feel your pain. Before Access released the new version of Graffiti that works perfectly on the Epic, I was literally within hours... maybe a day or two... of taking my Epic back and exchanging it for an Evo. It's amazing how being totally handicapped at text-input colors (darkens?) your view of pretty much everything else about the phone.
I'm still not thrilled with the Epic's jiggly-ness, but I have hope that Seidio (or maybe Otterbox) will eventually release a case that lets you latch the halves together (or clamp on a semi-temporary exoskeleton that achieves the same purpose).
The single worst problem I found with the Evo is its usb port. HTC cut corners and didn't attach it properly, so the solder connections (surface-mount, no less) end up bearing 100% of the stress and strain from attaching and removing the cable, and eventually fail. Technically, that's something I could probably fix myself if it happened (I have a hot air rework tool, solder paste, tubes of flux, tweezers, and the other usual supplies needed for homebrew surface-mount soldering), but I know *exactly* how it can fail, and it bothers me that HTC could have possibly done something that stupid. That's not the kind of mistake an engineer makes... that's the kind of screwup that happens when HTC management decides to cut corners anyway after their engineers throw a fit and threaten to quit over it.
Also, I've spent the past week lurking on the Evo development boards, and got the worst sense of deja-vu when I saw that HTC still releases useless kernel source that's unbuildable, with proprietary binaries compiled straight into it (in total violation of the GPL, not to mention common sense and human decency) so that it's nearly impossible to take an old kernel and use it as the basis of a newer one (without breaking every single binary driver in the process). Samsung might have sinned mightily and royally screwed up the GPS, but at least they had the decency to treat the kernel with respect & dignity, and implement everything that's not open-source as proper loadable kernel modules. It might be the only thing they've done right, but it's a really big, really important thing that NEEDS to be right
Both the Epic and Evo have criminally-undersized batteries, and battery life that totally sucks. The main difference is that there are multiple extended battery choices for the Evo available today, and zero extended battery choices for the Epic today (though there will probably be just as many Epic choices as Evo choices by Christmas... maybe more, since only the extended battery's back cover would be unique to the Epic, and the batteries themselves are common to the entire Galaxy S family).
Out of the box, the Evo feels a lot better in your hand. I bought the Epic originally because I wanted the keyboard, but I personally think the Epic's keyboard sucks to the point of being unusable because they made the keys too big and too flat. Had they made the keys smaller (keeping the same pitch), or made them taller and more rounded (like the Sidekick's keyboard), it would have been awesome. Thus, I'm now officially in the "I want a case with exoskeleton or latch so I can just secure the keyboard shut and forget it exists... at least, until I'm in a mood to slap on a GameGripper and play videogames with it" camp. It's a shame, because it COULD have been a really awesome keyboard if Samsung hadn't ruined it for the sake of aesthetics.
I'm a little nervous about the Epic's AMOLED screen, because I found out that they suffer from an effect that has similar appearance to burn-in. Apparently, the blue elements have a half-life of ~7,000 bright hours before they dim noticeably. The result is that if you display static bright blue content for extended periods of time, it will look like old-school yellow burn-in when white is displayed (the blue will dim, causing the brighter red and green to give the pixel a yellowish cast). LCDs can develop persistent images, but it's a temporary effect due to static electricity that dissipates over time. With AMOLED and blue-fade, by the time you see it happen, it's too late -- the panel's ruined forever.
I'll admit I've slightly warmed up to Touchwiz... especially once I replaced the homescreen with ADW, and figured out how to make the app drawer scroll vertically (god, the horizontal scrolling drove me *insane* for a couple of days). Samsung's "Phone" app is definitely prettier than HTC's was on the Hero (I've never actually used an Evo to make a call), and "Weather and Toggle Widget" (or whatever it's name is) gave me enough SenseUI look and feel to keep me happy without it.
There's still a tiny chance something will motivate me to switch to Evo before my 30 days are up in 2 weeks, but for now, I'm back to being content with my Epic.
Well, I had both the Evo and now the Epic and while the Evo was "okay," I love the Epic. Returning the Evo was the best thing I ever did. The main issues I had with the Evo where the physical size (Epic is thicker, but less surface area) and the battery. My Epic can last a full day with moderate to heavy use on a single charge. The Evo, with light use, needed to be charged about half way through the day. That is with all the usual tweaks, etc. Also, the Evo with the brightness turned down (to save battery) was almost useless, but the Epic on its lowest brightness setting is brighter than the Evo on about 50% brightness. Finally, even though Swype is cool, it is nice to have the keyboard if you do any kind of long typing or typing of words that are not in the dictionary. True, you can always add them, but if you ever do any kind of work where you type in commands, (terminal, etc) then you can do it much easier with a real keyboard.
Anyway, those are my two cents. On a 1-10 scale I would give the Evo a rating of 6 and the Epic a rating of 8.
Greetings! I have both an Epic and an Evo, both rooted, both used extensively for work. The Epic I use mainly for wireless tethering of a work issued laptop, the Epic I use primarily for fielding calls and email.
I like the ability to use a hard keyboard with the Epic but as a former blackberry owner for YEARS I still believe the best hard keyboards to exist are ones engineered by RIM. It's too bad Samsung didn't tap into RIM engineering when constructing the feel and heft of their physical keyboard.
I wasn't a huge fan of Sense before getting an Evo but it's incredibly easy to use and easy on the eyes (mine, anyways) It seems that the email functions on the Evo are easier to utilize than the ones on the Epic but again a matter of personal preference.
I've re-rooted both phones in the last week (accidentally deleted g-talk off of Evo then turned right around and bricked my Epic!) and both phones are running much smoother since doing so. I noticed my Evo was getting really sluggish as time wore on (rooted it right after I got it in July) and the Epic was displaying warning signs of brick-ville prior to it actually bricking. I've benchmarked both units and without a doubt the Epic is MUCH faster than the Evo.
I've noticed subtleties between both phones since using them so much:
SCREENS/VIBRANCY: Epic colors seem more washed out. Evo's are clearer. Evo screen reacts so much easier to the touch....I have to press buttons more than once often to get Epic touch to register....
BATTERY LIFE: Face it, phones like this suck mega power. Multiple batteries and chargers for both are a must. Since I travel between multiple offices, I have a cache of chargers/batteries at all locations along with techie travel items I never leave home without. Tip: for a quick boost to get you at least one hour of extra time on your phone grab one of those keyring battery boosters Sprint sells....they're cheap and come as advertised (****WARNING DO NOT CHARGE YOUR PHONE WITH THE BOOSTER WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY CHARGING THE BOOSTER FROM AN ELECTRICAL SOURCE -SPRINT ADVERTISES THIS IS POSSIBLE BUT... YOU CAN START A FIRE*****) Hopefully my Travelers agent isn't on this forum !
SOUND: Epic seems to produce better sound at higher levels. Epic's speakers seem to have a weird screeching to them at top volume.
I don't know how much this has helped you, but the bottom line here is: if you are a physical keyboard person go for the Epic. If a larger screen floats your boat get the Evo. I'm fortunate to have been able to get both for professional reasons and have learned to love the differences that both provide.
Finally, here are two programs I highly recommend:
EPIC: noLED. Terrific app. Don't need root for it. Also works on Evo but designed for phones lacking a LED.
EVO: LEDHack. Ditto. You will need root. Not applicable for Epic.
All you really have to think about is "Do I want a pure touch screen? or do I want a qwerty keyboard as well as a touch screen?", "Do I want HTC Sense, or TouchWiz?", "Do I want a kickstand?", lol.
But for a more in-depth look, I made a comparison of the tech specs and I gathered the information from Wikipedia as well as google.
Here is my post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7788180#post7788180
Also. Playing Emulator games on the Epic is far more easier than it will be on the EVO. Due to the Epic having a physical keyboard so you can actually have buttons to press instread of tapping the touch screen. There are even keyboard covers that people have made in the shape of controllers to make the gameplay easier.
However. EVO has more developers than the Epic does for now. We only have about 4 roms and they're nothing really special. Pretty much stock roms with OC'ed kernals with a developer idea behind it. We don't even have a OTA rom developer yet. I still wish I knew how to do this stuff lol.
it's mostly personal preference, but I find the epic to be much nicer than the Evo. The keyboard is a much nicer addition for typing. Virtual keyboards just leave me wanting that tactile feel again. The epic is bigger, but also has a much nicer display and the battery life is longer. I also love the small things like the microusb port on the top, and the power button on the side. These help when I'm using it in the car.
As far as ROMs. The EVO has much more development, but I haven't really longed to change anything on the stock epic (except maybe the bloatware). It's nice and fast and TW is clean. SenseUI always bogged my Evo and made it clunky. The only time I had a smooth ROM was in CM6.So far on the Epic, I don't think I'll need to change anything until I upgrade to 2.2
Also, the Hummingbird processor feels faster than the Snapdragon QSD8650 in the EVO. The extra GPU power really makes a difference. That's why I switched.
I could never decide between the two really, there is just a list of pro's and con's for both of them!
So I got an Evo for my second line. (Girlfriend uses it).
I swore to myself that I would never get a Samsung phone. After I switched away from my Motorolla razr many years ago to the HTC Touch, I fell in love with the quality of their phones.
The Epic just makes the Evo seem so outdated. The only thing going for the Evo is the development community, accessories, and support. And of course the build quality of the phone is just PERFECT.
Unfortunately, I grew tired of Sense UI over a year ago, and much prefer the AOSP UI. I can say, side by side, the Epic just rips the Evo apart in terms of fluidness, performance, and raw GPU power... That, and the screen looks a million times better, and FEELS better too!
I like them both though! =)
one thing to also consider since you are currently a t-mobile customer, the G2 from HTC is out.
I think all of these "Epic or Evo" posts are kind of strange, honestly. The two phones fill different niches. I agree with the poster that said it really comes down to keyboard vs. no keyboard and touchwiz vs. sense. Everything else is relatively minor, and something you will easily get used to (or not even realize the difference).
For me, a better question would be something like Epic or G2, or Epic or Droid 2. It's really not that hard to switch carriers (in fact I did it to buy the Epic), and unless you're very close to the beginning of your present contract - in which case you can't upgrade yet anyway - the ETF probably won't be that much, if anything. I got out of my contract with AT&T after 18 months and they didn't charge me any ETF - though that may be because I still have a second line with my wife's iPhone on it.
I just feel like phones with or without keyboards are a completely different experience. (I had an iPhone for a *day*, and it felt like walking around on one leg to me. So I returned it. And now I'm very happy with my Epic.)
If I didn't need a keyboard, I wouldn't consider the Epic, because the keyboard just adds extra bulk and another failure point - actually several more failure points. Instead, I'd then be comparing the Evo to another Galaxy S phone on another carrier. There's usually no reason to restrict yourself to one carrier. Even if you are going to be charged an ETF, you can usually find a deal on any phone that will more than pay for it (vs. the normal subsidized price of the phone).
badasscat said:
I think all of these "Epic or Evo" posts are kind of strange, honestly. The two phones fill different niches. I agree with the poster that said it really comes down to keyboard vs. no keyboard and touchwiz vs. sense. Everything else is relatively minor, and something you will easily get used to (or not even realize the difference).
For me, a better question would be something like Epic or G2, or Epic or Droid 2. It's really not that hard to switch carriers (in fact I did it to buy the Epic), and unless you're very close to the beginning of your present contract - in which case you can't upgrade yet anyway - the ETF probably won't be that much, if anything. I got out of my contract with AT&T after 18 months and they didn't charge me any ETF - though that may be because I still have a second line with my wife's iPhone on it.
I just feel like phones with or without keyboards are a completely different experience. (I had an iPhone for a *day*, and it felt like walking around on one leg to me. So I returned it. And now I'm very happy with my Epic.)
If I didn't need a keyboard, I wouldn't consider the Epic, because the keyboard just adds extra bulk and another failure point - actually several more failure points. Instead, I'd then be comparing the Evo to another Galaxy S phone on another carrier. There's usually no reason to restrict yourself to one carrier. Even if you are going to be charged an ETF, you can usually find a deal on any phone that will more than pay for it (vs. the normal subsidized price of the phone).
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If you are coming from other carriers, then switching carrier might be a good idea.
But for Sprint customers (especially SERO), switching is usually costly. And unfortunately, at this moment, there are only 2 premium phones that we can choose from.
acegolfer said:
If you are coming from other carriers, then switching carrier might be a good idea.
But for Sprint customers (especially SERO), switching is usually costly. And unfortunately, at this moment, there are only 2 premium phones that we can choose from.
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People without SERO really dont get us sero users.
Even at 50 a month (with my 5pm nights and weekend perk) I will NEVER leave this plan.
the ones we got are evo epic pre transform to a lesser extent hero moment and even lesser extent the i1 and intercept
verizon att and tmo are lucky they have much more
My dad has the evo, I have the epic.
Grab a halloween wallpaper with lots of pumpkins on it. Then compare the screens. I couldn't believe the difference. The epic hands down has darker blacks and more vivid colors. Totally worth it.
Also a few co workers this week complimented the screen.
acegolfer said:
If you are coming from other carriers, then switching carrier might be a good idea.
But for Sprint customers (especially SERO), switching is usually costly. And unfortunately, at this moment, there are only 2 premium phones that we can choose from.
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The OP is coming from T-Mobile. So there's no real reason he should only be looking at the Evo and Epic, and not much reason he'd have to compare only those phones to each other.
Coin Slot said:
one thing to also consider since you are currently a t-mobile customer, the G2 from HTC is out.
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+1 On this.. Amazing Device.. Dumb Fast.. Dumb Fast..
actually i am not leaving T-Mobile but adding Sprint as my second line. So in two months i will have a final decision.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Lets put together a list of problems that we have with this phone. I'll split them into software bugs and things we just don't like.
Software bugs/shortcomings
- GPS problems
- Touchwiz seems to have been gimped (less of an issue as I use Syndicate, although I know some people like Touchwiz)
- Kies does not appear to be working
- Phone seems to get really hot
- Signal appears to have difficulties locking in some areas still
Things we just don't like about this phone
- Internal storage for apps is less than 500 mb when you install (it seems that every Galaxy S phone has been gimped in some manner - this is ours it would seem. Whereas the i9000, Vibrant, and Captivate lack flash, we have this problem).
- Still uses pen tile
- Battery life is not as good as it could be (Kernels like Pheonix and Xtreme try to adjust this)
- Keyboard WPM could use some work
Note: Keep this thread civil. I don't want this thread to be locked due to a flame war. We want to put together a list of known issues. Maybe something like this should be stickied.
*It simply isn't usable in stock form for a business professional.
-The gps never works when you need it on demand.
-If you actually use your phone, even just to talk on for any amount of time, it dies quickly.
I'm having issues with MMS. Takes hours to download.
J3ff said:
*It simply isn't usable in stock form for a business professional.
-The gps never works when you need it on demand.
-If you actually use your phone, even just to talk on for any amount of time, it dies quickly.
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I definitely disagree with this particular assessment concerning being usable in stock form. Even though I'm rooted, I specifically refuse to run any custom rom. Very happy with stock. My gps has worked when I've ever needed to use it.
Battery life could be better, definitely, but I make it through a regular work day (almost 6.30pm and at 37%).
I'd say battery life is my number 1 need for improvement, not gps (mine works fine when I need to use it) but that's not unique to the Epic in general. Android phones and *great* battery life don't seem to mix.
Forgive My Brevity. To Be Or Not To Be...
sauron0101 said:
Lets put together a list of problems that we have with this phone. I'll split them into software bugs and things we just don't like.
Software bugs/shortcomings
- GPS problems
- Touchwiz seems to have been gimped (less of an issue as I use Syndicate, although I know some people like Touchwiz)
- Kies does not appear to be working
Things we just don't like about this phone
- Internal storage for apps is less than 500 mb when you install (it seems that every Galaxy S phone has been gimped in some manner - this is ours it would seem. Whereas the i9000, Vibrant, and Captivate lack flash, we have this problem).
- Still uses pen tile
- Battery life is not as good as it could be (Kernels like Pheonix and Xtreme try to adjust this)
Note: Keep this thread civil. I don't want this thread to be locked due to a flame war. We want to put together a list of known issues. Maybe something like this should be stickied.
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Kies does not work when you are rooted for safety reasons. gps will not lock if you have wifi on and sometimes it needs to be on kinda weird. no problems with twiz maybe you should do a battery pull and for the guy with mms taking awhile to download update prl or get closer to a tower or turn on mobile data. The only problem with these phones are the people using them.
time w/o a signal >50%
The LED notification light only blinks about 5.25 times then stops. After that, it blinks sporadically.
Anyone who criticizes the battery life on the Epic probably didn't come over from the Evo. It no exaggeration has about 4 times the life
jbadboy2007 said:
The only problem with these phones are the people using them.
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Not at all. Hardware wise, the phone itself could use improvements. The Galaxy S global edition came with 1.7 GB of free space.
Although the GPS is different on this unit than the other Galaxy S phones, all models seem to suffer from various GPS locking issues. There are a host of other issues, some of which have been addressed by Sprint.
Lets put it this way: Samsung got a lot of things right with this phone and we are moving I think overall towards a better Android experience, but we've got some ways to go.
imwillzillla said:
Anyone who criticizes the battery life on the Epic probably didn't come over from the Evo. It no exaggeration has about 4 times the life
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Having never used an Evo, I can't comment on that one. I bought my Epic for about $300 + shipping + import taxes and am using it in Canada as an "Android touch".
However, gripes appear to be common on battery life. In particular, enabling 4G for most users seems to suck battery out very rapidly.
Coming from a TP2 I will point out a nuisance that I have.
No way to link notification volume with ringer volume. There are 2 separate sliders and it bugs the crap outta me. Either my ringer is too low and notifications too high or vice versa..
My gps hadn't failed me since the last update or so. Ever since it has been fast and accurate so I am shocked people are still complaining about it. Maybe some of you with the GPS issue haven't updated to the latest stock rom...
Fine, I'll shut up.
Sent from my Epic 4g using XDA App
jbadboy2007 said:
Kies does not work when you are rooted for safety reasons. gps will not lock if you have wifi on and sometimes it needs to be on kinda weird. no problems with twiz maybe you should do a battery pull and for the guy with mms taking awhile to download update prl or get closer to a tower or turn on mobile data. The only problem with these phones are the people using them.
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These are general, not (RE: NOT!) specific problems, meaning that not (again I say NOT!) ALL phones are gonna be affected, so if your phone is good, then so be it and stay quiet since this thread clearly isn't meant for you, but for the people who actually have the same problems such as I and the next guy.
Back on topic, I think the back button thing should be up there. Not sure ifits fixed yet, but my epic has it and I bought it first week of october and it had dg27 so I'm guessing mine was part of the first couple batches
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
imwillzillla said:
Anyone who criticizes the battery life on the Epic probably didn't come over from the Evo. It no exaggeration has about 4 times the life
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I disagree. Battery life on the Epic is terrible.
Currently at 27%. Time since plugged in: 9.5 hours with only 1 hour and 12 minutes screen on time.
Seems 3x worse than when I bought it. Need to put my spare battery in soon...
daddymikey1975 said:
Coming from a TP2 I will point out a nuisance that I have.
No way to link notification volume with ringer volume. There are 2 separate sliders and it bugs the crap outta me. Either my ringer is too low and notifications too high or vice versa..
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If you use the volume rocker they are definitly linked. Even if you place them on two different settings on the sliders, then use the volume rocker they both move to thr ringer setting.
Power button on the right side... WHY wasn't it put on the TOP!
Stupid video recording always asks for Normal or MMS limit..
sauron0101 said:
Having never used an Evo, I can't comment on that one. I bought my Epic for about $300 + shipping + import taxes and am using it in Canada as an "Android touch".
However, gripes appear to be common on battery life. In particular, enabling 4G for most users seems to suck battery out very rapidly.
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well so far on my epic everything has been working very well..including impressive batt life. i came from an evo >epic..just flawless. i do however dislike the download cap, signal strength could be improved, stock browser doesnt let you rename a file when you downlod to sd card.
Well let me first start off by saying that I totally still love my epic, and that every device has shortcomings/issues/****ty support in one way or the other. I love my epic.
Now that I got that out, one thing that totally aggrivates me is the fact that the keyboard doesn't recognize typing faster than a certain WPM. I happen to type very fast, and about 1 in 5 words will have a missing letter if I don't type in granny mode. For a long time I thought it was just me and that I haven't adjusted to the keyboard yet. Unfortunatly later on I viewed a post on here that about 30 other ppl were *****ing about the same thing. Ugh. Other than that though I love the phone... but I got a hardware keyboard attached to it and switched to sprint so I could type faster... but half the time swype is more efficient! Lolz.
hydralisk said:
I disagree. Battery life on the Epic is terrible.
Currently at 27%. Time since plugged in: 9.5 hours with only 1 hour and 12 minutes screen on time.
Seems 3x worse than when I bought it. Need to put my spare battery in soon...
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That sucks. When having the spare battery in, did you leave that one in to see if it was the battery and not the phone? Also is your phone rooted? I rooted mine, dropped it in a bowl of cereal and got a new one from the store and both rooted and unrooted worked fine for me but I think you should look into what is causing it.
A couple of other folks in this thread who came from the Evo appreciate how good the battery life is on this. I will try to leave my EPIC unplugged for the next twelve hours and see how much juice is left. and I play Angry Birds and Galcon constantly.
While i love the phone i do have some problems.
The wobbly slider mechanism
My GPS was fine until i left the WIFI on for several hours. After that i had to reboot for the GPS to lock. So sure the GPS 'works' but it's easy to break.
All the stupid little stuff i have to do. ie. airplane toggle, kill DRM, set wifi to always on, cold start for GPS. It would be nice if we didn't have to do any of that. Not a big deal for me, but for non-technical people i can see it being a deal breaker.