Anyone switch from the Epic? - EVO Shift 4G General

I have had an Epic since launch and i do love the phone. The battery life isn't the greatest and the keyboard misses keys, but i do love the screen, camera and GPU.
I have the opportunity to switch to a Shift if i please, so i'm wondering if anyone has switched from the Epic and if they life the Shift better and why, and also what they don't like better.
The FFC is no issue for me, and i do understand the screen is a downgrade and so is the camera (just slightly though).
I'm looking for feedback on how the battery compares, any lag, keyboard, responsiveness, etc.
Thanks

I would suggest reading through here

BrandoKC said:
I would suggest reading through here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read that, it includes the Evo as well. I'm looking for answers to my questions about the comparisons.

I switched from an Epic to a Shift (w/i my 30 days) and let me say I for one am more satisfied. It is completely personal preference, I do not use a FFC for anything and do not play any games really and preferred the portability. The Epic would be the choice if you play a lot of games but for me personally the 2.2 and probable support (i.e. 2.3) plus the smaller size pushed me in the direction of the Shift. Coming from someone who had a the Epic for almost 3 and a half weeks the phone of great but I just was worried that the lack of Samsung support for the phone would make the purchase seem dated in a few months.
Hope this helps!

mheat3 said:
I switched from an Epic to a Shift (w/i my 30 days) and let me say I for one am more satisfied. It is completely personal preference, I do not use a FFC for anything and do not play any games really and preferred the portability. The Epic would be the choice if you play a lot of games but for me personally the 2.2 and probable support (i.e. 2.3) plus the smaller size pushed me in the direction of the Shift. Coming from someone who had a the Epic for almost 3 and a half weeks the phone of great but I just was worried that the lack of Samsung support for the phone would make the purchase seem dated in a few months.
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, mind if i pick your brain?
1) How does the keyboard compare?
2) Does it lag at times?
3) What battery life were you getting with the Epic and now with the Shift?
4) Do you miss the Epic screen?
Thanks!

1) How does the keyboard compare? about the same, although i rarely use the keyboard except for longer messages/emails
2) Does it lag at times? not in my experience so far
3) What battery life were you getting with the Epic and now with the Shift? about the same, with an edge to Shift (i got two days on my last charge)
4) Do you miss the Epic screen? at times (sunlight etc) but overall its not that big of a deal

zeravla531 said:
Awesome, mind if i pick your brain?
1) How does the keyboard compare?
2) Does it lag at times?
3) What battery life were you getting with the Epic and now with the Shift?
4) Do you miss the Epic screen?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am the "only" one who seems to have a slow shift. I could ramble more but I will stick to the questions asked and answer them from the experience I've received with my phone.
1. I make less mistakes typing on the shift hardware keyboard.
2. Yes. Comparing it to evo and epic, yes.
3. Honestly, I don't remember anything that makes a major difference in battery life between the two that would stand out (except for one thing). I can charge the shift and use it and the battery level will increase. I cannot do the same with the epic. The shift seems, notice I said seems, to take less time to fully charge than the epic.
4. I miss the epic's larger screen. The colors were bright and the blacks were definitely black. Comparing either htc to the epic, the htc's colors look blah and washed out. They aren't really but the colors on the epic are vibrant, dare I say exaggerated, when compared to whatever in real life. The epic screen is definitely in the eye candy category.
Most of the other shift owners out there will probably disagree with me. It's kinda like windows. With a fresh install, or straight out of the box, that's the fastest its ever going to run. From that point on, its all downhill. The more you install on it, the slower it will get. That is just my opinion.

I had an epic from launch and my wife has a shift. The screen is really not that much of a downgrade except in terms of size. Its very quick and will only get faster once oc kernels. Personally I jumped to the evo because I like the big screen but that is just a preference thing.
As to the keyboard it is light years ahead of the samsung. The only issue I've had is that with a case on hitting the top row can be a little difficult but then again I have fat fingers. My wife absolutely loves the phone and I would readily recommend it to anyone who either thinks the evo is too big or wants a physical keyboard.
I do not miss the screen at all. Finally I was getting 28 hours on bonsai4all with the epic. My wife spends a lot of time on facebook and browsing the web and its generally around 20% when she plugs it in at night so its pretty decent. It does charge significantly slower than my evo or the epic but if you charge it over night you'll never notice.
Sent from my cm7 Evo 4G!

Between the Samsung Epic and the HTC EVO Shift 4G, I would recommend the Epic. Samsung already has an FroYo 2.2.1 update in place. The push back comes from Sprint as they the update is still being reviewed by their QA/QC team so FroYo 2.2.1 is not just a dream for those who have the Samsung Epic. The Epic has Corning's Gorilla Glass instead of regular glass like on the HTC EVO Shift 4G. The Gorilla Glass is resistant to not only scratching, but cracking and shattering if dropped. A drop from 1 meter on to a non cushioned surface such as carpeting will have you kissing your LCD on the HTC EVO Shift 4G goodbye. You also get a SAMOLED screen which has a more vivid display of colors, microSD 8x larger on the Samsung Epic, $50 worth of free movie/television episode rentals as well as a CPU which is still faster than the one in the HTC EVO Shift 4G which is a 2nd generation CPU for the Snapdragon. I personally feel the $50 difference more for the Samsung Epic over the HTC EVO Shift 4G is worth it.

wireless.praying.mantis said:
Between the Samsung Epic and the HTC EVO Shift 4G, I would recommend the Epic. Samsung already has an FroYo 2.2.1 update in place. The push back comes from Sprint as they the update is still being reviewed by their QA/QC team so FroYo 2.2.1 is not just a dream for those who have the Samsung Epic. The Epic has Corning's Gorilla Glass instead of regular glass like on the HTC EVO Shift 4G. The Gorilla Glass is resistant to not only scratching, but cracking and shattering if dropped. A drop from 1 meter on to a non cushioned surface such as carpeting will have you kissing your LCD on the HTC EVO Shift 4G goodbye. You also get a SAMOLED screen which has a more vivid display of colors, microSD 8x larger on the Samsung Epic, $50 worth of free movie/television episode rentals as well as a CPU which is still faster than the one in the HTC EVO Shift 4G which is a 2nd generation CPU for the Snapdragon. I personally feel the $50 difference more for the Samsung Epic over the HTC EVO Shift 4G is worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree entirely. While the update may not be a dream, it is indicative of the kind of support samsung has for their devices and for a top-of-the-line phone to be A) Released without the most recent OS Update and B) Go more than four months without being updated is just pathetic and it doesn't bode well for a Gingerbread update which is again pathetic. With Samsung's showing at CES its clear that the already released SGS devices are a distant memory in their minds which is sickening. I will never and I repeat never buy another Samsung product after how I felt treated by their customer support.
As for the Hummingbird processor being faster you are only partially correct. The 800MHz processor in the Shift is underclocked to that speed and has been successfully overclocked to a stable 1.9GHz whereas nothing similar has been done on the Epic (people who bring up the supposed 1.6GHz achieved on the epic was not real) and have more than doubled the scores the Epic or any other currently released device has ever achieved in any benchmark. The one thing the Epic and any Hummingbird based phone has the upper hand in is graphics processing and I will admit that it is leaps and bounds ahead of any other processor on the market in that aspect. But as I know no one who uses their phone as a serious gaming platform its a non-issue.
Finally, as to the screens: I sold TVs for quite a while. I can pick out the difference between a Samsung first gen LED TV and a second gen. I can tell you within a reasonable margin of error the color contrast ratio on any television (by reasonable I mean within say a hundred on a lower end tv and within a few thousand on the high end LEDs). I can look at a TV and tell you how well the color is calibrated in it within a few images.
Can I see the difference between the SAMOLED and the SLCD? Yes, I can. But even to my very trained eyes it is negligible. Very negligible. My wife, a person who cannot tell you if we have a LED, LCD, or Plasma television despite being with me when we bought it can't tell the difference at all.
And the gorilla glass? Yes its strong. But if you drop your phone, bad things happen. Period. If you worry about dropping your phone, save the $50 you would waste on an absolute POS and get an Otterbox case or something in that vein. I can promise you'll be much happier.
~~EDIT~~
I just noticed your 'mistake' in the spelling of shift. You've been reported for cursing and trolling.

kenvan19 said:
I disagree entirely. While the update may not be a dream, it is indicative of the kind of support samsung has for their devices and for a top-of-the-line phone to be A) Released without the most recent OS Update and B) Go more than four months without being updated is just pathetic and it doesn't bode well for a Gingerbread update which is again pathetic. With Samsung's showing at CES its clear that the already released SGS devices are a distant memory in their minds which is sickening. I will never and I repeat never buy another Samsung product after how I felt treated by their customer support.
As for the Hummingbird processor being faster you are only partially correct. The 800MHz processor in the Shift is underclocked to that speed and has been successfully overclocked to a stable 1.9GHz whereas nothing similar has been done on the Epic (people who bring up the supposed 1.6GHz achieved on the epic was not real) and have more than doubled the scores the Epic or any other currently released device has ever achieved in any benchmark. The one thing the Epic and any Hummingbird based phone has the upper hand in is graphics processing and I will admit that it is leaps and bounds ahead of any other processor on the market in that aspect. But as I know no one who uses their phone as a serious gaming platform its a non-issue.
Finally, as to the screens: I sold TVs for quite a while. I can pick out the difference between a Samsung first gen LED TV and a second gen. I can tell you within a reasonable margin of error the color contrast ratio on any television (by reasonable I mean within say a hundred on a lower end tv and within a few thousand on the high end LEDs). I can look at a TV and tell you how well the color is calibrated in it within a few images.
Can I see the difference between the SAMOLED and the SLCD? Yes, I can. But even to my very trained eyes it is negligible. Very negligible. My wife, a person who cannot tell you if we have a LED, LCD, or Plasma television despite being with me when we bought it can't tell the difference at all.
And the gorilla glass? Yes its strong. But if you drop your phone, bad things happen. Period. If you worry about dropping your phone, save the $50 you would waste on an absolute POS and get an Otterbox case or something in that vein. I can promise you'll be much happier.
~~EDIT~~
I just noticed your 'mistake' in the spelling of shift. You've been reported for cursing and trolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I concur -_-
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

kenvan19 said:
I disagree entirely. While the update may not be a dream, it is indicative of the kind of support samsung has for their devices and for a top-of-the-line phone to be A) Released without the most recent OS Update and B) Go more than four months without being updated is just pathetic and it doesn't bode well for a Gingerbread update which is again pathetic. With Samsung's showing at CES its clear that the already released SGS devices are a distant memory in their minds which is sickening. I will never and I repeat never buy another Samsung product after how I felt treated by their customer support.
As for the Hummingbird processor being faster you are only partially correct. The 800MHz processor in the Shift is underclocked to that speed and has been successfully overclocked to a stable 1.9GHz whereas nothing similar has been done on the Epic (people who bring up the supposed 1.6GHz achieved on the epic was not real) and have more than doubled the scores the Epic or any other currently released device has ever achieved in any benchmark. The one thing the Epic and any Hummingbird based phone has the upper hand in is graphics processing and I will admit that it is leaps and bounds ahead of any other processor on the market in that aspect. But as I know no one who uses their phone as a serious gaming platform its a non-issue.
Finally, as to the screens: I sold TVs for quite a while. I can pick out the difference between a Samsung first gen LED TV and a second gen. I can tell you within a reasonable margin of error the color contrast ratio on any television (by reasonable I mean within say a hundred on a lower end tv and within a few thousand on the high end LEDs). I can look at a TV and tell you how well the color is calibrated in it within a few images.
Can I see the difference between the SAMOLED and the SLCD? Yes, I can. But even to my very trained eyes it is negligible. Very negligible. My wife, a person who cannot tell you if we have a LED, LCD, or Plasma television despite being with me when we bought it can't tell the difference at all.
And the gorilla glass? Yes its strong. But if you drop your phone, bad things happen. Period. If you worry about dropping your phone, save the $50 you would waste on an absolute POS and get an Otterbox case or something in that vein. I can promise you'll be much happier.
~~EDIT~~
I just noticed your 'mistake' in the spelling of shift. You've been reported for cursing and trolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, I will never buy another Samsung phone due to the issues we've had with the Moment.
kenvan19 said:
~~EDIT~~
I just noticed your 'mistake' in the spelling of shift. You've been reported for cursing and trolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did I miss something?
**Edit**
I guess I did, I see it was edited by mod, darn it

zeravla531 said:
I have had an Epic since launch and i do love the phone. The battery life isn't the greatest and the keyboard misses keys, but i do love the screen, camera and GPU.
I have the opportunity to switch to a Shift if i please, so i'm wondering if anyone has switched from the Epic and if they life the Shift better and why, and also what they don't like better.
The FFC is no issue for me, and i do understand the screen is a downgrade and so is the camera (just slightly though).
I'm looking for feedback on how the battery compares, any lag, keyboard, responsiveness, etc.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am currently using both devices. I'm yet to have a full days use with the Shift but ill post back when I can give an honest and educated opinion. I've used the Epic for about 2 months so I know that phone fairly well.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

'Mistakes" happen.

kenvan19 said:
I disagree entirely. While the update may not be a dream, it is indicative of the kind of support samsung has for their devices and for a top-of-the-line phone to be A) Released without the most recent OS Update and B) Go more than four months without being updated is just pathetic and it doesn't bode well for a Gingerbread update which is again pathetic. With Samsung's showing at CES its clear that the already released SGS devices are a distant memory in their minds which is sickening. I will never and I repeat never buy another Samsung product after how I felt treated by their customer support.
As for the Hummingbird processor being faster you are only partially correct. The 800MHz processor in the Shift is underclocked to that speed and has been successfully overclocked to a stable 1.9GHz whereas nothing similar has been done on the Epic (people who bring up the supposed 1.6GHz achieved on the epic was not real) and have more than doubled the scores the Epic or any other currently released device has ever achieved in any benchmark. The one thing the Epic and any Hummingbird based phone has the upper hand in is graphics processing and I will admit that it is leaps and bounds ahead of any other processor on the market in that aspect. But as I know no one who uses their phone as a serious gaming platform its a non-issue.
Finally, as to the screens: I sold TVs for quite a while. I can pick out the difference between a Samsung first gen LED TV and a second gen. I can tell you within a reasonable margin of error the color contrast ratio on any television (by reasonable I mean within say a hundred on a lower end tv and within a few thousand on the high end LEDs). I can look at a TV and tell you how well the color is calibrated in it within a few images.
Can I see the difference between the SAMOLED and the SLCD? Yes, I can. But even to my very trained eyes it is negligible. Very negligible. My wife, a person who cannot tell you if we have a LED, LCD, or Plasma television despite being with me when we bought it can't tell the difference at all.
And the gorilla glass? Yes its strong. But if you drop your phone, bad things happen. Period. If you worry about dropping your phone, save the $50 you would waste on an absolute POS and get an Otterbox case or something in that vein. I can promise you'll be much happier.
~~EDIT~~
I just noticed your 'mistake' in the spelling of shift. You've been reported for cursing and trolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BTW...my "untrained" eye can definitely see the difference. But again...ill give my full opinion after a days use. Thus far the Shift definitely has its advantages.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

wireless.praying.mantis said:
'Mistakes" happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They rarely happen with such precision.
Sent from my cm7 Evo 4G!

herbthehammer said:
I am the "only" one who seems to have a slow shift. I could ramble more but I will stick to the questions asked and answer them from the experience I've received with my phone.
1. I make less mistakes typing on the shift hardware keyboard.
2. Yes. Comparing it to evo and epic, yes.
3. Honestly, I don't remember anything that makes a major difference in battery life between the two that would stand out (except for one thing). I can charge the shift and use it and the battery level will increase. I cannot do the same with the epic. The shift seems, notice I said seems, to take less time to fully charge than the epic.
4. I miss the epic's larger screen. The colors were bright and the blacks were definitely black. Comparing either htc to the epic, the htc's colors look blah and washed out. They aren't really but the colors on the epic are vibrant, dare I say exaggerated, when compared to whatever in real life. The epic screen is definitely in the eye candy category.
Most of the other shift owners out there will probably disagree with me. It's kinda like windows. With a fresh install, or straight out of the box, that's the fastest its ever going to run. From that point on, its all downhill. The more you install on it, the slower it will get. That is just my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was wrong. I just discovered that it was an unknown app that was causing my slowdowns and lag. I haven't figured out which one or combination of apps was causing the problems. I uninstalled just about everything I downloaded then I noticed a dramatic speed increase all of a sudden. Less is more. My shift is snappy like everyone elses now.

herbthehammer said:
I was wrong. I just discovered that it was an unknown app that was causing my slowdowns and lag. I haven't figured out which one or combination of apps was causing the problems. I uninstalled just about everything I downloaded then I noticed a dramatic speed increase all of a sudden. Less is more. My shift is snappy like everyone elses now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming the app(s) was nothing embarrassing, would you please share what it was?
Edit: just read your other post where you state you do not know.

Just bought the EVO Shift 4g and I still have my Epic 4g. My wife has the EVO 4g. I have got to say that “day 1” impressions on the little Shift are HIGH.
The display is not as big as the Epic’s or EVO’s, but the text is SUPER crisp, especially when compared to the Epic. The blacks and color contrast is better on the Epic but the difference is not too bad. It’s the texts that are not even comparable. The Shift wins hands down in that category.
Battery after one day is superior on the Shift.
Keyboard, despite the fact it’s missing the top row that the Epic has, is much better in feel and actually records EVERY one of my inputs. I was constantly having issues with the Samsung Epic’s keyboard not responding to all of my inputs.
Quality is a no brainer here. The Shift feels like one SOLID piece when compared to the Epic. The Epic's slider does automatically slide all the way to the open position with little effort, but is EXTREMELY cheap in its feel. Simply put, you know that the Epic is a slider and the Shift feels like one solid piece.
The Shift feels perfect in size when used as a phone. There’s a new concept! It is a phone.
Overall I am extremely pleased with the overall experience. I will continue to report back with the differences noted in the upcoming days.
One last thing. I can’t believe that this bad boy is only running at 800 MHz because it is as or more responsive than my Epic. Trust me, I tried ALL ROMs out there for the Epic and the Shift is definitely holding its own. I could only imagine what it will feel like once rooted with a solid overclocking kernel.

1) How does the keyboard compare?
The Shift wins hands down. Once you get used to the size difference there's no comparison. I've never missed a key whereas the Epic was notorious for that.
2) Does it lag at times?
Not in my experience. I've been using it for about 2 days consistently and while surfing the web, listening to music and bouncing between messages I haven't experienced any lag. Maybe its too new for that to be a factor.
3) What battery life were you getting with the Epic and now with the Shift?
Equivalent with the Epic being slightly better at times. I generally have music playing consistently thoughout the day. At the time I'm using both the Epic and the shift with the Epic being the device I play music on. Listening to music all day I was charging my Epic by about 8 pm after taking from the charger at about 11. I was charging my Shift shortly after that after a day of constant messaging and occasional internet browsing. I would assume music consumes more battery. But I haven't tried the same music listening rate on the shift yet.
4) Do you miss the Epic screen?
Yes but not enough to sway my thoughts either way.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Related

A Question For Everyone Here

Why have you chosen the Galaxy or why will you be choosing the Galaxy rather than the Evo? Is the better screen tech your primary reason?
I ask this after being an Evo owner over the past month and now currently testing (playing with) the iPhone 4. I loved the Evo but my unit was defective and so I'm considering getting a new one at the end of July (hoping new batches ship out then) or one of the SGS versions; Verizon, At&t and then T-Mobile in that order is what I'm in favor of as far as which SGS.
AshMa said:
Why have you chosen the Galaxy or why will you be choosing the Galaxy rather than the Evo? Is the better screen tech your primary reason?
I ask this after being an Evo owner over the past month and now currently testing (playing with) the iPhone 4. I loved the Evo but my unit was defective and so I'm considering getting a new one at the end of July (hoping new batches ship out then) or one of the SGS versions; Verizon, At&t and then T-Mobile in that order is what I'm in favor of as far as which SGS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Evo 3D power sux, SGS is better eot.
I can't use the EVO 4G because I'm in the UK and we don't have any CDMA networks. Otherwise, I would rather have the EVO 4G for its screen - the Galaxy S' has better contrast, but it has a PenTile matrix, meaning it doesn't have the full complement of the three RGB subpixels per pixel (it only has two), with consequences for sharpness.
For me, it's a decision between the Desire and the Galaxy S, both of which have AMOLED screens, so I can't avoid PenTile. The Galaxy S' screen is definitely better than the Desire's, though, and it also has a better GPU (and, it seems, CPU) and a proper multi-touch digitiser that doesn't get easily confused.
Mithent said:
I can't use the EVO 4G because I'm in the UK and we don't have any CDMA networks. Otherwise, I would rather have the EVO 4G for its screen - the Galaxy S' has better contrast, but it has a PenTile matrix, meaning it doesn't have the full complement of the three RGB subpixels per pixel (it only has two), with consequences for sharpness.
For me, it's a decision between the Desire and the Galaxy S, both of which have AMOLED screens, so I can't avoid PenTile. The Galaxy S' screen is definitely better than the Desire's, though, and it also has a better GPU (and, it seems, CPU) and a proper multi-touch digitiser that doesn't get easily confused.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your input guys! Since you mention the screens, how about the Evo only having 16bit 65K color?
I have yet to choose a new phone but I dumped the EVO after two weeks for three reasons. The 30fps cap, the purple tint, and most importantly the screen only displays 65k colors.
These three were together made me take the phone back.
Supermighty said:
I have yet to choose a new phone but I dumped the EVO after two weeks for three reasons. The 30fps cap, the purple tint, and most importantly the screen only displays 65k colors.
These three were together made me take the phone back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All a bit confusing about the Evo now that I look into it bit. Take a look at this post claiming that it's not 16bit: http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g...-million-both-phones-199-a-3.html#post1091681
I'm waiting to have my launch day Evo returned to Radio Shack (manager is trying to get me in past the 30 day mark with his Sprint rep). I thought the screen was beautiful and just had issues with the screen raising and a few others build issues.
I need to touch the Galaxy before I know for sure. The Droid X could have been good but the large bump on the back and that ugly 80's camera flash remind me of how ugly I thought the first Droid keyboard was. I'm sure we have a lot of slick devices coming out later this year but it's already a tough call for what to have right now.......
AshMa said:
... The Droid X could have been good but the large bump on the back and that ugly 80's camera flash remind me of how ugly I thought the first Droid keyboard was.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I don't understand how Moto can keep making such butt-ugly phones. Between the ugly Moto design and the ugly Verizon branding, the Droid X is a phone only a true nerd can love
I had a google nexus, which hardware-wise is pretty simillar to the evo.
The snapdragon processor is pretty good, but samsung's hummingbird is better (and is produced at 45nm, less power consumption)
The real tie-breaker for me was the GPU.
The Adreno200 in the snapdragon SOC is pretty weak, if i need to put it in proportions, the SGX540 in the Galaxy S is around 3 times stronger, possibly even a bit more.
Screen- while the evo's screen is sharper (on paper), 65k colors and low contrast ratio wipe that advantage completely. The difference is just too big.
Now the most important point- the evo is a real battery -hogging monster, it can barely last for a day and a half in very moderate use, while the SGS can probably last for twice the time under the same use.
I'm not too a fan of dragging around chargers and backup batteries, don't know about you.
I'd turn my eyes over to the droid X, better hardware (TI OMAP 1GHZ+SGX530>Qualcomm Snapdragon, any day), better battery time, probably a better camera as well. Motorla made a nice comeback.
I'd make the prime options the Epic 4G or Droid X.
MacGuy2006 said:
the Droid X is a phone only a true nerd can love
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right!!!! When Moto made the Razor they got it all right in the looks dept.....now they keep bringing us boring/ugly styling one after another.
Pika007 said:
I had a google nexus, which hardware-wise is pretty simillar to the evo.
The snapdragon processor is pretty good, but samsung's hummingbird is better (and is produced at 45nm, less power consumption)
The real tie-breaker for me was the GPU.
The Adreno200 in the snapdragon SOC is pretty weak, if i need to put it in proportions, the SGX540 in the Galaxy S is around 3 times stronger, possibly even a bit more.
Screen- while the evo's screen is sharper (on paper), 65k colors and low contrast ratio wipe that advantage completely. The difference is just too big.
Now the most important point- the evo is a real battery -hogging monster, it can barely last for a day and a half in very moderate use, while the SGS can probably last for twice the time under the same use.
I'm not too a fan of dragging around chargers and backup batteries, don't know about you.
I'd turn my eyes over to the droid X, better hardware (TI OMAP 1GHZ+SGX530>Qualcomm Snapdragon, any day), better battery time, probably a better camera as well. Motorla made a nice comeback.
I'd make the prime options the Epic 4G or Droid X.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see your points seem valid to me. But personally I think the Epic is too thick with the keyboard (plus Swype is all the typing speed I need in my pocket). If the Epic came without the keyboard and if the screen really is that great; I'd be down to deciding between it and the iPhone because Sprint service with the Evo for me has been wonderful unlike this stupid At&t on the iPhone.
We all seem to get so focused on the specs that may not matter all that much? I mean these are phones and not desktops of say 15 years ago when we would research the heck out of a purchase because we knew we were going to keep it for at least 2, 3 or more years........
Anyhow, I really just don't see the bad in the Evo display I have and it's right here being matched up to my iPhone 4. I'm going to do something that no tech blogs ever seem to do. I'm going to load up both these phones, with the exact same high res images and then see how they look to me. Wish I could test the Galaxy along with these two phones, but I will have returned the Evo by the time I get my hands on a galaxy........
Because im not on sprint
And even if i were still on sprint i wouldnt take evo because of the poor battery life as well as the inferior screen quality.
Why are we focused on specs?
We want games to work on our newly-bought super-high-end phone. That's all.
At first there were the HTC devices with a qualcomm MSM7XXX. OK cpu, weak gpu.
Then came along the droid/milestone. ok cpu, ok+ gpu.
Then the wave of snapdragon devices- Very strong cpu, weak gpu.
We all waited for a balanced solution that will let us have a strong cpu and gpu, with android.
Untill the galaxy S, Droid X and Milestone XT720 come along, the iphone was the only balanced device.
About the displays- it's not that the evo display is bad. It's just that both the samsung and the galaxy s are way better. The first time i loaded a high-res video to my galaxy s side by side with my brother's milestone (which is regarded as a device with a very good screen by itself), my mind was blown. The difference is as clear as day.
I can say this with confidence-
Sharpness is overrated. We are talking about 3-4" screens here, not home 50" displays. As soon as 640X360 resolution over 3.5" was passed, the matter started to become pretty ridiculous. You need a 10X magnification to actually see pixels, i doubt your eyes have that.
On the other hand, be it a 1000" screen or a 1" screen, the difference in contrast/colors in general is always visible.
It might not be the "sharpest" screen around, but it is clearly the display with best colors around.
For someone who uses his phone as a media player a lot, this was VERY important to me.
BuddyLee said:
Because im not on sprint
And even if i were still on sprint i wouldnt take evo because of the poor battery life as well as the inferior screen quality.
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Click to collapse
That's what I forgot in my last post; are you guys saying that the SGS has much better battery life than the Evo??? From all the comments on the thread here about first thoughts, it seems that folks aren't doing any better.
On the Evo board, I see all the same types of comments and the same range as I do here. Some Evo owners say they can't make it a day and some say they can make it a day and a half and even 3 days, after make half a dozen changes to the device. I know what my Evo battery life has been like and it's not anywhere near as good as this iPhone I'm trying out or even as good as my HD2 was. So I do have a feeling that I'll try the Galaxy and come right back to this board, asking about how to get better battery life.
I just love this device the screen is awesome!!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Pika007 said:
Why are we focused on specs?
We want games to work on our newly-bought super-high-end phone. That's all.
At first there were the HTC devices with a qualcomm MSM7XXX. OK cpu, weak gpu.
Then came along the droid/milestone. ok cpu, ok+ gpu.
Then the wave of snapdragon devices- Very strong cpu, weak gpu.
We all waited for a balanced solution that will let us have a strong cpu and gpu, with android.
Untill the galaxy S, Droid X and Milestone XT720 come along, the iphone was the only balanced device.
About the displays- it's not that the evo display is bad. It's just that both the samsung and the galaxy s are way better. The first time i loaded a high-res video to my galaxy s side by side with my brother's milestone (which is regarded as a device with a very good screen by itself), my mind was blown. The difference is as clear as day.
I can say this with confidence-
Sharpness is overrated. We are talking about 3-4" screens here, not home 50" displays. As soon as 640X360 resolution over 3.5" was passed, the matter started to become pretty ridiculous. You need a 10X magnification to actually see pixels, i doubt your eyes have that.
On the other hand, be it a 1000" screen or a 1" screen, the difference in contrast/colors in general is always visible.
It might not be the "sharpest" screen around, but it is clearly the display with best colors around.
For someone who uses his phone as a media player a lot, this was VERY important to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see where you're coming from! I love games and I tried NOVA on the iPhone 4 two days ago and I was blown away. But I'm just not into gaming on phones and without real controls even if I had the time to play games as often as I'd like to, it just doesn't appeal to me much.
My HD2 came with transformers and I loaded it onto the Evo's sd card. I am a filmmaker and all I can say is that it looked and played perfectly on the Evo. I've heard people say that they watched films on the Evo with terrible results and all I have to say is that any device needs to have the right video format type and bitrate for a specific device (the right encoding app and settings makes all the difference).
I have no doubt the the SGS display is one of the very best if not the very best (it or the iPhone display). BTW' You might want to take a look at this smartphone display review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2365915,00.asp
I had not thought of it until I started reading about it here. I'm talking about text not being as clear on the SGS screens. Again, I guess I won't know what these comments are about, until I get to try this phone myself. Some folks say it's a big deal and then others say it's not. Also I guess that has something to do with the "screen door" effect of the SGS display tech?
I guess what I meant about specs was that if any phone can do everything you want it to today and do it well, then that's about all that matters. rather than seeking out the best specs for some type of future proofing that just doesn't make much sense in regards to how quickly phone tech is advancing and how xda folks like us, are going to keep upgrading sooner rather than later. An Example would be people who worry about a phone not having 4G LTE radios now, even though by the time the towers are all in place, those same people, will be moving on to a new phone.
JosipR said:
I just love this device the screen is awesome!!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you having any speed issues and how is your battery life treating you? Also would you say text is as sharp as on other high-end devices?
We being non US does not have the EVO 4G to play with but I have been using a Desire for the last 2 months. The reason why I swapped to the SGS is mainly because of the multitouch screen issue with HTC. Typing with SGS is even better than the iphone which, love it or hate it, were the best in terms of virtual keyboard. However I am disappointed with the speed so far, especially with emails. Hopefully the next firmware address those issues.
veej said:
We being non US does not have the EVO 4G to play with but I have been using a Desire for the last 2 months. The reason why I swapped to the SGS is mainly because of the multitouch screen issue with HTC. Typing with SGS is even better than the iphone which, love it or hate it, were the best in terms of virtual keyboard. However I am disappointed with the speed so far, especially with emails. Hopefully the next firmware address those issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After using the iPhone 4 keyboard a lot in the last few days I would have to say yes it is the best tap type touch keyboard. Something about it and I assume the screen tech, make it very good. But the hands down best touch keyboard is Swype hands down which is not on iOS yet. Also the HTC keyboard is also very nice on it's own but also having the voice button on the keyboard is really nice (not sure if the SGS has that as well).
Oh and thanks; I was forgetting about the fact that the rest of the world got the SGS first but no Evo. Sometimes we silly Americans behave as if we are the world.
Pika007 said:
It might not be the "sharpest" screen around, but it is clearly the display with best colors around.
For someone who uses his phone as a media player a lot, this was VERY important to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a matter of different priorities, yes: the great majority of what I do on my phone is read or write text, so having nice crisp text is important to me. I remember being amazed by how great the text looked on my first 640x480 PDA with ClearType. Conversely, I rarely watch video or look at photos on my phone.
The decision's pretty much taken out of my hands if I want a high-end Android phone in the UK. I would love the iPhone 4's display though.

Someone convince me not to get the Epic and stick with the EVO

I am thinking about switching teams to the Epic from the EVO. I love the development on the EVO, Cyanogen is just amazing. It's so lite and fast I love it.
The Epic calls because of features like S-AMOLED, physical keyboard!!!!, similar size, 45nm hummingbird and better battery life have me itching for this phone. The only think that would keep me in the EVO camp is that there is an uncertain path for development.
I have heard that in the past Samsung did not release open source drivers for their phones, but that in the case of the Galaxy S the drivers are out there(at least the international version)
What do people think? Will we see development for this phone? Cyanogen? What would you do?
I wouldn't mind the epic once it was able to be rooted and get that horrible launcher the heck off there.
I actually don't like physical keyboard...feels too much like a prepaid texter phone I guess =x just a matter of taste.
I'm absolutely satisfied with the EVO even if I do wish I could change several things about it. For me, I wouldn't change because I would have to pay full price, if I had an upgrade then maybe. I would possibly change to a phone that would get Android updates faster because as we know with the Hero/2.1 debacle, Sense UI makes things rough and even when the hero did get 2.1 ...it was a dumbed down version. I seriously hope our EVOs get better treatment.
Ultimately, I guess you have to maybe play with one and see how it feels to you.
One word...Samsung. Maybe Samsung will finally redeem themselves to me with this phone, but they have always given their phones poor support after release and in general been really crappy for hardcore enthusiasts. If this phone develops a large user development crowd, you will be safer. Either way your going to have monster hardware, what will the community and the support after the sale be like?
Have you tried swype? If not try it first and give it a few weeks to get used to it.
After using it I feel it makes physical keyboards obsolete.
Wasn't this topic beat to death like last week when someone was crying about leaving for an iphone?
Wrong word choice and misspelling courtesy of swype.
Slide-out hardware keyboards are crap in my experience. I will take Swype ANY DAY.
-------------
Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.
who would ever want a physical keyboard again when we have Swype? no way you can type faster on a physical not to mention the extra bulk. with the evo's big screen there is no longer need for a physical keyboard - and this comes from someone who loved the tp2 keyboard.
herbthehammer said:
Wasn't this topic beat to death like last week when someone was crying about leaving for an iphone?
Wrong word choice and misspelling courtesy of swype.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking the same thing. Just didn't want to say it and get the whole "don't be so mean" response
Sorry OP, but I wouldn't touch a phone with a physical keyboard anymore. No need when you have a freaking 4.3 inch screen
Get a second battery,u should get about 8 hours from each at the least. i get at least 10 hours. 1500mhz batteries just arent enough for a 4.3 inch android phone.blame htc for givin us this battery dont blame the phone plz. right now im on 7 hours and 40 minutes with 50% battery left
b1indsided said:
Get a second battery,u should get about 8 hours from each at the least. i get at least 10 hours. 1500mhz batteries just arent enough for a 4.3 inch android phone.blame htc for givin us this battery dont blame the phone plz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Droid X apparently has much better battery life than the Evo, and it has a 4.3 display. Then again, that might be due to its 45nm processor vs the 65nm found on the Evo.
and ive been using a live wallpaper this whole time
See
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
b1indsided said:
See
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't use your phone much as a phone eh?
The things I wouldn't want to give up on the Evo are:
The extra .3" of screen size -- it doesn't sound like much, but when you see the two side by side, the Evo screen isn't a little bigger, it's just flat out bigger.
I like Sense, and the home screen and app screen layouts are more my style.
The GPS on the Galaxy phones are reportedly poor. They lock on fewer satellites than the Evo does and are slow to do so.
I had a slider on the TP2, and I rarely used it. The keyboard on the 4.3" screen makes a physical keyboard only helpful in specific situations, and even RDP is fully functional and usable even without a physical keyboard. So I'd rather not have it and save on the bulk.
I also have zero interest in 3d gaming on the phone, so the 3d capabilities of the Hummingbird hold little interest for me. YMMV.
not today been sittin at home just texting mostly and some pandora and a homerun challenge orcourse and a few auto syncs
It really is up to you. Both are great phones. Personally I would go with the Evo. I wouldn't mind having the Samsung either though.
AFAIK all the Galaxy phones have been rooted no? Rooting the Epic shouldn't be much harder. Since the Evo has had such good development and a little experience with WiMax, should be easy to port over that development.
I am mulling over the same decision right now...
The big drawback for me is the display on the Epic... while it is true it is S-AMOLED and should provide more vibrant colors and such, the display itself is subject to burn in (not as much as AMOLED but still there) and the tech they use in the display makes it like half the effective resolution of what it really is... I can't remember the name of it right now... Its somewhere on the forums. I have seen a Galaxy S screen next to my Evo and its vibrant and bright but my Evo (Epson panel) is easier to see outdoors and text is much crisper on it.
Second, its a Samsung. I have never liked a single Samsung product I've tried from their TVs to their cell phones. While I would like to have a physical keyboard, the lack of support Samsung gives to their products sucks.
Third, yes the hummingbird and SGX540 absolutely spank everything else on the market right now... but dual-core snapdragons are coming and so is Tegra2. I would rather wait and see what happens than just jump from a phone that's working perfectly fine to another one with better specs... Only to kick myself in the balls come Christmas time.
Lastly, Sprint chopped the 16GB of storage to 2GB in their version which kills a main selling point for me. Internal storage tends to be much faster than a microSD card of ANY size.
The cyanogenmod will never be on the Galaxy S.
The Galaxy S will never be as snappy as the Evo.
And yes the hummingbird processor is much better than snapdragon and yes it does do graphics much better, but I'm running PSX4Droid right now FF7 maxed out what else more do you want from a phone lol...
Have fun supporting PS2 graphics...too bad nobody is developing anything and good luck when the phone comes out rooting / flashing custom roms.
But hey the phone is great you wouldn't be wrong getting it either but currently the evo looks better.
amirborna said:
The cyanogenmod will never be on the Galaxy S.
The Galaxy S will never be as snappy as the Evo.
And yes the hummingbird processor is much better than snapdragon and yes it does do graphics much better, but I'm running PSX4Droid right now FF7 maxed out what else more do you want from a phone lol...
Have fun supporting PS2 graphics...too bad nobody is developing anything and good luck when the phone comes out rooting / flashing custom roms.
But hey the phone is great you wouldn't be wrong getting it either but currently the evo looks better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When did Cyanogen say he won't release for the Galaxy S? Its a HUGE market base for Android since EVERY carrier will have a variant...
EDIT: Looking at the various Galaxy forums it looks like a community FroYo isn't going to be easy since the hardware info won't even boot in the emulator... Guess you're right.
But one more reason to get the Epic - it supports a crap ton of codecs out of the box and won't require most video files to be converted unlike the Evo.
Samsung is notorious for not supporting their devices after launch. Just look at Behold II users, Samsung promised 2.0/2.1 on video, then later pulled the video to remove any evidence of them saying that.
It's a great phone, just don't expect it to be supported down the road.

Samsung Epic 4g - Considering it?

I bought my evo on July 31st, This means I get til August 29th to decide to return it or not.
I am considering the Epic 4g but with so much Dev love for the Evo. I am having a hard time really committing to the switch.
I am currently running cyanogen nightly and its pretty damn awesome, getting great performance both synthetic (quadrant 1500+, fps2d 53 frames, 31 neocore, 38 linpack)
Is anyone having the same dilemma? I like the allure of the better processor/graphics on the Epic. I dont care about the physical keyboard. The Amoled screen is somewhat tempting except for the pentile matrix display and the fact that its smaller.
The real stopping points for me are:
1. will it receive anywhere near the support from devs as the evo?
2. The performance both real life and synthetic that I get on the Evo seems to outpace any stock version the Epic could see.
3. Gaming is probably better but in reality android platform doesnt have many games and I have an ipad to play those anyway.
Just trying to gauge current Evo owners thoughts on this.
Not a chance.
I like my 4.3" screen and can input faster with Swype than I ever could with a physical keyboard.
Feels like a downgrade to me. I will replace my Evo as soon as I have no question as to whether it would actually be an upgrade.
Na Epics not in my future.
I'll probably be picking one up. The hacking community should be just fine its being released on just about every carrier world wide and once the keyboard parts ate isolated it will be trivial to support.
I was interested in it originally for the Super AMOLED and Hummingbird, but the phone itself is just ugly as hell, and I will probably never use the keyboard.
I wish it didn't have a keyboard.
But it has a few neat features that appeals me:
Screen Size: The 4" screen seems like the "perfect" size for me.
CPU: Hummingbird process supposedly the fastest thing out right now.
Battery: Early reviews I've read indicates its last 50-100% longer than the EVO.
Two things about the EVO I prefer is:
No physical keyboard - therefore 1mm smaller.
Better front facing camera.
Better DEV support.
I'll probably stick with the EVO since it's a bit of a hassle to sell it and buy the Epic. Tempting though. Playing the sit and watch for now.
I love my Evo but if I was given the option to get an Epic instead, I would have a very hard time staying true to the Evo.
Either way, I am happy with the Evo for 1-2 years until the next big Android phone drops.
Mmmmm I can return my evo and get the epic so def. Makes me tempted.
If the Dev support was going to be near what it is for the evo and it had no kb I'd probably 100% get it
Nope. IMO nobody has made a better Android phone than HTC yet. Android development started with HTC phones. Plus, I hate physical keyboards.
Sent from my FROYO'D EVO using xda app
Hands down the Evo is better....... regardless of the Hummingbird Vs Snapdragon.
Stuck on Stock HTC 2.2
I have an evo and it's given me so many issues that I think I'll probably switch to the Epic. The only thing holding me back is that Sprint gave me the Evo for only $100 and I'm not sure if I want to spend an extra $150 for the Epic.
OP I've been going through the same decision process. I got my Evo on July 25th, and of course they release the date for the Epic. I've reserved one but I'm not sure if I'll return my Evo for the Epic. The battery issues, FPS cap and lack 802.11n on the stock Evo w/ Froyo (2.2) is what makes the Epic so much more intriguing. Also it has that Super AMOLED display and Hummingbird CPU. Its a tough choice.
ekokinex said:
and lack 802.11n on the stock Evo w/ Froyo (2.2)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought one of the first updates after release turned on n support? (still waiting for my phone, so can't test myself)
Andy S said:
I thought one of the first updates after release turned on n support? (still waiting for my phone, so can't test myself)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was the rumor, but it would seem the only way to enable it requires the user to change some code on the phone itself.
the better processor is the only thing that might tempt me... but i still have my upgrade and think i'll wait till gingerbread is closer and something miles above either is out
A big question is whether it will have GPS, or at least a working GPS.
Jsimon9633 said:
I bought my evo on July 31st, This means I get til August 29th to decide to return it or not.
I am considering the Epic 4g but with so much Dev love for the Evo. I am having a hard time really committing to the switch.
I am currently running cyanogen nightly and its pretty damn awesome, getting great performance both synthetic (quadrant 1500+, fps2d 53 frames, 31 neocore, 38 linpack)
Is anyone having the same dilemma? I like the allure of the better processor/graphics on the Epic. I dont care about the physical keyboard. The Amoled screen is somewhat tempting except for the pentile matrix display and the fact that its smaller.
The real stopping points for me are:
1. will it receive anywhere near the support from devs as the evo?
2. The performance both real life and synthetic that I get on the Evo seems to outpace any stock version the Epic could see.
3. Gaming is probably better but in reality android platform doesnt have many games and I have an ipad to play those anyway.
Just trying to gauge current Evo owners thoughts on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The grass is always greener. You know what you have, you don't know what you'd get.
ritzbrie said:
The grass is always greener. You know what you have, you don't know what you'd get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with this statment . In relative terms the EVO is still fairly new to the market . Granted its been out for two months but overall that isnt very long (But I have been known to get dates screwed up LOL) . This phone looks ok but the keyboard is not something I would jump all over . Also battery life for this thing would be another thing I would be cautious of . Yeah the evo isnt record breaking for its battery life (this seems to vary from one owner to the next) but whos to say the epic isnt gonna be any better off . Just from my own standpoint I know how I am with phones with moving parts I tend to break them and people look at me going "how the hell did you do that?" LOL I honestly dont know . So I usually stick with the single piece phones . My advice would be to let others jump on that boat first and before long you will hear of what downfalls it might have THEN jump if you still want to at that point . Its nice to have the coolest baddest thing out at the moment but sometimes if it doesnt work worth a damn it isnt worth it .
Before the Evo came out we were all salivating at the raw specs and bla bla and when it was released and we all became privy to its faults we all calmed down. I'm in the not pleased camp on the Evo, just too many issues to deal with.
My take is to reserve judgement on the Epic until it is out for us all to play with and handle before dissing or going all out with praises on it. On paper, it blows out everything and their grandma but I've been had before.
Every new phone is going to blow everything out of the water on paper. That's the whole point of leaks and media hype.
If you're always trying to wait for the "next best device" then you are NEVER going to get a new phone because trust me: Once the Epic is released, there will be a new phone leaked that "blows all the Galaxy S phones out of the water". Then once that phone is released, we'll repeat the process.
There is never going to be a perfect device and the Epic/Galaxy S phones are no exception. They have some better specs but what are the trade-offs? By being early adopters (most of us) for the EVO, we took the risk of not knowing the faults and we are either accepting those faults and enjoying the device for what it is, or we're jumping on the "next best thing". Personally, I'm sticking with the EVO. For all its faults, there has never been anything that has frustrated me enough to say it's a crappy phone or want to return it. The EVO is the best device I've ever owned hands down, no competition. The Epic looks really nice but I can do without.
There are doubts that I have about the Epic even before it's released that are making my decision to keep my EVO even easier.
1. Samsung has yet to prove to me that they can be trusted with support and updates. Yeah, we keep hearing the excuse that its on every network but as I said, I haven't seen any proof yet so once Sammy can PROVE to me that they've changed their non-supportive ways, I won't be investing any money on a phone from them.
2. Community/Developer support. With 3 out of 5 Galaxy S phones released (Vibrant, Captivate, EU Galaxy S), I still haven't seen the same amount of developer support for the Galaxy S line as I have for the Evo itself. Customization is important to me. Also, when I have a problem, I like to know that there is a large community of people I can ask that increase my chances of getting it solved asap. Again, this is something that only time will be able to tell.
TLDR: Despite its minor faults, I'm more satisfied with my Evo than I have ever been with any phone I've ever owned. The Epic looks like a GREAT device, but there is nothing about it that makes it good enough to switch for me. If the Galaxy S line goes well, then I may buy the next generation of Galaxy S phone, but as for right now, no.
That won't stop me from geeking out over any of my friends who get one though! SuperAMOLED is beautiful!

Switching to Sprint from ATT, Evo or Epic?

I am using a Touch Pro 2 on ATT but I want to switch to Sprint for one of the smart phones. I am trying to decide between Epic and Evo.
I've seen and played with both phones and both seem pretty equal to me. On first glance the Epic feels way lighter and cheaper than the Evo, and I didn't like the keyboard nearly as much as my TP2.
How is the Samsung software? I've never used a Sammy smart phone and I was wondering how their software compares? I've used HTC for the last 4 phones I've owned. With full root can you put HTC software on the epic phone?
Anything else I should be away of in making my decision to switch?
Thanks
You'd probably get better answers about TouchWiz in another forum, but I can say that I'm not a fan from what I've seen. It would drive me nuts not being able to change the four shortcuts on my homescreen.
The HTC Evo is CyanogenMod supported which, in my opinion, is a very strong selling point.
The HTC Evo also has Froyo. The Galaxy S phones have yet to be updated. I'm pretty sure they'll be seeing an update soon, but you never can tell.
You'll probably never see a full Sense UI ROM on the Epic.
The main thing that I like about the Epic is the Hummingbird processor. I haven't really had an opportunity to play with a Galaxy S phone w/o a T-Mobile sales person breathing down my neck, so I can't really speak to how much better it makes the overall experience.
My opinion would be that if you think you can live without a hardware keyboard, to go with the EVO.
Sorry if that was a bit rambly... I just woke up.
r2tincan said:
I am using a Touch Pro 2 on ATT but I want to switch to Sprint for one of the smart phones. I am trying to decide between Epic and Evo.
I've seen and played with both phones and both seem pretty equal to me. On first glance the Epic feels way lighter and cheaper than the Evo, and I didn't like the keyboard nearly as much as my TP2.
How is the Samsung software? I've never used a Sammy smart phone and I was wondering how their software compares? I've used HTC for the last 4 phones I've owned. With full root can you put HTC software on the epic phone?
Anything else I should be away of in making my decision to switch?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Advantage Epic 4G
1. QWERTY
2. More powerful CPU and GPU crushes Evo's GPU, no comparison
3. Screen is about 5x nicer than Evo's. To be honest, Evo has a really ****ty TFT LCD screen displaying only 65k colors.
Advantage Evo 4G
1. Feels more like a premium device, very heavy for a phone, nice form factor
2. Roughly the same size as Epic, thinner, but way less bezel, more screen.
I keep hearing about all the pixels you can see on the epic. I like my Evo, I'd say if you want to game or need a hardware keyboard go epic otherwise the Evo is great. Most games are payable with the Evo just with a few slowdowns. Battery life is just slightly better on the epic, like 15 mins or something like that.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
i work for sprint, I dont think you can go wrong with either. heres what i think...
Epic
Pros: 4G, GORGEOUS screen, Hummingbird processor really flies when scrolling and rendering, Great KB, and DLNA (instead of HDMI)
Cons: Somewhat bulky even though very lightweight, even though screen is gorgeous, colors are over exaggerated, resulting in some pixelation. 5M/VGA cameras versus the Evo 8M/1.3M combo. Capacitive buttons at bottom VERY touchy and buggy
Evo
Pros: 4G, 4.3 inch screen, HUUUUUGE development community, Android Froyo 2.2 out the box, 8M/1.3M camera combo, KICKSTAND!!, 2 flashes on Camera, HTC Sense blows Touchwiz out of the water (even though I prefer LauncherPro), and lastly Evo comes with Youtube with HQ capabilities
Cons: HTC has capped the framerate of the Evo out of the box because of the HDMI controller. Compared to the Epics constant 60fps, it blows a stock Evo out the water when it comes to anything graphical. Scrolling, pinching and zooming, things like that. The 1GHz Snapdragon core is fast as hell when launching programs and multi tasking and performing operations, but it stinks compared to the Epic when it comes to 3D gaming. Now, with that being said, there are plenty of custom roms and kernels that lift the cap on the framerate on the Evo, letting it achieve about 55fps. Close to 60, but not yet.
Screen on Evo is a tad bigger, but looks sort of washed out against the Epic.
HTC Sense is great for the average user, but its Heavy, slow, and hogs up alot of resources.
Dont get me wrong, the are more pros and cons to both, but to ME, those are the big ones. Which one do I recommend?
I RECOMMEND GOING TO A STORE AND PLAYING WITH BOTH TO SEE WITH ONE YOU..ill say it again....YOU...like better
For me, I already own the Evo, and its an awesome device, the Epic isnt enough of an upgrade for me to ditch the Evo. Furthermore, Sprint employees cant buy the Evo or Epic yet anyways. I only got an Evo cuz I was our stores advocate.
I think if I were in a buyers position tho, and was an average user, or even a more than average user, I would definately pick sadly...the Epic.
Now, if your into hacking and overclocking and tinkering your phone, then the Evo is definately the phone for you. There is so much support for the Evo, its truly unbelievable.
At the end, I LOVE my Evo, hands down the best phone ive ever had. You may not think the same, and coming to an Evo forum is gonna get you some very biased answers on which one is better. Go to a store and try them out for yourself. They are both incredible devices
I don't care at all about games but I am really tired of the slowdowns I've come to expect with Windows Mobile.
For instance, sometimes waiting for a text message to appear or for the home screen to load (5-10 seconds) is "normal" for me. I want a snappy device, with a good end-user experience. Like the iphone.
And I wanna customize it, unlike an iphone.
Edit: Thanks for the recommendation, I'll go in today and play with them again....
This post says it all:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=770471
id say go with the touch pro 2 again. haha just kidding, i hated owning the touch pro 2, so slow!!
I had a Touch Pro 2 for a month, it was so slow I couldn't even answer calls on it. Literally it would take 30 seconds to press the "answer call" button and by the the call would be disconnected. Also that conference call feature where you could easily add people to a call simply did not exist (i think it only works on the GSM verison)
I actually really, really like the Palm Pixi after seeing it in person. That thing is tiny [that's what she said] and quite underrated.
I kind of want to ditch my Evo for the Palm Pixi but would mainly miss the Google Maps Navigation. [edit I suppose it probably has Sprint Navigation]
I played with a friends epic, and I was not impressed.
touchwiz looks like kindergarten compared to sense.
it was lightweight and nice display, albeit smaller than evo.
jerryparid said:
Advantage Epic 4G
1. QWERTY
2. More powerful CPU and GPU crushes Evo's GPU, no comparison
3. Screen is about 5x nicer than Evo's. To be honest, Evo has a really ****ty TFT LCD screen displaying only 65k colors.
Advantage Evo 4G
1. Feels more like a premium device, very heavy for a phone, nice form factor
2. Roughly the same size as Epic, thinner, but way less bezel, more screen.
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Click to collapse
I agree with your review here I have 5 Evo's at work and own one myself and yesterday just activated 2 Epic's great phones screen is out of this world. That being said depends on if you want a mechanical keyboard or not. I could go either way bottom line is you can't lose with either phone they are both great. I can say for me the Evo is the best smart phone I have ever owned.
As others have said, the best way to choose is to play with both of them yourself. That being said, a friend of mine got the Epic the other day and I went over to show her how to use it and I like the EVO more. It may just be the fact that I'm more used to my phone or just simply personal preference, I don't know. The Epic is a nice phone, but IMHO, the EVO is better. Everyone is different though and you may feel another way. I'm just happy that after being with Sprint as long as I have (about 10yrs) and dealing with the fact that year after year all the top phones have gone to different carriers, Sprint finally decided to offer 2 very good choices.
I work at a Sprint store and a customer with an Epic came in with an image burned into the screen. I don't know how and I havn't read anything else on it but if I know Samsung then there will be at least one major issue.
The main reason to not get an Epic is the other name attached to it - Samsung. They are, historically, horrible with their smartphones. Slow to release updates, slow or never release updates to fix bugs big and small, marginal support for devices out on the market, and just a complete lack of customer service. As a former owner of an Instinct and a Moment, I cannot recommend buying anything with the Samsung name attached to it except their TVs and computer monitors.
I can, without any doubt in my mind, say that the Evo is the best phone I've ever owned thus far. By itself with no root and no modifications, it is a wonderful phone. Rooting it and putting whatever I want on it to expand its potential only made it a better phone. The guys over at SDX will have a heck of a time ripping out TouchWiz (yuck!) and making the Epic better than it is (it's already rooted, supposedly). I won't even be thinking about a phone upgrade again until at least November to see what's on the market or what's coming to the market (especially from HTC).

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

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