Samsung Epic 4G Smartphone Review

Samsung Epic 4G is a 4G capable smartphone with a big display for your entertainment purpose too. The Epic 4G is released for the latest 4G network of Sprint which offers data and voice connectivity at the same time. In absence of 4G network coverage this phone can have access to 3G network too. The huge 4-inch display is bright too with the new Super AMOLED technology which lets you view your contents in different light conditions. This phone also features another very wanted feature of many Android fans, the QWERTY keypad. Yes this phone features a big physical QWERTY keyboard enabling you to text and email as fast as a computer or laptop. The phone runs with Android version 2.1 operating system. The phone could perform smoother if it was updated to the 2.2 or later version as the later versions performed faster than the previous OSs in the same specs. This phone has two cameras. One is at the back which is 5-megapixel and it is capable of recording videos at 720p and the front facing camera is a VGA camera enough for fair video calling. The phone also comes with built in Wi-Fi hotspot functionality which enables you to use your phone as a Wi-Fi router and you can connect up to five devices. The phone comes with a 16GB microSD card included in the package and you can use up to 32GB of memory card. It has other decent smartphone features like HDMI output, solid codec support for which Samsung is famous for, DLNA technology, Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking and many things. And of course, the 1GHz hummingbird processor makes a fine combination to all these features. This phone also comes with the famous Samsung social networking and messaging software, the Samsung Social Hub. You can connect your headphones with the 3.5mm jack or the stereo Bluetooth headphones with Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP.

Features:

·         Big 4-inch Capacitive Super AMOLED display

·         Samsung Hummingbird 1GHz processor

·         Up to 3.1 Mbps 3G connectivity

·         Swype input system

·         Android 2.1

·         5-megapixel camera

·         Samsung Social Hub

·         Expandable up to 32GB

·         Built-in mobile hotspot

·         Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity

·         Download e-books instantly from a number of stores

·         16GB internal storage

Technical Specifications:

Dimensions	124 x 65 x 14 mm
Weight	155g
Network	CDMA 800/1900 CDMA2000 1xEVDO
Form Factor	Side slider
Display	4” Super AMOLED display 480x800 pixels
OS	Android 2.1
Processor	Samsung Hummingbird 1GHz processor
Internal Memory	16GB
Camera	5 megapixels autofocus and LED flash
Interfaces	3.5mm jack microUSB v2.0
Battery	1500mAh
Memories	512MB RAM 512MB ROM
Memory Card	Expandable up to 32GB
Bluetooth	2.1
Messaging	POP3, IMAP, Push Email, Web mail, SMS, MMS,IM
Sensors	Accelerometer,  proximity sensorand Digital Compass
Video Recording	720p
Available colors	Black
GPS	Present with A-GPS support
SNS integration	Facebook, Flickr and Twitter application
Other features	TouchWiz 3.0 Google services Flash Lite 3.1 Document Editor
Video playback	H.263, H.264, MP4, DivX, WMV
Audio playback	MP3, WAV, eAAC+, AC3, FLAC

Review:

The Samsung Epic 4G is the direct competitor of the Evo 4G though it has a huge difference in the form factor, it has a slide out QWERTY physical keyboard but the Evo 4G is a simple touch screen only phone. The phone performs better than the Evo 4G in many ways. Starting from battery life to sound quality it beats the Evo 4G everywhere. The screen brightness is always amazing even when you are working under the sunlight. But this brightness has a cost especially when you are browsing the web. The battery will start ending up like rocket fuel as your screen will be on for a long time. The camera quality is good. The quality of the pictures is equal to the picture of a point and shoot camera of 5-megapixel where the cameras of most of today’s smartphones are only boasting of megapixels instead of quality.

Advantages:

·         Samsung Social Hub is very useful

·         Good Wi-Fi connectivity

·         16GB card included

·         5 MP camera

·         Access to Android Market

·         Fast processor

·         Smooth browsing

·         Android 2.1

·         Lightweight design

·         Expandable with up to 32GB card

·         DLNA

·         Louder sound

·         Excellent camera quality

·         Faster graphics processor

·         QWERTY keyboard

·         Swype input

Disadvantages:

·         Does not comes with Froyo

·         Too many preloaded tasks on the background

·         Front camera quality too low

·         Low YouTube video quality