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When the rest on the planet has been enjoying the Samsung Galaxy S II for some time now, the U.S. has had to sit by and wait for its turn. Luckily, the time has ultimately come along with the Android superphone are going to be out there through various carriers this fall. Sprint is initial out of your gate, launching the Samsung Epic 4G Touch on September 16 for $199.99 having a two-year contract. As the successor to the preferred Samsung Epic 4G, the smartphone loses its slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but gains a quicker dual-core processor, larger and sharper Super AMOLED Plus touch screen, improved cameras, and a lot a lot more. The phone is on the large side, that will preserve some at bay, but for those who can deal with the size, the Epic 4G Touch is not going to disappoint.
Design
At 5.1 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide, the Samsung Epic 4G Touch is often a large device. The width tends to make it tougher to grip the phone, particularly if you have smaller hands, and it really is not a handset that effortlessly fits into a pants pocket. It's not going to become for everyone. That stated, just like the Samsung Infuse 4G, it is also rather thin and light at just 0.38 inch thick and 4.5 ounces, so the smartphone is a lot easier to manage than one would feel.
Plus, you may be prepared to take care of the phone's bigger size once you get a glimpse with the 4.52-inch, WVGA (800x480) Super AMOLED Plus touch screen. The spacious display as well as the vibrant colors make it terrific for viewing Net pages and multimedia. You can find slightly sharper screens out there, like the qHD (960x540 pixels) display on the Motorola Photon 4G, so pictures and text aren't pretty as smooth, but we still identified the Epic 4G Touch's screen simple to study.
The touch screen is responsive. The smartphone provides both Swype and Samsung's virtual keyboards. It registered all our taps, and we had been able to quickly navigate by way of the menus. Also to employing the standard touch interface, you are able to also use motion gestures around the Epic 4G Touch. With the settings turned on, you are able to flip the phone to mute it. With two fingers around the screen, you may tilt to zoom in and out in the Gallery and browser. Flicking your wrist left or proper (panning) can move a home screen icon when you happen to be holding it. Double-tapping the best with the phone prepares the Vlingo-powered Voice Speak app for voice commands although you happen to be driving. Nevertheless, panning and zooming weren't as responsive as we'd like. While most of the motion controls might not figure into your daily use, this kind of gesture functionality adds welcome choices generally.
Beneath the show, you will obtain touch-sensitive buttons for the menu, household, back, and search functions. The left side characteristics a volume rocker, though the proper spine features a power/lock button. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack on prime with the device along with a Micro-USB port on the bottom. Inside the right-hand corner just above the show, there's an LED indicator light and inside the left-hand corner is usually a 2-megapixel camera for video calls. The back of the phone options an 8-megapixel camera and an LED flash.
There's a microSD expansion slot behind the battery door. The latter features a textured surface, so the phone does not really feel so slick, but like quite a few Samsung smartphones before it, the Epic 4G Touch has a plastic construct. Some metal accents or parts would go a long way in making it really feel like a far more premium handset.
Sprint packages the Samsung Epic 4G Touch with just the fundamental accessories, which incorporate an AC adapter, a USB cable, and reference material.
User Interface
The Samsung Epic 4G Touch runs Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread together with Samsung's latest TouchWiz 4.0 user interface. We're normally much less enthusiastic about custom interfaces--they often add undesirable complexity and unremovable apps, and are usually slower to update to new OS versions. Even so, TouchWiz 4.0 includes a handful of items going for it, some carryovers from earlier versions of TouchWiz. You will find seven house screens, by way of example, plus the notification pull-down menu has icons for easily turning on Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 4G, and sound profiles.
Customizing the property screens is made less complicated, with a carousel-like setup that lets you move by way of the different panels to add and get rid of shortcuts and widgets simultaneously. Previously, you had to perform a long-press on one screen to modify it and then repeat the approach for those who wanted to change a further page. It is possible to also now resize Samsung Reside Panel widgets and there is a extra fluid motion when scrolling through widgets lists and property pages.
A number of the changes are purely cosmetic, but they surely add some polish for the UI. You will find also some helpful additions as well, for instance an integrated activity manager that displays all of your active applications, downloaded apps with all the selection to uninstall, RAM status, and method storage. Also wonderful: the capability to now capture screenshots by simply pressing the energy button and property essential simultaneously.
