The hype around the Samsung Galaxy S II's arrival in the US has been endless. Engadget said that the original SGS2, "" and that the, "Galaxy S 2 is the Android smartphone I'd absolutely buy today."
Here are some of the key Epic 4G features. Other phones have some of these features but few have them all. If you are coming from webOS, here are dozens more features you may like.
It's Big
The 4.52" Sprint Epic 4G Touch and T-Mobile SGS2 currently have the biggest displays in the US. The 5.3" Samsung Note will be bigger in 2012. A big screen is great for web browsing, document editing, movies, photos, games, etc.
It's Small
The Epic 4G Touch's narrow bezel and thin design make the overall size just 5.2 in³. That's smaller over-all than many 4.3" phones like the Photon (6.5 in³), Droid Charge (6.3 in³), EVO 3D (6.0 in³), and Droid Bionic (6.8 in³). See the Phone Comparison.
It's Not Bloated
Some may love the preinstalled apps. Others may want to delete them. Carriers often prevent you from removing pre-installed "bloatware" without breaking your warranty. . This shows deleting the Sprint NASCAR app at 5:28. Tap Home > Menu > Settings> Applications > Manage Applications to delete apps.
It's Bright
In the SAMOLED Plus display, six LED's light each pixel producing vivid colors. Black is truly black because the LED's are off. Typical LCD displays filter out light but the LCD backlight is always on. So blacks may appear dark gray with reduced contrast. To set the Saturation, tap Home > Menu > Settings > Display > Display mode.
It's a Heavyweight
After benchmarking original dual core 1.2GHz Exynos in the original SGS2, Boy Genius Report proclaimed that it "." Also unlike other flagship phones, the SGS2 series has a full 1024MB of RAM.
It's Light
The Samsung SAMOLED Plus display needs no backlight making it not just thinner but lighter. The AT&T Galaxy S II at 4.3 oz weighs less than any of the other 4.3" phones and even less than the 4" Atrix or Nexus S.
Some phones can only last a few hours. The Epic 4G Touch can last all day with it's SAMOLED display and big battery if you know the Power Management Tricks. found the Epic 4G Touch could do 8 hours and 48 minutes of solid talk time. ()
It Won't Forget
A remarkable 2GB of the 16GB internal memory is used for apps. That's enough room for over 500 apps. 3GB is reserved for the operating system leaving over 11 GB for music, photos, docs and videos. And you can still add up to a 32GB microSD Class 10 card for around $50 from Amazon, Buy.com, or .
It's Clipboard is on Steroids
All Android phones can cut and paste. But have you ever wished you could paste the thing you copied a minute ago? The Epic 4G Touch lets you choose any of your last several items you have copied, not just the last one. Here's how. ()
It Syncs Wirelessly
The feature lets you wirelessly sync contacts, music, photos, video, and more. Kies uses your Wi-Fi network to let you use your computer browser to manage you information and multimedia contents on a larger screen. ()
It's All Business
The Epic 4G Touch includes . It securely syncs with Microsoft Exchange email, calendar, contacts and tasks. Plus the Epic 4G Touch features Device .
It's Makes You Feel at Home
The TouchWiz 4 interface shows your home screen as you customize it. To add an app, swipe left or right until you are on the home screen you want (you have 7). Long-press an empty spot and tap Shortcuts > Applications to pick the app. You can also place a widget (a live icon), Direct dial, Direct message, or Setting shortcut. To remove an item, long-press it and drag it down to the Trash icon. To try a different Wallpaper, tap Home > Menu > Wallpaper. Here's a great video walk-though.
It's Bluetooth 3.0
← See that mouse pointer? Most phones connect to a Bluetooth headset or your car. The Galaxy S II takes this a step further and lets you to connect a Bluetooth wireless mouse or keyboard. This along with HDMI mirroring allows easy control while on an monitor or HDTV. See this video showing USB Host, Bluetooth, and HDMI out from .
It Has App Folders
You already use folders on your computer to keep your files organized. Your Epic 4G Touch has folders that are just as easy to use. You have so much app storage space (nearly 2GB) that you could download hundreds of Favorite Applications. App Folders let you quickly organize and find your apps.
It Works
Look at how few issues are reported in the Epic 4G Touch forums. Just as importantly, the Epic 4G Touch has the key tools that are sometimes missing in "pure" Goggle phones. The Epic 4G Touch works right out of the box.
• - Add up to 32GB for under $50 in addition to the internal 16GB.
• Notification LED - There are still phones missing this key feature, not the Epic 4G Touch.
• Speed Dial lets you long-press a number 1-9 to call a person. • Smart Dial lets you type 2 for B, 7 for R for names beginning "Br".
• Contact Groups - Tap Home > Contacts and swipe the top blue ribbon to Groups. See, email, text certain groups you set.
It's Really Hands Free
Many "hands free" phones require you to use your hands to push buttons. The Samsung Voice Talk Feature let's you call, text, play music, or open an app without touching your phone. Look at the and a . The Epic 4G Touch really is "hands free." To enable: Tap Home >Menu > Settings > Motion settings > Double tap. ()
It's High Def
The Epic 4G Touch has a full 2MP front camera and a full 1080p 8MP rear camera. The Epic 4G Touch can also play HD movies or recordings through the HDMI adapter or . The SGS2 can play most , , , . ()
It's Camera Rocks
The Samsung Galaxy S II series : 4X zoom, , , , and so much more.
It's a Good Host
The Epic 4G Touch adds USB Host that allows you to plug in a USB memory stick, mouse, or keyboard into a micro USB Host adapter as shown in these videos at . ()
It's Up To Date
Some phones are released with old Android versions. The Epic 4G Touch bucks this trend with with Android Gingerbread and the TouchWiz 4 user interface pre-installed.
It's Economical
Flagship phones can cost $250 or $300. The Epic 4G Touch is $200. But the real economy comes with Sprint service plans and the 10%+ EVP discount. (T-Mobile also offers inexpensive plans.) Over a 24-month contract, you can spend $2000 or more. The $200 Epic 4G Touch can end up costing less than a "free" phone.
It's the Gesture that Counts
TouchWiz 4 adds a number of nice gestures and (). To enable: Tap Home >Menu > Settings > Motion settings.
• Contacts: Swipe right on a contact to call the contact or swipe left to text the contact.
• Mute: Turn the phone face down to mute an incoming call or sound.
• Homescreen: Tilt the phone left or right to move pages. Pinch in to see all pages. Swipe left or right on the dots to quickly move pages.
• Brightness: Long-press the notification bar and swipe left or right to manually change brightness if not set to Auto. ()
• Scroll: Many apps let you use three finger scrolling to scroll faster or use two fingers to stop instantly without any momentum.
Many widgets can be resized: long-press the widget and the resize tool appears. You don't have to wait for Ice Cream Sandwich! ()
It Takes Screenshots!
Even the Palm Pre from 2009 could take a screenshot but this simple feature is still missing in Android. Fortunately Samsung added screenshots to the Epic 4G Touch. To take a screenshot, hold the Home button down and tap the Power button. ()
It's Customizable
The Epic 4G Touch gives you control without rooting. In settings: Home > Menu > Settings...
• : Display > Screen Display > Fonts ().
• Touch key light duration: Display > Screen Display > Touch key backlight time out.
• Display saturation: Display > Screen mode > Dynamic/Normal/Movie
• (to pretend you are another type of phone), in the Browser type "about:useragent".
• and without root.
• App Drawer Folders: Tap App Drawer > Menu > Edit > Folder
• Change dock icons (Phone/Contact/Messaging): Tap App Drawer > Menu > Edit > drag an icon up
It's Browser Zooms
The Epic 4G Touch adds some great features in the browser too.
• Reflow: Tap Menu > Setting > Auto-fit pages to have text "re-flow" when you zoom. Double tap to zoom in or out. • : Press two fingers on the display and tilt forward or back to zoom in/out. ()
• To minimize the browser window, pinch in. Swipe to move between windows (like cards).
• Browser brightness: Browser brightness has it's own brightness setting. Tap Menu > Brightness.
• Browser full zoom out: Tap three fingers at once. • Full zoom in: Double tap with one finger.
It's Like An Ice Cream Sandwich
The next version of Andorid should have a grea toption for Messaging and Email to see split the screen in landscape mode. But you can have it today! You can see the item list and the content at the same time. To set it up, Tap Home > Menu > Settings > Auto-rotate ON. Then in Messages, Tap Menu > Settings Split view ON. In Email (not Gmail), Tap Menu > Settings > Split view mode.
It's Got Sense
Here are a couple of the standard features from HTC Sense that you can add to the Epic 4G Touch.
• puts a button on your screen to turn your LED into a powerful flashlight.
• keeps the display on when charging but lets it still dim. No unlock needed while on charger!
• (free, ) Senses when you are using your phone and keeps the display on! Spooky!
• (free trial) cover many of the widgets () • ($3) are also amazing.
• - To silence Samsung phones that beep in the night when they are fully charged.
• has an option for the navigation arrows and much more.
• is even better than the one in HTC Sense.
The Epic 4G Touch has a and . Plus there are over 500 other features shown in the Getting Started. But in the end, phones are like shoes. It's not specs but how it feels to you that matters. Try them out and see what you like.
Re: 10 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
This just makes me sadder that I'll probably be unable to get one anytime soon due to my meager Premier Silver status.
"The Nexus 4 is such a big black slab of power that if you dropped it down in the middle of a pack of monkeys, they'd start using weapons." - Dirk Belligerent.
Re: 10 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
Originally Posted by jnickol
" ...the SGS2 series has a full 1024GB of RAM..."
I think you mean MB. A terabyte of ram would be phenomenal though.
It also says room for apps. Maybe the OP just combined to states together. I know i have done that many times... Great write up.
Someone posted about the WiFi radios. Do you know if it comes with the 1 in the international phone or the GS1 phone? thanks
Call Retention and politely plead your case. Ask with the pending Sprint contract change do you still have until Sept 30 to cancel your contract? You would prefer to stay if you can... on how to do it.
Re: 10 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
Milo,
Samsung should hire you to market their product. In past few weeks, each of your selling points have crossed my mind and therefore I knew I would buy the phone once it's available. However, this is the best summary (argument) in one concise post that I've seen. Good job.
Re: 10 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
Originally Posted by locationman52
Milo,
Samsung should hire you to market their product. In past few weeks, each of your selling points have crossed my mind and therefore I knew I would buy the phone once it's available. However, this is the best summary (argument) in one concise post that I've seen. Good job.
Wow, thank you.
I posted it once I had the first 10 key features documented but I have now fleshed it out to the top 16.
There are lots of phones that have lots of features. But I can find no other phone that does all of this.
Re: 16 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
If you'd like to add some things that are a bit more under the hood and technical ...
Mali-400 GPU
AnandTech described the GPU performance of the Mali-400 as "staggering". To quote the review ...
"Despite huge disadvantages in geometry performance the Mali-400 does extremely well in the Egypt test, outpacing most of its competitors by a factor of 2. Only the iPad 2 is faster but that's to be expected based on the raw horsepower of its GPU. Given current workloads, ARM's Mali-400 is clearly the fastest GPU available on a smartphone today."
CDMA in the 800mhz ESMR Band
Only a few Sprint phones have this capability, including the HTC EVO 3D released in June, and now the Epic 4G Touch. Unfortunately (depending on how much you care about such things) it was left out on the Motorola Photon. Here is a description of what it means from an article on Phone Scoop:
Sprint currently uses iDEN technology in the 800 MHz ESMR band, but plans to migrate to CDMA technology in that band. Phones will need to specifically support CDMA in the ESMR band in order to take advantage of that part of the network.
The benefits won't be anything terribly obvious to consumers. It will simply mean more capacity on Sprint's CDMA network, to support more customers and more usage. Over time, it may give Sprint a competitive advantage that allows them to offer cheaper 3G data plans, for example. It also means that things will simply continue running smoothly. As Sprint gains customers and as those customers use more data, they risk running out of capacity. That would lead to degraded service, including dropped calls and slower 3G data speeds. This move simply helps them avoid that scenario.
There is also the benefit of increased building penetration. That's not a huge problem for most Sprint customers, but if it's a problem for you, you may find you get better service with one of these new phones, once Sprint deploys this network upgrade in your area.
5ghz WLAN (WiFi) Support - Dual Band
Here it is described, again from AnandTech's review:
"The SGS2 has both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi connectivity courtesy of Broadcom’s newest combo chip, the BCM4330. That puts SGS2 in an incredibly small list of smartphones that include 5 GHz WLAN support, which is critical going forwards as the 2.4 GHz ISM band gets even more crowded."
Re: 16 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
so now I can get the Galaxy S2 for new contract price since I am now able to switch my number to someone else and then switch it back if I want to come back as a new customer since Sprint changed the terms of my roaming agreement.
I only have once chance though since there's three phones I want - this, iPhone 5, and the Photon
Re: 18 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
Phone comparison link is not working, please fix it cause I wanna see how big is the phone. It might be the factor for me to buy this phone. I dont want anything that is bigger than 4.3 inch. Thanks
If you'd like to add some things that are a bit more under the hood and technical ...
Mali-400 GPU
AnandTech described the GPU performance of the Mali-400 as "staggering". To quote the review ...
"Despite huge disadvantages in geometry performance the Mali-400 does extremely well in the Egypt test, outpacing most of its competitors by a factor of 2. Only the iPad 2 is faster but that's to be expected based on the raw horsepower of its GPU. Given current workloads, ARM's Mali-400 is clearly the fastest GPU available on a smartphone today."
CDMA in the 800mhz ESMR Band
Only a few Sprint phones have this capability, including the HTC EVO 3D released in June, and now the Epic 4G Touch. Unfortunately (depending on how much you care about such things) it was left out on the Motorola Photon. Here is a description of what it means from an article on Phone Scoop:
Sprint currently uses iDEN technology in the 800 MHz ESMR band, but plans to migrate to CDMA technology in that band. Phones will need to specifically support CDMA in the ESMR band in order to take advantage of that part of the network.
The benefits won't be anything terribly obvious to consumers. It will simply mean more capacity on Sprint's CDMA network, to support more customers and more usage. Over time, it may give Sprint a competitive advantage that allows them to offer cheaper 3G data plans, for example. It also means that things will simply continue running smoothly. As Sprint gains customers and as those customers use more data, they risk running out of capacity. That would lead to degraded service, including dropped calls and slower 3G data speeds. This move simply helps them avoid that scenario.
There is also the benefit of increased building penetration. That's not a huge problem for most Sprint customers, but if it's a problem for you, you may find you get better service with one of these new phones, once Sprint deploys this network upgrade in your area.
5ghz WLAN (WiFi) Support - Dual Band
Here it is described, again from AnandTech's review:
"The SGS2 has both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi connectivity courtesy of Broadcom’s newest combo chip, the BCM4330. That puts SGS2 in an incredibly small list of smartphones that include 5 GHz WLAN support, which is critical going forwards as the 2.4 GHz ISM band gets even more crowded."
Does the motorola photon have capabilities of running on the 800mhz band?
Re: 18 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
Originally Posted by DroidHeroDoes
Phone comparison link is not working, please fix it cause I wanna see how big is the phone. It might be the factor for me to buy this phone. I dont want anything that is bigger than 4.3 inch. Thanks
Here you go man. This site doesn't have the Epic 4G Touch up yet, but you can use the Samsung Infuse, which is really close to the dimensions of this phone.
This link compares the Infuse to other 4.3" screens. You can clear them and add different phones if you want to see it up against another device.
Infuse vs. Photon:
Infuse vs. EVO 4G:
One thing to keep in mind though is the corners on the Epic 4G Touch are a bit more rounded, which will take a little bit of real estate off the form factor.
Re: 18 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
Can't wait to get mine on Friday, this is a bad *** phone. Glad to know that all the bloatware can be un installed. Thanks for all the info. I also have the Samsung Infuse love it, but will it more once it gets updated.
Re: 18 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
Originally Posted by thassinger42
Can't wait to get mine on Friday, this is a bad *** phone. Glad to know that all the bloatware can be un installed. Thanks for all the info. I also have the Samsung Infuse love it, but will it more once it gets updated.
I don't think ALL the bloatware can be uninstalled. Just some of it, which is better than nothing.
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Thread Author #1
25 Reasons to Consider the Sprint Epic 4G Touch
The hype around the Samsung Galaxy S II's arrival in the US has been endless. Engadget said that the original SGS2, "" and that the, "Galaxy S 2 is the Android smartphone I'd absolutely buy today."
Some phones can only last a few hours. The Epic 4G Touch can last all day with it's SAMOLED display and big battery if you know the Power Management Tricks. found the Epic 4G Touch could do 8 hours and 48 minutes of solid talk time. ()
← Tap Getting Started at the top of any page for help with:
"The Nexus 4 is such a big black slab of power that if you dropped it down in the middle of a pack of monkeys, they'd start using weapons." - Dirk Belligerent.Thanked by:
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Originally Posted by jnickol 
" ...the SGS2 series has a full 1024GB of RAM..."
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