Epic 4G Forum Members Initial Thoughts & Reviews

[Good_Apollo]

Been using for one day now. The signal is significantly weaker than my Pre. I don't get service in some areas where I used to and it is a few bars (bars are relative I know) less in places where it used to be full.

My pre suffered the same issue when I first got it, it was fixed after a few software updates, maybe I can hope for the same.

Is anybody else having this problem? Maybe I got a phone with a bum antenna or something

 

[camtah]

First off, I must say that the screen is very nice and responsive...
But......

I really wanted to like this device. After the initial wow on the eye candy, I realized that getting down to work with this device is just plain difficult.

I admit that I was used to WM with SPB Mobile shell and for my needs it managed to work quite well. My PC's are all Win7-64bit.

Along with the Epic, I picked up the docking station and a black cover.
In order to make the epic more usable for me I installed the following apps:

* CompanionLink (Trial version)
* LauncherPro Plus (and various skins)
* Beautiful Icons

I wanted to have the ability to sync my Outlook data (contacts, calendar, etc.). Google's solution is almost comical. CompanionLink works somewhat, but is clunky and confusing at times and I don't have much confidence yet with it.

I still can't get the calendar widget to show my appointments, but if install the calendar widget from LaunchPro Plus , I can get an agenda view that works somewhat. Yet if I hit he Calendar widget, I get nothing but Holidays. I am sure there is a setup issue, but it isn't obvious. Deja Office calendar works as expected.

The dock station will flat out not work with the cover on. It is a PITA to take the cover off each time and the Home Dock software will not allow direct access to the SD card with my PC. Also the volume button on the bottom keeps getting hit. No Landscape view without he keyboard slider up is another issue and the top located USB port on the Epic is a major blunder IMO.

The cover is OK and serviceable.

I have no trouble with my cap switches...

The GPS accuracy stinks compared to my Treo Pro.(yes I have the Use Wireless Networks turned on)

I am located in a 4G area, but I can't get 4G service in my house. I get it if I stand in my front yard and then it works well. Not happy about this considering the additional fee imposed.

Spellcheakk er Spellcheck ???????????

Can't clean up the Sprint bloatware as others have mentioned. I like the responsiveness of this device. I would have waited for WIN7 but I am not sure I like where that development is going.

All in all, the epic is responsive and the screen is nice to look at. Maybe I haven't found the right apps, but wading thru the thousands of apps that seemed geared towards gamers or kids is exhausting..

I will give it a few more days, but so far I may take it back and keep looking...

 

[techgeek32#WN]

My thoughts

Pros: Bluetooth 3.0, wifi 802.11n, separate graphics processor, more accessories out than EVO, nice screen, good keyboard.

Cons: plastic, plastic, and more plastic. TouchWiz is awful, charging port on the top? Really?, capacitive function buttons, colors used in contacts and calendar program are very unprofessional, flimsy battery cover, not very customizable, no syncing directly with Microsoft Outlook without running everything through Gmail.

I have an EVO, BB Bold, TP2, Pre and the Epic. The Epic is going back today. I don't see Sprint selling many of these to business users. The colors Samsung uses make everything look like a Playschool toy. If it had Sense and HTC's build quality it would be more professional looking and probably be sold out. I don't think we will see shortages on the Epic as with the EVO. The manager at my store doesn't even like the Epic, said many of the customers with reservations passed on the Epic after looking at it in the store. Pictures and video came out better on my EVO and the EVO screen is easier to read in my car dock than the Epic. It is a
great alternative for Sprint to offer customers. Now if they can add a new Palm, WM7, and touchscreen Blackberry device they can round out their product portfolio nicely.

 

[Malefickus]

There are a few things that I've noticed with my Epic that annoy me, but I can live with.

-- Where I work at, it is a 1x roaming signal. The roaming indicator shows up fine, but the phone incorrectly reports it as being a 3G signal.

-- Streaming low-definition movies through AllShare to my TV (which also happens to be made by Samsung) works great, but if I try to stream a 720P movie, the audio won't work. TV says the audio codec isn't supported.

For those that are saying that the keyboard is opening a little when you push the power button...I'm trying to figure out how you're doing that. The button is on the keyboard portion of the phone. Personally, at worst, I am hitting the volume and power buttons at the same time when bringing the device out of standby mode.

I have the Airave Access Point in my apartment, and even in the same room, the Epic doesn't report that I have a full signal strength. However, it works great with the Sprint TV, NASCAR, and other apps. 3G data on this phone feels much faster than it did on my Hero and the Pre.

As for size, this really doesn't feel all that much thicker than my Hero did. I have large hands, and using this phone one handed isn't much of a problem except for when trying to close the notifications window area. Not quite able to swipe it all the way back up, but then again the Back button will do that for me.

Capacitive buttons work great for me. I don't have to hit any of them more than once to get them to work.

I can't say much about the GPS on the device yet. I'm connected to the Airave and WiFi for data, and my location is only about 1/2 mile off. Considering I'm indoors and most likely not getting a regular satellite lock on, I really don't think it is that bad.

 

[allhailcale]

Things I love:

SCREEN!
Update existing and link functions in contacts
Swype
Program manager
Capacitive buttons (work great for me)
Call answer screen
Keyboard options (I dig swype so much when I snap out the keyboard it's almost like an added bonus)
Notifications pull-down tab with wi-fi, bt, 4g, and GPS controls
Ease of customization
Quick access to account info via sprint zone
visual voicemail

Things I miss from my BB that I wish the Epic had:
Alarm clock that turns the phone on
Quick push functions
Indigenous IM client

Big list, short list. I'm a noob to Epic and to Android, so I'm open to any and all suggestions...

 

[Good_Apollo]

no syncing directly with Microsoft Outlook without running everything through Gmail.

It syncs to MS Exchange, were you trying to do outlook desktop sync? To sync with Exchange server you need to use the "Email" app instead of "Gmail"

 

[eharty]

Got my Epic yesterday at BB...they had 2 that were not pre-orders.

Pros:
- Screen is a little over saturated but easy to read and I can even see it in sun which I could not do with the EVO.
- Keyboard is better than I had hoped for and coming from a Blackberry Tour that is quite a compliment.
- Video plays smoothly. I don't play games on my phone but choppy video on the Evo bugged the hell out of me.
- Camera is better than the Evo as it does white balance pretty well (so far). Haven't tried video yet.
- Touch Wiz is OK. Not as many widgets as Sense but very intuitive.
- Phone seems to be very good and gets a bit stronger signal than my BB Tour.
- For some reason I seem to have an easier time with the virtual keyboard on the Epic than I did with the Evo. Swype is also nice.


Cons:
- GPS...It's taking about 5 minutes sometimes to get a fix on my location. I thought for sure Samsung would have had this fixed by now.
- Back of phone seems to vibrate a little when using the speakerphone.
- Slider mechanism could be a little tighter. There isn't really any oreo going on but it tends to slide open just a bit when I hit the power button.
- No To Do app. Trying out Got To Do but really waiting for Pimlical to get ported to Android.

 

[barbarianthemadserb]

Picked up my Epic yesterday, charged it up and started to play with it. I love it. I have not ran all the different applications yet. But I came up with an annoying problem. I could not start the WIFI! I would get the error "UNABLE TO SCAN THE NETWORKS". So I pulled the battery. No help. tried all sorts of things and went to the internet with no help. Called Sprint tech support (on line for about an hour). First level could not fix it and elevated it. Second level could not fix it and elevated. Finally on the third person the supervisor told the tech that we need to do a complete erase, reboot, reactivate it (and if that did not work then I would have to take back to exchange the Epic. This last process worked after the rewipe, setting back to factory settings ( which I initially did not mess with) and a reactivation. Hopefully this will help someone with a similar problem.
Other than that, I found I have 4G in my area (Methuen, Ma).

 

[jngai]

I spent probably 10 hours playing with the phone yesterday. Coming from the Palm Pre, I probably spent at most 1/3 of that on launch day.

-Interface definitely not as simple as Palm Pre, long press and separate sub menu button, but its not horrible.

-I couldn't figure out how to answer a phone call. Simple tapping doesn't work... RTFM. I eventually figured out I have to drag the icon to talk. Interesting, but why they making me work to answer a call?

-Phone is overall a lot faster than my Palm Pre, even after I o/c the Palm Pre to 1 Ghz. But that's like comparing apples to oranges. Palm Pre takes 3 minutes to boot up. Android takes less than 30 seconds. The design is not as elegant, but the OS is simply faster.

-Still don't know how to multi-task. Long press home button brings up most used apps, not apps still running in background.

-Tikl invite messes up my SMS. It prevents any SMS from sending after sending the first invite. Only way to fix this is to restart the phone.

Overall, I like the phone a lot. I don't think I will go back to Palm because I can't stand their "we will release a phone whenever we feel like" policy. And they never feel like releasing a phone sooner than once every 18 months.

 

[barbarianthemadserb]

Just one more nuance. Probably the result of me hitting the wrong key.
I went to "Files" and saw that I had no sd card installed? It was there earlier this morning. So I pulled the battery to completely reset it. The SD card now came back. Hopefully I did an "OE" (operator error) somewhere along the line. hmm. This is the second minor (I hope) problem I have encountered. So far all else is working great.

 

[camtah]

It syncs to MS Exchange, were you trying to do outlook desktop sync? To sync with Exchange server you need to use the "Email" app instead of "Gmail"

A lot of us use Outlook both with and without an Exchange server. The support for Outlook standalone is non-existent unless I am missing something

 

[adjmcloon#IM]

Just wanted to pop in here:

If there's one thing that sucks, it's the power button being on the opposite side of the volume rockers. I am constantly turning my ringer down when I wake up the screen.

 

[chsinn]

Just wanted to pop in here:

If there's one thing that sucks, it's the power button being on the opposite side of the volume rockers. I am constantly turning my ringer down when I wake up the screen.

Interesting - My volume rocker does not wake up my screen. The only way I can wake mine up is to press the power button or slide the keyboard out a bit. It's actually one of my annoyances with the phone. Other phones working like mine or does mine have an issue?

 

[Dochas]

I can't say much about the GPS on the device yet. I'm connected to the Airave and WiFi for data, and my location is only about 1/2 mile off. Considering I'm indoors and most likely not getting a regular satellite lock on, I really don't think it is that bad.

Granted you are indoors but still, 1/2 mile off is huge. Its fine if your just wanting a quick check of whats nearby but try getting turn by turn directions when it just knows you are somewhere within this 1/2 mile area.

 

[SomeAudioGuy]

I've been incredibly impressed with this phone. Quite simply the smoothest Android handset I've ever used. The screen is gorgeous, and the keyboard is fantastic.
My only nitpicky (aside from not having 2.2 of course) is this frustrating issue I've had with mail attachments. Every time I send an email through the GMail app with an attachment it slows the phone WAY down. It's practically un-usable until the email is sent.

Other than that, The Epic is everything I've been looking for in a phone for the last two years. Epic indeed.

 

[Gordoflex]

Thoughts on the Slider

Hello All, I am new here and just upgraded to the Epic from a Pre. So far I really like the phone, but my only concern is the slider and how over time this will get loose like the Pre had. I've read some reviews and I realize there is some "play" but it does have me worried. My first choice was the EVO but with no stock on hand I thought I'd try this phone. I'd like to get your thoughts on this, could it be problem?

Thanks

 

[techgeek32#WN]

No Outlook syncing is a dealbreaker.

I'm SOOO disappointed! It's been a long day of not getting things to work. My hubby has an EVO that he loves, but I really wanted a keyboard so waited for the Epic. I was expecting some great things.

First -- this is a working phone for me. I don't use it to play games, but I need a solid smart phone.

So here's the thing. My desktop PC runs Windows 7 64-bit. I use PC Outlook 2007 and rely rely rely on true sync between my phone's calendar and contacts and my outlook calendar and contacts. I expected some sort of something that would work to do this for me.

I tried to play with the Google cloud-type sync. but Google's sync won't work with a 64-bit 2007. Crap.

So then I tried to work with CompanionLink. It crashes repeatedly. So much so that I wasn't able to get a complete sync. I'm dead in the water without something working. Samsung's Kias won't work with the Epic, but it sure looks pretty on my PC desktop!

So then I figured, what the heck, I'd wait for CompanionLink tech support to give me some help.

And tried to pair my Jawbone JB2 with the phone. It flatly won't pair. The Epic can't find it. Another 2 hours wasted messing around with why nots?

All in all, I'm very very disappointed. It looks pretty. The keyboard is great. The screen is great. The sound is, well, okay but screech'y and a bit fuzzy through the phone itself.

I've not been able to drag any of the preinstalled apps to the trash -- I have absolutely no need for Nascar or most of the preinstalled stuff. I want them off the main apps screen so that the stuff I do use is handy. ... So I tried dragging Nascar to the trash bin. Guess what? It won't go away. Neither with Sprint football. Hold it down and drag it to the trash. ... but it's still there.

The little buttons on the bottom go totally dark and when you fumble around trying to get them to light up so you can see what to do next, you press the wrong button by mistake.

And the stupid thing keeps turning itself off even though I adjusted the settings so that it would stay on for at one minute. Within 3 seconds of lifting one's finger, the phone goes black.

Unless I can come up with some real solutions tomorrow -- I've wasted most of a day on this thing already -- back it goes to Sprint and I'll need to wait for an Evo I guess.

BTW, I'm coming from a Blackberry Tour, which wasn't too great either ... and before that a Palm Treo. I really really missed a touchscreen and was really jazzed about the Epic.

rats.

The same reason I stayed with the EVO. I can sync directly to Outlook without getting entangled in Gmail frustration and losing of contacts and calender items. I still like my BB Bold because it syncs everything from Outlook including Notes and Tasks, plus it has unlimited room for Contact notes, something that Android devices don't have and probably never will.

 

[whippingboy]

It's a spring action slider- and a BIG one at that. The screen easily shifts more than any of the 4 pre's I had. It's either that- or get the Droid which have that scraping feeling that takes 2x the effort to open the keyboard.

If that's a problem for you- stay away from the phone.

Epic just like HTC Evo- need to allow you to configure the colors to denote email and calendar accounts. To randomly pick specifiers is terrible. My wife got blue and green- both hard to read with black text on calendar...but way cooler than my PINK, ORANGE, RED on my calendar. I think I'm now colorblind.

The other issue- I don't think the phone has vcard support ... AT ALL. can't send them via SMS- can't receive them via SMS (seen as a slideshow) and when I tried to send a contact to my Pioneer Bluetooth stereo (3200BT) the phone said the stereo rejected the contact! Yet the car worked with my EVO, Pre and even my Treo 755 !!! WTF? The phone does pair fine with it however- otherwise the phone would be sent back.

There's no password lock feature (not even an option!) when you enable an outlook exchange account- I don't know how Samsung got away with that one- hopefully Froyo will fix.

I can't do a phone lookup on corporate email like I could with Pre and Evo - guess I need touchdown now...sigh.

Need about a week to really put the phone through it's paces- but DANG it's fast. Multasking beast- and I have yet to see it chug. Still need to test call quality.

Really like the dialer- and the tabbed features at the top along with the tabbed email folders- still bummed about the removal of the swipe left to send message and right to call- but hey...

Really hope the gripes I mentioned above are fixed by froyo- but in the meantime- I think I can live with them. Overall, I like what I have more than what I did with the Evo.

Built in task killer/battery app and file manager are a HUGE plus.
Overall, I think this is a better phone for newbies to Android- it just feels more polished with what samsung has done vs. "naked" or yes, even the almighty sense.

I do miss sense's idea of themes: being able to save arrangements of home screens as different profiles... could have sworn that the Galaxy S promo presentation suggested at this- a setup for your phone at work, at home on the weekend, in a car dock, on a desk at work- on a dock bedside... what happened to this theme idea?

I think all the skins from all the manufacturers have something worthwhile- maybe that's why everyone likes launcher pro? They steal everyone's ideas and pulls it into one. I am bummed I can't change the bottom icons- or delete home pages (I only use 1 right now!) and
I think for new people to android - this phone is in some ways easier and strangely some ways more difficult than other android phones. - yeah- that's a contradiction... oh well.

I think it laughable that the instruction manual talks about backing up the phone prior to firmware updates- YET there's no actual way to easily do this. Contact/calendar sync with google is NOT backing up an android phone. I can't wait to hear of everyone who gets froyo and wipes all their data... (heaven forbid)

 

[roidrage]

Easy tether works great on it.

 

[SntaCruz83]

Need a tester to confirm a possible bug...

I've been incredibly impressed with this phone. Quite simply the smoothest Android handset I've ever used. The screen is gorgeous, and the keyboard is fantastic.
My only nitpicky (aside from not having 2.2 of course) is this frustrating issue I've had with mail attachments. Every time I send an email through the GMail app with an attachment it slows the phone WAY down. It's practically un-usable until the email is sent.

Other than that, The Epic is everything I've been looking for in a phone for the last two years. Epic indeed.

I agree with you on this one. It was taking so long to send an email with a picture that I thought my phone had crashed. I couldn't do anything else on the phone until it finished sending the picture.

Also, I could use someone else's help to confirm this possible bug using the email app (not gmail). While on a phone call, enable WiFi or 4g (if you have it in your area) and surf the net. No problem, right? Now try and do a refresh of your email through the email app on your epic. I couldn't connect to server and it's rather frustrating to not be able to access my email accounts while on the phone with the person sending it to me.