Where Epic stands next to its Galaxy S siblings..

[whippingboy]

Nice clean interface- I like it.

As far as Epic not having software features- I'll be more concerned about the app page reformatting rather than being able to remove home screens. I think a LOT of videos are CRAP- these reviewers are not as thourough as we are when it comes to the ins and outs of the phones- and I've seen PLENTY of misquotes (such as Samsung not having Text reflow in the web browser with pinch to zoom!) This was flat out WRONG- and I've found multiple videos from supposedly "reputable" reviewers that just plain couldn't do it in a preview version of the phone- or didn't know how to do it.

I highly doubt that Samsung will have ANY software differences other than preinstalled apps which are really incentives provided by the carriers themselves.

As to the hardware built in memory- I am concerned that the Epic is only 1GB and they'll supply an SD card- rumor is sprint is giving a 8-16GB card - unconfirmed I think... but the theory- is BUILT in memory could be FASTER- and come Froyo when you can have apps on the SD- question is will the internal memory phones have an advantage here?

All Sprint phones have little to no included memory and they prefer to supply a Micro SD. That's how they handled the EVO.

IMHO the Epic is clearly the Galaxy leader- which in a way is a concern- because with Sprint pushing the Evo right now with their "First" Campaign- will they support the Epic in the same way- and will they hold up the Epic launch so HTC has time to sell the "1st 4G phone" for awhile?

I really really hate all the exclusives/differentiation. They should have the Epic with no keyboard and the Epic + which has a keyboard - both would be WORLDPHONES with simcard and CDMA and 4G antenna (on sprint version only) and released on all networks. This would be cheapest to manufacture for Samsung, and best supported by 3rd parties- and make all consumers the happiest. Having no front facing cam or no flash when another model does is just lame lame lame.

 

[liquidxit2]

Nice clean interface- I like it.

As far as Epic not having software features- I'll be more concerned about the app page reformatting rather than being able to remove home screens. I think a LOT of videos are CRAP- these reviewers are not as thourough as we are when it comes to the ins and outs of the phones- and I've seen PLENTY of misquotes (such as Samsung not having Text reflow in the web browser with pinch to zoom!) This was flat out WRONG- and I've found multiple videos from supposedly "reputable" reviewers that just plain couldn't do it in a preview version of the phone- or didn't know how to do it.

I highly doubt that Samsung will have ANY software differences other than preinstalled apps which are really incentives provided by the carriers themselves.

As to the hardware built in memory- I am concerned that the Epic is only 1GB and they'll supply an SD card- rumor is sprint is giving a 8-16GB card - unconfirmed I think... but the theory- is BUILT in memory could be FASTER- and come Froyo when you can have apps on the SD- question is will the internal memory phones have an advantage here?

All Sprint phones have little to no included memory and they prefer to supply a Micro SD. That's how they handled the EVO.

IMHO the Epic is clearly the Galaxy leader- which in a way is a concern- because with Sprint pushing the Evo right now with their "First" Campaign- will they support the Epic in the same way- and will they hold up the Epic launch so HTC has time to sell the "1st 4G phone" for awhile?

I really really hate all the exclusives/differentiation. They should have the Epic with no keyboard and the Epic + which has a keyboard - both would be WORLDPHONES with simcard and CDMA and 4G antenna (on sprint version only) and released on all networks. This would be cheapest to manufacture for Samsung, and best supported by 3rd parties- and make all consumers the happiest. Having no front facing cam or no flash when another model does is just lame lame lame.

As far as the bold text is concerned I couldn't agree more. Making a different and limited UI for just one phone seems like a cost that a company would like to avoid.

As for hardware well I would assume one of the reasons why the epic would be limited in other areas is due to the WIMAX and 4g hardware taking up more space inside. I hope that it comes with all the hardware maxed so it will handle 3.0 with great aplomb and speed.

 

[taylormah]

As far as the bold text is concerned I couldn't agree more. Making a different and limited UI for just one phone seems like a cost that a company would like to avoid.

Well, they have already made the UI different for each Galaxy S phone. Fascinate has a little icon next to the dots which needs to be tapped to edit the screens, vibrant just is straight forward - press menu key and hit 'edit', I am not sure how Captivate handles editing (this is all shown in mobileburn's youtube videos of each device). I also heard Vibrant's active home screen has its dot "bigger" and has the number of home screen you are viewing displayed in its middle while Captivate just shows the dot 'bigger'. Point is - that Samsung has already made the UI little different for each phone, so it wont be much big of a deal of they omit customization options altogather for Epic.

 

[liquidxit2]

Well, they have already made the UI different for each Galaxy S phone. Fascinate has a little icon next to the dots which needs to be tapped to edit the screens, vibrant just is straight forward - press menu key and hit 'edit', I am not sure how Captivate handles editing (this is all shown in mobileburn's youtube videos of each device). I also heard Vibrant's active home screen has its dot "bigger" and has the number of home screen you are viewing displayed in its middle while Captivate just shows the dot 'bigger'. Point is - that Samsung has already made the UI little different for each phone, so it wont be much big of a deal of they omit customization options altogather for Epic.

Just seems kinda dumb to me. I dont see why they need a different UI for each carrier when they are the same phone. Well then I guess I retract my previous statement.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Captivate and Vibrant handle the pages different. On one, the dots are numbered, on the other, the dots are just dots.

 

[JERAVICIOUS]

I've played with the Vibrant and I know that the galaxy S line will do well. I think bare bones and raw facts, the epic out does it's siblings. Besides having less memory than it's att and tmobile counter part, it shines with it's dual camera with flash on the back, sliding keyboard, and 4g. Just my take.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

I've played with the Vibrant and I know that the galaxy S line will do well. I think bare bones and raw facts, the epic out does it's siblings. Besides having less memory than it's att and tmobile counter part, it shines with it's dual camera with flash on the back, sliding keyboard, and 4g. Just my take.

Dont forget LED notifications, dedicated camera button!

 

[caliskimmer]

Dont forget LED notifications, dedicated camera button!

Don't forget Multi-colored LED notifications! (Blue, red so far, maybe even a green)

 

[JERAVICIOUS]

Dont forget LED notifications, dedicated camera button!

Oh yea that too!!

 

[darchenwar44]

Just seems kinda dumb to me. I dont see why they need a different UI for each carrier when they are the same phone. Well then I guess I retract my previous statement.

Often time the customization is coming from the carrier and not the manufacturer. An example is AT&T's removal of slide loading on all their android phones.

 

[liquidxit2]

Often time the customization is coming from the carrier and not the manufacturer. An example is AT&T's removal of slide loading on all their android phones.

Makes some sense in order to distinguish. But I still dont see the point for the money and effort that could be used elsewhere.

 

[Eazail70x7]

Guys, you can edit the home pages on the Epic, the reviewers didn't know you have to put the phone in landscape mode to do this...

Oh, and another HUGE advantage (at least for me) is that the Swype keyboard on the Epic has the voice to text button where as the others don't (not sure why). That was the only thing preventing me from having Swype as default instead of regular android keyboard. Now I'll have 4 ways to enter text without even having to change any keyboard settings.

-Hardware keyboard
-Swype
-Manually type on Swype
-Voice to text on Swype

I feel kind of lucky cause everything on the Epic is made for me and fell in place just nicely.

-Sprint
-4G
-Keyboard (physical)
-Voice to text button on swype

The 1GB memory is a bummer though I was hoping to combine my 16Gig card with at least 8gigs of internal memory

 

[taylormah]

Guys, you can edit the home pages on the Epic, the reviewers didn't know you have to put the phone in landscape mode to do this...

Thats what I am hoping for too, but referring to my earlier post, there is a video showing that even in landscape mode, there is no edit button under menu which would allow for this. If you have any link that could show it being edited, I will jump up and down!!

 

[Cav3000]

I highly doubt that Samsung will have ANY software differences other than preinstalled apps which are really incentives provided by the carriers themselves.

Looks like they went ahead and did just that no daily briefing, no ability to change apps in the dock... disappointing

 

[taylormah]

Looks like they went ahead and did just that no daily briefing, no ability to change apps in the dock... disappointing

Oh, and plus:

-TW is version 2.5 (the reason for most other things missing from Epic)
-Samsung's 5.1 surround sound Music Player is missing too
-Contacts app has no "History" tab which other GS phones have
-SMS app is plain regular. No colorful balloons there.

I am disappointment in samsung's choice to skimp on some galaxy s typical features, but then again its nothing that can't be added to a future ROM or through a future software update. I am still buying this phone.

 

[BrianFX]

I am disappointment in samsung's choice to skimp on some galaxy s typical features, but then again its nothing that can't be added to a future ROM or through a future software update. I am still buying this phone.

I'm guessing this was related to the lag issue on the other SGS phones. By going with TW 2.5, they avoided any lag. Unfortunately we lost a few features in the process (though they can likely be manually added back, and will hopefully come in the Android 2.2 update later this year).

 

[voghan]

I'm surprised the phone didn't have the same amount of internal memory. That was shocking considering samsung plans on selling movies via the media hub. I guess with 2.2 coming they think its ok to have apps installed on the sd card.

I didn't want the physical keyboard. I bought the vibrant because I didn't like the epic. I wanted a light, thin phone and that isn't the epic.

 

[caliskimmer]

I could have SWORN that I read on XDA or somewhere that the Vibrant and Captivate have a small partition for apps and the rest for multimedia. If this was correct, then we really aren't at too much of a disadvantage, but I really don't know if this is true.

 

[drizek]

I'm guessing this was related to the lag issue on the other SGS phones. By going with TW 2.5, they avoided any lag. Unfortunately we lost a few features in the process (though they can likely be manually added back, and will hopefully come in the Android 2.2 update later this year).

It is not running tw2.5. There is no such thing. It just doesn't have all the features of tw3.0, and good riddance IMO.

Sent From My Samsung Intercept

 

[Darth Pooh#CB]

It is not running tw2.5. There is no such thing. It just doesn't have all the features of tw3.0, and good riddance IMO.

Sent From My Samsung Intercept

Not true... It is a stripped down 3.0. There are some frameworks removed in order to make the slider work properly.