Samsung Epic 4G Touch Review
By Ruben Corbo on October 27th, 2011
It only takes one look at the phone in action to realise it is a pretty big device. The 4.5 inch screen is one of the best in regards to size, but might prove too big for some. As a result of the screen the phone also loses some of the sleek aesthetic that you’d expect from a phone in this price range.
It is a top contender, but in a market where phones are becoming increasingly similar in terms of both hardware and software, the difference of an eye pleasing design is all the more important.
The phone measures 5.1 inches in height, 2.7 inches in width and is 0.38 thick. This makes it one of the slimmer designs around which helps it hold onto some degree of stylish appeal. However, as previously suggested, the phone’s large width and height can make it a nuisance to hold. This also means that it’ll take up a sizable area in your pocket when carrying it around.
In total the phone weighs 4.5 ounces, at least making it a pretty light device. What’s more impressive about its weight is that it is still low even when supporting the phone’s larger-than-life 4.52 inch screen. The screen is a Super AMOLED Plus touch screen supporting a WVGA resolution of 800x480. The resolution is enough to deliver a decent display, but lacks the added vibrancy of the displays seen on other phones in the market (e.g. the iPhone’s Retina Display or the Motorola Photon 4G’s qHD 960x540).
Nevertheless, the screen does its job more than adequately. It is immensely responsive, though this is generally expected from a phone boasting this standard of screen. The user also has the ability to input motion commands. A flick of the wrist to the left or the right will navigate the phone through its home screens. Tilting the phone forwards or backwards will allow you to zoom in on the Gallery or web browser. There are also similar such shortcuts, which, whilst not being an entirely unique selling point in themselves, do serve to augment the interactive and immersive feel of the phone.
The phone runs using Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread whilst using TouchWiz 4.0 as its user interface overlay. TouchWiz has been thankfully refined over the years and with the Epic 4G it comes boasts the phone’s appeal, rather than being the unwelcome deterrent it has been in the past. Its features include seven customizable home screens with favourite widgets and shortcuts in addition to a pull-down notification menu which allows you to turn on and off the phone’s core functions (such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.)
The phone’s 1.2GHz Exynos dual-core processor provides consistent performance throughout, with scarcely any noticeable slowdown. Its camera is unsurprisingly of a pretty impressive standard, with sharp and colourful pictures and 1080p video capability.
