I think the problem is, half the people who is starting out with any Android phone just assumes they're stick with the default UI, like in the past dumb phones.
That's the beautiful of Android, folks. Customization.
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Evo 4G vs Epic 4G
- Thread starter facekl
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- htc evo 4g
That's the beautiful of Android, folks. Customization.
One Beast
Android Enthusiast
I thought the same yesterday when I played with one at the Sprint store for the first time...I think it's the fact that we have 3000mAh batteries adding solid bulk and weightMy phone feels like a tank lol.
Ha good point
dbpaddler
Android Expert
For people calling the Epic flimsy, try twisting and torquing it, then do the same to the Evo. My Evo has more flex and more creaks than the Epic does. It's not flimsy, it's just light. Even the slight looseness to the slider is no different than other sliders, and when open it is solid.
@vud911: It's tough to get the word out about customizing certain things. Though on the flip side, there is certain functionality Google needs to have in stock android where you shouldn't have to rely on 3rd parties. Hopefully Gingerbread mixes things up a bit.
@vud911: It's tough to get the word out about customizing certain things. Though on the flip side, there is certain functionality Google needs to have in stock android where you shouldn't have to rely on 3rd parties. Hopefully Gingerbread mixes things up a bit.
IOWA
Mr. Logic Pants
And the two models I checked out already, they both seemed rock solid to me. And there was even a line to even see the second one >.<
dbpaddler
Android Expert
That screen pops. I likened it to the big screens on display at stores. They crank everything up to give it that pop and wow factor. You play avatar on it, and I'm sure people would oooo and ahhhh. Wish we would've gotten that download for free.
Under EVO cons it lists the $10 premium charge for 4G even if you are not in a 4G location. Isn't there a $10 charge on the epic as well? If so, why is it not a negative for the Epic as well? It is probably more of a negative on the Epic as the phone costs and additional $50 more then the EVO to boot.
krazykevin76
Lurker
I only played with the epic a few minutes the other day. Even only having my EVO for a few days, I'd still choose the EVO. In my opinion, the screen on the epic is just horrid. I don't care how bright, saturated, crisp, or whatever you want to call it, all I see is dots and pixels. It's like your staring at a 60" big screen from 6 inches away. I just don't see how people could stand looking at that all day. Again, I'm not saying the evo screen is all that or better, just that those dang dots on the epic are a killer!!!!
JunBringer
Android Expert
I played with a co-worker's Epic the other day. I didn't think I'd like it much, but it does feel really nice. The haptic feedback for example is much crisper, if that makes any sense. The screen looks really nice, though not so much nicer that it'd matter to me really. The shape of it is really cool too, it's kinda ovalesque. I don't like physical keyboards really, but using that to send a quick text felt really good.
Just my two cents. I'd recommend it to somebody, though I prefer Evo personally.
Just my two cents. I'd recommend it to somebody, though I prefer Evo personally.
Sauk
Newbie
I had the EPIC 4G for 6 days and I have gone back to the EVO. I really liked the EPIC, a few things I didn't like were the keyboard, wish they made one without one.
I really liked the screen, looks fricken awesome.
In the end I just liked the way the EVO feels, I like the UI better on the EVO as well.
Both phones are fantastic though
I really liked the screen, looks fricken awesome.
In the end I just liked the way the EVO feels, I like the UI better on the EVO as well.
Both phones are fantastic though
it would really help if you can be more specific in your reasons not to like the epic. where there any functionality that was missing?
sadkins292
Newbie
I know Gorilla Glass is on all Samsung Galaxys.
But GPS, I'll wait for the official fix before deciding if I were you. Should be this month, anyway.
that is what I am saying...
evo has one not the other
epic has one not the other (waiting to see if it has both)
IOWA
Mr. Logic Pants
Pixelation? Man you must have super duper microscope eyes! I have 20/10 and there was no pixelation from a normal viewing distance, at all.
firechicken
Newbie
Anandtech has their epic review up. Probably one of, if not the best reviews out there. They confirm issues with the gps.
Samsung Epic 4G Review: The Fastest Android Phone - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
Samsung Epic 4G Review: The Fastest Android Phone - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
Cobravision
Android Expert
He's referring to the screen door effect on SAMOLED phones from the pentile matrix screen. You don't need superhuman vision to see it. It also makes smaller text blurrier than the Evo text because of the way the subpixels are arranged.
I hope he re-does the screenshots comparing the brightness of the Epic screen so it's more accurate.
It's good that he highlighted the GPS problems... although he is very critical of the GPS performance. Many of the folks in the Epic forum seem to believe it's usable in most situations (i.e. driving a vehicle where it can snap to the nearest road and use the AGPS data to improve accuracy) but that when doing things like walking/hiking the poor accuracy is problematic.
novox77
Leeeroy Jennnkinnns!
I had my first chance to play with an Epic today. Had my Evo alongside to do some comparisons. Here were my major observations, with the disclaimer that I'm trying to be objective as possible, and I don't have any brand loyalties.
The Evo is brighter. I loaded google.com on both phones, making sure to turn on full brightness on both, and also full brightness on the Epic's browser. The Epic's white is very bluish, and this was noticeable on all 3 epics on display. In the dark range, the Epic was very good. Dark details lost on the Evo were still present on the Epic. The Epic's colors were more saturated.
These observations did not surprise me at all. OLED-based screens get their incredible contrast ratios because of their ability to produce almost pure black. It's like dividing by zero. You get an infinite result, so if you can keep your black value as close to zero as possible, you get a huge ratio value. I was a bit surprised to see the bluish hue on the Epic. Some might say I'm used to my Evo's "yellower" screen, so my eyes are "white balanced" to yellow, making the Epic's screen appear bluer. I really don't think this is the case. I'm pretty good with colors and can typically identify a true neutral gray/white.
The Pentile matrix screen of the Epic did bother me. It gave edges of text a jagged and fuzzy feel. It's only a problem with high-contrast edges (like text). For images and videos, it isn't noticeable at all. I would demand a much higher pixel density (resolution) for Pentile screens. Evo's screen feels much more crisp and sharp. I also think that anti-aliasing algorithms for fonts are optimized for traditional square pixels, which may further contribute to the fuzzy feel of the Epic's text rendering. The same effect can be acheived when you rotate text in Photoshop to some non-90-degree angle. The edges get a bit blurrier.
The 4 capacitive buttons on the Epic are annoying. When the backlight for the buttons goes out, they are completely invisible. I hope there's some way to address this on a software level, like keeping the backlight for the buttons on whenever the screen is on. Unlike others, I did not have any issues with the buttons being less responsive.
The camera on the Epic is INCREDIBLE. To me, this is what makes the Epic shine when compared to the Evo. Looking at the live display while in camera mode was like looking at the display of a dedicated digital camera. It was immediately clear that the optics of the Epic's camera were vastly superior to the Evo's. I took a few shots of the same thing under the same conditions, and there is no comparison. The Epic actually does a GOOD job under low lighting, and an AWESOME job with full light. I was simply blown away that such a good camera could exist on a cell phone. I also loved that there was a physical shutter button that acted like a traditional camera: half-press to focus; full press to shoot. Bravo.
Framerate on the Epic was impressive. Very smooth scrolling, unlike my stock Evo. I still can't believe HTC thinks that 30FPS is an acceptable tradeoff for HDMI. Touch tracking was very responsive, again, unlike my stock Evo. I'm glad both issues were fixable via rooting and a custom kernel, but come on, this type of quality should come out of the box. Especially if you want to be competitive with the iPhones. Anyhow, Epic's framerates are very good.
I was really hoping to be impressed by the physical keyboard, but it was so-so. The slider felt solid, which was good, but the keys themselves felt unsatisfying to push. Hard to explain. But it reminded me of old-school calculator buttons. A bit loose, and kind of mushy when pressed. I also didn't like the way the keys were arranged into a perfect grid. If you're going to provide a qwerty keyboard, you should stagger the rows accordingly. The grid arrangement made me press in-between keys way too much.
OTOH, Swype felt a lot snappier on the Epic than it does on my Evo. Not sure if this was a placebo effect or something, given that Swype was factory-bundled with the phone and therefore has probably undergone more quality control than my beta swype. But it felt more accurate.
There are a lot more features I wanted to test but didn't have the time. I'll be checking these out at a later date for sure.
I was really hoping to get my wife this phone to replace her iPhone 3G. While I think the Epic is definitely a better phone than the iPhone 3G, I wanted her first Android experience to be better than the Epic. I'll have her try it out anyway; maybe her impression will be different than mine. But after today, I'm a bit less enthusiastic about pushing the Epic on her.
Cobravision
Android Expert
This isn't psychological -- if you look at the Galaxy screen when it's off, you can clearly see that it's tinted blue. The brighter you make the screen, the bluer it looks. I read web pages for hours a day. The thought of looking at fuzzy text on a blue background all day is total dealbreaker for me.
The 2 step shutter on the Epic is probably the one thing I'd love to have on the Evo.
All right, just want to point out the incorrect. The problem is most noticeable when the brightness is set to the lowest, not the highest. (remember to turn off auto brightness and make sure application doesn't have its own brightness set)
I don't see the blueish tint with it set to the highest brightness. I do somewhat see it in a white background+low brightness setting. This was the procedure the thread that documented the problem suggested to see the blueish tint, and yes it is there. I can confirm it as well. Full brightness, white looks fine. I'm testing it right now and here with the Vibrant. So yep, definitely there.
I'm surprised you wouldn't want a faster processor/GPU. But hey, whatever
. And please don't point out a good GPU is only good for games/videos because it isn't true no matter how many times this is repeated.http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=732247
Here's the thread. Not all of the phones suffer from the problem. Mines does for sure.
Cobravision
Android Expert
Well... how is it going to help when not playing 3D games? And if the Epic was a non-laggy wonderbeast you'd have something, but it has the same instances of lag the other Galaxy phones do. How is it helping, exactly?I'm surprised you wouldn't want a faster processor/GPU. But hey, whatever
Blue Tint Problem? - xda-developers
Here's the thread. Not all of the phones suffer from the problem. Mines does for sure.
Between the GPU and the camera button, I'd take the camera button in a heartbeat because I take pictures all the time but I don't play 3D games .
BTW, the screen is clearly tinted blue. I'm sure the blue push affects every SAMOLED phone.
novox77
Leeeroy Jennnkinnns!
All right, just want to point out the incorrect. The problem is most noticeable when the brightness is set to the lowest, not the highest.
I don't see the blueish tint with it set to the highest brightness. I do somewhat see it in a white background+low brightness setting. This was the procedure the thread that documented the problem suggested to see the blueish tint, and yes it is there. I can confirm it as well. Full brightness, white looks fine. I'm testing it right now and here with the Vibrant. So yep, definitely there.
I'm surprised you wouldn't want a faster processor/GPU. But hey, whatever
I observed the blue tint on the Epic at its fullest brightness setting. I was unaware of any sort of color aberration prior to playing with the phone. I saw the blue, and I reported it. Completely unbiased.
Unless the phone's CPU/GPU is signifcantly better, it's a non-issue for me. I suspect under 3-D rendering tests, the Epic will smoke the Evo. But for my usage, 3-D rendering is not even a slight blip. I am a gamer, but I prefer gaming on a machine dedicated to playing games, like my PS3. I like taking photos with a dedicated camera like my Canon dSLR. Overall performance of navigating Android, surfing the web, email, and the MOST COMMON daily functions were fine. If they were faster than the Evo, I did not really notice. The animation scrolling was definitely better than the stock Evo, but I can't really attribute that to the GPU, since my modded kernel allows my supposedly crappier processor to give me comparable smoothness and tracking sensitivity.
Forgot to mention: I did experience a bit of lag when I tried to add a shortcut to a homescreen. I downloaded FPS2D from the market, and in the process of adding the Application, the phone lagged. I was waiting a LONG time for the list of Apps to appear so that I could choose it. I've seen this before with earlier versions of ADW launcher. Might be a related glitch.
I'm pretty certain the CPU/GPU is significantly better, and in the case of the GPU, it is a LOT better.
Stuff like Google Earth will run smoother on Galaxy because of the GPU. I don't know why there's this misconception out there that GPU is only good for games. I don't play games or plan to play game on a touchscreen and I'm a gamer. Just isn't going to happen. The games you can play properly on a touchscreen is well...lame for the most part.
Stuff like Google Earth will run smoother on Galaxy because of the GPU. I don't know why there's this misconception out there that GPU is only good for games. I don't play games or plan to play game on a touchscreen and I'm a gamer. Just isn't going to happen. The games you can play properly on a touchscreen is well...lame for the most part.