Evo 4G vs Epic 4G

[J03]

Ok so I can finally say for certain that I would choose an EVO. My fiance picked up the Epic a couple of weeks ago and I've had plenty of time to play with it. The biggest draw for the Epic by far is the screen. WOW, what colors and deep blacks! Outside of that I am a fan of the EVOs bigger screen and lack of sliding keyboard. Those two attributes win over the better screen in my book so I vote EVO. However my fiance loves the phone so she would vote EPIC.

 

[novox77]

Even with a custom kernel, browser panning\zooming on a busy web page will still be choppy

Not disputing anything else you wrote, but this quoted part is entirely false, particularly as you imply it's due to a weaker CPU/GPU. When you say "busy" web page, you are referring to one that is still loading. A loading web page is using the radio, not the CPU (easily proven with System Panel's history charts). And as we've proven several times in battery life threads, the two are very distinct and not tied together. You can have lots of radio use with very low CPU use, and vice versa. Zooming in on a web page stutters because not all of the HTML/CSS/javascript is fully loaded. It has nothing to do with graphical processing. If it did, you would see the same stutter/lag zooming in on a still photo. And clearly you don't, even with the stock kernel.

I have reproduced the exact same stutter on an Epic when I played with one. I'm not calling you a fanboy, but this is an argument used by fanboys all the time, and it's not accurate nor necessary. You can prove that the Epic's CPU/GPU is superior in other ways. Just stop using browser stuttering as an example.

 

[vud911]

Think he meant busy as in one that is very content heavy such as lots of pictures/scripts after it is fully loaded.

Check the video I posted up a page back or so. The Nexus One was stuttering when panning around whereas the Droid X and Samsung Galaxy didn't suffer from this issue. Yes, the pages were fully loaded first in the test.

 

[novox77]

Think he meant busy as in one that is very content heavy such as lots of pictures/scripts after it is fully loaded.

I just tried godaddy.com. Set my phone's UAString to desktop so I don't get their mobile version. I am able to zoom in and out of that site with ease. The browser does try to guess where to center me, which gives the appearance of stutter, but that is browser implementation. There's no evidence the Evo processor struggles to handle the load of scaling true-type fonts and images.

After zooming in and out non-stop for 1 min, my System Panel history shows that the CPU was spiked to <25% during that time. Clearly it's not a CPU-intensive operation.

 

[vud911]

Don't know if it'll be a better indicator, but try Engadget.com, the desktop version.

 

[novox77]

Don't know if it'll be a better indicator, but try Engadget.com, the desktop version.

Much better site to test on for sure. Took a full 10 seconds to load fully, even on Fios. Now that it's fully loaded, I'm scrolling up and down both fast and slow, and I see no lag at all. Zooming in on any particular spot is fine as well. Scrolling while zoomed in is fine as well. And I mean the scrolling is very smooth.

System Panel is still showing <25% CPU.

I think the stutter you guys are seeing is a problem with the stock Evo, and that stutter is clearly seen in the video in my sig that I made to demonstrate the real effects of the FPS uncap. The stutter is not the choppiness of the 30FPS; rather, they occur sporadically on the stock evo. Doesn't matter what you're scrolling, browser, or Sense. The stutter is there. Custom kernel with the FPS fix DOES remove these sporadic stutters, also demonstrated in my video.

I may have to post a video of scrolling and zooming on engadget if there's still any doubt. Regardless, even if the Epic can scroll better than the Evo on a fully loaded page, I would not give it much weight in determining which phone to buy.

I would be curious what the FPS readings are during the 3D portions of quadrant on a stock epic, though.

 

[jim2point0]

Much better site to test on for sure. Took a full 10 seconds to load fully, even on Fios. Now that it's fully loaded, I'm scrolling up and down both fast and slow, and I see no lag at all. Zooming in on any particular spot is fine as well. Scrolling while zoomed in is fine as well. And I mean the scrolling is very smooth.

System Panel is still showing <25% CPU.

I think the stutter you guys are seeing is a problem with the stock Evo, and that stutter is clearly seen in the video in my sig that I made to demonstrate the real effects of the FPS uncap. The stutter is not the choppiness of the 30FPS; rather, they occur sporadically on the stock evo. Doesn't matter what you're scrolling, browser, or Sense. The stutter is there. Custom kernel with the FPS fix DOES remove these sporadic stutters, also demonstrated in my video.

I may have to post a video of scrolling and zooming on engadget if there's still any doubt. Regardless, even if the Epic can scroll better than the Evo on a fully loaded page, I would not give it much weight in determining which phone to buy.

I would be curious what the FPS readings are during the 3D portions of quadrant on a stock epic, though.

All Epics are stock, as I don't believe there is a way to load up custom roms yet.

I would have to say I'm a little jealous of you. I still have an EVO and I can't say I've experienced smooth browser performance with it. Even running CM6 (which is a tad bit overrated).

You can check quadrant, but you'd be better off trying standalone graphics benchmarks such as nenamark1, neocore, or GL Benchmark 2.0. I personally think quadrant is the most misleading benchmark you can run. Considering the nexus one is on top.... even with 2.2.... you can see it's flawed. Here is a link which shows off a lot of Epic benchmark tests: Samsung Epic 4G (Sprint) - Benchmark Test Results

For some reason, nenamark1 comes up as "untested" for the EVO. Running Cm6 on my EVO, it scores 14FPS. But this is no surprise. Again, there isn't a LOT out right now that can tax the GPU in android phones, but the EVO is definitely not future proof. Especially now that ID Software is hiring an android developor

But I'll drop the browser argument if what you say is true. However, I still don't get an overall smooth experience with the EVO. It's just a shame they decided to put the same processor in the EVO as they did with 3-4 older phones. A phone of that scale deserves a bump in performance.

 

[dbpaddler]

I posted pics of the Evo and Epic in direct sunlight under max brightness and auto brightness. The Evo was washed out and unreadable. The Epic was relatively easy to see and still had decent contrast. Having both at the beach, the Evo was unusable. The Epic I was able to search the web, hop on the market, download the MLB app and get the phillies game streaming without a hitch.

Not really. I can see my Vibrant screen. I can't see my brother's HD2 screen or my old HD2 screen in the sunlight. Yep, I tried really hard. Me nor my brother can see it on his, but he can see it on mines.

I'm pretty certain HD2/Evo use the same screen.

EVO vs. iPhone: displays in direct sunlight | DroidDog Android Blog

My HD2 looks something like that in the sunlight, totally faded out to the point I can't see anything, much less change song. I can see it on my Vibrant's SAMOLED screen much better. Then again I don't think all LCD are the same type. Maybe only certain types of LCD are better in sunlight than others? Maybe that's why the iPhone 4 (also LCD) looks better than Evo in that video. Not sure.

 

[vud911]

I posted pics of the Evo and Epic in direct sunlight under max brightness and auto brightness. The Evo was washed out and unreadable. The Epic was relatively easy to see and still had decent contrast. Having both at the beach, the Evo was unusable. The Epic I was able to search the web, hop on the market, download the MLB app and get the phillies game streaming without a hitch.

Thanks for the informative post of how both performed under the sunlight. Where can I see the pictures? Thank you.

 

[apinkel]

It's just a shame they decided to put the same processor in the EVO as they did with 3-4 older phones. A phone of that scale deserves a bump in performance.

Well, at the time the EVO was released the 1GHz snapdragon was the fastest qualcomm processor available for general use (and HTC is a qualcomm shop these days).

The 2nd Gen snapdragons are starting to come out now and will be faster per clock cycle, have lower power draw and will have the adreno 205 GPU that is supposedly in the same league as the GPU in the Samsun Galaxy S series.

It's a game of leapfrog between the different mobile SOC's right now... April Qualcomm was in the lead w the Snapdragon, July Motorola was in the lead, now Samsung is in the lead... and we are getting ready for Qualcomm to jump back into the performance lead.

...it's kinda fun to watch... although it's getting expensive.

 

[dbpaddler]

Can't find the post to save my life. So here they are again.

Thanks for the informative post of how both performed under the sunlight. Where can I see the pictures? Thank you.

If I remember correctly, this was on auto brightness. Both phones, same settings, same home page for the most part. Forgive the dust. The sunlight amplifies everything. The difference is very noticeable.

And this is on max brightness.

 

[IOWA]

Can't find the post to save my life. So here they are again.


If I remember correctly, this was on auto brightness. Both phones, same settings, same home page for the most part. Forgive the dust. The sunlight amplifies everything. The difference is very noticeable.

And this is on max brightness.

Yeah that's a HUGE difference. Super AMOLED Clearly wins here.

 

[JohnJSal]

The difference is very noticeable.

The paleness of the Evo screen suggests that there is a screen protector on it. Is that the case with both phones? I would think that might have some effect on the display even in sunlight. (You can order anti-glare screens from Sprint.com).

 

[novox77]

The paleness of the Evo screen suggests that there is a screen protector on it. Is that the case with both phones? I would think that might have some effect on the display even in sunlight. (You can order anti-glare screens from Sprint.com).

I have a naked evo, and the depiction of the Evo is pretty dead on with my experience with the evo in direct sunlight. It just sucks. And I bought the anti-glare screen from Sprint with my phone. They really suck. Not only do they not help with daylight visibility, they also make the screen look blurry when you're indoors. After a month, I took it off and was blown away by how sharp the screen was. I threw away the anti-glare screen protector.

I still have two clear protectors. I might give those a try at some point. But clearly they won't help with glare.

 

[dbpaddler]

No screen protectors. Both phones, same settings, same home screen. It's about as even of a comparison as you can get.

 

[JohnJSal]

I have a naked evo, and the depiction of the Evo is pretty dead on with my experience with the evo in direct sunlight. It just sucks. And I bought the anti-glare screen from Sprint with my phone. They really suck. Not only do they not help with daylight visibility, they also make the screen look blurry when you're indoors. After a month, I took it off and was blown away by how sharp the screen was. I threw away the anti-glare screen protector.

I still have two clear protectors. I might give those a try at some point. But clearly they won't help with glare.

Good to know. I decided against the anti-glare screen because it looked like it would cause exactly the problem indoors that you described. The clear one seems fine to me and doesn't appear to make the screen any less dim.

 

[brownhornet]

I dont care and I STILL wont buy a samsung phone. The difference is clear in the fact that htc already had a fix ready for the dead space issue on the screen as soon as the phone came out. The epic has been out how long and they still havent come out with a fix for the gps issue nor the radio issue that causes the epic to have worse reception.

I learned a long time ago about Samsung phones and at this point it doesnt seem as if anything has changed. The samoled is nice but not big enough of a trade off for me to go with samsung ever again.

 

[mrvirginia]

I dont care and I STILL wont buy a samsung phone. The difference is clear in the fact that htc already had a fix ready for the dead space issue on the screen as soon as the phone came out. The epic has been out how long and they still havent come out with a fix for the gps issue nor the radio issue that causes the epic to have worse reception.

I learned a long time ago about Samsung phones and at this point it doesnt seem as if anything has changed. The samoled is nice but not big enough of a trade off for me to go with samsung ever again.

the gps fix has been leaked and is being flashed onto most galaxy s variants by users who have rooted. not sure about the Epic since dev support for that particular device is essentially non-existent currently (prob due to the fact that it's so new).

regardless, after spending time with both devices, if the Epic were in slab form like the other variants, the Epic would win hands down. this is totally personal preference, though. if you like sliders, the Epic is your phone. if you like slab phones with no moving parts, the Evo is your phone.

i was going to pick up a Vibrant to test out but decided against. Samsung will be releasing a new Orion chip at the end of the year and mass producing early 2011. my hope is that they will come back to Sprint with a slab design and that's what i'll be throwing my money down on.
Samsung&#8217;s dual-core CPU Orion coming to Galaxy this year? – Android and Me

only other cpu/gpu combo that could beat it will be the Tegra 2 which LG is picking up and Motorola may choose over the TI OMAP.

so in a few months, none of this will be important lol
gotta love ever changing technology

 

[asaberan]

I might be late to this party, but here's my 2 cents. The Epic to me feels like a large Moment, and that isn't a good thing. The performance is far superior to the Moment, however.

I had a couple of slider phones before my Evo and I think I am about equal with the keyboards. I used to be very against phones that had no physical keyboard, but I will probably go with on-screen exclusively from now on. The build quality is the biggest issue. They always get loose over time and feel flimsy.

I played with an Epic yesterday. I used to be a hardware keyboard only person, but the Evo made me change that. I've always felt that a slider made for shoddy build quality, and let me say, I was right after playing with the Epic. Sure, the screen is nice, but I am not fond of the form factor, the buttons suck and the touch screen is about a 6/10 (iPhone being 9/10, Evo is about 8/10). Above all, build quality seems sub par, considering it is the most expensive device with Sprint. It is nice and fast though.

 

[dan330]

i am still on the fence..
but looking into different forums on the community development on the Epic.. and it looks very slow.

this does not make me feel good about the future of the Epic.

the EVO looks like will be more usable longer.

Example: My HTC Hero has been running 2.2 and still see new development going on...

 

[novox77]

i am still on the fence..
but looking into different forums on the community development on the Epic.. and it looks very slow.

this does not make me feel good about the future of the Epic.

the EVO looks like will be more usable longer.

Example: My HTC Hero has been running 2.2 and still see new development going on...

The development community is indeed behind for Samsung. The Evo was lucky because it has so many older HTC sisters, and a lot of the dev work for the sisters has carried over to the Evo. That is why the Evo was rooted before the official release. A custom recovery was already there, as well as the engineering bootloader.

Meanwhile, Samsung Epic is just now getting clockworkmod, which is a huge step. There's definitely progress there, but it is a bit behind. Without the recovery, you can't flash ROMs. Then there's the issue of the bootloader and unlocking NAND. That's still up in the air.

I don't doubt that, over time, the Epic rooting community will be decent, but that's like saying the Android Market someday will be awesome. Most people care about now, and right now, the market is still weak (compared to Apple), and the Epic's post-root options are not as diverse as the Evo's. Most people can only just run apps that call superuser.

 

[dbpaddler]

and fyi...most people could care less about rooting and custom roms. The people on the forums are far from the masses and won't really affect sales in the grand scheme of things by purchasing based off of the larger rooting community.

 

[novox77]

and fyi...most people could care less about rooting and custom roms. The people on the forums are far from the masses and won't really affect sales in the grand scheme of things by purchasing based off of the larger rooting community.

absolutely. but those people aren't here. the people who do care are here, which is exactly why it's being discussed. I don't really care how well Samsung Epics sell. Or Evos. That's Samsung's and HTC's problem.

 

[Wizhk]

OUCH..!!

Samsung To Adopt Super TFT Due To AMOLED Shortage?

Wizhk

 

[mrvirginia]

absolutely. but those people aren't here. the people who do care are here, which is exactly why it's being discussed. I don't really care how well Samsung Epics sell. Or Evos. That's Samsung's and HTC's problem.

yup one of the reasons mine is going back is due to the lack of the dev community behind the device and how slow things are moving along. i had hoped that since 3 other versions of the device were out already that things would be going a little faster. doesn't matter though. i think it's pretty stupid to buy up one of those phones now and in less than half a year Samsung will be releasing vastly superior devices
everyone is moving away from single core processors to dual core.

OUCH..!!

Samsung To Adopt Super TFT Due To AMOLED Shortage?

Wizhk

this will probably happen with the Orion chip devices since they'll fall into that hole between now and when the new facility is built. only time shall tell