Epic Competition?

[EarlyMon]

OK, then the litmus test says that all three are great phones.

 

[Thai]

Multimedia test: Super AMOLED vs. AMOLED vs. LCD | Android Central

I sure hope that the HTC Shift has a different screen than the EVO....

 

[Kelmar]

Both of you stop please.

 

[EarlyMon]

Multimedia test: Super AMOLED vs. AMOLED vs. LCD | Android Central

I sure hope that the HTC Shift has a different screen than the EVO....

That's not important to everyone.

For those to whom it is important, then the Epic is the way to go. And you pay extra for that.

I don't know if I'd see a huge point of multimedia on a Shift anyway - it's screen is teeny, tiny. I dunno - user preference I guess.

 

[pastafarian]

How far we've come when 3.7" is considered tiny.

The most important thing about the Evolution Shift? Will it blend?

 

[EarlyMon]

You know - I was equating that with my old Moment - at 3.2" - and is it 3.6 or 3.7? with all the leaked specs, I'm not sure, but area wise, that's a difference we can calculate using Pythagoras, and it's probably a bit, and because you made me spill my coffee over that blending remark, this is really a post masquerading as on-topic but is really about a run-on sentence that if blended would actually have many correctly spelled words in it.

I guess when I get the chance, I'm going to side by side it with the old Moment for an anecdotal comparison.

 

[dan330]

hahaha.. lol...

 

[DavidBeier]

3.7 isn't tiny but it's not quite enough for watching movies for me. When I was debating between the Epic and the Evo, I remember putting them side by side and liking the slightly bigger Evo display but liking even more the Super AMOLED screen of the Epic. The better screen won out for me but I still would have loved a 4.3'' display with the same amazing colors and still wish the Epic's was a tad bigger when watching movies. At the end of the day, I think 4'' is the minumum for a serious player.

 

[dan330]

did you see the up coming samsung galaxy phone for att? it is 4.5" with more resolution and even brighter! with 1.2 mhz hummingbird

 

[Stoney62]

did you see the up coming samsung galaxy phone for att? it is 4.5" with more resolution and even brighter! with 1.2 mhz hummingbird

I'd have to stick with Sprint in any case since it's the only carrier with any signal at all in my home. That with the free Airave and service Sprint is giving me. I had AT&T for a while and had to sue them to get them to come off their ETF (4 lines) and recover some of the value of the 8400 rollover minutes I had accumulated in the year I had them.

 

[dan330]

yeah.. was not suggesting changing carriers.. only the new tech that will be available in new phones.. which will eventually make it over to the carrier each person is on.

 

[androidpirate]

did you see the up coming samsung galaxy phone for att? it is 4.5" with more resolution and even brighter! with 1.2 mhz hummingbird

I'm hoping sprint comes out with a similarly spec'd phone but they have been basically a no show at CES while AT&T & Verizon have been tearing it up with quite a number of uber phones.

with the infuse 4G for ATT & its super amoled plus, it looks like samsung finally threw aside pentile matrix display technology and went with a traditional subpixel setup.

so, the question i'm faced with now is should i get the epic 4g (and basically sign up for another 2 years with sprint) or wait it out 2/3 months to see if there's something new on sprint (and basically sign up for another 2 years with sprint). or wait till the end of year and switch carriers.

 

[EarlyMon]

We know that HTC is showing their new tablet at Mobile World Conference, Barcelona, in February - they may or may not show other phones there.

It makes a lot of sense that both the Evo and Epic will reign the roost for a good part of the normal 1-year life cycle, though.

If you go with the Epic now, you'll get a lot of enjoyment (c'mon, the Epic's just a great phone, ok) and at the end of a year, you'll be eligible for an upgrade (as I understand the policies) and will then surpass anything probably coming in the next 2~3 months.

I'm going to make some people unhappy, but I'll speak the truth - LCD vs. SAMOLED and Pentile vs. Traditional is overblown where multimedia is concerned. When you compare them to each other, the SAMOLED wins with eye-popping colors. When we go for theory of pixels, traditional beats pentile - if we use SMPTE light-integration rules, it doesn't much matter.

When you compare them to a calibrated HDTV, all are lacking because we're missing fundamental and important adjustments, like gamma and contrast.

If you're looking for overall brightness for phone goodness, SAMOLED seems to always win.

I'm not mentioning this to be defensive, but rather to start a movement so they'll give us some decent adjustments - they're claiming multimedia, after all.

That - plus, hoping it helps focus whatever, however to assist you in a very tough decision.

Depending what you're using now and how decent it is, maybe the Epic would embody the phrase a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

 

[dbpaddler]

Yes, you might sign a 2yr service contract, but you can still get a new phone every year. Basically if you wanted to let your contract run its course and switch, you're on the hook for two years. If you're staying with sprint, it's pretty much meaningless and you're really on a 1yr phone contract. It's a really nice deal for those of us with upgrade-itis and those on family shares where others use their same phone for more than a year. It allows us to upgrade more than once a year and play with new toys. By toying with multiple lines, I've had a Pre, Pixi, Hero, Moment, Evo and Epic. With the Pre and Epic still in the arsenal. I'll be getting the Moment's back when new people get the Shift. Will wipe them, root them optimize them and throw them on ebay to add to the fund for the newest toy. Might pick up the Shift just to play and finally ditch the Pre.

Just saying that I'm in agreement with the above, that if you pick up an Epic or a Shift now, you're only stuck for a year. And I don't think either would be bad choices for the coming year if you don't want to wait till Spring which I assume would be the time you hear of the next new crop of phones.

 

[RickJ]

hey guys...

dont just look at the mhz.. there are other things associated with speed.
the EVO Shift/G2/Desire Z have the new cooler running, faster running, and less power consumption Scorpion CPU/GPU.

I wasn't referring soley to speed 800MHz vs 1GHz without taking generation in to account. The Epic's Hummingbird essentially is already a second generation processor with 45nm production delivering the same benefits mentioned above. Samsung already hit that milestone with the hummingbird series, including the A4 in the iphone.

Despite the improvement over the 200, it remains to be seen if the adreno205 can really hold up agains the powervr in the epic. From what I have read, most maintain that the powervr still wins. Im not a benchmark advocate / follower but will add that some selective reporting of 3dmark results put the adreno 205 on top while neocore, nenamark and GlBench all had the opposite results.The 205's stated triangle fill rate is half of the SGX540's (for whatever thats worth).

While the overclocking ability of the msm7x series is exciting, the Hummingbird overclocks well also.

Even if the Shift does manage to outperform the Epic, by any margin, I still cant see it as competition given its other features or lack thereof. Screen size is all important these days. While some might be comfortable with it, I couldnt use a 3.6 screen as a multimedia or gaming device when 4 and higher are available. Thats not even taking screen tech into account.

At $150 the Shift is attractive, certainly not entry level, but IMO not a direct competitor to the <updated and fully functional> Epic. I doubt HTC or Sprint intended it to be, instead filling a sub epic and evo slot in the lineup.

 

[adjuster]

Interestingly when I look at Sprint's web site now and display phones, the Epic is at the very bottom of the android phone list.

 

[EarlyMon]

Maybe a reflection of inventory at the moment, or some promo pricing from HTC? That would be my kinda guesses.

 

[adjuster]

Yep -the Shift is at the top of the list..

 

[dan330]

lowest to highest cost???

 

[xxxsteveoxxx]

It has begun! Most of the people here are Epic owners so I dont think ill have much argument when I say that the Epic is sprint's best phone. But as Windows phone 7 is coming in the months ahead im afraid the their android offering will take a back seat for a while(Not that Epic owners already have with the froyo update). They want the spotlight off the android phones for a bit because Microsoft is offering huge bonuses for selling their phones. Look at AT&T, Every other commerical you see on tv now regardless of channel is a AT&T Windows phone commerical either with the little minon creatures or the swamp thing rip off. Expect the same from sprint. Just hope we get Froyo before the onslought begins.

 

[dan330]

^^ you are right...
but.. there are other forces pushing too..

Att is trying to change their focus from being apple's whip boy.
they are trying to do a 180.. and promote anything that is not apple to gain clients .. to replace the ones they will lose to verizon's iphone. They are not promoting android, because everyone knows they been gimping the android phones.

 

[adelmundo]

It has begun! Most of the people here are Epic owners so I dont think ill have much argument when I say that the Epic is sprint's best phone. But as Windows phone 7 is coming in the months ahead im afraid the their android offering will take a back seat for a while(Not that Epic owners already have with the froyo update). They want the spotlight off the android phones for a bit because Microsoft is offering huge bonuses for selling their phones. Look at AT&T, Every other commerical you see on tv now regardless of channel is a AT&T Windows phone commerical either with the little minon creatures or the swamp thing rip off. Expiect the same from sprint. Just hope we get Froyo before the onslought begins.

What I have noticed, especially during the NFL playoffs, that Sprint is promoting the hell out of thbe EVO. It goes to show you what phone Sprint wants to promote as their flagship. Because of this, it just shifts more people looking for a new phone and want to be on Sprint, to look at the EVO first, and then to the Shift since it has the EVO monicker on it. The ads for the Epic are virtually nonexistant.

 

[dan330]

bring people in to look is the name of the game...

rep: so you here to look at the EVO Shift.. it is right here... and blah blah blah..

customer 1: that is great.. love it.. but wish it was bigger
rep: well it is your lucky day.. here is the EVO

customer 2: that is great.. love it.. but wish it was bigger and have Kb...
rep: well it is your lucky day.. here is the EPIC

customer 3: that is great.. love it.. but wish i did not have to pay for the 4G.. it aint in my area.
rep: well it is your lucky day.. here is the...(any android phone that is non-4G)

 

[EarlyMon]

^This.

Sprint may be advertising the Evo - I'm just not sure that speaks to any conspiracy. Maybe they're hoping those ads given them a twofer - big and little Evos. Anyway, I'm not an ad guy or from Sprint, so that's just another guess, again, tied to inventory or whatever.

 

[Xavion2004]

bring people in to look is the name of the game...

rep: so you here to look at the EVO Shift.. it is right here... and blah blah blah..

customer 1: that is great.. love it.. but wish it was bigger
rep: well it is your lucky day.. here is the EVO

customer 2: that is great.. love it.. but wish it was bigger and have Kb...
rep: well it is your lucky day.. here is the EPIC

customer 3: that is great.. love it.. but wish i did not have to pay for the 4G.. it aint in my area.
rep: well it is your lucky day.. here is the...(any android phone that is non-4G)

I would say the transform to be honest. I grabbed a cheap one off ebay and haven't been really disappointed....it doesn't hold a candle to my Epic but much more potential than it was given credit for. IMHO