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Mini review on the Epic, comparison to Evo

Squiggoth

Newbie
Jul 20, 2010
48
19
First let me disclaim: I am not a phone expert, reviewer expert, or anything. I work in the IT industry so I have a natural built-in ability to "deal" with buggy stuff more than a typical end-user. Some folks have posted their experiences here, I thought I would too. Let's roll.

First things first, the shipping/packaging. The warehouse had tons of Epics in stock on day 1 and there was 0 problem getting it shipped to me (I use a corporate account). So we can put to rest the concerns of a shortage like the Evo, at least for now. The packaging is slightly more wasteful (full rectangle vs the Evo's sardine-tin look) but is very nice and pretty typical of a cell phone from Sprint. The phone comes with a charging cable (micro-usb), a plug adapter for the cable, earbuds, and manuals. There is a ton of safety-tape all over the phone. I actually like this, it ensures you have a crystal clear exterior out of the box.

Putting it up to the Evo, I noticed a few things. It looks a LOT nicer when turned off. The phone is just sexy. It's very sleek and full black, rather than the Gray-ish Evo. At first I loved the lack of buttons, just makes it much more sleek, but this came back to bite me later. I saw a reviewer say that taking away the Sprint and Samsung labels would make the sex appeal of the turned-off Epic go through the roof and I couldn't agree more. It is lighter in the hands than the Evo, and the shape feels more comfortable in my hand. When using the Evo, I found myself constantly setting off the soft buttons on the front. On the Epic, I find myself constantly setting off the hard buttons, mostly the camera button on the lower right side. Not a major issue.

The other hardware items are a nice upgrade: the charger being on top presents a much more preferable configuration, when holding/using the device plugged in, but also when using it in the car or at a desk; there is less cord bending needed. The volume rocker on the left isn
 
I don't think this review was a downer by any means. I think it sounded like you were trying to be fair and being honest about your likes/dislikes, which is appreciated (by me anyway). I'm reading as many of these reviews as possible to help me with my decision making when the times comes for me to choose between the Evo and Epic (early November). I am liking the majority of what I'm hearing about the Epic and am feeling more and more that this is the phone for me.
 
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I don't think this review was a downer by any means. I think it sounded like you were trying to be fair and being honest about your likes/dislikes, which is appreciated (by me anyway). I'm reading as many of these reviews as possible to help me with my decision making when the times comes for me to choose between the Evo and Epic (early November). I am liking the majority of what I'm hearing about the Epic and am feeling more and more that this is the phone for me.

Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it.

Also one new edit is going in -- I mistakenly put mini-usb when it is a micro-usb.
 
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Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it.

Also one new edit is going in -- I mistakenly put mini-usb when it is a micro-usb.

It's just nice to see someone who has used both devices trying to give a review that doesn't slag either phone but instead points out the strengths and weaknesses of both. The better informed we non-Evo/Epic owners are, the wiser the choice we'll be making when it comes time to make the purchase.
 
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Seems like an honest review. A few things to note:

- The Epic actually does have navigation and google search. (not sure how you missed them)

- The capacitive buttons don't have a bizzare timing for shutting off. Check in settings > sound & display > keyboard timeout. There you will see that by default it is set to 6 seconds. This means that the lights on the capacitive buttons will shut off after 6 seconds. You can set if for longer if you want. I actually have mine set to 3 seconds cause I've mastered the tapping of my buttons already :p (no need to waste battery)

:)
 
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What has helped me know the location of the capacitive buttons is the hard case I'm using on the phone. It has a separator "bar" which essentially creates a boundary between the phone's samoled screen area and capacitive buttons area. Coupled that to my quick memorization of the buttons and I have no problem pressing the capacitive buttons and getting them to react on 1 try.

Nice review and very honest. I had the same problem with the GPS locking into sats on the 1st try until I started the Navigation app for Google maps.
 
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If you get a chance, can you do a couple of additional comparisons...I was trying to do this in the store today but didn't have enough time to test thoroughly.

Is the 3g speed comparable to the EVO? My test in the store showed the Evo to be faster for some reason on the speedtest.net app and also when loading Engadget website. Also, how is the wifi signal strength? The Evo had a pretty weak range, so I'm wondering if the Epic has better range/strength.

THANKS.

Nevermind...saw another thread with multiple people saying the same thing as what I experienced.
 
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I think it was a great review also. My husband has the Evo. I loved it when it was his phone. I thought I would love it also. And I do still love the phone, but for me and my smaller hands it was just to big. I took it back and got the Evo, it gave me the bigger screen that was just right for my hand.

Also my vision isn't that great. That's partly why I wanted the Evo. The iPhone 3g I came from screen was just to small for me. It was harder to read text on it. I found the Epic was easier on my eyes and the text was clearer and sharper. Its the perfect phone for me.

Now hopefully Sprint can figure out why my signal is weak but Evo's is stronger in our house.
 
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