Samsung Epic 4G (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

In a decade we'll look back on the iPhone 4 and Droid X with the same amusement we have for Palm Treos and WinMo phones today

 

[Parker Clack]

Oh yes. The iPhone 4000 and the Droid M with their thin film OLED screen with 4K resolution and talk time of 4 months. At don't forgot about the 2T of space with a 16 core ARM 42 processor. And those will be the "cheap" models.

 

[Hanson]

What would be awesome is an LCD membrane that stiffens with a charge. When you touch the corners, the charge is disengaged and the phone can be pulled from the corners until it locks to tablet size. The pixels stretch, meaning that in phone mode, the resolution will be pretty insane (kind of like if you deflate a silk screened balloon). That way, you have a phone/tablet combo all in one. All charging and connections would, of course, be wireless.

 

[Parker Clack]

I see a wireless charging device in the not to distant future. You would think with all the spurious radiation around us all the time someone would have devised a way to store some of that energy into a battery that could be used in a portable device like a cellphone.

 

[nolesrule]

I've had the Captivate since its release on July 18. It's a very good phone. Lags a bit occassionally, but works nicely.

 

As far as the power problems, depends on your use. When you're still in new toy mode, you're going to kill the battery from constant use. When you start getting into the normal routine, it lasts a lot longer.

 

[mylan]

Hey Joe, I would love to hear your impression of the Captivate, I am down to it or the iphone. How well does the Google GPS work? That is my killer app that the iphone does not have, however, I have been playing with some universal remote apps on iphone that might swing me that way.

 

[Hanson]

I can't speak for the Captivate specifically, but the Google Maps/Navigation implementation means that you can basically sell your GPS device.  First off, it caches your route so if you drive through into a bad reception area, the maps are still available.  The voice over will pause your music to chirp out directions and then restarts the music program, and the big screen allows you to see the map very clearly in a more intuitive street level view rather than an overhead map view.  If you lock your screen to save on batteries, the voice prompts still announce your turns.  I've used it three times in the past three weeks, and using this versus just Google Maps is like night and day -- you don't have to pay attention to the phone during upcoming turns anymore since it prompts you to turn well before it comes up.  I've missed countless turns requiring doubling back with GMaps only, so this is a real time saver.  Also, you can use the voice to text feature to enter your destination, and since it integrates with Google, you can serach for a business and map to it.  So if you want to drive to the nearest McDonald's, you can search for McD, tap the closest one on the map, and then map to it from your location based on GPS.  It's really, really, slick. 

 

There are hitches -- the GPS on the Galaxy line suffers from poor locking of GPS satellites, which can hamper the accuracy of the GPS.  And if you use the external speaker on the Evo at a loud volume, it will disable the GPS while it's on.  The Galaxy phones have a fix that uses cell towers to assist in triangulation, but this is a known issue that Samsung is saying they will fix.  The Evo fix is pretty straightforward -- don't operate the speaker and the GPS simultaneously.  There doesn't seem to be any issue with the Droid X in this regard.

 

[Peter-PP]

I too got my Captivate on release day July 18 and I love it. My sister has the iphone4 and I really dislike it.

 

[Parker Clack]

I agree with Hanson on the GPS functionality on the EVO for turn by turn directions. It does a great job. I have never had GPS in my car and with my EVO it was like

having one.

 

I love the screen on the Captivate and if I had been able to pick up the Epic 4G before the EVO I probably would have bought it.

 

I would definitely go to your local Best Buy and ask one of the guys in the cellphone area is they have a Captivate that you could play around with. Even though they

may not have any to sell you they usually have one they use for demo purposes.

 

 

 

 

[Hanson]

The Epic 4G has an official release date -- 8/31. $249 with 2 year contract and after $100 rebate. You can pre-order starting today.

 

There are some people grumbling about the extra fifty bones over the Evo, but between the keyboard, LED flash, and front facing camera, it was inevitable. I suspect it will sell out anyway. Especially since there are so many people who can't find an Evo to save their life and are fed up with waiting.

 

[Parker Clack]

I would like it is just because of the keyboard as the EVO has the LED flash and front facing camera too. I also agree that with the wait that people are having to go through to for the EVO with the release of the Epic I can see more EVOs coming in.

 

 

[Hanson]

One more difference between the Epic and it's GSM cousins -- 4G antenna.

 

Parker, if Epic is still on your wishlist, you could probably get a pretty penny for your Evo if you sold it online. If you got $500 for it, you could buy the Epic off contract. If you rooted it or something, you could even get $550 and actually make a profit.

 

[mylan]

Originally Posted by mylan

Well, I ended up with the Captivate. The deciding factor was my AT&T store yet again had no iphones and price matched Walmarts $149 price plus threw in a free car charger. So far I am liking what I see but the learning curve is going to be steep. I do LOVE swype for texting, it is simply amazing.

If the Epic is anything like the Captivate, you will love it.

Sorry for diluting your Epic thread Parker, we need a thread devoted to the Samsung Galaxy S now because I may have a lot of questions.


 

 

[Hanson]

You're gonna love this phone, but... (makes sucking through teeth sound):




Captivate at Amazon for $49.99

 

Car charger not withstanding, $50 is an amazing deal.  I hope you can leverage this somehow, but if anyone on AT&T is on the fence about the Captivate, this is quite the push.

 

[mylan]

Hanson, that deal is for new AT&T customers, existing customers like myself pay $169. I went through the checkout process to be sure. Damn why do they always stick it to the ones they already got? Wait, I think I just answered my own question...

 

I have been having trouble connecting to the internet and so far haven't been able to get GPS up and running so the jury is still out on this one, stay tuned, like I said, the learning curve is steep considering this is my first smartphone.

 

[Hanson]

Ah, I see. I guess it's like the rock bottom new subscriber price of a magazine vs the renewal price.
Are your internet issues solely with the browser or data in general? Like, can you get to the Marketplace and download new programs?

 

[mylan]

Yes I can download apps, I just turned the phone on and it informed me that some had successfully downloaded but the internet is hit or miss, Yahoo comes up but then won't load another page. Right now I am trying to bring up the IMDb app but it is taking forever to load.

 

[Hanson]

Is this via Wifi or 3G/GPRS or both?

 

[mylan]

SO far it is 3G, I have the "alert me when a WI FI network is available" but it has not picked up my house signal yet.

 

[Hanson]

Try disabling that feature and turning wifi off altogether in Settings|Wireless & Network. It might be switching to wifi and disabling 3G but then not connecting to your wifi.

 

I have widgets on one of my homescreens to access these directly.