Well, that was a lot quicker than what we were expecting (but trust us, we aren’t complaining). The Samsung Epic 4G Touch is now out in stores and online and Samsung has made the source code available at their developer portal for all to download. With this, the hardworking Android development community will be able to get started on all the custom ROMs you could want. Root’s still not here yet (Motorola’s after-market community has that on lock) but we can’t imagine it won’t be worked on ASAP. If you yourself want the source code in the meantime, head to Samsung’s portal and do a search for D710. [Pocketnow]
So today marks the release of the first Galaxy S II smartphone in America – Sprint’s Samsung Epic 4G Touch Having used the phone myself for a few days now, I can tell you that it’s everything it’s cracked up to be and 10 times more. While my official review has yet to come out (it will be out very soon, but read my initial hands-on impressions here), I can certainly tell you that I’ll have a ton of praise and very little reproach.
With that said, if you were to take a walk into a Sprint store right now to play with it and found yourself liking it, would you buy it? Sure, it’s been out for several months in the world over, but the funny thing is that this is still one of the most powerful smartphones over there and over here.
Will you let your indecisiveness or need to get the absolute latest technology hold you back from buying or will you just settle and accept the fact the phone may be “outdated” within a few weeks’ time? Sound off in the poll below and be sure to leave a comment explaining your choice!
Rejoice! The time is finally here, folks. It’s a little past midnight on the east coast and Sprint’s website has finally made available the uber fast, uber amazing, uber sexy, Samsung Epic 4G Touch for sale! With it’s 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos processor, 16GB of internal storage, 8MP rear/2MP front facing cameras, 1080p video recording, running Android 2.3.4… Who’s getting one!?
Oh, and don’t forget to hit up the Samsung Epic 4G Touch Forum for anything and everything on this device from deals, rooting and general praise. Cheers.
Apologies in advance for horrible focusing on my camera’s part and a couple of shots where the entire phone wasn’t in view while looking at the software. Also, please allow an hour or two for full HD video to process.
Our friends at Sprint dropped off a little gift for us to share with you guys. It’s the Samsung Epic 4G Touch, Sprint’s keyboard-less version of the original Epic 4G and their version of the Galaxy S II. Quick first impressions? Sure. This phone is amazingly fast. Samsung’s work on TouchWiz UI on top of Android 2.3.4 must have been long and hard because they’ve constructed arguably the smoothest and most user-friendly user interface on top of stock Android.
I’m sure a lot of that is backed by Samsung’s extremely powerful (twice as powerful as competing chipsets, apparently) dual-core 1.2Ghz Exynos processor. In my 30 minutes of gleeful playtime I was unable to produce lag, stuttering or freezing in any application. I applied a live wallpaper to see if it would fall to its knees from me flipping back and forth with an animated background, but to no avail. Needless to say, this makes me smile.
I wondered if that would be different if this had qHD resolution, but I’m not so sure that would make a huge difference. Yes, you read right - the 4.5 inch display on this phone only has WVGA (800×480) resolution.
The result of so few pixels being stuck into such a large screen is overall bigger text, icons and everything. It might be a desirable look for those who struggle to read small text without glasses, but it really disappoints me to think about how much nicer and spacier everything would look overall with qHD.
Thankfully, the display is Super AMOLED Plus so a lot of would-be negative effects that would come about with this disproportionate combination of screen size and resolution aren’t present here.
You’d have to be looking really hard to spot individual pixels, and if you’re like me and can barely see even with strong glasses, a microscope would have to do the trick. That’s backed by very deep contrasts and vibrant colors. As stretched out as everything looks, it all still looks very good.
There are other small things about the phone that make the experience that much better, too, such as motion control. It’s more than a novelty – it’s actually useful. Pinch to zoom takes a backseat to moving the phone back and forth, and panning homescreens to place a widget or icon is no longer the most painful experience ever. Pinch to zoom is still in, but I’m most certain you’ll enjoy this method a lot more.
Other goodies inside the Epic 4G Touch are its 2MP front-facing camera, 8MP rear camera with LED flash and 1080p video recording, 16GB of internal storage, 1800mAh battery and the microUSB MHL port for HDMI-out.
I had a chance to play with the camera for a quick minute. Still photos are beautiful, 1080p video is even better. The camera sensor inside picks up the color accurately and the software helps it achieve great white balance.
Playback of 1080p videos were stutter-free and you could really see the high resolution sensor at work with how crisp and clear footage was. Samsung’s on the top end of the spectrum in the camera department, we’d say.The quick hands-on video is above, but stay tuned for continued coverage in the coming days and weeks, including benchmarks, the full review and more.
A couple more things I forgot to mention in the video:
Battery is definitely removable and there’s a microSD card slot beneath the battery door.
There is an LED notification light, thankfully. Hard to see in images but it’s there.
The release of the Samsung Epic 4G Touch is only a few days away, but for those with the phone on pre-order and plans to run out and buy it as soon as the nearest Sprint store opens for business on the 16th can get a leg up by checking out the user guide now. Sprint has posted the document to their support site as of today. If you’re still on the fence, be sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming review.
Needed something to convince you to buy the Samsung Galaxy S II this fall? Samsung’s got the first ad and while we’re not sure it may convince you to open your wallets, it does get us excited knowing that the launch of the first US model – Sprint’s Samsung Epic 4G Touch – will be out in 4 short days. It’s a one minute ad so take a quickie out of your day to take a look above.
The launch Samsung Epic 4G Touch on is only a week away, but you still have time to pre-order to be among the first in the United States to own a Galaxy S II handset. OK, so maybe the residents of Alaska got first dibs, but you could still be the first in your neighborhood. A deal is to be had if you choose to do business with Walmart. The big box retailer has the phone up for reservation for the low price of $99.99. Check it out at the source link below.
Seems there are a few rumors floating around the blogosphere of a leaked document showing T-Mobile prepping their employees for a mysterious September 24th “All Hands Day.” As to be expected, imaginations are running wild. This could either be some last minute training for the Samsung Galaxy S II (Hercules) or may have something to do with the rumored release of the iPhone 5 on T-Mo. Nobody is quite sure.
Adding even more speculation to the iPhone 5 rumor is a similar “All Hands Day” Sprint is requiring for their team. According to numerous SprintFeed tipsters, this one is scheduled for September 11th, just a few days earlier than T-Mobile’s AHD. Luckily, SprintFeed received this leaked image displaying the time frame in which employees need to train for the launch of Sprint’s upcoming Epic 4G Touch which seems to encompass that tipped September 11th date and goes up all the until the phone’s launch on the 16th.
Gee, Scoob. It seems we’ve solved the mystery of the T-Mobile and Sprint “All Hands Day.” If both these training events are in fact related, then they are nothing more than training for the Samsung Galaxy S II. Even still, I still find it odd that Sprint or T-Mobile would need to train their employees on devices featuring similar OS’s to what’s currently on the market. Go figure.
Engadget has confirmed that the handset will launch with NFC support. Both kernel drivers and an APK for NFC support were located, and the handset was found to run in NDEF (NFC Data Exchange Format) mode. This means the AT&T version of Samsung’s popular handset will join T-Mobile’s (as revealed by FCC filings) as part of the mobile payments revolution. At the launch event for the devices an AT&T representative confided to us that their version of the phone would launch with a unique feature, could they have been referring to NFC?
Left on the outside is Sprint’s Samsung Epic 4G Touch Their Galaxy S II variant was found to lack NFC. Also noted was the presence of the same WiMAX radio as that found in the Nexus S 4G Let’s hope WiMAX connectivity issues don’t carry over.
Along with Samsung’s debut of the Galaxy S II in America came the announcement of some “premium accessories” for the device via the company’s press release. Samsung is covering all their bases with various docking stations, convergence and backup batteries being available for each phone as well as a media dock and HDMI adapter for playing media content on your HDTV.
Vehicle dock: The dock charges the phone while docked to ensure uninterrupted GPS usage on long car rides. The dock is windshield or dashboard mountable and includes the sophisticated Vlingo Voice Talk, allowing users to enjoy hands-free control of their Galaxy S II.
Battery charging stand with spare battery: This charging solution ensures a backup battery is always on hand, while providing a convenient kick stand for the Galaxy S II.
HDTV Adapter: The HDMI adapter supports HD video up to 1080p from the phone to an HDTV, projector, or monitor. Use on the go to connect the Galaxy S II to a TV, monitor, or projector to view purchased Media Hub content, videos, presentations, games, or internet on a big HD screen, or listen to downloaded music from the phone on a home entertainment system.
