Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G Review

It’s not every day that a company beats Apple at its own game. Samsung is one such company who has done that and after the launch of the Galaxy S II line of smartphones, including the Samsung Epic Touch 4G, it is clear to see that the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G is officially the phone to beat, at least until the next iPhone is released.

Sprint’s version of the device, the Samsung Epic Touch 4G, packs a few enhancements over the stock Galaxy S II units including a bigger screen, 4G and Sprint apps. Read on to find our take on the device.

 

 

 

Pricing

Specifications of the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G:

Design & Features

While the Samsung Epic 4G Touch is not the slimmest cellphone ever produced, it can rank as the thinnest smartphone. The Epic 4G Touch is only 0.38 inches at its thickest point with dimensions of 5.11 x 2.74 inches. It has a total weight of 4.60 ounces.

Being a Sprint device, the Epic 4G Touch operates on the 800 and 1900 CDMA bands. Unfortunately there is no GSM support so you will be stuck to the America’s when it comes to roaming. You do get 3G and 4G WiMAX however.

The display is Samsung’s new Super AMOLED Plus screen that carries 480 x 800 pixels. The screen is bigger than the European version of the device carrying 4.52 inches of screen real estate. You also get that cool Gorilla Glass technology which means you don’t have to waste money on a screen protector.

Onto the processor, we are greeted with a 1200MHz dual core Exynos processor and 1024MB of RAM (1GB). There is native hardware 3D acceleration as well. Samsung has included the usual accelerometer as well as a gyroscope and compass in the Galaxy S II.

Rounding out the features include an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash, smile detection, autofocus and panorama mode. Full 1080p video shooting at 30fps is supported and the secondary 2 megapixel front facing camera is suitable for video calling. Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi 802.11b/g/n and microUSB 2.0 along with DLNA, SyncML and 16GB of onboard memory with expansion supporting microSD and microSDHC cards of up to 32GB are all there.

Performance

Off the bat we were amazed with the scores this phone recorded. If you have read our reviews of previous Galaxy S II devices, you know we were big fans of the new hardware as well as updated software (Android Gingerbread 2.3.4). When it came time to put the Epic 4G Touch to the test, it obliterated previous scores.

We found multitasking to be a pleasure. The 1.2GHz processor is more than able to handle 720p and 1080p Flash video content. Games played smoothly without a hitch and in our browser tests, there was no competition between this and any other phone we have tested.

Samsung and Sprint has kept the crapware to a minimum. You do get Sprint Navigation, NASCAR and a few other apps with it. Unfortunately most of them cannot be uninstalled unless the device is rooted which means voiding the warranty.

The camera performed beautifully as well. It might be 8 megapixels, but these 8 megapixels do an excellent job of showing great detail. Even under low light conditions, we had decent quality shots with minimal grain. 1080p video shooting was no different. In fact, the quality rivaled what you would expect from a low end HD video camera. Suffice to say, you can easily use this phone as your main point and shoot camera. Same thing applied for the front facing camera which has a nice 2 megapixels. Video calling via Skype, Fring and the likes proved nice and we were able to carry on uninterrupted video calls

Conclusion:

When it comes to things we like and things we hate, the Epic 4G Touch ranks among things we like. In fact, it ranks among things we really like. This phone is definitely worthy of its title as its performance is truly epic. We just wish Samsung had made this device a world phone as it would be the ultimate phone. Don’t get us wrong, it is still a great phone, the best we have ever tested and after spending a little time with it, we are sure you will not disagree with us.