Samsung Infuse 4G Android Phone (AT&T)

Infuse vs Captivate May 19, 2011

Reviewer:  Todd Stevens  (North Carolina) -

I've never had a phone or PDA where I didn't have to sacrifice a lot to get something else. Not with this one. I am a Google addict. I use Google Docs, Tasks, Contacts, GMail, Calendar, etc. So of course this phone works perfectly with all of that and syncs well with my Galaxy Tab, Windows 7 PC and MacBook Air.

Before this I had a Captivate running Froyo and wasn't sure if switching would be worth the cost, as I mainly have just wanted a bigger screen. I don't know why iPhone does so well at only 3.5". You can't read text on something that small. I could barely stand 4" Captivate. 4.5" seems to be the sweet spot. Especially since the phone is so thin and light. Perfect width for telephone conversation and surfing, typing.

The biggest surprise though is the battery life. I have never had a smartphone last a whole day and I do not talk much on them or play media. Just surfing, texting and updating calendar, tasks, etc usually drains the battery. On my Captivate I could go about 12 hours if I used a black background, turned off 3G, turned off WiFi except when needed, etc. But with the Infuse, I took it out of the box 1/2 charged Monday evening. Charged to full charge (takes up to 4 hours from 0%) and took it off the charger at 10:40pm. Tonight is Thursday and at 9:30pm it finally died! Nearly 3 whole days!! I used a 1/3 of each day with FaceBook Go Chat open on it, full color wallpaper, never turned off WiFi in the entire 3 days. Screen brightness has been on medium or Auto. Just normal use, nothing heavy and nothing to intentionally preserve battery. That in itself justified the cost.

But other perks have been how fast menus open and apps launch compared to some lags in Captivate. I put the Captivate and Infuse side by side expecting to see more text in Kindle app, web surfing, etc with the larger screen. It actually showed the same amount of text, but only larger which was nice. I guess I could reduce font and see more text, but I liked the larger text. The charger seems easier to insert than the Captivate.

Don't care if TouchWiz 3.0 vs 4.0. I install and launch apps easily. Who cares what they put out in Europe that could be crippled when it gets to us. I don't care if it's not running Gingerbread. Eventually I am sure it will, but if it never did. I wouldn't miss it. My Captivate had 2.1 for a long time, but eventually got Froyo. Be patient people. These O/S updates provide minor enhancements. I can do everything I need on this phone. If you are a task oriented, efficiency dependent person like I am, this phone is for you.

In summary. This is the best phone or PDA I have ever seen. I will keep this one until it dies (normally I keep a phone 6 - 10 months). I don't care what better specs come out down the road. Often specs are over-hyped or mean drained battery. I rarely review anything, but figured there were some Captivate owners on the fence out there like I was. So I hope this helps you make the decision.

This Phone Is Snappy! May 16, 2011

Reviewer:  Brian A. Wolters  (Cabot, Arkansas) -

You are going to hear a lot of opinions on how this phone isn't dual core, isn't the Galaxy S II, too big, blah blah blah. Unless you simply must have the "next generation" phone this fall, if you are looking for the BEST AT&T Android phone, the Samsung Infuse is it.

On paper, I didn't upgrade by much...I already had the pretty good Samsung Captivate. But after a few minutes with the Infuse, I could already tell this was a great phone. The performance is so snappy and quick. I don't have official benchmarks but for instance, I am a heavy Google Reader user. On the Captivate, when I would choose "Mark All Previous Read", it would take, on average, 10 seconds. Now, it is about 1 second. This is on both Wi-Fi and "4G". App loading and closing is also much faster. I did have my home menu in a long "spinning symbol" after running some apps and I even rebooted but it has since not returned.

The screen is absolutely beautiful. Bight, big and sharp. The screen size was the selling point for me and it feels good in your hand. Slightly larger feeling but I expected it to feel much bigger.

Multimedia is also a joy to use on this phone. The front facing camera is a nice addition and I like having the flash on the 8MP camera on the back. We did try a Tango video call and never could get it to work right. If we weren't sideways, then it wasn't displaying correctly. Someone needs to make a definitive video chat client for Android.

To me, this phone is ready for the future. Even with dual core processors out there, this phone should do you for at least the terms of a 2 year contract, if not longer. If you simply can't wait for the fall lineup of phones, this is an excellent choice.

Arguably the best. Far better than iphone June 17, 2011

Reviewer:  ForexTech  (Montclair) -

I used the iphone 2G, 3GS and iphone 4. Of course the last one had major issues with the dropped reception. I have been looking for an andriod phone to get me off Apple and iphone, but NO ONE could match the touch feeling of the iphone. Blackberry touch, you have to tap several times, even Motorola Atrix the response was not great and I returned it. Besides that in the Atrix email program, I could not see Html mail well. Then I heard that Samsung makes the screen that iphone uses and I had heard good feedback on the Galaxy series, that their touch was super. I decided to go with a Samsung product.

Outstanding. Impressive. Forget Iphone.
Touch: the response is super, even better than the iphone. Yes even better.
HTML Email: Excellent, reads it very well.
Speed: Excellent processes requests very fast
battery: Wow! for the smartphones these days that barely last a day, I have gone 3 days so far and not needed a charge. Although, I have GPS turned off, Wifi turned off and power management fully on. I am not a heavy user, I just want my email, little browsing and a bit of phone. yet for me, the Atrix&iphone4 would last 2 days at best.
Screen: its very big and beautiful, which I like very very much. If you are into watching videos etc with your phone you will enjoy it.

I say drop your iphone and get this.

Love it! Love it! Love it! May 17, 2011

Reviewer:  Pixel  (San Diego, CA) -

What can I say. I really love this phone. It's quick. It's fast on the download. Typing is accurate. The camera is good. The styling is great. It's slim. Having the larger screen just makes everything so much easier - and it's exciting for multimedia.

I was disappointed that Tango wasn't working quite right, so I went to the Tango Web site to find a cure. Evidentally, there are a few different Samsung phones, including the Infuse, that are having trouble with sending a rotated and zoomed in video to the other party. The tech support said that they are aware of the problem and that the engineers are working on a fix.

One great benefit - you can use the Amazon App Store without taking extraordinary measures or rooting the phone. This is not possible on all ATT phones, so it's a welcome change. It means you can take advantage of the free app they offer every day and use your Amazon account to purchase apps.

I was worried about the phone fitting into my jeans pocket and allowing me to sit down. I found out that if I rotate it sideways, I can sit down easily. It's very slim and light, so you don't feel like you are carrying a brick. I'm so happy that I got this phone.

Thoroughly Impressed May 18, 2011

Reviewer:  Artie Ziegler 

So I got my new phone yesterday from amazon. I decided to go with the Samsung Infuse 4G just to try something different.

Out of the box, the first thing you'll notice is the size of the phone itself. It's pretty big lengthwise (4.5 in screen) yet extremely thin, but still fits comfortably in my hand (I have huge hands). When I picked the phone up, I was in a state of disbelief at how light it is. It's really unbelievable how little the thing weighs. Overall the phone has a nice texture and looks rather professional. The glass on the front is made with corning gorilla glass, and looks gorgeous.

The phone is lightning fast, especially compared to my iphone 3Gs. Everything loads instantly, whether it be applications or zipping through the menus. I am thoroughly impressed with the phone's speed. I'm new to android, and navigating the phone was very easy. It comes preinstalled with 2.2 (FROYO).

The LCD screen is gorgeous (as are most samsung displays) and very bright. Even the lowest brightness setting is almost painful to look at in the dark for a long time.

The camera is very nice. It has an 8 megapixel 4x zoom + LED flash, and takes great pictures. The video camera take beautiful recordings at 720p. There are some settings you can fool around with that you normally wouldn't see on a phone, which is nice. I'll upload some pictures to give an example.

One of the cooler apps I installed and had time to fool around with was the N64 emulator, and to my suprise it ran flawlessly, no stuttering or anything. I played mario 64, and got the first star. I think this is a testament to the power and capabilities of the phone.

I love the phone so far, way better than my old IPhone. Definitely pick this up if you're in the market for a new AT&T phone. For the $150 price tag, I couldn't be happier.