Don't buy equipment protection from sprint - it's a racket January 24, 2012

Reviewer:  person 

Had phone for 2 years, paid the "total equipment protection" - the phone stopped working. Since there was a mark on the back of the case (the mark happened a year ago and had no effect on the phone) - this evidently voided the protection.

Spent over an hour on the phone and talked to 3 supervisors to find out that I needed to contact a different company and pay a lot of money to get a replacement.

I would have been money ahead to just not get the protection and to pay to replace it myself.

Sadly I asked about this when I bought the phone - and the manager of the main sprint store told me "if anything happened they would just take care of it". That was one of the main reasons I switched to sprint - since the kids were at college back east I really wanted no hassle if something went wrong.

Big hassle - no value - don't get equipment protection from sprint.

Worthless GPS January 7, 2012

Reviewer:  W. A. Fagen  (Kansas) -

Don't buy this phone if you want to use Google Nav or any other navigation app to help you find your way around. The GPS is designed by Samsung to only work for about 5-10 minutes. You will then have to reboot your phone before the GPS will work again. Not a bad phone if you don't care about the GPS feature. But if you want to use GPS my advice would be stay away from Samsung.

Phone has problems, lots of problems December 15, 2011

Reviewer:  RG 

I've had this phone for over a year. Originally everything worked alright. Some things were a little off or slow, but, they worked. Exchange mail couldn't search your address book, for example. Web and apps worked fine and you can get pretty much whatever you want from the app store. Screen is bright and vibrant. It also destroys your battery.

Expect battery times on the order of 2-3 hours with this phone if you use it to send texts or chats. Screen usually accounts for 80% of battery usage according to the power consumption statistics.

Swype is awesome. Everyone that sees me text is envious. It takes a few tries to get used to and a few weeks to learn all the tricks. But, generally, it is much better than pushing virtual buttons.

Since the phone was new it has had about 2 system upgrades. The first one was good. almost everything worked better except for emails. Exchange mail would put a bunch of html codes in your replies if you left the original message text in the response. That was part and parcel of responding to work emails for about a year with no fix from Sprint. Very. Annoying. Very. A number of work emails got sent that looked very unprofessional.

The latest update to Android Gingerbread has wrecked the GPS functionality and impaired Exchange email.

I had stopped using my garmin because Google maps and the GPS worked well enough that I didn't need it anymore. No longer. GPS gets a signal for about 30 seconds and then loses it until you power down and restart.

Exchange email was fixed in terms of the gibberish problem, but, now you can't backspace over a word or the cursor will move around your email body to who knows where with every new letter you type/word you swype. Furthermore, they took away the cursor! The ability to select words for edits in work email is mostly gone. The only reliable way to drive the cursor and write text is with the slide out keyboard now. Which is very annoying.

Boo. BOO

All indications is that Sprint does not care about these features. I have been in touch with them and they really don't care. Sad. I will probably go to another provider over these issues.

I LOVE THIS PHONE! April 12, 2011

Reviewer:  tonyab 

I have had this phone about a month and so far I love it. The slide out keyboard was key to my purchase, as I'm not used to typing on a screen. I had a Blackberry prior. My 15-year-old soon to be stepdaughter got this phone for Christmas and she has been thrilled with it. When I was eligible for an upgrade, I knew it was one I wanted to try.
One feature this phone has that has saved me money is the Mobile Hotspot" capability. For an extra $29/mo your phone can serve as a wireless modem. I was paying $49.99/mo for laptop stick. This phone connection works just as well with the stick. I get $20/mo savings, which more than covers the $10/mo extra you have to pay to have a 4G phone.

Pretty but frustrating at times March 9, 2011

Reviewer:  KGMountain 

I got this phone in late November 2010, while my husband got the HTC Evo. I've had Samsung phones before and always been very happy with them so I went with them again, plus I wanted the qwerty keyboard which the Evo didn't offer at the time. While the phone functions well some of the time there are certain key issues that make it very frustrating. Here are some of the pros and cons that I've experienced.

Pros:
Great picture quality, love the apps, call quality is excellent, camera is good (still can't figure out how to zoom on it though)

Cons:
Battery life is horrible (even with 4G & wifi off as they drain it even more), End call and other buttons don't function well on touchscreen, Email doesn't pull every 5 minutes as it's set to, Added a 2nd email account to the phone and it was mixing up messages - sending ones over a month old to the wrong person, Email app has issues unexpectedly and has to stop, Sometimes I can hear the voicemail as I listen to it and sometimes I can't.

The cons are a major problem for me. The only way I can get emails to come through consistently for any period of time is by shutting my phone completely off OVERNIGHT and the next morning they come in as they should...for a while. And then, they just stop. Even hitting the refresh button doesn't do any good. I work in a business where having emails in real time is a big deal and this has been a major turn-off for me with this phone. Also, after adding the 2nd email account to it some really bad things started to happen. I hit reply to an email and it sent an email from a totally different person from over a month ago as my reply instead of what I had typed. BIG glitch.

The touchscreen is just okay. I sometimes have to hit END CALL 5 or 6 times before it actually disconnects. I also hate that when I'm on the phone and holding the phone with my shoulder while doing something it sometimes hits mute or hold. This is my first touchscreen so maybe that's just a problem with them in general that I have to deal with.

I went into the Sprint store this morning (3/9/11) and he said that 2.2 is supposed to be available for download (after the glitches are fixed) in the next couple of weeks. However, I also was told in mid-December that the email problem (where I'm not getting them) should be fixed with an update in about 2 weeks so I'm not sure how well I believe them. All they could do for my problems was try to reset my phone which I had them do. Immediately after doing that I checked my voicemail and again couldn't hang up the call, so....

All in all, I would stay away from this phone. The Sprint guy did tell me that the phones are now coming with the 2.2 software installed so maybe that will help (the problems were only with the update on it). I was really hoping for more out of this phone and I'm disappointed that I didn't get the Evo like my husband did.

This is the phone to beat! December 6, 2010

Reviewer:  itsnorm 

My wife picked up an HTC Evo, and I loved everything about it... except for the fact that there was no physical keyboard. So I was very excited when I saw Sprint carrying the Samsung Epic 4G. It has nearly all of the features of the HTC Evo (yeah, yeah, some minor exceptions), but with the physical keyboard. Since this was replacing a BlackBerry for me, the presence of a physical QWERTY keyboard was a must. Long story short, I'm glad I got this phone. I have had no problems with GPS or the screen display (especially when compared with my BlackBerry Curve which blocked the GPS and had a much less impressive display!). YES, the battery life stinks, but it's about the same as with the HTC Evo. I guess they should be putting in more powerful batteries into these phones.

I should also mention that this is the first Samsung Galaxy S phone to be live with Froyo (Android 2.2)... That just goes to show you that Sprint wants to stay ahead of the curve on software updates. I haven't immediately noticed any speed improvements as a result of Froyo (It's hard to improve on the speed to begin with!), nor have I seen any marked improvement in battery life. But I know that my IT department will be happy that I'm on Froyo because they wouldn't consider supporting a phone that's not on that version.

Will there be better phones on the market in the months to come? Absolutely. But for now and for the life of the 2 year contract, this will be the phone to beat. ...especially if a physical keyboard is as important to you as it is to me.

Amazing phone (If you have realistic expectations November 16, 2010

Reviewer:  mnviking 

This is my second android phone (first was the HTC Hero with Sprint) and the best of a long line of smartphones I've owned. A friend of mine has the Evo which I loved but when the price on this phone dipped to $150 I jumped on it. Overall I'm happy that I chose the Epic over the Evo but I'm still not sure I use the keyboard enough to offset the fact that I think the sliding mechanism takes away from the "solid" feel of a phone that doesn't have one.

Pros: Size, weight, screen, performance, and layout are all about as good as they could be. And if you have realistic expectations of battery life for a phone that basically replaced my laptop there's really nothing to complain about there either. Yeah, I have to charge it every night but that's to be expected.

Cons: The biggest issues I have with this phone are still pretty minor, like having to press two buttons to insert an "@" symbol in an email address or having to set an unlock pattern to prevent the phone from waking in my pocket as the keyboard gets slid out part way. Samsung doesn't have the best reputation for rolling out updates in a timely manner (I'm ready for Froyo anytime guys!!!) but the other things they bring to the phone like DLNA and the fantastic screens they put in these phones make up for some of that.

I'd sum it all up by saying that every phone has fanboys and trash-talkers, but I can really see myself living with this phone for the life of my two year contract and being happy with it.

Evo vs Epic: Epic, FTW =D November 8, 2010

Reviewer:  B. Crawford "b/C"  (L.A.) -

This phone is awesome; love the QWERTY; no complaints.

When comparing with the EVO, aside from a slightly larger screen, the Epic wins out in pretty much all other areas that matter. That's not to say that the EVO isn't a great phone, cause it is, but the QWERTY + higher quality screen, faster processor, and a bit smoother graphics is what makes this guy a winner. The audio is also a bit better, and..well, since this IS a phone: that matters. For those who argue for the EVO because of the higher MP number, you can check out audio/video comparisons on YouTube.

The Epic also supports 6-axis gyro control features and has a slightly faster processor. Aside from that, it comes with a 16GB SD card installed while the EVO, I believe, comes with much less (could be wrong here).

Now aside from all that; I'm sure you'd be happy with either one, really (meaning either the Epic or Evo). In the world of phones it's like Ferrari vs Lamborghini.

P.S. For those who say YouTube quality is lacking on the Epic: You have to press the settings key and choose HQ and voila. It's just the HQ doesn't show up on the in-video/HUD options as it does on the EVO, is all.

Love, Love, Love this Phone September 15, 2010

Reviewer:  R. Hager "Disco DJ"  (Cleveland, OH) -

Ok, this is plain and simple - down and dirty. You all can read the specs. Amazing performance. Great coverage. Amazing plan. This phone is what smartphones were meant to be. I DO like the keyboard options. Let's face it, sometimes you DO need a physical keyboard (subway, bus, jet) when swipe texting just won't do. It is all there in this device. I have had Windows phones, Blackberries (don't get me started), and a variety of other devices. This is it! Oh and you know what? The build is very sturdy. I can't tell you how much trouble I have had with HTC phones and cases cracking, screens bleeding, etc. Go for it!

Epic FAIL!!! May 12, 2011

Reviewer:  Ricky N Keen  (CORYDON, IN, US) -

***DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE*** This phone has cured me of EVER wanting another Samsung phone and nearly killed my budding Android obsession. Horrible battery life...worst ever...you cannot leave the house without a charger...battery dies at idle overnight if not plugged in. Abhorrent call quality...its really bad. 2 people with this phone talking to one another cannot have an actual conversation. Cannot under any circumstances get my facebook notifications or emails in a remotely timely fashion. Really, you WILL NOT get your emails til sometime MUCH later, like when you get home and check your computer. Same with facebook. You have to touch next to the letter you want on the touchscreen because the buttons don't act right. It's stupid! Takes multiple presses on the screen to activate icons. Camera locks up and freezes the whole phone making you pull the battery. Won't do anything right when the battery life reaches around 30%. Unbreakable screen BROKE the first time it fell off a chair onto my floor. You cannot see the screen outdoors!!! it takes forever for the camera to come up so you will never catch a pic you need to be quick for. Doesn't interface with 64bit windows...at all...even bluetooth!!! And speaking of bluetooth IT DOESN'T WORK worth a darn. My OLD BB handles bluetooth 10 times better but it kills the battery on the Epic just that much quicker so I CAN'T USE IT unless the phone is plugged in.
If you thought all that was bad enough here is the piece de resistance...90% of you reading this review won't have the 4G service this phone is capable of...but you will still pay an extra $10 a month for the privilege. Thats right...that's right Sprint is getting you on for $10 and you get nothing for it.
I repeat***DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE***unless all you want to do is play Angry Birds on the Gorgeous screen all day. But you better have a charger handy.

So many reasons to think twice [BUY AN EVO] December 27, 2010

Reviewer:  G Montag "whatever" 

[EDIT: 01/21/2010]
Its much worse than i thought. The reason my Epic still has an ancient version of android is because of Samsung. Samsung is trying to charge the carriers every time they update any of the Galaxy S series phones. Keep in mind that the effort to "update" their handsets is rather negligible. The Android O.S. is not being developed by Samsung. Its handed to them for FREE. They need to tweak it a little bit so that their horrible pre-installed bloatware widgets remain compatible, but thats it. The carriers, rightly, think thats a load of it and arent paying. which leaves us where we are right now. Its taking every once of self control that i posses to leave the cap lock key in the off position.

I wish I had bought an EVO
[END EDIT]

I thought i was buying the flagship Android 4G Phone. I was TOLD that I was buying the flagship Android 4G Phone. I paid a lot of money with the understanding that I was buying the flagship Android 4G Phone.

Wrong
Wrong
Wrong

This phone has been completely abandoned by the manufacturer and the carrier. The Android operating system moves on and yet this phone is still waiting to be updated to the current version of the Android Operating System. What a joke. If i had bought a cheap 2nd rate handset i might not be too upset. I bought the most expensive Android phone on the market and now im feeling like i got played. I shouldnt have to root my handset just to keep it up to date.

Awesome voice controls but too many issues to count June 10, 2011

Reviewer:  Trillian  (Arizona) -

I bought the Epic after owning a Palm Pre for the last couple of years. Before that, however, my last two phones were Samsungs as I've found their voice dialing has always been second-to-none. With all the hype about Android, and my adoration of Samsung's voice dialing capabilities, I was really shocked at how much I disliked this phone (it went back to Sprint after only one week). There were a number of things that the Pre does effortlessly that are SO much harder on this phone, and I also had several issues that were not mentioned in the reviews.

Before I get into the issues, I will say the voice dialing and voice search on the Epic is a thing of beauty. You can search Google by voice, tell the phone you want to listen to an artist and it will bring up the associated Pandora station, and you can also do fancy things like voice memo, voice text and voice email (oh and it voice dials too). The speech-to-text capability is incredibly accurate and only seemed to flub when I was in a noisy car. I also found the phone to have good battery life, and its screen and video quality definitely lives up to the hype.

That being said, there were several problems I found with this phone that I did not have with the Pre:

* It is a Google phone, with little love for Yahoo. I live by my Yahoo calendar and the phone does not natively support Yahoo calendar (your only choices are the Exchange corporate calendar, which it syncs with nicely, or Google calendar).
* It does not automatically backup all of your contact info. Palm has you create an account upon establishing service that periodically backs up all your contacts. The Epic requires a Google account and you have to specify whether new contacts are stored to Google or the phone.
* The Pre automatically displays the sender/subject of new emails and text messages on its main screen (even if the screen is locked), whereas the Epic places a number icon over the email/messaging icons to denote the number of new messages. There is also a note in the Epic's notification bar, which you have to get to by scrolling.
* For those of you looking forward to using the Epic with Microsoft Exchange, I'd recommend a quick test of the system because my experience with Exchange email was a nightmare. When replying to Exchange email messages with the phone, the software on the built-in email program included HTML formatting codes (every sentence ended with ). This is a known issue with the Epic and some versions of Microsoft Exchange email servers and from what I gathered on the net there doesn't seem to be a fix. I ended up going with a 3rd party email program that wasn't as seamlessly integrated into the phone.
* The "Task Manager" was the nail in the phone's coffin. With the Pre, when you are done with an app, you slide the associated card off the screen and the program stops. For whatever reason, the Google developers decided to include their version of CTRL-ALT-DEL to get rid of running apps. You can't close an app from within the app, you have to go to a Task Manager to individually turn off all running programs. It's just one more additional step for something that should have taken no more than a second.
* Odd but interesting... I CANNOT see the screen on the Epic when I am in the car wearing my polarized sunglasses. The Pre (and other phones) seem to show up fine, but the Epic is incredibly faint.
* With the Pre, I could scroll back to previously-played songs on Pandora to bookmark or like/dislike. The Epic functions more like Pandora does on the Roku, with no ability to scroll back and only the current song available for marking.

Your enjoyment of this phone (and how crazy it drives you, or doesn't) is going to depend on what you're doing with it. The voice dialing rocks, and it is a much better phone phone than the Pre, but if you're using the phone primarily to keep up with text messaging and emails, I think it is far inferior in these respects.

Waiting for the iphone on Sprint October 9, 2010

Reviewer:  V. Aggarwal "VA Brookline"  (Brookline, MA) -

The Epic is an OK phone. It seemed to be the best option Sprint had to offer in October 2010.

Pros:
- Screen size and sharpness
- Physical keyboard (though vlingo app is great to transcribe spoken words)

Cons:
- Battery life is its weakest feature, barely lasts a day, even with what I believe to be light use.
- Large, bulky phone
- Android OS is for "techies" - Its the Windows vs. Apple.
- User has to manually turn Wi-fi on & off, unlike iPhone where it automatically connects to known wi-fi systems. - Wi-Fi also drains the battery much faster.
- Expensive (highest priced smartphone in 2010)
- Experiencing several technical difficulties (phone is 6 months old).
a. Unable to add new or update existing applications.
b. No spoken directions in navigation application - need to restart the phone to get voice output
c. unable to access voicemail. have to restart the phone to access voicemail.

Resolution is a hard reset and loose all data and set up the phone again.

owned since day 1- (short and long reviews) October 5, 2010

Reviewer:  M. LeClair  (NY, USA) -

I bought my epic the day it came out as an upgrade to an existing sprint premier account. I had previously had a samsung moment, and several blackberry devices before that.

short review- This phone is by far THE BEST phone i have ever used (and i've had a lot).

long review-

the combo of processor/memory make this phone almost as powerful as my girlfriends netbook. with a decent connection to the network, or a wifi connection available... it is faster on the internet than many computers (i recommend using Dolphinbrowser HD, a free app on the marketplace. much better than the stock browser).

the superamoled screen is great. crisp vibrant colors. not quite as easy to see in the bright light as advertisements made it out to be, but definitely the best cell screen i've seen to date. combine the processor, memory, screen, and the 6-axis controller, and youve got a gaming machine. runs emulators flawlessly, and the new tilt control games are awesome. has multitouch features, similar to ipod/iphone, but through experience with both, i definitely think this screen is better than apples.

all new phones (at least when purchased from sprint directly) come with a 16gb microsd card. 'nuff said there.

battery life is actually pretty good. about the same as my samsung moment. i am constantly using my phone (5-8k texts a month, average of 2.5GB of data PER month since i got the phone, lots of gaming) and i get 8-10 hours normally. some days its a little less if i forget to kill the apps (use advanced taskiller, yet another free app. you'll be amazed at how it extends your bat life)

the headset that comes with the phone is actually one of the best earbud style headphones i have ever used. block out everything but what you are listening to (and the phone has a 3.5mm jack to accept standard headphones as well).

app marketplace has more apps (both free and paid) than anyone will know what to do with. something for everything and everyone. and with the new google app inventor (still in beta) coming out, anyone will be able to make their own apps easily and quickly.

this phone actually ROAMS, and is included free in the plan required to activate this phone. it is one of the few new smartphones i have seen that will choose to roam over having no connection at all (like my moment, which would choose to stay at 0 bars but connected to sprint instead of roaming onto the available full bar verizon connection available at my house).

the cameras- yes. i said cameraS. there is a front facing and back facing. i have yet to use front facing for video chat, but it takes pretty good pictures considering it is pinhole sized. the back facing camera, if i am not mistaken, is 5mp. great photos/video. sound quality on video isnt too shabby either.

the OS- android with some extras. the phone will actually sync your accounts- gmail, facebook, twitter, myspace, etc all to your contacts/calender how ever often you choose. 7 homescreens instead of 3 as on some android devices. full access to app library. comes standard with sprint tv, nascar, and football. large screen on the phone allows for an extra row at bottom/side that has contacts/phone/messaging/apps buttons on it, so you can use your whole desktop for apps of your choosing. also has the ability to broadcast wifi signal and be used as a wifi hotspot, along with MANY other new features exclusive to this phone (like mediahub, the new sprint media center which allows users to rent/buy movies and tv shows over wifi/4g and download straight to their phone to watch).

the keyboards- virtual is actually not too bad. the swipe input method is very cool. accurate probably 95% of the time too. the haptic feedback and large "buttons" make typing on virtual pad easy. the slide out 5 row qwerty keyboard has its flaws, but is also nice overall. occasionally buttons dont read as being pushed when typing fast. otherwise it also has nice large buttons, easy nagivation through the android screens, and other nifty shortcuts (like a ".com" button).

i STRONGLY recommend getting a case and/or a screen protector. i purchased the black leather bodyglove case (with the chrome edging) and the screen protector 3-pack from sprint. for a phone this expensive, totally worth the cost, and i know that the little investment in case for my phone has saved it repeatedly from scratching and damage.

all in all i love my epic. the lack of 4g speed in my area is a little bit of a bummer. whenever i take it out people ask about it, gawk at the size of the screen (no joke, happened 3x today alone). its a sleek, slim, powerful, versatile phone. by far the best phone available on sprint, and i would argue on any network. WELL WORTH the cost of an unlimited data plan (with premium data access, required, for an extra $10). this phone is expensive but worth every penny.

Epic Success September 29, 2010

Reviewer:  KJ "hoss"  (Kansas City) -

This is the first review I've ever written. This is the best phone available (in my opinion). The Samsung Epic is the same size as the EVO, but noticeably lighter, plus it has the QWERTY keyboard that the EVO does not.

What is great about the phone:
speed - 4G is amazing, 3G not far behind
navigation - best I've seen
reliability - 100%
Android 2.2 upgradeable
camera - exceptional
user-friendly - 100% - set up my work exchange server email literally in 30 seconds - fully functional email and calendering
touchscreen - amazing - can't believe how vivid the screen is

Less than ideal:
The phone is pricy - $250 at the Sprint store. But, that's $10/month for a 2 year commitment - worth it.
It is a big phone - but I did the research, the EVO, and the iPhone, all the same size.
Battery life - hey, the phone does great things, and the battery lasts a day - good enough for me (however, turn off the apps you're not using, or else it can be a battery hog). But I've used it for full days texting, emailing, calling, running multiple apps, and it is fine.

Bottom Line:
I was hesitant to buy this phone, due to the price tag. However, I'm totally satisfied - there is not a better option out there right now.

Very Satisfied!!!! September 17, 2010

Reviewer:  Wade Taylor "elsewhere"  (USA) -

Pros:
-4G
-Keyboard is very useful and intuitive- did not think I would use it as frequently as I have
-The processor of the phone is lightning fast
-comes with very nice headphones and higher capacity storage card that EVO
-Screen is beautiful in day and night
-I am indifferent in this system vs IU SENSE, but this is much faster

Cons:
-GPS is faulty- i believe this is being fixed
-awful widgets- HTC is much better
-buttons at the bottom of phone are not as sensitive as i would like. I also like the double tap of the home button of htc phones to turn on
-power button could be places better
-battery is just piss poor, i dont know if its the same as evo or not

I have had the phone for a week now and love it. very happy.

Great phone for exactly 91 days. December 10, 2010

Reviewer:  Tan  (San Francisco, CA) -

This really is a great phone. I love the screen, I love the speed but this is another case where it's great if you can find a way to fix everything yourself.
However, it's not without it's problems (that never get fixed, which I'll get to later).

Problems that Samsung denied and ignored.
The touchscreen is unresponsive after a phone call. I usually feel like I have to punch the phone before I can access the dialpad and actually dial extensions, etc.
Also after phone calls the phone frequently locks up to where it can't be used.
In addition to phone calls the phone will lock up when waking up from sleep to the point where it won't open without a restart.
I got this phone day of release and 90 days later it is already falling apart. The screen is separating from the keyboard and it's already twisted to the point where when I rest my thumb on the bottom left it is constantly pushed out.
I can even press my thumb under the part jutting out and get it a millimeter off the keyboard.
After noting this I explained my problems to Samsung and requested service. They sent me a UPS Second Day air shipping label and I got all the stuff I needed to ship it to them.
They sat on my phone for a week until they told me there was nothing wrong and shipped it back.
The problem remains and quite frankly even feels a little worse. All the other problems also seem to have gotten worse. Phone calls are maddening and I'm seriously considering permanently switching my my LG Fusic (a 5 year old flip phone)
To add insult to injury the phone now smells like Mayo and I can't seem to get rid of it. (not a joke).

This is consistent with the other problems I've run into with Samsung products and now I'm not really surprised.

Do not buy unless you plan on upgrading after 3 months.

Huge Letdown December 20, 2010

Reviewer:  Nabil Makar 

Normally I don't write reviews. This phone was such a huge letdown that I had to write one as a warning to others looking at getting this phone.

If you don't use GPS then ignore the rest of this post and go ahead and buy the phone. With some minor exceptions most everything else works pretty well with this phone. I like the keyboard, the screen is great, but if you are in the car trying to figure out directions to Walley World you will be annoyed. Sometimes the gps works fine. Most times it doesn't work at all. The screen will display "Waiting for location"
1 minute later...
"Waiting for location"
3 minutes later...
"Waiting for location"
Finally
"Location could not be found"

You might scratch this up for one bad phone right? No. There is 9 page thread over on Sprint's own community forum with other users with the same problem. Sprint refused to acknowledge that there was even a problem with the phone so I ended up returning it and canceling my account. That was about 3 months ago and they still haven't fixed the issue. I was fortunate enough to get a refund for the phone and for service because I did so within the first month of service.

The Samsung Galaxy S line of phones, of which the epic was one, was supposed to be Samsung's premier phones. It looks like they still have some work to do.

Freeze constantly, awful battery, slow, bad 4g, 4g wifi random activation August 24, 2012

Reviewer:  brandolove 

I have had my epic 4g for about a year and it has posed constant problems. It is a piece of junk really and is not work the price what so ever. Battery last about 3 - 4 hrs normal use, about 2hrs heavy use, and light use about 8 hrs. This phone is basically a cash grab and is very low quality. It randomly activates 4g and wi-fi when I am not using the phone causing the battery to go into a heavy usage mode with out me even knowing. It is also slow and freezes constantly making me take out the battery and restarting the phone probably twice a day. The phones main purpose (Calling) is awful the screen will light up on your check and end the call often. I would not recommend this phone to anyone.

The only pros to this phone is it is durable and looks nice.

I used to love this phone... May 8, 2012

Reviewer:  H. Wilson 

I got a Samsung Epic 4G in 10/2010, and have found it to be the worst phone I have owned. I am gentle with electronic equipment, so rough handling has NOT been a contributing factor. I put a rubber case cover on as soon as the phone came out of the box and have never dropped the phone. 6 months after I bought the phone, the ringer volume dropped to a barely audible level even though the volume indicator showed the ringer at full volume. I took it to the Sprint service center, they did a Customer Reset. Before the reset, the tech said he backed everything up. After the reset and I am asking where are my Memo notes, calender events and other data? That's when he said they could only backup contacts to the card. Everything else gets wiped out.

My ringer volume continues to drop down even when the volume bar shows it's on full. The screen goes dim like it does when you haven't touched the phone for a minute, but it will do this while I am typing, with the screen brightness not returning until several minutes typing only to go dim again a few minutes later. This really sucks when you are trying to play a game or watch a video. 2 to 3 times a week, after I plug in the phone overnight for charging, the phone will be off when I unplug it in the morning. All of these conditions go away for a couple of weeks after a Customer Reset.

At first, the Wifi would not connect and knock down 3G & 4G until I did a Customer Reset. I took it to the Covina service center in 3/2012 after moving, & they updated some apps. Now Wifi will work some of the time and it does not know down wireless data when it fails. The Covina Techs have been using a Tech Reset to clear the problems, which does NOT wipe out Data, Apps or Settings.

After months of doing a Customer Reset 2+ times a month, and loosing all data, apps and settings each time. I don't bother to add apps, make any customizations, or add any data except contacts. I loved the phone at first, and it's still great when it works, but I no longer trust the phone or Andriod since I am unable to find any way to get these issues fixed for more then a couple of weeks.

I am ready to move on, even though my next upgrade is 5 months away. It's worth the $75 not to keep having to use this phone.