Epic phone. December 9, 2011

Reviewer:  S. Aksenov  (Medford, OR) -

There are plenty of detailed reviews. I just want to say that this is the best Android phone out to date.
Fast, slim, light, amazing screen, decent battery life, Samsung's GPU-accelerated launcher/shell with GPU accelerated browser. The camera is also of good quality. While 1080P recording is redundant, it's nice to have :) Also, the bezel around the screen, especially sides, is noticeably thinner than most phones - really cool. Even though this has a larger screen than AT&T version, it isn't actually noticeably bigger, since the AT&T's version has larger bezel.

The only few complaints I have are as follows:
- The LED is slightly too cool for me. When used as flash light, it outputs blue-ish light, kind of like those riced out HID kits you see on in halogen headlight housings XD *facepalm* Ok, maybe not that bad, but I would guess it's around 5200K. My old Motorola Droid OG had pure white color LED, which I really appreciated.
- The phone is slippery and hard to get a grip on because of its lightness. Seriously, the phone is so light, it doesn't sit firmly in your hand. Such a quirk is easily remedied with a protective shell.
- No camera button. I miss press-hold to launch camera app on my Droid. Now I actually have to keep a shortcut to the camera app on the home screen. Of course, some welcome minimalistic approach - the fewer buttons, the better. But I'm sure those that use the camera often, like myself, wouldn't mind a physical button (especially dual action). Besides, focusing the lens is more comfortable with a button than tap-hold on the screen.
- Bloatware. Enough said. All phones have it, this one is no exception. I have 3 phones on the plan, mine is rooted, others are not. While I removed all the carp I didn't want, my mom and gf use the phone in its stock form. They aren't very tech savvy, of course, and could care less about the notification bar spamming with Sprint app news/updates/bs or ads in apps. My guess is, in a similar manner, to most people that won't matter. Those that do have a problem with bloatware are probably well aware of removal techniques.

None of those issues would keep me from buying the phone again (if you call $0.01 "buying" lol).

Will be the best Android on Sprint for a while December 7, 2011

Reviewer:  Hodedofome "Hodedofome"  (TX) -

The only other Android that I would consider 'better' is the Galaxy Nexus, which I doubt will be released on Sprint until they roll out LTE, which will be late 2012. I don't feel like waiting that long to upgrade my Evo. So I got the Epic touch. I like it, much faster than my Evo, I thought it might be too big, but it's so thin and light that you don't notice. I'm sure within 5 years we'll be carrying around business card thin phones.

Haven't had enough time to test out the battery life, so no thoughts there. There are a few quirky things regarding some instability with the touch screen but only happens intermittently. Like using Google talk, sometimes the cursor jumps back a word for no reason. This is stuff that could be fixed with software updates fairly easily. Delay when waking up the phone is annoying, don't know how that got past QC.

Good data and voice connections so far, better 4g connection than with my Evo.

I didn't think I would like TouchWiz, but it's growing on me. I'll always love the basic Android experience with the Nexus phones, but TouchWiz will suffice.

Awesome, awesome phone December 3, 2011

Reviewer:  Kyle Wright 

I have had the Galaxy S II etc. phone for about a week now, and I am still occasionally muttering to myself, "This phone is so awesome..." Maybe I am easy to impress because I was jumping all the way up from a 4 year old crappy flip-phone, so probably any smart phone on the planet would amaze me...but still, it is just a really great phone. Literally everything I want to do that I believe would be possible with a phone, it does. I have not yet run into a single frustration or complaint about the design. The battery life is pretty amazing as well considering how much stuff is constantly going on in it; again, I am coming from the perspective of someone with a really old phone, and that thing barely was more efficient than this despite doing literally nothing besides phone and text.

Other people have given much more extensive reviews, but I just wanted to chime in as another very satisfied buyer, for what it's worth.

Battery/Fast! December 3, 2011

Reviewer:  KJ325 

This phone is really good. I am able to go an entire day without having to recharge.My T-mobile G2 needed to be recharged constantly. The Samsung galaxy S II is really fast. Of course there will always be areas where the speed isn't 4G. I'm a realist. No phone is going to perform like the commercials! I give it 4 1/2 stars

great phone November 24, 2011

Reviewer:  kradz 

I ordered this phone at 5pm and it was delivered by 3pm the NEXT day!!! So far I love it. It's so smart in texting mode - easy to make corrections. Still getting to know it, but great so far.

Loving my first Android phone November 15, 2011

Reviewer:  Prasanna Srinivasan  (Seattle, Washington) -

I bought my Samsung Galaxy S II on Sep 30th 2011. This happens to be my first smart phone as well. I am loving the responsiveness of the touch and the wide selection of apps that are available from both Amazon App Store and Android Market.

Pros:
* Light weight
* Touch - very responsive and fluid movements
* Excellent colors on the display
* The screen width - Most of my time is spent in reading something in either Amazon Kindle App or the FBReader (for free books from gutenburg.org). The screen makes it much better to read.
* Battery - comes for around 1 to 1.5 days. On an average, each day, I use the phone for reading (1.5 hours), listening to music (1 hr), checking mails, chatting etc., (~10 times a day spending ~5 minutes each time).
* Sprint plan - I believe this is one of the good deals for unlimited 3G data.
* Speaker on the phone - it is loud and clear

Cons:
* Sprint coverage - I find myself in 3G data roaming even if I travel slightly (10s of miles) outside Seattle. Although it says 3G data roaming is free, at times even the cell phone coverage is not available. I wish this was available with some other carrier.
* As with any other android device, this also doesn't play youtube videos in background - they just stop if I switch to some other application. Can't hold it against this phone - but anyways an annoyance for me.

Overall, if you are fine with a big form factor (bigger than normal phones, but fits well in my pockets), this is a very good choice.

Almost perfect. November 11, 2011

Reviewer:  Li "Amazon-aholic"  (Miami, FL) -

I traded my iPhone 4S for this, never looked back on Apple again (I had 3g, 3gs and 4 before my 4S)

Raw horsepower, never lagged, great screen and size (my iPhone 4S's screen is way too small to my taste, despite super dense pixel count). Battery life is on par with 4S, however worse than the original iphone 4. And this is with 4G off all the time. With 4G, this phone's battery drops insanely quick.

Random Lose of Service, where my phone would receive phone calls but data service would fail and all my apps and email wouldn't connect to 3G. This happens a lot when I'm in an enclosed area, with no service, out of the area and the Data still does not work (phone would not show 3G data icon)

Keyboard is much more comfortable than iphone 4/4s, swype is the best invention ever.

Music management is less than iTunes, and Asian language support is subpar compared to iTunes/iPhone.

App selection is on par with Apple App Store.

Overall above average performance.

Best phone choice I could have made. November 10, 2011

Reviewer:  Kyra Waring 

If you're on the fence about getting this phone, I'll tell you right now, it's definitely time to hop off. I was super hesitant to get the Epic Touch simply because it was a samsung made device. Everyone knows what a mess the upgrades were for the original galaxy s line. Not to mention touchwiz was ehhhh. Didn't care for it much. I went into the sprint store and asked if they had a model available for demoing. Not going to lie, I thought the screen was HUGE. Maybe even too big. I picked it up and was shocked how light it was. After playing on it for about 10 minutes, and being captivated by the super amoled plus screen, the screen size no longer mattered. Yes, yes it has a pixel density of 800 by 480. Trust me, it doesn't matter one bit. And did I mention how fast this phone is? BLAZING!!!! Every aspect, from opening apps, to web browsing, to switching screens, FAST!!!! One thing that really puts people off, myself included, is the lag on android devices. The Exnyos processing power is outstanding in this phone. Lag hardly ever exists. As for touchwiz, I really like the improvements Samsung has made in 4.0. I've always been a pure vanilla kinda girl, but the new touchwiz is very intuitive and integrated wonderfully. You have the leap feature for both the main screens and app screens. If you're not sure what touchwiz 4.0 is or how it's different from previous versions, I recommend heading over to youtube and checking out a few reviews. It will help you get to know all you're phone is capable of. Also, I would recommend getting a screen protector and case for this phone. I purchased the ZAGG protector and TPU black matte case. I recommend both products they are perfect for the phone. I've dropped it twice, once when I was getting out of the car and the other I was inside. No dents, scratches, anything. I'm still waiting on otterbox to release a case. The more protection, the better.

There are a few quirks here and there, as with everything. The charging cord is kinda short and when the phone is charging, the touch sensitive screen isn't very accurate at times. I've only noticed that when it's charging. The power button is on the side so sometimes I'll accidentally hit that while adjusting the volume. After about 2 months with the phone I've gotten better at not doing that though. This phone also has a notification light. +1 for Samsung finally putting that in their product. The only thing is, it flashes every 8 seconds or so. Within that time I could have just pushed the power button to check if I have a notification..... so that is slightly irritating but I'm still very glad the feature is available.

Overall, this is a great phone. If it wasn't for Sprints spotty service, this phone would literally be a 10/10. I've only dropped two calls and they were both at the same place. A friend of mine must live in the black hole of all places because I get zero service there. Other than that, call quality is fantastic everywhere else. Web browsing is a great experience due to the screen size. I can't fit my phone in my pocket due to the size but I've gotten over that real quick. Speaker is very loud. I play a lot of music and have gotten quite a few compliments on the sounds quality and volume level. Touch sensitive buttons are very responsive. I haven't had any issues with hitting one of the buttons and having it not respond the way it should. The phone is THIN!! Which is sooo nice. Camera quality is also fantastic. Great camera shots inside and outside. One LED light is all this phone needs, it's plenty bright. Battery life is also good. I'd still say take a car charger with you though for long days away from home. I'd recommend this phone to anyone and everyone. It's the best phone out for sprint right now, hands down. The Nexus S will be dropping on verizon in a while, and honestly this phone is still going to be competition performance wise. What are you waiting for??? Go get one :D

Best phone ever November 9, 2011

Reviewer:  Harold W. Murphy Jr. "H-digit"  (Temple U) -

This phone is amazing everythingI ever wanted from am android phone from the super fast processor that runs every appI need whenI need it without lag to the beautiful screen thatI enjoy hd movies on and is protected by gorilla glassI already stored it face first on concrete from about6 feet and it survived without a scratch. The camera take great videos and pictures this phone is the whole package

I love this phone November 3, 2011

Reviewer:  Kemar Edwards "ke"  (minneapolis,mn) -

This phone is the best phone I have used. The battery life 5/5
Speed 5/5
Sound 5/5
If you have sprint get this phone
The only thing I can say has to do with sprints service, the need to improve on their 4g but they have stopped.

All of the pluses of the Galaxy S1 without the flaws November 2, 2011

Reviewer:  sonnojoi "sonnojoi"  (Minneapolis, MN USA) -

UPDATE: I'm downgrading my review from 5 stars to 4 because the OS, Gingerbread, is now out of date and we've been waiting too long for Ice Cream Sandwich. The hardware on this phone is still fantastic.

This is a really nice phone. It has all the great features from the Galaxy S line (except for Sprint's Epic 4G if you liked the QWERTY keyboard - my mom just got the Epic 4G and loves it). The crappy GPS in the GS1's has been resolved in the GS2: I get a lock almost instantly anywhere outside. There isn't too much preinstalled crapware on the Epic Touch and some of it can be deleted without rooting. The screen is gorgeous despite being relatively low-resolution compared to other new phones and the wifi and 3g/4g connections are really fast (I live right outside Minneapolis). The dual core processor and 1gb of RAM make it super responsive without any hold ups or hiccups. I'm worried that Samsung will be slow to update the OS from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich and may never update beyond ICS because they were really bad about updating the Galaxy S1's. But right now this phone is probably the most advanced option and works flawlessly.

If you have small hands the phone might be uncomfortably wide, although it's incredibly thin and weighs almost nothing.

I got the TPU case for about $10 that fits snuggly and I'm happy with that too.

Update: I've played around with the camera a little and that's fantastic too. My GS1 (T-Mobile Vibrant) had a nice lens but no flash; the Epic Touch has a surprisingly powerful flash and handles really nicely inside at night. I recommend using SugarSync to have the photos automatically load to your computer.

Update 2: Holy cow, I can even get a GPS signal INSIDE. Thank you Samsung for finally getting that right.

Super Aweome Phone October 28, 2011

Reviewer:  DT 

Love this phone. Super fast, screen looks amazing, amazing photos and even better video, and the interface works perfect. No problems at all. Only slight knock on it is the battery, but from what I have gathered it is better than any other smartphones out there. I am extremely happy with this phone. Best one out there.

Great Phone October 4, 2011

Reviewer:  B. Marsh 

I won't get into the specifics of the phone many reviews have done that. My experience has usually been the back of the line phones that you get for free with a new contract. My last phone was a Blackberry Curve 8330 which I had 2 different phones in 4 years. I really liked that phone after coming from a regular phone with limited internet and other capabilities. The last 6 months or so my Blackberry really started to lag. Web browsing was never fast but was like going from cable back to dial-up. So I decided a new phone was in order and if I have to pay $10 a month extra anyway I wanted a 4G phone. Looked all through Sprint's lineup and I had originally decided on the EVO but changed my mind with all the reviews of the Epic Touch.

This phone is blazing fast. Apps pull up instantly and there is no delay in video, the GPS is wonderful, it is perfect to hold in your left hand with the volume buttons right there under your thumb if you hold it in your right hand your thumb is on the power and index finger on the volume so that could be an issue.

All in all I am so happy I got this phone. It does not feel cheaply made like some people have stated on here. It is rather large but if you use a bluetooth like me then there are no issues about holding it up to your ear. the 16Gb storage is incredible. I had a 1Gb SD card for my BB and had a ton of songs on it. Don't think I will be filling up the 32Gb SD slot and 16Gb internal memory anytime soon.

Best phone on the market September 30, 2011

Reviewer:  Yaak 

The 4.5" AMOLED screen is amazing. The phone is fast, I love the user interface and included software. Unlike my previous HTC, I can see the aggregated view of all my email accounts. 16GB - plenty of storage. I would just hope they have white of brushed aluminum version. One hand operation and pocketability make this phone more usable then my iPad.

The God Father of Phones September 25, 2011

Reviewer:  MG  (USA) -

Epic 4g Touch is one of a new breed of "super" phones. Dual core SoC processors. The features and performance that this phone has gives it a seamless and smooth flow of operation. This phone has not locked up on me once since I got it a week ago. 10 programs open, no lag. It is very light to a point where it worries me that if I drop it it may break. I did'nt want to take any chances so I went ahead and bought one of those TPU matte cases and now it has a very nice balanced weigh to it.

The 4.5 inch is crisp and very bright. Using it out in the sun is no problem either because of the Super AMOLD display. All of the App icons are nicely sized to fit the large screen.

One thing that I have noticed is that accessory vendors are slow to develope accessories for the Epic Touch. May be in a few months this might be the case but for now be prepared for some slim pickings when it comes to accessories with this phone.

Reception is great and calls come in clear. People on the other end also say the same.

Over all I am very happy with this phone.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch great phone. September 24, 2011

Reviewer:  Jason S. 

Awesome big screen. Good battery life. Super fast, no lag at all, even with multiple apps running, and with live wallpapers and multiple widgets running. This is the best phone I have ever used. Excellent camera and video recording. It has excellent sound also. Not much to complain about that I have found in the last week of using it constantly.

Samsung.com deleted my review November 11, 2011

Reviewer:  mtriana  (Miami, fl) -

In all fairness, this is an awesome phone. However, at the present time I am unable to use it because it is roaming and dropping calls ALL THE TIME. According to Sprint they can't exchange the phone because this a known issue and they are working with Samsung on an update to fix it. I posted this issue on samsung.com and my review never got published, which I think is extremely dishonest for those looking to buy this phone. I bought the phone through amazonwireless.com, I saved $50 and I received my phone in no time. But beware, because at the sprint store I was told that I should have known better and should have bought the phone directly from them. There are not a lot of honest companies like Amazon out there folks. I swear that if I could buy my groceries here I would. My advice: If you are instered in this phone, wait for the fix. It will be worth it.

"Galaxy?" More like "Galazy" November 13, 2011

Reviewer:  Bob From Springfield "Bob From Springfield"  (Springfield, OH USA) -

There are good things to say about the SPH-D710. The screen is gorgeous and there are a lot of nice little touches with the software. However, the GPS doesn't work unless I reboot the phone (try doing THAT safely while driving in an unfamiliar area!)and the 3G is spotty, to put it kindly. I'd love to blame Sprint for the 3G issues, but that'd be unfair. The Galaxy S2 struggles and mosies about where my HTC Evo didn't have any problems. I ditched the Evo for the Galazy because I thought I was getting a monumental upgrade. Truth is that it's a step backward. Yes, it can be said that the Evo is obsolete because of its technical specs, but I disagree. If it works, it's not obsolete. It's the Galazy that's obsolete.

There are also some puzzling issues. The camera shutter can't be muted or even turned down. It wouldn't be a big deal except that it's very loud. Also, you can assign a custom ringtone, but not a custom notification sound. I found that you CAN work around that by creating a special folder in "My Files" and moving your custom sounds to it, but why should you even have to? Even unlocking the phone out of sleep mode is a challenge. When you wake up the phone, it blinks off after about two seconds and then you have to turn it on again and hope you're fast enough to unlock it. If you're a slowpoke the process repeats until you successfully unlock the phone.

Even more curious, to answer a call you have to slide an icon across the screen. I have big hands, but I found it nearly impossible to hold the phone and answer the call with the same hand. So Samsung forces the user to use two hands (or one hand and one nose) to answer a call. If you don't have two hands free you may wind up having to do unnatural contortions to answer the phone or just accept that you'll miss the call. What about just tapping a button to answer the call like every other smartphone I've had before?

Considering the problems right from the start, I don't see myself being tied down to this phone for 18 months when I'm eligible for an upgrade.

This phone WAS great... August 31, 2012

Reviewer:  Dollyheart  (Phoenix, AZ) -

This phone WAS great, the best I've ever owned- UNTIL IT WASN'T, because it became 100% useless by the well-documented, well-known "LoS Bug" aka Loss of Service bug- what happens is, out of nowhere, you will suddenly get a red circle with a strike through it, and if you are LUCKY, you can restart your phone each time and it will correct itself til the next time- however, mine was not fixable even by restarting. I did a factory reset too, and I also contact Samsung for the warranty, since I only had it 4 months or less, and I sent it in only to be told it was "liquid damage" and therefore my fault..Which is SO NOT TRUE! So it is well known that this phone has a serious issue with loss of service, which basically translates into "unable to send or receive texts, nor make or receive any calls"..Which also could be translated to being useless for the very reasons one would even buy a phone in the first place. It is such a shame, because until this happened, it was SUCH a great phone! The scary part is, there is no way to predict if yours will be one of the ones with a problem or not..and if you DO have this problem, don't expect it to necessarily show up in the 30 days you have to return it- though wouldn't that be nice?! Mine was not until 2 or 3 months in. So BUYER BEWARE!!!!

DON'T GET THIS PHONE on Sprint November 23, 2011

Reviewer:  Fuyuki 

This phone on Sprint has on going issues with Loss of Service (LOS) Bug. I personally loses signal completely at least 4 times a day and it does not recover untill you reboot your phone.

See the angry customer discussions on Sprint Community Forum:
[...]

Land of Droid article:
[...]

You can just google this bug and will see it all around the web. So if you actually want to be able to use the service you pay for, go to another cellphone provider!