Hands On with the Samsung Epic 4G

Sprint's second 4G WiMAX phone, the Android 2.1-powered Samsung Epic 4G, looks like it lives up to its name.

The Epic 4G sports an outdoor-viewable Super AMOLED screen, a 1-GHz Hummingbird processor and a full QWERTY keyboard. I spent a bit of time with a prototype phone last week, and came away impressed, but concerned.

Let's start with the impressive parts. Super AMOLED screens are super-bright, and the colors look oversaturated. Color experts like Raymond Soneira may frown upon that, but it makes for a very lively look. The Epic's five-row QWERTY keyboard is unusually spacious, and it's both comfortable and clicky. I'm picky about keyboards, and I found the Epic's to be excellent.

The Epic's build is an otherwise typical mid-to-high-end smartphone, with relatively classy plastic components, with a solid slider and a soft-touch back.

The Epic's 1-Ghz Hummingbird processor has a GPU that supposedly renders 89 million triangles per second, which is four times what Qualcomm's competing Snapdragon processors crank out. The big question there is what aspects of the Android experience are controlled by the GPU. Will excellent graphics performance accelerate Flash? Video streaming? HD video playback? I'm raring to find out.

The Epic also has a 5-megapixel camera on the back and all the usual goodies: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi hotspot capability and Sprint's new WiMAX 4G network, which drains battery life but delivers high data speeds.

The Epic 4G will come with at least one important exclusive app, a Samsung content-delivery service which will let device owners download major-studio movies and TV shows.

But here's the worry. The Epic runs the world's most pointless Android skin, Samsung's TouchWiz. Unlike HTC's Sense and Motorola's Blur, TouchWiz doesn't seem to be devoted to delivering concrete additional functionality to your phone. Mostly, it just seems to be devoted to making things look different. I'm worried that TouchWiz will delay Android upgrades without really adding much to the experience.

Sprint did confirm that the Epic will get an Android 2.2 upgrade, along with Adobe Flash, though they didn't promise a date.

Sprint's "4G" designation comes from the fact that it can tie into Sprint's 4G or WiMAX service, like its first 4G smartphone, the EVO 4G.

Now Sprint just needs to get 4G service into more cities. The company says 4G is coming to Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. by the end of the year.

Sprint didn't announce a price for the Epic, but the company said it would be available later this summer.

For more on the Epic, check out our hands-on slideshow.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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