Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch - long name, great phone?!

Yes, I do buy too many of these things. How else to learn about them, though, in order to better serve my clients?

So today: to the Sprint store to buy the Epic Touch, as I'll call it.

First impressions in no particular order (comparing it, in some cases, to my previous phone, the Motorola Photon, 'till now the best Android phone I've tried, minus a few V.1 annoyances):

• Very big screen; very thin phone
• USB connector is on the bottom, as is proper!
• Power button is on the upper side, as is typical for Samsung. Volume on the other side, so ONE of them is going to get blocked if this thing has a side-loaded dock as is typical of Samsung. Power button should be at the top.
• Unlike the Photon, and every other Android phone I've tried, the built in calendar text is big enough for me to read - maybe no add-on calendar needed - yey!
• Unlike the Photon, the built in Exchange client gets the contact pictures from Exchange.
• Haptic feedback is more pleasant than the Photon.
• All-black color scheme in most built in apps makes sense when you remember that the AMOLED screen only delivers/uses power for the pixels that are turned on. No backlight, which means pixel off/black=no power consuption.
• More as I have time - so far it's a keeper!

Miscellanea:

This device, as with others recently, has two "SD Cards" an internal one and an external one. This inelegant architecture, in this case, has the internal 16gb of memory accessed as an "SD card" here :

/mnt/sdcard

and the external card (which is actually a card) here:

/mnt/sdcard/external_sd

Why? Good question.

Motorola Photon - another winner for Android!

Just a short note to say that I've switched to the Photon.  The EVO 3D was a great device, but reception, call quality and battery life issues prompted me to look elsewhere . . . and along came Motorola with the Photon.  There are plenty of reviews out there about it.  Addressing my initial motivation for the move:  I haven't had a dropped call since I got the Photon last Tuesday, callers have said that I sound MUCH better, and it's 6pm as I type this, I haven't charged the battery since unplugging the phone this morning at 8, and I have 50% battery left.

I will add to this article at some point, time permitting, with more.

So far I can recommend this device without hesitation - best Android phone I've tried yet (and I've tried nearly all of them . . .)

Hi, I'm Don and I'm an Android-a-holic!

Hi Don!

OK, I did it again.  The HTC Sensation is an amazing, outstanding, top-notch, nearly perfect phone.  Except for one thing:  T-Mobile's coverage, where I need to use it.  I've said before and I'll say again, in a 90-mile radius of my place here north of Denver, CO, Sprint has the best coverage, followed by Verizon, then T-Mobile, and AT&T taking up the rear.  Actually AT&T works very well in my home and office, but elsewhere it's, well, AT&T.

So yesterday the EVO 3D 4G came out.  Still a really dumb name.  HTC Sensation - now that's a name!  EVO 3D 4G, um, well, isn't.

But I went to see it yesterday and, to make a long story short (too late, I know) I bought one.  The economics of my recent phone decisions aren't as bad as one might think.  Yes, I'll have to pay T-Mo $200 to terminate early, and yes the EVO 3D 4G (hereinafter EVO) cost $200.  That's $400!, you say.  Yes, it is!  However, I got a $125 "porting credit" for porting my number (back) to Sprint, and I just checked on Gazelle.com (www.gazelle.com) and they'll give me $349 for the Sensation.  So, I spent $400, and I'll get $474.  Not bad.

So, the new EVO:

...Truly a superphone.  Amazing in every dimension.  Inexplicably zippier, as others have noted, than the equally awesome HTC Sensation.

...3D is a gimmick.  It's really pretty bad.  I have a 2D camera that's 5mpx, I I can live with that, for now.  I'll never turn 3D on.

...The EVO is nowhere near as elegant as the Sensation, even though it's nearly an identical phone, inside.  No aluminum body (which was a bit slippery, truth be told); no gently curved screen, not as thin.  The EVO looks like, well, an EVO.  Not all bad, but not what you'd call a head turner.  It looks like what the Sensation would look like in a bulkly case. . .

...HTC/Sprint left off the Flashlight app.  WHAT??  Easily fixed, here:  http://www.4shared.com/file/ZHQQZIbJ/Flashlight.html. 

...I've gotten some reports that I sound muffled, or crackly, but that might be because I'm in a place with no Sprint service, and am using an Airave device to make the calls.  We'll see.

...As with the Sensation, the EVO's darkest screen is still too bright to be a pleasing nightstand clock / alarm.  Both the Samsung's AMOLED and the LG's IPS LCD go "really dark" when turned to 0 brightness.  The EVO's screen, as with the Sensation's, glows white/gray when turned all the way down.  Not a showstopper - just annoying. 

Bottom line:  I spend 5000+ minutes a month on the phone, 2000 of which are in my car.  So a) Sprint's coverage is better / T-Mobile's isn't good enough, and b) Gingerbread phones work with my car.  a + b = EVO!

I don't actually get the $125 porting credit until day 61, so I think I'm on the EVO 3D 4G for the summer, at least.  Sprint is supposed to be coming out with a GSII phone later this summer, though, so don't count me out yet!

Yes, another Android phone . . .

OK, perhaps I've gotten a little carried away, but it was all for the truest of motives, with the best of intentions, and with generally positive results.  9 phones in one year.  Is that a record?

And, I'm back to an HTC Android phone, the Sensation, which is pretty close to where I started, with the EVO.

Herewith, some ramblings:

1.  HTC Sense

People love to hate the Sense layer that HTC puts on top of Android.  I can't say I agree with them.  Here's what I do not need to download, now that I have Sense 3.0:

Enhanced email and Contact Editor.  The HTC email client is hands down the best one out there.

Advanced Alarm Clock and Stopwatch & Timer.  The HTC clock/alarm/timer/stopwatch is advanced enough!

Advanced Call Log.  The HTC call log is very good.

Flashlight Zaphrox. The HTC flashlight . . . well, you get the idea.

Now, I do still need Calengoo and Calendar Snooze, since apparently the HTC folks put as little thought into the calendar as the Google folks do.  Maybe they don't use a calendar?

More as I have time.  For now:  Sense is the best layer out there, and improves on the stock Android experience. 

Wow! G2x review from Android Central!

My new phone.  Nice review!

http://www.androidcentral.com/t-mobile-g2x-review

Addendum from using this phone for a little over a month:  it's an amazing, powerful device, but in my relatively low signal area for T-Mobile, the reception/consistency on phone calls, and the battery life, are really verging on terrible.