Update: Check out our full review of the Samsung Epix!
The Samsung Epix, also known as the i907 (sorry to those of you who were betting the i907 would be the US version of the Samsung Omnia) gives the Treo Pro and the HP iPAQ 910c a run for their money. It's slimmer than most Windows Mobile Pro (Pocket PC) phones and it's actually about the same size as the non-touch screen Samsung BlackJack II. Those of you who dreamed of a touch screen version of the ever-popular BlackJack or BlackJack II can jump for joy. Though the Epix adds more than the touch screen: it's got WiFi, an optical mouse pad and a larger, higher resolution display. For those of you who follow import phones, the Epix is the US version of the Samsung i780. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional on a 624MHz processor, and it has 256 megs of flash ROM and ~80 megs of free RAM to run programs. The smartphone has a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, CV (ATT's streaming video service), various IM clients, a GPS with AT&T Navigator and an SDHC microSD card slot. It currently comes only in silver-gray and sells for $199 with a 2 year contract with AT&T.
In terms of height and width, the Epix is nearly identical to the BlackJack II. At the top end, they're of similar thickness while at the bottom end the Epix is thicker since it doesn't taper like the BJ II.
Reception on 3G HSDPA and call quality are excellent. The Epix gets a stronger signal than the BlackJack II and rivals our Nokia S60 phones (notorious for their good RF). Voice is loud, crisp and clear through the earpiece and the speaker is likewise loud and clear for calls and multimedia.
The 2.5" 320 x 320 pixel color display is very good, though not as stunning as the HTC Touch Diamond's. Then again, it's head and shoulders above the Treo Pro.
The optical mouse that replaces a standard d-pad had us worried since we weren't impressed with the i780's. Samsung tweaked something because the pad works well in mouse mode (you get a pointer just as on a PC) and in d-pad mode. We wouldn't say this is a great tool for gaming but it's great for everything else.
The GPS has impressed us, managing to get a satellite fix indoors near a window on a rainy day. It works with programs other than AT&T Navigator, for those of you who are allergic to subscription services. We've tested Google Maps, Windows Live Search and CoPilot and all worked. For some reason Windows Live Search didn't default to "GPS intermediate driver" in settings, so we had to set that to get Live Search working.
The Epix has the same blade connector as the BlackJack II, and thus you can use the same charger and USB cable. Samsung and AT&T include a world charger, USB cable and blade-to-3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack (nice!).
The Samsung Epix and the Samsung BlackJack II
Though the keys aren't larger than the BlackJack II's, the keyboard is easier to use. The texture and shape are improved. As with other Samsung smartphones, you can assign application shortcut launchers to keys, but the press-and-hold feature to type an alternate letter is gone. The buttons surrounding the d-pad are large and easy to use but oddly they're not color masked, which makes it hard to figure out what's-what when the backlighting isn't on.
Specs: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Quad band GSM with triband 3G HSDPA (850/1900/2100MHz) 2.5", 320 x 320 pixel touch screen 624MHz processor 256 megs flash RAM, 150(?) megs RAM GPS WiFi 802.11b/g Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP 2 MP camera QWERTY keyboard 1800 mAh Lithium Ion battery
Stay tuned for our full review in the coming days, and in the meantime feel free to post questions!
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
