Samsung Epic 4G Review: The Fastest Android Phone
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 6, 2010 5:28 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Epic 4G
- Gadgets
- Mobile
GPS Issues
Every smartphone has its sets of issues. The iPhone 4 has its antenna problem, the Palm Pre has performance issues, the BlackBerry Torch needs a bit more oomph in the software department, and every Android phone has its own set of strengths/weaknesses. The Epic 4G is no different. In addition to the absolutely horrible battery life, the Epic has a pretty serious GPS issue.
The GPS antenna is not very sensitive and usually has trouble locking onto GPS satellites. This manifests itself in two ways: the phone will take an inordinate amount of time to determine your actual location, and/or it won’t pinpoint your location very accurately.
Sometimes the Epic 4G will lock on perfectly and quickly, but usually it takes several minutes longer than the Nexus One to figure out where you are. Occasionally I even got a ‘location not available’ error while using Google Maps.
Accuracy is also a problem. I don’t think I ever saw horizontal error drop below 30m on the Epic 4G compared to ~3m on the Neuxs One and ~5m on the iPhone 4.
Google Nexus One, 4m error (left) vs. Samsung Epic 4G 30m error (right)
The Epic 4G would usually tell me that my physical location was somewhere down the street while the Nexus One would pin me down at my house. In fact, I got more accurate location tracking when I was connected to a WiFi network.
It’s unclear whether this is purely a software problem or a fundamental antenna design issue ala the iPhone 4. One thing is for sure, if you plan on using GPS location a lot you should avoid the Epic 4G.
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PubicTheHare - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - link
Anand,If you look at the XDA site you will see mention of a "lag fix" for all Galaxy S variants (US and International versions) that converts what some of the XDA guys are calling an inefficient file system.
Supposedly, the "lag fix" - there are multiple ones out there - converts the Samsung file system to something else (I believe to EXT2) and users are reporting Quadrant benchmarks that go from 800s (stock) to over 2000 post-lag-fix.
I would love for a brief commentary on this and, if possible, a word from Samsung (though I doubt they'd admit to anything).
Great review. I just got the Fascinate and love it so far.
jeans_xp - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - link
AMOLED, www.mobilegoing.comepic11 - Sunday, May 8, 2011 - link
I have had to phone replacements in the past two weeks, working on my third or a differant brad. I can not be the only person with these problems. My first phones web page wouldstick behind the main menu page. I correted it by re passting the wall paper. It would also freze. I removed and re inserted the battery to unlock ad run again. My second phone had a whole set of differant problems. It will consistantly bump three times and send me back to the main menu regardless of which app I am in. A call, web site, a game, in the middle of a email, etc. I have never dropped the phones, I have taken perfect care. This started on each phone shortly after using them for only a few minutes. I can not be the only person with such problems. Sprint just said, bring it back in for a replacement or choose another brand??? How many are being returned. To bad I really like the phone, or the idea of it.?