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
Battery Life
The first 4G phone we reviewed, the EVO 4G, didn’t do so well in our battery life tests. I’m sorry to say that the Epic 4G is even worse.
Other than our WiFi web browsing test, I wasn’t able to get more than 4.5 hours out of the Epic 4G. Adding insult to injury, our web browsing battery life test showed worse battery life while operating on a 3G network vs. a 4G network (while stationary). I double and triple checked the numbers, and each time I got better battery life on 4G than I did on 3G.
The Epic 4G has a beefy 1500 mAh battery and thankfully it’s removable, but battery life just isn’t a strong point of this phone. I’m not sure whether it’s Samsung dropping the ball on the software optimization side or if the power management on Hummingbird is just that bad.
Perhaps it’s Sprint related? After all, the EVO 4G had terrible battery life as well.
There are just too many variables to narrow it down. The bottom line? While the Epic 4G performs better than any other Android phone I’ve used, its battery life is among the worst.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
93 Comments
View All Comments
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.?