It’s been a week since I got a Samsung Galaxy S phone, the Sprint Epic 4G, one of the most expensive phones on the market ($249 after $100 mail in rebate). I also had to upgrade my Sprint SERO plan to what’s called “SERO Premium” for $10 more a month, and pay another $10 a month for “premium data”, mostly meaning that Sprint’s 4G data service (which is indeed faster–where it’s available) costs me more.
What do I think so far?
With a few caveats, I like it.
It has a very nice display and the touch interface is fast and responsive. Sprint’s 4G data service is spotty on the island but when it’s fast, it’s really fast, and their 3G data has been reliable for years.
The Android Market is not quite the iTunes store, but with enough searching just about every application I would want on iOS is available for Android, although I am still making my way through the myriad of Twitter applications and Web browsers (sometimes, it’s quite possible less is more).
The notification system of Android is miles ahead of what iOS uses, and there does appear to be a healthy application ecosystem out there.
A few issues: the battery life on the phone is at best mediocre. The physical keyboard is not all that appealing (quite frankly, I’ve found physical keyboards on phones in general to be unappealing and prefer the virtual keyboard of this or the iOS devices). While lots of accesories for the device are available there are some omissions, such as car holders.
And of course, my requisite Sprint rant: when the phone had an issue (remember, I have had this phone for less than a week when this happens) where the battery inexplicably discharged and wouldn’t recharge, I called a local Sprint corporate store to try to get an appointment for service and they told me, in no uncertain terms, that I had to return to the store that sold me the device, which was not a third party store, but another Sprint corporate store. That seems a bit beyond ridiculous, but not out of line with Sprint’s history of customer service with me.
In any case, I think I’ll be keeping the phone, which says a lot because, as usual, I dislike Sprint’s service.
Tags: Technology