Customer Reviews

Samsung Epix i907 Phone, Black (AT&T)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

IMO, this is the best smartphone currently available, but it did take me a little while to get it there.

My priority was a phone that would work with our Exchange 2007 system (without installing the Blackberry server and server certs), provide WiFi, let me dial one-handed without looking at the phone, and have usual fun goodies. In addition, I use a database app for the PPC, and this one handles it fine (Windcows Mobile comes in two versions - Smartphone and PPC; most phones run under the Smartphone edition but the EPIX adds the required touchscreen and stylus for full PPC apps).

Pros: Loaded with features: GPS, stereo Bluetooth, GPS, Exchange 7 compatible, WiFi, excellent voice dialing recognition, nice touchpad, great battery life, small enough to fit in the pocket, and keyboard allows one-handed dialing with some practice. Keys are small, but separation is adequate. Provides the higher-end WinMobile PPC rather than SmartPhone OS.

Cons: The default configuration does not provide a very good out-of-box experience; WiFi didn't allow surfing initially, and WiFi support from the usual sources was not adequate (you will see lots of complaints that WiFi doesn't work. However, there is a simple solution.

The good news is that everything eventually worked:

1. Internet now defaults to WiFi if available and only switches to slower 3G when WiFi is not available. Had to go to the MS WinMobile user group site to find the solution (disable the Proxy server, but do it from a clean hard boot).
2. I wanted to use the phone routinely without the stylus. One of the highly frustrating issues initially was that there are no dedicated 5-way navigation keys; modifying the touchpad for that function (an option) didn't make sense. But you can reassign the function of four keys on the lower row, and that gives you both mouse and 5-way navigation.
3. Downloading the Google Mobile desktop toolbar is a must. Goes onto your desktop as a transparent search bar. I had initially installed the Opera browser, but went back to IE after installing Google. Tried the LiveSearch application, but (a) it kept changing my keyboard to symbols and (b) it thought I was always trying to look up something close to my geographical location (instead of letting me look up a WikTionary word to settle a bet with my wife).
4. After transfering my contact list from Outlook, voice dialing worked well without training, and far better than my RAZR. If you want to type instead of talk, then the search algorithm is another nice improvement (at least over my RAZR); simultaneously looks for a match on either a name or phone from your typing.
5. Rhapsody To Go worked for me, but it's theoretically not supported yet on WinMobile, and I did find a few anomalies when transferring music files.

Problems have been minimal. OS 6.1 has been stable, with the only lockup coming when I tried to use voice commands with the ATT Navigator/ GPS service. Only thing I haven't figured out is an initial delay in switching over to my Bluetooth car speaker when receiving the first incoming call; works OK after that.

Overall, this phone is doing exactly what I hoped it would do.

Cellular companies are difficult in the US, this is a fact we all have to come to accept. So AT&T will probably not help you out if you have problems with this phone, or any other. Samsung, on the other hand is generally a pretty nice company to deal with. The Epix is an extremely well *designed* phone. It has an extremely fast processor, proven layout from the Blackjacks, and most importantly, it has the greatest thing ever put into a phone, a mouse. WinMo is an absolute beast to deal with, but with the addition of a mouse, it's a delight. However, you trade a real D-Pad for a mouse, which makes *most* games unplayable. The mouse can be used as a D-Pad, but it's awkward. If you think this will annoy you, it will, but you'll adapt quickly.

Now, let's get to the main competition: the Fuze. My wife has a Fuze. She loves it and I love my Epix. The Fuze is gorgeous, inside and out, in a way the Epix could never match up to. The TouchFlo thing is a delight to use, since it masks the shortcomings of windows mobile quite well. The Epix doesn't really attempt to, and don't expect it to. The Fuze has a massive army of modders who have made everything from turning the capacitive touch part of the phone into a scroller to making any shape or color of TouchFlo (My wife currently has the black TouchFlo from the HTC Diamond). The Epix has a small, loyal following of modders who are mostly focused on bug-fixing.

Which brings us to the most important point: bugs. The Epix has them. I expected it to be more solid since samsung is experienced by now, but I was wrong. If you search the AT&T forums, you will quickly find a 30 page thread about the dreaded slog dump issue. It is worth a read. The good news is that the bugs are hit and miss. Either you will have it bad, or you will be fine. Other than the slog dump, the bugs have been fixed (only one by samsung, the rest by diligent phone modders).

Cliff notes:
1. I LOVE THIS PHONE. It's fast and I honestly cannot describe how amazing the tiny mouse is.
2. It's not about the looks (GUI speaking)
3. AT&T and samsung have done little to fix frustrating and obvious bugs that plague some users and leave others just fine.
4. The Fuze is better in every way except 3: processor speed (noticeably), lack of tiny mouse (once you have it, WinMo sucks without it), and battery life (also really noticeably)

****Very important links:
****Read these if you are considering this phone
[...]

Most bug fixes are noted in these two sites:
[...]
[...]


Get the Epix or the Fuze, forget the iPhone unless you only specifically want to do the things the iPhone advertises it does, because it doesn't really do anything else. The Fuze can do anything the iPhone can do and more, even if you have to hack it a little to do it. If you're not with AT&T yet, the Samsung Saga through Verizon is very much worth a look.

Don't be afraid to mod it a little if you get an Epix, AT&T couldn't care less.

Pros:
- Works well as a phone.
- I like the form factor. When closed the keys lock, when opened - they unlock. The QWERTY keyboard is good.
- Alarms are quite sophisticated.

Cons:
- The big button on the front starts a web browser. No way to change that. I have no data plan and can see in my bill how many times I pushed that button by mistake. It was a pain to disable the WEB browser (create dummy profile and assign the browser to it).
- It was a *real* pain to properly load my own java applications on this phone (USB drivers, phone settings, codes etc.).
- Java application size is very limited. No normal dictionary would run on this phone (only those that access the Internet to get their definitions). This was a deal breaker for me. That is why I wanted a qwerty phone in the first place. We'll see if Amazon takes it back.
- The phone is still practically locked even if you pay the full "no contract" price.

Remark:
Battery life is on the short side, but it manages to last two days on one charge.

Get it if you want a texting phone.

I have been using the Epix for about a week now. I am an avid Nokia fan and have had Nokia phones and smart phones all my life and was indeed doubtful about switching to a Samsung but had to so I could get an employer compatible and approved smart phone.

The phone is nicely built and is a quality product. The touch screen works well, and the mouse is my favorite mode of input. I have hardly ever used the stylus that comes with the phone, the mouse is so convenient if I am not using the touch screen with my fingers.

The battery life is amazing, lasts me 2+ days without recharging with decent usage.

The only drawback that I have found is the alarm, which you can barely hear. I do not use an alarm clock and I have always used my cellphone to wake me up, the Epix fails here. Also when the phone was on standby, there were no sound/light/vibration alerts for new emails. But this was fixed by installing an update patch from Samsung, now it can vibrate and wring, but still no light in standby mode.

The phone has not given me any trouble so far and the more I use it the more I am liking it. Its my first Windows smart phone and I have no complaints with this one.

I have to agree with other reviewers: Overall this is a decent phone. The phone is a nice size, and has a nice sliding lock, and a big screen. The caller id is also a good feature, thought that is nothing new on Samsung models (I've had it since 2004 on an older one). I've never before owned a QWERTY keyboard on a phone, and have little use for it, since I do very little text messaging. But it's nice, I suppose, if you are a heavy text-message sender.

The phone also features good alarms, which can double for as backup for your Palm Pilot, if you carry one of those as well (as I do).

On the con side, however, the phone reception is rather poor, and the battery does not last as long as it should. Sometimes, the phone just dies temporarily, for no apparent reason.

And --- another big problem --- the front button on the phone (as someone else noted) starts a web browser. We do not have any internet access or data on our plan, either, and the extra fees every time this button gets slammed is a royal pain --- um, and unnecessary, really maddening expense. I'll have to try disabling the WEB browser by creating a dummy profile and setting up the browser only for the Fake non-profile. Too bad Samsung didn't think of that before they put that button where they did.

Honestly, I preferred my old Samsung flip phone, which has better reception and works fine for my simple needs. Unfortunately, though, I can't replace it. They don't make the old more basic utilitarian models any more.

I bought the Samsung Epix i907 phone and it worked ok for about 6 months. The charger port started having a loose connection and wouldnt stay connected unless I hold it and keep pressing hard on it. If I leave it it would get disconnected. I sent it for repair and Samsung promptly returned it saying it is BER(beyond economical repair) and also voided the warranty. I used the phone carefully and havent caused any harm. Now it is my word against Samsung. I have always had Samsung phones and have never had problems. This is the first phone I ever sent for repair. I think there is a fundamental design flaw in the charger cable as they shortened the connector which I think causes easy damage to the port. I have also seen many other people complain about the same charging port problem on the internet. I am now stuck with a 2 year AT&T contract and no phone after paying lot of money for it. Guess I need to move to Nokia phones from now on. Samsung Epix is a bad phone.

This phone does have lots of features and bells and whistles, but (mainly due to Windows I suspect) it does not work very well as a phone. It's nice to easily run multiple apps at once, but when the phone rings you have to wait for a windows program to gain focus and process your input (pressing of the green button to answer the call), and many many times the phone could not manage all these tasks before the call was missed. I am one of those old fashioned geezers who wants my phone to work well as a phone, with the other things as niceties, and having it work this badly at phone calls is a dealbreaker. My company probably wanted windows mobile because of exchange support, but when I travel for work I have a laptop, so who cares? I don't need this big brick. Any phone that can do basic web browsing and run Google Maps AND be solid at being a phone is all I really need, and this thing doesn't measure up - the one I use instead is half the size, and takes much better pictures too. Anyway, this phone is already old news I guess by the time I got around to writing this, but I'm pretty sure Windows Mobile still sucks on any phone.

I traded in my AT&T Tilt for the Samsung Epix. I liked its lighter form factor and full keyboard on the front. While initially I thought I might return it, it has grown on me and become the favorite phone I've ever owned.

PROS

Incredible battery life for a 3G WM phone. With heavy internet use, I have seen the battery stay above 50% at the end of the day. My Tilt would have been dead.

Sharp Screen

Optical Mouse -- Difficult to get used to at first, but grows on you after you use it awhile.

Keyboard is easy to use, even with one hand.

Good call quality

Cons:

Touchscreen is not as sensitive as it should be and the right scroll bar requires PRECISE touching to move.

Ringer is automatically set to an ascending volume rather than a loud ring from the start. This is annoying if you keep your phone in a pocket or holster case, because the ring is not obvious until it is too late.

WM Browser is horrible for full page displays, works great on sites designed for mobile phone.

Beware of this phone! If you do not have your contacts, pictures, music etc backed up, do so IMMEDIATELY! I had this phone for about two years and in the middle of the day on oct 31 2010 this phone decided to slowly stop working. It wasn't dropped, or put in water, but all of the sudden the top two buttons on the directional keypad stopped working. Then the directional buttons themselves stopped working and finally, the send button stopped working. Now, I cannot make calls, send texts, or even open an options menu. My phone became stuck in "media mode" and thus the store cannot hook it up to a computer to download my contact information. So now work numbers, family numbers, and various other contacts I use in my day to day life are completely inaccessible, I cannot even LOOK at the numbers to transfer them over to my new phone. There is absolutely nothing that can be done about this problem, not even through tech support or the corporate tech support (which, incidentally, samsung basic tech support and level 3 tech support told me I could not contact. However-I DID.) which is even more infuriating. So good luck if you have one of these phones. I'd suggest backing everything up right away.

I really can't tell you about connectivity as I don't go online with it. The only "complaints" I have with this phone is:

1. The speaker is in the back
2. I can't read a text while on the phone
3. When talking on it it gets hot
4. Lastly it over heats and disconnects if I'm using it while plugged in

Other than that I love my phone.