For past 24-hours or so, 
I’ve been playing around with Sprint’s new Samsung Epic 4G smartphone, which is optimized to use its 4G network, though it switches back and forth to 3G depending on 4G availability. This device is part of the Samsung’s Galaxy S series of smartphones. (Kevin reviewed the AT&T version of Galaxy S recently.) We recorded an unboxing video of this superphone which clearly packs a big punch; leaving Droid 2 in the dust.
It’s pretty thin and has a fantastic slide-out keyboard (better than anything I’ve personally tried from Motorola and HTC). It has a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera, a 1-Ghz processor, and most importantly, can act as a hotspot for upto 5 Wi-Fi devices. The phone is going on sale Aug. 31. I suspect this is going to help Sprint retain customers who’ve been looking to upgrade to a smartphone and even attract new ones.
What are my first impressions? I’ve been bowled over by the speed and power of this device, much more so than any other 1 GHz Android phone I have used. The big processor, the 1 Gb ROM and lots of memory are perhaps the reasons why Android feels so snappy and web browsing is smooth and easy. I’m told the Sprint HTC EVO is pretty good, but I haven’t used it, so I can’t quite compare the two phones.
The keyboard on this device is easy to use, overcoming Android’s weakness: the virtual keyboard. I have a Droid 2 sitting on my desk, and it pales in comparison to this device. The camera is pretty good and so is the multimedia playback on the phone, which is the first smartphone to come with a decent pair of headphones.
These are very early impressions, so take them with a grain of salt for now and enjoy the video.
Thanks to Chris Albrecht for producing, and Janko Roettgers for making this video.
Related GigaOM Pro Research (sub req’d):
To Ship or Not to Ship — Product Launch in the Smartphone Era
