Samsung Epic 4G Touch vs Motorola PHOTON 4G [Video]
The Samsung Epic 4G Touch is here and we’ve decided to forgo the usual unboxing stuff and get straight to the meat of things. We’ve received multiple messages asking about these two Now Network heavy hitters. Here’s a quick side by side standoff between the two superphones. We’d like to consider this a friendly exhibition and plan on having an all out winner take all showdown between these two titans. However, since the Epic 4G Touch is the new kid on the block, feel free to ask questions.
Thanks for the video. But, “Holy unfocused, Batman!”
Nice little comparison. I like the buttons/ports/stand on the Photon but the epic4gtouch is just all around better with everything else. Maybe not screen size, hopefully it fits in the pocket haha.
It doesn’t “come with a usb to hdmi adapter” right? You can buy one but I don’t think it comes in the box, maybe it did for you to test? I would love if it did.
What does it take to be a tester for new phones and do reviews? Do you have any openings for such?
Mark, thanks. Can you give us impressions of the two screens? The Photon’s pentile screen is fine for everything except movie watching. But, the lower resolution of the ET4G bothers me a bit, especially on a screen that big. What are your thoughts?
Thank you for watching! We’ll be doing our Live Chat tomorrow at 9PM EST and I’ll be taking questions about the GSII and any other hot Sprint handset on the market. I hope to see you there!
I’ve got USB to HDMI, but my understanding is it doesn’t ship with the retail, sorry for the mix up and thanks for watching!
I’m so torn with this phone. I want it, but with the Nexus Prime not far off it feels like I’d be buying old tech that won’t get proper updates. The original Epic still hasn’t even gotten Gingerbread, which is an incremental update, so what are the chances that this will get updated to Ice Cream Sandwich, which is a major update?
@StealthGhost, another post I read discussed the micro USB port and that it has MHL support, which a commenter pointed out means that it supports micro HDMI – it’s a hybrid micro USB/HDMI port. I haven’t confirmed this elsewhere though.
I’m so torn with this phone. I want it, but with the Nexus Prime not far off it feels like I’d be buying old tech that won’t get proper updates. The original Epic still hasn’t even gotten Gingerbread, which is an incremental update, so what are the chances that this will get updated to Ice Cream Sandwich, which is a major update?
@StealthGhost, another post I read discussed the micro USB port and that it has MHL support, which a commenter pointed out means that it supports micro HDMI – it’s a hybrid micro USB/HDMI port. I haven’t confirmed this elsewhere though.
Another post I read discussed the micro USB port and that it has MHL support, which a commenter there pointed out means that it supports micro HDMI – it’s a hybrid micro USB/HDMI port. I checked around and saw this mentioned in other posts about the SGS2.
The Nexus Prime is VAPORWARE currently and there isn’t even any assurance that SPRINT will get it.
great video man. one thing that no one has mentioned is battery life. the photon has exceptional battery life for being as powerful as it is but what about the Et4g? again great vid man thanks,
How does the ‘phone’ quality compare ? Are both equally clear when the signal is weak ? Is the audio during phone call the same ? How about how your voice quality to the other party ?
Mark, My between the Epic and Photon, Which has the better battery life for moderate use? I know my HTC Evo 4G can go almost 8 hours depending on if i I forget to turn off the wifi. Also, which UI do you favor and why?
I am also torn. The Photon and Epic Touch look like amazing phones, But I have already waited 4 months (From thinking I was going to get the Epic 3D) and if the Nexus Prime does come to sprint by Thanksgiving, what is another 2 months for the phone I am really looking forward too. Ice cream sandwich, 4.5 inch screen, and more.
Thanks for the info Mark. I have a question that is important to me. There is a bug in the Google music app (while listening to cloud music) where the currently playing song will keep repeating itself instead of moving on to the next song. It’s not repeating as if it thinks you have turned repeat on though. Instead, the time played on the left will continue to increase past the length of the song on the right. For example, I’ll be listening to a song that is 4 minutes long and by the time it says 12:00 of 4:00 it has played 3 times and will continue to count up and repeat itself. This is an annoying bug that forces me to manually skip to the next song. I had this problem on my Epic 4g but it was gone on my Evo 3D and is now back on my Photon. Is it possible for you to check for this problem on the ET4G?
Thanks again!
Could you discuss the physical size difference between the 2 phones? I know the SGS2 has a 4.52″ screen, but from everything I’ve heard, it is only a millimeter here and there larger than the Photon Width and Length wise.
I have not seen any phone demo/unboxing video at ANY site that did not have issues with autofocus. Too many hands coming into frame and moving of the phones to show all the small parts – it is just the nature of the beast.
I think this is one of the most pertinent questions. Samsung has a pretty rotten history of updating phones – are they going to be any better with this one? To be honest, I would be seriously disappointed to having this phone in April or May of next year still without ICS.
I think this is one of the most pertinent questions. Samsung has a pretty rotten history of updating phones – are they going to be any better with this one? To be honest, I would be seriously disappointed to having this phone in April or May of next year still without ICS.
Mark, thanks for the video, nice teaser before an all out compare. The only suggestion I would have for next time is to please use better lighting and to make sure that the background isn’t a dark table. It makes it really hard to pick up details of the phone against that background.
Do either of the phones sync contact photos or facebook pictures like in HTC Sense UI, so that when your friends call their photos appear?
It is interesting in that the Photon is supposed to have better battery life compared to the Epic even though it has the smaller battery. Photon = 10hr of talk time compared to the epic which is 8hr. The epic has better stand by time, and the epic has a better battery too.
The original Epic does this.
what benchmark app did you use in the video?
Thanks for the video and i would really appreciate if u can do the comparison between samsung galaxy s 2 n evo 3d
Quadrant Standard, thanks for watching.
We’ll see what we can do. Speaking of EVO 3D, did you enter our giveaway for a chance to win one? Thanks for watching the video.
How does the speaker sound, on the epic touch?
I am fixing to switch from Verizon to Sprint and we are trying to figure out which phone to go with. Either the Photon or the Samsung Galaxy S2…. I know that we will be in places that service might be low so my question is which phone has better reception?
Can you reset the Photon and rerun the benchmark?
I have read that the Motorola has better cellphone reception and can hold on to 4g better!
The thing that puts the ET4G on top for me is the fact that the Photon doesn’t have an expandable memory slot. Plus the ET4G just felt nicer in my hand then the Photon.
I had the photon and hated it! Went back to my 3D
You say “It’s not a huge huge lead but it’s a significant difference”???? What does that mean Mark??
Well sir you are wrong. The Photon has a port that can go to 32GB. I am currently running a 16 in mine so that and the 16 on board I have 32.
Quadrant is only a single core benchmark. Also Take into consideration that the GSII has a lower res screen and takes less power to push through a benchmark faster. some of the bench marking is apples and oranges. You can not truely test the chip with totaly differnt screen.
I know that the Photon has a feature called something like “In Pocket Detection” or something like that. I think it disables the buttons and touch features while in your pocket if enabled. Does the GSII have anything similar?
Put a kernal in my photon 4g to be able to raise the tegra’s clockspeed up to 1.2 ghz & my quadrant score goes threw the roof! 3800 average, I keep it at 1 ghz for battery & since most games don’t need that much power & if they do they’re already a tegra enhanced game so it’ll run smooth regardless. I just overclock it to let people know what tegra can do with a 200 mgz increase & then let then know that the new tegra’s are going to be 1.2 ghz stock soon.
Photon’s reception is like no other phone I ever had, where phones need to goo into reason mode the photon had either full bars our just about. Even the GPS they use is sport accurate & catches over 9 sayers in under a second it’s called “sGPS” it’s speakers are loud & I’ve updated threw motorola’s RSD program that allows you to install updates, well I’m using version 45.3.6 & have gtalk with video, the screen seems to have either been do enhanced with anti aliasing or just tweaked to the point where you dint see any of the pentile screen mesh screen effect…basically enhanced in many ways.plus it’s I believe the only phone besides the nexus s that has gtalk video officially in an update since motorola it’s owned by google you get some perks.
When it’s in pocket it’s supposed to lock the phone & shut the screen off, so you don’t have to keep pressing the power button, just put it in your pocket.
Funny to see post’s of someone that doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Are you smoking rocks, big ones at that? The Photon memory can be extended to 32GB!
Color accuracy on the amoled plus really lacks, just look at the wallpapers on the galaxy 2& notice the pink in the background where it’s supposed to be white & for those that don’t know the screen on the photon & bionic have the second brightest screens second to the LG Nova screen with a nits brightness of 700 while the qHD had 698 nits brightness, with a much higher res than the nova & in the upcoming update with gtalk video they upgraded the drivers for the sub pixel rendering so much it fours away with all the gate mesh effect & color’s are much more accurate & sharper *which it already was*
If you want the update now just look for sprint photon sbf update 45.3.6
I Have a Samsung GAlaxy S2 Epic Touch 4G and it’s amazing! Lightning fast and no lags! The best android phone i have ever owned. It’s worth it.
I currently have 60gb card in my photon and it works. I believe the galaxy will take it as well.
I would love to see a side-by-side comparison with the photon of the 4g speeds – to see if motorola gets better reception / speeds?
I have the Motorola photon and so far it’s been a hassle. It freezes a lot, tends to turn itself off and I’m not sure how to cancel downloaded. What should I do about it? I’m considering to switch to the epic touch.
If you could combine the Photon’s superior radios (voice and data reception, lack of signal loss/dropped calls), it’s better sound quality/volume of both earpiece and speakerphone, and it’s (vastly) superior GPS with the Epic 4G Touch’s superior Super Amoled display, faster processor speed, and (vastly) superior camera, then you would have the best phone at the moment for Sprint, in my opinion.
I bought the Photon when it was first released, then I sold it and bought an Epic 4G Touch that I ended up using for a month before returning to the Photon. The Photon is once again my daily-use phone based on overall reliability. Both phones have their advantages, but for me, after testing each of them all around Las Vegas, the most critical advantages (as listed above) belong to the Photon.
Now, if Sprint should happen to release a Motorola with the same hardware as the Razr Maxx in the future, I would buy it; in my opinion the Maxx appears to overcome (or at least match) the three (less critical) advantages that the Epic 4G Touch holds on the Photon: camera, display, processor.
All of the other (more critical) features, in my opinion, are superior in the Photon and in Motorola phones in general, when you compare them to Samsung phones…
But like they say, individual results may vary!
Cheers,
VegasRooted
PS–The unlocked bootloader on the E4GT (and most Samsungs) is a great advantage that I failed to mention above; Motorola better start unlocking all of their bootloaders from now on (as they “promised” recently) or they will certainly fall behind on the development side…