yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Epic 4G General] vita10gy:
Does anyone in the know see any sort of Price drop for the Epic? I'm still leaning epic, but if the price drops $50 once the shift hits, that might seal the deal.
[Epic 4G General] gTen:
Have you tried Amazon and other third parties?
[Epic 4G General] jnadke:
The Shift if it didn't have the wretched 4G fee.

Otherwise the Epic because it has superior hardware.
[Epic 4G General] vita10gy:
I see it's cheaper on amazon then some places, but if it's going to be $50 cheaper next week, then it will be cheaper everywhere.

I know most places offer price drop guarantees, I'm just wondering if anyone has it on good authority there's one coming.
[Epic 4G General] gTen:
Unlikely..Sprint is trying for 150, 200, 250..to spread apart the price ranges on the 4g phones and none 4g phones...go 50,100,150...

So I don't think they will price drop them until they are about to become discontinued :/
[Epic 4G General] magicwands:
Comparing a really nice Chevy to a Cadillac this is!

Shift is a a mid tier phone, smaller screen, no front facing camera, slower CPU.

Epic is top end, I dont need to list all the reasons why. Lets be honest for a minute here people, the only reason almost everyone in this forum does nothing but ***** about a lack of software upgrades for their barely six month old device is because they love it and are obsessed with it! Lets face it most of us will keep our EPIC's 18-24 months, sure we would love an upgrade at 12 but most of us will wait a wee bit after the 12 month mark for financial reasons and to make sure we dont buy something and then the next great phone comes out right after we make our move. If you really wanted all the great features of 2.2 then you probably did it on your own by know so the argument that HTC will be better is a moot point. I had a Hero as many here did, dont remember HTC being the greatest company in the world back then.

Also, lets give our EPIC's some props. The Keyboard is not useless, unless you consider typing faster and using a bad-ass emulator joystick useless. The GPS is troubled, but if you are smart enough to read this forum then you should be smart enough to shut up and fix it, its a phone for Christ's sake if you really cant live without the GPS function then you should also carry around a dedicated GPS as well. And lastly show me one screen out there TODAY (on sprint mind you but almost anywhere) that is better than ours?

Now I gotta get back to work.:rolleyes:
[Epic 4G General] lawsofpower48:
well said..... lucky my gps is working otherwise i would have to carry a garmin or tomtom around :cool:
[Epic 4G General] Dayne23:
I'd pick whichever phone has a working GPS, a keyboard that doesn't randomly skip characters while typing, and has official Froyo.

That's the Epic right? :rolleyes:
[Epic 4G General] InfDaMarvel:
If I didn't already have the epic I would have choose the evo shift. Why?

I really don't need a 4inch screen and HTC seems to bring better support (Official and unofficial)
[Epic 4G General] purebishop:
It really does have the best screen ever, and the keyboard is great for gaming. I vote Epic 4g, obviously.
[Epic 4G General] the_jak:
From prior experience with HTC id go with the shift. They have much better product support than samsung. What's the point of having a great piece of hardware like the epic if you software support is crap
[Epic 4G General] churro7:
depends on thinness. like g2 thinness
[Epic 4G General] DiGi760:
I had an EVO Shift in my hands this morning. It is a pretty decent phone, but not on par with the Epic.

Anyone who has held an slcd phone and an samoled phone side by side knows the difference in the screens. Slcds don't have the contrast that you get with samoled, and appear to be sunk back behind the screen.

It seemed to operate in a fairly snappy fashion, but there was a little lag in everything that almost reminded me of the hero, but not as bad. Scrolling through the app list seems smoother on my epic than the shift.

The keyboard felt good. If you can live without a 5 row keyboard, then it would be fine.

The EVO Shift looks like a good mid-range android phone. It is definitely a cut above the transform/zio/optimus line up, but isn't as impressive as the Epic and is missing features from the EVO, like the ffc and hdmi out.

All in all, $150 seems to be a good price point for this phone. Don't expect any further drops any time soon. I wouldn't expect any before the summer. If you're trying to get it cheaper, then keep shopping around at all your non-corporate sprint stores and watch for them to do their own discounts. You might find one running a promo at some point.
[Epic 4G General] kenvan19:
Thank you so much Digi! Out of curiousity, do you think most corporate store will have a display model come the 9th? My wife is dying to handle one.
[Epic 4G General] thechicgeak:
How was the keyboard? Did it skip keys like the Epic? Also, does anyone know if it will be hack-friendly (i.e. able to be rooted and install custom kernels)?

Thank you.
[Epic 4G General] kenvan19:
It will eventually be hack-friendly but people had issues initially getting a root to stick on the G2 (it would go away after every reboot). I've also heard tell that it will come with a new bootloader that might be even harder to hack initially than the G2 was, however it WILL get rooted and it WILL get hacked to pieces.
[Epic 4G General] bomix:
My brother in law is getting a sprint smart phone, I gave him all the choices.. even after telling him about the Shift, and EVO, he still is going to get the Epic.

For me it would have to be Epic, for all the features.. you can't beat it. bigger screen would be a plus.
[Epic 4G General] DiGi760:
I didn't see any skipping, but I really didn't type all that much on the keyboard.

And from what I understand, if you disable swype, the epic kb doesn't skip so bad. I haven't done it myself, though.
[Epic 4G General] kenvan19:
Offtopic: So digi, I assume there was no mention of the Epic in this week's playbook? :(
[Epic 4G General] ahager88:
We've had gingerbread for a month now on heroc. Evo Shift will have twice that support at least.

That processor oc's to 1.6 without substantial heat increase or battery drain. 2 ghz if you want to set your pants on fire. :-P.

The Epic has a nicer screen, GREAT gpu, and a GPS system that's not reliable.

The Epic will ALWAYS be at least 1 step behind on software. Development is a joke when compared to other devices.

I'd get the Evo Shift. But that's just me :-p

Sent from my aospGBmod 0.1.6

PS: here's what gb looks like, since the epic wont get it until honeycomb comes out.
[Epic 4G General] kenvan19:
Wow, that was really unnecessarily rude. However, its also funny because my phone looks exactly like that.
[Epic 4G General] ahager88:
Didn't mean it to be. Just stating why I would pick a certain phone.

Edit: if your phone looks like that you have good taste. :-)

It is CM7, after all.
[Epic 4G General] DiGi760:
The only mention in this week's playbook was the same page I posted a screen cap of a few days ago.

I did get to talk to our rep, and he said don't expect 2.2 before February.
[Epic 4G General] kenvan19:
This makes me very sad :( thanks though Digi!
[Epic 4G General] dito33:
Does Shift require $10 extra like epic and evo.

dito33
[Epic 4G General] DiGi760:
Yes. All 4G phones require the $10 premium data package.
[Epic 4G General] jpeepers:
I traded in my Epic for a EVO Shift on Thursday. By Friday afternoon I was begging the dealer to let me have my Epic back. (finally got it)

The Shift is a nice phone and I like the smaller size. The quadrant scores were way above the Epic also. (990 vs. 1460). It seemed really quick.

The slide out keyboard was VERY solid. No slop at all. I didn't really get the chance to test the battery life but for the day I had it it seemed to be draining a little faster then my Epic.

It also feels heavier then the Epic.

What I didn't like was the screen. It was horrible! It looked great straight on but if the phone was at any kind of angle the screen washed out really bad. I had it side by side with my old HeroC and the Hero was much easier to read the screen if you are looking from a angle. Also viewing the screen outside was almost impossible. I felt the screen was so bad I couldn't live with it and returned it.

Over all I was let down. I have always been a HTC fan and never really liked Samsungs but the Epic is definitely a nicer phone I feel.

.
[Epic 4G General] tt c6:
If you were me, and coming from a Touch Pro 2, would you STILL get the Epic over the Shift?

I ask because I haven't had the pleasure of using, nor will I "miss", the awesome screen of the EPIC and the Shift appears to be the better phone, other than the larger and better screen that the Epic offers.

Also, the QWERTY on the Shift seems much easier to type on to me. (I hate a number row and think the numbers should be embedded in the alpha keys like the AT&T Tilt.)

The 4" size and better screen of the Epic, is the ONLY reason I am hesitating to pull the trigger on the Shift, but I am leaning towards the Shift because I assume the pros of the Shift outweigh the screen deficit (HTC build quality and support, DEV community support of HTC).

I also hated the location of the power button on the Epic. It throws me off after using nothing but CDMA QWERTY phones released by HTC as they are released.
[Epic 4G General] kilmarac:
After having been on HTC with windows mobile for several years, I got tired of the poor quality and sloppiness they seem to have with the hardware. So it always makes me laugh because I see

SamSung Owner> OMG I want to switch to HTC, Samsung Sux

HTC Owner > OMG I want to switch to Samsung, HTC Sux.

Personally for me, the lack of a from video cam (which I havent even used on my epic yet), and the fact that its from HTC made me immediately go "Oh... glad I bought my epic." While the updates are slow coming (is it samsung or is it sprint holding it up?) I think my samsung has been a better phone overall. My ONLY complaint with the Epic is that I want to take a baseball bat to the head of the genius developer who went "Hey, lets put the usb/charging port on the top of the phone"
[Epic 4G General] kevyli85:
I picked up a Evo Shift this afternoon from BB. I am loving it so far.

The screen actually impressed me because the text was so clear. I love the pixel density. I had a Evo before the Epic and my biggest gripe was that you could see the pixels. Not a problem with the Shift. The Epic didn't have this problem either because of the AMOLD screen.

The keyboard, like others said before, is very sturdy. I got quick gps lock out of the box while using 4G + Bluetooth on call. It functions very smooth and never had a hickup yet.

I love the size of the phone for texting and when its in my pants.

I'm going to test it out for 30 days. I really hope the dev support is similar to the evo's. They just got CM 4G working.

The only reason why I decided to try it out was because the Epic isn't getting any support.

$150 isn't bad with 2.2 out of the box and prob 2.3 in the near future.
[Epic 4G General] ErlyD:
Shift 4g vs transform (both run 800mhz) intercept is what 500 or 550? With less RAM.
[Epic 4G General] rufflez2010:
The horrible graphics of the 800mhz processor kills it for me. Plus, reviews of it didn't impress me much as far as responsiveness. A lot of people are reporting horrible 3g speeds (sound familiar?). Sprint has a bad habbit of releasing updates that are buggy, I don't mind, they can take their time with 2.2 and 2.3 (already running laked dk28 anyway). I think the phone is overhyped because of the evo name, really, its just a cheap phone. I'll keep my epic any day over that. Benchmarks of it vs the epic on ext4 instead of rfs and you see instantly the better allaround processor/grahics chip.
[Epic 4G General] A_Flying_Fox:
That's what I meant! Thanks :)

Also, does the transform use an 800mhz hummingbird? Because then it really would be a battle of the babies lol
[Epic 4G General] A_Flying_Fox:
And wow...I like how just a year ago, 528mhz was top of the line...now 800mhz is lawl worthy...lol eve though, to be fair, the 800mhz snapdragon is better than the 1ghz snapdragon, but still not as good as hummingbird
[Epic 4G General] boominz28:
you hit the nail on the head of how everyone feels. great stuff man!!!
[Epic 4G General] insanity213:
I'll never buy another Samsung product again (5 Moments and 2 Epics later). The big reason I went for the Epic was to have a hardware keyboard - but the keyboard is about worthless if you type any faster than a dyslexic monkey. It misses characters constantly. My wife thinks I've been drinking if I text her from the Epic HW keyboard.

The worthless keyboard coupled with the software issues (Lack of official Flash, Apps2SD, etc... and smaller dev community for unofficial fixes to these problems) really make the rest of the superb hardware inside the Epic suffer. In it's defense, the screen is freaking sweet. It's kinda like having a Ferrari with a pristine body that has a blown head gasket and won't shift out of 1st gear either.

This is not a flame at the Epic dev community - all of you guys are effing brilliant! Without the dev community this phone would have been returned in my 1st 30 days. There just seems to be a larger amount of devs working on other phones and many hands makes light work.
[Epic 4G General] tt c6:
Why all the hate for the 800mhz processor?

I thought the tests prove the 800mhz performs better than the 1gz in the Evo AND the Epic?

I agree the screen of the Epic blows the Shift away, but I am assuming the Shift's keyboard design, support from both HTC, and DEV support makes the Shift a equal, or superior choice to the Epic?

I'm having a tough time making this decision, believe me.
[Epic 4G General] anthromatt:
I played with one at the Sprint store today. The phone feels very solid. I like the sliding mechanism. Felt much smoother than the Epic's. It's weird that the screen seemed so small though...if I bought an EVO Shift it'd be the 2nd largest screen I ever owned on a phone. :)
[Epic 4G General] Elmoglick:
@gTen : Current price of the Epic has been reduced to $199 as you requested.
[Epic 4G General] rocket321:
It's all about the screen and speed/smoothness if you ask me. The epic excels at these points with or w/o froyo. I ran dk28 for a while and the only benefit it had was flash which is choppy and not worth using. I found myself always starting a flash movie and then clicking on the video so it would prompt me to open with video player just like 2.1 does.

Also, I am not a fan of HTC Sense UI. I think the stock apps samsung provides are much nicer and more functional. For instance I did not like the sense e-mail client or photo gallery replacements at all.

In the end, you really need to use a phone for more than 10 minutes at a sprint store to understand if you will be happy with it. I researched and read forums for weeks before deciding on the Evo, then after using it for a couple weeks I traded for the Epic and definitely wouldn't go back.
[Epic 4G General] lawsofpower48:
its like driving a 2010 BMW M3, then a new 2011 Toyota Corolla comes out....... hmmm.... which one would YOU get?

i played with the evo shift for about an hour while waiting to fix my epic 4g because i spilled water on it. and i can truly say it sucks ..and feels generic.... screen is not so nice in coloring and there is lag from screen to screen compared to the epic....
[Epic 4G General] goodelyfe:
/thread

10char
[Epic 4G General] tt c6:
What's the latest now that Epic owners have evaluated the Shift?
[Epic 4G General] Electrofreak:
This thread goes into great detail to compare the hardware between the two phones.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=907182
[Epic 4G General] Heelfan71:
I had the Shift and returned it. I liked the phone but there seem to be some signal issues with that phone. Pretty sure they can update the radio and fix it. I really liked the keyboard on the Shift. It didn't have a dedicated number row, but the keys were spaced a little better than the Epic.

I could care less about Sense or Touchwiz as I use ADW EX laucher anyways. Build quality seem a little better on the Shift, it feels heavier. Great looking phone. I like the epic better because I have a bigger beautiful screen, dedicated camera button and dedicated number row on the keyboard.

Both are good phones. You need to go to a sprint store and play around with both of them and decide for YOURSELF. Asking peoples opinions here is moot as most are going to be biased one way or the other. And most have never used / owned both phones, they just claim whatever they have is the greatest and the other phone sucks.

What is the big deal about 2.2 when you can put it on yourself?? I don't think I have ever used an official update as I am always running a custom ROm/Kernal and don't want to loose that.
[Epic 4G General] Quis89:
I've been using both phones simultaneously for the past week and that is incorrect. The Epic is not faster nor smoother. At times the Shift wins that contest. The Shift is overall a better built phone. And the keyboard is so much better.

I really can't find and advantages on the Epic aside from the front facing camera and the better screen quality...both of which are purely preference. Performance wise...the Shift edges the Epic out. Comparible speeds...but the keyboard is sooooo much better. I've never missed a key. Typing this response from my Epic using the hardware keyboard was extremely frustrating.
[Epic 4G General] pipskicks:
The Shift just felt like the "budget/economy" version of the Evo/Epic unless you hated the Epic and still really wanted a keyboard.

It seemed to have been marketed that way too, it is surprising if it wins the contest since if they wanted to make it a decent competitor wouldn't they have buffed the specs up a little? At least given it some more memory and a snapdragon??

If you upgrade from a Hero to a Shift rather than a Epic, that's like taking a 50% less upgrade in speed all around just about it seems. I didn't play with it for hours, but I definitely tested it, but I put it down very quick. Felt flimsier too, the only thing I dislike on the Epic is the battery back door, the Shift's keyboard didn't feel as nice either....
[Epic 4G General] plmiller0905:
I've had both phones and just like what everyone else says, it all comes down to preference. The keyboard on the Shift is wonderful as well as th size and the quicknest of the phone in general. To be honest I liked it. However, what made me trade my Shift for an Epic is the fact that the Shift has GPS issues, it also a glitch when you have the keyboard typing a message...the screen sometimes goes crazy. My cousin has a Shift as well and he is on his 3rd one...and he's been having the same issues also.

Having had the Epic for a couple of days so far, I'm content. I like it a lot. I rooted it and running some of the awesome 2.2 roms. I haven't had any issues with gps, I get a lock within 10-20 seconds tops.

If you're someone that uses the ffc and want a bigger nice screen, then go with Epic. If those things don't mean much to you, then go with the Shift.
[Epic 4G General] Quis89:
The Shift has more memory than the Epic. And there's no way the Shift feels flimsier than the Epic. The Shift is a very solidly built phone.
[Epic 4G General] atl530i:
I had an Evo Shift for a whole 3 days before I sent it back. The keyboard absolutely sucked on that phone compared to my old Touch Pro II. I just got an Epic to replace my Touch Pro II and could not be happier. The screen is nice but the keyboard is very nice.
[Epic 4G General] gTen:
The Epic has 512mb ram...your saying the shift has more? O.o (cause last I checked it said 512mb)
[Epic 4G General] Electrofreak:
Both phones have the same amount of RAM. Where are you getting this information from?!

It's not called a Snapdragon (why Qualcomm chose to omit the brand name on the MSM chips I've no idea) but it is essentially a second-generation Snapdragon.

Putting in a Snapdragon as you know it would actually have been a step backwards technologically.
[Epic 4G General] jbthom4:
The shift is a downgrade in hardware...no software is going tohelp that fact...if u want froyo root and flash dk28.
[Epic 4G General] jbthom4:
If you are on xda then you are probably rooting/flashing...custom rom + epic = pretty awesome. You can milk more out of the epic hardware than the shift's
[Epic 4G General] enahsak:
Epic vs Evo Shift

I've had & used both

The Epic has a MUCH better screen.

The Epic has a the bigger screen & keyboard.

The Epic has a dedicated button for the camera.

The loudspeaker is MUCH better also.

The volume on phone calls is MUCH better.

The Evo Shift responds faster.

The installed Software layer is better

The speaker volume is horrible

The volume on the phone is horrible

The Evo Shift will probably have better support though.

Returned the Evo shift 3-days after I got it, and got the Epic :-)

This is all my opinion though.
[Epic 4G General] tt c6:
What's the latest consensus?

I bought the Epic and I have bout a week left to switch it for an Evo shift.
[Epic 4G General] 063_XOBX:
It's not going to be any different, and you're probably just going to get flamed for resurrecting a dead thread.
[Epic 4G General] dbpaddler:
Flame or not, my Shift went to another rep after two weeks of use. I run rooted between bonsai and syndicate so OS wise I'm smooth as silk. I liked the Shifts keyboard design better, but I'm used to the dedicated number row and cursor keys over the d-pad (even for games). The screen is so much nicer and the extra real estate wins out. It's the same overall weight and thickness so why not get the better screen and keyboard. I can swap cards without powering down the phone which I do from time to time. And that's all I got.

The next phone that will get me to upgrade will have to be slimmer with a better screen, better keyboard and dual core processor. HDMI out is also a must. Otherwise, the epic is the first phone I'll actually keep beyond my year's contract and one that will stick around as a backup for quite a while after I move on. All this despite the fact I'm not a fan of Samsung anymore and would jump at the chance to switch mfgs if someone could bring my desired phone above to Sprint.
[Epic 4G General] latindor17:
I say the epic because of the screen and keyboard, however the shift does have a faster processor i believe, even if its only 700MH
[Epic 4G General] 903tex:
Its funny how people are saying "the shift has a better processor and all, but im not into rooting or overclock it" LMAO Then why care about the processor at all?

Me coming from an evo 4g and now have a epic and i love it. My reason were different for switching and i knew the epic has less development. But one thing i know about the evo is that its the same devs making the same roms over and over. If you got 15 guys throwing the same 2.2 froyo with the same sense then how is that producing anything at all?

More devs on htc because they release more updates and give out the nec. espt codes that devs need. And with android kitchen makes it even easier to make a sense rom. Even i made a rom and i dont have any real development skills. Think people need to come to this conclusion that no matter what you do you will never have the greatest in this cell phone world. Just like car scene something new come and then two weeks later somebody does this and now thats the hot ticket.

sorry for the rushed typed and long rant lol
[Nexus S General] wesbalmer:
Anyone notice that when you touch a capacitive button that the actual light turns off behind that single one? I'm running CM7 B25 Nightly- haven't tested it from stock. I just thought that this was awesome and also hard to notice. Or, eve, maybe my phone is junk and broken.
[Nexus S General] unremarked:
Does not happen on Stock, Bionix(curent ROM), CM7alpha2, or Modaco r3 as far as I remember. I can restore backups of each of those ROMs to confirm. Lights stay solid as can be.

However, if you like the "feature," I wouldn't consider the phone defective.

EDIT: I am wrong. They do, but it's exceptionally subtle and I had to jab the phone next to my eye to see it. Very cool, in retrospect.