A shiny, slippery gray plastic slab, the Epix measures 4.6 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.4 ounces. It's slightly heavier and considerably taller than smartphone stalwarts like the BlackBerry Curve 8310, not to mention the original BlackJack, which is positively svelte compared with the Epix. In the box you'll find a power adapter and a USB cable. Samsung doesn't bundle any hands-free earbuds, but there's an 3.5mm headphone jack dongle that plugs into the proprietary jack on the right-hand side of the handset. It's kludgy, but it does the trick if you want to use aftermarket wired earbuds.
The device's bright 2.5-inch LCD panel features 320-by-240-pixel resolution and can display up to 262k colors. The Epix sports an "optical mouse," which is really a novel way of saying "tiny touch pad." The mouse's accuracy and central location make the handset comfortable for extended use, though actually navigating to and clicking on things with the on-screen cursor takes some getting used to—it's really small. You can also disable the mouse function and use the surface as a regular five-way control pad. Note that the touch screen completely changes the interface motif from the older, slimmer BlackJacks; early fans may not go for the new design. The QWERTY keyboard on the Epix is a bit clicky, but the raised keys were easy to type on after a short acclimation period.
The Epix also features haptic feedback, hence the handset screen responds with a slight jolt whenever you use the stylus. However, the touch screen was more obstinate than usual for Windows Mobile handsets. It required extra effort and precision to register presses, despite repeated attempts to recalibrate the stylus.
The first review unit I tried had a dead earpiece; calls sounded fine over the speakerphone, but I couldn't hear anyone when holding the handset to my ear. A second unit worked perfectly, though, with punchy gain and clear voice timbre in both directions, although its touch screen (Bzzt!) was prone to accidental presses (Bzzt!) during calls. The Epix exhibited solid 3G reception on my tests. The speakerphone was loud and clear, and delivered smooth, natural audio when paired with an Aliph New Jawbone Bluetooth headset. One genuine triumph: The oversize 1,800-mAh battery was good for a stunning 9 hours 14 minutes in a continuous-talk-time test, which is the best figure I've seen for an HSDPA-enabled handheld to date.
You won't lack for connectivity options with the Epix. For starters, it's a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900-MHz) GSM phone with a tri-band HSDPA (850/1900/2100-MHz) data radio. It also features a built-in Wi-Fi radio for connecting to 802.11b/g networks, not to mention built-in GPS and Bluetooth 2.1 (with EDR) radios. I connected to an 802.11g WPA-encrypted network without a hitch. The handset has 147MB of internal storage, 107MB of RAM, with 65MB free for user programs. Better yet, its next-generation Marvell PXA310 624-MHz CPU offered plenty of power for running multiple tasks at once, as our excellent benchmark test results indicated. This processor should be required for all WM6.1 handsets.
Speaking of which, on my tests, Windows Mobile did its best to sour the overall experience. While watching Cingular Video, a window popped up asking me whether or not I wanted to participate in Microsoft's customer experience program. That decimated the video feed and threw me back to the home screen in the middle of an entertaining Stephen Colbert skit. The built-in Internet Explorer is fine in a pinch—and easy to get around in, given the optical mouse and touch screen. But it's still inferior in speed and page-rendering accuracy to Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, and the default Nokia, BlackBerry, and Apple iPhone Web browsers. Samsung also left out a quick-access button to the Task Manager. The omission meant deep-sea menu diving every 10 or 15 minutes to clear out errant threads and restore the handset's responsiveness. Sadly, even with a 624-MHz CPU this remains a problem, though it's less of one here than with other Microsoft-powered handsets.
The Epix includes built-in instant messaging clients for AIM, Yahoo, and (of course) Windows Live Messenger. It also works with AT&T Maps out of the box; installing it required a restart, which isn't true of the LG Lotus or BlackBerry handsets. Getting a lock took well over a minute on the Epix, but eventually it figured out where I was located. For an additional $9.99 per month, the TeleNav-powered AT&T Navigator offers voice-enabled turn-by-turn directions. On my tests, the service served up quick, clearly spoken voice prompts and a 3D map view. Cingular Video played smoothly animated full episodes of 30 Rock that were slightly squished due to an incorrect aspect ratio.
Plenty of other software is preloaded, but getting most of it to work requires extra fees. For example, the preloaded Ms. Pac-Man demo ran okay, with somewhat choppy animation, for exactly 60 seconds before dropping me out and asking if I wanted to buy the full version. Many handsets include game demos these days, but in addition to the three other game demos, I found seven AT&T Mall icons, two AT&T MEdia Net icons, and two AT&T Music Store icons. I also ran into numerous pushy advertisements asking me to upgrade various apps (AT&T Maps, games, and so on) to full versions. It's not as bad as, say, a bloatware-infested Vista PC, since there's nothing loaded in RAM when you boot the Epix. Still, never before have I seen a smartphone so blatantly geared toward selling more services for its carrier, rather than just being useful out of the box.
Like most Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional smartphones, the Epix is a powerful e-mail device. It offers built-in support for Microsoft Outlook, Exchange Server, over-the-air sync, and Direct Push for corporate users. It includes AT&T Xpress Mail for personal e-mail accounts as well as Outlook Mobile, and can hook into Good Mobile Messaging in supported environments. The Epix features built-in Microsoft Office document editing; you can create, view, or edit Word and Excel files, and view PowerPoint files out of the box; the various touch and optical mouse controls came in handy here. The Epix also works with Microsoft's new System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, the company's answer to enterprise-level remote management tools. On the videoconferencing side, AT&T's Video ShareSM feature lets you share live video feeds during voice calls.
The handset's 2-megapixel camera has a long shutter delay—just over a second—and took plasticky photos that lacked detail. Outdoor shots were decent, with somewhat flat color. But indoor photos had too much noise, and all the whites were excessively washed out. In addition, the handset hard-crashed while I was taking photos; it wouldn't respond or even shut down until I disconnected the battery. Recorded videos fared better: Bright and smooth at 30 frames per second with a 320-by-240-pixel resolution.
For local multimedia, the Epix includes a microSD slot that supports cards up to 32GB in size; my 8GB SanDisk card worked fine. The built-in Windows Media Player app supports MP3, WAV, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+ files. Music sounded warm and full over a set of Cardo S-2 Bluetooth stereo headphones. The Epix supports AT&T Mobile Music for over-the-air music purchases and subscription content from Napster Mobile and XM Radio Mobile (all at additional cost). Transferred video files played back smoothly when blown up to full screen, although I couldn't adjust the volume using the rocker switch without the video stopping and returning to Windows Media Player with a loud "beep" in the headphones, which wasn't pleasant.
Our two favorite AT&T smartphones, the $299 BlackBerry Bold 9000 and the $199 iPhone 3G (our current Editors' Choice) remain better options than the $199 Samsung Epix SGH-i907 (all prices quoted here are with an AT&T contract). The Bold 9000 offers a gorgeous design, an ultrasharp screen, a more stable OS, and easier-to-use push e-mail out of the box, but it lacks am IM client, and its Web browser needs some work. The iPhone 3G is leaps and bounds ahead of the Epix with music, movies, Web browsing, and its high-resolution touch interface, though the iPhone doesn't offer turn-by-turn GPS directions or a hardware keyboard, and it's far harder on the battery. The Epix offers plenty of features and connectivity for Windows Mobile fans, and its fast CPU and generous RAM means you can get plenty of work done. It's subject to the same user interface-related snafus I've seen countless times before on Windows Mobile devices, but aside from that, it's a powerful smartphone.
- Price as Tested: $199.00
- Service Provider: AT&T
- Operating System: Windows Mobile Pocket PC
- Screen Size: 2.5 inches
- Screen Details: 320x240, TFT, 262k-color screen
- Camera: Yes
- Megapixels: 2 MP
- 802.11x: Yes
- Bluetooth: Yes
- Web Browser: Yes
- Network: GSM, UMTS
- Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
- High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
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