Samsung Epix

[Guest Gadge-Man]

I upgraded from the Blackjack II to the Epix 5 days ago. I love the processor speed, larger touch screen, bigger fonts, Spell Check feature, call quality and overall feel of the phone. The Epix fixes many of the shortcomings of the Blackjack II, but creates some of its own:

(1) None of the Sound and Notification settings appear to work for emails and text messages. I too cannot get the LED to flash more than 10 seconds despite setting it to "No Limit". I even downloaded a well known program that was suppose to override the WM settings make the LED blink endlessly on all WM devices, but I could not make it work on the Epix.

(2) The phone does not vibrate strong or long enough to alert me of an email or text when it's in the holster clipped to my waist. It vibrates only once very briefly. I used the same program to try and have it vibrate every minute, but nothing worked. I do not get alerted to most messages. If not felt on my waist, my old Blackjack II could be heard vibrating and was very strong. I use my Epix for business primarily and I communiciate primarily by email and text so it is annoying to have a potentially important email/text sitting in my inbox for considerable time without knowing it arrived. I find myself constantly checking it. I wish there was a setting to vary the length and frequency of the vibrations.

(3) When Bluetooth is enabled, I have no visible icon like on the Blackjack II. The pdf manual does not provide a icon symbol yet warns you to turn it off when not in use. Even more confusing, ATT website states that a bluetooth icon should be visable.

(4) The optical mouse is nice, but makes it difficult to maneuver on the fly with one hand. When I switch back to traditional navigation it becomes too sensitive to my touch and very difficult to control so I find myself using my finger to avoid both. The traditional joystick on the Blackjack II would not bother me on this phone.

(5) When reading an email (while using the optical mouse), you can't advance to the next email without closing the email or hitting "ok" and tapping the next email from the email list. If you use the navigation method, you can swipe your finger left or right to advance to the next unread email, but it's too sensitive and it skips past several messages.

(6) Can't understand why Samsung does not use the anti-slip back cover used on some Blackjack II phones. The Epix is very slippery.

Called Samsung and they had no clue as to how to resolve any of the first 5 issues and blamed ATT for restricting the phone. Told me to call back in a week because the phone was too new. An ATT tech tried another model and found similar responses. He was shocked at how brief and low it vibrated and understood why I missed so many email/text message alerts. He also could not get the LED to flash more than 10 seconds.

I believe ATT rushed the release of this phone in order to beat the Verizon version of this phone (i770) release any day now. If I can't find a fix to the notification problems, I will have to return the phone and consider Verizon's model. Verizon does rigorous testing before releasing any phones so the i770 is likely not to have similar issues. I am trying to work through it before I do return it though since it has so many other features I want or need and I have some time left on my contract with ATT, but it is important to my work that I be notified when the message arrives. Any suggestions?

Edited October 29, 2008 by Gadge-Man

[Guest sfleuriet]

I agree with #1 completely. Another thing I've noticed with that.. I have the box for Popup alerts for Emails & Texts UNCHECKED. Everytime I restart the phone, they magically become CHECKED again. Extremely annoying.

I honestly haven't noticed any problems with the vibrating alert.. I guess I haven't paid attention to it in regards to emails.

[Guest Gadge-Man]

I agree with #1 completely. Another thing I've noticed with that.. I have the box for Popup alerts for Emails & Texts UNCHECKED. Everytime I restart the phone, they magically become CHECKED again. Extremely annoying.

I honestly haven't noticed any problems with the vibrating alert.. I guess I haven't paid attention to it in regards to emails.

Initially, the Samsung rep told me that the phone was not designed with this option and ATT probably added it later. Then I was placed on hold and told that it must be CHECKED for the email notification settings to work properly.

[Guest sfleuriet]

You mean the audible email notification might work (with the phone on standby) with the Popup box CHECKED? I'll test that out.

About the pop-up text notifications... they clearly stole that from a popular BJII App called SMSBubbles.. its the exact same thing.

Edited October 29, 2008 by sfleuriet

[Guest sfleuriet]

Unfortunately, that didn't work. I checked the box for pop-up notifications of emails, set my email send/rx schedule to 5mins, waited, and all I got was a couple purple LED blinks.

[Guest Gadge-Man]

Unfortunately, that didn't work. I checked the box for pop-up notifications of emails, set my email send/rx schedule to 5mins, waited, and all I got was a couple purple LED blinks.

I started using my BKII again because I was missing too many emails and text message notifcations. I emailed Samsung with my complaints and suggestions. I don't have to return the Epix until Nov. 23rd so I will hold on to it and hope that Samsung will issue an firmware upgrade before the 23rd. If not, it's going back. I use LED alerts on my BKII for constant and colorfull LED notifications. It works great and I was hoping the Epix would have something similar built into it. After 5 days with the Epix, my BKII seemed more appealing in some key ways i.e. LED alerts installed, strong vibrations for email/text, thin form factor and its one hand navigation controller. I don't like that the alert volume on the Epix is tide into the system volume. It's independent on the BKII. However, I do miss certain features on the Epix i.e. large dark fonts, spell check, larger screen, touch screen and better developer program availability. I really hope Samsung gets it right very soon by combining the best qualities of the two phones. On the otherhand, maybe this is why they chose not to call it the "Blackjack III".

[Guest Gadge-Man]

I emailed Samsung with my Epix issues and here is their reply. I also attached my original email to Samsung. It's obvious from reading their email that they never completely read mine. I give up.

"Thank you for your inquiry. This would be something that you should call in for assistance to troubleshoot. Most issues can be resolved with just a couple of troubleshooting steps. However, it could be quite lengthy to sort out via email. The quickest way to a resolution would be to contact technical support. Please contact our Samsung Customer Support, by phone toll free at 1-888-987-4357.

Your continued interest in Samsung products is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Technical Support

The information was useful to me Satisfied 5 4 3 2 1 Not Satisfied

* Please do not reply back to this email message as this email address is used for

outbound messages only. * If you are not satisfied with the answer we provided, please click here * if you have a question on another product, click here 　

　 Problems with my Epix I upgraded from the Blackjack II to the Epix 5 days ago. I love the processor speed, larger touch screen, bigger fonts, Spell Check feature, call quality and overall feel of the phone. The Epix fixes many of the shortcomings of the Blackjack II, but creates some of its own:

(1) Complaint: None of the Sound and Notification settings appear to work for emails and text messages. I cannot get the LED to flash more than 10 seconds despite setting it to 'No Limit'.

(2) Complaint: The phone does not vibrate strong or long enough to alert me of an email or text when it's in the holster clipped to my waist. It vibrates only once very light and brief. It does not alert you to emails at all when the phone is in standby mode. If not felt vibrating on my waist, my old Blackjack II could be 'heard' vibrating and was very strong. I use my Epix for business primarily and I communiciate mostly by email and text so it is annoying to have a potentially important email/text sitting in my inbox for considerable time without knowing it arrived. I find myself constantly checking it. I wish there was a setting to vary the length, strength and frequency of the vibrations.

(3) Complaint: When Bluetooth is enabled, I have no visible icon like on the Blackjack II. The pdf manual does not provide an icon symbol yet warns you to turn it off when not in use. Even more confusing, ATT website states that a bluetooth icon should be visable and provides a symbol.

(4) Question: When reading an email (while using the optical mouse), you can't advance to the next email without closing the email or hitting 'ok' and tapping the next email from the email list. If you use the navigation method, you can swipe your finger from left to right to advance to the next unread email, but it's too sensitive and it skips past several messages. Is there a way to advance to the next email?

(6) Comment: Can't understand why Samsung does not use the anti-slip back cover used on some Blackjack II phones. The Epix is very slippery.

I called Samsung tech support and they had no clue as to how to resolve any of these issues and blamed ATT for restricting the phone. Told me to call back in a week because the phone was too new. An ATT tech tried another model and found similar responses. He was shocked at how brief and low the Epix vibrated and understood why I missed so many email/text message alerts. He also could not get the LED to flash more than 10 seconds.

I love the enhanced features over the Blackjack II. I am trying to work through it before I do return it since it has so many other features I want and/or need. It is important to my work that I be notified when the message arrives. Any suggestions on how to get the phone to noticeably vibrate upon receiving emails and text, and to have the LED flash for 'No Limit'?"

Edited November 1, 2008 by Gadge-Man

[Guest SeanH]

This is my list.

1) WM 6.1 Pro Notes is not working. They do not sync with ActiveSync

2) Email audio notifications are broke.

3) When you set the LED to blink forever (no limit) when you recieve a txt message or an email it only blinks for 10 seconds.

4) There is an issue when you press the messaging button. It does not take you to the top of your email list. It takes you to the last read email.

5) The LCD backlight time out is not working. If you set it for 10 seconds it will dim after 5 seconds but stay on for 60 seconds.

6) The phone comes out of standby every time you go from EDGE to 3G. The LCD backlight will stay on for 60 seconds when this happens.

7) There is a new setting that turns the LCD off after 5 seconds when you make a phone call. This is broke also. It puts the phone in standby so you can not push any buttons until you turn the phone back on. When checking voice mail this is a real pain.

8) There is no way to change the phone out of 'Increasing Ring' mode. If you set the phone to 'Ring' it still starts at a low volume and gets louder.

I figured out these flaws within 48 hours of owning the phone. I am shocked that no one at ATT or Samsung found these flaws before they released the phone. I am sure there are lot more bugs I do not know about.

After 4 days I gave up on this device. It is on Craigslist for sale. Gadge-Man issue 4 is a huge problem with the device. Not having a stable navigation pad effects many apps not just email. Samsung should have put 4 buttons around the optical mouse. That would have fixed the lack of a navigation pad.

SeanH

Edited November 1, 2008 by SeanH