A word on Sprint's new hotness, the Samsung Epic 4G.

So...

Today, Sprint finally announced the release date of their version of the Samsung Galaxy smart phone, dubbed the Epic 4G. As the name suggests it is a 4G compatible phone (meaning that it's good only for those areas that have 4G coverage, otherwise it's 3G). It's a pretty spectacular phone, I'll be the first to admit that, but it's not a phone that's unique to Sprint. AT&T, Verizon and even T-Mobil all have their own version of the Samsung Galaxy. The ONLY difference with the Sprint version compared to the other companies is that Sprint's Galaxy has a slide-out QWERTY keypad. This keypad is a pretty handy feature, allowing the option to either type touch screen or on a normal, albeit smaller, keyboard. However, this keypad isn't without it's faults, it does make the phone a bit heavier. With or without the extra weight, though, I don't think the keypad should make the Epic a more expensive version of the galaxy than it's competitors since, again, it's almost the same phone.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what Sprint is doing: charging their customers an extra fifty bucks to get their Samsung Galaxy. Now, this phone is already available on AT&T and T-Mobil and both retail for 199.99. The same price as the Iphone 4, mind you. And over at Spring, the uber-hot EVO (Sprint's first foray into 4G territory) also retails for 199.99. Expensive, but reasonable. You would expect the new Samsung to sell for that same amount as Sprint's previous 4G phone, if not the price of the same phone at AT&T and T-Mobil. I mean, how could it actually cost MORE than the King of all smart phones, the Iphone 4G? But I guess Sprint has decided to make an extra buck by sticking it to the customer and charging them 249.99. This is clearly part of the reason for the long delay on the Epic's release date. Based on the high sales of the EVO and the high level of interest in the Epic, Sprint has jacked up the price an extra fifty dollars, making it the most expensive smart phone on the market. Worse, Sprint suckered their customers by setting up a website so users could pre-pre-register for the Epic 4G, so customers could be assured they would get the advanced forms necessary to get the phone on it's release date. Sounds nice, but they then counted up all those site visits and pre-pre-registrations and decided they had enough interest to be able to jack the prices of the phone up.

Worse, Sprint has always prided itself on having cheaper plans than AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobil. Dan Hesse, Sprint's CEO, has a commerical running where he boldly proclaims that for 69.99 you can get everything (mobil, text and Internet), whereas at AT&T and Verizon you can only get mobil calling and text for that price. Now, users that sign up for the Samsung Epic are required to pay a shady $10.00 "premium content" fee. This is a fee that isn't required for their other smart phones, but is something they began to require for the EVO and continued with the Epic, even though those phones don't do anything different than their other smart phones - they still access the same sights. It's because they are 4G, I guess, and it's a sketchy way to claim that their plans are 69.99, when, in fact, they require an extra 10 buck fee making the plans 79.99. As more and more phones come out with 4G capabilities, I guess the new price, whether they advertise it or not, will be 79.99. The funny thing is that very few markets actually have 4G capable cell phone towers set up, so the 10.00 fee really shouldn't be applied to those markets since they aren't getting the "premium content" as intended.

Still, even though it's disappointing to see the changes in Sprint's customer service and their up until now low prices, the service plan pricing is still on par with the other mobil companies. And the phone is pretty awesome, though in my opinion not worth the extra 50 bucks. But, really, if you want a phone that is not going to be obsolete in two years, and you want the QWERTY keypad, then you really don't have a choice but to pay the extra money. I guess I should be use to this by now considering how long the cell phone companies have been monopolizing Americans with outrageous pricing and unbreakable contracts. Really, the only wonder is how long it took Sprint to join the club.

FYI, Sprint's Samsung Epic 4G releases August 31, with pre-registration beginning today.