Samsung and AT&T just made the Infuse 4G official with a slated release date of May 15 in stores and online. It'll go for $199 at launch with no rebate. We're here in New York City and we just got a first look at the device, which AT&T VP of Devices Jeff Bradley called “the supermodel of superphones.” Here are the specs:
- 4.5 inch Super AMOLED plus screen at 480x800
- 1.2 GHz Hummingbird processor (single-core)
- Android version 2.2 Froyo
- 8 MP rear camera with 720p video recording and full HDMI playback
- 1.3 MP front-facing camera
Let me first say that this phone is a BEHEMOTH. The screen is huge: that extra two-tenths of an inch doesn't sound like much, but it really dwarfs my Thunderbolt. The Super AMOLED Plus screen is the star here: it's bright, it's big, and it's beautiful. It offers amazing viewing angles, and Samsung says that you won't have a problem seeing it in the sun. If you're afraid that huge screen will weigh you down, fear not: Samsung has managed to fit everything into an incredibly thin package, at only 8.99 millimeters and 131 grams.
The phone feels great in the hand (albeit a bit plasticky, but nothing out of the ordinary for Samsung). The battery cover feels flimsy at best, but honestly, we cannot overstate just how great this phone looks. Its size and weight, coupled with that stunner screen, comes together for one seriously sexy package.
Samsung is predicting that this will be its summer blockbuster. It will support HSPA+ and HSUPA, with receiver diversity, which Samsung says will allow for the fastest experience available on AT&T. Firing up the browser, we didn't see anything mind-blowing speed-wise, and certainly nothing radically different than what we've seen from AT&T's current lineup. Hopefully real-world use will live up to Samsung's hype.
A quick note: It looks like AT&T might have chilled out with their sideloading ban. The Infuse does come with the option for installing apps from unknown sources, a departure from what we've seen on previous AT&T offerings. More on that in our full review.
Hit the break for some more pictures, and stay tuned for a hands-on video, with a full review and some in-depth testing coming soon.
Reader comments
Samsung Infuse 4G initial review and hands-on
thats a big hunk of phone! i love it!
Freaking sweeet!!!
It`s sweet phone BUT still Samsung phone, it`ll die before see any upgard like the rest of Samsung phones out there...
I like the HTC better,Am getting the HTC EVO 3D dual core.
That might be true, but you never really know cause you can't base something on the past. I'm an owner of the Captivate and I liked it at first then I hated it when I noticed it wasn't being updated, but thank God for XDA!! I currently have Gingerbread on my Captivate, but I'm not using it cause I'm testing out the Atrix for 30 days lol
That's a good looking phone. I think 4.3 is my max as far as size for a phone tho.
I would still like to take this thing for a spin because it looks really good. (Take note on how to design phones Sony!)
I wish this phone had com 5 months ago when I got my Captivate.....
Oh well...
You got that right.
But the one you want is the one AFTER this one, when they slap in a dual core processor and add support for the tmobile bands after the merger. ;-)
Why do you say this phone is a POS?
yet another POS on a POS network
Bummer its on ATT.
AT&T gets pretty sick phones!! I have no issue with service!
Ya i have no problem with ATT its just where i live it has been crappy.
"Samsung is predicting that this will be its summer blockbuster." - What does that mean for the Galaxy S II (if anything) ? All of the commercials had me thinking the GS2 would be in the USA very soon.
Doesn't sound good. It would be a disappointment, but it wouldn't be a huge surprise either. The Epic 4G barely made summer last year, and the Fascinate just didn't, so it wouldn't exactly be out of the norm to launch in the fall. T-Mobile also just had a big launch with the G2X, and coming up is the Sensation in June. I could easily see them bumping back the release date so as to give these guys a little room, and I can't at all see AT&T trying to sell the Infuse alongside the GSII (or for that matter Verizon with the Droid Charge).
Add to that the always present possibility of AMOLED component shortages, and damn....long summer for GSII lusters.
AMOLED's awesome, but they rellly need to bump up the screen resolution on these things. It's always same resolution by these guys.
Dflores, Super AMOLED+ does have a bump in screen resolution over the original AMOLED and Super AMOLED. Due to the pentile display, the effective resolution of the AMOLED and Super AMOLED screens was only 392x653. A Super AMOLED+ doesn't use pentile, so it has a true resolution of 480x800 -- 50% more pixels.
I am pretty sure that's a little inaccurate.
You can have 480x800 resolution on two displays, with one display being noticeably sharper than the other. The information shown is the SAME, but sharpness is not just a function of screen resolution.
Technically you may well be right, so I won't argue on that because I'm ignant, but in real life usage, the pentile matrix does appear to be lower resolution than traditional panels. Viewing a website requires slightly more zoom for example, because the text is harder to read at small sizes, being less "sharp."
Practically speaking, it FEELS like higher resolution. I say this having gone from AMOLED to IPS.
So, basically...
The U.S. will NOT be getting the SGS2 anytime soon, especially AT&T, seeing how the Infuse 4G is practically an SGS2 without dual core and Gingerbread.
Sucks. Thank you, American telecom and corporo-political incestuous industry landscape.
Gingerbread isnt a deal breaker for me. I owned the Captivate. And Im happy I had it. I will own this phone also and the Atrix goes on ebay.
I'm curious, what made you decide to dump the Atrix for the Infuse?
I will be dumping my atrix as well. Motoblur being the main reason. It makes the phone really buggy. Frequent reboots, app crashes, and moto's locked bootloader. I took the first one back and while the second doesn't have as many issues, its still a horrid smartphone.
It's a deal breaker for me for two reasons:
1) General lag on part of manufacturers and carriers to push updates. I don't want to wait anymore, tired of it.
2) Gingerbread brings GPU accelerated GUI, and is reportedly faster than Froyo (like, noticeably so). I want to take advantage of that.
I'm looking forward to get this phone!!! :D My only question is that "is swype pre-installed?"
Plus what size internal memory without an SD card and what size battery will this phone have?