Our Verdict
The Samsung Infuse 4 G ( $ 200 on AT&T after a newfangled 2 - year contract ) is a great - count phone with particular medium capabilities . Unfortunately , while it may shine at act moving picture and music , images and text come out looking like a pickle .
Polished look
The Infuse has a minimalistic design that is sure to twist a few heads . At 5.20 inches by 2.80 inches by 0.35 inch , the phone is improbably thin . The volume rock ‘n’ roll musician and the world power button are , respectively , on the left and right spines , and an 8 - megapixel television camera ( with flash ) is on the rear end . The Infuse features a 4.5 - inch display that learn reward of Samsung ’s newSuper AMOLEDPlus technology . While gamy - definition picture show looked smashing on the phone , image and text were badly pixilated . I tried view several Web Page and gamy - resolution images on the Infuse , and none of them came out looking very upright . Text was n’t unreadable , but it can ache your middle after a while due to its jaggedness .
The front face of the twist also features a 1.3 - megapixel camera for video chatting and the common Android gentle keys ( Menu , Home , Back , and Search ) . The Infuse also has a 3.5 millimetre headphone jack at the top , and the micro - USB charging larboard at the bottom doubles as an HDMI - out ( more on that later ) .
TouchWiz 4.0
The Infuse runs the latest translation of Samsung’sTouchWiz , which adds more handy features to this already - utile overlay . top anywhere on the screen gives you a birds - eye view of all your home screens and let you rearrange them however you wish . Doing the same in your app drawer admit you to easy view all of your app program and quickly navigate to the one you are seem for .
This Modern version of TouchWiz also fine-tune your Contacts List to make it easier to quickly call or text someone . Swiping left on a link will take you to the Messaging app , while swiping powerful will originate a call to that contact . This is a peachy feature for hoi polloi who want to quickly get in touching with others without slogging through countless menus to do it .
Other than TouchWiz and a smattering of AT&T software , the Infuse is relatively free of preloaded computer software . This was a hint of sassy zephyr , as most nomadic carriers seem to like to stuff their Android phones with as many additional apps as they possibly can . The Infuse will also be the first AT&T Android phone that will let you side - payload app . Now user can download apps from the WWW and install them on their phone , whether those apps are in the official Android Market or not .
A sample image from the Infuse’s 8-megapixel camera
Performance
The Samsung Infuse run Android 2.2 ( Froyo ) , but is due to get rendering 2.3 ( Gingerbread ) later this year . The phone has a 1.2GHz undivided - Congress of Racial Equality CPU , which was capable to handle most of the labor I have at it . The only time I saw any detectable lag was when I was download and instal several dozen apps at once .
Samsung ’s decision to go with a undivided - core processor instead of a dual - core may have been due to concerns over electric battery track time . Other 4 yard dual - gist phones that we have seen have had exceedingly underwhelming battery life . After 5 time of day of heavy use , I make do to get the battery down to only 23 percent on a individual mission . You may still want to bring in a spare charger with you in your travels , but at least you wo n’t drain your phone as tight as you would with theSamsung Chargeor the T - Mobile G2x .
The Infuse takes vantage of AT&T’sHSPA+connection for 4 g-force pep pill . While not thefastest 4 G networkaround , it did pretty well for day - to - day tasks . Websites like Yahoo or Yelp opened in second , and apps downloaded in a speedy manner , even though we do not have the best AT&T reportage here in San Francisco .
A sample image from the Infuse’s 8-megapixel camera
Call calibre was ok , though voices were a footling quiet . twist up the in - call mass remedied the issue , but I end up noticing a faint background hiss in the calls I made . The hissing was n’t so bad that it took away from the quality of the call , and you will probably get used to it after a while .
lastly , the great thing about the Infuse ’s large screen is that type on its touchscreen keyboard is incredibly easy — even for people with thicker fingers . While still not as dependable as a physical QWERTY keyboard , I was capable to well pound out a several school text messages and an e - mail with few to no errors .
A media master
A sample effigy from the Infuse ’s 8 - megapixel camera
The 8 - megapixel camera on the Infuse wo n’t bereplacing your put up - alone digital cameraanytime soon . The Infuse ’s television camera has a few neat options ( like the ability to take panoramic pictures ) , but images are fuzzy and can have a scarlet tint to them at times . The front - face camera does not have the same issues , though characterisation postulate with it will look washed out and greyish . Videos register on the twist fare better and miss the rubor found in the still images .
The Infuse makes a great portable spiritualist player , and even amount with an HDMI transcriber and a pair of decent earbuds ( as bring up above , you may employ the micro - USB charging larboard on the bottom for HDMI ) . Its 4.5 - column inch screen is perfect for watching movies on the go , and the extraneous speaker can get pretty flash at higher volume . The Media Hub app lease you rent or download motion-picture show to your gadget , and the Infuse come with a $ 25 voucher for use in the storehouse .
And do n’t care too much about outer space : The Infuse has 16 GB of internal memory and come with a 2 GB microSD card ( and you may get a larger one if you require it ) .
Conclusion
The Samsung Infuse is a great twist for media phthisis , provided you could get over the text- and epitome - furnish issues . Reading pixilated text on that otherwise gorgeous 4.5 - inch display is just a tad grievous , to say the least . But if you are someone who is likes to watch movies on the go , then this is the speech sound for you .
[ Armando Rodriguez is an editorial assistant at PCWorld . ]
