Samsung Infuse 4G review

The Infuse 4G is a huge phone, but is it a huge success?

Samsung Infuse 4G
TechRadar's definitive Samsung Infuse 4G review

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Email has two stock apps included on the Infuse. The first is Samsung's Mail app, which serves for any email addresses you might have, from Exchange to POP3/IMAP. Simply enter the email address and the password and, depending on account type, the phone will guide you through a simple setup wizard.

Samsung infuse 4g

The second app is the Gmail app, which - if you're using Gmail - looks slightly different but serves the exact same purpose as Samsung's Mail app, but is limited only to Gmail accounts. Samsung's Mail app has a few snazzy options, but push Gmail doesn't work on this app like it does in the official app.

Samsung infuse 4g

Social media is well integrated into the Samsung Infuse 4G, especially in widgets. But here things get a bit redundant. There are two include Twitter widgets, a Facebook widget, and a Social Updates widget - all of which do similar things.

Holding your finger on any of these (like you're prone to do when scrolling through long lists on a big phone) will lift the widget, making them less beneficial for long reads than their free (included) app counterparts.

ChatOn, Samsung's answer to iMessage and Blackberry Messenger isn't bundled - but can easily be downloaded from the Marketplace.

Samsung infuse 4g

For all your friends who aren't using a Samsung phone, there are always SMS texts. This is the same texting we've grown accustomed to on Froyo, but it all feels slightly different on a 4.5" screen.

You can switch between QWERTY keyboard, a 3x4 Keyboard (which, for all intents and purposes, is T9), and two different handwriting boxes. Each are easily selectable from the tools icon, where you can also turn on predictive text, auto-capitalization, and a league of other settings.

You can also speak to text by hitting the microphone button on the keyboard. We found it to be almost as good as the iPhone 4S's dictation, but it still wasn't quite accurate or fast enough to use for everyday texting.

Samsung infuse 4g

Our biggest gripe with the messaging app was that predictive text selections pop up under the text field, which means both the text thread and the field you're typing in are constantly bouncing up and down in a jittery, unpleasant manner. This made typing long messages feel clunky, no matter how admirably the keyboard performed.

Online Editor

Nic is a former Online Editor at TechRadar in San Francisco. He started as a games journalist before becoming an editor at Mac|Life magazine. He holds a degree in English Literature and English Writing from Whitworth University.