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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The Infuse comes packed with 2.2.1 Froyo, which wasn't even the most recent version of Froyo when the phone released. While we fully hope to see Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich make its way to the Infuse one day, we're not sure if it'll ever come.

At 512MBs of RAM and only a single-core processor, the Infuse 4G isn't showcasing the most impressive specs. Even still, with the 1.2GHz processor, it's snappy and quick in everyday tasks. Either way, it's a travesty that Gingerbread is still absent.

As for now, the current version of Froyo - though unexciting - is sufficient. After all, the 2.2.2 and 2.2.3 update mostly fixed small glitches the Infuse isn't plagued with.

Samsung infuse 4g

There are several slightly different interface features in the Infuse, mostly stemming from the version of Samsung's Touchwiz that's on the Infuse (it's slightly newer than the Samsung Galaxy S, but not as new as the S2). The first of differences you'll notice is a new lock screen that (thankfully) only makes you swipe about 3/4s of the gargantuan screen to unlock.

New screens now come touting a semi-opaque "Press and hold this page to add content," which is the easiest way to add widgets and shortcuts to blank screens.

Samsung infuse 4g

Besides a few other negligible changes, not much has been changed to make the OS more suited to the larger screen. The Infuse still utilizes four icons to a row and doesn't allow you to reshape widgets with the flexibility of the Galaxy Note.

Samsung infuse 4g

In addition, there are times when the large screen makes big enough boxes just, well, bigger. Landscape typing into Facebook's username and password, for instance, only shows one enormous text box at a time. This ends up making certain graphic elements on the Infuse needlessly large.

Unfortunately, The Infuse 4G only offers six seen-before live wallpapers. We'd have loved to see a couple new offerings to show off the gorgeous Super AMOLED screen (plus, we're just kind of tired of the old ones).

Like the Galaxy Note, you can pinch to show an overview of home screen cards, which is a neat trick, but not more efficient than simply swiping from side to side.

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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.