Infuse 4G Unleashed

The Infuse 4G unboxed. We immediately liked the feel of this handset.

Unlike most Samsung Galaxy S smartphones, which feel slick, the back of this thin handheld is coarsely grained for a nice, easy grip.

This device is thin, as we described, and a thickness of 0.35 inches in any mobile device is a welcome design achievement. Of course, Samsung likely took a page from its Galaxy Tab 10.1, which measures only 8.6 millimeters.

Our own Droid X, pictured on the right, measures 0.38 inches thick. You can see the differences here. Is it enough to make a difference for you? Personally, we prefer thinner tablets because they’ll weigh considerably less. A smartphone shouldn’t weigh more than 6 ounces in our opinion.

Samsung said the Super AMOLED Plus display offers 50 percent more sub-pixels for crisp colors in light and dark environments. We didn’t count the pixels, but we sure did notice how bright and clear the screen is, compared with the Super AMOLED Galaxy S handsets.

The Infuse 4G is powered by a 1.2GHz chip, which will come in handy for graphics-intensive applications such as Angry Birds. Speaking of which, this smartphone comes preloaded with a special version of Angry Birds, featuring an exclusive hidden level for Infuse 4G owners. See it in the applications launcher here.

Angry Birds players will be able to unlock a special Golden Egg level of the game and register to win Samsung prizes if they win. The first 500,000 Infuse 4G units sold will include a $25 voucher for consumers to use for downloading TV and movie content from Samsung’s Media Hub.

Unfortunately, this being a flagship AT&T phone, the carrier has loaded it down with plenty of AT&T applications, including navigation, family and TV applications—whether you want them or not.

But seemingly to compensate, AT&T included the Samsung Hub applications. These leverage progressive downloading, which allows users to watch content almost immediately while the rest of the file downloads to the smartphone.

The Infuse 4G also comes with a 2GB microSD card, expandable up to 32GB, preloaded with trailers for movies that will premier this summer.

This trailer for Hop looks like a lot of fun, and its crisply displayed on the gorgeous screen.

The Infuse 4G also features an 8-megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash that shoots high-definition 720p video, as well as a 1.3MP front-facing camera that enables video chat.

Once users sync their Google account with the phone, their Facebook and Gmail contacts are ported over.

Facebook is also preloaded on the Infuse 4G, allowing users immediately to keep up with the social network’s 600 million-plus users on the go.