The Samsung Conquer 4G is Sprint's most affordable 4G phone at launch. It sells for $99 with a 2 year contract, and it packs some solid features into a mid-sized handset. The Conquer 4G runs Android OS 2.3.4 Gingerbread, currently the latest version of Google's OS for phones, and it's a nearly pure version of Android. For those of you who like clean phones that are unfettered by UI customizations, that's an attractive proposition. Since the Conquer supports Sprint ID packs, you don't have to stay vanilla for long if you prefer a healthy smattering of Sprint apps and services on your phone. In fact, there are quite a few ID packs to choose from beyond the standard Sprint pack.
We're a little surprised that the Conquer 4G doesn't use Samsung's 1GHz Hummingbird CPU. Instead it has a 1GHz second generation Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU with Adreno 205 graphics. That's a fast and competent CPU, though it won't run circles around dual core CPUs (hey, the phone is only $99). It handled Sprint ID packs, Sprint TV, Adobe Flash Player 10.3 and 3D gaming just fine. But some higher end games that are designed for 800 x 480 pixel displays may not run on this HVGA 320 x 480, 3.5" capacitive display. Speaking of the display, it's a run of the mill LCD that's serviceable but lacks Samsung's Super AMOLED color saturation and the clarity of higher resolution displays. You'll have to zoom more in web pages due to the low resolution display, and both photos and fonts won't have the sharpness you'd see with the higher resolution HTC EVO Shift 4G, Samsung Epic 4G or HTC EVO 4G.
The Conquer 4G has 3G EV-DO Rev. A and 4G WiMAX. You'll pay $10/month extra for 4G even if you don't live in a 4G coverage area, so for that $120/year additional cost, we suggest you consider this phone only if you're interested in using 4G. Reception on Sprint's 3G network is quite good, and we got better than average download speeds according to Ookla's Speedtest.net app. The phone averaged 800k down and 400k up, which is good for our area. 4G WiMAX coverage is outdoors only in our neighborhood in the Dallas metroplex, and with a middling signal outdoors we averaged 3.5Mbps down and 1.1Mbps up. That's not as fast as Verizon LTE by a long shot, and it's about half what we get on T-Mobile's 4G HSPA+ network, but coverage is a regional thing, and when we drove to downtown Dallas we saw speeds improve to 7.5Mpbs down.
Voice quality was excellent for calls with clear and full audio on both ends. The speaker is average in terms of volume and quality, and it's suitable for quiet rooms and sedans. The Conquer 4G can act as a high speed mobile hotspot and share its 3G/4G connection over WiFi with tablets, laptops and other WiFi-toting gear.
