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In the market for a new Sprint phone

Liveitloud

Liveitloud

Newbie
New to the forums so hello to all!! :)

So, my 2 year contract is coming up and I am about set for an upgrade. I have never had an android phone but after some research that looks like what I want.

The phone I have now is a Samsung Instinct which has been a huge disappointment. I have had charging problems, freezing up problems, speed issues and the list goes on and on.

Not slamming Samsung but this phone is just not what I expected. I will say that it a very sturdy phone. I know this by the amount of times I slammed it on the table when it locked up trying to make a simple phone call.

I have also had text messages not come to me until 3 or 4 days after they were sent. Don't know if that is a phone thing or a network thing. My girlfriend is on our family plan and has never had that issue so I have always tended to blame the phone.

One of my biggest problems was the interface for messaging. The keyboard was awful and try as I may, every time I went to hit one letter I activated the next one. Most of my texts looks like they came from an illiterate.

Just giving some back info so perhaps I can get some informed advice on my next purchase. I have done some research and was stuck between the Epic and EVO shift.

I think I want something with a physical keyboard so I don't get into the same issue as I did with the instinct. I would also like a phone (if this feature is possible) with an adjustable font size on messaging. My eyes aren't what they used to be. :confused:

Anyway, between the 2, I am kind of leaning toward the EVO shift. I really want something with some speed as I have very little patience for anything electronic that is slow and unresponsive.

With all that said, I appreciate any advice you might have on the subject. Sorry for the rant on the other phone. I figured some history with the frustrations I have been having would lead to some solid advice from the standpoint of what I don't want. :D
 
Both are great phones. The Epic is Samsung, you know this right? (lol) Updates from Samsung are few and far between, but the hardware is amazing. The Shift (which I own) is a way underrated device. It is blindingly fast, and HTC is generally very well supported with updates and bug fixes. It really is up to preference, though, so go to a Sprint store where you can play with 'em and see what you like. That is the important part.

Also, Android is amazing. Period. BUT it is quirky sometimes for some people. It takes some getting used to and some tinkering to get it to work the way you want. I wouldn't use anything else, but just know that it will take a little bit to figure it out and to get it the way you need...

Whatever you choose, good luck, and come on back with questions/issues and we will be glad to help ;)
 
between the 2 .. you cant go wrong.

epic is samsung.. so keep that in mind.

since you have been using an instinct for 2 yrs... then you must be used to virtual kb. but you have issues with it's version of kb.
the kb in android is so much better.
you say your eyes need a little help, so bigger is bettter...
i would suggest you go to store and test out they 2 phones and add in the EVO.
 
Hey thanks for the responses. Much appreciated. Yes, I know it's a Samsung haha. I almost eliminated it for that reason alone but I don't want to judge an entire line by one bad experience. I would think that after the creeping slow speed of the phone I have now, any android out there would be a godsend.

I just through checking out a 15 minute side by side review of the epic and the shift. Seems that they both have their strong suits. I really like the crisp picture on the epic over the evo but after watching the quadrant tests I like the speed of the evo.

It's kinda hard to make an informed decision when a lot of the sites that review have a bias for {insert your manufacturer here} I did a search for the best 2011 android on the market and got a hands down review that nothing could beat the Moto Atrix. *shrug*

Maybe I should do less reading and more hands on. This was a pretty good comparison video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D1cygsc_1M
 
Reading is good, you just have to take the interweb gurus with a grain of salt (us included!) Atrix, and motorola in general is/are great hardware, but they lock down the bootloaders... So if rooting is in your future, beware. Sounds like you are doing the right stuff to make an informed decision, you will be fine ;)
 
If you can stand to wait, sprint is going to have a couple kick-ass phones coming out in the (near?) future... Nexus s, and Evo 2. Do some searching, I would post a link but I'm on my phone...
 
Yea, I'd wait till the end of March, at least! Hopefully, Sprint will get the Nexus S and that's a great phone! Hopefully, we'll also see a successor to the EVO.

So, IMO, wait a bit.. :)
 
I tried both and went with the Evo Shift. I really like HTC phones. The Shift is a great phone - physical keyboard is very solid, the screen is plenty big enough for me. I also tried the Evo, which was too big for me. I realize the Epic is a good phone, too - but I've heard more negative experiences from Samsung owners than from HTC's. This is just my personal experience, but I'm very happy with the Shift.
 
I have to admit after owning this Samsung, I am a bit hesitant to dive in again. I am just having so many issues that seem related to the product rather than the network that it really has me gun shy.

The biggest one being that the phone locks up all the time when I am trying to make a phone call. It never responds after that and I have to hard boot the phone off and turn it back on.

I don't store much of anything on it so I don't get what the problem is. That and the text messages getting lost in virtual hell for days before I get them.

My girlfriend and I say in the same room and texted eachother and she got them right away and mine didn't come until days later. She carries an old rant. That kind of convinced me the problem was with the phone rather than a network thing.

I will say that the Samsung does have the superior display over the EVO. Really crisp and bright. What is all the hype over the Nexus? Does it come with a physical keyboard? I would guess that it has to do with the OS?
 
The nexus is a google experience phone. Meaning that the updates are from google, and not the manufacturer or sprint. It will have good hardware specs, and continue to be updated for as long as the hardware can handle it. It also runs a stock version of android, without a different ui (user interface) like htc's sense or samsung's touchwiz. If you want to root and use custom roms, nexus is the way to go, usually they are very well supported by the devs
 
Well, went and checked them out today and made a few observations. It's kinda hard to make an assessment about a phone you don't know how to maneuver around with and having a service rep drive you nuts trying to get a sale.

First I picked up the Samsung Epic. If I did nothing else but hold it, it felt like the cheapest phone I have ever put my hands on. It was light weight, hollow and plastic. Felt like it would never hold up if it ever got dropped.

I guess from that point on I didn't pay too much attention to playing around on it other than remembering that it did have a nice bright display.

Then I checked out the shift. I'm really on the fence with this one. It was smaller than I thought it would be. I could not text at all with the virtual keyboard. Kept hitting the button next to the one I wanted. The physical keyboard was very stiff and there was no raised portion to the keys. They were very flat and had no resistance to them.

Oddly enough, the one I picked up and liked the most was the original EVO. Unfortunately it has no physical keyboard. I was able to text better on it than the shift.

Not really sure what to do at this point. Perhaps I should go back and mess around with them somemore to see if I can warm up a bit more to the shift.

I was really taken back by how cheap the epic felt. Not meaning to disparage or slam the product. It may be exceptional quality but it sure didn't feel that way. At least I can say that my instinct felt substantial like it had some heft to it.

Perhaps I should wait and see what might be released in the next month. I will probably give them another try but at this point I'm kind of stuck. *shrug*
 
I feel the same way you do about the Epic. The shift feels much more hearty. But I am used to the keyboard on the hero, which If I remember correctly, was only a 3.2 inch screen. The Shift feels huge to me, lol. The only drawback to the original EVO for me is the battery life. The new processor, combined with the smaller screen of the shift makes it have far superior battery life.

Again, if you think you can wait, do it because the phones that are being speculated about will probably be superior to the ones that are out now, anyway...
 
330D said:
I feel the same way you do about the Epic. The shift feels much more hearty. But I am used to the keyboard on the hero, which If I remember correctly, was only a 3.2 inch screen. The Shift feels huge to me, lol. The only drawback to the original EVO for me is the battery life. The new processor, combined with the smaller screen of the shift makes it have far superior battery life.

Again, if you think you can wait, do it because the phones that are being speculated about will probably be superior to the ones that are out now, anyway...
Click to expand...


Might just do that. I hope all the hype isn't because of the upcoming release of that double screen Kyocera. I saw a couple of clips about it and was thoroughly unimpressed.

Maybe I should go find myself one of those old Motorola flip phones with the cinder block battery.

Remember those bricks? :)
 

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Liveitloud said:
Might just do that. I hope all the hype isn't because of the upcoming release of that double screen Kyocera. I saw a couple of clips about it and was thoroughly unimpressed.

Maybe I should go find myself one of those old Motorola flip phones with the cinder block battery.

Remember those bricks? :)
Click to expand...

No, to assuage your fears, we know all too well about that monstrosity around here...
http://androidforums.com/sprint/282212-another-industry-first.html
And here http://androidforums.com/sprint/292231-sprint-announcing-nexus-s-4g-evo-3d-evo-view-tablet-ctia.html is a link to the nexus/evo2 thread I promised before...

And sometimes I wish that I could go back to a simple phone. I have gotten so used to being able to google the price of manure in cambodia, anywhere at any time that I unfortunately don't think I could fire my old startac back up at this point.:cool:
 
330D said:
No, to assuage your fears, we know all too well about that monstrosity around here...
http://androidforums.com/sprint/282212-another-industry-first.html
And here http://androidforums.com/sprint/292231-sprint-announcing-nexus-s-4g-evo-3d-evo-view-tablet-ctia.html is a link to the nexus/evo2 thread I promised before...

And sometimes I wish that I could go back to a simple phone. I have gotten so used to being able to google the price of manure in cambodia, anywhere at any time that I unfortunately don't think I could fire my old startac back up at this point.:cool:
Click to expand...

I know. Sometimes I think ignorance truly is bliss. :) I went back today and messed around with them some more. I kinda like all of them now haha. Now I just have to figure out which one I like more.

It seems like the specs lean toward the Samsung but knowing about their lack of device support I'm a bit hesitant. It does have an outstanding picture though.

I think at this point, the one (shift) I went in with full intent to get is at the bottom of the list. I did some texting on the EVO and was able to manuever around the virtual pad with ease.

I really do like the size of the screen on the EVO. Not too big for me really. I am hoping I can curtail my impulsive edge and hang on until the end of the month and see if there is a new release.

I really appreciate everyone who has posted their opinions. Being new I know I am asking a bunch of dumb questions but I am so tired of having a cell phone that I hate.

:confused: :D
 
Don't rule out the shift based solely on specs... It may have the most robust processor of any current Sprint (or many other carriers for that matter) 's line up. I am running mine overclocked to 1.3 ghz as a daily driver. It has a 1.8 (yes that is an 8) ghz stable kernel available also. It is pretty freakin' snappy.
 
I've gone to the sprint store the last couple of days in a row to play with the phones. I have yet to figure out how to text on the shift. Maybe the phone is missing an icon or something but I just haven't found the feature to figure it out.

As I have mentioned I am stuck trying to decide between 3 phones...well, until yesterday. I was in the store and some guy was at the service desk pretty mad. He was complaining about his Epic going bad on him. He said something about an OS update and now the phone doesn't work.

Not 5 minutes later I was playing around with the Epic when a woman with her child came into the store. She was looking at the phones and moved down the line until we were standing side by side.

She looked at me holding the Epic and said don't bother with that phone. She had one in her hand and said this was the 2nd one she was bringing back. I don't remember what she said the problem was with the 1st one but this one she said fried after an OS update.

She also said that the battery time was awful. Now I kinda like to make informed decisions on my own but that was 2 people in the span of 10 minutes with fails on their Epic so that one is out of the running for me. Shame because what an awesome display but the phone did not feel very substantial to me.

So now it is down to the Evo and the Evo Shift. I have researched the phones until I'm blue in the face and at this point I am only going to frustrate myself by continuing to read up on it so this morning I am heading back to Sprint and pulling the trigger on something.

I don't really think I can go wrong with either phone so we will just see how it goes. Funny, originally I was dead set on a physical keyboard. After playing around with the virtual pad on the Evo, I can text perfectly fine so the two are running neck and neck.

Another bonus (refer back to poor eye sight) was that the Evo has a slightly larger font than the Epic did. If I can just figure out the texting function on the shift I should be able to make a decision pretty quick.
 
texting on both evo and shift should be the same.... they both run sense. it is an icon... that looks like a message bubble. if you open the app drawer (that shows all the apps on the phone). scroll down to "M", and find "messages". touch and hold the icon... then drag it to any place on the homescreen.

both are great phones... but to me... slide out parts wear out and become a pain in the ass.... and we are now being pushed to keep phones for 2 yrs.

good luck at the store....
 
Well I'm back and I went with the HTC Evo. I just liked the large screen and saw an adjustable font which took it over the top for me. I do hope the guy at the store was exaggerating when he told me to expect 2-3 hours of battery life between charges. Seems I have read plenty of threads on this forum that indicated better than that. Guess we'll see. Giving it a charge and going out for the day. We'll see if it's dead when I get back.
 
congrates... welcome to the evo-lution....

the first few charges.. seem not to last very long.. but you will be playing with it like crazy... for a MONTH; if not more!!!!!!!!

there are things that help the battery... going into all the widgets and emails and weather things... and reducing the number of times it updates...

if you every get comfortable enough... the biggest bonus for evo is the ROOT support!!!!! huge!!! and one other small bonus with rooting ...there are ROMs and kernels that bump the battery too.

btw.. small warning... tuesday sprint will announce the evo's replacement: the EVO 3D. but I am sure it will not be dropping till summer time.
 
Dang I didn't know the announcement would be that quick. Oh well maybe that will be the next one I get. Who knows what will be out over the next 2 years. Hopefully this one will last that long.

I played around with it quite a bit yesterday. It was not at full charge when I left and it last for about 6 hours of messing with off and on. Not too shabby.

Me and a friend were going to apps with my Evo and her iPhone and mine seemed to be faster. I also noticed that my screen looked a bit sharper in programs next to hers.

When I was at the store picking it up all they had were these neoprene/gel type sleeves which did not look like much protection so I passed.

As the day went on I started freaking out that I was going to drop the phone or scratch the screen so I whipped into another Sprint store and found an Otter box case that came w/ screen protector and got it. Looks fairly substantial and gave me some peace of mind.

Now I just need to figure the phone out. Saw a couple of widgets I didn't like and grabbed them and drug them to the bottom to get rid of. The area turned red like they deleted but when I looked back at the screen they were back.

Guess I'll have to do the last thing I ever do when I buy something....read the manual. When I got my samsung it came with a CD that gave me an area to go to for updates and back up. This one does not have that. They had me set up a Gmail account at the store.

Not sure yet what that was about. I am a bit techno challenged and get frustrated pretty easily with electronic devices that are smarter than me...and most are. :) Hopefully this phone won't create too much angst. It hasn't yet anyway.

Yesterday while browsing around I noticed later that I never did turn on the 4g and the phone was quick as could be. Really impressed so far with the performance of the phone.

I read somewhere that the battery design did not require you to wait until dead before recharge and would not damage or shorten the life if you just charged when you felt you needed to but I let it go all the way to flashing red before I gave it a full charge just to be sure. Damn that was the longest sentence in the world. :)

I'm sure I will be back with a handful of dumb questions so please go easy on me.
 
To delete the widget, press and hold till you see the 'remove' button appear at the bottom center of the screen. Drag and drop the widget on that 'remove' button!

Feel free to top off the battery charge as and when desired. I wouldn't drain the battery to flashing red before plugging in, except once or twice a month.
 
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