No, that's a popular misconception thanks to an error on the HTC web.
One of our video professionals make a youtube to prove and then posted all of the test pattern pics that would let you count the color bands to see for yourself deep your color was - the Evo is and always was an 18-bit display.
The back story is that some idiot noticed that the Android photo gallery in 2.1 and 2.2 defaulted to 16 bit color no matter what - until you zoomed an image.
Flame wars erupted across the forums while everyone with 16 bit galleries insisted their phones were superior when they were pretty much all equal.
All because of a web specification error.
Also - over the life of the product, the Evo had something like 3 different screen providers, and 4 different touchscreens - so if you've seen an Evo that your phone beat you're right and if you've seen an Evo that beats your phone, you're right - with 12 possible combinations, something like 7 in actual practice, it's impossible to know by talking whether folks are comparing the Evo(1) or the Evo(7) when discussing screens.
It's all ancient history tho. I really just stopped by to say hi to old friends and enforce some rules.
