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My Evo Thoughts & Review

Bek said:
So over the course of the afternoon, I've drained the hell out of the battery. I think I sank it from 40% down to 10% over the course of an hour. Obviously, I still have not "conditioned" the battery either (save any pro/anti conditioning comments, I don't care).

Physically, the phone still feels absolutely rock solid. I love the screen and the feel. I've always been a physical keyboard kind of guy, but am fast getting used to the touch-screen keyboard. I'm eager to try out some of the 3rd party keyboards soon, especially Swype.

I'm VERY VERY impressed with the Talk to SMS feature. Played with that on the train and that was fairly accurate.

Since I'm new to Android, having come from a Pre, I've had to make a number of adjustments. Getting used to no multitasking like WebOS has been one thing. I'm also adjusting to how notifications are delivered differently.

I am loving SenseUI and am really looking forward to customizing the hell out of it. I've downloaded around 60-70 apps via AppBrain, so am slowly trying all of those out as well.

I browsed a few sites on the phone, including this one, and WOW, what a difference in mobile browsing vs the Palm Pre. This is very very usable and I'm extremely pleased with it. It was very snappy and responsive.

That's all for now... going to let the Evo charge for the next 20 minutes, before I have to run out to dinner. Hope to have more thoughts and feedback tonight.
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can you explain a little more on the bolded part? what can't you do on the EVO multi-tasking-wise that you could do on the PRE? thanks!
 
mcbtrain929 said:
i just hope we can get those numbers (and maybe better) actually being inside buildings, and not have to be standing outside to get those scores.
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That score was taken on the 20th floor of my 21 story building, adjacent to the Chicago River.

I get solid Sprint connectivity there whereas the 4 AT&T iPhones guys next to me often don't get ANY signal, much less AT&T 3G.

Take that as you will.

mcbtrain929 said:
can you explain a little more on the bolded part? what can't you do on the EVO multi-tasking-wise that you could do on the PRE? thanks!
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On the Pre, you have "cards" and it is super easy to bounce between all open apps. On Android, there doesn't seem to be a "breadcrumb" sort of system. It reminds me more of WinMo, in that an app is just left lingering in the background and you have to invoke it directly again, to get back to what you were doing.

Again, I'm new to Android so there could be functionality I just haven't figured out yet.
 
pingpongboss said:
Personally I love the way Android does multitasking! Hold down HOME to get a list of open apps. Although it's limited to 6 for now.
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HAH, thank you very much! Like I said, I'm new to Android and had no idea about that.
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pingpongboss said:
Personally I love the way Android does multitasking! Hold down HOME to get a list of open apps. Although it's limited to 6 for now.
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actually it's a list of the last 6 apps used. since they are never really "closed" manually, you could say they were still open, and that brings it back up. i like to think of it as: when you stop using an app, it goes into idle. and when you long-press HOME and select one of the last 6 apps you've used, it brings it out of idle. probably not a huge difference between the 2 frame of thoughts....
 
I actually appreciate all of you who got yours early and gave reviews/pics/videos etc. It makes me more excited for next week AND it gives me an idea of what NOT to expect. Sharing your thoughts and being open to questions helps those of us who are considering buying accessories too. Again...thank you
 
DUBious said:
ive been staring at the pic for nearly 2 minutes and JUST realized the phone was on. lol im worried.
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I know for a fact that when you put the Brightness on Auto, the lowest it goes is not the minimum that you can manually set to. I haven't tested with the maximum brightness but I imagine it could be the same.
 
misticjeff said:
I can concur with the "fingerprint" magnet statement. This baby loves em'...

Here's three WiMax tests from Las Vegas:

2.42Mbps Down - .70Mbps Up
1.69Mbps Down - 1.00Mbps Up
2.34Mbps Down - 1.01Mbps Up

Those were conducted in a moving vehicle at approx. 35mph
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Not trolling but I get 2.3 Down and 1 mb Up on My Droid Incredible on 3g...

Just as a comparison.
 
mcbtrain929 said:
i just hope we can get those numbers (and maybe better) actually being inside buildings, and not have to be standing outside to get those scores.
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Definitely something to consider. I actually work in the basement of a building near the Mart and I've already conceded any 4G functionality there, although I do get a solid 3g signal. But If i can get those 4G speeds when I'm out and about around town I'll be pleased.
 
If the EVO had a USB host port and a proper email client built in (I'm using K9, now, and it's better but still not up-to-snuff compared to, yes, I'll say it, Outlook on my WinMO devices) it could be considered the perfect phone.

Who wants to connect a USB flash drive to their phone? Or a keyboard or a hard drive? (or an ultrasound probe?)

How many clicks/presses should one need to delete an email message? One? Two?

I cannot believe the email issues... what year is this, anyway? Hmmm...
 
dzar said:
If the EVO had a USB host port and a proper email client built in (I'm using K9, now, and it's better but still not up-to-snuff compared to, yes, I'll say it, Outlook on my WinMO devices) it could be considered the perfect phone.

Who wants to connect a USB flash drive to their phone? Or a keyboard or a hard drive? (or an ultrasound probe?)

How many clicks/presses should one need to delete an email message? One? Two?

I cannot believe the email issues... what year is this, anyway? Hmmm...
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I'd love to connect a usb drive or keyboard to the phone, but you cannot do that with Android right now. The usb ports don't act as host ports.
 
pingpongboss said:
I'd love to connect a usb drive or keyboard to the phone, but you cannot do that with Android right now. The usb ports don't act as host ports.
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I fully understand that this doesn't work, but not for any technical reasons; the chip sets support it; there are Android USB host drivers for them (checkout Qualcomm's site for them and how about all of the Android netbooks floating around? They all have USB support.. and Linux has plenty of USB support... and...) and HTC knows how to build a power supply. There are political reasons, but not technical ones. Oh, and let's not forget that the Droid has been hacked to allow it to work with a powered USB hub (sort of).
 
On the Pre, you have "cards" and it is super easy to bounce between all open apps. On Android, there doesn't seem to be a "breadcrumb" sort of system. It reminds me more of WinMo, in that an app is just left lingering in the background and you have to invoke it directly again, to get back to what you were doing.

Again, I'm new to Android so there could be functionality I just haven't figured out yet.
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I'm new to android as well, but have paid attention to alot of video reviews:

Couldn't you just assign current live apps/widgets to your open sense screens? Sort of like the palmOS cards? (They default have one for music right?)
-or-
Aren't the 'live' apps also listed in the dropdown/pulldown in the very top status bar that houses the 3G/4G/signal bars icons? So if you go to the top and drag down it will show you whats running at the time? (I saw one guy pull down and got back to music that was playing easily)
 
PyroSporker said:
I'm new to android as well, but have paid attention to alot of video reviews:

Couldn't you just assign current live apps/widgets to your open sense screens? Sort of like the palmOS cards? (They default have one for music right?)
-or-
Aren't the 'live' apps also listed in the dropdown/pulldown in the very top status bar that houses the 3G/4G/signal bars icons? So if you go to the top and drag down it will show you whats running at the time? (I saw one guy pull down and got back to music that was playing easily)
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The notification bar is for apps that explicitly set notifications. Not all running apps will have an icon/message up there.

Widgets have nothing to do with running apps.
 
Bek I'm interested in a battery life update. How does it hold up throughout the day when it starts its day fully charged? I know usage and apps used will cause more/less battery draw but average use is what I'm interested in. Thanks
 
tx_dbs_tx said:
Bek I'm interested in a battery life update. How does it hold up throughout the day when it starts its day fully charged? I know usage and apps used will cause more/less battery draw but average use is what I'm interested in. Thanks
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That's what today is all about. I drained my battery until the phone died last night then charged it overnight. Am on my morning commute now & have been lisening to tunes via bluetooth & playing with the phone for the past hour or so. Think I have hit 80% so far? I'll have exact numbers when I walk into work shortly.
 
Alright, here's my exact breakdown.

My total commute this morning was 90 minutes. During that entire time, I was listening to MP3s via my Bluetooth headset. For about 70-75 minutes, the screen was on and I was doing something on the phone... either surfing, running random Speedtest.net tests,

My battery started @ 98% and ended @ 58%. My screen's set to the default auto-adjust settings. I kept 4G off the majority of the time, since I didn't want to taint the test. I did have it on while I was in the burbs, running various speed tests, but did turn it off once I hopped onto the train.

All in all, not a bad stress test. I've heard that Android does not necessarily report battery consumption in a truly linear fashion, but that's something I need to investigate further.
 
When you had the 4G on--what were the results of your speed test?
Were you on the move while using 4G?
Was there a difference in speed in terms of city vs burbs?
Thanks
 
When you had the 4G on--what were the results of your speed test?
Were you on the move while using 4G?
Was there a difference in speed in terms of city vs burbs?
Thanks
 
Bek, think I remember you from the PRE forum lol.

Im curious about your 4G signal inside a building or your home. Im curious about what some have said, that it gets poor/non existant signal inside. Just wondering if its due to the coverage of the 4G and where that reviewer was.

I live in the burbs outside of Philly, and according to the 4G map I have great coverage....just wondering if I will be getting a good signal within my house....added note I get great 3G in my house, never less than 4 bars.
 
mx7 said:
When you had the 4G on--what were the results of your speed test?
Were you on the move while using 4G?
Was there a difference in speed in terms of city vs burbs?
Thanks
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My results ranged from 1.8~2.0 Mbps down and .5~.8 Mbps up, to 5 Mbps down and .9~1.1 Mbps up. I would get the latter whenever I had full signal and the former when I only had 1 bar of 3 (sure wish there was a signal strength % mod- anyone?).

I ran my 4G tests when I was moving on the bus, and standing around the train station - all out in the burbs. I ran a few 4G tests when I got onto the Metra train, noticing that I'd lose 4G signal fast if I had the phone in my lap vs holding it up closer to a window.
 
evotitans said:
Bek, think I remember you from the PRE forum lol.

Im curious about your 4G signal inside a building or your home. Im curious about what some have said, that it gets poor/non existant signal inside. Just wondering if its due to the coverage of the 4G and where that reviewer was.

I live in the burbs outside of Philly, and according to the 4G map I have great coverage....just wondering if I will be getting a good signal within my house....added note I get great 3G in my house, never less than 4 bars.
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PreCentral? Yep, I'm there too. :D

Look at my prior posts - my initial numbers were drawn from within my downtown office. As for home, my WiMAX coverage there is spotty but I already knew that. I didn't have WiMAX coverage in my suburb until maybe 3 months ago, so wasn't expecting solid coverage there. When I was at home last night, I switched to wifi anyway.
 
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