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Pros and Cons of HTC Evo 4G

pingpongboss

pingpongboss

Android Enthusiast
I attended Google I/O and came back with a free HTC Evo 4G courtesy of Google. I've been playing with it all day, so here's some thoughts on it.

Complaints..

The Gallery app is not 3D, and it does not have Picasa integration.
The volume rocker on the side is too stiff and hard to press. The Home and Back "buttons" are switched from the Droid. Makes less sense how they're located on the Evo. I'm still frustrated sometimes after playing with it nonstop for the whole day.
Can't change the number of home screens from 7.
Comes with ALOT of Sprint crApps.
The homescreen of my Droid with LauncherPro is much smoother than the Evo with or without LauncherPro instead of HTC Sense.
The vibrator is much weaker than the Droid's.
The large screen size makes holding the Evo for an extended period of time hurt. Right handed thumbs don't quite reach the left side of the screen comfortably. If you lie down and hold the Evo over your face, you have to grip it more tightly and uncomfortable than the narrower Droid.
Droid looks more "hi-def" because it has higher pixel density.

Good things...

Camera takes pictures so much faster.
Evo's Sprint 3G tests faster than Droid's Verizon 3G. Though it seems to have higher latency.
SO MUCH MORE MEMORY (ram?) than the Droid. The Droid sometimes struggles to keep more than 50mb available at any time, while the Evo sometimes has over 200mb free.
The large screen size is just beautiful. Much brighter than Droid at max brightness. Much much darker than Droid at min brightness.
Love the HTC keyboard. I've been using and loving Swype on the Droid for almost a month, but now I may have to switch to the HTC keyboard for it's accuracy, prediction, and ease of use.

And a quick video of it in action: YouTube - HTC Evo 4G
 
Well some of those cons seem like personal preference/training to the droid, so I'll rule those out. The one handed usage does concern me however.

The button layout is the exact same on my moment outside of the search button, which the moment has on the keyboard instead of the screen, so fine for me.

AFIAK, you can't change the number of home screen on any android without 3rd party apps. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

You can also easily install the 3D gallery, without root.

Launcher pro is built for existing phones, and is still in beta, so that comparison is out.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.
 
IOWA said:
Well some of those cons seem like personal preference/training to the droid, so I'll rule those out. The one handed usage does concern me however.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.
Click to expand...

The phone is very thin, wide, and flat, which makes it a bit harder to hold. However, it is much lighter than the Droid.
 
pingpongboss said:
The phone is very thin, wide, and flat, which makes it a bit harder to hold. However, it is much lighter than the Droid.
Click to expand...

you mentioned pictures....coming from an older blackberry, when i looked through the thumbnails of pictures i took, it was a very slooooooooow process, did you try this with the EVO? I would hope that you can go into an album and have the pictures come up a lot faster and that sending them is a lot faster?
 
Thanks for you review!

As IOWA said, a lot of the cons are just personal preference coming from a Droid. I would expect the Evo to follow a similar form factor structure compared to other HTC devices, not a Motorolla one.
 
frankiepapa said:
you mentioned pictures....coming from an older blackberry, when i looked through the thumbnails of pictures i took, it was a very slooooooooow process, did you try this with the EVO? I would hope that you can go into an album and have the pictures come up a lot faster and that sending them is a lot faster?
Click to expand...

All Android phones should be powerful enough to display albums of photos with no sweat. The Evo does not pause to load noticeably at all.

Jumping into the Gallery, selecting a photo, and using the Share function takes around 5 seconds.
 
pingpongboss said:
All Android phones should be powerful enough to display albums of photos with no sweat. The Evo does not pause to load noticeably at all.

Jumping into the Gallery, selecting a photo, and using the Share function takes around 5 seconds.
Click to expand...

thats great to hear....thats the main reason from leaving blackberry, speed...although i guess that falls under the category of personal preference.
 
Complaints..

The volume rocker on the side is too stiff and hard to press.

I actually had the same problem on my first Hero, my second one the Volume Rocker worked perfectly, I wonder if you have a slightly defective one.
 
acp said:
Complaints..

The volume rocker on the side is too stiff and hard to press.

I actually had the same problem on my first Hero, my second one the Volume Rocker worked perfectly, I wonder if you have a slightly defective one.
Click to expand...

no I doubt that.

It actually works really well when you press the right spot, which is the outer edges. The rocker is long and thin, however, so I often press the center or near the center, which does not register at all
 
IOWA said:
Well some of those cons seem like personal preference/training to the droid, so I'll rule those out. The one handed usage does concern me however.

The button layout is the exact same on my moment outside of the search button, which the moment has on the keyboard instead of the screen, so fine for me.

AFIAK, you can't change the number of home screen on any android without 3rd party apps. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

You can also easily install the 3D gallery, without root.

Launcher pro is built for existing phones, and is still in beta, so that comparison is out.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.
Click to expand...

i agree. the cons do seem more like personal preference. the volume rocker prob needs to be broken in/used more. one of the reasons a lot of us want this phone is for the large screen. so we knew it might be awkward to hold/use because of ithis.
 
that doesn't sound "too stiff and hard to press" then, it sounds like you just need to get used to it. most of your review is based on issues that I would consider preference or handling a new device that you haven't used before.

^this is not meant to be hard on you, sorry if it comes off that way, I sincerely appreciate your review.
 
a few people have said swipe may come pre loaded on the evo. I haven't seen where anyone has confirmed or denied this. So, is it there?
 
No worries guys, my issues with the phone are my issues and you don't have to agree with them.

And if someone can show me how to install the 3D Gallery app like IOWA says then I'd be really grateful to finally get my Picasa integration back.
 
EVO with that big screen is going to be sweet, but I see a big market for extended batteries, since the big LCD screen and snapdragon will need some extra power luv.

Did they update the touch sensors on the EVO. That was an issue with the HD2 and not WM related- hardware was the issue.
 
rushmore said:
EVO with that big screen is going to be sweet, but I see a big market for extended batteries, since the big LCD screen and snapdragon will need some extra power luv.

Did they update the touch sensors on the EVO. That was an issue with the HD2 and not WM related- hardware was the issue.
Click to expand...

Could you expand on what the "issue" was with the touch sensors?

I downloaded the "Multitouch Visible Test" from the Market and it had no axis-crossing issues that I think the Nexus One had.
 
IOWA said:
Well some of those cons seem like personal preference/training to the droid, so I'll rule those out. The one handed usage does concern me however.

The button layout is the exact same on my moment outside of the search button, which the moment has on the keyboard instead of the screen, so fine for me.

AFIAK, you can't change the number of home screen on any android without 3rd party apps. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

You can also easily install the 3D gallery, without root.

Launcher pro is built for existing phones, and is still in beta, so that comparison is out.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.
Click to expand...

Still trying to figure out how to install the 3D gallery.
 
rushmore said:
EVO with that big screen is going to be sweet, but I see a big market for extended batteries, since the big LCD screen and snapdragon will need some extra power luv.

Did they update the touch sensors on the EVO. That was an issue with the HD2 and not WM related- hardware was the issue.
Click to expand...

yes, the touch sensors were upgraded and are the same on both the Evo and Incredible. will be more responsive/accurate than the N1 and Moto Droid.
 
Thanks for the review. Any chance you could throw some iphone headphones in it and see if you can pause/play/skip using the mic button?
 
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