When Sprint announced the HTC EVO 4G back in March, it was apparent that they were coming full guns a blazing to shake up the smartphone market. What better partner than HTC to bring this device to the masses? Everybody and their cousin knows about the EVO. Sprint did well to beat the next iPhone to a launch. Since the iPhone announcement, people have actually mentioned both it and the EVO in the same breath. And that’s a major win, if we knew one, for Sprint. What really makes it compelling is that it’s the first 4G device in the United States and the first dual 3G / 4G device ever.
Hardware and Industrial Design
Like most HTC unboxing experiences, the EVO 4G is something else. The packaging is incredibly small and made from recycled materials. Smaller than most packages and not as diminutive as the HTC Incredible’s, it resembes a microwavable dinner. We opened it up and sadly found no spoon to ingest the deliciousness that is the EVO 4G.
When it comes to HTC, you can always expect high quality hardware and the HTC EVO 4G is no let down. It’s bold from every angle and it looks like a lot of thought went into the design to make it as close to perfect as humanly possible. It’s a little heavy, but pocketable nonetheless, though probably getting dangerously close to the limits of pocketability. For a phone of that size, it’s incredibly thin. It’s about as thick as the iPhones (save for the iPhone 4) so there’s no problem there. The back is tapered at the edges, making it seem even thinner.
Along the front of the device, it’s a flush and continuous piece of glass, which we find to be très chic. By the ear piece, you’ll find a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, and a front-facing camera — all of which you can only see in the right light at the right angle. The capacitive buttons under the screen work as any capacitive buttons should. Checking out the top of the EVO will yield the power button and the headphone jack. The power button is in an awkward place, slightly tilted forward and difficult to find without looking. Nothing major, and it’s by no means a deal-breaker. On the right side of the phone, you’ll find the volume rocker which also suffers a little from the awkward inward tilting angle. Turn to the bottom, you’ll find the micro USB slot for charging, mini HDMI-out for HD video viewing, and the microphone. And call quality was superb on the EVO. Voice calls were rich and extremely clear. No doubt a sign of Sprint’s improving network, we’re also going to attribute that in part to the earpiece.
On the back is the 8 MP camera with a dual-LED flash, speaker and the popular kick stand. Everyone who has held our EVO immediately had fun playing with the mechanism, which we believe to be magnetic. The chrome HTC logo on the back only reminds you of the high-end nature of the device. Like the Nexus One, the camera is protruding and isn’t flush with the rear surface, making us cognizant of placing it screen-up on a rough surface. We found ourselves using anything available to protect the lens, from napkins to sheets of paper. It’ll be interesting to see how the lens and picture quality hold up after a few months of use. Our Nexus One is still holding up.
HTC have taken the time to flesh out the hardware and show care even in places that most of us rarely see. The masterful design continues under the battery cover, which is uncommon to say the least. Taking off the battery cover will have you seeing red — not in the figurative sense, but literally. Down to the battery. Not many companies will do that.
Speaking of the battery, with a relatively high-capacity 1500 mAh battery in tow, battery life isn’t a strong point. It isn’t bad either. We managed on an average of 8-9 hours of regular use. Some are reporting abysmal battery life and we should comment a little bit on that. Battery life is partially dependent of network coverage and type, more prominent on this type of device. If you’re blanketed in 4G WiMAX and you leave 4G on, battery life will be average. That holds true when you’re not in a 4G market (or even if you are) and just leave 4G off outright. Though that would get you better life out of the phone. The main battery life vampire is when you’re in a spotty 4G and leave the 4G mode activated on your device. Being in spotty coverage will force your phone to constantly cycle between 3G, 4G, and even the sub-3G network and that drains the battery quicker than a greased up piglet running from an eager 5 year old.
We ran our battery life tests in Washington D.C., Baltimore (both 4G markets) and in between where 4G coverage was less than optimal. With 4G left activated, battery life was nothing to write home about. At the end of a full work day, you’ll be close to your last stretch if it isn’t dead already. You might want to carry a charger along with you or an extra batter. With the 4G mode off, battery life was long enough to power through a full work day and have some extra juice if you forget to charge up overnight.
Screen
For a phone, it’s got one of the, if not the, largest displays available at 4.3-inches. The resolution is a nice 800×480 pixels, though a double-edged sword. Even though the resolution is high, it suffers ever so slightly from a low pixel density. There are phones with screens as small as 3-inches with the same resolution. We wish it had a higher pixel count for sharper text and images. Some of us are picky. Don’t judge.
If you remember on our Nexus One review, we complained about outdoor readability in direct sunlight due to the AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic LED) display. Unlike the Nexus One, it utilizes a TFT LCD display that is actually legible outdoors. Thumbs up from us.
Camera
With that massive screen, HTC managed to squeeze an 8 megapixel camera in there. Any camera nerd will tell you, megapixels do little for picture quality if the camera is already bad. With the EVO, picture quality is as good as it gets on a phone — with 720p HD recording (huzza!). We didn’t have any gripes about the camera when we tested it. It was an overcast day but colors were pretty saturated and lines were sharp. As we always say, the best camera is the one you have with you, and this one is no let down — especially when shutter lag is minimal.
The HD video recording is really nothing more than a check mark on the spec sheet. It isn’t something you’d really want to watch on your television, but it’s perfect for those YouTube videos.
Software
Not only does HTC do the hardware, they also dabble into the world of software. The EVO runs Android 2.1, but HTC adds the polish that it desperately needs by overlaying it with their HTC Sense UI. Having Sense UI makes sense, pardon the pun. The custom UI bumps the number of home screens to seven, custom HTC-built widgets, a custom keyboard, their own Twitter client called Peep, and a plethora of visual enhancements.
Sense UI integrates your social networks (Facebook, Flickr and Twitter) to you contacts about as well as you want it. It will find matches and automatically link your phone contacts to their Facebook and Twitter accounts if the info lines up. If contacts don’t match up all the way, it’ll suggest possible links. Let’s say you’re friends with Joe Randomguy. In his contact page, you’ll not only see all the info available about them (name, number, email, screen names, etc.), you’ll also see all the exchanged text messages, emails, social status updates and photos.
Keyboard
Many people are sometimes reluctant of making the jump to a touchscreen-only device for fear of the keyboard. We assure you, you will not miss that physical keyboard. With all that real estate, mistakes are far and few in between. And if you’re a fast typer, there is little chance that the keyboard will lag and get behind with all that internal horsepower. Like any keyboard, physical or virtual, there is a learning curve.
Hotspot
We couldn’t be more delighted with the hotspot feature. It allows to connect up to eight devices to share the EVO’s network connection. Setup is about as simple as it gets. If you’d like you can dabble in the type of network security settings (you’d want to use WPA2, most secure), change the network name and supply your own password. We’re not sure how long you’d want to use that “1234567890” password, most people can guess that in their sleep.
We had everything imaginable connected to it at once, from an iPad, to two laptops, to another phone, to a Nintendo DS and nary a hiccup. You can connect up to eight devices — and we tried — but most people aren’t ever going to do that, without charging others for service. At least that’s what we’d do.
Video calling
Yes, you can video call on the EVO. While quality wasn’t bad, we weren’t particularly impressed with the integration into the system (read: no integration). The program used to run video chat is called Qik. You can video chat on Qik, after signing up. We didn’t find it particularly useful and mainly left it alone. It won’t be free for long, so enjoy it while you can.
4G
While all of the aforementioned features are good and all, arguably the most important of them is the ability of the EVO to connect to Sprint’s rather nascent 4G network. Being the first 3G / 4G device, it’s a monumental step forward in the world of smartphones.
So, this whole 4G deal, how important is it? Well, depending on where you actually live, the importance will vary. As of this writing, 4G is available in about 40 markets across the country, with plenty more being added as we speak. To be clear, the HTC EVO 4G only uses the 4G network for data consumption (can you say simultaneous web browsing and talking on the phone?) and the 3G network for voice as well as data when 4G is unavailable. When you do get 4G, it is something else, magical even. Speeds were super fast and even outside the city, we could still cling on to the 4G network. Luckily for users, the EVO’s use is independent on whether you can get 4G. It works just fine on Sprint’s 3G network.
Average download speeds on Sprint’s 4G network were 1.64 Mbps on our Baltimore / Washington D.C. tests. With T-Mobile, on a Nexus One, we actually averaged 1.8 Mbps, which can be attributed to T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network rollout. On a Verizon HTC Incredible, we managed 1.29 Mbps down. Sprint’s 4G network was more consistent at those speeds, but we saw the fastest speeds on T-Mobile. These results all come with a caveat, of course. Depending on your area, your mileage may vary.
Pricing
Ok, say you wanted to buy one. Out of the gate, the phone is $199 on a 2-year contract. Depending on where you get it, you may have a mail-in-rebate to send in. Best Buy and Radio Shack are a few places with no MIR.
Monthly fees for your plan will start at $69.99 for unlimited data, unlimited text and 450 minutes, all the way up to $99.99 for unlimited everything. There is also a mandatory $10 Advanced data surcharge on the device, supposedly for 4G access. Even if you don’t get 4G in your area, you’d still have to shell that out. With that mandatory fee, Sprint will take the liberty and enable YouTube HQ on your device. If you’d like the ability to use the hotspot feature, that’ll be an extra $29.99 out of your pocket.
Conclusion
For what is arguably one of the best Android phones — and smartphone — on the market, the HTC EVO 4G is almost a no-brainer. If you’re on Sprint and you’re looking for a new phone, is there another choice? We’d recommend the EVO to most people looking for a phone. Though check to see if your area is expecting 4G anytime soon, which unfortunately isn’t fast enough to be a definitive alternative to 3G, or enough to switch from other improving carriers (hello, T-Mobile). Sprint and HTC marry a maturing operating system, in the form of Android, to seriously contend in the smartphone market. A great device no matter which way you look at it.
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