Got the new HTC Evo (and I love it)

[gamblor01]

Hi all,

Just thought I would share some thoughts on my experience with the HTC Evo. I have had it for 4 days now and overall I am extremely pleased with my Evo. While certain features of the Android OS aren't quite as polished as similar features in the iPhone, it is still a fantastic experience (and edges out the iPhone in some ways too). I would personally take this over an iPhone any day, but then again I love me some tux. Let's not forget that Apple is being a big fat bully lately (when it comes to developing apps, content that goes into apps, refusing to support flash, and breaking down the doors of journalists), developing devices that you can't change out your own battery on, etc.

So yeah...I guess I'm biased since the phone runs a Linux kernel but I would like to think that even if I had no bias that I would still pick the Evo.


The only real complaints I have with the phone are:

1. The battery life could be better, especially when 4G is turned on (though it's not NEARLY as bad as everyone says. Keep reading for some tips).

2. Sprint charges you an additional $10/month that is clearly for 4G service, even though they claim that it's not a charge for 4G. Instead they claim it is for "premium data" yet nobody at Sprint will state clearly what premium data actually means. There is even a web site dedicated to this fiasco (www.explainthefee.com).

Honestly, I have just accepted the fact that there is an additional $10/month fee and it's my decision to pay it. If you don't like it -- don't get the phone! Even with the fee I think that my plan is still fairly cheap. I get 450 minutes/month (but only use those minutes if I call a landline), unlimited data/text/picture mail/gps for $79.99/month. That's $69.99/month for the plan + the $10 fee for premium data. I'm lucky enough to get a 25% discount on my plan through my employer, so total monthly cost after taxes and fees is going to be around $68. I say about since I haven't received my first bill yet, but my previous bills with the $69.99/month plan all came out to $61 and change every month. So if you add $7.50 (that's $10 - $2.50 for my discount) you get about $68 to $69/month.

3. The Facebook for Android app sometimes sends you out to Facebook mobile (i.e. it launches the browser and forces you to interact with things there). This happens for example, when I click on a picture that someone posted, which shows up in my news feed. However, when I tap on someone's profile and then view their photo albums -- I stay entirely within the FB for Android app. This is just a minor annoyance but it's not consistent behavior, and it often means I have to tap the home button, and then tap the Facebook app again.

4. The Microsoft sync stuff in my car for some odd reason will play albums over USB in alphabetical order of the tracks instead of based on track numbers. At least it plays over USB though (my wife's iphone doesn't). I'm picky though -- I like to hear albums in their original order so I'll see if there is a setting for this or something.

EDIT: I think that some updated info in my ID3 tags has actually resolved this problem. I installed Picard (MusicBrainz) to try and get the covert art working and I think the updates it made to the ID3 tags fixed this issue. Either that or the first time I tried it there was some sort of glitch and it was a total fluke. I have been using it as my USB device several times since first trying it, and it has worked perfectly every time. EXTREMELY HAPPY ABOUT THIS!!!

5. I am having a hard time getting album art loaded for all of my mp3s -- and have yet to find definitive information for setting album art when connecting the phone to a Linux box. Seems there is plenty of options for Windows users but...that's not me.



But here are some of the great things about it (and other thoughts):


The cameras
I haven't used the front camera (not really sure I care to video chat with someone on the phone) but the rear camera is the best quality I have seen on a mobile phone. I'm certainly not going to sell my Nikon dSLR but this is a very reasonable camera for point and shoot photography.

I did notice some noise when taking pictures in dimmer environments, but that happens on every camera! The super expensive ones just do a great job of hiding it (particularly at higher ISOs like 1600 or 3200). It has an LED flash built in as well. I tried it once and it washed out the person's face but it looks like you can adjust the brightness settings.



Notifications
I really like the way that Android does notifications. It took me a little bit to figure out how to manage the volume of notifications (so I could turn it down!) but overall I think it's really slick. It will even integrate with your google calendar and display alarms to remind you of events (or obviously, notify you of new emails if you set up the event with an email reminder).


Battery life
Battery life isn't as bad as every one says. I have made a few tweaks to my phone to improve battery life, and it's definitely acceptable now. Do I still think that you will need to charge it every night? Yes. But who cares??? You're asleep anyway. So place your charger next to your night stand and get over it.

I have seen some people claim they fully charged their phone and then took it off the charger and it died with 6 hours being completely idle. I can only assume those folks have received a defective battery and they should be contacting Sprint and/or HTC to get a new one. The other people simply turn on every app and gizmo the phone can do at once and then complain that the battery is dead. These are presumably the same people that purchase a Hummer and then complain about gas mileage.

My phone has been unplugged for 16h 56m and 9s and still has 65% battery life yet (I'll show you how to find this momentarily). This is under moderate use on 3g network only (a few phone calls, about 20 minutes of streaming bluetooth audio to my car, a youtube video, and some use of the camera and video camera). Also I have had the bluetooth antenna ENABLED the ENTIRE DAY since removing it from the charger. I still have haptic feedback turned on (I like it) and even have several accounts syncing with the default settings. I also have the screen brightness set to the default (auto).

Here is how to get battery related info from the phone:

1. To view your exact time since you disconnected from the charger and uptime info, go to Menu -> Settings -> About phone -> Battery -> Battery Use

2. To view your exact charge level go to your home screen, tap phone, and dial *#*#4636#*#* (then tap Battery Information)




Here are some tips that I used to help increase battery life:

1. Disable google talk from starting automatically. Do this by going to Menu -> All apps -> Talk -> Menu -> More -> Settings. Uncheck the Automatically sign-in option. If you wish to sign out now don't forget to go back and then tap Menu -> More and then sign out.

2. Set the screen timeout to 30 seconds instead of 1 minute

3. Make sure your phone doesn't search for GSM signals (which it can't use anyway since it's on a CDMA network!). From your home screen hit phone and dial *#*#4636#*#* and enter Phone Settings. Scroll down and set "GSM auto prl" to "CDMA auto prl". Note that yours may already be set this way, in which case there is nothing to do.

4. Disable 4G, wifi, and GPS until you need them (there are shortcut apps on the screen left of home to easily enable/disable them). I keep bluetooth on but if you don't need it then disable that as well.

5. Turn off the automatic syncing for accounts you don't want. Menu -> Settings -> Accounts & sync. For example, I turned off the News and Stocks syncing.


The beautiful screen
The screen for this thing is just amazing looking. YouTube videos that play in the new HQ format are just outstanding. It definitely seems like DVD quality if not slightly better. I wouldn't say it's as good looking as my Blu-ray player though.

It's a great size too at 4.3 inches, and the phone feels great in my hand. I have heard some complaints that the phone is too big for some people's hands. I don't feel that way at all, but then again I'm about 6'1" so I don't have tiny hands.


HTC Sense UI
This is great...you can use pinch and zoom to view maps, photos, etc. just like you can on the iPhone. It also opens up 7 home screens (as opposed to the default 3 like my mom has on her Samsung Moment).


The apps! Oh my goodness the apps!
The Android market keeps getting better and better. It certainly doesn't have as many apps as the iPhone but it has plenty of ones that I care about. The NES and SNES emulators are really neat too! But seriously though, most of the apps I have seen for the iPhone are essentially pointless -- often gag apps. I don't need those...

Some cool apps I have:

1. Google sky map -- Though my son is still a little too young to appreciate this, I think it will be a great way to find and view constellations and so forth in the near future.

2. Barcode scanner -- Similar to the iPhone app. It lets you instantly check the price of an item just by scanning the barcode.

3. NPR news -- Have to stay informed you know?

4. Movies -- A simple interface for looking up showtimes. It also includes ratings from rottentomatoes.com with each movie.

5. Pandora -- If you use pandora.com you'll definitely like this.

6. Nesoid/Snesoid -- Now I can play Contra anywhere I go!

7. Shazam -- Just like the iPhone app you simply hold it up to a music source and it will identify the artist/band, song title, etc.


Advanced Task Killer...to install or not?
My experience with this was not very pleasant. I installed it thinking that it would be a good idea but I am getting considerably better battery life after UNINSTALLING this app. It doesn't make any sense at all, I know. I'm just telling you what I experienced.

I also opened the app once and it showed 108MB of free memory. So I selected 3 apps that I didn't need running at the time (like Sprint TV, Internet, and something else) and tapped the button to kill them. Somehow after killing those 3 apps my free memory went DOWN to 106MB. I can't explain how that is even possible. It was at this point I decided to uninstall ATK and I haven't looked back since. I think it winds up using more battery life than the apps that is it supposed to be managing.


4G speed
There is 4G service in Austin, Texas so I have been able to test this out. I was initially turned off when I entered three different Sprint stores across town and ran bandwidth tests on the phones. In fact, this almost killed my decision to get the phone (though shortly before the Evo's launch date my old phone started constantly shutting off as well as assuming that the battery wasn't plugged in when it clearly was -- so I had to get a new phone anyway).

In the stores I never hit anything over 1.8 Mbps. Oddly enough, when I stepped out of the store on campus (well, on Guadalupe anyway) and ran my first speed test outdoors, I hit 3018 Kbps! Finally a number that was within the 3-6 Mbps average that Sprint claims. Since then most of my speed tests have averaged around 2.8 Mbps but this is still considerably faster than 3G and it definitely shows -- especially when loading YouTube videos.

I tested my first full day with the phone having 4G disabled and my second full day with 4G enabled. Both days I unplugged the phone (with a full charge) at 7am. On the first day under fairly heavy use I got the battery down to the red by 11:30pm. On the second day it made it until like 6pm. 4G is a noticeable drain on the battery but it's not like I need it at work or anything...I sit in front of a computer the entire day so if I want to look something up then I'll do it on my computer instead of some tiny phone.


Microsoft Sync (in Ford vehicles)
I have to admit this is one thing that Microsoft did well. I love being able to connect my phone via bluetooth and do hands free dialing/talking. I also love the ability to control what plays on my ipod just by talking to the car. It was always a bit of a pain having to carry both my phone and ipod though. I no longer keep my ipod in my car after my last one got stolen when someone broke into my car. It wasn't that big of a deal -- I just kept my ipod in my backpack and took it out on the way to/from work, but when I went elsewhere I would sometimes forget to take it -- meaning I had to listen to the radio play the same 5 songs over and over (yuk!) or stream media via bluetooth (which doesn't allow for voice commands).

The Evo seems to be recognized by Sync when plugged in via USB, and Sync indexed the music collection on my SD card. This does NOT happen for my wife's iPhone!

So now I just keep a micro B USB cable in my car. I can plug in the phone and not only can I control my music with voice commands, but I can continue to make/receive calls, and it even charges up the battery while I drive. Awesome!