HTC EVO 4G Review

Introduction:

This is how it was supposed to go.  Back in November of 2007 Google announced their Android operating system and the game was supposed to change.  A year later T-Mobile and HTC released the platform’s first handset, the G1.   We had high hopes, to say the least, but the impact was not immediate.  The revolution grew slowly, but now it is coming to a head.  HTC brought their Sense UI to Android with the Hero, but the first major blow across Apple’s bow was the Motorola DROID, followed by the Nexus One and most recently the HTC DROID Incredible.  All this was a prelude to what’s next: say hello to the HTC EVO 4G.

The EVO 4G has specs that are unmatched by any phone before it: 4G connectivity, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, HDMI out, HD video capture, dual cameras including an 8 megapixel main sensor, 4.3” display, mobile hotspot, YouTube HD, kickstand…the list goes on.  All of this is backed by Sprint’s growing 4G network which gives users up to 10x the speed of 3G.  This, finally, is a phone that can go toe-to-toe with the iPhone and beat it.  Handily.  It's fast, it's personal, it's glorious.  Included with the EVO 4G you’ll get an AC adapter and data cable, as well as an 8GB microSD card.

Design:

The HTC EVO 4G is very similar in design to the HD2, but when you have a 4.3” screen there isn’t much else you can do with the phone.  Instead of physical buttons as on the HD2, the HTC EVO 4G has four flush capacitive buttons: Home, Menu, Back and Search.  These buttons work flawlessly, unlike the Nexus One which gave us problems and had to be touched just so.  At the top is the silver earpiece grill, and to the right of that is the small front-facing 1.3MP camera.  The rest of the phone is equally simplistic: a volume rocker resides on the right side, the top houses the 3.5mm headphone jack and power button and the bottom features the microUSB and HDMI ports.  The side buttons all offer good travel, and while the volume rocker raises more prominently from the housing both it and the power button are easy to operate on feel alone.



You can compare the HTC EVO 4G with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The back of the HTC EVO 4G houses its 8 megapixel camera near the top, with the dual LED flash to the camera’s left and the phone’s single speaker to the right.  Near the bottom is the aluminum kickstand.  The spring-assisted hinge is very smooth and solid, and we don’t foresee any issues with it loosening up as time goes by.  The microSD slot is placed under the battery and has a unique latch mechanism that makes it pretty difficult to remove, but with an 8GB card most users won't be taking it out and the ones who do probably will do so only once.  Unlike the HD2, the battery door covers the entire back housing and is coated in soft touch paint.  Underneath is Ferrari-red, but this only slips out around the camera and when the kickstand is deployed.  Earlier prototypes had a red earpiece grill, but unfortunately this has been replaced with silver- likely because the DROID Incredible features a red grill.  In any case the EVO 4G is a good looking device; it blends the sheer masculinity of the DROID with the graceful lines of the iPhone to create a look all its own.



Then there is the 4.3” capacitive display, which absolutely takes over the HTC EVO 4G.  It is bright and crisp and reading text on the EVO 4G is a dream.  While it has received some flack for not being AMOLED we didn’t notice a real difference from the Nexus One, and the EVO’s TFT display was more usable in direct sunlight.  Our complaint is that HTC continues to only use 65K color displays.  With devices like the iPhone, Pre and DROID sporting 16M colors we don’t think that at least 262K is too much to ask for.  You won’t look at the HTC EVO 4G and lament the display, but we’d bet if shoppers put it side-by-side with the Pre the difference would be noticeable to a discerning eye.

At 6 ounces the EVO 4G is undoubtedly on the heavy side, but feels surprisingly good in the hand.  The weight is well distributed and it feels more solid than the Nexus One did when holding it one-handed, though the EVO feels most comfortable when held two-handed.  The size will obviously be a drawback for those with petite hands, but the phone didn’t overwhelm our medium-sized mitts.  It is thinner than Sprint’s Hero and feels surprisingly similar in the pocket.  The build quality is top notch, and with no moving parts the EVO 4G is definitely one of the most well put-together phones we’ve ever reviewed.  There is no brushed aluminum or unibody, but the EVO is without a doubt a premium device.


To sum it up in a word the HTC EVO 4G is stunning.  It will be noticed, and it will be lusted after.  Until now we’ve always given the title of best hardware to the iPhone 3GS, but there is a new undisputed heavyweight champion in town.  And that’s before you even turn it on.

Software:

Right now, Android is the philosophical opposite of the iPhone. It allows developers some deeper access to the system's code, letting them create customized interfaces, widgets and so on. While this sometimes leads to problems with compatibility, delays for software updates and performance issues, it seems users don't mind it because it lets them differentiate more easily and get more specialized features like tight social networking integration for example. However, this is all subject to change, as the platforms are being updated and new features get introduced fairly often.

The HTC EVO 4G runs Android 2.1 with the latest version of HTC’s Sense UI on top (according to HTC it will see a Froyo 2.2 update in the future.)  There are no surprises here, and we’ve seen this software extensively on devices like the Legend, Incredible and Sprint’s recently updated Hero.  What is different is the speed.  Never has a device run so smoothly while doing so much.  Sense UI has always been plagued by just enough lag to be annoying, but not so this time around.  Like the DROID Incredible, the EVO 4G flies through every test we put it through.  This is Sense as HTC drew it up, without hardware limitations.

While the software may be familiar, the 4.3” display makes it a different, almost surreal experience.  We’ve been using Sense for a good time now (2.1 at that) so moving to the EVO was like having a bigger Hero to some extent.  Still, with such a large screen everything is bigger, and in this case bigger is most definitely better.  Games are easier to navigate, the ridiculously large keyboard is a dream to type on and webpages are viewed in all their glory.  Our one gripe is that, despite the extra size, the homescreens still only offer a 4x4 layout; with so much real estate 5x4 would have been plenty doable but this is a minor issue and not exclusive to the HTC EVO 4G.




The Android Market is growing exponentially with more than 50,000 apps currently available.  That number has more than tripled in the past five months, and many analysts predict it to pass the 100,000 mark in the coming months and overtake the App Store sometime next year.  More importantly we’re starting to see an increase in the quality of apps available as the devices become more and more capable.  Despite the rise in quality the majority of applications are still free, and even paid apps have a 24 hour remorse period when the user can simply uninstall an app for a full refund.  Developers are beginning to embrace the market without limits and arbitrary rules.


The HTC EVO 4G doesn’t have the newness that the Pre offered last year, but that may work to Sprint’s advantage.  We loved the Pre and webOS, but it has failed to capture the market share Palm and Sprint envisioned, in part due to hardware and software hiccups.  Android on the other hand is chasing down BlackBerry for the mobile OS crown, is firmly entrenched in the public’s consciousness and sufficiently mature by now.   Users won’t be taking a chance on something new when they purchase the EVO, they’ll simply be buying the best handset running the fastest-growing platform the market has to offer.

If you want to know more about the core functionality of the Sense user interface, check our Sprint HTC Hero Review.

Data and Connectivity:

Of course one of the killer features of the HTC EVO 4G is WiMAX, making it the first 4G handset in America.  Sprint’s 4G footprint currently only covers 30 markets or so, but they have announced a slew of new cities and plan to have 4G deployed to over 120M people by the end of the year. For those not yet blessed with 4G the EVO still has 3G for high speed cellular data and WiFi b/g.  It has Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS, with support for both Sprint Navigation and Google Maps Navigation.


The stock browser is improved over previous versions, with smoother scrolling and zooming.  Page loads were slightly quicker too, most likely thanks to the Snapdragon processor.  It’s still not as good as the other premium browsers out there like Safari and webOS as a piece of software, but the gap has been closed considerably.  On the Acid3 test the browser scored a respectable 93/100.  There are several other great browser options for Android such as Opera Mini and Dolphin HD, with Firefox on the way.  Dolphin HD is especially great on the EVO 4G: pages load quickly, zoom is smooth and Flash (Lite) works very well.

The Mobile Hotspot app turns the HTC EVO 4G into an Overdrive on steroids, creating a WiFi network that allows up to 8 devices to connect simultaneously via either 3G or 4G.  At $29.99 it’s half the price of a traditional aircard and even when on 3G does not have a 5GB limit.  The app is simple enough to use- there’s even a toggle switch widget- and the user can easily rename the network and change security settings.

Multimedia:

While the multimedia options of the HTC EVO 4G remain unchanged from other devices, the 4.3” display make it a veritable multimedia powerhouse.  The new YouTube app automatically goes to HD when in 4G coverage, and side-loaded videos look amazing on the huge screen.  The EVO blurs the line between tablet and phone well.  True, the iPad offers a much bigger screen, but it’s not something that you can slip in your pocket easily.  The EVO is a true portable multimedia device.  Even over 3G, SprintTV looks better than ever, but is not available over WiFi.  The HTC EVO 4G handled all of our MPEG-4 test files just fine, but has no support for DivX or XviD, something we’d love to see corrected in future releases.


The HTC music player remains unchanged, and several options are available from the Market.  The HTC player has been good enough for us, and in fact we’ve given up our iPod touch in favor of the Hero a few months back.  There are several streaming services such as Pandora, Slacker Radio and Rhapsody which further enhance the music experience on the EVO 4G and Android in general.  We used our Plantronics Backbeat 903s to listen to music and were quite pleased with the quality of both streaming and side-loaded music.  The EVO 4G ships with an 8GB microSD card and can support cards up to 32GB.  The addition of an FM radio makes the HTC EVO 4G all the more capable, though the wired headset is required as it serves as an antenna.

Camera and Video:

The HTC EVO 4G has two cameras, a main 8 megapixel shooter capable of recording videos in 720p and a front-facing 1.3MP cam for self-portraits and video chat.  HTC has been good about upping the sensor size, but their picture quality has not always been top-notch.  The EVO 4G is very good, but we’ll hold off on saying great.  All-in-all images were well reproduced; colors were natural, graining was minimal and details were sharp.  When viewed at their full 8MP resolution some distortion came into play, but on our high-def monitor pictures looked really good scaled down, and on the EVO’s display they looked downright fantastic.  Another fantastic aspect is the shooting speed: we were able to cold start the camera and snap a shot in under 3 seconds.  With the review turned off we were able to snap a second shot in under a second.  The auto-focus is lightning quick as is the shutter, which is a great feature to have.  The one issue we have is that the front-facing camera takes reverse pictures, much like Apple’s iSight.  We’re not sure if this is intentional (with Apple it is) or if it will be addressed in a future update.





HD videos were also good, but not great.  We took the EVO 4G out for a spin in our test cemetery and there wasn’t significant blurring, but the color did have issues adjusting at times throughout the video.  All-in-all we were impressed with the EVO 4G’s video capabilities, it is a phone after all.  Starting a recording was just as quick as snapping a photo.  We will say we’d prefer a dedicated camera key however.

HTC EVO 4G sample video at 1280x720 pixels resolution.
HTC EVO 4G sample video 2.
HTC EVO 4G sample video 3.
HTC EVO 4G sample video 4.

In terms of options you’ll find a number of goodies.  You can adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation and sharpness and set the metering mode and flicker adjustment.  The ISO can be set to auto, or manually set to 100, 200, 400, 800 or 1250.  There is a face detection option, but not anti-shake.  Images can be geotaged and timestamped.  All of our photos were snapped with default settings, we’re sure a professional photographer could get slightly better results than we were able to achieve.

We did run into one potential serious problem when attempting to use the camera: there were multiple times that it would give us a memory card error and not allow us to save any pictures.  When trying to send pictures the EVO automatically scales down the size for MMS, but at times we also got a could not resize error and so were unable to send the image.  These issues were fixed via a soft reset which leads us to believe it is all software related, but hopefully these issues will get resolved quickly because obviously it was frustrating, especially since pictures can't always be retaken.

Performance:

Call quality on the HTC EVO 4G was acceptable but not mind blowing.  We didn’t really have any complaints as callers sounded loud and clear, with natural voice reproduction.  On the other end things weren’t quite as good.  While callers said there were no issues understanding us they sound we sounded a bit hollow and nasally and gave us a 7.5-8/10.  They did make a point that the connection was good however, they could consistently hear and understand what we were saying it was just a matter of voice quality.

Similarly to the Hero, the HTC EVO 4G uses a 1500mAh battery. However, instead of being rated at 4 hours of talk time, the battery on the EVO is rated 50% higher at six hours.  We were a bit skeptical, especially with such a large display, but lo and behold we were able to achieve 18 minutes more than the rated time when we put our unit to the test.  Most people are going to be using the EVO 4G for things other than talking though, and under heavy use we definitely had to charge our unit mid-day.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise however and is in-line with other smartphones, as the newness wears off and we’re not fiddling with it every 40 seconds the battery should be plenty ample to last through the day for most users.  Sprint will be selling a case with an integrated battery however, not a bad pickup in our opinion.

Conclusion:

High-end Android devices are coming fast and furious these days, but the HTC EVO 4G still manages to be in a class all by itself.  Save for 4G there aren’t any features of the EVO we haven’t seen on other phones before, it’s just that we’ve never seen them put together like this.  The EVO 4G offers just about anything the avid user could ask for, and it does it with style. In the meantime, it has a blazing fast data network to back it up.  Android is coming into its own and we can now pronounce it a heavyweight mobile platform competitor. The HTC’s Sense UI on the other hand is the definitive Android experience.  The EVO 4G is a premium device in every sense of the word and down to the last detail.  This is the showcase device not only for Android, but for the wireless industry as a whole.

HTC EVO 4G Video Review: