HTC EVO Shift 4G Review

Introduction:

After given the prestigious title of being the “first” of many things, the HTC EVO 4G has clearly raised the bar on Sprint's lineup with its vast arsenal of features and top notch performance. Attempting to discretely differentiate itself from that, the HTC EVO Shift 4G trudges along in bearing its former's name, but it manages to shift the attention onto its physical landscape style keyboard. Although there are no certain standout “firsts” here with the EVO Shift 4G, it's yet another WiMAX enabled device for the carrier – but does it have what it takes to stand amongst the other two 4G titans, нamely the HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Epic 4G?

The package contains:

• HTC EVO Shift 4G
• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• 2GB microSD card
• Get Started Guide
• Basics Guide
• Terms & Conditions of Services

Design:

On the surface, there are plenty of design cues taken from the HTC EVO 4G – like its distinctive circular capacitive buttons. From head to toe, the similarities are all there as the EVO Shift 4G exudes an impeccable industrial design and quality construction that you'd expect from HTC's camp. Combining a metallic blue front plate and matching blue soft touch back cover, we actually prefer its choice of materials over the EVO 4G since it is less prone to scratching and smudging. Overall, it's definitely much easier to grasp since it packs a smaller display, while slipping away covertly when placed in the pockets. However, it's slightly thicker at 0.62”, but this doesn't take away much from its compact nature. Sure it doesn't come off as being original, but we're still nonetheless happy by the HTC EVO Shift 4G's design.



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

In keeping the smartphone relatively normal sized, we find it flaunting a smaller 3.6” TFT display which agrees well with its WVGA (480 x 800) resolution and support for 65k colors. Needless to say you'll find it offering higher pixel density, which makes for some crisp and detailed visuals all around, but its display becomes washed out looking when viewed at extreme angles. Conversely, some may be put off by its relatively low 65k color output, but in reality, it's actually not bad since it radiates some deep and strong color tones. And when its maximum brightness output is rather weak, it manages to be barely visible in direct sunlight. Luckily, we didn't have any issues in terms of responsiveness since it accurately registered every touch of ours.


As we mentioned previously, we find the HTC EVO Shift 4G using 4 capacitive buttons – which are the home, menu, back, and search keys. Thankfully, there is some room between them and the bottom edge of the device to minimize any accidental presses.

On the left edge of the handset, we find its microUSB port and a thin looking volume rocker which surprisingly offers one solid tactile response when pressed. However, we're not too thrilled with its dedicated power button on the top side of the phone seeing that it's recessed, placed at an angle, and very difficult to make out with the finger. In addition, we find a 3.5mm headset jack placed next to it as well.


Instead of finding a spring loaded mechanism in place for exposing its keyboard, we're subjected to a manual process that ultimately locks the handset in place. For the most part, we're satisfied with the keyboard's usability since buttons are normal sized, evenly spaced from one another, and offer a subtle response when pressed. In fact, we didn't have any problems speed typing away, and we do find the inclusion of a directional pad to come in handy when trying to place the cursor in a correct position.


Flipping it over to its back, its 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash prominently stands out – with a chrome border around the camera. Furthermore, there is a notch that hides a mesh grill for the handset's main speaker. Finally, removing the back cover requires some excessive force, but once it's off, you'll have access to its battery and microSD card slot – the latter of which is inconveniently located beneath the battery.

Interface:

Most people will literally judge a handset purely on raw hard numbers, but despite being powered by an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7630 processor, which is obviously clocked in lower than the 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on the HTC EVO 4G, it nevertheless matches the performance in every aspect. From opening applications to scrolling between its homescreens, everything moves at a smooth and buttery rate to make you not question its processing prowess. And taking into consideration that it's running Android 2.2 Froyo, it translates to a rich navigating performance that barely stops in its tracks to think for a second on what to do next.

When so many Android smartphones attempt to mask the platform with their unique customizations, HTC's Sense UI is one of our favorites due to its resounding added value and functionality. With the HTC EVO Shift 4G, it doesn't necessarily offer anything new that we haven't seen prior, but there is still plenty of personalization to be had with it. Specifically, there are a ton of useful widgets, both your standard ones and others from HTC, that tastefully captures that visual appeal from afar. Moreover, we find HTC's “Scenes” which are essentially pre-made themes for your homescreen that you can switch on the fly to match your current style. Finally, you can view all 7 homescreens at once by executing a pinch gesture to place it in helicopter view. Useful? Of course!


The Sense UI perfectly adheres to the needs of social networking happy individuals with its Friend Stream app, and its accompanying widget, that aggregates content from Facebook and Twitter. In addition to reading the latest messages from friends, you can even post your own tweet or Facebook status message simultaneously without the need of running two separate dedicated apps. Moreover, it even allows you to shoot a photo and upload it directly to your social networking accounts.

And if you love taking photos and wish to record pertinent information regarding them, you'll take fancy in the location based HTC Footprints app. Basically, it will tie in GPS coordinates to photos you've taken and categorize them based on your preference – such as shopping, dining, leisure, and others. For the constant travelers out there, it proves its value in keeping you connected with your cherished memories of places you've visited.



Organizer & Messaging:

Since there is a tight social networking integration found with the Sense UI, you'll find it in almost every nook and cranny on the handset – which is most evident in your contacts list. On top of the usual assortments of information associated with each person, such as phone numbers and email addresses, it finely aggregates data from their social networking accounts. Meaning, you can essentially jump from sending them a text message to liking a recent Facebook message of theirs. Finally, since this is tied in with Google's Gmail service, you won't ever have to worry about losing your contacts since its syncs everything together – and vice versa!


In terms of other PIM services, the calendar app boasts all the expected array of functionality you find on other Android smartphones – like the ability to sync calendars from other sources like Facebook, Microsoft Exchange, or your PC. With the Desk Clock app, it emulates the look and feel of any alarm clock near your bedside. However, it adds more functionality by displaying the weather condition and temperature all on the same place. And finally, the News and Weather app will go into detail about the weekly weather forecast and it offers you a wide range of new topics to read by category,


Without question, the best messaging experience can be found by using the physical keyboard. But if you would rather use the handset's on-screen ones, you'll find it surprisingly usable as well. Aside from the cramped confines of its smaller display, the layout of the Sense keyboard is one of the better ones out there since a variety of numbers and punctuations can be inputted by simply performing a long press on the associated key. Although the portrait option is more than responsive to the touch, switching to its landscape on-screen keyboard reduces the amount of accidental presses since buttons are relatively larger in size.


Meanwhile, the Gmail app on the HTC EVO Shift 4G doesn't differ from the one found on other smartphones. The uniform experience is all there as it manages to capture almost every identical element found on the desktop version – like the ability to search emails, threaded conversations, and star specific emails. When it comes to setting up alternate email accounts, there is rarely a problem because it normally sets up automatically by simply providing your email address and password. Even though it works almost all the time, there will be times when specific pieces of data, like server addresses and ports, are required to be manually inputted in order to properly set up on the handset.

Obviously, we find Google Talk on board which is your primary instant messaging client on the handset. Although it lacks other services, you can always download specific apps from the Android Market to get your preferred instant messaging client.


Being a Sprint bound smartphone, the HTC EVO Shift 4G includes the usual set of Sprint apps – these include things like Sprint TV, Sprint Zone, Sprint Hotspot, Sprint Football Live, and NASCAR. Besides those apps, we find third party ones like Amazon MP3, Kindle, Quickoffice, and Telenav GPS Navigation.

Camera:

Regretfully, there's isn't anything pretty to see with the photoscaptured by the handset's 5-megapixel auto-focus camera. Although we'rehappy with the amount of options and manual controls its has to offer,it fails to ultimately take decent looking shots. Outdoors, images lookextremely under-exposed and details are almost non-existent. However,it doesn't get any better indoors since it appears to offer slowshutter speeds which has a tendency to blur some of our shots if youdon't hold the handset still for a period of time. Additionally, thereis some evidence of noise with shots taken in low lighting. So in theend, you'll probably want to pass up on the HTC EVO Shift 4G if takingphotos is a high priority on your list.





Horrifically, the performance of the handset's 720p video recordingdoesn't particularly improve much since it lacks any fine details –which can be attributed to its fixed focus system as opposed tooffering continuous auto-focus. Adding to its poor performance is noneother than some noticeable artifacting going on that only lessens itsgeneral appeal to even novice users. Yet, we find another lacklusterperformance in it audio recording since voices sound distorted andmuffled. However, the one bright spot we found is the fact that itshoots video at the rate of 29 frames per second – thus making it looksmooth upon playback.

HTC EVO Shift 4G Sample Video:



Multimedia:

For content such as photos and videos, they're broken down by foldersin the Gallery app, plus you also have the ability to browse contentfrom your Facebook and Flickr accounts. All the common features arethere for photos, like pinch gestures to zoom in/out, but there aremultiple options in terms of sharing them. Moreover, the handset offersthe minimal set of editing tools at your disposal – such as croppingand rotating.



Clearly one of the better music players found on any Androidsmartphone, the presentation is very polished with its cover-flow likeelements when browsing between songs. Once you happen to find a trackyou like, it'll display the normal set of items as it's playing – likethe song title, artist, and on-screen controls. Sadly, it lacks anyequalizer settings or alternate visualizations, but thankfully, itsspeaker emits some neutral tones that are perfectly balanced; neitherboisterous, nor tepid.



With its high resolution and snappy processor in tow, there is noarguing the effortless approach that the HTC EVO Shift 4G takes whenplaying high definition videos. Upon loading a video encoded in MPEG-41280 x 720 resolution, it didn't have any problems in playing itentirely. In fact, the details are crisp, vivid, and super smooth withno evidence of jerkiness or slowdown to ruin the experience. All told,you'll find the performance to be top notch no matter what! But isn'tthat what you would've expected anyways from a handset like this?



Connectivity and Internet:

Strictly limited to being used in the US, since it's a dual-band (800/1900 MHz) CDMA device with 1xEV-DO Rev. A speeds, you can always opt to use its 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi in the event that it lacks any data connectivity to the network. Blatantly, one of the main attractions about the HTC EVO Shift 4G is that it joins the ranks of other 4G WiMAX enabled devices on Sprint's lineup. And being the always connected device it is, the handset packs an aGPS chip to provide you exact coordinates of your location. Lastly, the handset packs Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR to get other wireless devices, such as Bluetooth headsets, to pair with it.

Fast processor? Check. Android 2.2 Froyo on-board? Of course. Combining those two items already makes for a fantastic web browsing experience with the stock browser since it undoubtedly provides that desktop like feel. Not only do pages load to their full potential, with Flash content and all, but the handset's 4G data connection enables you to swiftly load complex web sites in no time at all. Furthermore, it offers pinch gestures to zoom in/out, double tap to automatically re-size text, fluid kinetic scrolling, and the ability to open pages in separate windows. In reality, the web browsing experience is by far one of the most profound things we adore about the handset.


Scratching our heads in disbelief, the HTC EVO Shift 4G only comes preloaded with a 2GB microSD card. Naturally, that's a bit of an eye sore when you consider that other respectable handsets offer at least a reasonable 4GB card. In case you're heavily into multimedia content, you may want to consider removing that 2GB card and replacing it with something up to 32GB in capacity.

Performance:

Don't be fooled by the spacious looking earpiece on the handset since it only emits an acceptable volume – which isn't deafening by any means. On our side of the line, there isn't any evidence of noise or static, but voices do sound just a tiny bit muffled – but nothing detrimental. Conversely, our callers didn't have any issues in attempting to comprehend our natural and distinctive toned voices. And for using the speakerphone for conversations, we're pleased by its neutral and audible tones that aren't muddied by any distortion. 

Shockingly, we did experience on numerous occasions the handset fluctuating in signal strength rapidly. In fact, we had another Sprint phone on us during our testing, and we noticed it performing better in signal strength over the HTC EVO Shift 4G. However, we aren't too alarmed by it seeing that we didn't dropped any calls during our testing in high coverage areas.

As opposed to being shocked, we were actually expecting the handset to offer slightly better battery life over the HTC EVO 4G since it packs the battery optimized Qualcomm MSM7630 processor. Normal users will find it uplifting since we managed to get a solid day of usage before requiring a recharge – which is far better than our experience with the HTC EVO 4G. Light users should especially benefit the most, but for heavy users, as always, they'll more than likely want to keep a charger on hand. The manufacturer has it rated for 6 hours of talk time.

Conclusion: 

Looking at its $149.99 on-contract price, there is no arguing that the HTC EVO Shift 4G is a respectable Android smartphone based on its overall performance, but there is this nagging feeling pulsating in the back of our minds about it. Specifically, it plays in direct contention with the HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Epic 4G (both priced at $199.99 now) – which is primarily due to its 4G WiMAX connectivity. However, when you factor in that you're paying an extra premium for its data plan, it begins to look sour for the HTC EVO Shift 4G since it lacks some extras such as a front facing camera for video chat functionality. And when you compare it to its most direct competitor, the Samsung Epic 4G, the $50 price difference is substantial as the Epic 4G just offers more value and features with its pricing. In the end, the HTC EVO Shift 4G is a good handset, but if it were priced more competitively, it could potentially garner some additional attention.

Software version of the reviewed unit: Android 2.2, Build: 1.17.651.1 CL291627

HTC EVO Shift 4G Video Review: