Motorola DROID X vs. HTC EVO 4G

Introduction:

Similar to the atmosphere surrounding some highly prized boxing fight held on a weekend night, these two heavyweights are entering the ring with a two-sided crowd in attendance to see which one ends up on their feet at the conclusion of the event. Standing in with a 4.3” display with the backing of the third wireless carrier in the country and a well known modern day smartphone maker, the HTC EVO 4G has already been able to capture some mind share as it kick started the summer with a bang. On the other corner, we have the soon-to-be released Motorola DROID X which also comes in with a hefty 4.3” display – backed with Verizon's stellar network and a once again profoundly relevant Motorola. These two giants in the Android community are going to go down in history for stepping things up a notch in the mobile industry with their high flying specs and monstrous appetite for attention. In this comparison, we'll pit the HTC EVO 4G and the Motorola DROID X against one another to find out which one will leave the ring with a roar of adulation from all around.

Design:

Let's get it out of the way, both Android smartphones are the cream on the crop right on their respective carriers as they both employ mammoth sized displays that make everything else before them look quaint. Some may argue if whether or not the HTC EVO 4G pioneered the company into the next realm in terms of design, but its natural industrial design was something we expected out of them at this point. The Taiwan based company was meticulous in crafting a body for the HTC EVO 4G which was regarded as a marvel considering the larger than life screen it employed in addition to its packed internals – plus it didn't look bulky at all standing at 0.50” thick. Nevertheless, Motorola considerably took the concept to new heights as the DROID X boasts a slimmer body (0.39”), premium materials, and solid construction that give the EVO 4G a run for its money. The Motorola DROID X is clad in an all soft touch coating laying on top of its metal like foundation which substantially make it feel better constructed as a whole. Even though the HTC EVO 4G's rear utilizes a soft touch feel, it's primarily constructed out of plastic and pales in comparison to the DROID X's more sturdy workmanship. Nevertheless, the HTC EVO 4G includes a kickstand which tastefully gives it a leg up when it comes to watching videos.


These aren't your typical smartphones due to the fact that they stand out amongst most of the competition with their way above average sized displays. Both tally in at 4.3” diagonally, but you can tell from a meticulous closeup look that the DROID X is narrower and longer while the HTC EVO 4G is slightly shorter and wider. Detail is on-par to one another with the naked eye as the look of text and images is equally the same – even though the DROID X has a slightly higher resolution at 480 x 854 pixels versus the WVGA resolution on the EVO 4G. When we set both phones to their brightest levels, there was no clear winner in which one had more luminance as they were similar, however, we noticed that colors looked more natural on the DROID X. Moreover, the touchscreens on both were more than responsive to the touch and had great viewing angles which made them still viewable in direct sunlight.


We've been seeing an increasing amount of manufacturers opting to utilize touch sensitive buttons, which the HTC EVO 4G happily follows, but we find the Motorola DROID X's implementation of physical buttons to be less aggravating. It doesn't happen all the time, but some times you just have a habit of accidentally pressing one of those touch sensitive buttons on the HTC EVO 4G, but there is no obvious cause for concern with the DROID X. We also applaud both handsets for retaining standardized items as they both feature a 3.5mm headset jack, microSD card slot, removable battery, micro HDMI port, and a microUSB port for charging/data connection. Still, it's very pleasing to find a 2-level shutter key on the Motorola DROID X to launch the camera application at any instant. Finally, you'll find an 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with dual-LED flash on both phones, but the HTC EVO 4G has managed to pack on a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera – making that one feature sorely absent on the DROID X.