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[Merged] HTC Evo 4G / Supersonic / Sprint Evo

I have both phones as well and I am returning my evo next week. I cannot stand the battery life. I listen to a lot of podcasts, it is a huge chore to get podcast downloaded and synced to the device. The screen is very old tech, it has only 16k colors. You notice quite abit of dithering and banding in most pictures. I cannot stand typing on it, I am not going to spend money to switch through the different keyboards.
If I were you, I would go with the iPhone because it is much more polished. I really hate to say this, but it just works, lol
You can jailbreak your phone very easily and that will get you the hotspot functionality. Download MyWi for$10 in cydia. I use it to tether to my iPad.
As long as you don't have any issues with the iPhone that are preventing you from getting it, it's in my opinion the best phone out there. Good luck.
 
Sunday Shadows said:
get the iphone, i had a 3gs up until 2 weeks ago, swapped for an evo and I HATE IT. the keyboard is so sluggish and inaccurate. the browser is horrid, the battery life is lasting me MAYBE 4 hours. i regret getting the EVO. thank goodness i have the iphone 4 on preorder and i can return the evo.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat. After I pick up my iP4, I'll be heading to Radio Shack to return the Evo.
 
mbell75 said:
Please dont try to use logic with Apple fanboys who dont even have a clue how a real device works. All they know is what they are told they want and need by Steve Jobs and they only understand the most simplistic of operating systems. Rows of icons you push that launch one app at a time and a big shiny back button, thats it. Give them more than that and they will get confused and a file manager? Their heads would explode!
Click to expand...

I love my iPhone and my Evo 4G.... but this post almost killed me from laughter.
 
You really can't even use the 4G network as an advantage, as every test of it I see has it running between 2500kbps and 3000kbps. I personally get around 1500-1800kbps on my iPhone, and others here get 2500kbps and some higher. Sprint uses their 3G network average speed as a reference point, which says on their site (where it says 4G is up to 10x faster on the Evo page), averages 600kbps.

The only advantages it really has is:
-There's almost nobody on it (compared to 3G), so there's no bottlenecking
-When you're near a tower and outside, you can get really high speeds (6Mbps, maybe more).

Disadvantage:
-Good luck in brick and metal buildings
 
I don't have an Evo but I recently switched from an iPhone 3GS to a Nexus One. I'm stuck with AT&T and the N1 was the best choice available. I was ready for something different after using every model of the iPhone since it's release. I would base the decision more on what you need from the OS/Apps versus the hardware as most of the higher end phones on the market are pretty well balanced against each other. First, I just have to say that I'm absolutely loving the Nexus and Android OS. The only serious issue I would mention is that the App store obviously isn't quite on par with Apple's and many of the Applications don't have the polish of iOS apps. If you game on your phone definitely go with the iPhone. On the other hand all of Google's apps(especially Google Maps/Navigation and Google Voice) are much better than their counterparts on the iPhone. The biggest reason I like Android so well is the level of customization and openness. If you don't like the stock keyboard or sms app you can change them. It definitely helps keep you from getting bored with your phone. There are also a few new Droids being announced by Verizon next week that are worth checking out over the Evo.
 
I have three lines, for the sole purpose of being able to enjoy the various smartphones that are currently available. I'm not married to any "brand" but instead I take a neutral stance and evaluate each of them for what they are.

Currently I'm using an iPhone 3Gs (4 ordered), Droid Incredible, and EVO. Each has their pros and cons, which due to the difference in platforms, tends to vary widely.

The most important question for you to ask yourself is what are you going to use it for, and what features are most important to you?

For me, I _never_ let battery life influence my decision. Why? Because even though I travel extensively, I always buy a car charger, and when I'm in an office or other public place, like Starbucks an A/C outlet is always available.

Here are some thoughts.

Battery Life:
Much is made of short battery life. This was a big deal with iPhones for awhile, now Apple is bragging about the "improved battery life" of the iPhone 4 as well they should. Remember this, the display is the one component on any smartphone or laptop for that matter, that draws the most from the battery. Thus the larger the display, the shorter the battery life. So, if you want a large display it's _normal_ for that smartphone to have shorter battery life. As the saying goes, "you can't have your cake and eat it too".

Operating System
iOS4 / Android / Symbian / RIM / Windows Mobile.
This is what "defines" the smartphone you choose, as it's only capable of what the operating system will allow. Apples OS, is now very mature and has a lot of refinements that a younger OS like Android lacks. Give them some time, and Android will be a very serious challenger. Even the latest version "Froyo" ver. 2.2 is quite nice considering how young the Android platform is. Obviously based on the explosion of Android powered handsets over the last few months, with far more to come in the second half of this year, they are garnering a lot of attention.

Hardware
The handset itself is of course another important consideration. Apple is the leader when it comes to outstanding design. In fact sometimes they are perfect to a fault when it comes to design. A brief example is my new 2010 15" Core i7 MacBook Pro. A wonderful laptop, (my personal favorite) yet the ultra thin form factor makes thermal management difficult, so it tends to run very warm compared to my new identically configured ThinkPad. At 0.95" thick the MBP has very little room inside for air circulation as compared to the 1.2" thick well vented ThinkPad. Apples iPhones have always been a picture of style and excellent build quality. The downside is the captive battery which is not as easy to change as the typical smartphones easily replaceable battery. HTC, the maker of the EVO handset, has great quality, just not as "jewel like" as the iPhone. How important is this to you?

So there are just three areas for consideration. At the end of the day I avoid comparing different platforms, as they are each designed with different criterion in mind. Thus to compare them (which is only natural) is not always the best way to decide what's right for you.

Summary

If you want the most mature, well sorted, fully debugged smartphone, then you want an iPhone.

If you want an up and coming smartphone, with a great display for surfing the web and are willing to put up with some compromises, then you want an EVO.

Only you can decide what suits you best.
 
Jeremy81 said:
The biggest reason I like Android so well is the level of customization and openness. If you don't like the stock keyboard or sms app you can change them. It definitely helps keep you from getting bored with your phone. There are also a few new Droids being announced by Verizon next week that are worth checking out over the Evo.
Click to expand...

This is true. Good example is I just installed the Swype keyboard and its amazing. Would never go back to the stock keyboard now. I also installed a file manager and system monitor/manager so I can run my phone the way I want, not the way the manufacturer thinks I should. I assume you are talking about that Droid X. man, I thought the Evo was big, that thing is gigantic :eek:
 
I can't believe this is still going on. It would be interesting to see if this reaches 100 pages. Man, both sides are kookoo.

Android fans need to realize that people just DON'T CARE. Iphone users than are still meh about android phones because whatever the iphone gives them, they are happy with. There is nothing wrong with that and in fact, i find this funny that people are arguing this ON AN IPHONE MESSAGE BOARD. But the fact is, you can throw whatever you want at them. Yes, you have advantages. Having a file manager is nice when you are dealing with external storage. I like how I can download a picture and it doesn't go into camera roll. I have more control over my Android EVO than I do with my Iphone 3GS. I knew this before I got the phone and I know this after. Nothing has changed. In the end, these people DONT CARE. And what makes it worst, you happen to think you are right. It is your obligation to proof you are right, you have the better operating system, rah rah rah. You are neither right or wrong. Look the iphone isn't popular today because it was the first to market, it just does a couple of things well and for some people, thats all that matter. I'll tell you what, as much as I like the android OS, I have never been more frustrated at times with my life. Not once have I been mad at my Iphone. Alot of the problems on the android can be fixed because the development community gives me options that I could never get on my iphone like changing the keyboard to swype (SWYPE is badass!!!!!) but then again, i was satisfied with the keyboard on the iphone already. I wasn't satisfied on the HTC keyboard unless SWYPE came along. PEOPLE DONT CARE! They don't care about the small things that android can do, they only care about the things that fit their lives. NOT YOURS.

and for people to come and give a company negative complains when YOU the consumer have complete control. I mean seriously, if people don't like the iOS, then move on. It's that simple, but according to alot of people. They are happy with what they have. They don't need to change, they don't need to adapt and they don't need to grow. They just want a damn phone.

This is the dumbest conversation because really you both don't know what you are arguing about it. There is no right or wrong. It's an opinion, its a preference and people get mad when you try to take that opinion away. Nobody gives a F*** about your opinion in the same way people don't give a F*** about Iphone users opinions..who certainly don't give a F*** about Blackberry users.

It's complete utter preference. There are some things Android excels in and there are some things apple excels in. That's it. Some things just catch of some people while others are gravitating towards another.

God and half the time people complain it's because the guy next to them complained, you don't even know what you are complaining about. It just sounds like a right to do .... if thats the case then...you're just turn into one of these guys:

tool.jpg




Come back to me when you have used both formats FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME and bring actual reasoning to this table. Not just your bias thoughts. So proof and start discussing. I'm carrying 2 phones with me. Iphone and EVO at all times and yet I'm still making my analysis. It takes time. Throw in your bias thoughts and then you basically ruin your "argument".

And this is coming from someone who's probably going to KEEP their EVO 4G instead of getting the new iphone 4. Remember, people DONT CARE. I told someone about an awesome thing android does. They looked at me. looked at the phone and turned away. Some people drool. Some people don't care. That's the difference between a techie and non-techie.
 
There will generally be a bias towards the iPhone 4 here :)

I am buying my iPhone 4 next week, and am coming from the HTC Desire (the Evo didnt make it to the UK afaik). Evo looks like a great functional phone, however I really did not get on well with Android...

I used to use an iPhone 3G, and I really missed it once I got my desire. Android phones are very powerful and the interface can be nice in places, however the app store on android is not as big (I played a lot of games on my iPhone as I use public transport everyday). Don't get me wrong, there are games on Android, but to me they lack the quality of those found on iPhone.

If I were you I would go into a store and look at both, hold them in your hand and see what you like, others have recommended sites that will host comparisons, they will provide a good source of information - I have noticed some sites have a bit of a Android is better than everything bias recently :S
 
mbell75 said:
Ok, so the Evo doesnt scroll as smoothly as the iPhone, big deal. It does just about everything else better though and still does things the iPhone cannot without a jailbreak. Only other thing I would give the iPhone the edge in is music player, thats it. I will take a phone that doesnt scroll as smoothly but does flash, multitasking, great notification system, ability to tether, can run on 4G, file manager, fully customizable OS etc...over a phone that just scrolls prettier
Click to expand...

Your flash, although works, doesn't work completely YET and please PLEASE!!!! show me how much you use your mobile and flash on a daily basis. Because this flash argument is just plain stupid. For you, you may need flash while other are fine without it. It's a mobile browser, not your damn computer and I'm happy if I can't go to hulu. Hell I don't even use hulu. I do things...you know outside of your mobile phone world you should try it. God, if you really think flash lite is flash then my x486 sitting in my closet is a powerful computer.

Yeah multitasking is great but really, the only thing you really need for is the make sure the data connection in the background is open. No mobile phone is doing true multitasking. You have one screen and one item shown at a time. You can't split that 4.3 screen into 2 apps can you? It's not true multitasking. What apple is doing with their fast app switching is what google had placed in their kernel for a long time its just google allows for other processes to continue. That's a good and a bad.

The notification system on the android is pretty nice, but its not the end of the world if you don't have it. It's really nice to have around and makes things alot easier to manage. But If people are happy with the pop up push notifications then let them be happy with it. Not everyone has to have the same **** as you.

my iphone has the ability to tether and it's not jailbroken and your evo 4g is only availble to tether through sprint mobile hotspot. So if you want that free, you have to root your EVO. which basically going super user access kinda like jail breaking the phone. And you're an idiot if you think carriers like verizon and att will just let android phones do free tether. If you think so then everything you say from this point forward is worthless. Just like ATT is charging 20 bucks to tether, and sprint is charging 20 bucks to tether. Don't think 2.2 will come out without some limitation to tethering requested by carriers.

Your custom OS are great but bascially by doing that you are doing another form of jailbreak. thus breaking the rules. If apple users can't jailbreak, to take advantage you can't do anything like this either.

Your 4G which is not even in 20% of the country is using the higher frequency which is causing issues with building penetration and its getting average speeds of 3Mbps.... and on a bad day...700kpbs. The truth is, its not that much off from t-mobile hspa+ and with ATT i'm getting 3Mbps. Wake me up real 4G gets here.

File manager is one thing I do like that iphone doesn't have but i have found replacements that suit me well enough. I'll admit the file management is nice in the sense that I can dock the android phone and see all my files, but right now, having 387mb to download apps until 2.2 is stupid. This should be fixed on the next update but most people don't really care. Since some people just dock their iphone on the computer at the end of the day and just go to sleep. People make it as if syncing your phone to a computer is primative. It takes 10 minutes....take a s***.


Fact is, your opinions are bias and basically i can make arguments to help android and help iphone because both have good and bad. You choose to be this fanboy that just KEEP POSTING AN IPHONE FORUM. I WILL STRESS THIS AGAIN...WHY ARE YOU POSTING IN AN IPHONE FORUM. And at the same time, you don't let the iphone users have a voice or opinion on the matter. OMG you are sooooo correct. You are god. We must listen to you and your ways. It's an opinion and frankly not a good one. You don't even give good arguments. Regardless if they are right or wrong.

Why this thread even open here.

You're just a troll. Who brings no valuable insight into this thread other than some time of validation you need as a macrumors user, an android platform support and google's nuts and as a human being. Seriously, its a phone not Israel vs palestine.

oh and keep telling yourself that Android has just as good pitch and zoom and scrolling. The mind sees what it wants to see and people will do anything to believe what they want to believe but in end, crooked boobs are still crooked boobs however way you look at them.
 
Battery life should strongly favor the iPhone. Hardware has advantages on both ends, but the iPhone should be better built with the overall edge in design and fit/finish.

Android OS and iPhone OS are very different animals. I use a rooted/overclocked Droid and have run nearly every iteration of OS out there. It's an inelegant system and the app marketplace is a poor substitute for the app store. There is a fun hacker mentality to owning an Android phone, but that's fleeting. At the end of the day, I want a well built phone with excellent battery life, a great screen, NO LAG and seamless/well integrated apps that don't crash. iPhone wins here, IMO.

The other issue - despite the hacks and aftermarket apps, the Android keyboard just plain sucks. This is a big deal for me. HTC keyboards are generally better and the EVO is a wider phone, so maybe this is not as big a problem for the EVO, but it's something to keep in mind.
 
I would say wait for reviews like everyone else is saying.

The Evo is a nice phone and the android OS is pretty sweet in terms of customization. Reminds me of my Windows XP customization days, good times. The only issue I have with the Evo is having to turn off a lot of stuff to get a better battery life or to carry another battery around. Sure its not too much of a hassle, but for those not tech savvy or just lazy its not very practical. And even though it looks big in pictures, it's actually a very comfortable size. As for Sprint, I'm on it now and it's not bad. I've had dropped calls and some dead zones but what Provider doesn't? And as for the LA area, no 4G yet. I'd say Sprint is in-between At&t and Verizon in terms of service and 3g speeds.

As for the iPhone 4, can't say much since its not out, but it looks impressive. If you want a very simple and ready out of the box phone that has build quality, this would probably be it. Sure iOS4 still has its kinks to work out, but in time hopefully Apple will provide. After hearing a lot about how many pre-orders there are, I'm worried for At&t's network. They aren't the best as it is and with possibly thousands of more customers, I hope they can expand and beef up their network this year.
 
I recently returned my Evo. One of the features I was most interested in was the mobile hotspot feature. It is terribly slow and not that reliable. The 4G speeds on the Evo were decent usually between 2-3 MBPS. With the 4G hotspot feature turned on, my iPad and Laptop got between .18-.30 MBPS.

My experience:
The battery life is terrible!
The UI is disappointing and not up to par with Apple.
The hotspot speeds are sloooooow!

What a disappointment, considering I was anxiously awaiting the Evo the day it was announced.

You can try the Evo for 30 days with no obligation from Sprint. Simply return it and you don't have to pay any pro rated charges or activation fee.
 
mbell75 said:
I just have to laugh at iPhone users getting 4-6 hours of battery life with their Evo. Just more proof they have no clue how to use a powerful OS like Android. Unlike an iPhone, if you remove the back cover of the Evo, guess what? The battery comes out and you can *gasp* replace it with a bigger one! OMG! I bet they never even knew what settings to play around with because I get a solid 10-12 hours out of the very same battery and so do plenty of others. If you dont know how to use an Android device, you should probably stick to the very basic iPhone OS, pretty idiot proof.
Click to expand...

Yeah we can do the following:

Turn off Always mobile On
Turn of the frequency of facebook and friend stream
Turn off the twitter updates
turn off the exchange support
turn off the calendar support for exchange
turn off the google contacts
turn off the google talk feature
turn off the flickr update
turn the brightness down
turn off wifi
as recommend by sprint turn off YOUR 4G EVO.
turn off google talk
turn off background data

turn off live wallpapers

use battery apps to monitor your discharge.
Use commands like *#*#4636#*#* or download network app to change your network preference to CDMA PRL (AUTO)

Check battery usage. see how much your CPU is awake and asleep.

Download automatic task killer and join a side war in which some believe this is bad for the android and some think this is good.

HTC also recommends you charge the phone. Then turn the phone off. charge it again. unplug...power back on. charge it again. and keep it charged for 3+ hours after charge.

If you turn off phone you have to go back change network preferences to CDMA PRL. (go to select band, the network app will restart, you will see GSM PRL, change to CDMA, press select band).

Turn off google talk from automatically turning.

Go to android task killer and see what background apps are running.

and there you're done.....
You're android is now a P_U_S_S_Y.

All jokes aside,
just change your frequency on a lot of the apps to check updates less frequently or ask it to do manually. But once again, you are limited the phone and originally what it can do. Soccer Mom who gets an evo will not know what to do and all she will do and log into her twitter, gmail, facebook and maybe google talk and it will drain. Android EVO soccer mom will not go to google for help.

and extra battery is not an option. Carrying extra batteries is like basically carrying a wall charger and wearing the shirt FAIL.

Oh wait...this is MBELL....so yeah....FAIL it is.
 
Juan007 said:
Nice try fandroid. Too bad iPhone 4 has half those things, the rest don't matter or have nothing to do with the phone (ex. 2 GB data).
Click to expand...
Until apple adds it into the iPhone and its like OMG, apple innovates again. Just search back and see how many anti-multitasking posts there are. Now that apple has their own flavor of multitasking, its version is superior then all of the others :p
 
maflynn said:
Until apple adds it into the iPhone and its like OMG, apple innovates again. Just search back and see how many anti-multitasking posts there are. Now that apple has their own flavor of multitasking, its version is superior then all of the others :p
Click to expand...

Or maybe their version is just better than traditional multitasking for a phone?
 
Yo Elvis!

I've been playing with the EVO since June 1st comparing it to the iPhone 3GS. I also ordered an iPhone 4 so I can include it in the shootout.

The EVO has its strong points: 4G data service, unique apps (Sprint live TV, GPS status, animated wallpaper), unfettered multitasking, bigger screen.

It has its commonality with the iPhone: makes phone calls, does text messaging, many similar or identical apps including Pandora, Shazam, WeatherBug, Google Earth, SportsTap, Fandango, etc.

It has it's weak points: shorter battery life (on average) than the iPhone 3GS or 4, lacks cool apps like NFS: Shift, Plants vs Zombies, AutoWeek, Things.

As for the "hotspot" feature, it works, but the "client" devices using the hotspot download/upload a much lower speeds than the EVO "host." And my biggest bummer: lack of simple, integrated tool to sync tunes, movies, contacts, calendar, apps with my Mac.

Many of the EVO's weaknesses will be addressed in time. The Android phones represent the biggest competitive challenge to the Apple iPhone. And more Android phones are coming including the Droid X from Verizon which is being shown at E3 this week. Supposedly the ship date will be officially announced the day before the iPhone 4 ships.
 
mbell75 said:
You dont need a task killer with Android unless you have an app that refuses to close and you need to force close it. If you cant figure out how to turn 4G off, you really shouldnt be using a smartphone, it comes pre installed on one of the homescreens and you just push the button to shut it off :rolleyes: Turning off wifi, BT, GPS, auto updating weather and location widgets and changing it so apps like facebook, twitter and others only update once a day and not every 2 hours as they are defaulted to is also a nice start. As I said, Anyone getting only 4-6 hours on their battery did not do most or any of these things.
Click to expand...

You are wrong, I did all of those things plus more! and the battery still sucks. with normal usage would be death by 1 pm when I took it off the charger at 6 am.
you have to admit the battery life on the evo doesn't even get close to the iphone 3gs, now if you prefer the evo over the iphone; provide an unbiased opinion for the op and chose the phone that best fits you.
 
Juan007 said:
Nice try fandroid. Too bad iPhone 4 has half those things, the rest don't matter or have nothing to do with the phone (ex. 2 GB data).

Enjoy your obsolete phone.
Click to expand...

There are 13 items in that list. The iPhone needs, I'll be nice and round down, 6, to have half those things.

The only thing the iPhone has is multitasking and possibly 512 MB RAM, we don't know yet. Everything else is EVO and/or Android exclusive.

One, maybe 2, is not "half those things"
 
alejovh1 said:
You are wrong, I did all of those things plus more! and the battery still sucks. with normal usage would be death by 1 pm when I took it off the charger at 6 am.
you have to admit the battery life on the evo doesn't even get close to the iphone 3gs, now if you prefer the evo over the iphone; provide an unbiased opinion for the op and chose the phone that best fits you.
Click to expand...

poor signal?

True, the evo battery doesn't last as long as the iPhone3g using the same circumstances and usages - ie 4G turned off. But it's not that far off, either. I have both.

Lots to consider - signal, evos larger display, not exiting out of tasks completely, etc.
 
DeathChill said:
Or maybe their version is just better than traditional multitasking for a phone?
Click to expand...

No, but my point was Apple proclaimed that multitasking was bad on a phone because it kills the battery. The iPhone was NOT going to have it - at least that was their stance last year. Many people here walked lock step with that philosophy saying how multitasking was bad, evil, yadda yadda yadda.

Now that apple did a complete 180 saying how multitasking is good - at least they way they did it, now multitasking is good and people look forward to it.

For the record, my Nexus enjoys the same battery life as my 3Gs ever did and I have full multitasking. Apple's stance on "full" multitasking is plain wrong.
 
maflynn said:
No, but my point was Apple proclaimed that multitasking was bad on a phone because it kills the battery. The iPhone was NOT going to have it - at least that was their stance last year. Many people here walked lock step with that philosophy saying how multitasking was bad, evil, yadda yadda yadda.

Now that apple did a complete 180 saying how multitasking is good - at least they way they did it, now multitasking is good and people look forward to it.

For the record, my Nexus enjoys the same battery life as my 3Gs ever did and I have full multitasking. Apple's stance on "full" multitasking is plain wrong.
Click to expand...

People here believe what Steve tells them to believe. A month ago the fanboys were ecstatic about the iPhones screen, but now they hate how pixelated the 3GS is. Damn you pixels!
 
Sketchr said:
poor signal?

True, the evo battery doesn't last as long as the iPhone3g using the same circumstances and usages - ie 4G turned off. But it's not that far off, either. I have both.

Lots to consider - signal, evos larger display, not exiting out of tasks completely, etc.
Click to expand...

in my case I had great signal both at home and work, have 4G everywhere. Agree about lots of things to consider when dealing with poor battery life. some people seems to have great battery life
 
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