04-14-2010, 01:49 PM

it looks like this new 4g HTC will bring it to it's knees.

1gb processor! 512mb of ram! 720p video recording and an 8mp camera..

HTC EVO 4G is Sprint's Android-powered knight in superphone armor, we go hands-on -- Engadget

Cellphones, Mobile Handsets
HTC EVO 4G is Sprint's Android-powered knight in superphone armor, we go hands-on
By Paul Miller posted Mar 23rd 2010 4:26PM
Hands-On
Breaking News
We've been rumoring a WiMAX "HTC Supersonic" for a while now, and Sprint just dropped the hard news: the phone will be dubbed the HTC EVO 4G, will be released this Summer and it's easily the best specced phone we've ever witnessed. The hardware is of quite obvious HD2 descent, but with Android onboard and some nice aesthetic tweaks, the EVO 4G takes on a life of its own. The handset is centered around a 480 x 800 4.3-inch TFT LCD, with a Snapdragon QSD8650 1GHz processor under the hood (the CDMA version of the QSD8250 in the HD2 and Nexus One), and even a helpful 1GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAM -- hello app storage! Even the battery is bigger than the HD2, and the camera is an 8 megapixel monstrosity with flash, that's capable of 720p video, and is augmented by a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for good measure. The phone features HDMI out (though you'll need an adapter for turning it into a TV-familiar HDMI plug), 802.11b/g WiFi, and an 8GB microSD card. There's that still-rare Android 2.1 underneath an updated version of HTC's Sense UI. But... despite all these wild features, what actually sets the EVO 4G apart is the fact that it's Sprint's first 4G phone. The handset runs a combo of EV-DO Rev. A and WiMAX, with calls still being made over CDMA and the EV-DO / WiMAX options for data. Interestingly, it sounds like concurrent data and voice use might be possible for the first time on CDMA carrier in this way (killing AT&T's well-advertised differentiator), though Sprint says that's still in the testing phase. One other new feature is the Sprint hotspot app, another MiFi-style connection sharing number, which is obviously aided greatly by the WiMAX on board and can support up to eight concurrent users. Follow after the break for our hands-on impressions and videos of the phone in action, including an up-close-and-personal test of the touchscreen keyboard. Below you'll find galleries of the phone by its lonesome and up against the Nexus One and iPhone 3G.

04-14-2010, 02:29 PM

Meh, I'll wait and see. Every new "Smartphone" these days is billed as the iPhone killer yet somehow the iPhone keeps marching on.

Enjoy your new phone when you get it.

04-14-2010, 02:42 PM

And every all-in-one computer was supposed to be a imac killer.
And every notebook were supposed to be macbook pro killers.
And the list goes on. Just because a computer has more specs than an Apple product be it desktop or mobile, does not means it'll sell more. You need the entire package. Hardware/software/customer service all working together as a solid friendly easy to use unit. That's how you make a product that sells itself.

Yes that phone has more stats then the iphone. But does it have a better ap store with more apps? Does the company that made it have better customer service than Apple?

I think you have your answer.

04-14-2010, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by whitehorse84

it looks like this new 4g HTC will bring it to it's knees.

It started out great at "4G', but then it got to the HTC part and you lost me.

A solid product starts with quality. Specs are secondary if the device is unreliable and cheaply made. That pretty much is HTC in a nutshell. HTC=High Tech Crap.

04-14-2010, 03:41 PM

Im sorry but the UI on android and win mobile still seem way to cluttered for me, I love the simplistic design of the iPhone still. I bet the new 4th gen iPhone will be even better. And windows mobile 7 ewwwwwwww I love my iPhone I think this 3g iPhone is the longest I have held onto a phone now.

04-14-2010, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

It started out great at "4G', but then it got to the HTC part and you lost me.

A solid product starts with quality. Specs are secondary if the device is unreliable and cheaply made. That pretty much is HTC in a nutshell. HTC=High Tech Crap.

I can not agree with that statement. You might have owned an HTC phone before, and chances are you might have had one of their crap products. I don't deny that they've made some pretty crappy stuff. However, they do also make some very decent products, even if the number of crappy things out numbers the former. One of my favorite phones was an HTC Tilt. Built like a brick S house, a battery that lasted quite a long time (and was interchangeable), precise turn by turn GPS and quite honestly, all I really needed.

Yeah ... the app store. What can I say about it other than it serves up a plethora of silly things which Apple tells us that we need, rather that useful things that we really want. (tethering anybody ?) Ok, I'm not denying that some apps are neat (for a while), but when it comes down to the brass.. the apps I use the most, are those which are already part of the OS. Google Maps, mail, the browser ... And the other apps I really use, are the same apps which can be found on any Android phone, or at least have an equal.

Such as instant messaging clients (Fring, Skype, eBuddy Nimbuzz etc), music streaming apps (Slacker, Pandora etc.. ) Weather apps, GPS.. ALL can be found for the Android OS.

What would I be missing? Fart apps ? Connect 4 ? A fake 'level' app ? Oh, I know.. Zippo lighter app ! Yeah, I'd miss that one for sure.

Look, the Android platform has already proven its self with plenty of users. If the hardware specs on this new HTC allow it to run as smoothly as it should (given those specs) then it doesn't matter if it's an "iPhone killer" or not. I think we're kind of past the days of childish names for phones, no ? And besides, it's never really the users whom relegate names such as iPod killer.. it's these lame @ss tech publications ! We simply take such things to heart, and start quibbling over it all. Like good little sheep, we follow the leader.

I'm proud to say though, I'm not one of them. I go with what works. I tried the iPhone (I still use it. it's sitting right next to me) and thought it was alright. I was never really 'enchanted' with it though. Not like people said I would be. And it's not like I fought trying to be, either. But I think I'm ready to try something else again, and when I get back to the States, I don't want to deal with crappy ATT to begin with.

The iPhone GUI feels really tired to me. I'm bored with it. Would probably happen with any phone, really. If Apple were to refresh the OS a whole lot, it would be a different story. At least with an Android phone, I'd have the option to tweak the heck out of the GUI, and all without having to jump through jail break hoops. Anyway, it would be nice if this new HTC was as physically capable as the OS is technically capable. Would make a nice match.

Doug

04-14-2010, 03:57 PM

Doug, I've handled at a lot of smart phones in my professional life and have yet to see an HTC product that wasn't a piece of garbage. Just my opinion. Android OS is great, but it's a shame that the majority of hardware that runs it is HTC. You can say a lot of negative things about Motorola, but at least the Droid is well built and doesn't feel like a cheap Chinese knock-off.

04-14-2010, 04:17 PM

Before I picked up my iPhone I had come across the HTC HD2 and was really impressed. Fortunately, it was not available in the US. So, I picked up an iPhone which led to an iPod for my car's audio system which then in turn led me to make the switch.

HTC does indeed build some quality phones now but they are either WinMo which is fussy and terribly or Android which I have little first hand experience with.

To me, HTC seems to be a mish-mash of phones, operating systems, and features. They have different interfaces for WinMo and their resistive touchscreen models seem slow and clunky. If they could ever get their design and OS choices to be consistent they would really have something appealing.

04-14-2010, 04:59 PM

Running Android; not worth looking at .

04-14-2010, 05:00 PM

No Apple App Store = FAIL.

Simple as that, really. I'm sure they'll find a niche if its not a typical HTC (ie crap) product though ...

04-14-2010, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by DriftNismo

Running Android; not worth looking at .

Originally Posted by chas_m

No Apple App Store = FAIL.

Simple as that, really. I'm sure they'll find a niche if its not a typical HTC (ie crap) product though ...

lol. And these are exactly the reasons as to why Apple doesn't have to care about what anybody but Apple, cares about. Scary mentality there, really. Do you guys truly think this way, or is there more sarcasm to it than anything ? I'm inclined to believe the former, but would love to be wrong.

doug

04-14-2010, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

Doug, I've handled at a lot of smart phones in my professional life and have yet to see an HTC product that wasn't a piece of garbage. Just my opinion. Android OS is great, but it's a shame that the majority of hardware that runs it is HTC. You can say a lot of negative things about Motorola, but at least the Droid is well built and doesn't feel like a cheap Chinese knock-off.

I gotta disagree, I have a Nexus One (built by HTC) and it's a solidly built device. So is the HTC HD2 both well built in the hardware department.

04-14-2010, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

Doug, I've handled at a lot of smart phones in my professional life and have yet to see an HTC product that wasn't a piece of garbage. Just my opinion. Android OS is great, but it's a shame that the majority of hardware that runs it is HTC. You can say a lot of negative things about Motorola, but at least the Droid is well built and doesn't feel like a cheap Chinese knock-off.

Originally Posted by chas_m

No Apple App Store = FAIL.

Simple as that, really. I'm sure they'll find a niche if its not a typical HTC (ie crap) product though ...

I don't agree with that, the only time I ever used the AppStore was on my iPad
never once used it on my iPhone, Everything I needed is in Cydia.
But then again I don't use an iPhone anymore.

04-14-2010, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by Doug b

lol. And these are exactly the reasons as to why Apple doesn't have to care about what anybody but Apple, cares about. Scary mentality there, really. Do you guys truly think this way, or is there more sarcasm to it than anything ? I'm inclined to believe the former, but would love to be wrong.

doug

I'm not saying I agree with them but why does that matter? They gave their opinions just like you did. If they think that way so be it, but I don't see why it would be a surpprise on an Apple centric forum such as this. Insulting their mentality or insinuating that there is something wrong with them becasue they like Apple producst seems a bit much, much as someone insinuating that you are inferior or insulting you if you don't love Apple products. To each their own.

04-14-2010, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by Doug b

Scary mentality there, really

Not really.

I can't speak for others, but I'm not really an Apple fan. I'm an *ELEGANCE* fan. As David Pogue once said, the minute someone GENUINELY builds a better mousetrap than Apple does, we're gone.

The basic problem is that very VERY few companies manage to build better mousetraps than Apple most of the time. Good case in point: the Kindle versus the iPad. Contrast that with Intuos versus the iPad. One of those two has a good reason to be worried; the other doesn't (at least at present).

Bless these other companies for trying, of course, but most of them just don't even come close. A few do: Android, Palm (if they survive, which looks unlikely), Blackberry, just some examples. Some companies get it right PART of the time: how many people here own Microsoft keyboards or mice, or an XBox? Or prefer MS Office?

I'm not as close-minded on the idea of other companies achieving Apple-like levels of quality and "product cycle harmony" if you will, as you apparently think -- but past experience has shown that the safe money is to bet on Apple, particularly in areas where they are already clearly the market leader (like smartphones).