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One other neat physical feature: there's a kickstand on the back. You're probably going to watch a lot of video on this phone, and the kickstand props it up at a comfortable angle.
The EVO is a 4G phone, but it can't (yet) make phone calls over 4G. Call quality on this phone with Sprint's 3G CDMA network isn't that great, either. The sharp top edge of the phone wasn't very comfortable against my ear, and calls sounded rough and harsh as well. It's loud, but not clear. The speakerphone is loud but sound is somewhat thready and hollow. Voices from the EVO's microphone sound harsh and flat on the other end. The phone paired easily with an Aliph Jawbone Prime ($129.99, ) headset, but I couldn't use voice dialing with the headset. I got 7 hours and 24 minutes of talk time on the EVO in 3G mode. That's pretty good, but the story is quite different on 4G WiMAX.
The phone runs the Google Android 2.1 OS with HTC's Sense UI extensions. HTC rewrote the dialer, contact book, calendar, and home screen (among other apps) to make them more usable. Most notably, the phone comes pre-populated with a bunch of useful widgets like time, weather, and the music player (you can get rid of them if you like) and ties various social networks into your address book. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Microsoft Exchange contacts all link together; when you call a friend you'll see her Facebook photo, and you can jump from her contact card to see her Facebook updates.
There's a ton of useful software on here. HTC packs desk-clock and car-mode options, along with an FM radio, a Twitter client, two GPS navigation options (Google's and Sprint's), a combined social-networking client called "Friend Stream," Microsoft Office and PDF document readers, and Sprint's streaming TV, NASCAR, and NFL applications. Third-party apps run quickly on the 1-GHz processor; benchmark scores were on par with the similar Google Nexus One and HTC Droid Incredible phones.
The two hottest apps on here, of course, are Qik—which lets you stream video directly to the Internet or, in the future, make video calls using the EVO's front-facing webcam—and Sprint's Hotspot app, which lets you use the EVO as a Wi-Fi hotspot for $30 extra per month.
With 3G, this is a very good smartphone and if it was a 3G-only phone, it would still be impressive. But when I took it down to Philadelphia, my nearest WiMAX city, things really opened up.
At review time, I couldn't actually call anyone with 4G. Sprint promises Qik video calling, but it wasn't ready on my demo model. Truphone VoIP doesn't work on this phone, and Skype's deal with Verizon Wireless means they won't write an app for this phone, for now at least.
Rather, 4G let me do more things on the Internet at once, with improved response times. You can pretty much assume that streaming anything on the phone won't have to buffer. I streamed Rhapsody music while resolving a Google Earth page and using the phone as a hotspot with my laptop to check my e-mail.
YouTube on the EVO reveals an HD mode when you're in 4G or Wi-Fi coverage, which gives you smooth, clear, full-screen videos. That's a huge improvement over the horribly impressionistic, blurry mess of YouTube on 3G.
Web pages loaded anywhere from 40 to 250 percent faster on 4G as opposed to 3G. But an annoying quirk kept reminding me that Android, and the mobile ecosystem, may not be quite ready for 4G: Web sites kept delivering their dumbed-down mobile sites to this huge, fast, high-res device. In many cases I couldn't figure out how to get to, say, MTV's main Web site from the Android browser.
That, in turn, reminded me of another annoying issue: 4G isn't ready for America. The network only covers a few dozen cities; I had to travel 100 miles from my house to use it. In Philadelphia's city center, I had periodic 4G dropouts, and Sprint execs have publicly disparaged the quality of Clearwire's WiMAX buildout here. I've had very inconsistent experiences in other cities, as well. In Las Vegas, for instance, I've seen speeds of 8 megabits down in a residential part of town, but no coverage in major Strip hotels.
In terms of pure speed, I got between 2.2 and 4 megabits down when using the phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for my MacBook Pro laptop. Doing things on the phone, of course, reduced the bandwidth available for the laptop. Starting with 2.28 megabits down, the laptop dropped to 1.44 megabits when I streamed Rhapsody on the phone, and 1 megabit when I was also watching an HD YouTube video on the phone.
The hotspot feature is great, within reason. While I had no problem streaming HD YouTube videos on the phone, YouTube and Hulu videos both stuttered and buffered on a PC. Less demanding apps, like Twitter and Web browsing, didn't have any problems on a PC.
4G utterly hoses the EVO's battery. While I got more than 7 hours of talk time on 3G, I managed to kill the EVO's battery in three and a half hours of heavy 4G use, including lots of streaming media and hotspot usage (sometimes at the same time.) Fortunately, it's easy to switch between 3G and 4G, thanks to a convenient home-screen widget. We'd suggest sticking with 3G most of the time, and powering up 4G when you need an extra boost.
Especially with 4G, the EVO offers a spectacular Web experience. Pages render fast, you can pinch to zoom in the built-in browser, and you can select from several different browsers in the Android Market. With the built-in Android browser, you get Flash Lite 3.1, enough to show some but not all video—BBC is in, Hulu is out—and most interactive menus. That's more than the iPhone 3GS gives you.
Streaming media seems to be 4G's calling, for now, and the EVO offers a wide variety of options. Rhapsody, Pandora, and Slacker all streamed music loud and clear, though I wish 4G improved their sound quality. You don't have Hulu, but Sprint TV nowadays is almost as good, with content from Disney, FOX, USA, ABC, CBS, NBC, Bravo, ESPN, SyFy, and others, including full episodes of top hits like "Lost," "CSI" and "NCIS." A separate CBS application called TV.com streams more CBS shows. Sprint TV didn't always play in full screen, but shows looked smooth and clear. TV.com shows, on the other hand, looked low-res—they appeared to be upscaled from 320-by-240 videos.
The EVO 4G plays your own media, too, of course. The phone comes with an 8GB memory card installed, and my 16GB SanDisk card worked fine. Music and video sound played well over Altec Lansing Backbeat ($99.99-129.99, ) Bluetooth stereo headphones. The phone likes MP4 videos best, and plays VGA-quality videos in full screen mode. H.264, DIVX, and XVID wouldn't play consistently or at all, which is an Android platform problem. AAC, MP3, and WMA formatted music all played and showed album art. The phone doesn't come with a way to sync music with your PC, though; we recommend the free program doubleTwist (Free, ). The phone has an HDMI output to play video on TVs, but Sprint couldn't provide us with an HDMI-compatible cable for this review.
The EVO 4G boasts two cameras. On the front, there's a basic 1.3-megapixel webcam for taking self-portraits and making Qik videos. The rear camera is an 8-megapixel model with 720p hi-def video recording, but that doesn't cure it of typical cameraphone ills. Indoor photos have a major problem with soft focus and blur, and outdoor photos look oversharpened. Videos recorded at 720p looked a bit jerky; VGA-resolution videos, on the other hand, were sharp and smooth.
The TeleNav-powered Sprint Navigation, available on most Sprint phones, offers voice prompts, spoken street names, and traffic alerts; you can use Google's navigation software if you prefer. Both apps displayed routes and locations accurately, but they're dependent on network coverage, unlike non-free navigation apps.
Like many early media review model phones, my EVO 4G had a few bugs which I assume will be worked out within the first few weeks. Sometimes the Internet connection became a bit confused, requiring a reboot, and the "call" button in the dialer appeared shunted off to the right at one point.
The HTC Evo has flaws. I'm rating it a 4 stars rather than a 4.5 because of its harsh voice quality and especially because 4G doesn't cover many cities yet. I'm also not in love with its touch keyboard. But it's so far ahead of other Sprint phones in so many ways, it's in a class that only contains the HTC Incredible, Google Nexus One, iPhone 3GS, and itself. The EVO is Sprint's "super phone," the ultimate handset for its network. Its modern Android 2.1 OS, stunning design, and 4G power easily take the Editor's Choice crown away from the HTC Touch Pro2 ($349.99-449.99, ). Still, there are caveats: Not many cities have 4G yet and the EVO's design privileges Internet and messaging over voice calling. While the EVO's groundbreaking speed and power earn it our Editor's Choice, there's still room for Sprint's aging Palm Pre ($299.99-549.99, ) and the upcoming BlackBerry Bold 9650 as smaller, simpler devices with better call quality and physical keyboards.
The Sprint EVO 4G is coming out on June 4th, three days before Apple and AT&T are anticipated to release their next iPhone. The EVO will cost $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract.
The EVO is a 4G phone, but it can't (yet) make phone calls over 4G. Call quality on this phone with Sprint's 3G CDMA network isn't that great, either. The sharp top edge of the phone wasn't very comfortable against my ear, and calls sounded rough and harsh as well. It's loud, but not clear. The speakerphone is loud but sound is somewhat thready and hollow. Voices from the EVO's microphone sound harsh and flat on the other end. The phone paired easily with an Aliph Jawbone Prime ($129.99, ) headset, but I couldn't use voice dialing with the headset. I got 7 hours and 24 minutes of talk time on the EVO in 3G mode. That's pretty good, but the story is quite different on 4G WiMAX.
The phone runs the Google Android 2.1 OS with HTC's Sense UI extensions. HTC rewrote the dialer, contact book, calendar, and home screen (among other apps) to make them more usable. Most notably, the phone comes pre-populated with a bunch of useful widgets like time, weather, and the music player (you can get rid of them if you like) and ties various social networks into your address book. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Microsoft Exchange contacts all link together; when you call a friend you'll see her Facebook photo, and you can jump from her contact card to see her Facebook updates.
There's a ton of useful software on here. HTC packs desk-clock and car-mode options, along with an FM radio, a Twitter client, two GPS navigation options (Google's and Sprint's), a combined social-networking client called "Friend Stream," Microsoft Office and PDF document readers, and Sprint's streaming TV, NASCAR, and NFL applications. Third-party apps run quickly on the 1-GHz processor; benchmark scores were on par with the similar Google Nexus One and HTC Droid Incredible phones.
The two hottest apps on here, of course, are Qik—which lets you stream video directly to the Internet or, in the future, make video calls using the EVO's front-facing webcam—and Sprint's Hotspot app, which lets you use the EVO as a Wi-Fi hotspot for $30 extra per month.
With 3G, this is a very good smartphone and if it was a 3G-only phone, it would still be impressive. But when I took it down to Philadelphia, my nearest WiMAX city, things really opened up.
At review time, I couldn't actually call anyone with 4G. Sprint promises Qik video calling, but it wasn't ready on my demo model. Truphone VoIP doesn't work on this phone, and Skype's deal with Verizon Wireless means they won't write an app for this phone, for now at least.
Rather, 4G let me do more things on the Internet at once, with improved response times. You can pretty much assume that streaming anything on the phone won't have to buffer. I streamed Rhapsody music while resolving a Google Earth page and using the phone as a hotspot with my laptop to check my e-mail.
YouTube on the EVO reveals an HD mode when you're in 4G or Wi-Fi coverage, which gives you smooth, clear, full-screen videos. That's a huge improvement over the horribly impressionistic, blurry mess of YouTube on 3G.
Web pages loaded anywhere from 40 to 250 percent faster on 4G as opposed to 3G. But an annoying quirk kept reminding me that Android, and the mobile ecosystem, may not be quite ready for 4G: Web sites kept delivering their dumbed-down mobile sites to this huge, fast, high-res device. In many cases I couldn't figure out how to get to, say, MTV's main Web site from the Android browser.
That, in turn, reminded me of another annoying issue: 4G isn't ready for America. The network only covers a few dozen cities; I had to travel 100 miles from my house to use it. In Philadelphia's city center, I had periodic 4G dropouts, and Sprint execs have publicly disparaged the quality of Clearwire's WiMAX buildout here. I've had very inconsistent experiences in other cities, as well. In Las Vegas, for instance, I've seen speeds of 8 megabits down in a residential part of town, but no coverage in major Strip hotels.
In terms of pure speed, I got between 2.2 and 4 megabits down when using the phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for my MacBook Pro laptop. Doing things on the phone, of course, reduced the bandwidth available for the laptop. Starting with 2.28 megabits down, the laptop dropped to 1.44 megabits when I streamed Rhapsody on the phone, and 1 megabit when I was also watching an HD YouTube video on the phone.
The hotspot feature is great, within reason. While I had no problem streaming HD YouTube videos on the phone, YouTube and Hulu videos both stuttered and buffered on a PC. Less demanding apps, like Twitter and Web browsing, didn't have any problems on a PC.
4G utterly hoses the EVO's battery. While I got more than 7 hours of talk time on 3G, I managed to kill the EVO's battery in three and a half hours of heavy 4G use, including lots of streaming media and hotspot usage (sometimes at the same time.) Fortunately, it's easy to switch between 3G and 4G, thanks to a convenient home-screen widget. We'd suggest sticking with 3G most of the time, and powering up 4G when you need an extra boost.
Especially with 4G, the EVO offers a spectacular Web experience. Pages render fast, you can pinch to zoom in the built-in browser, and you can select from several different browsers in the Android Market. With the built-in Android browser, you get Flash Lite 3.1, enough to show some but not all video—BBC is in, Hulu is out—and most interactive menus. That's more than the iPhone 3GS gives you.
Streaming media seems to be 4G's calling, for now, and the EVO offers a wide variety of options. Rhapsody, Pandora, and Slacker all streamed music loud and clear, though I wish 4G improved their sound quality. You don't have Hulu, but Sprint TV nowadays is almost as good, with content from Disney, FOX, USA, ABC, CBS, NBC, Bravo, ESPN, SyFy, and others, including full episodes of top hits like "Lost," "CSI" and "NCIS." A separate CBS application called TV.com streams more CBS shows. Sprint TV didn't always play in full screen, but shows looked smooth and clear. TV.com shows, on the other hand, looked low-res—they appeared to be upscaled from 320-by-240 videos.
The EVO 4G plays your own media, too, of course. The phone comes with an 8GB memory card installed, and my 16GB SanDisk card worked fine. Music and video sound played well over Altec Lansing Backbeat ($99.99-129.99, ) Bluetooth stereo headphones. The phone likes MP4 videos best, and plays VGA-quality videos in full screen mode. H.264, DIVX, and XVID wouldn't play consistently or at all, which is an Android platform problem. AAC, MP3, and WMA formatted music all played and showed album art. The phone doesn't come with a way to sync music with your PC, though; we recommend the free program doubleTwist (Free, ). The phone has an HDMI output to play video on TVs, but Sprint couldn't provide us with an HDMI-compatible cable for this review.
The EVO 4G boasts two cameras. On the front, there's a basic 1.3-megapixel webcam for taking self-portraits and making Qik videos. The rear camera is an 8-megapixel model with 720p hi-def video recording, but that doesn't cure it of typical cameraphone ills. Indoor photos have a major problem with soft focus and blur, and outdoor photos look oversharpened. Videos recorded at 720p looked a bit jerky; VGA-resolution videos, on the other hand, were sharp and smooth.
The TeleNav-powered Sprint Navigation, available on most Sprint phones, offers voice prompts, spoken street names, and traffic alerts; you can use Google's navigation software if you prefer. Both apps displayed routes and locations accurately, but they're dependent on network coverage, unlike non-free navigation apps.
Like many early media review model phones, my EVO 4G had a few bugs which I assume will be worked out within the first few weeks. Sometimes the Internet connection became a bit confused, requiring a reboot, and the "call" button in the dialer appeared shunted off to the right at one point.
The HTC Evo has flaws. I'm rating it a 4 stars rather than a 4.5 because of its harsh voice quality and especially because 4G doesn't cover many cities yet. I'm also not in love with its touch keyboard. But it's so far ahead of other Sprint phones in so many ways, it's in a class that only contains the HTC Incredible, Google Nexus One, iPhone 3GS, and itself. The EVO is Sprint's "super phone," the ultimate handset for its network. Its modern Android 2.1 OS, stunning design, and 4G power easily take the Editor's Choice crown away from the HTC Touch Pro2 ($349.99-449.99, ). Still, there are caveats: Not many cities have 4G yet and the EVO's design privileges Internet and messaging over voice calling. While the EVO's groundbreaking speed and power earn it our Editor's Choice, there's still room for Sprint's aging Palm Pre ($299.99-549.99, ) and the upcoming BlackBerry Bold 9650 as smaller, simpler devices with better call quality and physical keyboards.
The Sprint EVO 4G is coming out on June 4th, three days before Apple and AT&T are anticipated to release their next iPhone. The EVO will cost $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract.
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