Sprint's HTC EVO 4G

[MJinZ]

Yeah, the high end phones are definitely bandwidth limited, not CPU limited. My N1 loads pages just about instantly when I am using wifi.

Your N1 is also the only thing that can come close to doing that.

We'll need network upgrades when everything comes with a 1Gz processor at minimum.

 

[randomlinh]

Yeah, that's what I've discovered. It's also why I have to throw my pre into roaming-only at work, in the basement. Otherwise it'll fight between sprint digital and verizon roaming all day, and kill the battery. Sprint's signal is just too weak to be used, but just strong enough to be a headache.

wait, what... how do you set it to roaming only? My basement has the same problem (though, it's been better). My options are "automatic" and "sprint only."


and this phone does look nice, but a 4.3" screen... how the hell is this going to fit in my pocket. Give me this phone... but in the Droid Eris body. I might just give up the Pre for it.

 

[randomlinh]

I think it requires you to have an account for a long time with SPrint.

um, nope. unless a "long time" is 6 months. The whole premiere thing is really just spending $xx.xx a month. Basically if you're on an everything data plan, you qualify.

All the other benefits they list are pretty lame, like discounts on lame accessories.

But as long as they can hold their own without increasing rates, I'm game. As well as continually getting good phone options. I just hope their wimax bet doesn't cost them

 

[eits]

um, nope. unless a "long time" is 6 months. The whole premiere thing is really just spending $xx.xx a month. Basically if you're on an everything data plan, you qualify.

All the other benefits they list are pretty lame, like discounts on lame accessories.

But as long as they can hold their own without increasing rates, I'm game. As well as continually getting good phone options. I just hope their wimax bet doesn't cost them

call it lame if you want, but a lot of people who get phones like having accessories like chargers, cases, etc... and if you can get a 25% or whatever discount off of them simply by having an everything plan, that makes sprint more badass than the competitors.

wtf does verizon have? "we have a bigger map"... who gives a shit about that besides business people who travel out to the middle of nowhere? besides, sprint uses verizon's map whenever it's roaming. what's at&t have? "we have the iphone"... well... ok, fair enough...

but, honestly, no cell carrier is gonna have a network so shitty that you'll just constantly drop calls all the time... and even if they did, it wouldn't matter too much because you can always call a person back, unless your life revolves around calling tech support or customer service.

anyways, i'm tired and rambling... sprint is awesome.

 

[Gooberlx2]

wait, what... how do you set it to roaming only? My basement has the same problem (though, it's been better). My options are "automatic" and "sprint only."


and this phone does look nice, but a 4.3" screen... how the hell is this going to fit in my pocket. Give me this phone... but in the Droid Eris body. I might just give up the Pre for it.

There's a preware patch to put the option in the device menu (upper right). Go to precentral.net and look around for the instructions to install preware. Lots of other useful stuff too.

I have the following patches installed:

• 4x4 Icons in the launcher
• add/delete launcher pages
• Date - MM/DD/YY in top bar
• Battery icon and % in top bar
• Roam control in prefs
• Roam only in device menu
• gps in device menu
• brightness control in device menu
• All-day events in calendar month view
• Default calendar to month view
• SMS character counter
• hide the following apps: amazon mp3, nascar, nfl, sprint tv

Preware is awesome

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Yeah, the high end phones are definitely bandwidth limited, not CPU limited. My N1 loads pages just about instantly when I am using wifi.

Ever see the Engadget video of Droid vs N1 vs iPhone on Wifi? The iPhone trashes them all in loading time. I wouldn't say you're bandwidth limited. If the iPhone 3G => 3GS increased loading times significantly, there's something to be said.

xScope >>>>>>> Dolphin >>>>>>>>> Stock Android.

There's a lot of things limiting your web page loading speed.

 

[abaez]

Ever see the Engadget video of Droid vs N1 vs iPhone on Wifi? The iPhone trashes them all in loading time. I wouldn't say you're bandwidth limited. If the iPhone 3G => 3GS increased loading times significantly, there's something to be said.

xScope >>>>>>> Dolphin >>>>>>>>> Stock Android.

There's a lot of things limiting your web page loading speed.

Are you talking about that video review where the iPhone took like 10 seconds to load and the N1 and Droid took like 2 minutes? That video was debunked about 1000 times over in MANY other comparison videos. I'm surprised Engadget even published that when it was so obvious the testing was flawed.

Edit: Here's the video: http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/869/0 Are you KIDDING me?

 

[Deeko]

wait, what... how do you set it to roaming only? My basement has the same problem (though, it's been better). My options are "automatic" and "sprint only."


and this phone does look nice, but a 4.3" screen... how the hell is this going to fit in my pocket. Give me this phone... but in the Droid Eris body. I might just give up the Pre for it.

Fits fine. I have the HD2 which is the same body. The phone is practically all screen...very little bezel. Coupled with how thin it is, it fits in the pocket just as well as a Droid or iPhone.

 

[CTrain]

LOL at all the people complaining about the phone fitting in the pockets.
Its a little bigger than the Iphone and thinner and I never heard any Iphone owners complaining that it didn't fit in the pocket.

 

[Reckoner]

It just feels... slower. For example, any time I click a menu option now it pulls up the window but there is lag where just the icon is shown in the window. I just got hit with the damn stuck in headphone mode problem yesterday as well which is just piling on at this point.

download the 800mhz patch; my pre is a LOT snappier now

 

[Sheep]

download the 800mhz patch; my pre is a LOT snappier now

I'm going to do this over the weekend when I don't need my phone for work purposes. I'm a bit concerned about the battery life and frying the CPU though, but recently installed the Battery Monitor app to see how things look before and after.

 

[Gooberlx2]

download the 800mhz patch; my pre is a LOT snappier now

Just saw that on Engadget. Man I wish I had the appropriate USB cable here at work to do this now.

edit: Just installed the patch. Huge difference!

 

[dguy6789]

Ever see the Engadget video of Droid vs N1 vs iPhone on Wifi? The iPhone trashes them all in loading time. I wouldn't say you're bandwidth limited. If the iPhone 3G => 3GS increased loading times significantly, there's something to be said.

xScope >>>>>>> Dolphin >>>>>>>>> Stock Android.

There's a lot of things limiting your web page loading speed.

I've seen quite a few N1 reviews and every one of them showed the N1 destroying the Iphone in every loading test on wifi.

 

[shortylickens]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/23/htc-evo-4g-is-sprints-android-powered-knight-in-superphone-armo/

*drool*
Methinks this might be my upgrade next go 'round.

edit: whoops, didn't see the thread down the list. Well consider this the official uhhh announcement/hands-on thread. :awe:

By the time this comes out, the Droid will already have Android 2.1. Everything else is just meh, though I would like to get a look at that screen. As difficult at the slide out keyboard has been, I'd settle for a larger screen and software-only keyboard.

 

[Pliablemoose]

LOL at all the people complaining about the phone fitting in the pockets.
Its a little bigger than the Iphone and thinner and I never heard any Iphone owners complaining that it didn't fit in the pocket.

Yep, just a couple of cm difference, the bezel is very small, I carry mine in a scrub top pocket, virtually no difference, and its a hell of a lot smaller than my G1 with the extended battery.

 

[Slick5150]

I'm going to do this over the weekend when I don't need my phone for work purposes. I'm a bit concerned about the battery life and frying the CPU though, but recently installed the Battery Monitor app to see how things look before and after.

I installed the 800MHz patch tonight on my Pre. Definitely snappier. Haven't had it long enough to figure out battery life hit. I'll test that out tomorrow during my usual routine.

 

[Pepsei]

just for comparison... i can use my HTC touch pro data plan (ad-hoc wireless access point) to do light internet activity while plugged into AC power, but If i start up some sort of torrent, the power will be drained in 4-5 hours.

if it uses same cost (or close to it) data plans, i'm definately getting one. as my contract is almost up.

 

[MJinZ]

call it lame if you want, but a lot of people who get phones like having accessories like chargers, cases, etc... and if you can get a 25% or whatever discount off of them simply by having an everything plan, that makes sprint more badass than the competitors.

wtf does verizon have? "we have a bigger map"... who gives a shit about that besides business people who travel out to the middle of nowhere? besides, sprint uses verizon's map whenever it's roaming. what's at&t have? "we have the iphone"... well... ok, fair enough...

but, honestly, no cell carrier is gonna have a network so shitty that you'll just constantly drop calls all the time... and even if they did, it wouldn't matter too much because you can always call a person back, unless your life revolves around calling tech support or customer service.

anyways, i'm tired and rambling... sprint is awesome.

Sprint has inferior phones, Verizon has Droid, AT&T has iPhone, and T-Mobile has Nexus One.

So at this point, Sprint wins by being cheaper but until the EVO drops, it is worse than Verizon (iPhone sucks, T-Mobile coverage sucks).

 

[zerocool84]

Sprint has inferior phones, Verizon has Droid, AT&T has iPhone, and T-Mobile has Nexus One.

So at this point, Sprint wins by being cheaper but until the EVO drops, it is worse than Verizon (iPhone sucks, T-Mobile coverage sucks).

The Nexus one isn't an exclusive phone but yes Sprint doesn't have the best phones out there. The Pre was supposed to be but we all know how that turned out.

 

[tatteredpotato]

The Nexus one isn't an exclusive phone but yes Sprint doesn't have the best phones out there. The Pre was supposed to be but we all know how that turned out.

Yes but I feel they'll be sitting rather nicely come this summer when they do have both the EVO 4G and the Nexus One.

Although I think "EVO 4G" is a terrible brand to use, and won't acquire the brand recognition that names like "iPhone", "Droid", and (to a lesser extent IMO) "Nexus One" do.

 

[CTrain]

Yes but I feel they'll be sitting rather nicely come this summer when they do have both the EVO 4G and the Nexus One.

Although I think "EVO 4G" is a terrible brand to use, and won't acquire the brand recognition that names like "iPhone", "Droid", and (to a lesser extent IMO) "Nexus One" do.

I don't think so.
I don't think people will ever refer this phone as EVO 4g rather it will just the "The EVO"
That has a nice ring to it...and word play to "evil".
I like it better than supersonic.

 

[randomlinh]

call it lame if you want, but a lot of people who get phones like having accessories like chargers, cases, etc... and if you can get a 25% or whatever discount off of them simply by having an everything plan, that makes sprint more badass than the competitors.

25% overpriced accessories is still a lot. Though, I noticed it says of *any* accessory now. Does that include say, a Touchstone if they sell it in the store? I was told when I first signed up w/ Sprint only Sprint branded accessories would qualify.

though, I will say 12 month upgrade qualifications and any mobile anytime are definitely nice perks. I will be very sad the day sprint doesn't make it because they've bled too many customers.

There's a preware patch to put the option in the device menu (upper right). Go to precentral.net and look around for the instructions to install preware. Lots of other useful stuff too.

ah, it's patch. yeah, i stopped patching because for some reason, I'd always end up with odd quirks here and there. I have been patch-free since 1.3.1 to give the phone a "truer" experience. 1.4 isn't helping it's case.

Fits fine. I have the HD2 which is the same body. The phone is practically all screen...very little bezel. Coupled with how thin it is, it fits in the pocket just as well as a Droid or iPhone.

heh, I don't find the droid comfortable at all. hence my comment. I'll definitely check it out in stores though. I can tolerate the iphone, but at the same time, talking into a giant rectangle is uncomfortable to me, heh.


Palm better have something for the summer on Sprint, or else I might have to give the EVO a try (assuming it's under $200 and doesn't require a more expensive plan)

 

[Sheep]

I installed the 800MHz patch tonight on my Pre. Definitely snappier. Haven't had it long enough to figure out battery life hit. I'll test that out tomorrow during my usual routine.

I installed the 800Mhz patch on my near-launch Pre on Friday night. So far so good. My phone runs SLIGHTLY warmer than before, but still well within the accepted temperature range of the Pre. Battery drain is about 4-5% drain per hour with minimal use, but appears to be much higher with the screen on (unfortunately I don't have before and after stats on this.)

The patch does remove all of the annoying "why in the hell is it lagging there?" lag and makes the phone feel much more responsive. I don't claim to know why, but I can also now have a ton of apps open now without the "too many cards" error popping up, something that wasn't always the case before--I figured "too many cards" would have been a memory issue.

I'll definitely be keeping this on my phone, as it would probably be hard to go back to life without it. Still probably going to upgrade to the Evo 4G if the phone price and contract costs are reasonable and there are no dealbreakers like bad battery life or any other major flaws, but this patch does definitely help.

 

[eits]

I installed the 800Mhz patch on my near-launch Pre on Friday night. So far so good. My phone runs SLIGHTLY warmer than before, but still well within the accepted temperature range of the Pre. Battery drain is about 4-5% drain per hour with minimal use, but appears to be much higher with the screen on (unfortunately I don't have before and after stats on this.)

The patch does remove all of the annoying "why in the hell is it lagging there?" lag and makes the phone feel much more responsive. I don't claim to know why, but I can also now have a ton of apps open now without the "too many cards" error popping up, something that wasn't always the case before--I figured "too many cards" would have been a memory issue.

I'll definitely be keeping this on my phone, as it would probably be hard to go back to life without it. Still probably going to upgrade to the Evo 4G if the phone price and contract costs are reasonable and there are no dealbreakers like bad battery life or any other major flaws, but this patch does definitely help.

omg.... "too many cards".... ooooh man that pisses me off...

there are NO FRIGGING CARDS... how can that be too many?!

 

[ElFenix]

T-Mobile is going to have 4G before AT&T(Although they aren't calling it 4G they are calling it HSPA+, the speeds meet or exceed 4G specifications). This same technology will improve speeds on most current 3G T-Mobile compatible devices as well.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-20001045-10356022.html

there's nothing in there that says HSPA+ can be enabled on HSPA phones. what is improving current HSPA devices is that the backhaul now has enough bandwidth.


and HSPA+ is not 4G.