What happened to HTC?

[lothar]

Does HTC own the Evo brand or does Sprint?

HTC owns the EVO brand/trademark.
I'm not sure why they aren't leveraging that brand.

In fact, they've watered it down even more with the EVO Shift and other crap.

re: the Beats by Dr Dre stuff that HTC do...from reading reviews I got the impression that this "technology" was just the pair of free earphones. Is the phone itself actually any different?

Beats audio is a fraud, plain and simple.
You need a phone with a dedicated DAC to tell the difference.
I don't believe any of the Beats audio phones today have that.

 

[Bateluer]

HTC owns the EVO brand/trademark.
I'm not sure why they aren't leveraging that brand.

In fact, they've watered it down even more with the EVO Shift and other crap.

Even though the Evo branded phones exist only on Sprint?

 

[lothar]

Even though the Evo branded phones exist only on Sprint?

EVO branded phones exist in Japan.
I've seen them before.

 

[tommo123]

Neutral:
Any company that is not on the list good/bad list. Samsung and Apple are here. Heck, HTC(since this topic is about them) and Motorola are still on the Neutral list. That should tell you something about this "neutral" section.

i do know that HTC (at least here in the UK) have great support. my desire (in june) had a reboot bug. called em, 2 days later a ups guy turned up, 2 days to the hour later same guy came back with a fixed phone (email status updates along the way). last week my friends desires screens lcd backlight failed. he got told yest that they're replacing the phone for him.

not happy to hear how they're dealing with the unlocking the bootloader thing though - glad i went to samsung

 

[FearoftheNight]

guys...they're unlocking all phones released past sept 2011 now via htcdev. I just unlocked my rezound!!!

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

There's some software that makes it different, it's basically like a really advanced EQ. The sound difference between audio with and without the beats enhancement's very noticeable. It will sound better than even PlayerPro another android app that has built in EQ features. With that said if Monster wanted they could release the beats audio as an app and it would work with any phone. hummm maybe some dude on XDA will yank the APK off the Rezound and figure a way to h4x0r it to make it run on a non Rezound phone.

They have Beats available for the Sensation, Amaze, and I think someone got it working on the Galaxy line of phones.

edited to ad,
I'm done with HTC, lol. My phone's microphone just crapped out on me.

 

[ponyo]

HTC recycles phone design but so does Samsung. How many variants of Galaxy S did Samsung release? Probably about dozen or more.

I think the locked bootloader thing hurt them more than they realized. Geeks make up small percentage of users but they are vocal group. They post reviews, blog, and recommend phones to others. Joe Sixpack might not know what phone he's buying and how to install custom rom but if people tell him to avoid HTC phones and instead get Samsung, he will follow.

 

[QueBert]

What I want's an Android phone that isn't made of plastic, is that asking too much? Plastic will always feel cheap to me, I'll pay more for a phone that isn't made out the same material toys are. My Droid 1 was a step in the right direction, but it was still shotty feeling in my hand. I don't care in the least how thin or light a phone is, I want something solid.

 

[lothar]

guys...they're unlocking all phones released past sept 2011 now via htcdev. I just unlocked my rezound!!!

Better hope you don't have to send your phone in for warranty claims.
If you did it using their own "official" method, they have your phone's ID, Serial# with it tied to the account you created written down somewhere and can potentially use that to reject your warranty claims? I'm not sure if they actually reject warranty claims or not, but they certainly have that capability to do so based on their "signing/registering/creating an account process to unlock the bootloader.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32780691&postcount=75
Not to mention the whole CarrierIQ fiasco.

Another example of a company implementing a stupid procedure that punishes legitimate users while allowing hackers, pirates, to go scotch free.

 

[ew915]

Better hope you don't have to send your phone in for warranty claims.
If you did it using their own "official" method, they have your phone's ID, Serial# with it tied to the account you created written down somewhere and can potentially use that to reject your warranty claims? I'm not sure if they actually reject warranty claims or not, but they certainly have that capability to do so based on their "signing/registering/creating an account process to unlock the bootloader.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32780691&postcount=75
Not to mention the whole CarrierIQ fiasco.

Another example of a company implementing a stupid procedure that punishes legitimate users while allowing hackers, pirates, to go scotch free.

Yeah well there is the hacker method that is ok to unlock without flagging your phone.

Actually i am surprised Huawei has better finish and feel than HTC, IF google takes the apple route where it doesn't allow custom skins then you would see manufacturers like HTC in lots of trouble, even if they don't take that route but they improve the overall look then we could see HTC losing ground on its only advantage which is Sense i know some people must have it but i totally detest it.

 

[stormkroe]

HTC has core model names with multiple subs, those being EVO (not owned by Sprint, I have a Rogers 3VO) and Sensation. I went with the EVO 3d because after reading so much on the Adreno 220, I know it's just a matter of time before it's 'unleashed', so to speak. Consider the review here at Anandtech that shows it's compute performance equal to the 543/mp2 in the 4s. There's also the Xiami Mi-One showing what a little optimizing can do here http://www.anandtech.com/show/5053/vellamo-benchmarking-on-six-android-phones
yeah, it's trouncing the GS2 with Mali in those benches. The architecture is good enough, in fact, that the Adreno 225 is only an overclocked 220 with standard dual channel memory (220 supported single or dual) and driver optimizations, but is supposed to be faster than the Ipad2's offering. Take that with a grain of salt, but if it's even close, I'll be happy and unsurprised. Hopefully some of those optimized drivers will make their way back to the lower-clocked 220.

I laugh every time I see someone trash the Adreno, it just shows that they haven't read up on it.

 

[poofyhairguy]

There's also the Xiami Mi-One showing what a little optimizing can do here http://www.anandtech.com/show/5053/vellamo-benchmarking-on-six-android-phones
yeah, it's trouncing the GS2 with Mali in those benches.

Um, that is a browser benchmark which means CPU. And the Exynos is barely behind (or ahead in some tests) with a CPU that is clocked 300mhz slower. At the same clock speed the tests show even with the optimizations the Exynos would probably win.

There are plenty of other benchmarks that are better indicators of GPU performance, and in most cases the Mali eats the Adreno alive.

Crapdragons suck this generation. Clock-for-clock the CPUs are slower than any other dual-cores on the market, and the 220 GPU was overhyped nonsense.

Who cares what the spec sheet says. Software sometimes matters as much or more. Ask Nvidia.

When the polygons hit the fan the Mali is the clear Android winner this generation....

 

[SampSon]

My rooted thunderbolt runs like a champ. Battery life is just fine with some decent tweaking by anyone remotely tech-savvy (and who isn't tech savvy these days?). Like most new personal computer type technology, it can be made better than it runs out of the box. Tho

The smartphones were holding today are really just small powerful computers running a nice modified linux software. The same learning curve for technology is required and the same people who are morons when it comes to computers, well, they will be morons with high end smart phones.

My wife has the new galaxy nexus. ICS looks nice and runs smooth for the most part and has some neat features. It's nothing I would go out and get a new phone for. Maybe when ICS roms come out I would consider trying to run it on my TB if it is possible.

The galaxy nexus phone itself is very light, though its very large and wouldn't fit in a pocket comfortably. The battery life is crappy, but what battery isn't at this point? People expecting batteries to run for three days without a charge are kidding themselves. The current batteries in high end smartphones aren't rated significantly higher across most product lines. With the huge high res screens, powerful processors and new 4g lte radios that guzzle energy, how much do people expect to get out of batteries with such a small form factor?

 

[rumpleforeskin]

Still see plenty of people using budget and midrange HTC devices, Many people I work with are using HTC phones. The wildfire seems very popular as a budget smart phone and my girlfriend enjoys her desire, as do many of my friends. Belive it or not there are many non tech savy people who find HTC sense a big positive.

I think its at the highend HTC is losing out, when you start getting into the £400-£500 range they not only have to compete with samsungs galaxy S2 but also the iphone 4. One is the cutting edge of technology and the other has a very strong brand which retains many loyal users.

Unfortunatly the current flagship HTC device (sensation XE) does not win in either of these situations. If HTC want to increase their highend user base they would stand a far better chance of beating samsung on the techology front than apple on the loyalty front

 

[Puddle Jumper]

HTC has core model names with multiple subs, those being EVO (not owned by Sprint, I have a Rogers 3VO) and Sensation. I went with the EVO 3d because after reading so much on the Adreno 220, I know it's just a matter of time before it's 'unleashed', so to speak. Consider the review here at Anandtech that shows it's compute performance equal to the 543/mp2 in the 4s. There's also the Xiami Mi-One showing what a little optimizing can do here http://www.anandtech.com/show/5053/vellamo-benchmarking-on-six-android-phones
yeah, it's trouncing the GS2 with Mali in those benches. The architecture is good enough, in fact, that the Adreno 225 is only an overclocked 220 with standard dual channel memory (220 supported single or dual) and driver optimizations, but is supposed to be faster than the Ipad2's offering. Take that with a grain of salt, but if it's even close, I'll be happy and unsurprised. Hopefully some of those optimized drivers will make their way back to the lower-clocked 220.

I laugh every time I see someone trash the Adreno, it just shows that they haven't read up on it.

Who would have thought that a Qualcomm phone wins a benchmark made by Qualcomm.

Adreno gpu's have been consistently subpar for 3 generations now.

 

[dguy6789]

What I want's an Android phone that isn't made of plastic, is that asking too much? Plastic will always feel cheap to me, I'll pay more for a phone that isn't made out the same material toys are. My Droid 1 was a step in the right direction, but it was still shotty feeling in my hand. I don't care in the least how thin or light a phone is, I want something solid.

Motorola has made metal Android phones for quite a while. The Droid X, X2, and Razr are good examples of Android phones with build quality that exceeds everything else on the market.

 

[destrekor]

HTC recycles phone design but so does Samsung. How many variants of Galaxy S did Samsung release? Probably about dozen or more.

I think the locked bootloader thing hurt them more than they realized. Geeks make up small percentage of users but they are vocal group. They post reviews, blog, and recommend phones to others. Joe Sixpack might not know what phone he's buying and how to install custom rom but if people tell him to avoid HTC phones and instead get Samsung, he will follow.

For the Galaxy S releases, that is not Samsung's fault, not entirely.

Carriers want a special version for their network, so Samsung works up such a unique device.
And then some networks even demand it not be called a Galaxy S at all, and they tend to get a very different-looking phone.
When Samsung announces these, they show 1 design, 1 hardware configuration, because that's the phone they really want to push everywhere. The only thing they'd like to do is swap different radio configurations into the phone, and otherwise leave it the same.

 

[Fire&Blood]

HTC has core model names with multiple subs, those being EVO (not owned by Sprint, I have a Rogers 3VO) and Sensation. I went with the EVO 3d because after reading so much on the Adreno 220, I know it's just a matter of time before it's 'unleashed', so to speak. Consider the review here at Anandtech that shows it's compute performance equal to the 543/mp2 in the 4s. There's also the Xiami Mi-One showing what a little optimizing can do here http://www.anandtech.com/show/5053/vellamo-benchmarking-on-six-android-phones
yeah, it's trouncing the GS2 with Mali in those benches. The architecture is good enough, in fact, that the Adreno 225 is only an overclocked 220 with standard dual channel memory (220 supported single or dual) and driver optimizations, but is supposed to be faster than the Ipad2's offering. Take that with a grain of salt, but if it's even close, I'll be happy and unsurprised. Hopefully some of those optimized drivers will make their way back to the lower-clocked 220.

I laugh every time I see someone trash the Adreno, it just shows that they haven't read up on it.

Benchmark manipulation has been around since the first benchmark. In real world usage, Exynos is much faster and more capable within UI and browsing, also easily playing videos that Adreno can't play or struggles with. Qualcomm's S3 chip is A8 based and bumping clocks is never an indication of superiority.

Even if the S4 beats the next Exynos, HTC needs a lot more than just a chip to battle the SGS3 for the high end.

 

[Bryf50]

Qualcomm's S3 chip is A8 based

No its not. Qualcomm's chips are of its own design. They just implement the same ARM instruction set. Like how Intel and AMD both make x86 chips.

 

[Fire&Blood]

The architecture, while custom Qualcomm, is still based on the A8.

 

[smartpatrol]

The architecture, while custom Qualcomm, is still based on the A8.

I don't think this is true. It implements the same ARM v7 instruction set, but the design itself is not based on A8 at all.

From http://www.anandtech.com/show/4940/qualcomm-new-snapdragon-s4-msm8960-krait-architecture

Scorpion was Qualcomm's first Snapdragon CPU architecture. At a high level, it looked very much like an optimized ARM Cortex A8 design although the two had nothing in common outside of instruction set. Scorpion was a dual-issue, in-order architecture that eventually scaled to dual-core and 1.5GHz variants.

 

[dagamer34]

HTC decided to sell way too many phones, with none of them being really spectacular. Plus, they have absolutely no branding. Samsung has perfected this with their "Galaxy" line of phones, and it's easy to tell that a "Galaxy" phone will be Samsung's best for that carrier.

That, and the HTC Thunderbolt was really bad. LTE was good, but battery life on that thing was atrocious.

 

[SuperHans]

I had the Nexus S and the Nexus and just got the HTC Amaze. No more plastic feel and it's the best phone I have ever owned.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

That, and the HTC Thunderbolt was really bad. LTE was good, but battery life on that thing was atrocious.

Extended battery fixes that. Granted, if I was buying a phone now, I wouldn't consider a thunderbolt. At the time my old phone was dying, it seemed like the best choice, and I'm pretty satisfied with it.

 

[shortylickens]

Extended battery fixes that. Granted, if I was buying a phone now, I wouldn't consider a thunderbolt. At the time my old phone was dying, it seemed like the best choice, and I'm pretty satisfied with it.

Yeah but we're at the point where damn near every Android phone needs a big extended battery or its basically useless. Thats getting tiresome. If manufacturers included underclocking utilities with their phones I wouldnt mind so much.