The Sprint HTC EVO 4G Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 28, 2010 6:04 PM ESTThe Best Smartphone for Video Playback
I’m always surprised when I see someone watching a movie on an iPhone. The screen seems too small and you have to either hold the phone or hunch over it to watch. On top of that you need to transcode your content into an iPhone friendly format to get it to work.
While you still need to do the latter to watch videos on the EVO 4G, the screen and the kickstand make it a much better experience. The display is great for watching movies or TV show. It’s large enough that you can actually get into whatever you’re watching without squinting to see what’s going on. The contrast ratio of the EVO’s display comes in handy here more than anywhere else.
The kickstand is perfect for propping the EVO 4G on a desk or a tray table in a plane. The combination of the two really make this the ideal movie playback platform. Better than any other smartphone I’ve used. While no Apple, Google or Palm phone made me want to transcode my movie library, the EVO 4G does.
The phone supports .mp4 files with stereo audio. You need to stick to simple profile H.264 for encoding and lower bitrates. I found that ~800Kbps was a great balance of file size and image quality.
The biggest problem with video playback on the EVO is simply battery life. On a single charge in airplane mode I could only get 3 hours and 38 minutes out of the device. Granted I had the brightness all the way up but you're simply not going to be able to watch more than two movies on the EVO 4G. It's comparable to a laptop in that sense but unlike your laptop, walking around with a dead phone tends to be even more inconvenient. At least if people are trying to get ahold of you. Thankfully the EVO does have a removable battery, so just plan on carrying at least one spare.
To get videos onto the phone just connect it via USB to your computer and copy the files over. The Videos app will find the movies on the drive regardless of folder, you can just stick them in the root of the microSD card.
The app only works in landscape mode and isn’t heavy on controls. You can pause, scrub and stretch your content to fit the odd aspect ratio display. The Videos app also lets you view videos taken with the EVO’s camera and browse photos on Flickr/Facebook. Duplication of features is prevalent throughout HTC’s Sense enabled version of Android.
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flurrball - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
Thanks for the review Anand!You've convinced me to at least wait and see what the Droid X will offer to compete with the other smartphones. I'm really looking to get off the Apple/AT&T rapetrain, but not eager to sign a two-year contract and be unhappy again.
Can't wait for your Droid X review!!
Sf ted - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
Anand, great review as always. You're a master of the details. I do have a suggestion that could change your mind about loving this device. The recent update increased my battery life an order of magnitude, elimanated the unsensitive Pp touchscreen and now reacts to my slightest of touches. You might have a much better experience after the update. Cheers! TedShadowmaster625 - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
Does anyone make an oversized battery that adds an extra 10-20 Wh?Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
You mean this thing can not play an Xvid encoded avi file out of the box? 512x288 and 576x320 are my most common resolutions.Screammit - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
the default android video player will not take Xvid, but there are a number of apps hitting the market that likely do/will. RockPlayerBase is one that comes to mindtotenkopf - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
In the dimensional comparison table please take all inch measurements to the hundredths place (evo is 4.80", iphone is 4.54", etc.) and keep the trailing zeros in this case. It's just the right thing to do... and because when my instructor said 10 years ago in highschool that someday I would use this knowledge, I'm pretty sure that today is the very day she was referring to... how fortuitous.echtogammut - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
I have been using the phone for about a week now and have found the battery life to be less than my old iPhone, but not a real issue. So far with fairly heavy usage, web (no 4g), regular GPS lookup and moderate phone usage (I run my own business), it takes nearly 2 days for it to completely discharge. One thing to note, I charged my phone for 8 hours after getting it, totally discharged it and repeated this processes twice. I always charged my iPhone at night and I plan on doing the same with this phone, so like I said battery isn't an issue for me.Trebus - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
Nice review, as usual.But please learn how multitasking works on Android, this seems to be problem of many reviewers on the internet :-)
If you long press the Home button, it is not task manager, there are simply 6 last used apps. Some of this apps may not be running at the moment.
For start I can recommend this article about Android multitasking:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/mul...
austonia - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
I believe Premium Data gives you true unlimited data on 3G and 4G, although unlimited 3G is an unadvertised feature. I'm guessing they don't want a flood of extreme bandwidth hogs.http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/33866?tstar...
I'm past 5GB this month on 3G and it doesn't show any additional charges at sprint.com where i can see a near-real time summary of my bill. I download 6GB over 3G in one night (200-300 KB/s) so it would be easy to crack 100GB/mo if motivated.
Tempted to see just how far I can push it. ;)
Adul - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
I long since had my EVO 4g Root and running one of the many custom roms for it (DC3.2.0). I notice considerly improved battery life and put it to the test with a mix of browsing, installing apps, loading a new rom, and phone calls. Had it off that charger from work at around 4:30, drive to a friends house with wardrive running in the background. Got there and showed a few things on the phone that they did not have on his EVO. Left around 10 PM and made it home near 11. I have about 10% battery life left.Plus there was an update pushed and pulled out yesterday that address some battery life issues which is partially to blame on HTC background tasks.