The Sprint HTC EVO 4G Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 28, 2010 6:04 PM ESTSprint Mobile Hotspot
True story. I was in line waiting for my iPhone 4 pre-order (for 6 hours) and we were too far from the Apple store to use Apple’s WiFi. Everyone instead had to rely on AT&T’s 3G. Everyone except me of course.
I pulled out the EVO 4G and with a couple of taps created a WiFi hotspot sharing my 4G connection with anyone who wanted it. The process was not only ridiculously simple but also made me feel like a benevolent ISP. It rocked.
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You get full visibility of how many users are connected to your hotspot along with their MAC and IP addresses. You don’t have the ability to kick off specific users although you can always shut down the hotspot. There’s a timeout option that will automatically turn the hotspot off after 10 minutes of no activity.
It’s actually amazingly simple and works very well. You can host up to 8 simultaneous users on your hotspot although given the limited bandwidth I’m not sure you’d want to.
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The obvious downside is the feature costs $29.99 per month, it needs to be added to your plan by Sprint. This is actually the most expensive tethering plan out of all of the major carriers. It is also the most capable. With this plan you get unlimited downloads over the 4G network and up to 5GB/mo of data transfers on Sprint’s 3G network. If you happen to venture on to a non-Sprint network you’re limited to 300MB/mo of transfers.
Sprint’s Apps
Sprint subsidizes the cost of the EVO 4G, dropping it to $299.99 with a new 2 year agreement. There’s also a $100 mail in rebate that will drop the total cost of the phone to $199.99. In exchange for the subsidy you’re required to pay your monthly fee for two years. As an added bonus, you also get a handful of Sprint apps installed.
The apps themselves aren’t very useful and honestly just take up space on the device by default. While I understand the desire of a carrier to be more than a pipe to the Internet, the right way to go about that is to acquire companies that are making killer apps and bundle those with your phones.
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DigitalFreak - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
Problem is, no one knows when the EVO will be getting the 2.2 upgrade. Sometime this year is the only official word.finbarqs - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
The "choppiness" and/or "lagginess" during scrolls is due to one MAJOR flaw in the EVO 4G Design:30 FPS cap!
our favorite XDA developers found a way around it on some EVO's with the proper hardware...
MrBrownSound - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
Hopefully Froyo will sway people to take a second look at evo.alfredska - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
Little late to the game with an EVO 4G review aren't we? Engadget and others already have quite comprehensive reviews.RamarC - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
I just got an evo today and I like it. Since I have 4 phones on a family plan (including a hero and moment), I'm married to Sprint. And since all 4 only cost $170 a month (with unlimited text n data), the price is too good to consider a divorce. Performance is good and it meets my expectations. Comparatively it might be a bit lacking, but it's a good upgrade to anyone who doesn't have/want an iPhone.MrX8503 - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
Awesome review Anand, I wish I was able to hold off on buying cellphones before your review as it would of helped a great deal.After buying the EVO, I also noticed the lag and performance issues. People thought I was crazy and most review sites don't even mention this. A lot of other tech sites get their reviews out quick, but none of them are as thorough as yours or pick up the little details.
nkf - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
While the default keyboard on the EVO is pretty good (big screen helps), you might like to try out the Swype beta. Usual disclaimers (yes, it's a beta. no, I have nothing to do with swype except as a user, etc, etc).Have had it for a few days now (on the recommendation of some other android owners), and it has sped up my typing and accuracy by a huge amount.
mrdeez - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
I have had the Evo since day one and haven't noticed any lag whatsoever...I don't know what phone your talking about but this one loads pages fast and have had no lagg issues on mine...I'm stock with Advance Task Killer and some games and apps 2.1...What I like:
Speed
Screen
Speech to text
Camera and camcorder
Android
Options Galore
Its not an iphone
What I don't like:
Screen sometimes too sensitive
Music player is too low
Paying for 4g-don't have it...aah the cost of early adoption!
This is my first android phone and I left apple pho..I mean at&t because I was tired of waiting for a android phone......I'm very happy with sprint.
t13190 - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
Just wanted everyone to know that as of now a Sprint/Clear is limiting 4G upload speed to 1Mbps until they get more bandwidth availableDeusfaux - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
You might find the HTC Desire to be the right mix of what you're looking for in a phone. It's the 4th pillar, if you consider you've looked at the top HTC Android phones for the other 3 big networks.Should be out in a month or so.
Also, how does one go about emailing or contacting you about something else?