The Sprint HTC EVO 4G Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 28, 2010 6:04 PM ESTThe FM Radio
The EVO 4G ships with an FM radio app. The phone uses your headset as an antenna so you need to have one plugged in for this to work. Once running however you can manually turn on the external speaker so you don’t have to listen to the radio over earbuds if you don’t want to.
There’s one large slider to select your frequency and two buttons to move the tuner in smaller increments. You can also create presets. Unfortunately there’s no way to record audio in the app.
Reception was surprisingly good indoors, but it did depend on where I had my earbuds. If I left them on my desk I’d get a lot of noise in the audio, but in my ears it worked very well for the stations I could tune to. It didn’t work as well as a car stereo for obvious reasons. There were some stations that would come in easily in a car that I couldn’t get at all on the EVO, while others worked perfectly. No surprise there.
It’s an iPo...Android Music Player, Too
As with all other Android devices legal music purchases are supported through an Amazon MP3 Store app. If you want to get your existing music library onto the EVO 4G you do it the old fashioned way: copy it over USB.
HTC’s Sync application doesn’t support music syncing so you’ve got three options to get music and photos onto your phone.
Plugging a USB cable directly into your computer will let you treat the EVO’s microSD card as a USB storage device. Put your MP3s in the Music folder and throw whatever videos you want on the device and you’re good to go.
You can also physically remove the microSD card and stick in a card reader attached to your PC. This is a bit more irritating of a solution as you need to remove the battery to gain access to the card.
The third option is the best but it requires an additional expenditure. The Missing Sync for Android is an application that allows you to sync your movies, photos and music over WiFi or Bluetooth with your Mac or PC.
The music player app is pretty straightforward. It just plays music. You do get a healthy amount of functionality in the app however. The usual shuffle and repeat modes are there, but you can also create ringtones while you’re listing to a song. Hit the menu button, hit create a ringtone and then you have the option of using the whole song or trimming it down to the portion you want. You can then go ahead and assign the ringtone to your phone or an individual contact.
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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?