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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Adul - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
Any another thing.,,EVO owners I suggest you try the swype KB.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnQts9NUnL4&fea...
alainiala - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
While I agree that 99% of the time, Sprint's apps are beyond useless, I have found Sprint TV to be fantastic during this World Cup season. I can catch games over 3G or 4G while away from home. In fact, I watched USA vs Ghana from a coffee shop over 4G and the experience was fantastic. Smooth playback with only a very occasional hiccup that would clear itself up after a second. Now that both of the teams I've been rooting for have been eliminated, Sprint TV will go back to being useless.Zebo - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
Great review Anand. Good things come to those who wait, right...:PEvo is a non starter for me since I spend at hours on the phone each day and in the field and battery life kills it in addition to poor screen outside.
Looking forward to iPhone review on battery life and outdoor capability.:)
sapient2k7 - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - link
One thing not mentioned in the article while comparing plans is the fact that Sprint Navigation is also free on EVO with the plan. Sprint family plans are also much cheaper than any other carrier.Personally I like the sprint apps, Sprint TV, Sprint navigation and the Nascar app are great. On an EVO Sprint TV looks great much better than my PRE. However, I am waiting for the next version of Palm PRE before making a jump :).
docmilo - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
I'm dealing with the issue of Evo on Sprint's poor coverage and finding a phone the wife likes as much as the Evo. Motorola's version of the 4.3 inch screen the Droid X is out on July 15th. Any info out there on this device? I would prefer to stay with Verizon. The Droid X doesn't have the front camera and the fancy kick stand my wife really likes.We took the Evo on a trip to Leavenworth a few weeks back and rarely got signal. Yesterday we were off to the Seattle Aquarium and I popped out the Evo, turned on Sprint Navigation and if I didn't know where we were, we would have been lost. Sprint Navigation was off a couple of blocks.
adam7425 - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
You(and others, including Engadget) have described Sprint's $69.99 plan as just giving you 450 minutes and unlimited messaging/data. A little more clarification would go a long way. The 'Everything Data - with ANY Mobile, Anytime' plan gives you Unlimited talk to any cellphone on any network. The 450 minutes only apply to landlines. For some people thats all the unlimited they need. I myself have months where I don't use a single one of those minutes.adam7425 - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - link
You should point out that sprints 450 minutes are for landlines only. Any cellphone to cellphone is unlimited.sssbbb - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
on Performance page: "Zotac XBOX HD-ID11" -> "Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11"steeda1974 - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
I personally own this phone. After around 10 days, the battery life got extremely better. Has anyone else experienced this? It went from around 4 hrs max with everything running. I would highly suggest to turn GPS, 4G, and WiFi off when your on the move or at work. This has increased my battery life to around 12-18 hrs. And to anyone that says they need to have 4G on to watch flawless TV, who the heck watches TV on a 4-5in screen for more than 30 minutes at a time? I would just go upstair or downstairs and watch it on a Flat Screen TV instead of this smaill screen. If I'm wrong then I apologize but I think everyone is with me on that one. As far as the UI being a little shaky, who really cares, its hardly noticeable and its just a phone that is mearly played with for over 10 secs at a time. The phone is the best thing that I have personally come across in 2-3 yrs. For all that get this phone, immediately save contacts to google account as soon as you get it. This is the only way to get back your contacts from Sprint at this moment.steeda1974 - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
I personally own this phone. After around 10 days, battery life got much better. I would suggest turning off WiFi, bluetooth, GPS, and 4G when on the run. GPS will automatically turn on if you use navigation. UI is smooth, I do not notice any lagging at any given time. I'm sure if you pay attention all day long, you would find a problem or lagging at times. But its not that big of a deal compared to all other phones at the moment. Its been the best thing to come along in around 2-3 yrs. I love it!! Plus if your using it as a mobile hot spot, dont you think you would plug it into a USB connection from the device that you are using and turn 4G on? Just me personal opinion though.