HTC EVO 3D vs. Motorola Photon 4G: Choosing the Best Sprint Phone
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 17, 2011 11:11 PM ESTWiMAX Performance
When I reviewed the original Sprint EVO 4G I came away unimpressed with the carrier's WiMAX deployment in Raleigh, NC. Speeds were inconsistent at best and peak performance wasn't that much better than what I could get on AT&T's HSPA network. A year later, consistency is still an issue. Speeds vary wildly from only a couple hundred Kbps all the way up to several Mbps, even while remaining stationary!
Just yesterday I encountered a several hour period of time (across multiple towers) where I couldn't get more than 200Kbps down on either device. These complaints may be limited to the Raleigh, NC area but it's still something worth investigating ahead of any purchase.
When the network is behaving properly however, WiMAX is worlds better than Sprint's EVDO. Around here I max out at 800Kbps on EVDO and average south of 500Kbps. WiMAX at least gets me north of 1Mbps and sometimes a lot higher.
The EVO 3D and Photon 4G vary drastically when it comes to performance on WiMAX. The EVO 3D uses a Sequans SQN1210 WiMAX solution while the Photon 4G uses a chip from Beceem (now Broadcom). In areas with good signal the EVO 3D generally delivers higher performance. I ran nearly 50 speed tests on both phones at the exact same time at the exact same location (even varying which hand I held each device in). The results are below:
Downstream there's a pretty big difference between the EVO and Photon. While the Photon 4G maxed out at around 5Mbps, the EVO 3D could hit 9Mbps on WiMAX - the fastest I've ever seen on a WiMAX device in Raleigh. Admittedly the 8 - 9Mbps numbers were rare, but the EVO did consistently better than the Photon when it had good signal strength.
Unfortunately the EVO 3D has a difficult time holding on to a weak WiMAX signal. I'm around 1.5 miles away from the nearest WiMAX tower but only the Photon can consistently hold onto its signal from here. Even driving over to my parents' house which is nearly at the half-way point between me and the tower isn't enough for the EVO 3D to stay connected consistently. There are a lot of trees in Raleigh and quite a few of them are between both houses and the tower. WiMAX has notoriously bad signal propagation characteristics as a result of its very high frequency (2.5GHz). All of that considered, the Photon still holds onto a WiMAX signal better than the EVO 3D - at least in my experience.
I don't have an activated EVO 4G on hand, but if things didn't get worse in the past year for WiMAX reception at my house I'd go as far as to say that the EVO 3D isn't as good as its predecessor when it comes to staying on WiMAX at the fringe.
Because of the EVO 3D's inability to remain on WiMAX consistently at my house I wasn't able to complete a single run of our WiMAX battery life test. The Photon completed the test without issue, but the EVO 4G would consistently drop off WiMAX and fall back to 3G. I briefly considered hiding the EVO 4G next to the WiMAX tower for the duration of the test but figured it'd be better not to risk the review sample getting stolen.
Again we find ourselves in a difficult position with these two phones. If you're in an area with great WiMAX coverage, the EVO 3D is the better performer. If you don't have great WiMAX reception where you plan on using your phone the most, the Photon 4G is clearly better.
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Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Sometimes you can't help but channel a little Clarkson :-PReikon - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
One reason that Wimax gets better battery life than 3g is that push doesn't seem to be instant on Wimax. From my tests on my EVO 3d, notifications take about 15 min on Wimax while they're basically instant on 3g.bingunginter - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Galaxy S2 Has been out for several months and it is one of the most popular handset right now. Why is there no review for this phone ?A5 - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Not available in the US from any of the carriers and AT doesn't import phones for review.sidarous - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Both phones have been rooted, although it appears from some cursory web-browsing that rooting is slightly easier on the Photon.When my contract is up in a few months, I'll probably go with whichever one has a more active ROM community. That is, unless something bigger and better comes out :-)
Does anyone have thoughts on this? Do HTC or Motorola phones generally have more fun ROMs?
sidarous - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Also, while it isn't a big deal right now, when signing a 2 year contract, it might be better to hold out for a device with NFC support, like the Galaxy S2 (the Sprint variant will either be the "Samsung Epic Touch 4G" or the "Samsung Within").Dug - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Can using a different camera app help with the overblown pictures?SigmundEXactos - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
1. The Photon can take 32GB microSD cards (I have one in my phone).2. The Photon has two GLARING issues:
a) Sometimes the phone shuts off until you pull the battery or plug it in then turn it back on.
b) Sometimes inbound and outbound calls have no audio, until you turn the phone off then back on.
REALLY.
There is supposedly an update coming "soon" (there is already a Motorola signed update, but it's not been pushed OTA yet), see: https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/55069?st...
I've heard the EVO 3D has some voice quality issues and/or reception issues.
They really need to start making PHONES first.
Don't get me wrong, those two issues aside I love my Photon, but I'll probably be swapping out before the 30day period unless the fix comes out.
techkraut - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
I disagree with your assertion that "Sprint customers almost always get the short end of the stick" and that there have not been any interesting handsets from Sprint since the Epic 4G. Sprint has had several other firsts since then and like them or not, they were certainly interesting. Among those firsts were the Sprint Kyocera Echo, the first handset to offer a dual android screen device that doubles as a small tablet. The Sprint Replenish offers a Blackberry-like form factor Android device that is one of few "green" devices on the market. I think that over the last 12 months, Sprint has maintained a very competetive and interesting device portfolio. With these two devices, Sprint continues that trend.EarthsDM - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Anand, I was hoping that you would consider the Nexus S 4G. I assumed it would be one of the best phones available for Sprint's network, being a part of the Nexus program. One of my coworkers has the Nexus S non-4G and he loves his. That said, after my painful (and expensive) experience with an Epic 4G I won't consider owning another Samsung phone unless you review it. If I'd trusted your review of the Epic 4G (GPS doesn't work, other problems, not ready for prime time) instead of the Engadget review (great phone and expect regular updates, you can trust Samsung!) I wouldn't have saddled myself with such an awful device.There's nothing quite like being five feet away from an adult tiger, holding up your phone to start a video recording, and have that phone hard crash and being a minute-long reboot process. It got bad enough that I had to shell out for a used EVO 4G :'(