HTC EVO 3D vs. Motorola Photon 4G: Choosing the Best Sprint Phone
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 17, 2011 11:11 PM ESTSoftware
Both the Photon 4G and EVO 3D run Gingerbread, although the Photon sports a slightly newer version (2.3.4 vs 2.3.3). The newer point release on Photon simply implements bug fixes, but don't take that to mean that the Photon should be a more stable phone. In my experience with the two, the Photon was more likely to crash although neither phone appeared to be particularly unstable.
The EVO 3D ships with HTC's Sense 3.0 UI and associated apps. We've covered Sense 3.0 extensively in previous articles, but our general feeling is that it's mostly a useful addition to Android. While I wish all phones would deliver a stock Android experience and let you simply add functionality on your own, Sense 3.0 isn't a pain to use.
Motorola's skin on the Photon isn't nearly as polished looking or functional as Sense 3.0 but it's not obnoxious either. Both UIs have good keyboards. Motorola's browser executes javascript faster than HTC's, while HTC's allows for smoother scrolling. Again with the tradeoffs.
Overall my preference here is the EVO 3D but I could live with either.
The Photon does have one feature the EVO 3D can't match: Motorola's Webtop App. Motorola first introduced us to its Webtop app on the Atrix, but its implementation on the Photon remains mostly unchanged. With the Photon 4G docked or connected to an external display via HDMI you have the option of firing up the Webtop app - a self contained Linux environment with a full version of Firefox 4.0.1. You can either use the Photon itself as a keyboard/mouse or you can tether input devices via Bluetooth. If you've got the multimedia dock there are three USB ports you can use instead. The idea is that can leave your netbook at home and use your phone, dock and portable keyboard as your PC on the go.
Motorola's Webtop App via HDMI on a TV
The Webtop experience is neat but only for light usage. We're still far from being able to duplicate a PC browsing experience on a smartphone but it's good to see manufacturers toying with the idea. In a couple of years it may just be reality.
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RaLX - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Pentile RGBW blows and it's worse than Pentile AMOLED because at least the latter has great contrast and colors...Are yellows in Photon as bad as in Atrix where they look like brown tinted and uncalibrated?
JayQ330 - Saturday, August 27, 2011 - link
you havent seen the photon's screen its not the same atrix or droid x2 screen you might of seen or read of, how about you read another review from engadget, *everyone knows engadget is biased & only love the iphone, but even they couldnt deny the photons great specs* the plastic feel of the photon? the photon is the most solid, high quality & very detailed android phones released. read other reviews than this one , this is the only review where they said nothing good of the photon. quadrant scores of 2900 to 3100 * those are my scores * most websites report 2900 to 3000 & thats witch a qHD screen! also its only a 1ghz dual core saving much battery & its rgbw pixels save more than 40% battery than average lcd & more than 70% compared to amoled plus. another thing about the screen it seems to be a newer version of samsungs rgbw pentile tech *yes samsung makes that screen* because its not pixelated, no ghosting effect & the colors are better than super lcd while its contrast & blacks are comparable to super amoled..i owned a galaxy s so i know. even ifag sites reviewed the phone & said that the screen is second only to the retina screen which means allot coming from them. you cant see the pixels especially in blacks thats how good the contrast is & its not a washed out black its ink darkness. besides the resolution & not having a virtual keypad that takes up half the screen space because of its higher res screen which is better for any app that you need to text in & any app period. super lcd is already up there with amoled plus do your research before becoming emotionally attached & being worst than ifan boys. besides the tegra 2 is a better more efficient soc than the exynos want proof? look at all the quadrant & antutu scores they're all overclocked to 1.5 ghz! & a droid x2 with half the ram higher resolution and android 2.2 gets higher scores in antutu in graphics & only 200 less points in quadrant. a and heres a better one the galaxy R with its 1 ghz tegra 2 soc gets 3600 in quadrant while the 1.2 ghz exynos gets a 3400 in quadrant! 200 mhz more & still gets less? i guess the lower resolution screen wasnt enough to beat the galaxy R? seriously like a phone for what it can do not what your emotions tell you to do, that a girls job.Alchemy69 - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
With the Samsung Galaxy S II just around the corner why choose either?IKeelU - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
[Im]patiently awaiting Galaxy S II review...anindrew - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Exactly! Samsung is supposed to have a big announcement/press release on August 29th. Considering the image they're using for the event has the Roman Numeral II on it and the fact that Samsung's CEO made a statement about the GS2 being released by the end of August, it seems that the GS2 will be released in the very near future.As a Sprint customer who is eligible for a new phone in October, I'm planning to get the GS2 rather than either of the two phones in this review. I'm looking forward to seeing a review of the GS2 on anandtech, especially if it compares the performance on each network. The phones should be nearly identical hardware-wise.
jnads - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Because Samsung software support blows.The Moment never got Froyo, and got EOL'ed after less than a year. The Intercept got EOL'ed and won't get Gingerbread.
The Galaxy S phones _STILL_ don't have Gingerbread 8 months after it was released.
Do you really want a Galaxy S II, knowing you'll never see Android Ice Cream?
g1011999 - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
The two cores share a "512MB" L2 cache but have a dual-channel memory interface.Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Fixed! Thank you :)Take care,
Anand
Vishnu NS - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
In the second paragraph, on the last line, you have written "the two cores share 512 MB of L2 cache...."A good read as always...!!
jjj - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
no WIFI perf or even specs ?