Ars reviews the HTC EVO 4G

[rawr_boy81]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/reviews/2010/06/hands-on-ars-reviews-the-htc-evo-4g.ars

The HTC EVO 4G is arguably one of the most ambitious smartphones ever to ship with Google's Android mobile operating system. Exclusive to Sprint, the device is one of the first to deliver 4G network connectivity. Its appeal is boosted by impressive hardware specs and a roster of outstanding capabilities, like support for high-definition video capture. It comes loaded with HTC's unique user interface enhancements and custom applications, which round out its feature set nicely.

Despite its strong assortment of merits, the device falls short of greatness due to mediocre battery life and a handful of other limitations. In this review, we'll take a close hands-on look at the EVO 4G.

It appears that those who have been trumpeting it as the second coming of the big JC have been sorely mistaken when the rubber hits the road and a real examination takes place. I wonder where all those EVO devotee's are now who spam iPhone 4 news articles proclaiming that "iPhone 4 sucks, I'm going to get an EVO"? seems to be rather quiet on the western front at the moment that such a comprehensive review slides under the radar as the iPhone bash-a-thon starts by those occupying the cheap seats.

[Mr. Gibs]

I don't understand this bit:

The EVO's high-end specs, excellent performance, and top-notch feature lineup are exciting, but the poor battery life sadly diminishes the value of the product. Some of the EVO's most compelling differentiators—such as the large screen, 4G connectivity, and WiFi tethering—are not consistently useful in practice and come with caveats and detrimental trade-offs.

The battery life is better than the 3GS, and while people didn't like that either they didn't claim it ruined the product. Not to mention, you can buy an extended battery and replace it.

They also say that 4g is a major battery drain, so just disable it and use 3g which is still decently fast. You want the extra speed, you take the extra battery hit. Simple. Nor do I understand how WiFi tethering isn't useful and comes with a detrimental trade-off. If you don't want to use it, don't use it. You don't have to have it on all the time, everywhere you go so if you want to use it turn it on. Try running the iPhone with WiFi and 3g radio always on and you'll see the battery takes a hit because of it.

Finally the large screen. Yes it does take some time to get used to but once that is done you can use the phone with 1 hand. I have an HD2 and the only things I use more than 1 hand for is multitouch and typing in something. This has seriously got to be the first review that I've seen that criticizes a 4.3" screen; not even the hd2 reviews complained about it. Everyone has agreed that the huge screen is fantastic.

It's clear that smartphone makers still haven't found the sweet spot for large form-factor handheld devices. Simply increasing the size of the screen is not a recipe for building a better phone. The handset makers need to adopt higher resolutions for large displays so that the additional physical space consumed by the screen will actually translate into extra viewable area.

That has to be my favorite bit. When other phones had WVGA and the iPhone only had HVGA (?), everyone said it was no big deal and that nobody needs such a high resolution anyways.

Now that the iPhone 4g has a 960x640 resolution (more than WVGA), everyones like oh well WVGA is old you need more.

The 4G connectivity is a non-starter for me because it isn't widely available yet and it saps the battery much too fast. It really doesn't add anything to the phone.

Yes faster browsing speed doesn't really add anything to the phone. I wonder why we're coming out with LTE next year with a theoretical 100mbps speed then. Nobody needs it :rolleyes:

[Billus]

I like your thinking Razorfold. +1

[+LogicalApex MVC]

The battery life is better than the 3GS, and while people didn't like that either they didn't claim it ruined the product. Not to mention, you can buy an extended battery and replace it.

They also say that 4g is a major battery drain, so just disable it and use 3g which is still decently fast. You want the extra speed, you take the extra battery hit. Simple. Nor do I understand how WiFi tethering isn't useful and comes with a detrimental trade-off. If you don't want to use it, don't use it. You don't have to have it on all the time, everywhere you go so if you want to use it turn it on. Try running the iPhone with WiFi and 3g radio always on and you'll see the battery takes a hit because of it.

Battery life matters... A LOT.

Using 4G will cause massive battery drain from what I understand. The same will happen with enabling the WiFi tethering (not to mention the extra cost). It is fair to crticize the phone for having poor battery life that is made even worse when you enable 4G or WiFi tethering...

To say that Sprint warned you that 4G will make your phone's battery life suck even more isn't an excuse when you are paying an extra $10/m for that 4G access.

Finally the large screen. Yes it does take some time to get used to but once that is done you can use the phone with 1 hand. I have an HD2 and the only things I use more than 1 hand for is multitouch and typing in something. This has seriously got to be the first review that I've seen that criticizes a 4.3" screen; not even the hd2 reviews complained about it. Everyone has agreed that the huge screen is fantastic.

To each his own. I purchased the Sprint EVO for my brother for his birthday on launch day. He loved the screen and was telling me I had to get one. I personally find the screen too big. It looks nice to some, but not everyone wants a screen that large.

The largest I'm going to be OK with is the size of my Touch Pro 2, but even that is pushing it.

Yes faster browsing speed doesn't really add anything to the phone. I wonder why we're coming out with LTE next year with a theoretical 100mbps speed then. Nobody needs it :rolleyes:

Since you need to run your phone with 4G off most of the time or risk battery life shrinking into crap territory I have to agree with the author. I don't think (from your quote) that he is saying faster browsing isn't welcome, but it shouldn't be done in a way that causes so much battery loss. As if you have too much battery drain you'll need to keep it off. If you can't use 4G because it will kill your battery it doesn't add anything to your phone (as you're not able to use it anyway).

[Mr. Gibs]

Battery life matters... A LOT.

Since you need to run your phone with 4G off most of the time or risk battery life shrinking into crap territory I have to agree with the author. I don't think (from your quote) that he is saying faster browsing isn't welcome, but it shouldn't be done in a way that causes so much battery loss. As if you have too much battery drain you'll need to keep it off. If you can't use 4G because it will kill your battery it doesn't add anything to your phone (as you're not able to use it anyway).

Theres comments that talks about that on the arstechnica review.

I'm not sure why everyone is having such a problem with battery life. I use my EVO nearly non stop, and it easily lasts me the day (12 hours). It's about the same/slightly better as my iTouch. if I'm playing with it constantly, the battery will dip, but never this "unable to get through the day" shenanigans I keep hearing about. but that's just me

I think some phones just have vastly different battery life, because I've never had anywhere near this bad battery life. I get 4 hrs as a 4g *hotspot* (read: tethering WITH 4g on) and 36 hrs easily with typical use. it's not like you're usually sitting around for eight hours browsing on a phone

I think too much is being made about the EVO's battery life when this appears to be a 4G problem. So when you turn out 4G you get about 10 hours of moderate use? Well I guess it partly depends on your definition of moderate use but I get about 10 hours of moderate use from my iPhone 3GS. I use it a lot; looking up contact details, firing off and responding to emails, looking things up, using Google Maps to find places, making calls and so on.

Oh, and I think Ryan points out a very valid point, the baseline settings for the EVO probably make it's battery look much worse than it is. I think it's a bit much to say that is the phone's greatest weakness. After all, a few minor customizations (and a slightly longer than normal battery calibration period) now has my EVO routinely getting 16-24 hours between charges, at moderate to high usage.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

Theres comments that talks about that on the arstechnica review.

I was just commenting from what I've read and what you stated. Since I don't own an EVO myself I can't comment on how hard its battery hit is, but my point was simply to state how important battery life is.

HTC can get it wrong. I still remember the dark days of my Sprint Touch Pro where I had to carry around 4 spare batteries to get through a heavy usage day and two to get through a normal day. But I'm a heavy user of my phone. I'm quick to pull out my phone to check a variety of information sources. I am using Exchange Push with about 200+ emails a day, etc.

Even the MUCH improved (battery life wise) Touch Pro 2 can't get me through a whole day on a single charge.

Battery life isn't HTC's strong point.

[Mr. Gibs]

HTC can get it wrong. I still remember the dark days of my Sprint Touch Pro where I had to carry around 4 spare batteries to get through a heavy usage day and two to get through a normal day. But I'm a heavy user of my phone. I'm quick to pull out my phone to check a variety of information sources. I am using Exchange Push with about 200+ emails a day, etc.

I'm not saying the battery life is great, or that the battery life is bad. I don't have an Evo so I can't comment on it either. But according to comments, people who have evo 4gs don't seem to suffer from as much of a battery life drain as the review suggested; all the comments say that the evo gets them through more than 10-12 hours with 4g activated. So could it just be a simple software issue? One of the commenter's said that he did some minor tweaks to his evo to increase battery life and I know my hd2 shipped with a pretty poor battery life, and then an update fixed it making it much much better.

What I didn't understand was very few people made the iPhone 3gs to be a bad phone because of its battery life, which isn't better than the evo 4g. So why should the Evo be subject to more harsher reviews than the 3GS in regards to its battery, even with taking into consideration the phone is a lot more powerful, has more radios, and has a bigger screen with a higher resolution?

[+LogicalApex MVC]

I'm not saying the battery life is great, or that the battery life is bad. I don't have an Evo so I can't comment on it either. But according to comments, people who have evo 4gs don't seem to suffer from as much of a battery life drain as the review suggested; all the comments say that the evo gets them through more than 10-12 hours with 4g activated. So could it just be a simple software issue? One of the commenter's said that he did some minor tweaks to his evo to increase battery life and I know my hd2 shipped with a pretty poor battery life, and then an update fixed it making it much much better.

What I didn't understand was very few people made the iPhone 3gs to be a bad phone because of its battery life, which isn't better than the evo 4g. So why should the Evo be subject to more harsher reviews than the 3GS in regards to its battery, even with taking into consideration the phone is a lot more powerful, has more radios, and has a bigger screen with a higher resolution?

It has a lot to do with the fact the EVO wasn't released last year with the iPhone 3GS. The fact it is out now means any comparisons, valid or invalid, will be made to the phone dropping out now.

I agree there are factors that reflect the battery life differences between a phone like the iPhone 4 and the EVO, but I hope HTC learns a few lessons. They need to go beyond raw specs and try their best to optimize the whole phone.

[Boz]

Battery life matters... A LOT.

Using 4G will cause massive battery drain from what I understand. The same will happen with enabling the WiFi tethering (not to mention the extra cost). It is fair to crticize the phone for having poor battery life that is made even worse when you enable 4G or WiFi tethering...

To say that Sprint warned you that 4G will make your phone's battery life suck even more isn't an excuse when you are paying an extra $10/m for that 4G access.

You do still understand that you can get larger battery or even carry additional one in your pocket if you need it so bad.. something you can't do with iPhone. Again, CHOICE!

Razorfold is on the money here.. Evo 4G is absolutely the best smartphone on the market. With amazing power comes battery demand, but thankfully you can buy higher rated battery and get a spare one and it's not a big deal. I'd still have that option, than have everything closed up in iPhone and when it's done it's done.

Not to mention due to micro-USB charger you can charge this phone ANYWHERE where there is USB, plus the converters for cars and chargers are cheaper this way too.

I mean it's such a non-issue it's not even funny.

And again, none of the features that EVO 4G has like wifi tethering, USB tethering, 4G network (where available) and even 3G network is faster than AT&T are available on iPhone. These days even Nexus One has 720p @ 30fps recording with some software updates by 3rd parties, not that 720p at 30fps or at 24fps plays a huge difference anyways. And let's not even talk about retina display hype. Apple has again created an non-standard display that fits only them. 800x480 vs 960x640 is completely irrelevant on these screen sizes. Nobody is holding a phone an inch from their nose, so the whole you can't pixels is completely ridiculous. Super AMOLED displays are better than IPS LCD anyways.

I am personally waiting for Droid X to finally get rid of iPhones and garbage AT&T and switch to Verizon.

Plus, Evo 4G actually works.. New reports say that iPhone 4 loses reception when you hold it specifically with you hand because of the whole antenna being the frame thing, plus people are reporting yellow spots on the "magical" retina-display.

What I hate is that people write these biased reviews and spitting and not acknowledging when Apple has been outmatched with technology and openness, but then the same site and authors start bitching about how Apple is trying to take away their ads. Stop sucking up and be objective douche-bags.

[Boz]

It has a lot to do with the fact the EVO wasn't released last year with the iPhone 3GS. The fact it is out now means any comparisons, valid or invalid, will be made to the phone dropping out now.

I agree there are factors that reflect the battery life differences between a phone like the iPhone 4 and the EVO, but I hope HTC learns a few lessons. They need to go beyond raw specs and try their best to optimize the whole phone.

I don't think HTC needs to learn anything.. their recent phones are super powerful. You can get larger battery or not.. The phone lasts all day.. I have a friend who has it. He says, for first few days it was kind of bad until the battery was fully formed.. so it took one or two full charges.. after that it lasted him easily a full day. Of course if he was watching movies, playing games and similar, battery drained significantly faster.

My Nexus One lasts me whole day with it's miserably small battery.

But it's not really HTC engineering that's an issue here.. It's Android that gets better with every revision. Android 2.2 has significantly improved battery life. Same operations and optimizations have made a big difference.

I'm just annoyed by this whole apple-fanboy and PR tactics to try to paint Android phones and Evo 4G in bad light because it kicked Apple's iPhone 3G/3GS butt. It even kicks iPhone 4 butt.

And this will soon change when we get 2Ghz dual core ARM processors in our new phones from Motorola, Samsung, HTC and so forth.. I guess Apple's PR will have to work overtime to try to persuade people that iPhone is still better but eventually there will be a point where no BS will work anymore, because Apple can't keep up releasing revisions of their phone every few months. At best they can do it once a year, so they will become obsolete fast.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

You do still understand that you can get larger battery or even carry additional one in your pocket if you need it so bad.. something you can't do with iPhone. Again, CHOICE!

Razorfold is on the money here.. Evo 4G is absolutely the best smartphone on the market. With amazing power comes battery demand, but thankfully you can buy higher rated battery and get a spare one and it's not a big deal. I'd still have that option, than have everything closed up in iPhone and when it's done it's done.

Not to mention due to micro-USB charger you can charge this phone ANYWHERE where there is USB, plus the converters for cars and chargers are cheaper this way too.

I mean it's such a non-issue it's not even funny.

I am no iPhone fan. I think having a battery I can't change it stupid... Now that I've gotten that out of the way.

Just because I can add an extended battery or buy spares doesn't mean the OEM shouldn't design the phone to work properly. Put in plain terms. The OEM should be honest about their battery life up front. They should baseline their battery life tests on how ACTUAL people use their devices. They should then deliver a device that can last 20+ hours a charge in that usage case (to allow the battery to wear well).

But to be clear. There is NO "Best" phone. We each have different usage patterns and likes. I personally don't rank the EVO very high on my list of cool phones. That doesn't make my ranked list right or wrong. It is better if we stick to tangible differences (like battery life being too short or just right) and not bring intangible and vague differences (like your "best" designation) into the discussion.

[Mr. Gibs]

The OEM should be honest about their battery life up front. They should baseline their battery life tests on how ACTUAL people use their devices. They should then deliver a device that can last 20+ hours a charge in that usage case (to allow the battery to wear well).

That's one thing that struck me as odd with the Evo. I cannot find an official battery report anywhere; every other phone on HTC's website has battery life listed.

Could this mean Sprint / HTC knew about the battery life issues, and are working on a fix? Because like I said, for now its all pointing to a software issue. People who have rooted or tweaked their phones, aren't having bad battery life. The people who haven't and are still on stock roms / settings, are.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

That's one thing that struck me as odd with the Evo. I cannot find an official battery report anywhere; every other phone on HTC's website has battery life listed.

Could this mean Sprint / HTC knew about the battery life issues, and are working on a fix? Because like I said, for now its all pointing to a software issue. People who have rooted or tweaked their phones, aren't having bad battery life. The people who haven't and are still on stock roms / settings, are.

That is quite possible. They probably rushed the software out to beat getting the device out before the iPhone 4.

[tsupersonic]

I agree with Frazell. Battery life isn't HTC's best feature. On the HTC Incredible (similar to the EVO - except 3.7", no front facing camera and a few other minor things), the 1300mAH battery doesn't even fully charge. The phone claims it charges fully, but it doesn't. It drops from 100-95% in a matter of minutes, and that's not right. To get a better charge, one has to wait for the indication that the phone is fully charged, unplug the charger, turn off the phone, then charge it again till the light turns green. It's a pain in the ass. I like that there is a market for extended batteries for the Incredible and other phones these days, but the extended batteries are overpriced and add to the phone's dimensions.

The issue I'm having with the Incredible is fixable through an OTA. But, HTC (AND other manufacturers) really needs to start working on battery life. I want to start seeing 2-3 days of usage on a single charge on smartphones. I'm also a pretty heavy user, but I do try and save battery where I can. I can usually manage 30 hours of light usage (3 push accounts, AIM, gtalk, internet, etc).