very premature evo review
So I got the HTV Evo 4G today - no pressing reason to get it, but I had a little loyalty gift card from sprint that defrayed the cost, and it’s showing my support both to the company and to the anti-iphone cause :)
Also my trackball on the blackberry has been acting up, so I figured that was a sign. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked the blackberry, but with my deal I get upgrades every year from sprint anyway. Plus, I didn’t really like the direction (ie nowhere) RIM seems to be going - at least with its sprint line. I’m happy, this is the first sprint phone people have gotten excited about in…well, ever? Palm Pre had some good buzz but apparently is at best a mediocre phone. The Evo isn’t an iphone killer or anything, but possibly an iphone competitor?
The cons are few but apparent - it’s big, possibly too big, and a bit on the heavy side (about 20% heavier than the iphone), and it’s screen resolution is slightly less awesome than the iphones - which still means it’s better than just about everything else out there. And also it’s got a bad battery life, but I think that’s always the case with these fullscreen phones. I will readily admit that if the iphone existed on the sprint network, I’d be tempted, despite my disdain for their culture and support.
The pros are just as apparent - the thing is super powerful, and super customizable. And big. Can really watch videos (in FLASH) on a quality level, has a great app store, HDMI output, etc. Plus, 4G. I’ve got it here in LA (even though it’s not official, and not everywhere) - and it is fast. Faster than DSL fast. Can’t wait till it’s everywhere. It runs down the Wilshire corridor though. Front and rear cameras higher resolution than iphones (8MP rear!). Plus it’s Sprint, so I can have a 5 minute conversation without a dropped call :)
Anyway, right after the purchase was complete the sales guy talked me through some of the screens and app/widget management, and it definitely seemed overwhelming. Gotta be honest, I had an impulsive desire to just return it and go back to my blackberry. I consider myself to be fairly technically proficient, so I can guess that some people will be similarly overwhelmed…maybe it’s just that I’m used to blackberry’s straightforward setup, and I’ve played with enough iphones in my day so I have a mental image for how the touch screen smartphone runs. Rajeev made the point when he switched from a generation 1 android to a blackberry (tour) - “Android is like a linux platform to blackberry’s windows: even though the former is powerful and customizable, I don’t always want to deal with that, and blackberry’s OS is more than adequate”. But I resisted the impulse, and walked out with mixed anticipation.
Got home, and really, 20 minutes of fiddling later I considered myself functionally literate for this thing. The learning curve is not bad at all, and you can really set things as you like them, and pretty easily. I think this new generation of Android phones is realizing its potential in a good way. I think I’m in love. With Anne Hathaway, but still. I’m in like with the phone.
