Loving the EVO (Praise thread) :-)

[dan330]

^^^ try the new ECHO

hahahhaha ha haha ahaha ha haha hahahahahaha lol

 

[novox77]

I honestly believe that the Evo is hands down the best smartphone on the market today. Yes, today, not when it launched. It's not all about the phone. Here's a list of things that I think make the Evo the best choice aside from the actual phone features:

1) HTC's current commitment to excellence. They actually do care about the user experience, and they spend a lot of R&D trying to make their devices more friendly to use. They also have the best reputation for supporting their older models. Proof:
Android upgrades: Which manufacturers can you trust? - Computerworld Blogs

2) Sprint's current commitment to excellence. I've been a Sprint customer since 1999, and I've seen the company's ups and downs, but currently, they are getting it right. Their focus is on customer satisfaction, and while it's not perfect, it's trending in the right direction. Their infrastructure is excellent. Call quality is great. Rarely get dropped calls. Coverage is more than enough for my needs. Plans are unbeatable. Even with the silly $10 premium data charge, they are cheaper than other carriers and give you more usage.

3) The Evo was the last smartphone released to really push the boundaries of smartphone innovation. The iPhone4 was a total dud in terms of innovation. I'll give it props for aesthetic innovation, but I don't place much weight on looks. Technologically, it's not much better than the older iphones. The latest Droids on verizon are comparable to the Evo, but none are significantly better. And I deduct points for phones manufactured by Motorola. The Epic had potential, but it was plagued with GPS issues, and Samsung is ******ed when it comes to supporting their phones. The Evo Shift is like a Lite version of the Evo, not really a successor.

My Evo is far from obsolete, but when I look at the current smartphone offerings, there's nothing out there I would want to replace my Evo. Definitely looking forward to a direct Evo sequel, or a major OS upgrade like 2.3 and/or the new Sense UI.

 

[jldillon]

I just got my Evo this past Monday and I am loving it. I had the Hero and thought that phone was awesome but now that I have the EVO, I actually now know what an awesome phone REALLY is. I love the screen size, the speed, the versatility. I also bought an Otterbox Commuter cover and it rocks as well. Sprint service with the EVO cannot be matched with any service out there. I have been with Sprint for a while and they have only gotten better over the years.

 

[BenChase7]

well, you can vote for it here ( http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/vote-for-the-2010-engadget-awards/ ) in the smartphone AND gadget categories.

 

[cmanbrazil]

I voted om endgadget and its nice to see the evo competing against the Iphone.

Evo is the only good smartphone I have ever had. Touch Diamond was horrible. I was out of contract with sprint, and it was between the diamond and the iphone. Boy did I pick the wrong phone.

Two years later, out of contract again, the choice was between the EVO, and the iphone 4. While I respect the iphone, and thank them for pushing smartphone development, I also thank google, for stepping up to the plate, and giving ios some real competition. I have two friends with iphones, and I wouldn't trade with them for anything.

From games when I am bored, too movies, youtube, internet, streaming music, news, weather, and other apps, to business emails, word documents, calendar and tasks masters, the phone overwhelms me. If I needed just one device in my life it would be my phone. I am only missing an external keyboard for meeting notes and it would be near perfect.

While I will upgrade this june if another great android phone shows up on Sprint, I coud live another year with this phone.

 

[Renee1228]

novox77, I totally agree with you! I have been with Sprint since 1997. They have really done a great job of improving customer service, while keeping their plans very affordable. I can't count the times when I've been at a meeting and the Verizon peeps can't get a signal and I can, forget about AT&T, they suck. My only gripe with Sprint was that for a while their phone selection just wasn't as good, and I felt like I was missing out, but that all changed when Android came on the scene.

I totally agree about HTC, and you summed it up perfectly. You can tell just by using both phones that HTC actually tested their phone and added features with the USER in mind. Samsung just put a phone together to sell with no thought to how user friendly is was or wasn't or how people would use it.

 

[Old Shadow]

novox77, I totally agree with you! I have been with Sprint since 1997. They have really done a great job of improving customer service, while keeping their plans very affordable.
I totally agree about HTC, and you summed it up perfectly. You can tell just by using both phones that HTC actually tested their phone and added features with the USER in mind.

Like Renee and Novox, I agree on the Sprint CS improvement, affordable plans, and a great phone in the Evo (3 in my family). We have been members since 2000 and Sprint has responded positively to every phone problem my family has faced. We have 4 phones on the Family Data Plan with unlimited everything and 1500 day minutes of which we might use 75 a month. We especially love America's Roaming on vacation. Perfectly happy! Now Sprint, don't mess with our unlimited data!

 

[Renee1228]

Now Sprint, don't mess with our unlimited data!

This worries me too!

 

[Old Shadow]

After hitting us for $10 more for data on the Evo, I think they would lose a multitude of customers if they took the unlimited data away. I'm paying for unlimited data on my family plan and now an additional $10 each for 3 Evos. Let's hope Sprint leaves the plan as is.

 

[Renee1228]

Exactly, and now they are adding the $10 to all numbers as they get upgraded. I upgraded my son's phone (but not to a 4G) and they still added $10. They said they are doing it to all lines as they come up for renewal. I'll pay it because I still think with the additional $10 it's still a very good value, but if they start changing the unlimited data, I will probably switch.

 

[novox77]

The good news is that Sprint has promised that WiMax will always be unlimited. And there's a technical reason to back up their promise. Because WiMax operates at a higher band than Verizon's LTE 4G, it offers more bandwidth by its physical wavelength properties. That means a ton of people can use the infrastructure without degrading the performance.

However, the drawback to WiMax is that because it operates at a high band, the waves don't travel as far as a lower band. This means that to get a good signal, you need to be near the towers. That means Sprint would need a ton of towers to bring WiMax to everyone.

This is the reason why 4G coverage is currently very spotty. Getting Wimax to everyone is not practical. Which is why Sprint is toying with the idea of simultaneously supporting LTE as well. This means that the majority of Sprint customers will eventually have good 4G speeds and coverage; however, LTE will likely be capped because of it's reduced bandwidth capability.

So, long term, I think Sprint is the only carrier with a shot at offering true unlimited plans. The catch is that it only applies for WiMax. If you live in a populated area (high population density), you're in luck. If you're somewhat rural, you may not get unlimited data, but at least you may still have 4G (via LTE) as an option.

A lot could change though. Smartphones use the vast majority of the bandwidth, and smartphones only have 20% penetration of the overall mobile phone market. Adoption of smartphones is skyrocketing, so pretty soon, the carriers have to figure out some way to handle all that capacity. And the consumers have pretty much spoken about not wanting caps. So... carriers are going to have to invest more money. And that means the cost of our plans are going to go up in response. That's exactly the reason why Sprint is now enforcing that $10 charge on all smartphones now.

Pick your poison

 

[Renee1228]

Wow, outstanding post! Thanks for all the information and explanation. (Total noob question: Is WiMax and 4G the same thing? And how does LTE differ from regular 4G?)

 

[novox77]

Wow, outstanding post! Thanks for all the information and explanation. (Total noob question: Is WiMax and 4G the same thing? And how does LTE differ from regular 4G?)

Haha, that's actually a loaded question. 4G is a standard set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). It dictates the conditions in which a radio conversation can be deemed 4G.

Sprint's flavor of 4G is called WiMax. Verizon's 4G is called LTE. AT&T is about to roll out an LTE-based 4G network as well. They are different protocols that cannot talk with each other (no roaming) but have roughly the same speeds.

The problem is that no carrier even comes close to the 4G speeds set by the ITU. Some people say whatever... that the ITU standards are unreasonable and the ITU is irrelevant. Others say it's fake 4G and just a way for a carrier to get the 1-up via marketing.

What is known is that the carriers are marketing their 4G as the "next generation" in speed. Meaning, it's faster than their existing 3G network. And what's the next number after 3? 4.

Then there's the iPhone 4. It is not a 4G-capable phone (even for fake 4G standards). Yet some people think it's a 4G phone. It's actually the 4th iteration (generation) of the iPhone models. iphone, iphone 3g, iphone 3gs, iphone4. The current iphone4 available on Verizon cannot utilize the LTE network. It's a 3G phone.

 

[karong]

I got the Evo when it first came out last year and I liked it alot, but after a few months I bought into the Apple hype (yea I know) and ditched it for a iphone 4. Now I did love my iphone I cant lie, iOS is very smooth, fluid and the itunes sync is unmatched. So why am I back to the Evo u ask, a few reasons but 2 main issues. iphone notification system is horrid, yes i knew abt it before hand and thought I could live with it but I couldnt take it anymore. Very intrusive and little privacy. I did jailbreak and got a pop-up blocker which helped somewhat but I thought to myself. I spend half my time looking for jailbreak apps to give me features that come standard on Android phones. 2nd, AT&T sucks balls in NYC. During my 30 trial i had the dropped call here and there, again I thought it was something i could live with, but its gotten much worse over the past month and i dont get any data coverage around my job, I have to switch to EDGE. Sprint has 4G, why the hell am I using EDGE?? So 2 days ago I got my Evo and the iphone is going on Ebay tomorrow.

After playing with the Evo i forgot how many features it has that the iphone doesnt. I see a few things has changed since I been away from the Evo, updates, new apps etc but these forums have helped me a great deal the past few days. Best part I was able to find most of my apps that i used on the iphone on the android market or something similar. I even talked 2 of my friends into getting Droids, they are with Tmobile so they both got the G2 and are very happy, except for battery life of course. I see that hasnt changed much. lol Good to be back

 

[Caloy]

Welcome back.

 

[Dreamliner]

Curious.

I've been contemplating jumping to the Verizon iPhone, but the only things that hold me back are notifications, T9 dialer and widgets.

I can solve the T9 dialer and widgets with Cydia (iSmart Dialer and Lockscreen Info) but the notification thing still bugs me.

Also keeping me with Sprint is the fact that Verizon would be about double my current monthly bill.

Do you miss the smoothness and refinement of the iOS, does the pulling up pictures on your EVO bug you compared to how smooth it was on the iPhone?

If iPhone was on Sprint, would you still keep the EVO?

 

[toomuchgame441]

Ugh no iPhone, it would be the Evo all day. I am able to do too much on this device that I can't with the iPhone. It's a no brainer to me.

 

[ndh777]

Well I am officially on day 32 of owning my evo so I am past the point of no return. I could not be happier with this phone and hope to have a long and fruitful life with my precious. I was nervous about changing over to sprint but I could not be happier with the service I am getting. I just wanted to post a positive post for once as it seems their is so many nit picky negative posts on here and for once I wanted to let people know that there are some completely satisfied customers out there.

Same here. Glad to find somewhere to voice my appreciation too!

Don't care much for the 4G so don't think I'm just some guy who loves the phone for 4G.

I always wanted an iPhone since day one of its announcement, upon receiving the Evo...I have no wants for any other phone. Google is a great company, better than Apple because they allow us to hack and do all sorts of neat stuff with our phones and their software.

It is going to be hard to top off this phone...I've had mine for months since like August 2010.

 

[toomuchgame441]

Same here. Glad to find somewhere to voice my appreciation too!

Don't care much for the 4G so don't think I'm just some guy who loves the phone for 4G.

I always wanted an iPhone since day one of its announcement, upon receiving the Evo...I have no wants for any other phone. Google is a great company, better than Apple because they allow us to hack and do all sorts of neat stuff with our phones and their software.

It is going to be hard to top off this phone...I've had mine for months since like August 2010.

I agree, I had my Evo since October. I had the HTC Hero prior and I loved that little thing to. I assumed I would get bored with HTC because I thought the Evo would just be a faster, bigger Hero. Boy was I wrong. The sheer amount of power the Evo has is just overwhelming sometimes. This device has almost taken over as my primary computing device even over my desktop. Being away from my computer most of the time, I never skip a beat having the Evo. I download most my music from my phone, take fantastic photos and edit it straight from the Evo. Its crazy how much I rely on this device.

 

[JunBringer]

...except for battery life of course. I see that hasnt changed much. lol Good to be back

If you read a lot of tips online etc you can get really good battery life.

 

[marybee]

I am glad to see this thread!

I currently have a Palm Pre and have decided when my 1 year is up on March 18th I will change to the EVO.

The two things I like the most on my Palm are the wireless Tether for free and the ability to block calls.

I use my wireless tether all the time and am concerned about being able to do the same thing on the EVO phone. I know you have to root the phone for the wireless free tether and that concerns me. I am not a phone guru, I did hack my Palm when I got it to be able to tether but the steps for doing that on the Palm were much easier than what I have read, that I have to do for my EVO.

I hope I am making the right decision on change, it looks like a fun phone and I love the fact that my screen will be much bigger!

 

[dan330]

welcome to af...

and you will love it..
it is not that hard.. dont worry.

 

[ndh777]

I am glad to see this thread!

I currently have a Palm Pre and have decided when my 1 year is up on March 18th I will change to the EVO.

The two things I like the most on my Palm are the wireless Tether for free and the ability to block calls.

I use my wireless tether all the time and am concerned about being able to do the same thing on the EVO phone. I know you have to root the phone for the wireless free tether and that concerns me. I am not a phone guru, I did hack my Palm when I got it to be able to tether but the steps for doing that on the Palm were much easier than what I have read, that I have to do for my EVO.

I hope I am making the right decision on change, it looks like a fun phone and I love the fact that my screen will be much bigger!

Welcome to the family! Hope you enjoy your stay with Evo/Android/and Android Forums. All three are excellent combinations. I am having a hard time finding a better phone than my Evo. I was not too phone techy either but rooting was so easy with unrEVOked and the wonderful users here in this forum who stayed up all night with me many nights helping me every step of the way. Let me know if you need any help. I'm no expert, but I'll try my best. Once again, welcome.

I would recommend Mr. Number and Callfilter for blocking calls. Best combination EVER!

 

[marybee]

Welcome to the family! Hope you enjoy your stay with Evo/Android/and Android Forums. All three are excellent combinations. I am having a hard time finding a better phone than my Evo. I was not too phone techy either but rooting was so easy with unrEVOked and the wonderful users here in this forum who stayed up all night with me many nights helping me every step of the way. Let me know if you need any help. I'm no expert, but I'll try my best. Once again, welcome.

I would recommend Mr. Number and Callfilter for blocking calls. Best combination EVER!

Thank you! Yep, I will probably need some help, it is all Greek to me right now as the only smart phone I have ever had is my Palm Pre. It is
nerve racking switching from a phone you really know to a phone that
I know nothing about! I just hope I like it...

If I can get the wifi teather up and running, I think I will be really happy!

Can you think of any "must have" accessories I should get so I have it
here when I get my phone next Friday?

 

[dan330]

1. extra data cable... with an usb/car plug. this comes in handy in so many situations. any place you are, there is always a usb outlet for charging. or share data.

2. a case..

3. send time reading in the .. rooting and learn all the new terms.