Evo 3D

[dprids]

I have not been more excited for a phone since the Palm Pre rolled out 2 years ago. I remember checking the forums constantly, scouring the internet for video content, debating in my mind the reliability of 'leaks', even learning more about Linux. I remember going to the store early in the morning on release day, meeting with strangers (but fellow geeks and comrades all the same), discussing with excitement the world of opportunity this phone would offer. Then the store opening and being quarreled into a roped off area with a VIP bottle of water and a lazy boy. I even had my picture taken by the store.


Strengths for the phone included: The cloud based contacts concept was just taking off, 'Cards' on WebOS were great, slider (a must at that time), parallel operating programs was an original, hackable potentials of Linux WebOS were all too exciting. The greatest phone (read: toy that is always in my pocket) a person could have.


But..... My phone broke over and over again. The slider became loose in weeks, the battery lost contacts in the back and I had to put cardboard paper to keep it in place, the operating system was not as customizable as expected. And the list of 'little things' goes on (battery life, cheap hardware).


I just went to pre-order my Evo 3D yesterday (at no cost, BTW and I have a confirmation number).
I am concerned about disappointment. I want to have the most realistic expectations. I want to know the true downsides to this phone so that I go into the game with appropriate expectations. So, this is a post to list some of the realistic downsides. Not to dog on the phone. Not to encourage people not to get it. If not anything else, it has been cathartic to express my concerns to you guys. Thanks.




List:

1. battery life concerns
2. ??????????

 

[novox77]

Welcome to the forums!

For most people, the Evo 4G lived up to the hype. Many Evo owners consider their phone to be the best smartphone ever made. Yet there are others whose experiences were poor.

As far as what COULD go wrong? As an engineer, I'll answer: everything.
It's the price of early adoption I'm pretty sure Apple didn't intend for calls to get dropped if you "held the phone wrong." Leaks of the iP5 show they ditched that antenna design.

Those of us getting this phone on or near launch day are taking a leap of faith that this device is going to kick ass and blow us away. Welcome to the party

 

[deltatko]

I had a Pre too. I loved it and I still do. I knew when I bought it, that I was taking a gamble on a first gen OS and first gen hardware. webOS in my opinion has so much potential that has been wasted by lack of competitive hardware over the last year +.

I jumped ship last June on the EVO and love it way more than I expected to, and I have no regrets or disappointment what so ever. I expect the 3D to be a very similar experience. HTC make very high quality stuff (though there are always some lemons in every batch of phones) and Android in general is great.

I don't think you should worry too much. You will be very happy with the EVO 3D.

 

[ArmageddonX]

Welcome to the forums.

I could have written your OP our stories are so similar. Truly. I, too, am a Palm Pre owner and have been disappointed from day 1 with the device.

I share all of your concerns and fears. Lets hope HTC/Android doesn't let us down like Palm/webOS did.

On-topic; The only downside for me with the EVO 3D is the actual 3D. I wont ever use the 3D function and honestly find it to be a bit of a gimmick. Now, that's just my opinion.

The 5MP Camera could be a 8MP but from what I understand the 5MP camera is one of the higher quality 5MPs in any phone right now. So, if I had to choose a poor quality 8MP or an amazing quality 5MP... I'd go with the latter.

Everything else about the Evo3D looks top notch.

 

[ogrenator]

no phone is perfect but this thing is proven...the pre was palms first phone in the new generation and was already running old hardware...as far as battery life expect a day just like any other smartphone these days...I'm not sure what you are expecting but [mod edit] are you still using the pre today? I feel like you will be stoked with the phone either way I wouldn't worry too much

 

[CarrieK]

I am a current EVO 4G owner and I am upgrading to the 3VO. Why? Oddly enough, it is because I have been so happy with my EVO 4G. My husband, who isn't a phone-junkie like me, gets some pretty good hand-me-downs, one of them being my rooted EVO 4G. I am a bit nervous because I have customized my EVO 4G exactly the way I want it and hope that the 3VO is as good as I anticipate. I have a feeling it will be.

 

[even4steven]

I stood on line to get the EVO 4G(first by the way) and still do love my Evo...

That being said, if I was eligible for an upgrade (Sprint changed the plan) which I am not,

As tempted as I am by the new Evo 3D- I think I would opt instead for the Nexus S 4g.

What is stopping me from getting the new EVO is the Gingerbread upgrade I just got. It was very disappointing to say the least. I would rather have a clear path to the real upgrade than all the gee whiz new features from HTC and the early adapter problems that this will bring... Yep, give me the plain vanilla and I will make it into my own sundae

While I have enjoyed tweaking and playing with the EVO, I have reached the point of I just want it to always work easy, with a battery that lasts the day....

Good luck to all of you (yeah, I am kind of jealous)

Steve

 

[fishnugget]

I had the same experience as the OP with the Palm Pre. Now I just pre-ordered the Evo 3D. I've had my Palm Pre for 2 years as well and though it has its highs there seem to be more lows. I got to play with an Evo 4g last winter and really liked it. This is why I am finally going to drop my Palm Pre. I am sure the Evo 3D will not dissapoint. I know for a fact the hardware quality will be worlds better than the Palm Pre.

 

[doron]

I'm looking forward to this phone more that I did when the Pre came out.
HTC has a proven track record so I'm not too worried. My Pre always had horrible battery life and I learned to live with it by carrying a second battery with me everywhere. Non slider phones are also more solid!

I'd say the only thing I'm not holding my breath for is 3D. I played around with the Nintendo 3DS and was really disappointed...and I hear the EVO3D has similar viewing angles.

The fact that the bootloader will be unlocked will also give this phone a lot more longevity than the Pre ever had.

 

[ArmageddonX]

It's completely off-topic, but Palm dropped the ball with webOS. I come from a webOS community. Palm made everything proprietary and expected to succeed against an open platform like Android or against the Apple monster. Now, HP is re-launching webOS and acting like the Palm Pre & Pixi never happen. Telling all their Legacy device customers through their actions that they don't care about them anymore....

I predict the Evo3D is going to be a solid device and I have no doubts about the Android platform. If you're worried about battery life grab an extended battery. I plan on doing so because if you don't mind the extra bulk how can you go wrong? Also, the Evo3D will has a 4.3" rgb-qHD-LCD. It will have beautiful color, resolution, and functionality. I'm really excited about it and I hope you will be too.

Don't let your past experiences with Palm ruin your excitement for this new Android HTC Evo 3D. =)

It's a different manufacturer, different operating system, & completely new technology. It's going to be MUCH faster than your Palm Pre and I think you'll be blown away by how much your Evo3D does compared to our old Palms. Also, blown away by HTCs customer service compared to Palm/HP.

 

[dprids]

I still have the palm pre too (3rd exchange was the keeper, after the problems). Very excited. At baseline, it wont be hard to impress me coming from the Pre. As an addendum from the previous post: sitting in the lazy boy, I felt mildly ridiculous. But the experience did manifest my internal excitement. My girlfriend doesnt really get it.

Concerns elaborated:

Battery life:
I dont really want to carry a battery, I am a surgical resident, and traveling light is essential. Also, 30hr shifts are hard to charge for. But I have an extended battery on my pre now, maybe for the 3d too....

3D:
Although 'gimicky' and refering to the 'natural progression of 3d', 3D is the future, just like stereo sound. 20 yrs from now, we will be able to retroalter our 3d pics into the current technology. No one else will be able to look back like us Evo 3D users. I plan to take pictures of trauma and surgical pathology, it will be great to show attendings when describing something I saw on-call, overnight.

 

[NeoteriX]

As novox77 said, it's the cost of being an early adopter. You could always wait a few additional weeks for the reviews to come out in order to be more confident in your purchase, but every device is a matter of balancing competing demands and of compromise. It's hard to say what compromises are ok for some and not ok for others.

I will note though regarding battery life:

-- Some people have been satisfied and other dissatisfied with the battery life of the Evo 4G (put me in the satisfied camp). In other words, battery life is a constantly controversial and personal topic

-- Battery life has been something that is modestly improving over each iteration of Android, as Google improves overall performance and computing efficiency, garbage collection, idle processing, etc. (from 2.1 > 2.2 > 2.3)

-- The Evo 3D has one of the largest cell phone batteries to date (1700+ mAH)

-- It is unknown to what extent the 3D Parallax barrier will consume additional power, and if it consumes power only when 3D is on or if there is some constant cost to having the barrier

-- It is unknown to what extent an additional camera will exact some constant battery cost as well

-- It is suggested by Qualcomm that the dual core setup will provide battery savings over the Evo 4G Snapdragon as you can split tasks between the cores and run each (smaller sized) task at a lower clock speed than at say, (the full sized task) full speed on a single core (the asynchronous, aka independent core speeds also help here). As apps are developed or optimized with dual core setups in mind, battery efficiency may improve over time as well.

-- The new dual core Snapdragon is fabricated at 45 nm whereas the Evo 4G (QSD8650) had a Snapdragon fabbed at 65nm. As a rule of thumb, the smaller transistor fabrication size, the more power efficient the processor is

- The Evo 3D will use the same 4G chip as the Evo 4G, but there may be improved power management or other silicon in the 3D

So, in a nutshell, there are a lot of factors/variables that play either way with respect to battery life and we won't know until we get the unit how all the factors will combine in the real world.

 

[novox77]

3D:
Although 'gimicky' and refering to the 'natural progression of 3d', 3D is the future, just like stereo sound. 20 yrs from now, we will be able to retroalter our 3d pics into the current technology. No one else will be able to look back like us Evo 3D users. I plan to take pictures of trauma and surgical pathology, it will be great to show attendings when describing something I saw on-call, overnight.

couldn't agree more We have the tech to capture the source stereo images. Even if our 3D display technology needs serious improvement now, the source material will someday look incredible. Love the forward-thinking here!

 

[ebolamonkey3]

I predict the Evo3D is going to be a solid device and I have no doubts about the Android platform. If you're worried about battery life grab an extended battery. I plan on doing so because if you don't mind the extra bulk how can you go wrong?

I really want to know if someone (Seido, maybe?) will offer a higher capacity battery that doesn't add any bulk. The 3vo is already a substantial phone, I'd rather not make it any larger than it is.

As for OP's original question, almost anything can go wrong as EarlyMon said. And if we know about the issue now, HTC wouldn't have released it with the defect anyhow. With that said though, HTC has been known to build quality handsets so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Here are some of my concerns though:

1. battery life - biggest problem with the original EVO, and coming from the Atrix (phenomenal battery life), I'm afraid it'll be a hard adjustment.
2. 3D technology - because it's new, chances are higher there will be unforeseen issues with the technology (viewing angles, brightness in daylight, wear and tear, power consumption, etc).
3. camera quality - this was one of the original EVO's weakness, so we'll have to see how well the 3vo does in capturing still images and videos, especially in low light conditions with movement.
4. size - not the phone's problem, but coming from the Atrix and the iPhone 3G before that, it'll be a big change. I'd imagine it's going to be the same for you since you're coming from a Palm Pre.
5. glass separation issue - it was an issue with some of the original EVOs, but in all likelihood HTC has fixed this by now.

 

[falconey]

Unlike an actual honeymoon, buying this phone gives you a 30 day trial. This is one reason I'm probably not going to trade my 4G in or sell it until I'm sure the 3vo is stable.

 

[NeoteriX]

I really want to know if someone (Seido, maybe?) will offer a higher capacity battery that doesn't add any bulk. The 3vo is already a substantial phone, I'd rather not make it any larger than it is.

Battery technology advancements have not been all that impressive, and I have a lot of skepticism that Seidio can cram more battery into a given form factor than the largest capacity available in that form by the OEM. My personal belief is that you're buying a battery with the same capacity, but advertised at a high capacity and at a much higher price.


Though I used to buy Seidio batteries exclusively for my cell phones, I'm not doing so anymore. I believe buying known OEM batteries at a lower price than Seidio's is probably the most cost-effective route to go.

BatteryBoss Calls Out False Capacity Claims!

 

[ebolamonkey3]

Though I used to buy Seidio batteries exclusively for my cell phones, I'm not doing so anymore. I believe buying known OEM batteries at a lower price than Seidio's is probably the most cost-effective route to go.

BatteryBoss Calls Out False Capacity Claims!

That is one depressing site

I guess I will wait a couple of months and lots of user reviews before buying a new battery.

 

[ArmageddonX]

BatteryBoss Calls Out False Capacity Claims!

That website makes me angry... are we all seriously getting lied to? It will definitely make me think twice about which brand of battery I buy if I get a larger one.

 

[CarrieK]

Unlike an actual honeymoon, buying this phone gives you a 30 day trial. This is one reason I'm probably not going to trade my 4G in or sell it until I'm sure the 3vo is stable.

Haha so true! I hope it doesn't come to that but if so, me and my EVO 4G will be getting back together or I'll move on to another. I love choices

 

[Technologic 2]

I bought the Pre on the promised potential. They should have called it the Palm Potential. All the things it WAS going to do...Flash...voice commands...even synergy...knowing you are going to be late for an appointment because of traffic and automatically sending messages to other attendees that you are delayed.

The EVO3d isn't making promises of things to come. HTC is stating what it does now. As far as battery life...if you are constantly using any phone, you will run down the battery..including the Pre. I can't get a full day out of the Pre with one charge.

I will miss my Touchstone in the car.

 

[ArmageddonX]

I agree about the Touchstone. In my opinion it's still my Palm Pre's only redeeming feature... it should have come standard.

EDIT: That's the last thing I'll say about the Palm. Pyro is right.

 

[PyroSporker]

I think we should end the Palm Pre Pity Party and try to focus on the Evo 3D instead.
It would be just the same if there was an Apple Alliance Affiliates Assemblage here

Just sayin'

Particular areas of concern:
-Battery performance
-3D performance
-Screen build quality
-Screen dimension format change
-Camera Performance
-Hardware quality (long term)
-Software changes
-Rootability

All we can do is wait and see

 

[ImpulsebuyerNy]

I am one of the elite as well, first day Palm Pre #2 in line at the local Sprint store, all the above the OP lists about the excitement etc. was all me! I loved the Palm Pre had some many hopes and dreams for it, and for the most part it lived up to it to some degree but than the Evo 4G was announced! I think the keypad was the most cheaply made, thats the only thing that really went south for me, those darn sticky keys ...

Another exciting time, was #3 at RS for the Evo 4G was at the store at 7:30am for an 8am opening, and was blown away literally the minute i turned it on - by far the best phone i have ever had the privilege of owning -

And here we go again, so excited for the 3D, wish it dropped on the 4th but what can you do - for the most part the battery issues are suppose to be fixed from what i have read, and the fact that its dual core and has a dedicated camera button solves some things for me that the Evo lacked but again i cant praise enough how good the Evo 4g has been to be, i almost dont want to trade her in! I am hoping we get some cool features for the camera thrown in like smile, blink etc. detection, plus lots of modes and scenes to play with!

Just out of curiosity anyone know if we can trade in the Palm Pre (original sprint version) @ RS and whats its worth -

 

[ArmageddonX]

I wish the Evo3D has been released earlier too... I'll be indisposed on the 24th because of a matter out of my control and I wont get to pick it up at the store myself. =(

 

[kenn]

I'm running an HTC Droid Incredible with the leaked gingersense ROM. It looks almost identical to the HTC Sensation video and is, well, freaking gorgeous. The attention to detail in the new Sense is astonishing. As far as I'm concerned, unlocked bootloader, Sense 3.0, dual core processor, and 4G is the bomb. This phone will remain relevant for quite a while...

I'm moving over to sprint and was going to get a Nexus S until I saw this... I really don't care about 3D but all of the other specs are super-solid and have me pumped.