new to android and the htc evo

[weaim2pleez]

I'm a long time blackberry user than just switched to the evo and have a few questions. I cant seem to get used to having to push the power button up top to turn the screen back on. would never having the screen time out been too much of a battery drain? is there any other way to turn the screen back on with an app?
does other weather widgets besides the htc one drain the battery more than the htc one?
if i have wifi available should i just always leave it on so it overrides 3g?
im just outside st louis and am showing 4g coverage, does wifi also override 4g? if i mainly use wifi, will leaving 4g on be ok?
is setting up a pop email account and checking every 5 minutes too much on the battery?
i have to say i really like this phone. i do miss my blackberry keyboard but i'll get used to this. this phone is just so customizable. thanks for the help

 

[mapan83]

I can answer one question for sure: Setting up your pop email to check for new messages every 5 minutes will drain the battery. I would suggest if the emails coming in aren't extremely important, to set it for once every hour/4 hours or once a day. I believe you can also set it to check manually. So when you open the mail program, it will refresh itself.

 

[stevieo526]

Turning wi-fi on when it's available will definately save your battery. I tested this yesterday as I work in a basement in a building and cell coverage is terrible. By the end of the work-day yesterday I had 18% battery life. Today I left wi-fi on(it's 20 minutes before quitting time) I have 47%.

ETA: usage was about the same both days

 

[weaim2pleez]

thanks guys...another thing i've been noticing...in my house i'm getting 1 or 2 bars of service via 3g and when i'm in the basement it goes between 0 and 1, sometimes i text wont even send...this never ever happened on my bb curve, i had 4 or 5 bars in the house and basement was always good. i think though it was on something besides 3g because it was older? i'm starting to wonder if i just need to return the evo and go back to bb because signal strength is better?

 

[htcevolee]

Every phone acts different, the antenna on the BB could have been better then the EVO which is why you get a worse signal. Put a CDMA repeater in your basement =P

 

[weaim2pleez]

well i talked to sprint and they had me do a few things, funny thing is i actually dropped the call when i was talking to me my signal strength was just getting worse and worse, seems to be better now...how many bars for 3g are most people getting, it seems to stay around 3 or 4 in my house, should i be happy with that?