Help Thinking about trying Android again

[haegercp]

A little background first. I am on Sprint. I have been a "crackberry" user for several years & I love my "crackberry" (I am not looking for a debate on the merits of crackberry vs Android). I tried Android early last year, the device was a Samsung Moment running v1.6(cupcake, I believe it was) and i was very disappointed. I am of the opinion that the device was more to blame than the OS. That being said, I do feel the OS was not up to my needs when it comes to the way I use my phone. I own two very different companies, one is a construction business and the other is IT services. I have been following the development of Android since it's inception and finally think that it may be capable of what I need.

I have the following questions regarding the capabilities of SPECIFICALLY the Evo 4G (once again, I am not looking for a debate about crackberry vs Android, diatribes on how awesome Android is, rants about everything other than Androids sucks, etc., etc.):

1) Can it view PDF's, MS Office documents, and Open Office documents?

2) Does it run Flash content?

3)Is there a way to connect the USB port on the Evo to a management console port on networking equipment (ie-a Cisco switch or router)?

4)Browser compatibility with websites designed for Internet Explorer (several of the web portals I use for work are designed for IE)?

5) Any additional information from those who use a Evo 4G for work would be greatly appreciated.

Also of interest to me:

6) Battery life. I have been researching this and I have seen the Seidio 3500mha battery mentioned frequently with mostly good reviews, but I have seen several reviews saying the battery dies within a couple of months. any info regarding this would be helpful. (I am a power user: email, text, GPS, web, voice (sometimes w/ tech support or conference calls for several hours), downloads, etc. all day) who works long days and I need a battery that can keep up.

7) Rugged cases. I have been an Otterbox fan for many years now. Unfortunately the don't have a case for a larger battery. I have seen the Seidio rugged case that goes with the 3500mha battery (mentioned in #6). I would love to here from someone who uses this case in a construction type job that really demands a tough/hardcore case and what their opinion of it's durability and protection level is (I am hard on phones, 6-9 months is a long life with a phone for me even in an Otterbox case).

8) will Android 2.3 & 2.4 work with the Evo?

In advance i wish to thank any and all persons who reply to this post. I just want to stress that compatibility with a mobile work oriented lifestyle is of paramount importance to me. I don't want to be turned off to a promising OS because of fanboy's needing to talk it up.

I know that these questions have been asked in various ways, but none of the responses I have read have fully answered most of these questions.

 

[VSpike915]

1) Can it view PDF's, MS Office documents, and Open Office documents?

2) Does it run Flash content?

3)Is there a way to connect the USB port on the Evo to a management console port on networking equipment (ie-a Cisco switch or router)?

4)Browser compatibility with websites designed for Internet Explorer (several of the web portals I use for work are designed for IE)?

5) Any additional information from those who use a Evo 4G for work would be greatly appreciated.

Also of interest to me:

6) Battery life. I have been researching this and I have seen the Seidio 3500mha battery mentioned frequently with mostly good reviews, but I have seen several reviews saying the battery dies within a couple of months. any info regarding this would be helpful. (I am a power user: email, text, GPS, web, voice (sometimes w/ tech support or conference calls for several hours), downloads, etc. all day) who works long days and I need a battery that can keep up.

7) Rugged cases. I have been an Otterbox fan for many years now. Unfortunately the don't have a case for a larger battery. I have seen the Seidio rugged case that goes with the 3500mha battery (mentioned in #6). I would love to here from someone who uses this case in a construction type job that really demands a tough/hardcore case and what their opinion of it's durability and protection level is (I am hard on phones, 6-9 months is a long life with a phone for me even in an Otterbox case).

8) will Android 2.3 & 2.4 work with the Evo?

In advance i wish to thank any and all persons who reply to this post. I just want to stress that compatibility with a mobile work oriented lifestyle is of paramount importance to me. I don't want to be turned off to a promising OS because of fanboy's needing to talk it up.

I know that these questions have been asked in various ways, but none of the responses I have read have fully answered most of these questions.

1) Yes
2) Yes
3) I have never had reason to try this but it does do Mobile Hotspot for free if rooted.
4) It loads as a normal desktop browser with flash and all
6) You can get an extended battery for the EVO but I rooted mine and get 2 days of heavy use out of it with no problem. Some ROM's are definitely better than others when it comes to battery but that's the fun of playing around.
7) I have seen Outterbox cases and they got excellent review. However I do not personally use one as I do not like the bulk. I just use the $10 silicon one.
8) Yes and no. Officially? Probably not. But the beauty (especially with a major device like the EVO) is that developers are always able to push the newest OS to a device way before it can officially become available. I had a Froyo ROM installed on my EVO WAY before it was officially released. I think rooting is a big thing to point out on the EVO because you can always run different things. Stock Froyo, Gingerbread, hell even Ubuntu got ported as an EVO ROM. The truth is Sprint sucks as a company as we saw from their latest event. But thanks to XDA and developers, this phone will not "die" for a VERY long time.

Extra: I came from a BB Tour to the EVO and there are still certain things that I miss about it such as BBM and the way push email was done. There is nothing else that I miss about that phone that I did not find an alternative to on Android some how.

Hope this Helps

 

[haegercp]

Thank you VSpike915, your reply was very helpful. #3 on my list is mainly a curiosity thing, it would be really nice to not have to dig out the laptop every time I need to log into a router/switch/firewall just to change a couple of settings.

 

[akazabam]

3)Is there a way to connect the USB port on the Evo to a management console port on networking equipment (ie-a Cisco switch or router)?

4)Browser compatibility with websites designed for Internet Explorer (several of the web portals I use for work are designed for IE)?

3) That's a tricky one. For starters, you can't just connect the phone a usb console port from your phone. You have the wrong end of the connector . I've seen mods here and there for making a specialized serial to usb cable, but that seems like overkill, at best. I've also see bluetooth serial ports, but I have no idea if it will work right with a cisco console. Do you have the ability to just ssh or telnet to it via IP address (through wifi, obviously)? If so Android does, indeed have a ssh/telnet client.

4) That depends. If it's something the android browser supports, then it should work. If it's checking for IE, you might have to change the uastring, which is doable.