Overall Experience
The HTC EVO 3D is a flagship phone on Sprint and it feels as such. It's fast, it's got 4G, and it's got a nice screen. The bugginess of Sense and Android as well as some hardware omissions make it far from perfect, but it was one of the best phones when it was released and remains a strong contender today. If you want an Android phone on Sprint, it's between this and a Galaxy S II.
3D
3D is the main marketing point of the EVO 3D. It's a gimmick, for sure, but it's a gimmick that might be worth buying the phone for. At least, it was for me. 3D is unique. Except for the poorly-reviewed LG Optimus 3D, this is the only glasses-free 3D out in America (that I know of). And when I show friends and family my phone--and these are people that used to old iPhones and BlackBerrys--it's not the HTC Sense UI or my 4G data speed that wows them. It's the glasses-free 3D effect. It's a fun feature that I haven't personally seen anywhere other than the Nintendo 3DS.
 |
| This awesome pic was taken with the EVO 3D |
So, coolness aside, what's glasses-free 3D actually like on the EVO 3D? It's… um, interesting. There's some special screen technology that allows one eye to see one what one camera sees and your other eye to see the other camera's vantage point. It's not unlike one of the magic-eye 3D pictures where you have to cross your eyes, except your eyes are crossed for you, if that makes sense. However, it's really easy to look at the screen from the wrong viewpoint and then you just appear to be looking at a blurry mess of a picture. I think this is also the reason some people get headaches from looking at the EVO 3D's screen. Headache time may vary: some people instantly complain of eyeball assault when they see a 3D picture, and some people can look at 3D for minutes or hours, like me. You can only take 3D pictures and 3D video in landscape mode, and although you can view them in portrait mode, that's not really worth doing.
However amazing it is at first, the awe of glasses-free 3D will eventually wear off.
Cameras
The front camera is decent, it's better than the iPhone 4S's front camera, yada yada, etc etc.
The defining point of the EVO 3D is the 3D camera on the back. Since there is very little 3D content anywhere on the web and on this phone, most of the 3D photos and videos you watch on the phone will have been created by you on this phone, using the back cameras.
There are two 5 megapixel cameras on the back of this phone (though 3D photos are only captured with 2 megapixels resolution). As long as the subject is not too close (more than a few inches), it can be captured in 3D. If the subject is too far away, the 3D effect is minimal. The best 3D pictures have something in the foreground and something in the background to compare against.
As I said above, you'll eventually grow weary of taking 3D photos that can only be seen on the phone and will opt to take mostly 2D photos. There's a very convenient 2D-3D switch on the side of the phone for this. The back camera takes nice 2D images, helped by the dual LED flash. Like most smartphones that aren't the iPhone 4S, the camera is a little slow, so most of my shots have a significant amount of motion blur (like most of my shots on any camera, really). But the dedicated camera button is a nice feature that I feel all phones should have.
Build
In terms of build quality the EVO 3D is no iPhone, but then again, nothing really is. But it doesn't feel cheap. Those of you used to the glass and metal on the iPhone may be disappointed at first, but while the plastic back doesn't feel expensive, it also doesn't feel as scarily fragile as the iPhone. The ridges on the back feel nice against your palm. The red trim around the dual cameras is a nice signature touch. Pulling off the back part of the case (to replace the battery or micro SD card) is scary the first few times because you feel like you're going to break the back, but you get used to it.The only thing missing on the back is the kickstand from the EVO 4G. Every now and then I wish I had a kickstand so I could put my phone on a flat surface and show off video to friends. Also, another drawback is that you have to remove the battery to access the micro SD slot.
The front is a typical HTC phone with few frills, just four capacitive light-up buttons. Unlike the back, there's nothing to make it stand out from other Android phones. Gorilla glass protects the screen. Between that and the plastic back, I feel like I can drop this phone and it will still work.
My one problem with the hardware is the overly touch-sensitive screen. I don't need to physically touch the screen for my fingers to register on the phone; I can just hover my finger a millimeter above the screen. This leads to me accidentally pressing buttons when the fat of my palm spills over to the screen and accidentally registers as a touch--and I'm not a fat guy. I also blame the sensitivity for unlocking the phone when I put it in my pocket. The only reason I have a password on my phone is to prevent this pocket-unlocking. But as for the screen's appearance...
Display
The screen is a 4.3" qHD (960 x 540) screen. While it doesn't have the gorgeous resolution of the HTC Rezound's HD screen or the amazing contrast of the Samsung Galaxy S II's Super AMOLED Plus screen, it's still a beautiful with a better pixel density than the Galaxy S II. This screen gets pretty bright. As for the size, I was a little worried it would be too big, but it took me maybe a day to get used to having more screen real estate. I don't think I can go back to the iPhone's paltry 3.5 inch display.
I honestly love this display.
Battery
I hate the battery life. After a year of owning the iPhone 4, I probably could get got about 10 hours of light usage (email, web browsing) with 3G turned off. With this new EVO 3D, I can probably get 3-4 hours of battery life using it lightly with 4G off. I keep the phone charged when in the car and have a backup battery, just in case.
It's well-known that HTC phones have terrible battery life, and you get used to turning off all your antennas, lowering the brightness and killing any apps that might be battery killers. Some of this poor battery management is Android's fault. For example, if I'm in an area with no Sprint coverage, the battery will dwindle down to nothing looking for a signal (literally, 100 to 20% battery in a few hours with 0% use and no apps running). So it's necessary to put the phone in airplane mode when in an area with no coverage. But then some apps will still take a lot of battery, since they don't realize the phone is in airplane mode or something. It can be frustrating and sometimes I just turn my phone off if there's no coverage. I think the OS could manage battery better by freezing apps that require Internet connections and handle signal-searching better.
This thing has crappy battery life, no matter how you cut it. I'd easily sacrifice half an inch of thinness for more battery. However, I'm told that the battery life is better than the EVO 4G.
Performance
The phone feels zippy and fast all the time. Well, the phone can take a while to boot up if you have it off, but once you're in, navigating around the UI is a joy.
Data Speed
Unless you're stuck on 3G, Sprint's 4G (WiMAX) is nothing to write home about. I usually get around 3-4 Mbps, which is nothing compared to Verizon's LTE and T-Mobile's HSPA+ which both reportedly get over 20 Mbps these days. Only AT&T has similar lackluster speeds. Since 4G is such a battery hog and this phone already has lackluster battery life, I usually leave it off.
3G is obviously worse, averaging around 500 kbps. It serves its purpose when I need to browse the web and my battery is low.
Audio
Ordinarily, I wouldn't include an audio section because most phones measure up about the same, but the speaker doesn't get very loud. When you crank the volume up to 11, you'll really get an 8. Some voice calls also sound a bit tinny. But generally, it's not a problem unless you're watching a really quiet YouTube video or calling a friend who mumbles a lot. In that case you'll find yourself putting your ear as close to the speakers as possible.
Preloaded Apps (Bloatware)
The EVO 3D is a non-vanilla Android phone on an American carrier, so of course it comes with free bloatware, such as a NASCAR app, Sprint TV, HTC Watch and some other stuff. Unlike several other phones, these apps can be uninstalled without rooting the phone. I am pleased with just removing them from my app drawer.
The one good thing the phone comes with is a free copy of The Green Hornet 3D. While it's not a very good movie, it's still entertaining and great for showing off the phone's 3D capabilities.
OS
The EVO 3D comes with the latest version Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). I haven't had much experience with earlier versions of Android, so it's hard to review Gingerbread in and of itself. And there aren't that many Froyo and earlier phones out there. The important thing to know about the operating system on the EVO 3D is that you have the latest OS and will probably be upgraded to the next version, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), a few months from now.
Sense 3.0
Before I had an Android phone, I often wondered why manufacturers put their skins on Android. Then I got this phone and messed around with some other Android phones. One reason is this: stock Android (Gingerbread) is ugly. It begs to be skinned. Most manufacturers didn't do a very good job of skinning Android, but HTC has created the 2nd best-looking skin (after Sony Ericsson's skin, which looks gorgeous). The version that comes with the EVO 3D is Sense 3.0.
There are several Sense apps worth noting, one is the clock/weather widget, omnipresent on all HTC phones. One click takes you the gorgeous weather app, which shows you the weather with a full-screen looped video of whirling clouds, frightening lightning, or whatever is happening outside. Another is the Sense launcher, which has a "carousel" effect when turning pages at the homescreen.
However, I believe that most of the EVO 3D's bugginess can be blamed on Sense and not on Android. The stock music player crashing (seems fixed with an update) was Sense, the display only showing half of the screen (fixed in an update) was Sense. This leads me to believe that other bugs, like some app crashes and Swype sometimes not showing the trail, are also Sense's fault.
There are obvious glaring omissions in Sense, like the lack of a vibrate toggle at the lockscreen. Stock Android has this and HTC could have removed this if they added a physical vibrate toggle button to the phone (like the iPhone has), but they didn't. Now, if I want to put my phone in vibrate from the lockscreen, I have to unlock my phone, enter in the pass code, go to my homescreen and press the vibrate widget on my homescreen. I know, I know, it's a real First World Problem. But a simple vibrate toggle at the lockscreen or a physical button would be preferable.
Conclusion
A lot of this review sounds negative, and I do have some serious gripes with individual aspects of my phone. However, when it comes down to it, I love my EVO 3D and think it's clearly superior to other superphones like the iPhone 4S. It's got a big, beautiful screen; a gimmicky-but-fun 3D camera; a micro SD slot that lets me put as much music, movies and whatever else files I want on the device (32 GB max, 8 GB micro SD included); and all the freedom that comes with Android. You gotta love free unlimited wireless tethering! (only available with root)
I think this phone was the best smartphone available when it was released (tied with the Nexus S 4G). Though it's now outdated with the release of the HTC Rezound and the impending release of the Galaxy Nexus, that's just how it goes with Android phones: today's greatest phone will be outdated in 4 months, tops. But if you want to be on Sprint, this is one of the best phones to get. It is arguably on par with the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch.
No comments:
Post a Comment