Sprint - finally stepping it up

[[AK]Bribo]

Techcrunch review of the HTC EVO:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/29/htc-evo-4g/

Terrible battery life (even when not using 4G), a buggy and slow camera, and a poor keyboard. iPhone, Nexus One and Driod Incredible far better options.

[[AK]Clay]

Techcrunch review of the HTC EVO:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/29/htc-evo-4g/

Terrible battery life (even when not using 4G), a buggy and slow camera, and a poor keyboard. iPhone, Nexus One and Driod Incredible far better options.

Finally, a review not by an iPhone hater. Though, iPhone fanboys have their bias' too...

Batt life issue is nothing new. iPhone can't make it through a day in the office w/out recharging since day one. Sounds like the EVO is much worse, which is amazing to me. I wonder if this will be improved by Android 2.2.

First I've heard about camera and keyboard. Interesting; most reviews say they are pretty good. Especially the keyboard since the bigger screen meant bigger keys.

I handled an Incridibly this weekend and didn't care for the narrow screen.

[[AK]Mydrial]

I'm not an iPhone hater.....just to cheap to pay for one...lol.

[[AK]Swae]

Batt life issue is nothing new. iPhone can't make it through a day in the office w/out recharging since day one. Sounds like the EVO is much worse, which is amazing to me. I wonder if this will be improved by Android 2.2.

I'm not sure this is an Android issue. I have Android 1.6 on a G1 and my battery easily lasts all day. If I don't play games on it or web surf all day, I won't even have to recharge it at night. However, I do keep the GPS turned off unless I need it. So far, I've been able to navigate to and from work just fine without it.

[[AK]Hylander]

I still haven't had any luck getting my hands on en EVO to play with for an extended period of time, but I spent alot of time with the Incredible this past weekend. It's a GREAT phone. With that being said, I won't be upgrading my Droid for it. I could get the Incredible for $149, but don't want to use my "upgrade" for it. If I were buying an Android phone right now, I'd buy the Incredible hands down. But if you own a Droid, I would wait for 2.2 to be released for the speed up and all the other benefits. Then just wait another month or two for the Droid 2 (Shadow, Exceptional, or whatever the naming mechanism ends up being).

I'm neutral about the HTC Sense and other overlays, as long as they are done well. HTC has done a really nice job with Sense. However, I tend to like the "Vanilla" droid interface myself - but it wouldn't stop me from getting an Incredible.

[[AK]Clay]

If I were buying an Android phone right now, I'd buy the Incredible hands down.

Which, alas, is limited to Verizon, which is not available to me If I had the choice, I'd look pretty close at the iPhone 4 on Verizon. Don't have the choice.

Don't you find the Incredible screen to be narrow? I just didn't care for it, I prefer the wider screen on my iPhone. But then, I only handled an incredible for maybe 30 seconds, so maybe I judged too quick.


Back to the EVO's battery life, the reviews make for interesting read. For benchmark: my iPhone3G battery is terrible. I can't go through an 8 hour day without having to recharge - and I don't even run it in 3G mode. I've gotten used to it - it's not hard to plug it into my charger in my car, office, home while I'm sitting there. I don't complain too much - I use my iPhone as a mini-laptop, so yea, it's going to suck power. Batt life is reasonable when I'm basically using it either as an off-line movie player (i.e. in an airplane), online when I'm using it only as a phone in idle mode, and when I use it to play music. But if I browse any or use the GPS (which still sucks power, even though the GPS doesn't actually work anymore), then it's drained pretty quick.

The EVO battery life for me (no 4G) sounds to be at least on par with what my iPhone is delivering, and actually a little bit better from what I'm reading. According to the USA Today review, the EVO and iPhone both lasted as long. And you DO have the option of buying a spare battery with a non-iPhone.

I also note that reviewers vary widely on how long the battery actually lasts. One of the biggest factor is how good the signal is. The phone in 3G mode with good signal lasts pretty long. But if weak or roaming, it sucks the juice trying to boost transmission power and constantly searching. Makes sense. Maybe that's why my iPhone batt life blows too.

Here are the specs on batteries:
iPhone 3G = 1150 mAh
iPhone 3GS - 1200 mAh
iPhone 4 = 1.25X (3GS) = 1500 mAh (based on Gizmodo)
Sprint EVO = 1500 mAh
Droid = 1400 mAh
HTC Incredible = 1300 mAH, (upgraded to 1500 mAh - same battery used in the EVO).

So the EVO's battery is quite good. But it still sounds like the Incredible outlasts it. That's where it gets confusing, because all reviews say it's not EVO's bigger screen that's drawing the power, it's the internals. It has the same processors as the Incredible, but interestingly, the Incredibles is underclocked )to <80% speed) to save on battery power. http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Late...e-a_10181.html After the creepy-crawly speeds of my iPhone 3G, I'll take the faster speed over longer battery.


One of the complaints about Apple is it is closed source and you have limited control. With Android, do I have enough control that I can manually adjust the processor clock speed on the fly? Can I adjust how hard it fights to maintain cell tower signal?

[[AK]Nuts]

From /.

For a while now Apple has said it doesn't want "widget-like" apps in the store; but where is the boundary of that fuzzy statement? The developers of My Frame, of which three versions had already been approved for the iPhone/iPad, found out that they had already crossed it when Apple informed them their app would be pulled. My Frame had options to overlay data on whatever photo was displaying: a Twitter stream, weather, etc. When one of the developers wrote to Steve Jobs on a whim to ask what unwritten rule their app had violated, Jobs wrote back: "We are not allowing apps that create their own desktops. Sorry."

"I see now why people are so angry at the 'murky' nature of the App Store, and I'm starting to agree with them. My Frame was approved by Apple 3 times (once for each version we released), and ... now, at version 1.2 they decide it's to be removed? How can a company be prepared to invest into a platform that can change at any time, cutting you off and kicking you out, with no course of action but to whine on some no-name blog? There is no alternative platform, despite what others may say about Android, it's immature and their app store(s) are a wild west nightmare. It really is Apple's way or the highway...."

[[AK]Squidly]

"I see now why people are so angry at the 'murky' nature of the App Store, and I'm starting to agree with them. My Frame was approved by Apple 3 times (once for each version we released), and ... now, at version 1.2 they decide it's to be removed? How can a company be prepared to invest into a platform that can change at any time, cutting you off and kicking you out, with no course of action but to whine on some no-name blog? There is no alternative platform, despite what others may say about Android, it's immature and their app store(s) are a wild west nightmare. It really is Apple's way or the highway...."[/I]

The rules are well defined. Despite the fact that this guy was able to slip his app through the review process a few times, he had to know that he'd eventually get busted. Build your business on grey areas and private APIs at your own risk, I guess.

[[AK]Hylander]

Don't you find the Incredible screen to be narrow? I just didn't care for it, I prefer the wider screen on my iPhone. But then, I only handled an incredible for maybe 30 seconds, so maybe I judged too quick.

Not at all - it's virtually identical to my Droid actually.

[[AK]Hylander]

Verizon Has No Plans for Apple Support in the "Immediate Future"

[[AK]Squidly]

I'm not sure this is an Android issue. I have Android 1.6 on a G1 and my battery easily lasts all day. If I don't play games on it or web surf all day, I won't even have to recharge it at night. However, I do keep the GPS turned off unless I need it. So far, I've been able to navigate to and from work just fine without it.

My iPhone lasts a very long time if I turn GPS and WiFi off and never use it for anything but phone calls. Mostly though I just dock it at home and at work and hammer the data mercilessly in between.