Sprint - finally stepping it up

[[AK]Hylander]

I still feel that a phone should be for calls and that's it. Have a separate device to do all your other full featured application and gaming needs.

Welcome to 1998, let us know when you catch up.

[[AK]Clay]

Wow Stitch, I'm the exact opposite. Smartphones are the most amazing things ever.

[[AK]Hylander]

Wow Stitch, I'm the exact opposite. Smartphones are the most amazing things ever.

Yeah, but Stitch likes consoles too... so you need to take that into consideration.

[[AK]StitchJones]

Yeah... I also have a short attentio.....Squirrel!!

[[AK]Hylander]

StitchJones in the Blue Shorts... when a Yoga session goes wrong

[[AK]StitchJones]

Blue Cup! Yay!

[[AK]Clay]

Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked about this phone, and may well get it in August! (Verizon won't sell a contract in my county, AT&T sucks, which leaves Sprint as my only option).

But none of the reviews for this phone are all that useful. They all talk about the amazing specifications, but none address things like actual usability. When the iPhone 3G came out, people made videos of dropping it in the parking lot, dropping it into their bowl of cerial with milk and then purposely fumbling so it'd have a little soak time, etc. With this phone, every review is white glove handling like it's the royal jewels.

I wish just one of the dozens of reviews of this phone would break out of the "hey look how big this screen is!" review and actually talk more about the phone as an everyday use item. I'm not as interested in how awesome the phone is out of the box, as I am how awesome I think it is 12 months into owning it. Is it going to be a water soaked cracked brick with a back pannel that keeps falling off?

how about:
-Gee, this phone is really big, is it more prone to being dropped when I fish it out of my pocket or otherwise handle it?
-Can I reach all the way accross the screen to one hand dial/navigate?
-Boy that's a big screen, does it shatter more easily? Let's drop test it from various heights at various angles on different surfaces and see!
-Will that screen crack if I have this in my pocket and bend over?
-Yea! It now has a removable battery (which no one actually uses, but everyone's been whining about) and a removable memory card (Which you will have access regularly because it's 1/4 what an iPhone will be). How many times can I remove that back cover to swap out memory before it's seal is compromised or it stops reattaching as securily? Let's yank it off and put it back on 100 times and see!
-Or how about - Since it has a removable back pannel, that's a lot of area that needs to be sealed against leaks - how water resistant is it? Let me drop it into some water and find out!

Instead, they talk about how cool it is as a wirefi router, which you will have to pay an extra $30/MONTH to use (which = $700 over the life of the 2 yr contract), and only really useful if you live in one of the few cities with 4G anyway.

[[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]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.

[[AK]Mydrial]

Welcome to 1998, let us know when you catch up.

I can remember when we all had the same ring-tone on our phones...and well....it sounded like a phone!!

[[AK]Bribo]

Forgive Stitch. He's not too technical. :P