Initial Thoughts on Evo 3D - Post Them Here!

[PhoneJunkie]

The 3D is not that superior then my EVO 4G. I purchased the 3D at launch day @ 8am and returned it the same day @ 7:30pm. The speed wasn't that noticeable and don't let me get started on the 3D (gimick or what). If it wasn't for the 3D what is actually sparkling the flame for this phone?? Also I know both phones are 4.3" but the 4G screen is wider then the 3D?? I'll use my upgrade for something more deserving.

Yeah I'm guessing you never got the 3D. If you had you would know the phone is faster, the screen is much better, sense 3.0 is much better, battery life is much better. A gimmick would be something that doesn't work, even the skeptics like myself, have to admit the 3D is pretty damn cool, just a little added bonus, something else to play around with. If you had the phone you would know that. It's fine if you don't want the phone, but save the flaming bs for another site.

 

[zmann]

yeah i'm guessing you never got the 3d. If you had you would know the phone is faster, the screen is much better, sense 3.0 is much better, battery life is much better. A gimmick would be something that doesn't work, even the skeptics like myself, have to admit the 3d is pretty damn cool, just a little added bonus, something else to play around with. If you had the phone you would know that. It's fine if you don't want the phone, but save the flaming bs for another site.

+ 10000000

evo - lution 3d

 

[roughneck]

I love my Evo 3D after upgrading from a Hero.

 

[zmann]

I just entered a 4g area for the first time with this phone and I am amazed how fast it is.

EVO - LUTION 3D

 

[jw#AC]

Yes, they do have Gorilla Glass. I've seen EVO's that get hard, nearly abusive use that have perfect, out of the box screens.

what about the camera lens, is that also gorilla glass?

 

[enthuz]

I just entered a 4g area for the first time with this phone and I am amazed how fast it is.

EVO - LUTION 3D

So jealous. I won't get to a 4G area until later in July. Oh well. :'(

 

[zmann]

So jealous. I won't get to a 4G area until later in July. Oh well. :'(

Well I was only in area briefly. I to am waiting for 4g.

EVO - LUTION 3D

 

[ECKS37]

I love my Evo 3D after upgrading from a Hero.

I also upgraded from a Hero to Evo 3D. You really can't compare both phones, just wouldn't be fair, but WOW, what an awesome phone.

 

[Rose4uKY]

All I can say is I love my 3D so much. Not only is it faster but I have almost all my apps that I had on my EVO 4G minus a few I didn't really use plus some new ones and I have lots of space left. I love the new sense 3.0. I had to delete a few apps on my old EVO cause of space I got to get those back also. I love the lock screens and the new skins the new notification window and it showing yor last used apps. I had toggle switch widgets for my gps 3g and bt and wifi so out of habit I am used to swiping my screen but I am getting used to going to notifications. I am not used to when you go to apps it going page to page but it's ok doesn't bother me much. I like the 3D part of the phone I think it's cool. Battery life is better I have 35% and took it off charger when I woke up around 11:30 but I've mostly been sitting at my desk all day and haven't used it much.

The only thing I have left to do is rearrange my screens. I have all my apps but I don't know how I want to arrange my screens. I actually took screen shots of my old EVO and I had mutlicon with 4 apps on one square and my screens were so cluttered I don't want that again. I'm gonna have different scenes and i have lots to set up and I plan on doing that here soon. Been reading forums all day. I thought the EVO was the best phone I ever had and now this 3D OMG it's awesome!

 

[jw#AC]

I also upgraded from a Hero to Evo 3D. You really can't compare both phones, just wouldn't be fair, but WOW, what an awesome phone.

HEY! Get out of my head/life! Just took the plunge and got the EVO 3D. I kept the Hero just in case. One thing I noticed is I thought my apps were tied to my Google account, and a few of them were, but most don't appear in the MyApps part of the market.

 

[iEd]

My first impressions on the EVO 3D battery that it's ok I guess for a phone this powerful.

Again I can only compare this to a Iphone 3GS and the BB Tour that I just came from.

From around 9am til right now 10:06PM I have 20% on the Batt

This is what I did on the Phone today

Made 2 phone calls of about 2 min each

Downloaded a bunch of apps via WIFI and a few 3G

Synced Google cal and mail

Sent 1 text messages and 1 email

Set up GPS Nav

Viewed some 2D and 3D photos no vids

did some browsing with 3G

Phone stayed on all day This charge should take me to about 11 or 11:30 PM I think.

I did take a drive to a store of about 15 min and had it on the car charger took it off once I got to the store.

So I think it's pretty good. I couldn't do half of the stuff on my BB Tour 9630 which has a extended Batt and would go a few days without a charge so there is no comparison there.

As far as my Old IPhone 3GS again the EVO is much more powerful so that's not really a fair comparison. I basically have been using my old Iphone as a Ipod Touch and to make skype calls. The Batt in Iphone will last about a day with no phone service and not using WIFI out side the home
This phone is 2 years old If it did have service it would be terrible now. My one big gripe about the Iphone not being able to extend the Batt

As far as the EVO3D is concerned I would get a extended Batt like the slim Seidio 1950 mAH which doesn't need a new back cover.

Another thing is that in my home I believe the 3G radio in my E3D is going to pull on the Batt much more than some other places. The 3G reception in my home office can be flaky sometimes.

All in all I'm satisfied with the Batt after a few cycles it may perform better. I wish I could compare to the EVO 4G because of what I have heard about it's Batt life.

 

[rayfordsawdust]

I brought my HTC EVO a year ago. I'm reading a lot of people are jumping from Evo to EVO 3d. I'm guessing they are paying $450 or more to do so since this phone has only been out one year and in most cases people signed two year deals to get into the EVO. Its (EVO 3d)clearly a better phone, but its not $400 plus better. I'll wait until I'm eligible for a full discount before I go phone hoping. Lets face it. The HTC EVO is not exactly chop liver.

 

[Rose4uKY]

Most people when they got there EVO on launch day me being one of them at the time was due for an upgrade after one year. So lots of us were technically due for an upgrade on June 1st until Sprint went and changed there premiere status. But they were nice and gave almost everyone that called and asked there upgrade back this one year since they were due for it they said they really can't take it away but they told people after this one time it's 2 years after that. So you could do the same I'm sure and get your upgrade back. All these people most of them are paying 199 cause they got there upgrades back. This phone is great! The EVO is great too bu once I upgraded I was amazed at how fast it was and how much more space it had and the Sense 3.0 is Awesome!

I brought my HTC EVO a year ago. I'm reading a lot of people are jumping from Evo to EVO 3d. I'm guessing they are paying $450 or more to do so since this phone has only been out one year and in most cases people signed two year deals to get into the EVO. Its (EVO 3d)clearly a better phone, but its not $400 plus better. I'll wait until I'm eligible for a full discount before I go phone hoping. Lets face it. The HTC EVO is not exactly chop liver.

 

[slayerpsp]

i love this phone the 3d is amazing if you ask me i really like it.Its so much better then i thought compared to the 3ds

 

[Impulses]

HEY! Get out of my head/life! Just took the plunge and got the EVO 3D. I kept the Hero just in case. One thing I noticed is I thought my apps were tied to my Google account, and a few of them were, but most don't appear in the MyApps part of the market.

Typically only paid apps are tied to your account, free apps aren't. On some manufacturer's phones (and the Nexus line) there's a setting to save app settings to the cloud (but this depends on your apps using it), and I think having that enabled can force a few free apps to sync over when you get a new phone (or do a reset); but it's pretty hit and miss regardless.

The best way around this is an app/service that has lost some popularity as many of the features that it pioneered got baked into Google's own Market, I'm talking about AppBrain here. The official Market now lets you search for apps from a desktop and even install remotely, which were originally some of AppBrain's biggest highlights... But AppBrain's synchronized app list is still a very unique and very useful imo.

People who're running rooted phones typically just do local backups of apps (to the microSD) using something like Titanium, but even tho it's quicker it isn't necessarily the cleanest way of restoring them; and I'm not even taking about restoring an app's data or settings (which you should definitely avoid doing across different phones)... Sometimes the link to the app in the market breaks after restored and then you don't see update notifications for it, etc. (tho it's often fixable).

Anyway, AppBrain avoids all that. It's just a list of all your installed apps which you can keep synchronized manually or automatically, and when you tell it to install an app from the list on a new phone (or after a reset) it just takes you to the actual Market page for it (within the Market app).

Do note that whenever you re-install AppBrain (like on a new phone, or after a reset) it creates a new list and saves the existing one under a new name... But you can just go online to their site and import everything from one list to the other. It might see counter intuitive or sound more complicated than it is, but it's really not. I believe they do it this way for people with multiple devices (tablets etc.) and because of the very simplistic nature of the service... If it held only one list per account, and you were to install it on a new or reset device and hit sync, it'd wipe the list since there's nothing installed thus defeating the purpose.

Try it out, you'll like it, AC used to mention it all the time. I've been running my EVO 4G rooted since about a month after I got it (on launch day), and I also use Titanium, but until the EVO 3D gets rooted that's not option and AppBrain fills that void.

 

[Impulses]

I brought my HTC EVO a year ago. I'm reading a lot of people are jumping from Evo to EVO 3d. I'm guessing they are paying $450 or more to do so since this phone has only been out one year and in most cases people signed two year deals to get into the EVO. Its (EVO 3d)clearly a better phone, but its not $400 plus better. I'll wait until I'm eligible for a full discount before I go phone hoping. Lets face it. The HTC EVO is not exactly chop liver.

Most people when they got there EVO on launch day me being one of them at the time was due for an upgrade after one year. So lots of us were technically due for an upgrade on June 1st until Sprint went and changed there premiere status. But they were nice and gave almost everyone that called and asked there upgrade back this one year since they were due for it they said they really can't take it away but they told people after this one time it's 2 years after that. So you could do the same I'm sure and get your upgrade back. All these people most of them are paying 199 cause they got there upgrades back. This phone is great! The EVO is great too bu once I upgraded I was amazed at how fast it was and how much more space it had and the Sense 3.0 is Awesome!

This. Pretty much anyone who called the retentions department (877-775-4886) and complained ended up getting their 12 month upgrade back, even people who switched to Sprint for the EVO 4G and even people who switched a few months later for the Epic or other phones. Pretty much anyone that qualified for Premier status before the policy change. There's also the people on plans with unlimited minutes, who got switched over to Premier Gold and never lost their 12 month upgrade benefits.

Hell, there's still two or three other ways to get a 12 month upgrade outside of that... You can bump your plan up for three months to qualify for Gold then change it back at no charge (net cost, $20x3 for those months). You can buy out your contract, which basically means paying the ETF, but after a year it's only like $100 which all-in is cheaper than paying full price on contract ($200 + $100 vs $450+). Some people have even managed to upgrade their Airave "line" (it's not, but that's how Sprint's system is set up) at Best Buy or Radio Shack to get a new phone (Sprint's system won't let you directly but I guess it does thru 3rd parties, and you're still renewing A contract with them anyway). Hell some people even did that for Airave's that they got and use for free when they complained about their signal at home thru the same retentions department I mentioned before.

Some of that is a little sketchy, most are just loopholes... At the end of the day Sprint cares more about retaining paying customers right now then eating it a little on some early upgrades. That may change if they start to grow after the AT&T/T-Mo debacle and the competition's tiered data pricing, but that's where we stand today.

Plenty of ways to get 12 month upgrades out of Sprint even if officially they took it away from most plans. Hell, if nothing else Sprint still lets you renew early (12 months) in exchange for a $75 discount; so at worst a current EVO 4G owner would pay $375 ($450-$75), and they can currently trade in their EVO 4G right at a Sprint store for a $150 credit (even tho it's $100 new on-contract!), so that's $250 all in (or they can Ebay it for $50-$100 more). That's all completely official and will still be true this time next year. Zero reason for anyone to pay full price, zero.

It amazes me how uninformed the average consumer can be about his choices, people miss out on so many things over sheer ignorance. Ya gotta know how to play the game...

 

[Rose4uKY]

Yep I got my upgrade back sold them my EVO for 150 got an additional one time courtesy credit of a 100 bucks 2 weeks before for resigning my contract. My EVO was free.

This. Pretty much anyone who called the retentions department (877-775-4886) and complained ended up getting their 12 month upgrade back, even people who switched to Sprint for the EVO 4G and even people who switched a few months later for the Epic or other phones. Pretty much anyone that qualified for Premier status before the policy change. There's also the people on plans with unlimited minutes, who got switched over to Premier Gold and never lost their 12 month upgrade benefits.

Hell, there's still two or three other ways to get a 12 month upgrade outside of that... You can bump your plan up for three months to qualify for Gold then change it back at no charge (net cost, $20x3 for those months). You can buy out your contract, which basically means paying the ETF, but after a year it's only like $100 which all-in is cheaper than paying full price on contract ($200 + $100 vs $450+). Some people have even managed to upgrade their Airave "line" (it's not, but that's how Sprint's system is set up) at Best Buy or Radio Shack to get a new phone (Sprint's system won't let you directly but I guess it does thru 3rd parties, and you're still renewing A contract with them anyway). Hell some people even did that for Airave's that they got and use for free when they complained about their signal at home thru the same retentions department I mentioned before.

Some of that is a little sketchy, most are just loopholes... At the end of the day Sprint cares more about retaining paying customers right now then eating it a little on some early upgrades. That may change if they start to grow after the AT&T/T-Mo debacle and the competition's tiered data pricing, but that's where we stand today.

Plenty of ways to get 12 month upgrades out of Sprint even if officially they took it away from most plans. Hell, if nothing else Sprint still lets you renew early (12 months) in exchange for a $75 discount; so at worst a current EVO 4G owner would pay $375 ($450-$75), and they can currently trade in their EVO 4G right at a Sprint store for a $150 credit (even tho it's $100 new on-contract!), so that's $250 all in (or they can Ebay it for $50-$100 more). That's all completely official and will still be true this time next year. Zero reason for anyone to pay full price, zero.

It amazes me how uninformed the average consumer can be about his choices, people miss out on so many things over sheer ignorance. Ya gotta know how to play the game...

 

[Impulses]

Another thing is that in my home I believe the 3G radio in my E3D is going to pull on the Batt much more than some other places. The 3G reception in my home office can be flaky sometimes.

All in all I'm satisfied with the Batt after a few cycles it may perform better. I wish I could compare to the EVO 4G because of what I have heard about it's Batt life.

It will definitely perform better after a cycle or two... Li-Po batteries don't have memory and don't need any sort of breaking in, but the way the phone measures battery level is not an exact measurement by any stretch... That measurement or scale is what changes after a few cycles and becomes more accurate (on rooted phones you can even reset this, which can be convenient for a number of reasons). People don't seem to understand that and that's why you see so many pointless arguments over battery technology, etc. It's not about the battery, it's about the battery (voltage) readings the phone takes, duh.

Based on what you said, there's a couple very basic things you can do to improve your battery life tho (and signal). If you have broadband and a wifi router at home, use wifi instead of the 3G connection. Wifi is a direct point A to point B connection, a 3G radio is always scanning for a better signal or a less saturated tower, etc.; thus Wifi actually eats up less battery. There's a reason Android comes configured by default now to NOT turn off Wifi when the screen is off.

If you need a reminder to turn it off when you leave the house (so it doesn't waste power scanning while disconnected) then get Wifi Status on the Market (by Andrew Schwimmer). All it does is place an alert on the notification bar when Wifi is on but not connected (bonus: pressing it works as a shortcut to turn it off).

Finally, if reception at your home is bad enough (as it was in mine), you might still see a high battery drain when leaving the phone in areas with a single signal bar, even with Wifi on (which turns 3G off but still leaves that old phone part of your smartphone scanning for towers and a better signal). Supposedly the EVO 3D is better about this and doesn't scan as aggressively in those situations (the 4G would kill itself scanning), but why not just get an Airave?

The Airave is a femtocell, a device that plugs into your router and creates a mini cell tower within your household... Basically it routes calls (and even 3G with the newest model) over your home broadband. Calls consume very little bandwith, and the thing is a snap to install. Typically Sprint gives it away and charges $5/month for it's use ($10 for unlimited calling minutes thru it), but the retentions department I mentioned in my previous post is giving them away like candy to anyone who computations about bad service.

I called the normal CS department months ago and they said $5, but retentions (877-775-4886) gave it away with no monthly charge when I called asking about my ETF because I was "evaluating my options" (didn't even really threaten to cancel like many have); they also gave me back my 12 month upgrade. I really wasn't about to leave, despite the crappy signal at home Sprint is still the best deal, but they hooked me up so that isn't even an issue now! I'm very impressed with their CS after just one year, blows AT&T away by a mile. I had better coverage overall with AT&T in a few places, but that's about all I had (very glad Sprint is resisting the trend of data caps!).

 

[Impulses]

Oh and so as to not completely detail the EVO 3D thread... I haven't bought mine because frankly I'm waiting on the Anandtech review, they're the only technical reviews of phones I put much stock into. Thru go into soooo much detail than anyone else, and actually test things like battery life and camera quality in an empirical way and in a controlled environment.

I have however played with the EVO 3D plenty in-store... As a geek and power user I'm exited to get it and I liked almost everything based on my brief experience with it, but I can also see why less demanding users wouldn't consider it a huge leap forward from the EVO 4G. Technology-wise it is, but as far as the user experience (specially during basic tasks), it's not the leap that the EVO 4G or the Nexus was over 1st/2nd gen Android phones like the Hero. That being said, any power user that says dual core phones don't feel substantially faster simply isn't a power user... I've seen more than one supposed professional journalist say that and it kinda discredits their work imo.

I also happen to think the flat front face of the EVO 4G was a bit more elegant. I like the 3D's design better overall, but having the front camera hidden behind the same pane of glass as the screen was sleeker imo (the same pane that occupied the entire face save for the ear grill). The EVO 3D's design is probably manlier, tho most women (emphasis on most) would like a smaller phone either way. Oh and why do we still have unprotected rear cameras? If they're gonna protrude, why not just make the protrusion 2mm taller and recess the glass cover! I mean, they did it for the Sensation, heck even the entire screen on that phone is recessed below the raised/beveled edges.

Oh well, I'll just get another sleek TPU case for the 3D, it provides some extra protection against falls anyway. Not sure I'd trade the extra memory AND the awesome camera button for the Sensation's sleeker body, I'd give up the 3D for it tho (I happen to dig it, but ultimately won't use it much). Maybe next year HTC...

Also, I'm sorry but the speaker just isn't as loud as the EVO 4G's... I tested it today in-store with the save MP3, mild disappointment there. To be fair, it's not soft or flawed, it just isn't as loud. If you look over any Anandtech smartphone review, the EVO 4G had like the 2nd loudest speaker of all the phones they've tested (nearly ever Android, every Iphone, etc.). It's loud enough I've used it as the sole source of music when playing dominoes or pool with a couple of friends in a quiet room, it's certainly not the best quality, but definitely loud enough. Not a deal breaker for me by any means, just mentioning it...

Also worth mentioning the 4G's speaker was never quite as loud on calls (or YouTube) as it was with music, no clue why. I couldn't test that about the 3D because Sprint had it unactivated and without Wifi.

 

[Impulses]

Question: anyone get an MHL cable or adapter (micro USB to HDMI) yet to test the HDMI mirroring? IIRC correctly this is something they advertised but I've yet to see or read about it working... It also happens to be something the LG G2X has proven to handle, and more importantly, something the EVO 4G was eventually able to do thanks to very clever developers (there's two market apps for it, don't even need root). I'd hate to lose that, I've used it more than the shaky kickstand.

P.S. Don't pay $20+ for one such cable or adapter, please, eventually they'll sell online for < $5 just like the EVO 4G's microHDMI to HDMI cables/adapters.