HTC EVO 4G LTE First Impressions/Reviews

[Mercury81]

Coming from the OG Evo4G to EvoLTE and its like super smooth, faster processor, better camera, nice bigger screen, better audio, more memory plus micro slot.... And of course there's ICS which is great!

sent from my Evo4LTE

 

[dswatson83]

Coming from an Evo 4G

Screen, screen, screen, screen...did I say screen. It is simply beautiful.
Build quality is excellent
Looks great and even the glossy black plastic on the back top is not as bad looking as I thought it would be from pictures. The black gloss is a fingerprint magnet and it is difficult to wipe them off. I will soon have a case though and won't care/notice.
Phone gets warm after moderate use. You can feel it around the camera and it is noticeable.
Kickstand rocks and is really useful though a bit difficult to get out for a guy with no fingernails.
I accidentally depress the first stage of the 2 stage camera button all the time when holding the phone. It doesn't do anything but it startles me when I do it because I think i'm doing something wrong. Not a big deal though.
It is annoying having the menu button take up a large portion of the screen for many apps. The button layout is much better with home in the center and back on the left but I often reach for the absent menu button. Also, I don't know that the task switcher needs its own button. I was fine holding the menu button down for 2 seconds.
Task switching is not well implemented though and often apps have to reload when switching. This is a Sense issue but is annoying.
Sense is definitely improved but still not perfect. I switched to Nova after only a day and it has worked great other than the task switching issues which still persist. There is a slight amount of lag noticeable sometimes (rare) when using Nova but it is much better than the Evo 4G (used golauncher on the 4g). This is likely due to how Sense manages resources though.
Battery life is improved but not much better. It will likely be the same as the Evo once LTE gets turned on.
USB location makes leaving it plugged in with the kickstand out a balancing act. Not a big deal though as I have never really cared to do this.
Auto brightness is way too sensitive and pretty much useless.
No flashlight app but a 3rd party app worked well.
It should have 5 rows of icons. One of the reasons I switched to Nova. There is definitely room. You still get to use the Sense apps (like alarms and timers) but not the Sense widgets.
Speaker sounds OK but not much if any better to the original evo.
Camera button feels great.
Network is still slow
MicroSD slot = awesomeness
Un-removable battery didn't bother me as I never did but I know many who used extended batteries with the original evo and I'm not sure that they will have a 3500 mAh solution with this model.
This phone feels thin, looks thing, and is thin. Can be difficult to hold on to though. Maybe a rubberized, textured case would help.


Overall, best phone available right now and i'm very happy. I think

 

[joehp1]

Did you have the same mutitasking issues with e original Evo? I have original and this issue could be a deal breaker for me.

 

[Mercury81]

Did you have the same mutitasking issues with e original Evo? I have original and this issue could be a deal breaker for me.

What multi taking issues are you talking about? I'm using it withour ant problems.

sent from my Evo4LTE

 

[dswatson83]

Did you have the same mutitasking issues with e original Evo? I have original and this issue could be a deal breaker for me.

As I remember, I believe the original did reload some apps when switching. I also noticed today that with multiple tabs in the internet, if you had any videos or heavy websites open on one tab for more than a couple minutes, it would likely have to reload the other tabs after switching. It appears multitasking is limited to apps with minimal memory usage or tabs with small websites without video. If you have anything heavier, it reloads the application or tab when you switch to it. Not a deal breaker for me and I don't know that other devices do any better, but you would think with 16GB storage a 1GB of ram that would be enough to switch apps without issues. Maybe Sense is a resource hog.

 

[k000]

Pluses
---------
+ Screen is gorgeous, hands down best screen I have ever seen anywhere
+ Phone is fast, UI is smooth
+ Call quality is definitely better, coming from Touch Pro 2
+ Camera feels nice in hand, bit clumsy first day, but works very well now


Minuses
-----------
- Camera is really bad, hazy low quality. HTC - Shame on you*
- Sense is not really smooth, hangs here and there. A restart of phone gets it cleared though
- Face unlock does not turn on the camera many a times, black screen and then pin password option comes up
- Can't connect it to PC as Mass Storage Device

 

[dswatson83]

Does anyone else experience the phone getting really hot when running apps or watching flash video...stuff that puts a challenge on the phone. It can get REALLY hot in some cases...enough to make me worried. It often feels warm to the touch right around where the camera is, even after light duty use, but under more pressure it can get hot to the touch and uncomfortable to hold. Maybe a case will help but it can't be good for the internals.

 

[jonbuckley33]

Does the LTE come turned on by default?

 

[proxybox]

jealous! can't for mine to be delivered from Wirefly.

 

[dswatson83]

Does the LTE come turned on by default?

It did on mine. I was surprised. It was tough to find out how to turn it off actually as its buried in the menu. I also don't see a widget for it.

 

[KELSEY50]

I had not pre-ordered but had walked into a Best-Buy and learned of two pre-order cancellations and bought bought both phones for myself and my wife. We both had the original Evo 4g with the 3500 extended battery which added bulk but made the phones unstoppable for even heavy use for an entire day +. Most of my use is for fairly frequent phone calls, pushing emails from my office server and occasional text messaging and web browsing. The Evo 4G with the extended battery handled all of that with no problem, leaving plenty of battery left when I put it back on the charger for the evening. I live a larger Chicago suburb and I didn't use the 4G too often because I found the 4G coverage to be very spotty and therefore a needless battery drain.

I read all of the great reviews of the Evo LTE but my biggest concern was battery consumption. The reviews I read said that notwithstanding the large display, the dual processor would make it run more efficiently.

I'm on day three with the phone and here are my impressions:

DISPLAY/: As all of the reviews have suggested, the display is absolutely amazing! Everything is incredibly sharp and the colors are fantastic. Pictures look incredible and streaming video from Netlix is great (only used that for a few minutes so far). The display is incredible even in sunlight. The new operating system is excellent and very smooth.

BATTERY: So far, my experience with battery life has not been impressive. With emails pushing and Bluetooth on and the display set to automatic brightness, I was down to about 14 % by 5:00 p.m. (phone was off of the charger at about 7:30 a.m.). I did learn that the network was set to both LTE and CDMA so I've now set it to CDMA only. W-fi was off, but apparently the GPS has been running in the background, so I've now turned off GPS, and will keep Bluetooth off except when in the car. I've also taken the display brightness off of automatic and set to a lower level of brightness. I'll see how this new combination works tomorrow. Maybe I was just spoiled with the 3500 mAh on the Evo 4G.

SIGNAL: As I noted before, 4G in our area was always spotty but when I ran the phone on just 3G, pages opened fairly quickly and the Google app store loaded quickly and downloads were pretty fast. I'm finding that everything is running much slower now when I try to connect from my office or my home. I don't know if there is an issue with the tower near my home and office or the antenna in the Evo Lte, but I'm seeing the same slow down on my wife's new phone, as well. When I drive a couple of miles away from my home and the reception bars go up to 5 or 6, the speed is as good as it was on the Evo 4G, but so far, it seems that I am having a tougher time getting consistently good signal strength in the same locations that I had no problem withe when using the the Evo 4G I've updated profiles and PRL to rule this out as a problem.

If anyone has any other suggestions for addressing these issues, I would appreciate the feedback.

I'll try to post more tomorrow when I see how these changes work.

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

Pluses
---------
+ Screen is gorgeous, hands down best screen I have ever seen anywhere
+ Phone is fast, UI is smooth
+ Call quality is definitely better, coming from Touch Pro 2
+ Camera feels nice in hand, bit clumsy first day, but works very well now


Minuses
-----------
- Camera is really bad, hazy low quality. HTC - Shame on you*
- Sense is not really smooth, hangs here and there. A restart of phone gets it cleared though
- Face unlock does not turn on the camera many a times, black screen and then pin password option comes up
- Can't connect it to PC as Mass Storage Device

Uhhh, I just can't believe that so many have bad cameras. My pics are crystal clear and 1000x better that any other phone camera I have used. Maybe there is some kind of protective film over the lens? Has anyone with bad pic images checked to make sure there is nothing covering the lens or that there isn't any smudging on the lens? Something is amiss here and I just don't get it.

Sense not smooth? Really? This is the smoothest interface I have EVER used. I had my E3D over clocked and running ICS with Sense 3.6 and I thought that was super fast. The E4GLTE kills it with the stock ROM! I have over 50 apps installed from the Market and every swipe is sooth as silk! Again, something is amiss here.

Haven't used face unlock but even the Google calls the feature gimicky, so I wouldn't put much stock in it being wonky.

No mass storage? I've had mine connected to my PC all day, dragging and dropping files all over the place. Now, the interface on the phone has changed, so things are arranged a little differently, so allow me to explain how it worked for me. When connected the phone brings up the "Choose a connection type:" screen.

Before you would select the big box in the upper right to connect as a drive. Now the selection is below. Just click the radio button next to "Disk Drive" and it should pop up a drive in Windows! It was that easy for me. Direct access to the SD card. I've been moving music and movies to it all evening and it works perfectly.

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

Does anyone else experience the phone getting really hot when running apps or watching flash video...stuff that puts a challenge on the phone. It can get REALLY hot in some cases...enough to make me worried. It often feels warm to the touch right around where the camera is, even after light duty use, but under more pressure it can get hot to the touch and uncomfortable to hold. Maybe a case will help but it can't be good for the internals.

I have noticed it getting pretty warm, especially when using GPS. However, never uncomfortably warm or never so hot that I couldn't put it back in my pocket. It is more noticeable in this thin casing, that's for sure.

 

[k000]

Uhhh, I just can't believe that so many have bad cameras. My pics are crystal clear and 1000x better that any other phone camera I have used. Maybe there is some kind of protective film over the lens? Has anyone with bad pic images checked to make sure there is nothing covering the lens or that there isn't any smudging on the lens? Something is amiss here and I just don't get it.

Sense not smooth? Really? This is the smoothest interface I have EVER used. I had my E3D over clocked and running ICS with Sense 3.6 and I thought that was super fast. The E4GLTE kills it with the stock ROM! I have over 50 apps installed from the Market and every swipe is sooth as silk! Again, something is amiss here.

Haven't used face unlock but even the Google calls the feature gimicky, so I wouldn't put much stock in it being wonky.

No mass storage? I've had mine connected to my PC all day, dragging and dropping files all over the place. Now, the interface on the phone has changed, so things are arranged a little differently, so allow me to explain how it worked for me. When connected the phone brings up the "Choose a connection type:" screen.

Click to view quoted image


Before you would select the big box in the upper right to connect as a drive. Now the selection is below. Just click the radio button next to "Disk Drive" and it should pop up a drive in Windows! It was that easy for me. Direct access to the SD card. I've been moving music and movies to it all evening and it works perfectly.

I do not get "Disk Drive" when I connect to Win 7 machine. Only options I am seeing are ;
Charge Only
HTC Sync manager
USB Tethering
Media Sync (this did not work)
Internet pass through

 

[ogjrs]

I had a poor camera on mine also. I compared numerous pics with my gs2 adjusted the settings not just using default and they weren't the best. They were fast which is all I could say. The Screen didn't really grab me like everyone it has for everyone else. I decided to return mine.

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

I do not get "Disk Drive" when I connect to Win 7 machine. Only options I am seeing are ;
Charge Only
HTC Sync manager
USB Tethering
Media Sync (this did not work)
Internet pass through

Odd. I don't know why you see different options than I do. Might be worth a call to HTC support. I checked their support site and there is a download for an updated version HTC Sync but I haven't installed that so I can't see how that would fix the issue. If you feel like trying here is the link: HTC EVO

 

[Y2Dre]

I do not get "Disk Drive" when I connect to Win 7 machine. Only options I am seeing are ;
Charge Only
HTC Sync manager
USB Tethering
Media Sync (this did not work)
Internet pass through

The disk drive option probably only shows up when you have a SD card installed. I may be wrong...but, all I know is that I have a card in mine and the disk drive option shows up every time. Just copied some mp3 files over this morning using that option.

Released from the EVO 4G LTE using Android Central Forums

 

[HnLA]

Just got Evo4g, updating from tracfone, but use Ipod touch.
The big screen is really great. Main reason I got it was typing on ipod/iphone was not easy, and LOVING the voice dictation and swype.
Dont like that you have to use 2 hands to turn on the screen. You can do it with one hand on ipod. And the power button on the top seems to be asking to get turned on in a pocket.

1 - Cannot use HTC sync without buying/adding a separate SD card? I spent a lot of time last night downloading onto PC, and then it doesnt sync. Apple may be a PITA with sync reminders, but its so easy.

2 - Cannot synch music in itunes, only songs in my "music folder"? Will try using doubletwist.

3 - The emails are bigger than the screen in landscape and cannot sqeeze them smaller, so have to keep moving the email back and forth. Is there a way to fix this? I made the font to small a bit better

4 - Is there a way to permanently have the images open in emails, or do I have to hit "open images" each and every email?

5 - Is there a way to get 2-line preview in landscape? or do I have to keep switching from portrait (to see the preview) to landscape to read the full size email? This is really lame.

6 - Is there a way to type in from a computer contact info that is not in outlook?

7 - Is there a way to quickly delete emails, like the left-swipe on the iphone? or do you need to check, delete and confirm?

It seems that if you use gmail and other google things, ICS is great, but its really not so easy for other email providers, etc For instance I dont see why they make a difference between getting a gmail email or another provider email, its all the same to me (and I do not get many gmails) Then every address gets a bing when it updates. On the ipod one ding is good enough for any or all accounts.

The first app I downloaded does not work with Andriod anymore it seems, (Currency), but will have to check out some other ones.

While they say that with Android you have a lot of choices, so far I do not see them. Like its a big deal that you can have 4 icons on the first screen. The iphone/ipod has 16, but you do not have the lovely clock.

I got this big phone, as I do like the bigger keyboard for typing and like swype. But I have spent quite some time on trying to synch and it has not worked at all. The people in the store and when calling support are either not familiar with this new phone(as they have not seen it), or tell me that most of these things cannot be done.
While it may be great for tech-savvy people can do all sorts of things, most of us want everything easy, accessible and elegant. Thanks for your help

 

[LAhanger]

Sheesh, give it a chance. It's like the first time I used my original EVO after finally giving up on my old Palm Pre. I swore I'd take it back before the week was over, but then I grew to love it. Apple stuff "just works" but it's very vanilla and boring. Very few options like with Android. Double Twist is a great app. Definitely get it, as well as Air Sync you will like it. The rest of your post smacks of iPhone trolling but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say give it a few days.

 

[dtreo]

Just got Evo4g, updating from tracfone, but use Ipod touch.
The big screen is really great. Main reason I got it was typing on ipod/iphone was not easy, and LOVING the voice dictation and swype.
Dont like that you have to use 2 hands to turn on the screen. You can do it with one hand on ipod. And the power button on the top seems to be asking to get turned on in a pocket.

1 - Cannot use HTC sync without buying/adding a separate SD card? I spent a lot of time last night downloading onto PC, and then it doesnt sync. Apple may be a PITA with sync reminders, but its so easy.

2 - Cannot synch music in itunes, only songs in my "music folder"? Will try using doubletwist.

3 - The emails are bigger than the screen in landscape and cannot sqeeze them smaller, so have to keep moving the email back and forth. Is there a way to fix this? I made the font to small a bit better

4 - Is there a way to permanently have the images open in emails, or do I have to hit "open images" each and every email?

5 - Is there a way to get 2-line preview in landscape? or do I have to keep switching from portrait (to see the preview) to landscape to read the full size email? This is really lame.

6 - Is there a way to type in from a computer contact info that is not in outlook?

7 - Is there a way to quickly delete emails, like the left-swipe on the iphone? or do you need to check, delete and confirm?

It seems that if you use gmail and other google things, ICS is great, but its really not so easy for other email providers, etc For instance I dont see why they make a difference between getting a gmail email or another provider email, its all the same to me (and I do not get many gmails) Then every address gets a bing when it updates. On the ipod one ding is good enough for any or all accounts.

The first app I downloaded does not work with Andriod anymore it seems, (Currency), but will have to check out some other ones.

While they say that with Android you have a lot of choices, so far I do not see them. Like its a big deal that you can have 4 icons on the first screen. The iphone/ipod has 16, but you do not have the lovely clock.

I got this big phone, as I do like the bigger keyboard for typing and like swype. But I have spent quite some time on trying to synch and it has not worked at all. The people in the store and when calling support are either not familiar with this new phone(as they have not seen it), or tell me that most of these things cannot be done.
While it may be great for tech-savvy people can do all sorts of things, most of us want everything easy, accessible and elegant. Thanks for your help

Comparison complaints of likely the most fully featured smartphone ever to the...iPod? Really? Sorry, but that's kinda...oh I give up.