Ask us about the Sprint Evo 4G

[LCW]

1.) Why no AMOLED? For a multimedia powerhouse, why implement top-of-the-line everything else and take a step backwards with TFT LCD? Did the OEM not make 4.3" AMOLEDs? Also, is 65K colors the limitation of TFT LCD, or can this be increased with a software tweak? Viewing HD content is nearly lost on a washed-out screen that cannot achieve true-life colorization. Again, for a device whose main selling point (excl. 4G) is its video capabilities, why did they go cheap on these components?

frankly i'm glad it's not AMOLED... have you used one outside in the sunlight? well I have (my Nexus) and it blows... it's seriously HORRIBLE... you have to jack up the brightness to 100% (can you say battery drain), and even then, it's still washed out and barely readable...

a serious flaw in my opinion.... unless it would be the new "Super AMOLED" that is said to resolve the sunlight issue (which, the Nexus/Desire DON'T HAVE, just regular AMOLED)... i'll gladly take TFT any friggin day... especially on nice bright sunny ones!!!

 

[Serus]

I just read through the questions and I think many of them can be answered already based off of current and past information that is out there. Such as:

I'm Curious if Sprint 4g wimax with the EVO will allow for Simultaneous Voice and Data Connections like ATT

• Yeah, they're working on it right now and it should be available at launch (talked about in one of the many videos.)

Price, and when we will get a version that has a HARDWARE KEYBOARD (pretty please)!

• Price not yet announced, and if you had the same device with a keyboard it would be a completely different phone. Sprints answer: There are many more 4G enabled phones planned for the future, some of which will have hardware keyboards. Also regarding the price, several people are estimating between $600 and $800, unsubsidized. So a contract with Sprint should lower the cost.

No trackpad or trackball on this phone. Is that even a concern? It's on recent (N1) and future HTC Android phones (Desire) there will be one - why take away screen real estate for a trackball if it's not necessary? So, is it?

• One of my concerns as well. As answered in a video, I'll paraphrase: "It's such a large screen with so much room, you shouldn't have any issue selecting the location on screen so there wasn't a need for a trackpad/trackball."

I would like to know if I can travel to europe with it? Or am i tied in to US only. And on the video where the guys presses a button and you can see multi apps is that like palm pre, have few apps running at once?thanks

• Can any Sprint phone work in Europe? I don't believe so, so no.
• Multi-apps, that's just holding down the Home button on Android, it shows all the running applications and allows you to switch between apps. So yes, you can have multiple apps running at once (it's android, not the phone.)

I'm w/'DonnieAles'.
I am very excited for this phone but am concerned about battery life, and for good reason.
When I purchased the Palm Pre? last year at it's release, I had been watching it since Feb. Reading everything I could, asking questions, reading, reading, learning, etc. (i even had my hands on it 2 weeks prior to release) BUT battery life, seemed to "slip the list" as I, now looking back, just took it for granted. BIG MISTAKE.
My Co-Worker has a MotoDroid and is very satisfied with it's battery life. And yes I am aware that the EVO 4G has a slightly larger battery, but when you take into account all the additional features of this new device I kind of begin to cringe.
EXAMPLES of what concerns me...
- Sense UI
- WiMAX Radio
- 1GHz Snapdragon Processor (almost double the Droid?)
- The larger LEDLCD Screen (curious as to why no AMOLED)
- Does a higher quality Camera(8mp) need more Power?
- Front-Facing Camera (1.3mp)
- HDMI(mini) out
- MiFi Capabilities (WiFi Hotspot)

All these things are exactly what is going to make this phone/MID amazing! BUT IS the battery going to "Hang"? I know that the Specs on the EVO 4G are slightly more campaerable to the Nexus One?, so maybe that would be a better example.

-aaronaaron

• The camera and WiFi are going to be about the same as other phones. The issues are WiMax and the screen size comparatively. Sense isn't a factor really since it replaces the stock Android home screen. You aren't running 2 home screens at the same time (unless you start them both up and switch between them.) I doubt HTC will ever give a definitive answer regarding why no AMOLED.
  
• An easy battery comparison would be "How long will the battery last with video playback?" since it can be used to measure across all phones capable of video playback.

If you could unlock this bad boy would it work with verizon? More importantly, would verizon let you activate it on their network? (Obviously 4g wouldn't work but would 3g)

• No, and No.

1. WHEN is it coming out??
2. Does it have a proximity sensor?
3. Is there a message indicator for when you get a new SMS/Email/Facebook?

1. Summer, good luck getting anything else out of them right now.
2. Good question, most likely it does though.
3. I believe it does, simply because isn't it a requirement of all "Google" phones? And this is a Google phone as stated by HTC in a video.

international phone? have extra slot for sim card? Man, Sprint need get international phone line for Android. They current don't have one yet for android. thanks

• No, there is no SIM card slot.

I'm assuming that it should work this way...if not in wimax covered area it will work off of 3g? I'm hoping that we don't need to upgrade to a special WIMAX plan.

• Correct, if no WiMax is available then it uses 3G, if no 3G then Edge, if no Edge then WTF are you doing with a superphone?!

HTC EVO or Dell Streak?

• Not really a question for HTC.

Does it really not have an AMOLED screen?

• TFTLCD and not AMOLED unfortunately.

Hope this helps out a little. So far the most relevant question is regarding the battery life, release, and price. The last two are "To be announced" but the battery life question could be addressed.

 

[wolf8218]

Gaming

Well, as you know, some underground gamers have taken a liking to some classic First person shooters. Due to my ignorance of phone hardware, what phone would you say is better for gaming in 3D? The Evo? N1? or is there something even faster than these?

 

[Buckaroo Banzai]

frankly i'm glad it's not AMOLED... have you used one outside in the sunlight? well I have (my Nexus) and it blows... it's seriously HORRIBLE... you have to jack up the brightness to 100% (can you say battery drain), and even then, it's still washed out and barely readable...

a serious flaw in my opinion.... unless it would be the new "Super AMOLED" that is said to resolve the sunlight issue (which, the Nexus/Desire DON'T HAVE, just regular AMOLED)... i'll gladly take TFT any friggin day... especially on nice bright sunny ones!!!

I could almost buy that explanation except I don't know anyone who purposely angles their phone in the daylight in such a way as to make it completely unreadable. I use my phone indoors primarily, and the vivid colors and battery life-saving aspect of AMOLED would have truly benefitted the EVO. I'm trying to rationalize TFT and convince myself everything will be all right, but it's still a disappointment. Everything else about this phone was complicated but the screen should have been a no-brainer. I'll never understand why companies take two steps forward, one step back.

 

[si_sedan07#AC]

Pricing

Ok. So they are saying is MiFi capable. What doest this mean. Will this come included with the unlimited data plan? or will you need to pay extra to use this feature? 4G, so LA will be covered under the 4G pretty soon. Does that mean better coverage on 3G if 4G is not available? or will the 3G remain the same? What would be the price on this? To be honest I was loyal to WM phones. I wanted to buy the touch pro 2, but when saw that pricing was $350 (after rebates) plus taxes, I decided to go with the Hero. I love android now n I dont see a reason to go back to WM. So, where do we stand in the pricing? will it be a more reasonable 200~? or are they gonna go crazy like they did on the touch pro 2? actually, you had to pay a $540 dollars for the touch pro 2 and later you would get the $100 dollar rebate. Not a good deal if you ask me.

 

[chocmatic]

It will work off of 3G if you're not in a 4G area. I know this.

I too am hoping that there won't be "special plan pricing" for this phone.

I figured it should work...just wanted to make sure . Yeah, that might be the deal killer for me. I don't want to change my plan again. If, that's the case I will just go with the N1

 

[johnstad]

Exchange Support

What elements of exchange are supported?
-Email? Folders?
-Contacts?
-Calendar?

Thanks.

John

 

[krok]

Does multi-touch on the EVO support more then 2 fingers? or is it similar to the N1 and its ClearPad 2000 touchscreen which only handles 2-finger multi-touch gestures.

 

[alan7467]

I heard someone say in a video that the LCD screen is LED backlit. Has anyone been able to confirm this?

 

[gbuff19]

Future HTC EVO 4G Owner!!

My question, like others is about the battery life?
But also, does the camera have a zoom? I saw in the videos that there is a touch button on the screen with a +/- in it. I assume that's the zoom for the camera. If so, how many times zoom does it have?
Also, does the video camera have any zoom?
Thanks.

 

[ERDude]

1.) Why no AMOLED? For a multimedia powerhouse, why implement top-of-the-line everything else and take a step backwards with TFT LCD? Did the OEM not make 4.3" AMOLEDs? Also, is 65K colors the limitation of TFT LCD, or can this be increased with a software tweak? Viewing HD content is nearly lost on a washed-out screen that cannot achieve true-life colorization. Again, for a device whose main selling point (excl. 4G) is its video capabilities, why did they go cheap on these components?

According to the specs from the Sprint Android Developer site the screen is AMOLED.

 

[ilongbored]

What keeps the kick stand from falling out? I thought I saw it fall out of place in a video.

 

[rockcrawler]

According to the specs from the Android - Sprint ADP site the screen AMOLED.

Link Please.

 

[Ozmodiar]

According to the specs from the Sprint Android Developer site the screen is AMOLED.

You edited it before I could question you...nice work on the Ninja Edit. Haha.

I've seen these spec sheets be wrong before...but it would be pretty sweet if it were AMOLED (or Preferably Super AMOLED)

 

[nutflush920]

Here are the spec's right from Sprint's site.

Sprint - HTC EVO™ 4G

 

[gregg37]

Can Sense UI be turned off to make it a "normal" Android device?

 

[Gameboy70]

1. Phil mentioned that he was told that users couldn't disable Sense beyond turning off the home screen, which seems contrary to what I've read about the Desire. Is there really no way to turn off Sense?

2. One of the pictures of the Evo with the battery removed seemed to show that the microSD card slot was underneath the battery compartment, suggesting that the only way to remove the card was to remove the battery and thus turn off the phone. Is it possible to remove the card while the phone is still running (as it has been on every Treo I've owned)?

 

[benthe1]

Thank you nutflush920. I hate it when people ask all these questions about certain phones but don't go to the companies website to find out about it first. A lot of the questions are legitamate but simple spec questions can be found on Sprint.com.

So my question is... will it be able to download large video files. My Pre records mp4 video but when I send it to my brother's Moment it says that the video is to big to download. My friend's BB can download the same file that the Moment can't.

 

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Here are the spec's right from Sprint's site.

Sprint - HTC EVO™ 4G

Exactly my point. Even Sprint doesn't officially say what type of 4.3" screen it is.

Can Sense UI be turned off to make it a "normal" Android device?

The homescreen aspect can be turned off, but not Sense UI in its entirety, not on the HTC Desire and not on the EVO 4G. Sense is way too ingrained into the OS to be able to remove it without wiping and rooting the phone.

1. Phil mentioned that he was told that users couldn't disable Sense beyond turning off the home screen, which seems contrary to what I've read about the Desire. Is there really no way to turn off Sense?

2. One of the pictures of the Evo with the battery removed seemed to show that the microSD card slot was underneath the battery compartment, suggesting that the only way to remove the card was to remove the battery and thus turn off the phone. Is it possible to remove the card while the phone is still running (as it has been on every Treo I've owned)?

You cannot remove the microSD card without removing the battery, and by removing the battery you are shutting off the phone. I believe this is the standard moving forward, at Google's request to all manufacturers, so that when they implement apps2sd as part of a future OS version no one will be able to brick their phone without first turning it off. It's hard to explain but it's the only rational explanation.

 

[crcr]

I know that Sprint isn't saying, but have you got any clues on individual plan pricing?

Also, will there be different pricing plans depending on whether there is 4G available where you live. For example, even though I live in the 5th largest city (Phoenix), there is no Wimax service here and in fact none in the whole state of Arizona, and none announced in the planning as yet.

So if one lives in a 3G only area, will one pay the same pricing plan as someone who lives in a 4G area?
Or will there be two different pricing plans?
Could you buy the phone with a cheaper plan with access to 3G only (I am on WiFi most of the time)?

I think that you said estimates were the phone would be priced at $600-$800 unsubsidized (ouch!)
Any idea of the subsidized price?
Any idea of what the ETF for Sprint is or would be for such a smartphone?