I haven't tried personally but there are positive reports. I haven't found a perma root yet but z4Root worked fine to give me temporary root.
Sent from my PG06100
EVO Shift 4G first review!
- Thread starter StAlphonso
- Start date
I haven't tried personally but there are positive reports. I haven't found a perma root yet but z4Root worked fine to give me temporary root.
Sent from my PG06100
It's working for me. Still has that bug where it doesn't work after a reboot though.
Sent from my PG06100
Can someone check somethng for me with the on screen keyboard. Is there a setting with the on screen keyboard to change it to the compact QWERTY format. That`s what I've gotten used to on the Hero and I'm hoping it will also be on the Shift. Yes I'll use the physical keyboard but with on screen I like what I like.
Initial review thoughts
Picked up a Shift yesterday ($119 at B.Buy on a Target price match.) This is my second smartphone, coming from a B'Berry Bold 9000, which served me well for 2 years. I got it because I need the ability to type long emails (fast), and need a dedicated keyboard for that. After 5-6 hours of use, here are my initial impressions.
-- The keyboard rocks. Solidly built, and I *love* the easy-access keys for "@", ".com", etc. I can fly on this thing.
-- Someone mentioned the screen not being terribly bright. Seems plenty bright to me. The resolution is very crisp, too. The Best Buy guys were very impressed as well, seeing it for the first time.
-- Screen size: even thought the BBerry was a small screen, it was wider (same width as an Evo.) This is almost a half inch less wide, (though deeper), and I'm still adjusting to that--somehow the Berry's "aspect ratio" seems more useful, strangely, but I'll get used to it Im sure. Truth be told I'd prefer the screen size of the Evo, but since that extra area eats up so much battery life, I'm not willing to make that sacrifice.
-- Phone quality and speaker quality: hmm. Not sure if it's my settings, but it sounds awfully tinny. The berry had an amazing speaker and perfect phone sound. This so far is the only thing I really do NOT like about the phone. No one else has mentioned this, so I either have a lemon or I was just spoiled previously. (thoughts anyone? this one aspect is giving me pause...)
-- Phone lag/delay. When I had my husband call me (from across the room), it took at least a second for his voice to come thru my phone. Very strange. When I was on the line with SPrint last night, it was like one of those overseas CNN broadcasts, with big delays before every sentence. Made the conversation flow awkwardly. Is this to be expected? Again, could I be looking at a lemon issue here?
-- Loving Android. Overall, the phone is speedy fast & super responsive (almost too much--having to learn how to "touch" the thing just right.) Barring the sound issues, it feels and looks solid. The keyboard sold me, and is delivering above and beyond expectations.
--Camera is great, auto focus is fast and responsive. As a part time photographer, I prefer the 5MP to 8MP. Some confuse number of Megapixels with quality -- not the case. A camera's sensor is a fixed size, so the less pixels it's required to record, the better image you can get (assuming similar sensors.) Even a 3MP camera makes images larger than the typical monitor can see, so unless you're needing to blow your images up to poster-size, it's usually a waste to have those extra mp's. (If I need serious large prints, shoot, I'll use my Nikon, not my phone...) 5MP is more than plenty for any web use--Evo's 8MPs is overkill, as a result. Saves storage space too. win win here.
-- Installed beta Swype, works fine so far.
Now, off to the app market...woot! And perhaps a date with the user manual to learn some shortcuts and tips. Thanks to all the posters here for great info.
Picked up a Shift yesterday ($119 at B.Buy on a Target price match.) This is my second smartphone, coming from a B'Berry Bold 9000, which served me well for 2 years. I got it because I need the ability to type long emails (fast), and need a dedicated keyboard for that. After 5-6 hours of use, here are my initial impressions.
-- The keyboard rocks. Solidly built, and I *love* the easy-access keys for "@", ".com", etc. I can fly on this thing.
-- Someone mentioned the screen not being terribly bright. Seems plenty bright to me. The resolution is very crisp, too. The Best Buy guys were very impressed as well, seeing it for the first time.
-- Screen size: even thought the BBerry was a small screen, it was wider (same width as an Evo.) This is almost a half inch less wide, (though deeper), and I'm still adjusting to that--somehow the Berry's "aspect ratio" seems more useful, strangely, but I'll get used to it Im sure. Truth be told I'd prefer the screen size of the Evo, but since that extra area eats up so much battery life, I'm not willing to make that sacrifice.
-- Phone quality and speaker quality: hmm. Not sure if it's my settings, but it sounds awfully tinny. The berry had an amazing speaker and perfect phone sound. This so far is the only thing I really do NOT like about the phone. No one else has mentioned this, so I either have a lemon or I was just spoiled previously. (thoughts anyone? this one aspect is giving me pause...)
-- Phone lag/delay. When I had my husband call me (from across the room), it took at least a second for his voice to come thru my phone. Very strange. When I was on the line with SPrint last night, it was like one of those overseas CNN broadcasts, with big delays before every sentence. Made the conversation flow awkwardly. Is this to be expected? Again, could I be looking at a lemon issue here?
-- Loving Android. Overall, the phone is speedy fast & super responsive (almost too much--having to learn how to "touch" the thing just right.) Barring the sound issues, it feels and looks solid. The keyboard sold me, and is delivering above and beyond expectations.
--Camera is great, auto focus is fast and responsive. As a part time photographer, I prefer the 5MP to 8MP. Some confuse number of Megapixels with quality -- not the case. A camera's sensor is a fixed size, so the less pixels it's required to record, the better image you can get (assuming similar sensors.) Even a 3MP camera makes images larger than the typical monitor can see, so unless you're needing to blow your images up to poster-size, it's usually a waste to have those extra mp's. (If I need serious large prints, shoot, I'll use my Nikon, not my phone...) 5MP is more than plenty for any web use--Evo's 8MPs is overkill, as a result. Saves storage space too. win win here.
-- Installed beta Swype, works fine so far.
Now, off to the app market...woot! And perhaps a date with the user manual to learn some shortcuts and tips. Thanks to all the posters here for great info.
star444
Well-known member
- Jan 8, 2011
- 73
- 3
- 0
*** Post snipped to save space. ***
I downloaded "Battery Indicator" by Darshan Computing from the Market. I really like it and the developer *promises* the app will not drain your battery. It shows a % on status bar at the top of the screen. If you drag down the screen to view the notifications window, it shows how long the phone has been uplugged, and, if you click on it you can see exactly what processes are using up your battery.
qfnol31
Well-known member
- Jul 31, 2010
- 250
- 5
- 0
Almost 50, which was awesome since I didn't cover the screen or protect the phone at all and it had had some pretty big drops at points...
I will throw in my 2 cents.
I have been a HTC Hero since launch, so it been about a year and a half. Before that I was a blackberry user. I picked up the Evo shift today around 2pm and have been on it pretty much since I got it.
What I can say about it so far:
-SPEED! This thing is very fast, I have yet to experience any kind of lagging. Quadrant score showed a number of 1543 compared to my cousin's evo showing a 1176 and my hero failing at 171 lol.
-Screen looks great, many are saying it looks kind of dull but honestly I think it looks good. Its is a tad underlit with auto dim on but if you turn it off you will notice autodim only brings the power up to about half. I would say it turn it up to about 70% it looks just as bright as the Epic or Evo. The screen also looks amazingly sharp, I am sure everybody knows by know it runs the same res. as the epic and EVO but on a overall smaller screen size. Everything seems to really pop on the screen, even small letters are smooth with no pixelation. Its also very responsive, no lag or delay as you scroll through the menus or webpages.
-Battery life seems extremely good right now. That is the big thing that held me back from upgrading to Epic and Evo, I didn't want to run a bunch of special settings or do some stupid airplane mode trick to get atleast a full day out of my battery. Battery meter at the top looked to be about half full out of the box, I installed a battery meter off the market just before charging and it showed 38% after about 4 hours of extremely heavy use. I don't know the exact percentage I started with but it seems to be extremely good for a phone with this much power.
-Charging time. At exactly 7:44 I put the phone on the charger with 38% battery level. At exactly 9:44 and the meter is showing 91%. So about 53% in 2 hours of charging. Decent but seems alittle slow compared to my old hero.
-Camera. Its seems to be pretty good. Autofocus is quick and doesn't suffer from any lag time after pressing the shutter button. I do missing having a physical shutter button (trackball on Hero), it would of been nice to have some kind of shutter button without having to slide the keyboard out. The enter button on the keyboard does work. Pictures look good for a phone camera. Some have *****ed that it is only 5MP, really? Obviously you don't understand what effects image quality. It mostly has to do with the size of the sensor, which all cell phones have very tiny sensors. Your not going to get even close to point and shoot quality so just give up. And even if you look at them on a computer screen your only seeing about 1-1.5 MP depending on the size of your screen.
-Call quality. Seems nice and clear. I have tested it both using the phone and being on the receiving end of it. The speaker phone works very nicely, being on the receiving end it you wouldn't even know your on speaker. There is no constant static or echo sound like you hear on many phones. Only thing I can really say anything bad about is, I wish the volume could go just a touch higher. Driving at highway speed in a loud truck I could use just alittle higher volume.
-Volume control button. This has been a hot button issue in many of the reviews. I will admit I hit it alot when I first got the phone today, placement wasn't exactly genius. I will say as time goes on with use I have already gotten to the point where it is getting rare to hit in on accident. I am sure putting a case on it would help drop the number of accidental hits to almost zero with almost all the users.
-Keyboard. It is alot better then I am expecting. This was one of the main reasons that drew me to the phone, a physical keyboard. I have had alot of time on touchscreens but still don't care for them. The keys are laid out nicely with just enough space between them to let your fingers feel the separation between them. They even have a nice soft touch material on the top of them. Only thing I would change would be to have them raised just slightly more in the centers of each key and I it would of been nice to have 5th row for number keys like the epic and TP2 but its definitely not a deal breaker. They did add nice LED lights to indicate when the FN and cap lock buttons are in effect, they are located at the top left side of the keyboard. Also the keys are nicely backlit and makes it easy to use even in the darkest places.
Only other thing I will mention is about turning the screen on. Coming from the hero I am used to hitting the red button in the bottom row of keys along the bottom of the screen. With the evo shift there is two ways to wake the phone up, either by hitting the button at the top or sliding the keyboard out, which I thought was a nice touch. It nice to hear the text ring tone come through and just be able to slide the keyboard out and start responding instead of having to hit the top button. Also if the phone goes to sleep while the keyboard is out it takes a simple hit of any key to wake it back up.
So far I am really liking this phone, takes all of the power from the evo, adds alittle more and fits it into a smaller package with a keyboard and battery life that is actually useful.
I will update tomorrow night with more info including how the battery acts as it sets idle while I am at work for 7 hours.
I have been a HTC Hero since launch, so it been about a year and a half. Before that I was a blackberry user. I picked up the Evo shift today around 2pm and have been on it pretty much since I got it.
What I can say about it so far:
-SPEED! This thing is very fast, I have yet to experience any kind of lagging. Quadrant score showed a number of 1543 compared to my cousin's evo showing a 1176 and my hero failing at 171 lol.
-Screen looks great, many are saying it looks kind of dull but honestly I think it looks good. Its is a tad underlit with auto dim on but if you turn it off you will notice autodim only brings the power up to about half. I would say it turn it up to about 70% it looks just as bright as the Epic or Evo. The screen also looks amazingly sharp, I am sure everybody knows by know it runs the same res. as the epic and EVO but on a overall smaller screen size. Everything seems to really pop on the screen, even small letters are smooth with no pixelation. Its also very responsive, no lag or delay as you scroll through the menus or webpages.
-Battery life seems extremely good right now. That is the big thing that held me back from upgrading to Epic and Evo, I didn't want to run a bunch of special settings or do some stupid airplane mode trick to get atleast a full day out of my battery. Battery meter at the top looked to be about half full out of the box, I installed a battery meter off the market just before charging and it showed 38% after about 4 hours of extremely heavy use. I don't know the exact percentage I started with but it seems to be extremely good for a phone with this much power.
-Charging time. At exactly 7:44 I put the phone on the charger with 38% battery level. At exactly 9:44 and the meter is showing 91%. So about 53% in 2 hours of charging. Decent but seems alittle slow compared to my old hero.
-Camera. Its seems to be pretty good. Autofocus is quick and doesn't suffer from any lag time after pressing the shutter button. I do missing having a physical shutter button (trackball on Hero), it would of been nice to have some kind of shutter button without having to slide the keyboard out. The enter button on the keyboard does work. Pictures look good for a phone camera. Some have *****ed that it is only 5MP, really? Obviously you don't understand what effects image quality. It mostly has to do with the size of the sensor, which all cell phones have very tiny sensors. Your not going to get even close to point and shoot quality so just give up. And even if you look at them on a computer screen your only seeing about 1-1.5 MP depending on the size of your screen.
-Call quality. Seems nice and clear. I have tested it both using the phone and being on the receiving end of it. The speaker phone works very nicely, being on the receiving end it you wouldn't even know your on speaker. There is no constant static or echo sound like you hear on many phones. Only thing I can really say anything bad about is, I wish the volume could go just a touch higher. Driving at highway speed in a loud truck I could use just alittle higher volume.
-Volume control button. This has been a hot button issue in many of the reviews. I will admit I hit it alot when I first got the phone today, placement wasn't exactly genius. I will say as time goes on with use I have already gotten to the point where it is getting rare to hit in on accident. I am sure putting a case on it would help drop the number of accidental hits to almost zero with almost all the users.
-Keyboard. It is alot better then I am expecting. This was one of the main reasons that drew me to the phone, a physical keyboard. I have had alot of time on touchscreens but still don't care for them. The keys are laid out nicely with just enough space between them to let your fingers feel the separation between them. They even have a nice soft touch material on the top of them. Only thing I would change would be to have them raised just slightly more in the centers of each key and I it would of been nice to have 5th row for number keys like the epic and TP2 but its definitely not a deal breaker. They did add nice LED lights to indicate when the FN and cap lock buttons are in effect, they are located at the top left side of the keyboard. Also the keys are nicely backlit and makes it easy to use even in the darkest places.
Only other thing I will mention is about turning the screen on. Coming from the hero I am used to hitting the red button in the bottom row of keys along the bottom of the screen. With the evo shift there is two ways to wake the phone up, either by hitting the button at the top or sliding the keyboard out, which I thought was a nice touch. It nice to hear the text ring tone come through and just be able to slide the keyboard out and start responding instead of having to hit the top button. Also if the phone goes to sleep while the keyboard is out it takes a simple hit of any key to wake it back up.
So far I am really liking this phone, takes all of the power from the evo, adds alittle more and fits it into a smaller package with a keyboard and battery life that is actually useful.
I will update tomorrow night with more info including how the battery acts as it sets idle while I am at work for 7 hours.
After playing with a Shift today and my EVO in the other hand, the Shift screen seems too small after now I am used to the EVO. The slider is very sticky compared to my two prior Touch Pro2's and overall the Shift keyboard is not what I expected. The TP2 keyboard would have been a much better design for this new one. Keep in mind that the on-screen kb on the Shift will be harder to use than the EVO due to the smaller more narrow screen in portrait view. I am keeping the EVO for sure and it continues to impress me.
My two pesos.
My two pesos.
Slide Keyboard
I must be missing it, but I cannot locate the question mark on the HTC Evo Shift slide keyboard.
Any hints would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Stuart
I must be missing it, but I cannot locate the question mark on the HTC Evo Shift slide keyboard.
Any hints would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Stuart
I'm seriously considering this as my first jump into the android pool, but can anyone add opinions on keyboard mechanism and how well it should hold it with use? I played with the demo versions at BB today and there seemed to be quite a bit of play, both when open and closed. I am just wondering that if it is pretty solid how well it will stay that way with continued use. Thanks.
Lol....its right near the track pad
This was sent shifting on my EVO Shift 4G using Tapatalk
Of all the keys to choose... why couldn't they put the period or comma there? (As a Treo user, I would have chosen the period.)
I'll chime in on that one...
Hard to say how it will hold up with long term usage, but I have pretty much been using it non-stop since Thursday when I picked it up and it feels as good as new. The sliding mechanism is tight and the two halves to the phone are so close it really limits the amount of movement during use or when bouncing around my pocket.
My girlfriend has the black/blue HTC case we picked up at Radio Shack with the phone it really added another level of stiffness to the keyboard. I guess this could be viewed as good or bad pending on your personal opinion. On one hand it really tightened up the slider, but I could see someone saying it tightens it up too much. It definitely requires a noticeable amount more force to open the keyboard with the case on, which is too be expected with most cases.
That being said, I will probably be picking up a case/screen protector in the near future. Better safe than sorry and all that. The only reason she got the first one is because we both agree that she is a bit harder overall on her phones so we wanted to get that one protected ASAP.
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