Is this phone worth it?

[garrettfarnum]

I like the idea of this phone, but the lack of development for it kind of makes me worried. What are your opinions, as users or not, on this phone? How is the battery life? How does this phone compare to high-end phones? How does the first generation snapdragon run, is it smooth compared to other devices with that chipset? I would really like input soon because I will be upgrading in less than a month.

 

[Dre89]

I like the idea of this phone, but the lack of development for it kind of makes me worried. What are your opinions, as users or not, on this phone? How is the battery life? How does this phone compare to high-end phones? How does the first generation snapdragon run, is it smooth compared to other devices with that chipset? I would really like input soon because I will be upgrading in less than a month.

The phone it great, and I'd recommend it. Battery life is comparable to any other android despite that is has a relativity small battery. Everything runs as smooth as alot of the newer high end and dual core phones, I've never had any major lag or slowdown. The Echo really shows the amount of care and development that Kyocera put into it.

Of course, as of right now, it is unrootable (which is driving me insane) but it has alot to do with 2.3.4, only a small number of Androids even have that version as it's one of the latest and has new security patches which make it need a new root method. So we will get it rooted eventually. But don't expect this to ever have the level of development as a HTC or Samsung phone. If we can get a recovery built then we can probably build our own ROMs and themes, but that's about as far as we're ever going to get with the Echo. It's the curse of being first generation, everything is there for greatness, but not many people are willing to touch it.

 

[Castorshells]

Yes I love my echo and would not trade it in. Its a great phone with better performance since the gingerbread update. I hope there is a way to root it soon but I can wait. Its a love/hate thing with this phone and I love the dual screens.

Xoom+Root = Perfect Match

 

[garrettfarnum]

How do you think the screens would hold up to breaking? I saw one report of a broken screen but that's it.
Just for the record: I have an HTC hero currently and that screen has held up through everything, including being hit by lawnmower blades, being dropped on concrete multiple times, and being stepped on by my marching band of 150. I NEED a tough screen.

 

[markawashington]

Defenitely, I had an HTC hero then Evo than play with wifes Palm pre, Epic now Echo. Just sold my epic on craiglist , wife has the evo and I love the Echo.. I do have one Hate about the phone and no its not the battery (Actually better than the evo and epic) but the back button omg it takes me to places I dont want to go. but other than that hopefully devs can work out the kinks. Best phone I had thus far.

 

[Dre89]

How do you think the screens would hold up to breaking? I saw one report of a broken screen but that's it.
Just for the record: I have an HTC hero currently and that screen has held up through everything, including being hit by lawnmower blades, being dropped on concrete multiple times, and being stepped on by my marching band of 150. I NEED a tough screen.

The screens are made with gorilla glass, so that 1 report is probably the only one we'll ever see lol. Should hold up fine, I've had mine awhile now and it's still flawless

 

[n8littlefield]

Frankly, it's not for everybody but for my use I love it. I would highly recommend hitting a Sprint store and just checking it out in hand versus the other phones out there. It's a odd design that is very much either you love it or hate it immediately. I am very happy with my phone (aside from Plants vs Zombies not being compatible) - but I know many people would find it too odd to use.

I too switched from the Hero and would say that aside from the battery cover feeling slightly flimsy in comparison the build quality is similar. The Hero is obviously more rugged - it's all metal and like you mentioned pretty much unkillable - but the Echo is a very solid phone.

 

[Relgoshan]

Mine's taken a couple hard knocks with zero visible damage. Most of the body is hard metal and the screens are tempered glass. No flex or color distortion even if you press very hard, and easy to clean. Touch is VERY responsive, outperforms most phone screens even with a plastic protector on top. Battery cover is thin, but deeply recessed and well protected.

Very good audio options (Loud/clear speaker, headphone jack, mono/stereo bluetooth).
It has a metal mount for cellphone strap or belt chain to prevent dropping entirely.
Camera was "okay" before, but improved a lot with the update.
Gallery has nice interface and will find pics/video anywhere on your SD card.
After update, battery lasts longer than most single-screen phones with bigger batteries.
System drivers are TIGHT, phone benchmarks higher than any other single Snapdragon I've seen.
Most games are full-speed in tablet mode, with the bonus of bigger buttons and less eyestrain.
Email, Maps and Browsing are finally practical on a device that fits in your pocket.

So basically this phone was pretty good when it came out. But if you buy one right now and update it immediately, the Echo beats almost every phone out there hands-down. If you live in a WIMAX network area and want internet video chat, maybe you want a different phone. But for general use and almost all gaming, no other device is as flexible or as useful.

 

[werkx]

I'm looking to get a new phone for my high schooler who has had cell phones before, but not a full fledged smartphone. He's currently using my old Samsung Instinct.

Sprint has this as a free phone for upgrade and I can't believe it because it's got pretty high specs even without the dual-screen. Better than all the entry level and mid-level android phones. It even got 2.3.4, which my Epic 4g doesn't without root. I do like the LG Optimus S, and the new Kyocera Milano looks good, but the Echo is "cooler" for teenager, right?

Is it still viable for a couple years? I'm thinking this will be a cool phone for him, but will he hate it because he won't get a full day's battery use out of it? I'm sure he'll be social networking, texting, browsing and playing games (when he's not studying...haha). But, it should also provide calendar, email, doc processing and such for when he needs them.

Thoughts? Or should I focus on the more recent releases? I'm not looking to get him a premium phone for the $10 premium extra cost. Thanks in advanced.

 

[Dre89]

I'm looking to get a new phone for my high schooler who has had cell phones before, but not a full fledged smartphone. He's currently using my old Samsung Instinct.

Sprint has this as a free phone for upgrade and I can't believe it because it's got pretty high specs even without the dual-screen. Better than all the entry level and mid-level android phones. It even got 2.3.4, which my Epic 4g doesn't without root. I do like the LG Optimus S, and the new Kyocera Milano looks good, but the Echo is "cooler" for teenager, right?

Is it still viable for a couple years? I'm thinking this will be a cool phone for him, but will he hate it because he won't get a full day's battery use out of it? I'm sure he'll be social networking, texting, browsing and playing games (when he's not studying...haha). But, it should also provide calendar, email, doc processing and such for when he needs them.

Thoughts? Or should I focus on the more recent releases? I'm not looking to get him a premium phone for the $10 premium extra cost. Thanks in advanced.

Considering how good are specs are and my experience with mine, for free, I'd more then recommend it. Lol and yes it is "cooler" then either of those.

Considering this is Kyocera's flagship device we should get good life and support over the next few years after this, it's also possible we could be one of the first to get ICS as well. He should get a full day out of it and more with the 2 batteries it comes with, I'm a heavy gamer and I still get a day plus with mine. Calender, it has that, and it syncs with his emails calender as well so you can get to it from the web as well. It comes with a doc app but I've never used it, there are always plenty of options on the market.

Of course I always recommend checking out other devices, such as the Nexus S which is one of the best devices with a hell of a dev community and is only 29 on a upgrade if I remember correctly

 

[werkx]

Considering how good are specs are and my experience with mine, for free, I'd more then recommend it. Lol and yes it is "cooler" then either of those.

Considering this is Kyocera's flagship device we should get good life and support over the next few years after this, it's also possible we could be one of the first to get ICS as well. He should get a full day out of it and more with the 2 batteries it comes with, I'm a heavy gamer and I still get a day plus with mine. Calender, it has that, and it syncs with his emails calender as well so you can get to it from the web as well. It comes with a doc app but I've never used it, there are always plenty of options on the market.

Of course I always recommend checking out other devices, such as the Nexus S which is one of the best devices with a hell of a dev community and is only 29 on a upgrade if I remember correctly

thanks. i'm staying away from the high-end devices, 4G and the extra $10/mon for him, but unfortunately, looks like the premium fee is on this phone, too. maybe sprint will waive it as newer devices are coming out toward the holidays. i see they are waiving it for the Replenish, so i can hope. otherwise, he's getting the Replenish...haha.

 

[Relgoshan]

I would strongly advise against the Replenish. It's a hippy phone with weak performance and poor endurance. Low-rez screen. Cramped keyboard. Useless for docs. You can get a little solar panel for it.

Milano is okay-looking but I can't say how well or poorly it will perform.

I won't say the Echo is for everyone. But for mail and messaging it's unstoppable. Document viewer is decent and it works well with third-party office suites. Good calendar with internet sync. Solid with music and video playback. Spare battery and universal charging accessories.

For a STUDENT this phone is one of the absolute best. When prices come down he can replace the 8GB SD with a 32GB chip next summer. (1.5 hrs of 720p video or 15 hrs of music per GB)

At least for the sake of USING his data plan, get him a real phone. It can even do bitorrent in a pinch.

 

[werkx]

I would strongly advise against the Replenish. It's a hippy phone with weak performance and poor endurance. Low-rez screen. Cramped keyboard. Useless for docs. You can get a little solar panel for it.

Milano is okay-looking but I can't say how well or poorly it will perform.

I won't say the Echo is for everyone. But for mail and messaging it's unstoppable. Document viewer is decent and it works well with third-party office suites. Good calendar with internet sync. Solid with music and video playback. Spare battery and universal charging accessories.

For a STUDENT this phone is one of the absolute best. When prices come down he can replace the 8GB SD with a 32GB chip next summer. (1.5 hrs of 720p video or 15 hrs of music per GB)

At least for the sake of USING his data plan, get him a real phone. It can even do bitorrent in a pinch.

Really, I saw a couple of reviews for the Replenish and they weren't bad on it, as long as you understand it's an entry level android. It's still better than non-android ones, right?

Ugh, I really don't want to pay the extra $10 fee for a teenager's phone, but I do want one where he can access all he needs as a HS student going into college. If you have one you know there are other expenses, too. I mean teenager. So just trying to balance cost and benefits.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[jasonkc25]

I'm a student, though about twice the age of the typical freshmen . At any rate, in my classes they use power points for the lectures. I download them on my phone transcribe my notes from there. The ability for the Echo to sit on a desk like a mini computer is invaluable for this.

I have forced my Opera browser to be detected as it's desktop equivalent, and so I can pull up full web pages instead of mobile sites, and it works great on this phone with the dual screens.

I can't say that I often expound about how I love a piece of tech, but this phone is awesome and I find myself using my laptop much less.

 

[Relgoshan]

So just trying to balance cost and benefits.

It's a neverending battle, right? Hard to draw the line between phones that deserve having a data plan at all, versus phones that can't possibly make good use of one...the Replenish to my knowledge is the only Sprint phone with Android that doesn't need the $10 Premium Data riser. In terms of features I believe this to be appropriate, but as an entry-level phone it's probably better than anything that doesn't need the $10 riser. A pity you can't forego the data plan and use these new phones with just WiFi.

I have actually been considering the Replenish for my brother who is switching networks soon. He has few needs, and this phone is still far ahead of his old Nokia brick. The solar case option would be nice because he spends a lot of time outside and is notorious for leaving the charger in another state. Mostly it would have to make calls and handle texting, he doesn't need music and probably wouldn't use the camera. He has a big laptop and is farsighted, so maybe he'll grab another feature phone after all. >.>


Selfishly I might bully him into also getting the Echo just like me. Telenav is much better than his Garmin, and the software keyboard is bigger than the Replenish's hardware keyboard. There's a spare battery/booster included. Camera is better 5Mp(tolerable) vs 2Mp(tolerable) / 720p video vs 480p, and it has FIVE TIMES more pixels PER SCREEN. Talk time is two hours longer, another plus. But mostly I have the same phone so I can show him where everything is and answer any questions that come up.

So...the Echo is probably the best "Premium Data" phone you can get for $0, and the Replenish is probably the best semi-smart phone you can get without paying the extra $10/mo. Decisions, decisions...

 

[lefty2053]

Well I have to say it was well worth the $5 and change it cost me. I got it for $55 and change with a $50 rebate.

 

[werkx]

It's a neverending battle, right? Hard to draw the line between phones that deserve having a data plan at all, versus phones that can't possibly make good use of one...the Replenish to my knowledge is the only Sprint phone with Android that doesn't need the $10 Premium Data riser. In terms of features I believe this to be appropriate, but as an entry-level phone it's probably better than anything that doesn't need the $10 riser. A pity you can't forego the data plan and use these new phones with just WiFi.

I have actually been considering the Replenish for my brother who is switching networks soon. He has few needs, and this phone is still far ahead of his old Nokia brick. The solar case option would be nice because he spends a lot of time outside and is notorious for leaving the charger in another state. Mostly it would have to make calls and handle texting, he doesn't need music and probably wouldn't use the camera. He has a big laptop and is farsighted, so maybe he'll grab another feature phone after all. >.>


Selfishly I might bully him into also getting the Echo just like me. Telenav is much better than his Garmin, and the software keyboard is bigger than the Replenish's hardware keyboard. There's a spare battery/booster included. Camera is better 5Mp(tolerable) vs 2Mp(tolerable) / 720p video vs 480p, and it has FIVE TIMES more pixels PER SCREEN. Talk time is two hours longer, another plus. But mostly I have the same phone so I can show him where everything is and answer any questions that come up.

So...the Echo is probably the best "Premium Data" phone you can get for $0, and the Replenish is probably the best semi-smart phone you can get without paying the extra $10/mo. Decisions, decisions...

Haha, dude. That didn't help me at all. ;-)

 

[Relgoshan]

Remember that a netbook runs as cheap as $200, and an AMD Vision A8-based laptop can play most modern PC games with good quality and speed (Read: also good for any work software that uses the graphics card too) for ~$500.

I think the more powerful Echo is better for a student, and Sprint has generous Qualified Upgrade options for the future. As a bonus the phone is very sturdy and has a unique appearance. If you opt for a very basic phone it would probably be good to consider also getting a netbook, either way the cost is approximately equal over a 2-year period.