Why I like the Photon better than the Evo 3D

[jacobrdavis]

hows is the speaker on the Photon, can you use it as a desktop 'radio'? Example the iPhone 4 plays loud and clear... evo 3d didn't for me... typically Moto built a rock solid speaker in the past but???

I know its a small issue but both me and the wife use it this way a good amount.

The speaker is really good. And unlike some other phones I've used, it just as loud when you're looking at the screen as it is if you turn it over and have the speaker facing you which is nice.

 

[primal5]

I'm using quicker for settings and flashlight app

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

 

[tx_dbs_tx]

I also like my Photon better than the EVO 3D. I have two EVO 4 G's and one EVO 3D. This is my very first Motorola smartphone. I'm a die-hard HTC fan. Here's my findings.

1. First and foremost,the Photon's signal strength is SUPERIOR to any HTC EVO! At my home my regular EVO's get poor flakey signal and have constant data disconnects on 3G and 4G. My EVO 3D is the worst! Now with my Photon I get a solid and consistent 3G AND 4G signal with no disconnects! Let me also state that I have a steel roof on my home! (I live near Galveston island and we are prone to hurricanes, hence the metal roof) Now that's incredible! This was the biggest reason for my purchase of the Motorola Photon and I couldn't be happier now. (I read up on the Photon before buying it) Motorola is known for having top notch radios and the Photon is no exception. If you have poor signal where you live, give the Photon a try and you will be suprised.

2. The second biggest advantage the Photon has over all the HTC EVO's is the LCD screen consumes much less battery. Battery life of the Photon is a big improvement over all of the HTC EVO's and this is mostly due to the effeciency of the Photon's PenTile LCD display technology (that's the reason behind the technology... improved battery life). I'm VERY happy with my Photon's battery life and I don't worry about needing a charger with me at all times like I do with my EVO's.

3. For those of you who like AOSP ROMs like Cyanogen, Deck's, etc, the Photon has a very clean and smooth AOSP Gingerbread OS. Motorola has left it pretty clean and straight forward with no invasive OS overlay like Sense UI. It's a very zippy device with no lag. It also has some very cool features.

4. The speaker volumes as well as sound and call quality of the internal and external speakers on the Photon is GREAT! Far superior to all of the EVO's. Fact not myth.

5.Kickstand! The Photon's kickstand works horizontally and vertically. Awesome! I like having a kickstand!

6.The Photon's Nvidia Tegra 2 1.0 ghz dual core processor out-performs the Snapdragon 1.2ghz dual core processors. Plus I'm a gamer and really like Nvidia graphics cards.WIN WIN

7.Last but not least: BUILD QUALITY IS SUPERB! No light leakage whatsoever from beneath the display. All buttons are sturdy with no rattling and have a good feel when pressed. The volume and camera keys have a nice texture and are easy to identify in the dark. The weight is perfect to me. The size feels great in the hand. The back battery cover is sturdy with a rubberized finish and isn't as flimsy as the EVO's (although a little more dificult to remove). The bezel around the gorilla glass display has a black chrome appearance and looks nice. The overall cosmetic design of the Photon looks and feels great.

I have not done any testing with the camera, wi-fi, bluetooth, etc so I can't speak about those things at this time. I have to assume those features will not dissapoint either.

 

[mgiven]

Did everyone see the Wirefly Schmackdown video comparing the two? Very comprehensive.

‪Schmackdown! Motorola Photon 4G vs HTC EVO 3D‬‏ - YouTube

They call it a draw, but the EVO only pulled close in the end because of the gimmic 3D photos and video and the scrolling UI. Every category that I actually care about was a Photon win.

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

Motorola makes quality devices. I'm excited to go to the Sprint store and play with one. I had a Droid X before I left Verizon for Sprint and it was a really awesome device.

 

[EMT J]

Did everyone see the Wirefly Schmackdown video comparing the two? Very comprehensive.

‪Schmackdown! Motorola Photon 4G vs HTC EVO 3D‬‏ - YouTube

They call it a draw, but the EVO only pulled close in the end because of the gimmic 3D photos and video and the scrolling UI. Every category that I actually care about was a Photon win.

After looking at the video, I think his final conclusion is fair. Neither phone vastly outperformed the other. I think Sprint has two winners on their hands. Either one is a solid choice.

 

[Gator352]

I am now a moto convert!

Went to a corp. Sprint store today and swapped out my E3D for the photon. I must say it was a good choice.

My review: E3D + and -

1: Loved sense 3.0 but didn't like it's bloat. Not that it lagged, but it stuttered alot.
2: Loved the weather app. Period. Far superior to FW or BW.
3: Batt life was ok as long as I didn't use the web for long periods of time.
4: LED charging light was a +
5: Loved it's screen...best screen to date I've seen.
6: Call quality sucked. Inbound and outbound. Sounded tinny.
7: Reception sucked as well. It roamed way to much and dropped calls faster than AT&T.
8: External speaker blew chunks. Even with volume+ and Eq.

Otherwise the E3d was a decent phone especially if your a diehard HTC/sense fan.

Photon + and -

1: So far killer batt life and has destroyed my OG EVO and E3D in respect.
2: Great call quality! Soon as it got activated, my wife was jumping up and down for joy that she could hear me!!
3: Reception is great so far, real test is tomorow at work.
4: External speaker is loud and clear! Can actually hear it while in the pocket and tell who's calling!
5: Awsome build quality.
6: Pentile screen takes a few to get used to. At first it was blah, but now I actually like it.
7: No real negatives at this point except moto's widgets are skimping. feels like it needs more.

SO far I have used this phone for 4 hours and has been great. I will try another HTC phone in the future but I feel HTC's quality has taken a dump and needs better engineers and quality control to get it back in order. I mean, the 3D was solid. It had a good build. But the screen tilt, weak speakers, weak radio's, and that sense felt unfinished, made it a no brainer for me. So HELLO MOTO!

 

[sjamie]

This is a very interesting thread.

 

[dguidry12]

After looking at the video, I think his final conclusion is fair. Neither phone vastly outperformed the other. I think Sprint has two winners on their hands. Either one is a solid choice.

My friend..This is a hands down win when it comes to the usuability of a smartphone. What you must understand is those smackdowns will always be biased against Android products. But the things that make the photon a clear winner.
1. Superior build quality and look
2. Evo3d is horrible when it comes to speaker quality and this is a known FACT!!
3. Audio quality from the jack almost matches CD quality
4. FACT - Evo suffers from connection issues both 3g and 4g
5. Photon screen is much better
6. Battery last longer
7. Thinner and lighter than a 2nd generation Evo
8. Camera and Video quality is superior to Evo 3d
9. Video audio quality matches Samsung.

These are all tested FACTS my friend and I am a DIEHARD HTC EVO phone but I took the 3d back because i had much buyers remorse. With the Photon I have none.

 

[dguidry12]

Did everyone see the Wirefly Schmackdown video comparing the two? Very comprehensive.

‪Schmackdown! Motorola Photon 4G vs HTC EVO 3D‬‏ - YouTube

They call it a draw, but the EVO only pulled close in the end because of the gimmic 3D photos and video and the scrolling UI. Every category that I actually care about was a Photon win.

This smackdown is worth NADA because this guy is a true IOS fan.. There is NO way the evo3d compares to the Photon..It beats the evo in ALL categories..Never believe an IOS fanboy.

 

[popularbelief]

Today's PopularBelief: Why should I upgrade to a Motorola Photon 4G?
my blog review

 

[EMT J]

My friend..This is a hands down win when it comes to the usuability of a smartphone. What you must understand is those smackdowns will always be biased against Android products. But the things that make the photon a clear winner.
1. Superior build quality and look
2. Evo3d is horrible when it comes to speaker quality and this is a known FACT!!
3. Audio quality from the jack almost matches CD quality
4. FACT - Evo suffers from connection issues both 3g and 4g
5. Photon screen is much better
6. Battery last longer
7. Thinner and lighter than a 2nd generation Evo
8. Camera and Video quality is superior to Evo 3d
9. Video audio quality matches Samsung.

These are all tested FACTS my friend and I am a DIEHARD HTC EVO phone but I took the 3d back because i had much buyers remorse. With the Photon I have none.

First, I've had an issue free EVO 3D since launch day. 2nd, where is the bias u speak of? The comparison was of two Android phones. 3rd, the readers choice poll greatly disagrees with your sentiment. Seems quite a few people out there believe the 3D is sprint's best right now. There's also a would you return your 3D and get a photon poll, and again the overwhelming majority disagrees with you. Personally, with the dual core class of phones I don't think it'll be possible to label one as the best. Specs and performance will be about the same, each device will do some things a lil better or worse than the others. You can still get the best phone for YOU though, which is what makes Android great.

1. Build quality is fine, are there some lemons out there? Sure, but that's true of all mass produced products. There are people in this forum whose phones are randomly rebooting, freezing up etc. Does that mean photon build quality is terrible too? As far as look goes, that's a subjective thing, don't see how that can be a plus or minus. We all like different things. I personally don't like the cut off edges on the photon, prefer the more uniform look of the 3D.

2. Speaker isn't horrible, I think that's a bit much. While It's not as loud as the original EVO, music to me sounds more crisp and clear. Besides, there are apps in the market that u can use to improve volume, change bass, treble, reverb etc. The problem is software, not hardware.

3. Audio quality is fine, my songs sound as good on the EVO 3D as they do on my car stereo. I haven't seen anything anywhere about people complaining about quality. The big issue has been volume.

4. I don't know where all the people with connection and reception issues are located, but here in NYC 3g and 4g work great. All the places I got full bars with my EVO 4G, I get full bars with my EVO 3D. Complaints from people in rural areas or places that Sprint just turned on 4G mean nothing. Now if you've got people in well covered metropolitan areas like NYC, Philadelphia etc returning the phone in droves because of connection/reception issues then you have a story.

5. Better screen? Again that's a subjective thing for the most part and being that I haven't used a photon I can't make a judgment either way. However I have noticed alot of photon users complaining about the screen, I believe there's even a complaint thread about it in this forum which tells me that there is no consensus about the screen being so much better in ur words.

6. Battery life - Everyone has different usage so there is pretty much no way to quantify this. Both phones can be dead in 5hrs or go 12+ hrs, depends on who's using them.

7. While thinner and lighter may be a pro to you, it may be a con to others. Leave Personal preferences out and stick to FACTS. Tell me something that out of the box the photon can do that the 3D can't. Or something that the photon does so much better. Answer : nothing. They're both top of the line devices with similar specs which is why in the video, neither vastly outdid the other. The only reason the differences are noticeable is because they were side by side.

As far as 8 and 9 that may be true but I think for a smartphone the camera and camcorder capabilities and more than adequate. I wouldn't be recording anything of real importance (graduation, child birth, wedding) on a camera phone anyway, Id use a real camera.

As I said before, both are great. Each will do something a bit better or faster than the other. at the end of the day however, neither is a bad choice.

 

[EMT J]

This smackdown is worth NADA because this guy is a true IOS fan.. There is NO way the evo3d compares to the Photon..It beats the evo in ALL categories..Never believe an IOS fanboy.

Still not understanding what his alleged preference or allegiance to ios has to do with anything. I didn't hear any references or comparisons to apple. I believe the way he does things is the way all reviewers should. Tell me what you see and tell me if the various parts work. That's it.

Preferences should not enter the equation. Not only do some reviewers allow their preferences in, they downgrade a device if it doesn't meet them. Don't tell me this phone is a 9, but I'm gonna give it a 7.8 because the screen is 4.3" and you prefer 3.7" or because it runs sense and you prefer stock or because it has an extra capability that you feel is unnecessary. Reviews should be cut and dry, "here is what I see and here is how it works" (or doesn't work) points shouldn't be deducted because the phone doesn't fit your vision of what a phone should be. If your vision is that important, you should be in focus groups telling manufacturers what you wanna see

 

[milominderbinde]

If you are liking your Photon, then vote for it!

Vote for Sprint's best Android phone

 

[Cubfan]

Really tempted to vote for the poor, lonely Samsung Replenish.

I don't see the point in this popularity contest. Obviously, more people have the Evo and the 3vo. If you did a survey of the "best car," perhaps the Toyota Camry would win. Big deal.

 

[dominiej]

Couple more things:

1. The Evo 3D's aspect ratio was 16:9, which made some apps behave horribly. I had a second touch Facebook app for my second facebook account and it would only display in the upper 2/3s of the screen. The Mega Jump game I loved had a 1/2 inch black strip down the right side. Photon brings back the much welcomed 4:3 ratio I loved.
2. The Evo 3D's speaker was horrible. Tinny and tiny - I could barely hear the thing (let alone use it for an effective alarm). The Photon's speaker is extremely loud!!
3. I love how Motorola phones route your voice back into your ear as you're on the phone. It can be a bit disconcerting at first, but it is a very nice touch that seems to give you a bit of confidence on the phone and seems to add some quality to the phone. I completely forgot about this from my old Motorola Q9c.
4. If you've been a die hard HTC fan, as I've been for the past 3 years, you realize HTC had the home and menu buttons reversed all along. I used to think everyone else's phone was mixed up, but now, I'm finding I was the one with the wonky button layout.
5. The Photon seems lighter
6. Install Spare-Parts and put on the settings for the fastest of transitions and app openings and the Photon's Tegra2 will not skip a beat whereas the Evo 3D, I was surprised to discover, hiccup'd quite a bit.
7. This is the premium experience I expected from HTC in the Evo 3D, but was completely underwhelmed. The Photon is a beast of a phone and takes the "premium" experience to the next level!

 

[dominiej]

First, I've had an issue free EVO 3D since launch day.

You obviously are one of the lucky ones. Please don't come on here and try and minimize others' poor experience with their 3D (such as mine). It's becoming readily apparent HTC simply cut too many corners in the production of this specific model/lot/version. HTC failed to deliver a premium experience to many who paid for such an experience. It's great you have a fully operational phone, why don't you go use it elsewhere and stop looking like a screaming fanboi at your favorite rock concert.

1. Build quality is fine, are there some lemons out there? Sure,

End of discussion. Saying there are other devices out there that have problems is no excuse. So, let's say your car breaks down and I come by and tell you that there are many cars that break down - NOT the right response.

2. Speaker isn't horrible, I think that's a bit much. While It's not as loud as the original EVO,

END of discussion. If HTC cannot follow up with something as necessary as audible sound coming from its device, there is something sorely lacking from that COMMUNICATION device.

3. Audio quality is fine, my songs sound as good on the EVO 3D as they do on my car stereo.... [blah blah blah]... The big issue has been volume.

mmmkay so volume, eh? Yeah that's what you want when you're listening to MUSIC!!!1!!!1!

4. I don't know where all the people with connection and reception issues are located, but here in NYC 3g and 4g work great.

Guess what genius? Not everyone lives where you live! *gasps!*

5. Better screen? Again that's a subjective thing

No it's quite literally objective. The Evo 3D's aspect ratio is 16:9, which make some apps behave horribly. I had a second touch Facebook app for my second facebook account and it would only display in the upper 2/3s of the screen. The Mega Jump game I loved had a 1/2 inch black strip down the right side. NOT subjective - the screen was a big problem with the experience.

6. Battery life - Everyone has different usage so there is pretty much no way to quantify this. Both phones can be dead in 5hrs or go 12+ hrs, depends on who's using them.

Try using your gimmacky 3D camera when your battery is around 12% and see what happens. Then ask yourself, why does it warn you (or not allow you to take a 3D image).... Simple things that are highly touted for the phone are tremendous energy drains found nowhere else on any other Android device.

7. While thinner and lighter may be a pro to you, it may be a con to others.

Find me anyone who doesn't like thinner and lighter, and I'll show you a person who gets fatigued easily on long phone calls... FACT

 

[dguidry12]

First, I've had an issue free EVO 3D since launch day. 2nd, where is the bias u speak of? The comparison was of two Android phones. 3rd, the readers choice poll greatly disagrees with your sentiment. Seems quite a few people out there believe the 3D is sprint's best right now. There's also a would you return your 3D and get a photon poll, and again the overwhelming majority disagrees with you. Personally, with the dual core class of phones I don't think it'll be possible to label one as the best. Specs and performance will be about the same, each device will do some things a lil better or worse than the others. You can still get the best phone for YOU though, which is what makes Android great.

1. Build quality is fine, are there some lemons out there? Sure, but that's true of all mass produced products. There are people in this forum whose phones are randomly rebooting, freezing up etc. Does that mean photon build quality is terrible too? As far as look goes, that's a subjective thing, don't see how that can be a plus or minus. We all like different things. I personally don't like the cut off edges on the photon, prefer the more uniform look of the 3D.

2. Speaker isn't horrible, I think that's a bit much. While It's not as loud as the original EVO, music to me sounds more crisp and clear. Besides, there are apps in the market that u can use to improve volume, change bass, treble, reverb etc. The problem is software, not hardware.

3. Audio quality is fine, my songs sound as good on the EVO 3D as they do on my car stereo. I haven't seen anything anywhere about people complaining about quality. The big issue has been volume.

4. I don't know where all the people with connection and reception issues are located, but here in NYC 3g and 4g work great. All the places I got full bars with my EVO 4G, I get full bars with my EVO 3D. Complaints from people in rural areas or places that Sprint just turned on 4G mean nothing. Now if you've got people in well covered metropolitan areas like NYC, Philadelphia etc returning the phone in droves because of connection/reception issues then you have a story.

5. Better screen? Again that's a subjective thing for the most part and being that I haven't used a photon I can't make a judgment either way. However I have noticed alot of photon users complaining about the screen, I believe there's even a complaint thread about it in this forum which tells me that there is no consensus about the screen being so much better in ur words.

6. Battery life - Everyone has different usage so there is pretty much no way to quantify this. Both phones can be dead in 5hrs or go 12+ hrs, depends on who's using them.

7. While thinner and lighter may be a pro to you, it may be a con to others. Leave Personal preferences out and stick to FACTS. Tell me something that out of the box the photon can do that the 3D can't. Or something that the photon does so much better. Answer : nothing. They're both top of the line devices with similar specs which is why in the video, neither vastly outdid the other. The only reason the differences are noticeable is because they were side by side.

As far as 8 and 9 that may be true but I think for a smartphone the camera and camcorder capabilities and more than adequate. I wouldn't be recording anything of real importance (graduation, child birth, wedding) on a camera phone anyway, Id use a real camera.

As I said before, both are great. Each will do something a bit better or faster than the other. at the end of the day however, neither is a bad choice.

I must differ from you on this.. The Evo3d is a horrible choice for a phone. When you compare even the HTC EVO and the Photon with the 3d both phones come out better. The evo3d speaker sounds so distorted and small its ridiculous. Compare that along with the poor reception of 4g and 3g which are KNOWN problems with the 3d there is no comparison especially with the the call and audio quality. Its kind of a moot point to compare the 3d with the Photon because the Photon will never sale as much as the HTC EVO line because of HTC's head start on Sprint. Just like the EVO is better than the Iphone4 but most would disagree because the masses own the Iphone4. You should check the Photon out man the phone is the best phone ever in my opinion.

‪Motorola Photon vs HTC Evo 3D‬‏ - YouTube

 

[scoobdude]

I like number 7 "stick to facts". Yet he just touted a bunch of opinions and a sampling pool of only himself. Way to preach their bud.

 

[Cubfan]

Wow, such a tough crowd. You guys have to admit that some are having problems with the Photon... me, for example. Maybe I got a lemon?

There are definitely reasons to choose this phone, and there are many for choosing the Evo 3d instead. Just too few for you and me on the latter.

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