As I mentioned here, I was getting rid of my old iPhone and purchasing an HTC Evo. Well, I have had the phone for a little over a month, and I thought I would post some of my thoughts.
NOTE: I am comparing the Evo to my old phone, an iPhone 3g, so, yes, I understand it may not be a fair comparison, but its the only one I can make. Also, if you are expecting an in depth, fully technical, non-biased review, you came to the wrong place.
First, let's start with the size. The overall size of the Evo is a bit larger than my iPhone, but not enough for me to get upset over. Especially when you consider the screen. To my untrained eye, the screen on the Evo is quite a bit larger than my iPhone. Also, to my untrained eye, it seems the screen may be more crisp...but maybe this is because it is larger.
Next, the operating system. To be honest, I would be hard pressed to say Android was 'better' the iOS, nor could I say iOS was 'better' than Android. When I was first looking at Android phones, I was told by someone that they thought Android was not as 'polished' as iOS. I would have to respectfully disagree. I think Android is just as polished...its just a different kind of polish. There are things I miss about iOS (the biggest one being the ability to see an SMS message without having to unlock the phone), but not so many that I wish I had stuck with an iPhone. On the flip side, there are things I like about Android, but again, not so many that I can comfortably say I will never go back to an iPhone
Of course, one of the first things I did was check out the 'App Store' to see if all my 'must have' apps were available. As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about, because I already knew that I could get 'Angry Birds' for Android. All kidding aside, so far there has been no app I used regularly on my iPhone where Android did not have the same, or comprable, app. My favorite app on my iPhone was AirView Golf, an app for getting yardage to the pin or other objects on a golf course. This particular app is not available for Android, but there are plenty of other choices, I just need to pick one and try it out - if only the weather would cooperate.
Some other things that differ are the camera, the Evo has an 8.6 megapixel camera (more than my first gen digital SLR) as well as the ability to shoot video in HD - it even has an HDMI 'out' port to quickly view videos on your TV. Also, the ability to change the battery and expand the memory are huge pluses in my mind. As is the fact that it can be powered by any mini USB adapter as opposed to a proprietary plug.
One thing I do not like about the Evo (or Android) is that if I have the phone connected to my computer and have the phone 'mounted' as a disk drive, it could not (or would not) use my custom ringtones for phone calls or SMS messages
As for the carriers...meh... I seem to be one of the few people in the US who got better service from AT&T than from Verizon. I decided to switch to Sprint because in my area Sprint had great reviews and great coverage, not better than AT&T, but the cost per month was enough to make me switch. Where I live, Verizon's coverage is horrible, and since I work from home, and spend most of my time in my own county, that was important to me. So far, I am very happy with Sprint and have not had any issues with coverage.
Lastly, I would like to talk about some of the pre-installed apps. There are some great ones provided by Sprint, such as Sprint TV and their NASCAR app (where you can follow the progress of a race - not via video, but a nifty little graphic in the shape of the racetrack and icons representing the different drivers moves around the track). These are very cool and are also included with the monthly plan at no additional charge.
There was a Navigation app from Sprint as well. At first, I really liked it, then it got updated to a newer version (with a new name) and I started to dislike it. Initially it was able to find my home address, but after the update it could not - a huge negative for me. I started using Google Navigation and I have to say I am truly impressed. The voice is not as clear as the Sprint Navigation app, but I think the UI is nicer and less cumbersome. Three cool features of Google Navigation:
- You can switch to 'satellite' view during navigation so instead of the plain map, you see satellite pictures.
- When you arrive at your destination, it a Google 'street view' image for the location exists, it will appear on the screen (I am not sure if that happens only when you are using satellite view though)
- If you are listening to music from the phone, when the GPS chick needs to tell you something, the music will get paused while she is talking.
Google Navigation seemed to be more accurate than my Garmin device, and, even thought I updated the Garmin recently, Google Navigation, already had some new roads that have been recently opened while the Garmin did not. Overall, I think Google Navigation will be our 'GPS app' of choice for a while. So much so that we are looking for a dashboard/windshield mount for our phones.
Overall, I love the Evo. But, as my wise friend Charlie Griefer said to me recently (and I am paraphrasing): 'It does not really matter if your phone is an Android or an iPhone when you think of what they do, they are amazing devices.' It is hard to really argue with that logic. However, the Evo has one thing that I have not seen in any other phone that I think pushes it beyond amazing: a kickstand!
That is right, as the picture above shows, my phone has a kickstand. Your argument is invalid.
4 comments
One thing that I immediately missed(like you) was the text preview feature like you were saying. I discovered the app ChompSMS and have really enjoyed how it handles the text system. First, it has a popup preview of the text, so you can see a bit without unlocking the phone, second, it also has a quick response textbox. These features really make it an app I love, and one of the few I paid for(5$). I definitely recommend it.
Another app that really enriched the Android experience is LauncherPro. It replaces the entire native launcher, and lets you customize pretty much everything! It even has a feature that allows you to view home pages in a tile "spaces" esce view to quickly navigate from one page to another. I also think it is a bit faster, but I have not really tested it. This is another app I bought($3). I think its definitely worth it.
Hope this helps and glad to hear your enjoying the Android system.
When you get ready to change the ROOM, I highly suggest the Cyanogen CM7 ROM. I've been running it for months. It has much better features and is faster.