I tried the EVO 4G, and now I'm back...

Joe McG

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I was so excited to get the EVO 4G. I went down to Sprint Friday morning and picked one up. Here are my observations and why it's going back today in favor of the iPhone 4th Gen...

1. The music sound quality / volume through the headphones is just not as high as the iPhone 3G or 3GS. I think Apple/Steve must insist on the highest quality sound processors, because Blackberry has a similar problem. The iPhone sound quality is the best.

2. The EVO is to big. Single hand operation is almost impossible. Again, I routinely pick up my phone while at a stoplight to change music. With the EVO, it was really difficult.

3. Android's browsers suck compared to Safari. Enough said, they just blow. The stock one is the worst. I don't know how Google can allow the stock browser to blow so much. And, it is common knowledge to android users that the stock browser blows too. The ones in the Android Marketplace are only marginally better.

4. Sprint sucks. The people calling me said it rang 6 or 7 times before I answered. I only heard it ring twice.

5. Sprint sucks again. Text messages routinely took an hour to get to my phone. Sometimes they would never come at all. I spent 2 hours on the phone with Sprint resetting everything on the network and phone and there was no solution. The guy in tech support said it was probably the tower I was on and not the phone. WHO CARES! IT DOESN'T WORK!!!!

Anyway, I'm sorry Steve Jobs. I'm sorry Rene. I'll never doubt the iPhone again...
 

ghostface147

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1. While I agree with the music quality of the iPhone, I think the volume for Apple is too low overall.

2. It does seem rather large.

3. I used their browser once, but I thought it worked fine, except for secure authentication to our corporate intranet. It uses default login, which of course fails.

4 and 5. I haven't had a problem with Sprint in the past, but I am sure it happens. Text messaging delays? Bad service? Right, because AT&T never has those issues. Hell this weekend when I arrived in Seattle for my trip, my first call out was dropped.
 

Marshalus#IM

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1. Considering it came from the engineering behind the iPod, hard to see how it couldn't be superior.

2. I thought bigger was always better? At least that's what my wife says.

3. I agree, Safari has Android beat. Strange because Chrome is by far my favorite desktop browser.

4. Sprint sucks. I used to have them on a Treo prior to my 3G, and could never get signal at work or my apartment. Hell, my apartment was only a few blocks away from their MASSIVE CAMPUS WORLD HEADQUARTERS in Kansas City, and I would constantly have no bars.

5. Did I mention when I cancelled, I got out of the ETF because their map said I should have had signal in all the places I didn't? What's strange is that in the city 30 miles away I lived in prior to that, I got fantastic signal and great EVDO speeds. Oh well.
 

bubbatex

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Funny, I had Sprint for 8 years and then switched to ATT for the 3GS last June. Well I have an EVO AND an Incredible right now because I am tired of ATT's service dropping calls. AND - I have 2 towers within two miles of my house. Both Sprint and Verizon are much stronger for me than ATT.

Anyway - I can agree the the iPhone has a better UI/interface and is just easy to use. But I had WM phones before so I adapted to Android pretty quickly. I don't really see the big difference you guys see in the browsers - the native one is OK, Dolphin is better and Safari is great, but the Android ones do not suck, IMO. Scrolling, yes, but in reading and interacting with websites, I really don't see any difference in the way I use the browser. And yes, the EVO is just a little too big and heavy. Probably more so for me since I have the smaller and lighter Incredible sitting here beside it. But my iPhone is collecting dust right now!

Really, I am one of those "wish the iPhone was on Verizon" folks now. I would have never considered either one of these devices if I had good call quality.
 

estebancam

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Yeah, bad choice I think.

You will pay more with ATT for no reason at all, after all, Sprint has a much larger (and better) 3G network. I will give credit, however, that where ATT 3G works well, it is very fast. The fastest I have tried. Sprint doesn't suck... at all. I think you just had a bad unit. When I had ATT, I thought it was a good service, until I came to Sprint. After that, I said to myself that I would never return to overpay for a worse network (ATT).

For the first time in 3 years, someone actually beat out Apple. The Evo is a better phone. Better cameras, it brought video chat to us already, so I don't know what Apple is ranting about when they say "changes everything." Also, Evo has a more customizable OS, which i really like. I especially love how you can change the way the entire OS looks, and the multiple options of keyboards.

Honestly, the only thing that Apple has over Evo is the processor. Although they are both 1Ghz (i think), Qualcomm does not make a good processor, and I am sure Apple's processor is tons better. Also, the Qualcomm processor does not have a very good GPU built-in, while A4 does. The screen is a good thing too, but I can't really say whether it is actually useful on that little screen (I have 4.3" now). There comes a point where the human eye just can't distinguish resolutions depending on the screen size.

Evo and HTC beat Apple this time. The only thing that would make me buy an iPhone now is the app store. That's it. So basically, I'm not even remotely interested in buying it.
 

cableguy619

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Funny, I had Sprint for 8 years and then switched to ATT for the 3GS last June. Well I have an EVO AND an Incredible right now because I am tired of ATT's service dropping calls. AND - I have 2 towers within two miles of my house. Both Sprint and Verizon are much stronger for me than ATT.

Anyway - I can agree the the iPhone has a better UI/interface and is just easy to use. But I had WM phones before so I adapted to Android pretty quickly. I don't really see the big difference you guys see in the browsers - the native one is OK, Dolphin is better and Safari is great, but the Android ones do not suck, IMO. Scrolling, yes, but in reading and interacting with websites, I really don't see any difference in the way I use the browser. And yes, the EVO is just a little too big and heavy. Probably more so for me since I have the smaller and lighter Incredible sitting here beside it. But my iPhone is collecting dust right now!

Really, I am one of those "wish the iPhone was on Verizon" folks now. I would have never considered either one of these devices if I had good call quality.

New here BTW, but to your point it is better to choose the servce that works best for you. ATT is pretty good cell wise here in my area which I have and Sprint which I have for work sucks in the area I live. I figured I needed a phone that worked best in the areas I would normally use it..

So ATT won, even thought they are my company's competitor I finally jumped ship to lock in the data plan.
 

Jellotime91

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For the first time in 3 years, someone actually beat out Apple. The Evo is a better phone. Better cameras, it brought video chat to us already, so I don't know what Apple is ranting about when they say "changes everything." Also, Evo has a more customizable OS, which i really like. I especially love how you can change the way the entire OS looks, and the multiple options of keyboards.

Honestly, the only thing that Apple has over Evo is the processor. Although they are both 1Ghz (i think), Qualcomm does not make a good processor, and I am sure Apple's processor is tons better. Also, the Qualcomm processor does not have a very good GPU built-in, while A4 does. The screen is a good thing too, but I can't really say whether it is actually useful on that little screen (I have 4.3" now). There comes a point where the human eye just can't distinguish resolutions depending on the screen size.

Evo and HTC beat Apple this time. The only thing that would make me buy an iPhone now is the app store. That's it. So basically, I'm not even remotely interested in buying it.

1. Better cameras? Actually, the iPhone 4 seems to take much better photos than any phone I've ever seen, and more megapixels =/= better camera. Also, 1.3 megapixel versus VGA on the front-cam makes literally no difference to you. Are you going to print out a picture that you took with a front-facing, 1.3 megapixel cam? I don't think so. Not to mention Evo's video recording is only 24fps as opposed to iPhone 4's 30fps, and it definitely doesn't look as good (I have seen both).

2. The difference is that FaceTime just works. There's no setup required, no extra charges, no third-party services, and it's an open standard, which any manufacturer can build into their OS and devices for compatibility with iPhone 4. The fact that it's not available on 3G is a good thing, this means that we can use jailbreak apps like 3G un-restrictor and use it for free over 3G.

3. If you really want further customization, you can jailbreak, although iPhone's UI is beautiful and 90 million people really seem to like it. Also, iPhone OS supports many more languages and soft keyboard input methods than Android ever will.

4. You're right about this, the A4 processor is sure to be faster than the Qualcomm Snapdragon, especially because iPhone OS is much more efficient on the same hardware than Android is. See iPhone 3GS vs HTC Hero. Same hardware, insanely different performance.

5. 3.5" is by no means little, and like the OP said, I'd rather be able to use it with one hand, as it is a phone and is intended to be convenient. Also, I'd rather have the IPS panel and Retina Display, as it is much much better for viewing angles and pixel density.
Regarding your last point, that's the whole point of the retina display. Eliminating the visibility of individual pixels for a more clear and crisp picture.

Aside from all of the points back and forth it's really all about opinion. If you like the Evo and feel like it's better for you, fine. I like iPhone 4, and I feel like it's better for me.
 

Joe McG

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As an addition to my original post...

It is pretty hard to quantify my reasons for liking the iPhone better. My 3Gs just feels like an appliance, where the EVO feels like a computer. The EVO really isn't intuitive. It would take awhile for me to get used to.

I would be willing to spend the entire 30 days Sprint gives me to get used to it, but I'm an audio snob and the low audio volume/quality is a dealbreaker for me.

P.S. I just got a text message on my EVO that I sent to myself from my iPhone on Saturday. Awesome service!!!
 

Jellotime91

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P.S. I just got a text message on my EVO that I sent to myself from my iPhone on Saturday. Awesome service!!!

Text delay is a problem that's common on CDMA tech. It's pretty damn annoying, I've sent a text to a friend and they literally don't get it for 2 hours. For friends on GSM carriers, this is not a problem!
 

ghostface147

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After I posted, we got one in the office today. I played around with it and it's actually not that bad. I can't speak for the service since we haven't activated it. It's rather big, but I actually like the keyboard.
 

Super27

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I dumped Sprint and the Hero for the 3GS about two months ago and have no regrets. The text message lag was absolutely unbearable. I will say that Sprint was better in the voice department - I got no dropped calls - but that's about it.

And for the record the Evo doesn't change my mind one bit. I played around with one the other day, and saw the same typical Android lag when scrolling. It just isn't nearly as smooth or fluid as the iPhone is, and I don't think it ever will be. HTC and Sprint load their phones down with tons of needless crap too, which doesn't help matters. Yeah, I'm sticking with Apple on this one.
 

Jellotime91

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And for the record the Evo doesn't change my mind one bit. I played around with one the other day, and saw the same typical Android lag when scrolling. It just isn't nearly as smooth or fluid as the iPhone is, and I don't think it ever will be.

Yeah, this is why I always tell people Android is so wasteful and such a resource hog! How can it possibly take a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM to sometimes scroll smoothly, when the original iPhone had it down with a freaking 400Mhz processor and 128MB of ram!? Even when multitasking via jailbreak I still scroll smoothly and none of the core animations or even gaming are effected. :/
 

Joe McG

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The EVO is TOTALLY bogged down with bloatware. When you start the phone, there are like 3 Sprint crApps running by default with all sorts of other junk running as well; like 15 apps total.

The scrolling is not smooth and it lags bigtime. The 3Gs is sooooo much smoother.
 

Jellotime91

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The EVO is TOTALLY bogged down with bloatware. When you start the phone, there are like 3 Sprint crApps running by default with all sorts of other junk running as well; like 15 apps total.

The scrolling is not smooth and it lags bigtime. The 3Gs is sooooo much smoother.

That's sad. It's an expensive phone! $300 and a mail-in rebate for $100? They only offer Mail-in Rebates because they know people forget to send them in! Why the hell else would they do that? This phone is not worth $300 compared to the iPhone 4 32GB at $300.. No freaking way.
 

nyc_rock

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I totally disagree that the safari browser is superior to android. The Android browser reformats the text no matter how far you zoom in. With the iphone, you zoom in and if the text is still to small you have to zoom in further and then start planning left and right to read. Other than that they are equal in every way.
 

OTACORB

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I'm a big fan of the Evo.. especially it's size. However the i4 simply does everything so much better.

I have to admit I too was initially drawn to the size. But then I played with one for about an hour. I quickly discovered that it just wasn't very comfortable to use because it was so wide in my hand. The things that I would normally do with one hand became a bit of a chore. I don't care for these bigger phones. I think even today if I was going to get a Droid, it would be the Incredible!