Hands On With The HTC EVO 4G

By Rob Boggan

Well well well… what have we here?  Looks like the Sprint fairy dropped of a definite piece of heat this week at the Nerd News offices. The HTC EVO 4G has finally arrived, and I’ll be the first to say that this phone is an absolute beast. Everything with this phone just seems to click, and work damn near to perfection. The screen is absolutely monstrous, which makes just about every single task on this phone enjoyable to perform. Given the phones massive size you would think that it would feel like a clunky piece of machinery to tote around, but it actually feels amazingly comfortable. The bright WVGA (800×480) screen looks amazing, and by comparison to the Nexus One, iPhone 3G S, and Droid Incredible, wins the award for best screen.

The EVO 4G is built for a rich multimedia experience, and it delivers with ease. With the included 1GHz snapdragon processor, it eats through hi-def YouTube clips and movie trailers like nobodies business. The HQ YouTube clips ran pretty clunky while connected to 3G, but when we connected the phone to a Wi-Fi hotspot they predictably ran about as smooth as I would assume it runs when using a 4G connection. In this specific case we can only spectate what the 4G experience would be like, as it isn’t available in our market just yet. But i digress… Another huge bonus for users of the EVO will be the fact that it comes packing Android 2.1 with HTC’s award winning Sense UI wrapped around it. Sense is typically the chosen one of the Android platform, as it combines the best features that HTC has to offer with the sheer ingenuity that is Android. Sense runs like a dream on the EVO, and some of its best features really got a chance to shine here. One of the more enjoyable features of Sense UI is the keyboard. The stock Android keyboard could really use an overhaul, and when that happens I would hope that it is modeled after the HTC keyboard. Simplicity is key here, and having numbers, symbols and punctuation all on the same screen works like magic. It was a real joy to pound out Google searches and texts using the HTC keyboard, but the real shining star goes to the built in voice to text services. With unparalleled accuracy, mostly everything i told the phone to search for, it did. It even had the decency to replace the not so nice words i spoke, with # symbols, as to not offend the person on the other end of my joyful texting. I also really dug the fact that HTC included the QIK video recorder into the final cut of the EVO’s software. It was awesome being able to stream video directly into my QIK account, and i can only imagine that this is going to open an entirely new avenue for online video chatting, blogging and social networking.

What spoke volumes to me is the attention to detail that was put into this phone to make sure it was an instant standout. The built in kickstand is probably one of the coolest hardware features of the phone, as you can prop that bad devil up and watch a movie or playback a slide show for your friends and family to enjoy. That being said, the camera on this phone is the one thing i couldn’t wait to check out. Having an 8 mega pixel monster on your phone that has dual led flash AND the capability of recording video in 720p is nothing short of Incredible amazing. The speed that this phone takes pictures is almost unbelievable, as i clocked it at just under a second and a half between shutter snap and going back to ready mode to shoot another picture. Ridiculous fast. The native camcorder function worked just as awesome, but with mixed results. Whenever I recorded video and played it back on the device it looked absolutely phenomenal. However, when uploading the same video to my laptop it looked overly compressed and grainy. The included USB cable isn’t the only sharing option this phone comes with, as it also has a mini HDMI port right next to the USB port for some glorious hi-def picture and video sharing.

All in all, the EVO 4G is definitely going to be one of the summers hottest phones with very big draws to attract new customers and old customers alike to Sprint. It will have a tremendously formidable foe once the new iPhone gets announced, but given the recent consumer trends, it already has a leg up on its competitor. If you live in a Sprint 4G market, there’s really no reason not to scoop this phone up…. hell, even if you don’t there’s still not a reason why you shouldn’t make this device yours. It’s instantly going to be the Android device out, and I’m tempted to say that it’ll be the hottest phone out…..at least for now. Head on out to your local Sprint store to pick one up, or you can grab one from the Sprint Online Store

Here’s a few teaser pics to hold you guys over until you get one in your hands!