HTC EVO 4G with 8 MP camera

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Fast 4G speeds, eight devices can be connected to this phone for sharing the phone’s speed, has a front facing camera for video chats and eight megapixel camera records 720p HD video, the phone has HQ video player courtesy of YouTube, Android 2.1 along with HTC Sense, and also HDMI port. Big 4.3 inch touch screen display and fast one GHz Snapdragon processor is like an icing on the cake.

Thumbs Down:

Limited coverage for 4G network, you have to pay $10 compulsory for the data add on, doesn’t have support for voice activated dialing through Bluetooth, 4G drains the battery fast.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

TC EVO 4G has a 4.3 inches display and it gives a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Connectors on the phone include 3.5 mm headphones jack and micro USB port. Supported audio formats are AAC, MP3, WAV, MIDI, AMR, WMA, and AAC+. The handset has a 1500 mAh lithium ion battery. The eight megapixel camera of the phone can record 720p HD videos. There are various services included like Android Market, YouTube and Sprint TV.

Data/messaging features include Voice mail, Text messages, E-mail and Instant messages. Google talk IM is pre-installed on the phone and the handset runs on Google Android 2.1 Wireless interface options include IEEE 802.16e, IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth.

Razzle Dazzle:

This phone is a mixture of soft touch black and gloss along with red accents. Most of the red accents are underneath the kickstand and also around the lens of the camera. The phone looks quite stylish but you will also notice how big the phone is. The big dimensions along with the sexy look will surely make heads turn.

Inside Dope:

HTC EVO 4G has an impressive specs list: 4.3 inch WVGA display, eight megapixel camera which can record 720p HD videos, WiMAX compatibility and HDMI-out jack. If this doesn’t impressive then the tag of being the first 4G phone ever surely will. To start off, we really liked the packaging of this phone. You might not care much about this but we still want to mention it here. The box looks a lot like microwaveable meal and feels like steam will come out of it, if you peel off the cover.

There are no moving parts inside the cell phone and this makes the device quite light. But we had one gripe with the quality of the build. When the capacitive touch screen buttons light up, the bottom edge of the phone suffers from leakage. You might not notice this in bright environments but will be apparent in low light surroundings. The light leakage definitely makes the phone look cheap. This is not a deal breaker but HTC could have done this better.

On the edges, the HTC EVO 4G is quite simple. Just like Nexus One, there is no discrete camera button and the volume rocker has been moved from right to left side. The rocker feels good to press and your thumb will find it easily while you are busy on the call. On the bottom, there is a microphone hole, micro-USB and HDMI port. The latter is used to view the 720p videos that you shoot from your camera on a big HDTV screen. We would have liked if the manufacturer gave an HDMI cable as well because there are little chances that you might have one at home.

On the top, of the HTC EVO 4G, there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack with power button on the right. The power key is quite flush and thus it is quite hard to press it. You will have to look hard for it on the phone every time you want to reboot. Maybe HTC did this to prevent accidental switch offs. On the phones back, there is a kickstand which lets you place the phone on a table and watch your videos handsfree. The kickstand is really strong, it has a built in spring and is made up of solid metal. So you don’t need to worry about breaking it.

In order to open the phone on the back, all you have to do is flip your finger. There is no slide mechanism like most phones. The card compartment is located here and it supports up to 32 GB memory. We were looking forward to checking out the eight megapixel camera of the phone because you don’t get such good resolution camera phone everyday in your labs for testing. The still had noise and splotchiness but they were still great when we viewed it on our computer monitor. The shutter lag for this camera is also impressive. The still is captured as soon as your click the button.

In terms of video quality, we won’t call it 720p simply because the videos are not that good. No the bright side, you can toggle between H.264 and MPEG4 modes but when you transfer the file to the computer and then play it in QuickTime, you will realize that HTC EVO 4G has drastically compressed the file. We won’t recommend you to give up your camcorder just by looking at the 720p tag.

HTC EVO 4G runs on Android 2.1, which is the latest iteration of the operating system. The phone also has a 1 GHz processor which keeps the phone quite fast but we did have to restart the phone twice during our tests. Apart from the OS, the main attraction, in terms of software, is the YouTube HQ and Sprint’s Hotspot app. There is another add-on here – Qik powered 2 way video chat through the camera on the front of the device. But we didn’t get to test this feature because it wasn’t ready at the time of writing this review.

Nitty Gritty:

This is an excellent smartphone and it will be always remembered as first 4G phone ever. Right now, we don’t recommend purchasing it since the price is quite high and 4G network isn’t spread out yet.

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