My Evo Thoughts

It would be pointless to get into a full review of the device, it has been done countless times before, but after reading all those I felt that a few things needed to be added:

1. $10 Fee - Shut up about it already. I hate that every single "official" review mentions this without even comparing the end price to other carriers. Sprint has the cheapest plans, compared to ATT/VZW, even when you factor this in, on top of the fact that you arguably get even more from Sprint for a cheaper price. The only possible way that the other carriers might be cheaper is if you use Google Voice to send text messages (which is unlimited for free) and cut out your normal texting plan completely (which Sprint doesn't allow for with data plans). Even then, I haven't done the math yet and I'm not 100% sure it is cheaper.

2. Physical Keyboard - Accept that this is a preference. If you are like me and hate them because you think they make a phone feel shoddy then you are going to like the Evo over the Epic. If you are like others and think that not having a physical keyboard is bad then you are going to think the reverse. A physical keyboard can be a negative to some users, such as myself, so stop saying that this is a plus for the Epic or other phones when really it is a wash because it comes down to individual tastes.

3. Battery - It really is as bad as people say. I personally think that 3 hours of continuous internet use is just below the edge of acceptable. I think 4 hours is where a phone should ideally be if it is a battery hog. But with spare batteries or larger battery packs I am willing to accept that I have to either take additional bulk or carry a spare for each day to get all the benefits of having an Evo.

4. UI - I switched from an iPhone 3G to the Evo. Some parts of Android are better than iOS, some parts of iOS are better than Android. At the moment, Android lacks a decent looking, simple widget that aggregates all unread counts for all email accounts and one that displays unread Google Voice voicemail count. I think the UI of the iOS email client is much slicker than any email client Android has and I still prefer the way the iOS phone client looks compared to the stock Android one. However Android is newer and has a plethora of customization options. Out of the box I think that iOS is better than Android, however if you take time to customize your Android device you can get something far better than an iPhone. However most users do not customize much, and for many if not most people an iPhone is the correct choice. It is just easier to use at first, whether or not one is a "techie." After having discovered launchers, I think my phone is finally living up to having a UI that is far beyond my old iPhone rather than just being about the same with a few differences.

5. Sound - My only real gripe other than battery is that I think the Evo is pretty quiet through headphones. Holding it up to my ear it is okay and the speakerphone is definitely fine. However the sound through headphones seems a touch on the quiet side even at max volume.

Just thought I'd share these. 1 and 2 really bothered me when reading other reviews prior to buying my Evo. It still bothers me but I'm not longer reading reviews trying to decide which phone to buy .

True, but on the headsets I have used they are quieter than the iPhone, across the board.

I should have been clearer, it is 3 hours of continuous Pandora + internet browsing with sync/3G data on (WiFi/4G/GPS off). As a user I think a phone should be able to do that for 4 hours at a minimum (my personal opinion, not like I am an engineer or phone designer who can actually make that a reality).

1 hour of Pandora streaming (with a pair of Bose wired earbuds at maximum volume), while browsing forums on Opera (loading a page every 30 seconds on average), with the screen constantly on due to using the internet browser (automatic brightness but it is probably at least 50% of max brightness due to conditions), with email/weather set to automatic sync, and 4G/WiFi/GPS off drains one third of my stock battery. So my battery lasts for 3 hours of this.

I have followed the tips on here and I don't see how I can get better than that. I really don't think I could ever get 6 hours of Pandora streaming constantly like your son does with the stock battery.

I don't understand your "expect it to do more" comment. I think the lowest I would generally accept a battery (for myself) to do is 4 hours in a constant state of doing the above. I understand that (at least as it is now for me) this is an impossibility with the stock battery, but I like Sprint and the Evo enough that I am willing to accept having to carry a bigger battery or a spare battery in return for all the benefits. I wish it could do more but I understand that it has limitations.

I realized that it was actually closer to 50% brightness. I just took it off automatic brightness for the first time and had assumed that it was operating at 80% because of how bright it was but I found that it was closer to 40-50%.

You misunderstand what I am saying. I'm not saying a 1500mAh battery should be able to do that for 4 hours. What I am saying is that I think a smartphone with a stock battery should designed in such a way that it is able to handle doing that for 4 hours minimum, whatever that requires the designers/engineers to do. This is my personal opinion. I understand that the Evo is not able to do this (at least it isn't in the way I am using it).

EDIT: My overall comment with the battery is that normally the battery only being able to do this for 3 hours would be a dealbreaker to me for a phone (because it is under the 4 hour mark which I personally deem to be the minimum acceptable amount) but because the phone is so good and the workarounds are easy enough despite being undesirable (obviously I would rather not have to carry a charger, spare batteries, or use use a battery that enlarges the phone) that I am okay with something that would otherwise make me choose a different phone.

I didn't say that the Evo was badly engineered or flawed (and if I did what I meant was that it was badly designed for what I perceive to be minimally acceptable which does differ from others). I think that they should have made it a thicker device to hold a larger battery or something like that but of course other people would disagree with that. Every design decision has tradeoffs, I understand that. I know there are other smartphones. I don't see anything wrong with pointing out that the battery life does not meet some standard that I have. I know for others this is different, but we must accept that certain level this is arbitrary (as an example, for some a 20" TV is too small to be worthwhile but for some it is fine). I should have noted this in my comment (as I was quick to point out that a physical keyboard is a personal opinion) but I felt it was fair to say it has bad battery life because it does fare poorer than its competition. Thinking back I should probably have just said that if you are a heavy user then the battery probably won't cut it for you but for people who don't heavily browse or stream then it probably isn't that big a deal.

I will try setting the brightness to 20-30% and see how it deals. Considering that display is only 10-15% of my battery usage, I don't think that will help a ton. I don't think my phone could stream Pandora at max volume with the screen off the entire time and nothing else going for 6 hours, I still don't see how your son can get that much with the stock battery. If it really is possible I wonder what is eating my battery that isn't eating his.

Will do.

Watchdog is just a task manager, right? What makes it better than the others and it doesn't seem like the paid version of it has any benefits?

Watchdog hasn't found any rogue apps. The System Panel has a ton of info but it doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary is going on (nothing seems to be using a lot other than stuff that is supposed to like Opera, Pandora, and system).

I'm pretty sure I don't have anything in the background that it is eating my battery. I've left the data/sync toggled on while my phone was in my pocket and it barely loses a percent or two an hour. I really do lose that much battery doing what I mentioned above for an hour.

Pandora/Browsing/Automatic Brightness/Sync for 1 hour = 33-35% of stock battery
Browsing/Automatic Brightness/Sync for 1 hour = 18-20% of stock battery

I'm going to try and just run Pandora tonight without using the screen or anything else at all and see how much battery it eats. Also going to try and find a lower brightness setting that will work for me. Hoping about 30% does the trick for most of the time.

EDIT: Did the Pandora test with bluetooth headphones (couldn't find my regular earbuds) and in 1 hour with sync and 3G data on it used about 10-12% battery. Not sure how much more power it would take to actually emit music out of wired earbuds as opposed to sending it over bluetooth, but this seems to actually add up properly. 20% for browsing + screen and 10% for Pandora comes out to about 30% to do both for the hour. I guess it seems like I really just am asking too much of the phone because I perceived 1 hour of doing both browsing and Pandora concurrently to take less battery than doing 1 hour of each consecutively.