EVO 3D Review (Engadget)

[Dulanic]

I don't care for 3d, but 2d camera pic quality is terribly dissapointing.

Galaxy SII isn't a clear winner either because of its soon-to-be-dated low resolution. I don't give a crap about oversaturated SAMOLED+.

I preordered Evo3D, but now am torn and pissed off (can cancel anytime).

There is no perfect (or at least satisfactory) phone in the immediate horizon right now.

Only if SII had qHD resolution + Sense...

*Gag* Sense? Seriously? Sense is as bloated as the rest of them. Any manufacturer UI crap is all useless and should immediately be removed.

 

[zerocool84]

*Gag* Sense? Seriously? Sense is as bloated as the rest of them. Any manufacturer UI crap is all useless and should immediately be removed.

No they're not useless, many people like them and if it's so bad, vote with your wallet and get an Android phone without an added UI.

 

[CVSiN]

*Gag* Sense? Seriously? Sense is as bloated as the rest of them. Any manufacturer UI crap is all useless and should immediately be removed.

sense 3.0 is awesome.. i like it..
hell I like the older sense too.

 

[smartpatrol]

I don't understand why 4G has to be connected at all times when enabled. Why doesn't it just connect when you wake the phone?

WP7 does this for the wifi connection -- it disconnects from wifi when you turn the screen off (unless it's plugged in to the charger). Then it reconnects when you wake it. It only takes a few seconds to reconnect, and the 3G connection is still active in the mean time. I don't even bother to turn wifi off when I leave the house, because it has no noticeable effect on the battery life.

Why don't 4G phones work like this? The Evo's battery drained so quickly when on 4G, and it got much worse if you were in an area with spotty coverage where it constantly switched back and forth (in other words, pretty much everywhere). It doesn't make sense to me. There's no reason the 4G radio should be on and connected when the phone is asleep.

Do any of the custom roms work this way?

 

[zerocool84]

I don't understand why 4G has to be connected at all times when enabled. Why doesn't it just connect when you wake the phone?

WP7 does this for the wifi connection -- it disconnects from wifi when you turn the screen off (unless it's plugged in to the charger). Then it reconnects when you wake it. It only takes a few seconds to reconnect, and the 3G connection is still active in the mean time. I don't even bother to turn wifi off when I leave the house, because it has no noticeable effect on the battery life.

Why don't 4G phones work like this? The Evo's battery drained so quickly when on 4G, and it got much worse if you were in an area with spotty coverage where it constantly switched back and forth (in other words, pretty much everywhere). It doesn't make sense to me. There's no reason the 4G radio should be on and connected when the phone is asleep.

Do any of the custom roms work this way?

WiMax will sleep when not in use, also I don't know any modern smartphone in which the wifi doesn't turn off when the screen sleeps unless of course you change the settings.

 

[smartpatrol]

WiMax will sleep when not in use, also I don't know any modern smartphone in which the wifi doesn't turn off when the screen sleeps unless of course you change the settings.

Does it? I had the original Evo, and it would show WiMax or wifi as being connected the instant you wake the phone (whereas if you're in 3G mode and turn on the 4G radio manually, it takes a few seconds to switch over). Maybe I'm like the Maytag repair guy trying to prove that the light stays on

 

[zerocool84]

Does it? I had the original Evo, and it would show WiMax or wifi as being connected the instant you wake the phone (whereas if you're in 3G mode and turn on the 4G radio manually, it takes a few seconds to switch over). Maybe I'm like the Maytag repair guy trying to prove that the light stays on

When first connecting to WiMax it'll take a little time to initially connect, similar to wifi, but if already connected, just like wifi, it'll wake up quickly.

 

[cheezy321]

How the hell do you guys deal with 14 hour battery life? That is unacceptable.

A portable device should be portable! Pathetic.

 

[finbarqs]

yeah! they need those automatic perpetual batteries!

 

[Impulses]

Most of the news blog sites wouldn't know a real review if it bit them on the ass, it's all anecdotal evidence and personal opinions based on casual use, pretty awful. You can argue about whether they should test with all radios on or not, in the end what really matters is RELATIVE battery life compared to other phones under the same circumstances.

I don't know how stringent Laptop Mag's test conditions are, but I'd assume that if they call it a drain test they would at least leave the same features on across all devices... I know it's done over Wifi so 3G is off, can't remember if you can leave the 4G radio scanning while connected to wifi or not.

Anyway, the EVO 3D did very well, lasting 7 hours and 40 minutes of continous browsing, one hour more than the Charge (which has been acclaimed for it's battery), two hours more than the average. My EVO 4G certainly can't manage nearly 8 hours of CONTINUOUS browsing...

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/cell-phones/htc-evo-3d.aspx?page=4
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/cell-phones/samsung-droid-charge-verizon.aspx?page=3

Of course 3D photos and video are gonna kill the battery, you've got the power draw of two cameras instead of one and the extra processing required to save 3D images.

P.S. Wifi is a more efficient and less power hungry connection than 3G of any type... It's a constant point A to point B connection. 3G radios are constantly scanning to see if other nearby towers are less saturated or offer better signal, that draws more power.

Android actually lets you choose what happens when the screen is off, disconnect off wifi or leave on, the default is to remain connected (as it should be). I'm surprised more of you aren't aware of this, any phone that does the opposite is actually wasting battery.

 

[Impulses]

BTW I'm not defending the EVO 3D on every count, some of the comments about call quality concern me... Although like almost everything else, there's conflicting reports across the reviews. Personally I'm waiting for more first hand accounts and possibly a review from Anand (a real review). I've got my eye on the Photon too, even tho I prefer HTC.

 

[finbarqs]

Everybody has their QA issues, so you can't blame one manufacturer just because they messed up on a line! look at samsung! (there's already a hate thread about them somewhere here...)

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I don't understand why 4G has to be connected at all times when enabled. Why doesn't it just connect when you wake the phone?

WP7 does this for the wifi connection -- it disconnects from wifi when you turn the screen off (unless it's plugged in to the charger). Then it reconnects when you wake it. It only takes a few seconds to reconnect, and the 3G connection is still active in the mean time. I don't even bother to turn wifi off when I leave the house, because it has no noticeable effect on the battery life.

Why don't 4G phones work like this? The Evo's battery drained so quickly when on 4G, and it got much worse if you were in an area with spotty coverage where it constantly switched back and forth (in other words, pretty much everywhere). It doesn't make sense to me. There's no reason the 4G radio should be on and connected when the phone is asleep.

Do any of the custom roms work this way?

Well alot of us GSM users on CM7 based ROMs use a Toggle 2G/3G app where it auto toggles you to 2G when your screen is off. It makes no sense to have 3G on when you're not using your phone. On certain phones like Moto phones it's pretty fast at radio switching, but my experience iwth the N1 is that it's slow. My Milestone flips to 3G about 2 seconds after my screen goes on. After all you're just syncing email, Facebook, twitter while your screen is off, and its much better to use 2G.

they should develop something for 4G LTE and WiMax as both seem to suck power like mad. When 2G vs 3G already gives you great savings, it'd be great to see 3G vs 4G savings too.

 

[QueBert]

sense 3.0 is awesome.. i like it..
hell I like the older sense too.

1 was whatever, 2.1 was pretty good, 3.0's awesome sauce. I don't see how anyone could use Sense 3.0 and want to go back to Vanilla Android, or even something like LPP or ADW.

To each his own I guess.

 

[s44]

1 was whatever, 2.1 was pretty good, 3.0's awesome sauce. I don't see how anyone could use Sense 3.0 and want to go back to Vanilla Android, or even something like LPP or ADW.

To each his own I guess.

Here's the *real* question: would you rather have Sense 3 and Gingerbread forever or AOSP and ICS?

 

[QueBert]

Here's the *real* question: would you rather have Sense 3 and Gingerbread forever or AOSP and ICS?

I don't know what ICS is, but I won't run any rom on my phone that doesn't have Sense 3.0 or a hybrid 2.1/3.0 like MikG's after using a Kingdom rom there's no other option for me *shrug*

 

[randomlinh]

I don't know what ICS is, but I won't run any rom on my phone that doesn't have Sense 3.0 or a hybrid 2.1/3.0 like MikG's after using a Kingdom rom there's no other option for me *shrug*

ICS = Ice Cream Sandwich

 

[zerocool84]

Here's the *real* question: would you rather have Sense 3 and Gingerbread forever or AOSP and ICS?

There's nothing wrong with someone liking the carrier skins.

 

[CVSiN]

1 was whatever, 2.1 was pretty good, 3.0's awesome sauce. I don't see how anyone could use Sense 3.0 and want to go back to Vanilla Android, or even something like LPP or ADW.

To each his own I guess.

yeah I agree I like 2.1 never tried before that.
and 3.0 is amazing..
saw it on a Modded EVO this past weekend.

 

[CVSiN]

Here's the *real* question: would you rather have Sense 3 and Gingerbread forever or AOSP and ICS?

and who says that HTC wont update the modern phones ( dual core and future) to ICS with Sense 3.0?

 

[A5]

Here's the *real* question: would you rather have Sense 3 and Gingerbread forever or AOSP and ICS?

If ICS is better, there will be a ROM for it on XDA that I can use . The only thing I'd change about Sense is to switch the launcher bar to one that has app slots like the stock launcher, but I'm not willing to give up the Sense widgets (or pay to replace them) to do it.

 

[SniperWulf]

I am not sure if I believe the engadget review. I think they exaggerated on the battery life.

Other reviews say that the battery life is not good, when compared to say an iphone. But they say the battery life is better than the original evo 4g. Also engadget said they left the phone on with all of the radios going, does this include the wimax radio? If so, then of course it didn't last that long. They also said they mostly took pictures using the phone that day and some videos. If I recall correctly, using the camera drains the battery faster than anything else on the phone.

I think everyone else about the phone is good. Also seems to be a lot of hate on the 3d on the phone, but no one is forcing you to use it.

She did leave all the radios on during the battery tests. I asked her about it in the podcast comments.

Not to smart, I'd say

http://mobile.engadget.com/2011/06/19/engadget-mobile-podcast-092-06-19-2011#disqus_thread

 

[finbarqs]

it would be funny if AAPL made a skin for android...