Sprint 4G Androids

[Norellicus]

Been looking at a new phone for a while and eyeing the androids; I'm tired of the stupid problems my winmo HTC Touch Pro 2 has (WHY DO YOU RANDOMLY TURN ON WHEN I PRESS NO BUTTONS RAAAAAAAAR), plus the lack of decent app support for a lot of stuff I'd like to use (google apps in particular) is getting on my nerves.

I'd been keeping an eye on the EVO for a while but the waiting lists are STILL retardedly long. Now I see the Epic (Sprint's variety of the Galaxy S) and am wondering whether I should still wait for the EVO to be available or not...Engadget had pretty favorable reviews of both, with all of the quibbles about both of the phones being either minor aesthetics or shared problems between both phones, and the only real cardinal difference being that the Epic has a physical keyboard where the EVO's is screen only.

Anyone have experiences with them to share? Apparently I guess the Samsung engineered UI is terrible, can it be replaced with a stock Froyo base or something to compensate? What about the EVO's UI?

[jinkazama]

personally I work for sprint and I hate the Evo.. I've seen so many ppl come back with them complaining about the battery life and the fact that some get too hot when charging to use when on the charger.

I saw the epic the other day and the screen is fucking brilliant. I thought the screen on the Evo was nice but the contrast ratio compared on the Evo was nothing compared to the Epic. Even compared to my iPhone its better imo. Zoomed in the retina display of the iPhone still prevails but overall tho out of all the sprint phones I've seen I like the epic the best.

Evo: 3-4hr continuous
Massively big phone

Epic: 5-8hrs contiuous talk time
smaller phone, but a little thicker to support the physical keyboards
super amoled screen
SWYPE <<<<<< Big selling point IMO, I love Swype, wish apple would integrate it!
Plus quicker updates because you dont have HTC sense to slow down the upgrade process

Epic, all the way in my opinion

[Korietsu]

The problem with the evo is that no one ever has the battery settings configured properly. There's a ton of stuff that shouldn't be on by default, and can run up your bill because it's actually enabled.

Other things to consider, do you want Sense or TouchWiz? Do you want the EVO hardware vs the Galaxy S hardware. Galaxy S def runs faster. More support for the HTC phones though.

[Sythe]

Go EVO. Samsung has been making shitty phones since i dont know when. I cant tell you how many sansung Moments use to come back every day day with random problems that just shouldn't be happening. And from the review of the EPIC on engadget it looks like it has the same issues. Like Shutting off randomly, calling a completely different person then the 1 you dialed, txting the wrong person etc. The EPIC is not any smaller then the EVO. while the screen size IS smaller the front face of the phone itself is the same size. And its thicker. The battery issue isn't that bad. Download advanced task killer and most issues go away. I'd say you should download it on ANY android phone.


tl;dr the only reason you should be thinking about the EPIC over the EVO: Can't live with out a physical keyboard.

[Clauz]

Evo if you don't need a physical keyboard. Don't bother with task killers just get juice defender and a setcpu app. You can get Swype for evo as well just have to download the apk from the internet, there are some guides on xda to show you what to do and where to find it.

[takethistoyourgrave]

Yes, I can't tell Android owners enough; stop using ATK task killer. You are actually killing your battery faster by using it, especially if you are on Froyo.

As for me, I'd go with the Evo; I think HTC is a great company and I love Sense (I have an Incredible on Verizon, couldn't be happier).

[Auspice]

Yes, I can't tell Android owners enough; stop using ATK task killer. You are actually killing your battery faster by using it, especially if you are on Froyo.

Wait, what? How come?

[Norellicus]

Isn't/wasn't there some issue with the Sense platform being slow to get new updates or something?

[jinkazama]

Isn't/wasn't there some issue with the Sense platform being slow to get new updates or something?

Since HTC has sense they have to build Sense around the updates so once the updates come out they say you can expect a 1-2 month wait period for the update to hit HTC phones.

IDK about samsung compared to HTC.. considering they were giving free upgrades from the touch pro 1 to the touch pro 2 and then to the hero or moment, because of all the issues with the phones they've had.

I think HTC was a superior company back in the day before they started mass producing phones like they do now, now that they're mass producing them they dont seem to have the quality they once had. Plus the recent mass backorders HTC had really put a bad taste in my mouth about them.

I still like samsung honestly.

[sruon]

Wait, what? How come?

People are too used to Windows where an app loaded in memory is actually using ressources, Linux doesn't work like that and reloading an app takes more processing cycles than just "waking" it up.

[Korietsu]

Wait, what? How come?

Android already handles task threading and killing tasks eating memory. It takes more power every time they boot up and restart into memory automatically because its tied to a service, rather than letting the thread they're on sleep or be handled by android.

[jinkazama]

Android already handles task threading and killing tasks eating memory. It takes more power every time they boot up and restart into memory automatically because its tied to a service, rather than letting the thread they're on sleep or be handled by android.

Well automatic task killing already came around in 2.1. previously we were advised to install a task killer for the customer but now we were told not to because it actually makes it worse. So yea dont get a task killer, it does more harm than good now.

[Norellicus]

I went and saw both of them in store tonight, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed by the Epic, and the UI was just fine so I don't know what that anti-buzz over it was about. Unless I find a compelling argument for the EVO specifically (particularly if it does something the Epic doesn't) I think I've made my choice.

[Julian]

Before I start, spoilers, there's an android thread stickied.

personally I work for sprint and I hate the Evo.. I've seen so many ppl come back with them complaining about the battery life and the fact that some get too hot when charging to use when on the charger.

I saw the epic the other day and the screen is fucking brilliant. I thought the screen on the Evo was nice but the contrast ratio compared on the Evo was nothing compared to the Epic. Even compared to my iPhone its better imo. Zoomed in the retina display of the iPhone still prevails but overall tho out of all the sprint phones I've seen I like the epic the best.

Evo: 3-4hr continuous
Massively big phone

Epic: 5-8hrs contiuous talk time
smaller phone, but a little thicker to support the physical keyboards
super amoled screen
SWYPE <<<<<< Big selling point IMO, I love Swype, wish apple would integrate it!
Plus quicker updates because you dont have HTC sense to slow down the upgrade process

Epic, all the way in my opinion

For starters, swype can be installed on other phones.

Battery life can be adjusted, and once it's able to go for an entire day, doesn't really matter much.

The REAL comparison between the phones here, imo:

Evo: 4.3 inch screen, 1.3mp front camera and 8mp back camera, currently has more developers making custom stuff for it. Kickstand!
Epic: 4 inch screen, VGA (.3mp) front camera (sucks) and 5mp back camera (mp aren't everything, the Epic back camera is actually a lot better than the Evo's, the front camera is meh though), 5 row physical keyboard. A lot less developers (obviously, since it just came out), but it is part of Samsung's Galaxy S, so stuff that is developed for other phones should also be implementable on the Epic (although there are a few differences, and the Epic has more differences than the others), the SAMOLED display is BEAUTIFUL. Haven't had much trouble using it outdoors either, can see my phone just fine on a sunny day while wearing shades. (although it's a bit dark when you also add the shades on top, but it's usable) Also, the Hummingbird is a lot better than the Snapdragon.

Obviously I have a lot more to say about the Epic than I do the Evo, since I own an Epic, but the Evo is still a pretty good phone. It really all depends on personal preference, I think. Spec wise, the Epic is hands down the superior phone, but until it gets a good backing from developers, the Evo is still a very strong competitor.

If you're not planning on rooting and installing custom roms, then you may want to consider the Sense vs TouchWiz argument. The Epic has TW2.5 (the other Galaxy S have 3.0, the Epic should get it soon, I would imagine, supposedly because of the landscape mode when you use the keyboard,) which is missing a lot of "key" features that people who have used TW3 have been constantly bitching about. And yes, you can disable TW just by changing one option in the settings. I'm not sure about the Evo, but I would assume you can do the same for Sense.

Personally, my phone is replacing my psp as my portable emulating device, just because it's more portable, and I always have my phone on me. The keyboard is just awesome for this. If a hardware keyboard is important to you, the Epic is definitely the way to go. I love Swype, but there are still times when sliding the keyboard out and typing stuff is just easier. Swype is great though, and will greatly reduce the amount of times you have to use the keyboard, but I just love having the option to do so.

[jinkazama]

Before I start, spoilers, there's an android thread stickied.



For starters, swype can be installed on other phones.

plz tell me how, because on every Evo we try installing and it always tells us that it cannot be installed on a phone that is not swype compatible.

It's possible to use third party swype like programs and possible to be done after rooting but there is no "Swype" download on the market, it has to be native to the device.


But yea you're right, the evo's "8MP" camera is garbage imo, i noticed better pictures on the motorolla i1 and its 5mp camera than I did with my Evo. And well of course my iPhone's 5mp camera smashed them both.

and yea i totally agree that hummingbird is the way to go.

[jmc]

Since HTC has sense they have to build Sense around the updates so once the updates come out they say you can expect a 1-2 month wait period for the update to hit HTC phones.

IDK about samsung compared to HTC.. considering they were giving free upgrades from the touch pro 1 to the touch pro 2 and then to the hero or moment, because of all the issues with the phones they've had.

I think HTC was a superior company back in the day before they started mass producing phones like they do now, now that they're mass producing them they dont seem to have the quality they once had. Plus the recent mass backorders HTC had really put a bad taste in my mouth about them.

I still like samsung honestly.

It will be a even longer wait for updates once a newer HTC model is announced.

I would go with the evo, simply because it's sprints poster child right now. So when updates are needed, they will push them out pretty quickly.

Compared to my htc hero....it stopped getting quick updates once the evo was announced and sprint/htc seemed to have taken all their support to advertising that phone. In which it took HTC 3 months to submit 2.1 for the hero, then sprint another 4 months to actually release it.

[Norellicus]

Well I don't replace my phone that often so I'm not too keen on something that I know Sprint/HTC will essentially stop paying attention to when they get a new star prodigy, so that's more of a con against it :<

[Julian]

plz tell me how, because on every Evo we try installing and it always tells us that it cannot be installed on a phone that is not swype compatible.

It's possible to use third party swype like programs and possible to be done after rooting but there is no "Swype" download on the market, it has to be native to the device.


But yea you're right, the evo's "8MP" camera is garbage imo, i noticed better pictures on the motorolla i1 and its 5mp camera than I did with my Evo. And well of course my iPhone's 5mp camera smashed them both.

and yea i totally agree that hummingbird is the way to go.

eh, really? I was under the impression you could just install swype and be good to go. Huh. The more you know!

[jinkazama]

yea its lame, my boss tried forever to install it but says it has to be native to the device. kinda like how you cant just install a swype app, it has to be built into the device itself, which would require Jobs to purchase it and we know that'll never happen.