HTC EVO Review
June 3rd, 2010
The EVO is a great phone with poor software choices.
Like
- The kickstand on the back
- HDMI port
- Front facing secondary camera
- The huge display
- Fast processor
Do Not Like
- Pre-loaded apps on the system partition cannot be removed
- Footprints, Friend Stream, HTC Mobile Guide, NASCAR Sprint Cup, Peep, Qik, Quickoffice, Sprint Football, Sprint Zone, Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV, and many others
- Many of these apps are configured to automatically start, so less savvy users will experience reduced battery life and slower performance.
- Even disabling and removing apps from the home screen leaves the “all applications” list cluttered.
- The hardware buttons (home,menu,back,search) are easy to mistakenly hit. If you get a chance to try this phone, try tapping the bottom edge of the phone completely outside of the home button’s bounds. Your tap will still register!
- The dialer is not Android standard. The HTC replacement is cluttered and harder to navigate.
- The large size is nice, but the corners should be more rounded, like the Nexus One. The boxy shape of the EVO makes it feel even larger than it is.
- The soft keyboard is not Android standard, and it is cluttered.
- *** UPDATE: InputMethod full screen mode fails to show a “Next” button, even when
android:imeOptions="actionNext"is specified as an EditText attribute. This means when users are entering text in landscape mode, they don’t see the Next button, resulting in a very confusing UI. - This phone has no trackball. When editing, you see a bunch of extra soft key arrows on the keyboard for navigation. These arrows add complexity:
Android makes vendor customizations possible and this phone demonstrates just how poorly that can be done.
All in all a good review. But I think many people, like me, are a big fan of HTC Sense UI and some of their apps like footprint, social stream and their smart dialer. I’m just mad about Sense UI. It’s even left Apple behind.
Nice review. My take would be similar (I have one, but have only played with it a few times). I like most of the hardware, proc, cameras, screen is great, but it feels a bit clunky. Rounded corners would help. One other minor gripe of mine though — they moved the hardware buttons around vs other HTC phones. If you’re used to another HTC device, that’s confusing.
As for the software, I really don’t care for the Sense stuff myself. As you noted, cluttered and confusing to me. Also several of the widgets (take rating bar for example), are really poorly done. And, I am really annoyed at all the built in apps that I can’t get rid of and will never use (another twitter client, NASCAR, etc. really?). It felt like getting a fancy new super fast computer, with all sorts of Dell crap splashed all over it (but worse than that, Dell crap I can’t uninstall). I really wish HTC would offer the choice of Sense or stock Android, on this device and others.
I absoulutely hate that you cannot remove certain applications and I hope they fix it pretty soon