uninteresting :: nerd

The HTC EVO 4G is the latest Android ’superphone’, launching on Spring in 2 weeks. Google gave everyone at Google I/O one for free, and I’m fortunate that my friend Frankie G sold it to me (he wasn’t ready to switch to Sprint).

Here are some impressions after using it the past few days. Keep in mind that I’ve used iPhones for the past 3 yrs and this is my first real use of Android.

First, the good:

• The screen is huge and bright
• Integration with Google services is great. Love Google Voice and Gmail.
• Mobile hotspot is great (and just what I need for my wifi iPad)
• Sprint 3G is fast, and calls have been been loud and clear
• The one app I’ve found that beautifies things is Slide Screen…but I hear it’s not compatible with Froyo.
• Playing Pandora in the background while doing other things is great. But iPhone OS 4 will have this, too.

Now, the longer list of not-so-good:

• Unlocking the phone is not easy. On iPhone, it’s thumb-press + thumb-swipe. Very quick. On the Evo, you use your index finger to press power (on the top right) then swipe down at the bottom of the screen with your thumb. And because the phone is so long, you can’t do it in a smooth motion.
• Multi-touch is not nearly as smooth as on iPhone
• The battery is bad – usually 1/3 sapped by noon, on life support by early evening. I ordered extra charging cables for cheap on ebay.
• The user experience is jarring. When apps launch they pop open instantly, whereas on iPhone they animate and open towards you, creating a smoother transition. Also when you rotate the phone it switches instantly rather than smoothly.
• The fonts, icons and widgets are all butt-ugly.
• The camcorder takes 720p video, but the quality is really grainy. Classic case of adding a feature just to one-up the competition.
• Android Market is pretty barren, and the games are also lame. There are SO many great iPhone apps that simply don’t exist for Android.
• Typing is difficult. Sometimes when I type fast, the cursor gets moved to the middle of the word so I end up typing over myself – a major bug.
• There’s a giant void in figuring out how to get my content sync’d from my computer (yeah I know about doubletwist). With iTunes it’s so much easier.
• Lots of duplication of effort: you can use either the HTC home screen or the Android one. There’s a Sprint Navigation app and a Google one. There’s a Gmail client and a regular Mail app.
• It feels like using Windows CE back in the day: managing your data on external storage, navigating folder hierarchies with file managers, killing tasks with task managers, managing ‘default applications’ to launch.
• Don’t click “manage applications” in settings unless you have 5 minutes to wait.
• Like with CE phones, you’re dealing with 3 companies (Google, HTC and Sprint)  trying to do different parts of the user experience, a recipe for disaster.
• There’s a bunch of pre-installed Sprint crapware, like a NASCAR and football app. Sprint TV is horrible, and Sprint Zone is just pointless. Basically, Sprint needs to just sell the phone and service and stay out of the user experience. They suck at it.
• The integration of Facebook and Twitter is confusing. You give the phone your credentials, but it doesn’t tell you when/where the integration happens.

Granted, Froyo (2.2) is coming soon and I should reserve my final judgement til then. But I’m pretty sure that I’ll either end up with the iPhone 4G or going the cheapo route with a basic prepaid phone + iPad + Mifi.