The Sprint HTC EVO 4G Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 28, 2010 6:04 PM ESTThe Keyboard
In my Incredible review I praised HTC for improving upon the prediction algorithm used by Google in the default Android keyboard. Overall, I felt it was a better keyboard. Brian Klug, our resident smartphone editor, politely disagreed with me in a recent article (he even asked if it was ok to disagree with me. It is). Brandon Hill, former AnandTech News Editor and current DailyTech Editor in Chief, also complained about the HTC Sense keyboard. Their complaints weren’t about the text prediction, but rather the overwhelming nature of the keyboard.
The default HTC keyboard is just very busy. The EVO 4G is actually worse here because it also integrates arrow keys into the keyboard. It gets even worse once you start typing because the autocorrect dictionary pops up and further crowds the screen.
While the overwhelming keyboard layout can be, well, overwhelming, I find that it’s something I can easily get used to once I figure out where all of the keys are. If you just can’t deal with the EVO 4G’s keyboard you can always switch to a different keyboard. Android supports the use of whatever third party virtual keyboard software you want, there’s even a good summary of the top available options today at .com.
The larger screen makes the keys on the virtual keyboard bigger. As a result typing on the EVO 4G is faster for me than any other Android phone.
The trick to the HTC Sense keyboard, particularly on the EVO, is to make sure you stay focused on your thumbs and the keys themselves while you type. If you focus on the live dictionary that appears over what you’re typing or let your focus wander elsewhere it quickly becomes an overwhelming experience. There’s simply too much going on at once. This works fine for me since that’s what I end up doing anyway and I do appreciate the live dictionary that I can choose from and automatically add to while I type. However I can empathize with those who don’t like the crowded keyboard. Functionally it works, but if HTC wants to improve the experience I would recommend focusing reducing the noise. A keyboard should be a simple thing.
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DaveGirard - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
you're missing the iPhone 4 in the battery life and there is only one phone in the H.264 page.And I think you need to set your white point properly for the iPhone 4 pics. Saying that's the best picture you can produce is not accurate.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
The iPhone 4 review is next, and the white balance was actually a problem for the iPhone 4 - regardless of where I tapped to sample the white balance pretty much came out that way.More on this tomorrow...
Take care,
Anand
SandmanWN - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
"The size of the screen is really what sets the EVO 4G apart from the competition, and honestly I couldn’t think of a better phone for browsing the web. Loading full websites is a pleasure and the screen is large enough where you can actually read a lot of content, even while zoomed in. I’d be willing to go as far as to say that it is almost too small for the ideal web browsing experience."This whole paragraph is confusing and contradicting. You say you couldn't think of a better phone for web browsing. Then say you you can read a lot even while zoomed in, which I think you meant to say out there. Then you contradict the first sentence and say it is almost too small for web browsing.
I think that paragraph needs a mulligan.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
I've cleared it up a bit :)tipoo - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
It would be great if you could include Evo 4G benchies in the iPhone 4 review.rf40928 - Friday, July 2, 2010 - link
Yeah, I guess u saw the Evo benchmarks.I have an Evo and Im considering a Iphone 4 ( my cousin got one )..
I posted above the following: ... funny how the Iphone 4 review that Anand did proves Iphone 4 on a "slower" 3g network is consistantly faster then the Evo on a 4G network when it comes to the web .. I guess 4G's Peak performance is theoretically better.. but are Sprints 4G average 4g Speed numbers better then ATT's avg 3g speeds?? ..it would seem not.."
yibrushn - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
Sorry just gotta make 2 corrections. The front camera is 1.3 mp and the screen is TFT not AMOLED.Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
Fixed and fixed :)Hmm that was actually a bit confusing, Sprint lists it as an OLED screen and it is very similar to the OLEDs we've used in terms of color calibration but all the data I can find points to a TFT display.
DigitalFreak - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
I thought the screen thing might have been a typo, until I saw there was an entire paragraph describing the "AMOLED" screen. :-/Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, June 28, 2010 - link
That was absolutely my bad. HTC appears to have calibrated the screen to mimic the other OLEDs, it's overly red. Combine that with the OLED listing here http://shopamerica.htc.com/cell-phones/productdeta... and it resulted in my mistake. I was wondering why viewing angle was so bad for OLED, I should've been more careful in my research there instead of just making an assumption. I will be more careful in the future.Thanks again for catching the error early on.
Take care,
Anand