HTC Updates the Evo 4G; Calls It The Evo Design 4G
by Jason Inofuentes on October 19, 2011 11:56 AM ESTIn lots of ways the original Evo 4G broke a lot of ground. It was amongst the first phones in the 1 GHz club. It was the first 4G Android phone. It was one of the first to feature a front facing camera. It was one of the first to feature an HDMI out. And for a while it stood as King Of The Hill on Android Mountain. It's a bit surprising then that the original's spiritual successor follows the example of the Incredible 2 in being an incremental advance rather than aiming to be a halo phone.
Announced today, the Evo Design 4G is a faster, WiMax equipped sibling to the aforementioned Incredible 2, with a similar 4" screen and form factor, but bolstered by a 1.2 GHz varint of the MSM8655 SoC and an SQN 1210 WiMax chip for 4G speeds. The phone benefits from an aluminum unibody frame and the screen does get bumped to qHD and will be of the sLCD variety, so image quality should mirror the Incredible 2. It'll be interesting to see how well the older SoC handles that qHD resolution, and when the time comes we'll be glad to give it a whirl. The phone will be available on-line or at your nearest Sprint store for $99.99 on contract, pitting up against the iPhone 4, so if you're on Sprint and have a Benjamin to spend you're choice is, for the first time, between Apple and Android.
| Physical Comparison | |||||||
| Apple iPhone 4 | HTC Evo Design 4G | Nexus S | HTC Droid Incredible | HTC Droid Incredible 2 | |||
| Height | 115.2 mm (4.5") | 122 mm (4.8") | 123.9 mm (4.88") | 117.5 mm (4.63") | 126.3 mm (4.97") | ||
| Width | 58.6 mm (2.31") | 60.96 mm (2.4") | 63.0 mm (2.48") | 58.5 mm (2.30") | 65.5 mm (2.58") | ||
| Depth | 9.3 mm ( 0.37") | 11.9 mm (0.47") | 10.88 mm (0.43") | 11.9 mm (0.47") | 11.6 mm (0.46") | ||
| Weight | 137 g (4.8 oz) | 147 g (5.2 oz) | 129 grams (4.6 oz) | 130 g (4.6 oz) | 148 g (5.22 oz) | ||
| CPU | Apple A4 @ ~800MHz | 1.2 GHz MSM8655 45nm Snapdragon | 1 GHz Hummingbird | 1 GHz Snapdragon QSD8650 | 1 GHz Snapdragon MSM8655 | ||
| GPU | PowerVR SGX 535 | Adreno 205 | PowerVR SGX 540 | Adreno 200 | Adreno 205 | ||
| RAM | 512MB LPDDR1 (?) | 768 MB LPDDR2 | 512 MB LPDDR1 | 512MB LPDDR1 | 768 MB LPDDR2 | ||
| NAND | 16GB or 32GB integrated | 4 GB NAND with 16 GB microSD Class 4 preinstalled | 16 GB integrated | 8 GB NAND with up to 16GB microSD | 4 GB NAND with 16 GB microSD preinstalled | ||
| Camera | 5MP with LED Flash + Front Facing Camera | 5 MP with autofocus, 1.3 MP front facing | 5 MP with AF/LED Flash, VGA front facing | 8 MP with AF/LED Flash, 720p30 video recording | 8 MP AF/Dual LED flash, 720p30 video recording, 1.3MP front facing | ||
| Screen | 3.5" 640 x 960 LED backlit LCD | 4.0” 960 x 540 S-LCD | 4.0" 800 x 480 Super AMOLED | 3.7" 800 x 480 AMOLED | 4.0" 800 x 480 S-LCD | ||
| Battery | Integrated 5.254Whr | Removable 5.62 Whr | Removable 5.55 Whr | Removable 4.81 Whr | Removable 5.36 Whr | ||
Source: HTC (pdf)
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blafrisch - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link
I love the Evo 4G. I was just wishing the other day that I could have the same phone with a faster CPU and GPU combo. Obviously someone else was thinking similarly but where is the kickstand? The kickstand was one of the best features of the Evo in my opinion. I guess that opinion is not widely held.JasonInofuentes - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link
I'm glad you're please then. Just bear in mind, Sprint has already announced transition away from WiMax. I imagine that this phone will be well supported throughout the 2 year contract you'd be signing yourself into, and indeed I bet they will offer you mighty large discounts on their LTE phones to make the switch before the end of that contract. A friend of mine was offered his choice of smartphone, I believe it was with Sprint, several years back, if he would give up his StarTAC. He finally gave in, moments after dropping his StarTAC in the toilet and finding himself unwilling to pay the prices eBayers sought for the phone that had long since become something of a collector's item. Good luck and enjoy the phone.Jason
Omega215D - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link
I have the Thunderbolt on Verizon and do find the kickstand rather nice. While charging I can prop the phone up into portrait mode and leave it there as an alarm clock. while taking up less space than placing flat down on the desk.I just don't like that HTC seems to drag their feet at releasing software updates for their recent phones while focusing too much time rehashing something similar every month (it seems).
JasonInofuentes - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link
New phones generate sales. Updated software doesn't. It's that simple. It'll be interesting to see what the likes of HTC do with ICS, it'd be nice if there skins exist as removable layers, more like Windows skins of the 90's, but it's unlikely. Instead we'll probably have the same issues we have now.Either way, enjoy your TB!
Jason