The HTC Evo: My E3 Savior

Jun 21 2010, 12:27pm CDT | by Robert Evans

My first HTC Evo review came within a few days of launch. Since then I've had a couple of weeks to get used to my new smartphone. I've put the Evo through its paces and found the spots where it excels and where it ends up with its face in the wall. The E3 Expo provided me my heaviest use opportunity yet.

With Twidroid and my camera I took and tweeted dozens of photos in real-time from the show floor. I also used it to do light research before meetings and when comparing titles on the show floor. While the battery life is exactly as I reported originally (kind of crappy) I never ended up running dry at a bad time.

The key to handling the Evo's battery life is saving different 'scenes' for work and pleasure. I have a 'home' scene that loads my screen up with power-draining widgets. When I'm close to electricity and in a city I own, it isn't much of an inconvenience. For E3, I went with a stripped down screen that gave me power options and nothing else. It kept my Evo kicking through thick and thin. I never ran dry before I had time to recharge.

Unfortunately, this heavy use made some issues with HTC's Sense UI crop up repeatedly. On my way to and from E3, the frequent time-zone changes and constant on-and-off confused my phone and broke several widgets for long periods of time. On the show floor, I noticed a lot of camera lag during periods of heavy use. There were also several times when the on-screen keyboard refused to pop up, no matter how many times I clicked.

These issues were relatively minor, especially compared to the way in which the Evo (and Sprint's 3G network) saved my ass. About 70% of the stories I filed during E3 were done so using the Evo's wireless hotspot feature. The E3 media and general use WiFi networks were almost always crowded and slow. Sprint's network was clearly under a bit of strain, but I never ran into an extended period of time where connectivity was impossible.

The same was true on my way two and from LA. I spent a good 2 hours in Denver International working like a fiend to beat a deadline. I made it just in the nick of time thanks to my Evo hotspot. If you need to work from the road in the US, the Evo should definitely be on your shortlist of phones. (Although a MiFi hotspot is always an option).

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Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.