The EVO 4G is a great phone with the notable drawback of its short battery life. But apparently a lot of you don’t care judging by the comments on my full review. Fine by me. Even though it doesn’t have the battery strength to make it through a day of moderate to heavy usage, there are still some serious advantages to this phone over others. Enough so that some buyers are probably going to camp out their Sprint Store this Friday. Here’s my top five favorite features so far, including a few I didn’t touch on at all in my review.
1. The screen
4.3-inches just feels right. I can’t believe we’ve been living with puny 3.5-inch cell phone screens for so long. Damn does it feel good using Android on this gigantic screen. It opens up so many new doors. Windshield mounting the phone for navigation is finally a viable option. There’s finally no need to balance the phone on your leg to see the directions with the large 4.3-inch screen. Even web browsing is a new experience with a bit of help from Dolphin HD browser. The larger screen makes gaming and reading ebooks more enjoyable, and showing off photos and videos easier. The Droid and iPhone just feels small after using an EVO 4G for a bit.
2. Form factor
You wouldn’t know this looking at press shots and hands-on videos, but the EVO 4G isn’t that much physically larger than a Droid or iPhone. In fact, it’s just slightly wider and longer than both. It’s actually about the same thickness meaning it’s truly pocktable. Don’t think for a minute that it won’t fit in your tight hipster jeans. I actually think it fits better in tighter pants than the Droid because of the EVO 4G’s rounded back.
3. Sprint Mobile Hotspot
I love things that just work and that’s really describes the Sprint Mobile Hotspot. It takes only two button presses in the app to launch the hotspot, but there’s a home screen widget that can cut that down to one. It’s that easy to allow eight devices access to the EVO 4G’s 4G/3G connection. It’s just as easy to set up WEP, WPA, or WPA2 security, too. It just works and that’s awesome. Too bad Sprint is charging $30 a month for the feature.
4. The speaker (and kickstand)
I’ll bet $10 that the EVO 4G has a better sounding speaker than your notebook — maybe even than your desktop radio. The kickstand helps a lot. Flip it out, turn on Pandora, and you’ll be surprised at just how loud and clear the speaker pumps out the Chili Peppers.
5. Sprint TV
I had no idea Sprint TV was actually sweet. The app is preloaded on the EVO 4G and the Sprint Everything Data package gives users unlimited access to the streaming library, which has a ton of content. There’s a couple dozen on demand channels loaded with programs from FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel and more — it’s like Hulu on your phone. There’s even live content from the major networks and ESPN. The only slight issue is that it only works off of a cellular connection and not WiFi so you kind of need a halfway decent signal to stream.
So yeah, I’m standing by my statement that the battery life is a deal breaker for me, but I can totally understand if you feel otherwise. The EVO 4G is an awesome phone and will only improve as Android matures.