Short Version

The Evo 4G LTE is a fine phone. There certainly aren’t any glaring issues: Sense has been considerably streamlined, and it’s really good at what it was made to do, which is entertain. The design language is a little loud, though maybe that’s what it takes to shake things up in the land of Android. (LAndroid.) But unlike the Evos that have come before it, this latest iteration doesn’t really bring any truly special features to the table.

I mean, consider the name. It’s the Evo 4G LTE, yet Sprint’s 4G LTE network isn’t set to go live for another month, at the very earliest. And even if that weren’t the case, LTE is no longer a wow factor. It’s a soon-to-be norm, which means that the Evo needs something more than fast data to be a big deal.

Does it have what it takes? Let’s find out together, yes?

Pros:

• Excellent camera
• Pretty solid battery life
• Thin and light (in a good way)

Cons:

• The plastic on the back gets marked up with prints easily
• It’s a 4G phone, but Sprint LTE won’t be around for a while

Features:

• 4.7-inch 720p display
• Sprint 4G LTE (eventually)
• Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich/Sense 4
• 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 dual-core proc
• 8-megapixel rear camera (1080p recording)
• 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera
• MSRP: $199.99 on-contract

Long Version

Hardware/Design:

As I mentioned before in my initial impressions post, the Evo feels like business in the front and a party in the back. The bezel is quite thin, which means that HTC managed to comfortably fit a rather large 4.7-inch display onto a smaller frame (thumbs-up for that!), and the top bezel near the speaker grill is finished with soft-touch rubber.

On the back, however, the Evo tells a different story. A strip of shiny red metal separates a soft-touch bottom and a shiny, black plastic top. Within the plastic area, the camera is square in the middle, with a little extra Evo-esque red lining. I’m a huge fan of the soft-touch and honestly wish that the entire backside of the phone was finished in it. It’s comfortable and doesn’t take prints much at all.

The plastic, on the other hand, picks up prints like it’s being paid to do so. It feels a bit like HTC ran out of budgeting dollars and simply said “F&#* it! Let’s just slap some plastic on this last bit.” It’s the only part of the phone that feels cheap, even in the way that it creaks a bit when you stress the phone.

HTC nailed the kickstand, as you can prop the phone up with it in the traditional sense, as well as turn it right over so that the kickstand is resting against the table. Either way it works, which means that you can plug your phone into the charger while you’re kickstanding.

Just as you’d expect, the lock button and 3.5mm headphone jack are up top, microUSB is on the top left-hand side, and volume rocker is on the left. There’s also a dedicated camera shutter button on the bottom right-hand side of the phone.

Software:

As I already briefly covered, Sense 4 is far more attractive than earlier iterations. HTC clearly took a hard look at the UI and realized that too much fluff on top of Android is a big no-no. That said, this streamlined, clean version of the custom overlay offers only what you need.

One nice touch is the ability to drag and drop icons from the lock screen into the circle used to unlock the device. By doing so, you’re taken straight into the dragged app. The less clicks the better, am I right?

At the same time, we’re not seeing anything incredibly new here. No pop-up play, like on the Galaxy S III. No brand new operating system, like on the Galaxy Nexus. But that’s not to say that HTC doesn’t offer up some solid, albeit a bit played out, features.

For one, you’ll get 25 free GB of Dropbox storage with this bad boy, along with Beats Audio integration. I see the former as much more of a selling point. Oh, and Google Wallet comes pre-loaded, as well.

Sprint’s loaded this thing up with plenty of its own content, including Sprint Zone and Sprint Hotspot, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem that you can uninstall them.

Camera:

The camera on this phone rocks. It employs the Sense camera app on the software side of things, which means you’ll have easy access to plenty of Instagram-esque filters even in the viewfinder. A couple of my personal faves are Vintage, Solarize, and Aqua.

There are also plenty of settings for ISO, white balance, etc., and zoom is on the left. Shooting modes include auto, HDR, Panorama and portrait, but there seems to be some sort of auto-burst mode inherent in the app. In other words, when you hold down the shutter, you get a continuous stream of shots.

The shutter button itself is incredibly fast, snapping pictures as soon as you touch it. It’s also very solid — no shakiness or looseness in its socket — and can be half-pressed to focus and then full-pressed to shoot (just like on a DSLR).

Color reproduction was excellent, though I think that HTC tends to blow out warmer colors like reds and yellows to make pictures more beautiful, but not necessarily realistic. Low light shots turned out better than expected, and video recording only takes a second to focus and switch between bright and low light.

The camera app has some nice features to it, as well, like the fact that it goes into a thumbnail mode if you start swiping through pictures quickly. It’s like the phone knows you want a photo that’s way on down the line, and wants to help you get there. The only problem is that it only works like half the time.

Comparison shot between the Evo 4G LTE (left) and the iPhone 4S (right):

Display:

There’s more to a display than resolution or size. It’s the marriage of these two factors, along with the technology behind the screen that makes an excellent display. In the case of the HTC Evo 4G LTE display, this marriage is a harmonious one. The 720×1280 display measures in at 4.7-inches diagonally, which yields a ppi of 312. This is pretty good.

For reference, the iPhone has a 326ppi, so the Evo isn’t far off but with much more real estate. At the same time, the Evo has a TFT LCD display, rather than the more favorable AMOLED-style displays we see on most Samsung phones. I still found the display to be excellent, with little to no differentiation from pixel to pixel and bright, brilliant colors.

I also think it’s worth taking a moment to talk about the size of this display as it relates to using the phone. Most phones with 4.3-inch or greater screens tend to get a bit uncomfortable. It can be difficult to reach across the screen while performing one-handed actions, depending on the aspect ratio.

But HTC has found a way to master slapping giant displays on comfortably small frames. The Titan II is a great example of this, and the new tradition only continues here on the Evo. Well done, HTC.

Performance:

Performance is becoming less and less of a factor. The spec is dead, in many cases. In fact, the only specs I consider useful on a smartphone are the display and camera specs, and even then a solid understanding of the numbers and their context is necessary. But rarely — very rarely — a phone’s performance will be so smooth in real-world use that it’s reflected in the testing.

So is the case with the Evo 4G LTE, and really most of HTC’s handsets lately. The Titan II was an incredibly smooth phone, but on a different platform like Windows Phone it’s unfair to compare. But the HTC One S, another Android 4.0/Sense 4 combo, was also found to be exceptional in browsing, app play, and the like.

Here are the numbers:

In Quadrant, a full-fledged benchmarker with a focus on graphics performance, the Evo 4G LTE scored a 4285. The only phone I’ve had that’s tested better is the One S, with most others staying well below the 3000 mark. In Browsermark, a web browsing test, the phone scored a 90,995, which is again just below the One S’s score of 100,662, but exceeding most others in its category.

Data speeds averaged around 1.4Mbps down and .72Mbps up, but that should go up once Sprint’s LTE network goes live.

Battery:

The new Evo’s battery is considerably larger than its predecessors and really most other smartphones on the market, at 2000mAh. The Droid Razr Maxx, which is basically built around its battery performance, has a 3300mAh battery. That said, the Evo 4G LTE lasted four and a half hours in testing, which includes an always-waking constant Google image search. The Droid Razr Maxx lasted for eight hours and fifteen minutes.

But still, the Evo 4G LTE’s battery is definitely better than most. It would hang with me for more than a full day on some occasions, with easy use. On days I spent fully reviewing the phone, it still got past dinner time, which is sadly very good these days. The battery is not removable.

Head-To-Head With The Galaxy Nexus And iPhone 4S:

Check out our thoughts on this match-up here.

Hands-On Video: Fly or Die

Conclusion

To be quite honest, the biggest issue I have with this phone is its design. I’m not a fan of the bubbly camera sensor that bulges out of the backside of the phone. I’m uncomfortable with this shiny black plastic, and the red stripe across the back is a bit much for me. But that’s totally my preference, and there are probably plenty of people out there who enjoy this type of differentiation.

That said, I can’t find much else wrong with it. The Evo 4G LTE is thin and light, but not so light that it feels cheap. It has a great display with plenty of real-estate, yet still manages to be comfortable in the hand. The camera is excellent, as is the software paired with it, and I never really noticed too much lag or any freeze-ups during a week of testing. Throw in 25 free GB of Dropbox storage and the promise of LTE in the next few months and then ask me: Should you spend $200 and sign a two-year contract for Sprint’s unlimited data? (While you still can?)

I can’t see why not.

Check out all of our Evo 4G LTE review posts here.

I’m smack dab in the middle of my HTC Evo 4G LTE review (the full review will be up tomorrow), but as I judge, I felt the need to bring John Biggs into the mix for a little Fly or Die.

Now, John is notoriously hard on Android phones, namely because they’re all incredibly similar. The Evo 4G LTE is no different. I, on the other hand, think it brings some pretty strong design language to the table, which could be great for someone looking to stand out.

I’m impressed with how comfortable the 4.7-inch 720p display is on the phone — usually that’s much bigger than I like (perfect “that’s what she said” moment, since you can’t say it yourself). But despite the fact that I threw out 25GB of free Dropbox storage, Beats Audio, and HTC’s Sense overlay, John still could not be impressed.

And to be honest with you guys, neither could I. Evo is a huge name to Sprint customers, but the yellow carrier has beefed up its offerings to now include the Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone 4S. Those are major competitors, which should crowd the shelves that the Evo line once dominated.

Dies across the board.

Check out the rest of my HTC Evo 4G LTE review coverage here.

The Evo 4G LTE is one of the best phones to land on Sprint shelves in a while, but that’s not to say it has no competition over at the Yellow carrier. The Galaxy Nexus has propped itself up as the Android phone to beat, while the iPhone 4S is available at the same price: $199.

So what will it take to pass up the iPhone and the GalNex for the latest iteration of the Evo line?

We’ve put together this head-to-head chart to answer just such a question.

As you can see, specs between the Evo and the GalNex are quite similar. The only noticeable differences come by way of UI and design language. If a pure Android experience is what you’re looking for, I would definitely recommend the Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

But there are also some HTC fans out there who happen to love the Sense UI, in which case the Evo would likely be the right choice. The design language is rather strong on the Evo 4G LTE, with soft touch gray, red metal, and shiny black plastic comprising the backside of the handset. The GalNex is a bit more reserved.

And still, there’s the iPhone 4S to consider. Sure, the display is much smaller (3.5-in vs 4.65/.7-in), but the Retina display easily rivals much larger 720p displays. And few can resist the beautiful minimalist design of the iPhone and the intuitive functionality of iOS.

Luckily, the decision is yours and not mine. Enjoy!

Hands-on initial impressions of the Evo 4G LTE can be found here, and a full review will go live in the next couple days. Stay tuned!

Evo.

It’s one of the few HTC/Sprint product lines to make a splash in the mobile ocean, and after a brief stay at U.S. customs, the latest iteration should do the same.

The Evo 4G LTE is the most powerful Evo to date, with a 4.7-inch 720p display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and 1GB of RAM under the hood. But these specs are in no way novel, which means that quite a bit comes down to HTC’s software offerings and design language.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is running the show on this puppy, with HTC’s now-usual 25GB of free Dropbox storage and Beats Audio integration also in tow. The former two are excellent features to have and should be considered when you’re weighing your various mobile options, but I can’t honestly say that the Beats Audio makes much of a difference.

In the design department, there’s quite a bit going on. The front of the phone looks like any standard Android phone that’s come out in the past six months: a large touchscreen, three capacitive buttons within a black bezel, and black edges with rounded corners. In short, the Evo 4G LTE face is nothing to write home about, though I am impressed with the way that HTC managed to squeeze a 4.7-inch display onto a comfortably compact body.

The back of the phone tells a different story. It’s a bit like a mullet — business up front, party in the back.

You’ll find a really nice soft-touch black finish along the bottom two-thirds of the phone’s backside, divided with a bright red, metallic-y kickstand, and finished up top with shiny plastic. The plastic grabs prints like that’s its sole purpose in this world, but the overall aesthetic is quite nice, and the soft-touch finish along the bottom is pleasant as can be.

I haven’t noticed any glaring issues in performance and battery life seems to be pretty good, but we can’t be certain of anything until I complete official testing. In other words, stay tuned for our full review which will go live this week.

Sprint’s launch plans for the HTC EVO 4G LTE were ruined last week when shipments of their shiny new Android handset were held up by United States Customs, but we’re hearing that they may been hitting doorsteps and store shelves sooner than expected.

According to Sprint, the devices are now currently sitting safely in Sprint’s warehouses and are expected to start trickling out into the world “on or around May 24.” And rest easy, you faithful pre-orderers — the world from on high is that you’ll still be getting your devices first.

In case you’re new to this little shipping snafu, shipments of Sprint’s new EVO (along with those of their AT&T-based cousin, the One X) were prevented form entering the country thanks to an exclusion order handed down by the International Trade Commission. The entire convoluted story started last year, but here’s the tl;dr:

Back in July, HTC was found by ITC judge Carl Charneski to have infringed on one of Apple’s patents — specifically, it involved recognizing a particular structure within a set of data and binding it to a particular action. Sounds pretty dry, I know, but if your phone lets you directly a call a phone number by touching it in an email, you’ve seen the patent in action.

At the time, HTC stated that they were working on fixing the offending UI flourish, and part of the holdup for customers was apparently because the phones were being spot-checked for compliance.

With Sprint’s EVO shipments said to be on the move once more, now the question becomes whether or not shipments of AT&T’s One X are as well. I’ve reached out to AT&T for confirmation one way or the other, and I’ll be updating the post as I hear more.

Here’s hoping that you already managed to get your hands on an HTC One X, because it may be a while before they appear on store shelves again.

According to a release put out by HTC last night, U.S. Customs has blocked shipments of AT&T’s HTC One X and Sprint’s EVO 4G LTE thanks to an ITC ruling handed down last year.

The news may come as an especially large bummer for Sprint customers looking to upgrade to the new EVO, as a new report from the Wall Street Journal indicates that device will miss its original May 18 launch date. Sprint has since scrubbed their website of references to the device’s forthcoming launch, and there’s still no word on a revised launch window.

To get a firmer grasp on why this is happening, we have to flash back to 2011. After HTC was originally slammed with allegations that they infringed ten of Apple’s patents with their “personal data and mobile communications devices.” International Trade Commission Judge Carl Charneski ruled in Apple’s favor on two of those claims (which just so happened to stem from the same patent, No. 5,946,647) in July. After a smattering of delays, the ITC handed down their limited exclusion order in December, which prohibited the importation of devices that violate the ’647 patent.

And what are the offending bits? The big one in this case deals with a minor UI feature, namely the ability for users to touch a phone number displayed in an email or a webpage in order to fire up the phone’s dialer.

The import ban didn’t go into effect until April 19 (the ITC wanted to give HTC some time to make the appropriate fixes), but the company apparently didn’t make thoughtful use of their time. HTC now claims to have fixed that “small UI experience”, and noted in their release that they are “working closely with Customs to secure approval” for the devices to be released. The ITC’s order does allow for refurbished handsets to enter the country in order to replace faulty devices, though both devices in question are brand spanking new (one of them hasn’t even been released yet) so that little loophole will likely go unused.

Even so, we’re left with little clue as to when shipments of devices will be permitted once again. Sprint and AT&T can’t be too pleased with this turn of events — I’ve reached out to both carriers for comment, but haven’t heard back at time of writing.

Short Version

I’ve been spending some quality time with HTC’s Titan II, and I would never call it a bad phone. But that’s not the question — good, bad, fast, slow, ugly, beautiful… they don’t matter unless I feel that I’d put down money and live my life with this device. And even though I expected this to be one of my favorites, I walk away from my review certain that I wouldn’t exchange cash for this handset.

HTC is great at building quality hardware and Microsoft’s new mobile platform is fresh, different, and intuitive. But the way that the duo comes together leaves me unimpressed and disappointed, namely in the camera and the display. Past that, the thickness of the device paired with poor battery life does nothing to make up for these more minor disappointments. In essence, it’s simply not good enough.

Let’s talk about why:

Pros:

• Loving the hardware quality and design
• Windows Phone is smooth as butter
• The camera is excellent

Cons:

• Pixel density is awful
• It’s pretty thick
• Battery life didn’t satisfy me

Features:

• 4.7-inch 480×800 S-LCD display
• AT&T 4G LTE
• Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
• 1.5GHz single-core S2 processor
• 16-megapixel rear camera (720p video capture)
• 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera
• MSRP: $199.99 on-contract

Long Version

Hardware/Design:

I go back and forth on my favorite hardware vendors all the time, mostly because they wander back and forth from a premium feel to a plastic-y disaster, but HTC has always been a constant favorite. They know hardware.

The Titan II lives up to these expectations. Even with the downgrade from metal on the original Titan to plastic on the second-gen version, the phone still feels great in the hand. It’s well balanced, has a nice soft-touch finish to it, and has just enough heft to feel like a piece of gadgetry and not a toy. On the other hand, this phone is a bit thick for my taste. I’ve seen HTC put out equally solid and thin phones, like the HTC One S, but the Titan II is simply too fat to hang around with the cool kids.

I am impressed with the way that HTC figured out how to make a 4.7-inch display comfortable. I normally draw the line at 4.3 inches, but somehow the HTC Titan II still feels usable with its massive 4.7-inch display. This is likely because the screen takes up much of the entire front of the phone, with very little bezel to get in the way on either side. Kudos on this, HTC.

Unfortunately, the Titan II doesn’t have any external memory. You can pop off a little panel on the back to access the SIM, but there’s no slot for microSD storage and no access to the battery. The 16-megapixel rear camera is square in the middle of the back of the phone, in usual HTC fashion, with a small speaker grill to its left. The volume rocker and a shutter button are on the right, and microUSB is on the bottom of the left edge.

Software:

As I’ve said over and over again, I’m a Windows Phone fan. The platform is really easy to understand, streamlines things like messaging and social networking, and each time I use it I find something new that I like. But, the platform still lacks the app variety found on other OSes.

For example, big name apps like LinkedIn, HBOGo, Pandora, Flipboard, and Dropbox still aren’t on the platform. Some of these apps are integral to the way I use my phone, and I can’t imagine being without them.

Luckily, the Windows Phone Photo Enhancer app works to balance out the absence of Instagram, another crowd pleaser. It basically offers up filters for your pictures and other little editing tools to make sure each image looks special and unique. The filters aren’t quite as awesome as Instagram’s, but it’ll certainly do as an alternative until the day that slow-moving Instagram heads over to Windows Phone.

There’s also an HTC Hub, which looks a lot like Sense 4 and allows for the Sense clock and weather widgets if that’s what you’re into. You can also build up a little mini-reader for the news sites you enjoy reading.

Past that there isn’t a whole lot that’s different from the standard Windows Phone 7.5 OS, but the good news is that Windows Phone is good enough on its own.

Camera:

One of the most stand-out and attractive features of the Titan II is its 16-megapixel camera, fully equipped with an f/2.6, 28mm lens, backside-illuminated sensor and dual LED flash. It’s a mouthful, but it’s a wonderful camera for a phone. The pictures are great, though I’m not sure color reproduction is perfectly on point. I find my iPhone to take rather “cold” pics, but it would seem as though the Titan II leans on the warmer side.

On the other hand, the shutter button comes in handy for those who prefer shooting in landscape — it’s in exactly the same place as it would be on a point-and-shoot. And the shutter button also works the same way it would on a DSLR in Auto mode, a half-press locks in the focus and a full press snaps the pic.

The camera app also offers a software auto-focus if you tap the area you want to clarify, though it goes a step further and simply takes the picture automatically. Quick and painless, to be sure.

As I briefly touched on before, the marriage between HTC and Windows Phone is where things get less hunky dory. I love the Sense camera app — it has all kinds of bells and whistles presented in clean, easy-to-understand format, which happens to be missing on Windows Phone. Sure, there are various settings to tool around with in the standard Windows Phone camera app, but it isn’t quite as in-depth as HTC’s offering.

This isn’t necessarily a huge deal, but I’m thinking most of you will consider this phone based on its camera. Why HTC didn’t put the best camera software with the best camera hardware is something I don’t quite understand.

Comparison shot between the Titan II (left) and the iPhone 4S (right):

Display:

If you’ve been stoked about the Titan II, you may be a bit disappointed starting right now.

The Titan II isn’t offering HTC’s very best display tech, as its an S-LCD, but it is one of HTC’s biggest displays, at 4.7-inches. That’s actually fine. I’m impressed with the fact that the gigantic display is still comfortable in the hand and I can wrap that thumb around and do just about anything with one hand, despite the phone’s unbecoming stoutness.

The problem, however, is that the partnership between HTC and Microsoft simply doesn’t fit. Windows Phone requires a 800×480 resolution across all partners. HTC is going for the whole “titanic” thing, with a 16-megapixel camera and a giant 4.7-inch display. The problem is that you’re left with a pixel density of 199ppi. For a little context, the iPhone’s retina display has a pixel density 326ppi, so the Titan’s isn’t so great.

To be clear, pixel density is far more important than resolution or size alone, as it measures where these two dimensions meet. A 800×480 resolution will look far better on a 4-inch screen than it will on a 4.7-inch screen, simply because the pixel density is much greater. On the Titan II, the screen might be big, but it’s far from beautiful.

Not only is the display pixelated in many instances, but you can’t even come close to enjoying the images you’re snapping with the 16-megapixel camera on the phone’s display. Sure, you can Facebook share and email and such, but if you can’t show off the pictures from the phone itself it definitely rains on the parade a bit.

Plus, white text on a black background makes a poor pixel density even more obvious, which is the default for Windows Phone.

Performance:

It’s silly to measure the Titan II against the iPhone or Android phones based on the fact that they’re entirely different platforms, at least when we’re doing official benchmark testing. But I will say that AT&T’s 4G LTE network left me satisfied, at least here in NYC. I had no trouble whatsoever placing calls and sending messages, and web browsing was especially snappy (thanks in large part to WP’s IE9 browser).

In Browsermark, the Titan II scored an average of 32,982. For perspective, the Lumia 900 (another one of my favorite Windows Phones) scored a 28,769, so I’m more than impressed with the Titan II performance.

Battery:

On the other hand, I’m not too happy with the Titan II battery life. HTC’s One S kicked ass in the battery life department, yet an LTE radio paired with a 4.7-inch display makes for a difficult task for that little battery.

We test battery life on handsets by running a program that constantly loads Google Image searches. There’s no break, no auto-lock and quite literally no rest for the device, which usually ends up over-heating a bit. At any moment during the program, I can jump out of the browser and load an app, play a game, watch a video, or (thanks to Windows Phone) do some work in Office for mobile.

The official battery test result was that the Titan II can last for three hours and forty-three minutes. Granted, there are things you can do to extend battery life like shutting down various services, but who wants to shut down services?

You also won’t be using the phone for four hours straight, but even in real-world usage you’ll be disappointed. I expect that if you’re a general user — meaning some email, some Facebook, some music, and of course texts and calls — you’ll see that flashing red around dinner time.

To give you a little extra context, the Droid 4 only hung in there for three hours and forty-five minutes while the Droid RAZR Maxx (Motorola’s battery beast) stayed with me for a staggering eight hours and fifteen minutes.

Head-To-Head With The Lumia 900 And One X:

Check out our thoughts on this match-up here.

Hands-On Video: Fly or Die

Conclusion

As I originally expressed at the beginning of the review, I love the idea of a partnership between HTC and Microsoft. In fact, the first-gen Titan is a cool handset, as is the little Trophy. But it seems that with the Titan II, neither HTC nor Microsoft were thinking of the entire experience. The hardware is nice, and I’m still a lover of Windows Phone.

But the screen resolution vs. size thing really bothers me, and I truly wish that HTC’s Sense camera app was interacting with the 16-megapixel hardware, especially since that camera is one of the phone’s big selling features. Those things are somewhat excusable, but when you lop on a fat body and poor battery life (likely the most crucial feature in any phone), it’s nearly impossible for me to recommend this device.

I hope to see more from HTC and Microsoft in the future — I think it’s a match made in heaven. I just think that in this case specifically, a win-win was actually a big lose.

Check out all of our Titan II review posts here.

When we first took a look at the HTC One S, we felt that it was just another Android phone, despite the quality hardware. With today’s introduction of the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE, the same sentiment rings true.

All the specs you’d expect are present and accounted for, including Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC’s Sense 4 overlay, but I have yet to find a really stand-out feature on this third-generation device.

Of course, Droid Incredible 4G LTE (what a mouthful) owners will enjoy 4G LTE speeds courtesy of Verizon, which is a huge step up in its own right, but LTE will soon be a standard so we can’t get too excited over it. And since HTC made this bad boy, it will certainly come packed with Beats Audio integration.

Past that, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 powers the device, with a 4-inch qHD LCD display up front and an 8-megapixel camera round the back. There’s also a front-facing camera for video chat, but what is actually kind of cool is a new feature called HTC Video Pic. Essentially, it lets you snap pictures while you’re recording HD video, like you would on some new point-and-shoots.

You’ll have an extra 32 GB of external storage as an option, and the mobile hotspot feature supports up to 10 devices. Pricing and availability are still quite unclear, but the phone will be available in Verizon stores and online in “the coming weeks.”

HTC won over some hearts a while back when it released its bootloader unlock tool for a good number of devices. It basically allows owners of Android phones to load custom ROMs onto their phones in exchange for any warranty rights they may have been enjoying.

It’s a fair trade considering a solid percentage of Android power users prefer Android based mostly on the fact that they have this option, but without solid hardware the ability to load different versions of Androids becomes less and less appealing.

And so is the case with the HTC One X. It’s an excellent handset, and possibly the best HTC has ever made. But unfortunately, the company won’t be offering the bootloader unlock tool for this particular handset.

Here’s the official word from HTC, according to MoDaCo:

HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we’ll continue to unlock additional devices in the future.

HTC is right to point out the number of handsets it has offered this functionality with, and it certainly seems a bit odd that its current flagship device wouldn’t receive the same treatment. MobileBurn suspects that AT&T may have something to do with this restriction, and I’m inclined to agree.

After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve seen carriers tamper with a handset’s functionality for their own, sometimes unexplained, reasons. Remember when Verizon blocked Google Wallet on the GalNex based on what was most certainly the carrier’s support for a rival NFC payment system called ISIS?

We’ve reached out to AT&T to figure out whether or not the big blue carrier is, in fact, responsible for this unfortunate turn of events. We’ll keep you posted once we know more.

The HTC Titan II has already gone through the Fly or Die ringer, but the real determining factor for these phones is the level of competition surrounding them. In the case of the Titan II, the HTC/Microsoft partnership is most threatened by more HTC and Windows-powered phones, namely the Lumia 900 and the HTC One X.

So what do these phones have that the Titan lacks? How does the Titan wipe up the floor with them?

Well, that’s why I’m here, and why we’ve made this lovely graphic for you.

Truth be told, specs really don’t matter anymore, especially specs like processor clock speed and (I’m sorry to say it) megapixel count on cameras. What really matters is your preferred operating system, display size/resolution, and comfort with design.

When weighing these three phones against each other, the similarities are abundant, as are the subtle differences. For example, the Lumia 900 will net you $100 less than either of the other two phones. At the same time, it’s a touch smaller than the Titan and the One X, and if you prefer HTC hardware to Nokia’s then that doesn’t really matter.

I happen to be a pretty huge fan of the Lumia 900 simply because Windows Phone can pull off its stupid 480×800 resolution requirement on a 4.3-inch screen much better than it can on the Titan’s 4.7-inch display. Past that, the phones are quite similar. The Lumia feels a bit more premium in the hand, yet HTC does an excellent job of making even their plastic phones feel high-end.

If Windows Phone is your flavor, this is definitely a tough call. Good luck.

If it’s HTC that tickles your fancy, it all comes down to the OS. Do you prefer Sense 4 on top of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, or would you prefer to play with Microsoft. The One X specs slap down the Titan II like Daniel LaRusso at the beginning of The Karate Kid, but as I mentioned earlier, specs matter less and less these days. Where you’ll really win with the One X is the 4.7-inch 720p display. If you can tote it around comfortably, it really doesn’t get much better than that.

The ball is in your court, my dear readers. Choose wisely.

The HTC Titan II is a symbol for an excellent partnership. I love HTC hardware and I love Windows Phone. It should be a match made in heaven, but unfortunately it’s not.

John and I sat down in the studio yesterday with the giant 4.7-inch hunk of glass and plastic, and we came away with pretty negative sentiments toward the device.

John thinks it’s too big, which seems to be his usual complaint these days.

My argument is a bit more geeky. To start, the Titan II is made of soft-touch plastic, rather than the aluminum unibody frame we saw on the original Titan. This is actually not that big of a deal. Sure, I’d prefer aluminum, but HTC always finds a way to make sure its hardware feels premium, so that’s no biggie.

What I’m really perturbed by is the way that Windows Phone and HTC came together. First of all, Windows Phone requires its partners to build hardware with a 480×800 resolution. On the 4.3-inch Lumia 900, this is tolerable. On a 4.7-inch display like the Titan II, it’s not.

HTC busted out one of the first-ever double-digit MP phone cameras, at 16-megapixels. This is wonderful, and the camera works just fine, but I never found myself snapping a pic and saying, “Whoa!”. I had expected the doubling of our standard 8-megapixels to be immediately noticeable, but it wasn’t. Images didn’t look any crisper, and while the phone did a tad better in low-light settings, it simply didn’t live up to my expectations.

In short, we both give the Titan II a die.

Look for a full review later this week.

Short Version

Despite the fact that there’s no real wow factor here, it would be entirely unfair to say that HTC’s One S isn’t a great phone. It is. The hardware is some of the best I’ve seen in a long time, Sense 4 is quite nice albeit a touch heavy for my taste, and the specs are right in line with what we’re seeing on the market today.

Truth be told, anyone at T-Mobile would be lucky to have one. S. (Lawl.)

Features:

• 4.3-inch 960×540 Super AMOLED display
• T-Mobile “4G” 42Mbps HSPA+
• Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 1.5GHz dual-core processor
• 8MP rear camera (1080p video capture)
• 0.3MP VGA front camera
• Sense 4
• MSRP: $199.99 on-contract

Pros:

• The hardware is truly impressive
• Super thin and light
• Solid battery life

Cons:

• Sense adds to Android’s usual lag
• No real wow factor

Long Version

Hardware/Design:

As I’ve said twice already, I’m truly impressed with this hardware. It sports an aluminum unibody frame, with a soft-touch finish. The back fades from a lighter to a darker grey, and when all is said and done, it’s a stunning device. Android phones these days are so plastic-y, too light to feel premium, and seem to be thrown together.

However, it’s clear with the One S that HTC spent time on design and build quality. The phone is super thin with a .37-inch waistline and weighs in at just 4.22 ounces. I usually don’t spend a lot of time talking about weight and dimensions because most phones are actually quite similar in that respect, but HTC hit the nail right on the head with the One S. Here’s why: if a phone is too thin, and thus too light, it begins to feel cheap — especially when it’s made entirely from plastic.

Since the One S is made of aluminum, it’s able to maintain a thin profile while still having a balanced, solid heft to it. This allows the phone to feel way more high-end than most of its competition. The phone is relatively flat on both the front and back, though all the corners and edges are slightly rounded. As I said, it has a beautiful design and solid hardware.

The camera sits square on the back of the phone and sports a nice little blue trim to add a little style to a rather grey device. If you like a pop of color, you’ll surely appreciate the detail. Along the left edge you’ll find an MHL-style micro-USB port, which also doubles as HDMI out, and on the right edge you’ll find the volume rocker. A 3.5mm headphone jack and the lock button share space on the top edge of the phone.

Software:

The HTC One S runs Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, though you’d be hard-pressed to recognize it. Sense is one of the heaviest OEM skins on the market, and it completely dominates the phone. That said, Sense is actually a pretty beautiful UI. Sense 3 and all of its iterations was way too much. 3D animations abounded, frills and flourishes were everywhere, and most of it was entirely arbitrary.

Much of that has been cleaned up to actually serve a purpose. See, as John and I mentioned in our Fly or Die episode with the One S, Android has become a platform that pumps out phones from hundreds of vendors that ultimately look like “just another Android phone.” The skins become critical to manufacturers in terms of differentiation, but they also have to be careful to leave Android alone in many respects. Android fans love Android, not Sense or TouchWiz or whatever else.

Still, I think HTC did a good job of reigning in all the creativity and letting Sense be useful rather than overly beautiful. The camera app is quite wonderful, which I’ll discuss more in a second, and the widgets provided make it easy to customize the One S to suit you specifically. I’m using a pretty bad ass analog clock right now on my main homescreen that I’m quite proud to show off.

Camera:

The One S camera is quite capable. In fact, you’ll probably really like the images you capture with it. At the same time, I wouldn’t say the camera is all that good at keepin’ it real, if you know what I mean. Colors seem to be saturated and brightened to make images more beautiful, especially yellows and reds.

If you take a look at the comparison shot below, you’ll notice that the iPhone 4S makes my food look a little bland. (It’s delicious, in case you’re wondering.) But when I hold both phones up next to the food, the iPhone 4S clearly captured reality way better than the One S.

In terms of software, the Sense camera app may be my favorite of all the Android phone makers’ camera software variations. It has a variety of filters that are built right in to the app, and I’d say some of them (like Vintage) rival those of Instagram. There are also plenty of settings for ISO, White Balance, etc.

Comparison shot between the One S (left) and the iPhone 4S (right):

Display:

I have very few complaints when it comes to the One S display. At 4.3-inches, it’s absolutely the perfect size to be comfortable in the hand while maintaining a nice pixel density. qHD — or 960xb540 — is perfectly acceptable on a 4.3-inch display. And the Super AMOLED quality only adds to that.

You really don’t notice any pixel-to-pixel differentiation, and images and videos look great. I did notice that when the phone fires up, there’s a small, rectangular block on the top right of the phone where the screen displays that the software is loading up. It looks like any other progress bar you’ve seen before, but when the progress bar disappears that little block of pixels is much whiter than the rest of the start-up screen.

This is a minimal, if not entirely unimportant, issue. It makes no difference whatsoever, as that same block doesn’t show any weird coloration or pixelation when the phone is turned on and working.

Performance:

Wow!

The One S has tested better than the Note, the Droid 4 and the LG Spectrum in both Browsermark and Quadrant. Quadrant tests everything from the CPU to the memory to the graphics, and while all three of the aforementioned Android phones stayed well below the 3,000 mark, the One S scored an impressive 4,371.

Same story applies in the browser-based Browsermark test. The Spectrum, Droid 4, and the Note all scored below 60,000, while the One S hit 100,662. I’m totally impressed, but not by the numbers.

True, there’s a general lag that comes along with Android, especially in the browser. Pinch-to-zoom and scrolling simply aren’t as smooth as they are on iOS, or even on Windows Phone for that matter, even if it’s minimally. But the One S felt more frictionless than I’m used to on Android, and I never experienced a freeze of any kind. It’s a nice change from most Android reviews.

Speed test was a bit of a different story. Of course, in different parts of the city, I had my highs and lows in terms of a speedy network. But during testing Speedtest only saw an average of 2.11Mbps down and .73Mbps up.

Battery:

I’m pretty impressed with the One S battery. Around the mid-way point of testing I had a bad feeling. The phone displayed about a quarter of juice in the little battery icon, but it lasted another two hours or so. I’m thinking the icon itself is off, to be honest with you.

Our testing includes a program that keeps the phone’s display on at all times, while Google is constantly performing an image search, one after the other. It’s an intense test, and at any point I can hop in and play a game, browse the web, send a text, make a call, etc.

All in all, the One S lasted 4 hours and 51 minutes. T-Mobile 4G was on the entire time. To be honest, the phone got a bit warm during the battery test, but it didn’t slow things down or create a lag by any means. Plus, you’re probably not as much of a power user as our battery test is.

In real world scenarios, the One S should surely stick with you all day.

To give you a little context, the Droid 4 only hung in there for three hours and forty-five minutes while the Droid RAZR Maxx (Motorola’s battery beast) stayed with me for a staggering eight hours and fifteen minutes.

Head-To-Head With The One X And iPhone 4S:

Check out our thoughts on this match-up here.

Hands-On Video: Fly or Die

Conclusion

As I expressed during Fly or Die, I think the One S will owe a lot of its success to its carrier. T-Mobile is a fine operator and I applaud the company for trying to rebrand and build up its selection. But without any competition from the iPhone, the One S gets a bit of a freebie. It’s a fine handset, but it has no real wow factor, as I’ve mentioned over and over.

The Samsung Galaxy Note has its massive screen and an S-Pen (and might actually compete with the One S on T-Mo shelves), the Droid 4 has its superior physical keyboard, and the Lumia 900 (which also might be T-Mobile-bound) has Windows Phone. The One S has none of that — it’s just another Android phone.

But that’s ok, because it’s an excellent Android phone. It has all the right dimensions, a comfortable weight, a premium feel in the hand, and a stunning design. It’s rather quick for an Android phone, and comes loaded with tons of fun software.

I give it a fly.

Check out all of our One S review posts here.

Once upon a time Michael Arrington broke the news that Facebook was developing its own phone. That was in 2010. However in a followup interview with TechCrunch, Mark Zuckerberg killed the notion, saying they’re pursuing a horizontal strategy that will put a social layer on top of existing platforms. “We’re not trying to compete with Apple or the Droid or any other hardware manufacturer for that matter,” he said.

But now, two years later, that strategy may have changed.

A new report hit today stating that Facebook and HTC are co-developing a customized Android smartphone. This phone, said to be developed exclusively for Facebook, would integrate all of the social network’s functions into the mobile platform. Per unnamed industry sources, the device would launch at the earliest in the third quarter of 2012.

Since Arrington’s first post on the device, such a phone has yet to hit the market even though Facebook has worked closely with HTC and INQ on phones with deep Facebook integration. But those were underpowered Android phones with Facebook buttons and not devices Facebook would want to champion. Then, late last year, a new report rekindled the Facebook Phone fire.

The mobile landscape has changed drastically since Zuckerberg shot down our initial report. Smartphones are now outselling feature phones in key markets. Android is the dominant mobile platform and the cost of quality hardware has dropped. Plus, and perhaps the most importantly, the Amazon Kindle Fire has shown that you do not need Google services to be a success.

Today’s report seems to suggest that the so-called Facebook Phone would use a completely customized Android OS. There’s a real possibility that HTC and Facebook will opt for a complete reskinning of the OS, thus forgoing Google services such as Google Play, Gmail, and Google Maps. That might be a deal breaker for some potential buyers, but the Facebook brand is arguably as strong as Google’s. A proper Facebook Phone can standalone.

HTC’s latest handsets show that the manufacturer has upped its game. The hardware is spectacular and HTC’s Sense 4.0 Android overlay is equally as impressive. HTC has the goods to build an industry-leading handset. If this phone really exists, it’s set to be something special.

The latest report states that this phone will not come out prior to the third quarter. Even that target might be optimistic. Given this rumor’s track record, it’s probably best not to delay a phone purchase to hold out for this device.

The One S is the middle child in HTC’s new line of hero devices, not quite as badass as the One X, but a bit bigger than baby brother One V. As is the case with any middle child, it’s a bit easy to overlook.

But John and I decided to give it some attention anyway, and like usual, we didn’t find much common ground.

See, the One S has some excellent hardware. I would argue that to the ground. Its slim aluminum unibody casing is a sight to behold, and it feels light and premium to boot. But at the end of the day, this is yet another Android phone. Sure, it’s got a pretty new version of Sense laid on top of Android 4.0, but there’s no real wow factor.

Even so, HTC has built out a nice little ecosystem with the help of Dropbox and Beats by Dre, which brings some added value to the $200 handset. You certainly win some and you lose some with this guy, which may explain the division between John and I.

It’s been spotted in leaked press renders and blurry photos before, but Verizon has just recently (and perhaps inadvertently) made the new Droid Incredible nice and official. The Droid Incredible 4G LTE just popped up on Verizon’s Droid Does promotional site, and while you can’t have one just yet, it’s comforting to know that it’ll see the light of say sooner rather than later.

In addition to a mildly unnerving robo-lady talking up the device’s LTE radio and HTC’s Sense UI, the site also confirms most of the specs that have been previously reported.

The Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Incredible 4G LTE indeed sports a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (though as usual, they don’t mention what make), 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera, in addition to a 4-inch qHD Super LCD display, 8GB of internal storage, and the now-standard Beats Audio profile.

All of that is squeezed into a frame that comes in at 0.46-inches thick — a bit more of a handful than your iPhone or Galaxy Nexus, though I imagine the difference won’t mean much for anyone but the most jaded sticklers. The device also features the same sort of hardware navigation key layout as seen in the HTC One series, though I wish Verizon and HTC would have opted to carry over more of the One series’ wonderful industrial design language.

According to the Droid Does site, Verizon could be sell the Droid Incredible 4G LTE (I’m getting really tired of typing that out) for the princely sum of $299 with a two-year contract — I say “could” because there are plenty of references on the page to the Droid Razr MAXX, which coincidentally costs exactly that. Hell, despite having a Buy Now link placed prominently on the page, clicking the link takes you to the product page for the Motorola Razr MAXX. Something seems slightly amiss here, and I’ll keep you posted on any developments.

I’ve been fiddling around with the HTC One S for a few days now, and I have to say it’s stolen a little piece of my heart. The hardware is just about perfect, with a 4.3-inch qHD display and a slender aluminum unibody shell, and software like HTC’s Sense 4 overlay and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich only sweeten the deal.

But, as per usual, there’s plenty to consider out there. The wide world of mobile only grows wider by the second, with hot new phones launching left and right. Just today, Sprint’s Galaxy Nexus and the LG Viper landed on store shelves, and lest we forget that the iPhone 4S is ready and waiting while the One X is mere days away.

So many options.

To help, we’ve put the One S up against it’s greatest competitors, the HTC One X and the iPhone 4S, in a spec showdown. Who will come out on top? Well, my dear readers, that ball is in your court.

Admittedly, the One S has lesser specs than both the One X and the iPhone 4S, but it makes up for these inadequacies in the little things. And it’s the little things that count, right?

The iPhone 4S has the superior display, to be sure, and the One X is a close second to Apple’s precious in terms of ppi, but there’s something to be said for screen size. The 4.3-inch display on the One S is juuust right, as Goldilocks would say, and the phone feels super comfortable in the hand.

This is because HTC found a way to walk that fine line between being lightweight and feeling cheap. It’s quietly brilliant.

Of course, the brilliance of iOS can’t be had on the One S, nor can Apple’s premium design or 64GB of onboard storage. But maybe Apple isn’t your favorite flavor.

Might I suggest the One X? Especially if you’re an AT&T loyalist — the One S is only available at T-Mobile for the time being. This phone is for the giant-handed Android fan who appreciates a solid design and a well-spec’d device.

Luckily, pricing is about the same across the board here, so it really comes down to what suits you best.

What’ll it be, guys?

Touchscreens killed the keypad star. HTC is reportedly done with physical keypads and will instead focus on better on-screen keypad technology.

The word comes from HTC creative director Claude Zellweger speaking at a Seattle press event. “As a company the QWERTY keyboard we’re moving away from in general.” This likely doesn’t mean HTC won’t release another QWERTY phone in the near future but rather the company is shifting development focus away from physical keys.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The entire smartphone market started moving away physical keys as a response to the iPhone’s rise to the top. Even RIM followed this trend with its line of Storm smartphones. For better or worse, ditching physical buttons in favor for on-screen keyboards allow for thinner more stylish phones.

MobileBurn quotes Zellweger saying “putting too much effort into that [QWERTY phones] would take away from our devices.” This shows that HTC understands that the company needs a unified brand rather than a gaggle of phones. In previous years HTC seemingly released a new Android handset every three weeks. During Android’s roaring early days, this strategy helped grow the platform by enticing new buyers with fresh phones built on the latest technology. But now, as Samsung and Motorola have slowed their roll, HTC needs to do the same and it seems the QWERTY phones are getting the ax.

It’s only been a few short hours since AT&T announced the availability of HTC’s mamma-jamma One X smartphone, but there may be a few more tricks coming out of HTC’s sleeve before the day is done. For example, T-Mobile just sent over a bit of news regarding the One S, namely that it will launch on April 25 for $199.99 on-contract after a $50 mail-in-rebate.

We first spotted the One S back at MWC in Barcelona, and generally speaking we found it to be a pretty sweet device.

This time around, I walk away feeling the same sentiments. I’m all about the design, specs are adequate, and Sense is an entirely tolerable custom overlay.

Let’s delve deeper, yes?

It’s an HSPA+ device, meaning it will take advantage of T-Mo’s 42Mbps speeds. Past that, we’re looking at 1.5GHz dual-core chip, an 8-megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p video capture, and a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display.

HTC’s been building out its ecosystem a little differently than other phone makers, signing deals with companies who already have this or that service nailed rather than trying to build something from the ground up. That said, Beats Audio integration will come packed within the One S, as will 25GB of free storage with Dropbox.

Ice Cream Sandwich is certainly present and accounted for here, but you may not recognize it. HTC laid its Sense UI on top of the OS, which is good news considering that Sense is actually a pretty worthwhile skin, but bad news for those of us who prefer a vanilla experience.

I got the chance to go hands-on and came away feeling great about this handset’s future. 4.3-inch displays is where I draw the line, which works out well for the One S, and HTC did an excellent job of walking that fine line between feeling light and feeling cheap.

We’ll be hitting you guys with a full review before the week’s over, so you can be sure to know where you stand before sauntering into a T-Mo store come April 25.

In the meantime, check out this hands-on video we grabbed at MWC this year:

Hands-On Gallery:

Well, there you have it. After turning plenty of heads at this year’s Mobile World Congress, HTC’s latest and greatest handset now has an official release date for the United States.

AT&T has just announced that the HTC One X will hit store shelves on May 6 with a $199 price tag (2-year contract included, of course), and that pre-orders for the hotly anticipated handset will begin on April 22.

Though it sports the same 4.7-inch 720p Super LCD2 display, 8-megapixel rear shooter and Sense-ified take on Ice Cream Sandwich that its more worldly cousin does, US-spec One X is still a slightly different affair. AT&T’s model forgoes the Tegra 3 chipset for instance, opting instead for a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and an LTE radio. While some are sure to lament the loss of that quad-core horsepower, LTE should stand to give the device’s mobile web and data experience a real kick in the pants.

All of those components are wrapped in a sturdy — not to mention handsome — polycarbonate body, unlike the micro arc oxidized aluminum frame seen in One S. That’s probably for the best, all things considered, as some One S owners have managed to chip the supposedly more robust material just weeks after launch.

Of course, AT&T’s One X isn’t the only one slated to hit our shores shortly. Though they declined to lock down a specific date, Sprint also recently revealed the Evo 4G LTE, their own (heavily-redesigned) variant of HTC’s flagship handset that’s second to launch some time in Q2. Meanwhile, T-Mobile will be hosting an event in honor of HTC’s One S tonight where they’re expected to reveal the device’s official release date.

HTC’s high-end efforts have garnered plenty of love lately (and rightfully so, I think), but devices like the once-mysterious HTC Golf prove that the company isn’t through churning out lower-tier handsets.

The Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Golf’s existence was first revealed a few months ago when a not-terribly-great picture taken with its five-megapixel rear camera started making the rounds, but no one had any idea what the actual device would look like. Naturally, Team PocketNow did their thing and managed to get their hands on what they claim is the first press image of the device.

Despite being a lower-end device, the Golf — which may soon be renamed the Wildfire C — seems to retain some of the design DNA seen in its flashier One series brothers, with a white frame that’s quite reminiscent of the top-tier One X. While it certainly seems handsome enough on the outside, the internals may leave a little to be desired — PocketNow’s sources reaffirm earlier claims that the Golf will ship with a single core processor clocked under 1GHz, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage.

Like many of HTC’s recent handsets, the Golf will also come equipped with the Beats Audio profile though at this point the special headphones are probably out of the question. As an Ice Cream Sandwich device running HTC’s Sense 4.0 UI though, the little guy is also privy to a few special treats, namely the 25GB of free Dropbox storage.

The spec sheet is decidedly of last year’s vintage, but HTC is playing it smart with this little guy. As the HTC buffs among you may know, the company announced their intention to focus on “hero” devices this year, and Golf/Wildfire C is poised to be a worthy successor to HTC’s popular line of low-cost, low-spec Wildfire handsets.