Within Return Window; Should I return my EVO LTE and get iPhone 5?

[spotmeterf64]

This is a hard one for me. On one hand I love the EVO's speed, battery life, and expandability. I don't like the size; it's difficult to work with using one hand. I love the Google apps.

 

I love the iPhone's size, (presumed) battery life, and integration with my Mac. I don't care for it's lack of expandability (more $$ upfront for 32GB model). I also have a $100 iTunes gift card from when I bought my Mac that I could put towards apps, music, movies, etc.

 

I got my EVO for a penny on Amazon....I'm thinking I am going to keep it. If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

[Dkoellerwx]

I would keep the EVO, for me it's all about the customization, widgets, and the fact that it integrates with Google and Facebook. Nearly everything I do is on Google, so syncing my docs, emails, contacts, pictures, etc. automatically is a plus for me. I know the iPhone has features like that, but it's specific (I believe?) to Macs or iTunes. With the EVO, I can pull up to any computer and sign into my Google account and have everything that is on my phone on my computer.

 

I feel like the battery life on my phone is pretty good, with heavy usage (several calls, texting, lots of web surfing, some hotspot action) I can make it through the whole day (14-18) hours without needing a charge. With less usage, over 24 hours. Screen size really isn't an issue for me, can reach across the whole thing with my thumb. Guess that one really depends on you.

 

Gift card, buy music, put it on Google Music, then you have it on your phone! At least that's my 2¢.

[supert0nes]

The Iphone probably wont have all the connectivity issues of the EVO.

[QWIKSTRIKE]

This is a hard one for me. On one hand I love the EVO's speed, battery life, and expandability. I don't like the size; it's difficult to work with using one hand. I love the Google apps.

 

I love the iPhone's size, (presumed) battery life, and integration with my Mac. I don't care for it's lack of expandability (more $$ upfront for 32GB model). I also have a $100 iTunes gift card from when I bought my Mac that I could put towards apps, music, movies, etc.

 

I got my EVO for a penny on Amazon....I'm thinking I am going to keep it. If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

 

Man if you want to ditch the phone please don't say it's too big to handle. Just stop it....my girl friend has small hands and handles my GS III with no issues. I see women handling the GS III like champs with small hands....please man up. Using size as a reason to ditch a phone IMHO today is lame. You just want a reason to get the next cool fad....iPhone 5.

 

I personally wouldn't trade any of the newer Android top tier devices for an iPhone! I wish that Razor was sold on Sprint! The battery life and antenna would be killer for me. I handled the EVO and I can tell you it felt good in my hand, and the size was fine for "me". Hell, the Note felt good in my hand also.

Edited September 13, 2012 by QWIKSTRIKE

[Feech]

I think now more than ever hardware is a wash when compariring devices. So that leaves software. In your case already having a a mac firly puts you in the iOS sphere, return it and get a iPhone. I persoanlly believe that from a software view you will find the iPhone limited compared to Android, but since you are halfway there with your mac, just make the jump

[Fifth313ment]

I think its curious that they haven't released the specs on the process, RAM or battery size yet?! To me it seems like they will only release it after most users have already preordered and/or already have the phones in their hands! I think the latest iPhone is a disappointment in the specs and they know it. Most Android phones are Quad-Core and I would be willing to be my life that the new iPhone 5 is a dual-core. Also according to earlier leaks the battery is ONLY 10mAh bigger than the old iPhone 4S battery! And as for the RAM everyone knows most new Androids are coming with 2GB and Apple knows their top tiers will only have 1GB for another year!

 

Yesterday they needed users hearing that the new iPhone is twice as fast as the old one without the info that mentions the facts. Also I think most people would crap if they knew the screen wasn't 720P, the battery wasn't any different and the camera is almost the same. Don't get me wrong though as they will still buy it in droves! I still believe that iPhone is the way to go if you are new to computers and don't know much about them. However, anyone who has been using Windows for years will have a much better time with Android and its customization abilities. Just my two pennies though. This iPhone IMHO was a failure, as I say with the total hope yesterday that Apple was going to knock it out of the park! I really wanted them to do something special so that it would drive Android development farther! Competition is great and is why we have so many great features now and so fast! Apple really just pushed out an incremental update and it was really pathetic.

[SpenceSouth]

I personally didn't find the iPhone 5 very impressive. If I were you I'd stick with the Evo LTE. Just use that $100 dollar iTunes giftcard and put it towards movies and music on your Evo. Just download what every you want on iTunes and move it over... easy a that. Got to love the flexibility of Android.

 

I used to be an iPhone admirer for a long time, but Android has really been catching my eye as the better devices.

[S4GRU]

After spending a few days with the EVO LTE in a LTE market, I was almost tempted to throw it out the window. It really pissed me off. The LTE Connection issues stink. Its hard to imagine it used to be worse!

 

Even the cheapo Viper was a LTE champ compared to the EVO. If I lived in a LTE market, I may be tempted to try another device. Dare I say it, maybe even an iPhone.

 

The EVO LTE though is a marvelous phone off the LTE network. And hopefully they will still get the LTE connectivity bugs worked out. But now there has been a few OTA's to address the issue and it's still a problem.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[bigsnake49]

Go with the iPhone. The build quality, attention to detail, time to test and trade in value alone should convince you. Memory and number of cores are not consequential unless you're runing parallelizable linear programming problems (the math geeks will know what I'm talking about).

[Rawvega]

If you're not heavily invested into the Android ecosystem, I say give the iPhone 5 a shot. Though I've never owned an iPhone, I do have an iPad and a couple of Macs at home. I agree with bigsnake49, for all of the hate that Apple has been getting of late, their product quality and attention to detail is second to none. Had Sprint had the iPhone when I was migrating away from webOS, I'd probably be rocking iOS instead of Android now.

[MacinJosh]

I think now more than ever hardware is a wash when compariring devices. So that leaves software. In your case already having a a mac firly puts you in the iOS sphere, return it and get a iPhone. I persoanlly believe that from a software view you will find the iPhone limited compared to Android, but since you are halfway there with your mac, just make the jump

 

Why do people forget that I'm a staunch Apple owner who had an iPhone, and still use it occasionally for apps that aren't on Android (mostly games), made the jump to Android! Granted, my experience hasn't been the greatest because my first Android was stolen, the battery life has sucked on all 4 Android devices I've owned, and my 1st Viper was a dud, with #2 looking to be the same way. I do like the customization that Android has, but I prefer to have something stable and with decent battery life. If I could have that with Android, I will stay, but so far, that isn't happening.

[S4GRU]

 

Why do people forget that I'm a staunch Apple owner who had an iPhone' date=' and still use it occasionally for apps that aren't on Android (mostly games), made the jump to Android! Granted, my experience hasn't been the greatest because my first Android was stolen, the battery life has sucked on all 4 Android devices I've owned, and my 1st Viper was a dud, with #2 looking to be the same way. I do like the customization that Android has, but I prefer to have something stable and with decent battery life. If I could have that with Android, I will stay, but so far, that isn't happening.[/quote']

 

Josh...you cannot compare entry level Androids to flagship iPhones. You need to start buying flagship Androids for a fair comparison.

 

That's like comparing a Chevy Cobalt to a BMW 5 series. You need to compare a Mercedes for a fair comparison.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

[themuffinman]

After spending a few days with the EVO LTE in a LTE market, I was almost tempted to throw it out the window. It really pissed me off. The LTE Connection issues stink. Its hard to imagine it used to be worse!

 

Even the cheapo Viper was a LTE champ compared to the EVO. If I lived in a LTE market, I may be tempted to try another device. Dare I say it, maybe even an iPhone.

 

The EVO LTE though is a marvelous phone off the LTE network. And hopefully they will still get the LTE connectivity bugs worked out. But now there has been a few OTA's to address the issue and it's still a problem.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

What's most disturbing to me is the fact that you reported the evo's lte connectivity issues about 5 months ago. I mean seriously, what have they been doing for the last 5 months?

[MacinJosh]

Josh...you cannot compare entry level Androids to flagship iPhones. You need to start buying flagship Androids for a fair comparison.

 

That's like comparing a Chevy Cobalt to a BMW 5 series. You need to compare a Mercedes for a fair comparison.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

 

Mercedes? Yuck!!!!!

[bigsnake49]

I use my phone to stream music while working out. It's in my shorts pocket. A larger phone would force me to buy a belt carrier of some sort, or an arm carrier or I would have to carry it in my hands. I also carry my phone in my pants pocket all the time. A larger phone would force me to buy cargo pants to carry it.

[xenadu]

I know the iPhone has features like that, but it's specific (I believe?) to Macs or iTunes.

 

No on both counts, the iCloud for Windows control panel does the syncing as far as pulling down photos, syncing contacts, etc. I've gone iTunes-free on my stuff. There is iCloud.com where you can login and see your email, etc. But I also use some Google services and they work just fine with the iPhone.

 

However since customization of the OS is an important feature for you then I wouldn't encourage you to get an iPhone - stick with Android.

 

 

Man if you want to ditch the phone please don't say it's too big to handle. Just stop it....

 

The plural of anecdote is not "data" I have an iPad for large-screen stuff so I personally prefer my phone to fit easily into my pocket without weighing me down, but that might not be the best choice for everyone.

 

 

I think its curious that they haven't released the specs on the process, RAM or battery size yet?! To me it seems like they will only release it after most users have already preordered and/or already have the phones in their hands! I think the latest iPhone is a disappointment in the specs and they know it. Most Android phones are Quad-Core and I would be willing to be my life that the new iPhone 5 is a dual-core. Also according to earlier leaks the battery is ONLY 10mAh bigger than the old iPhone 4S battery! And as for the RAM everyone knows most new Androids are coming with 2GB and Apple knows their top tiers will only have 1GB for another year!

 

The number of non-geeks who even know what the specs mean (let alone care about them) is precisely and exactly zero people. I don't care how many milli-amp-hours my battery has, I care how long I can talk on it, how long I can browse on it, etc. So yes, the iPhone 5 has the 22nm Qualcomm MDM96xx series chip, which uses much less power. It also has a more energy-efficient screen because doing in-plane eliminates a layer (and gives better color), further reducing energy use. And the SoC uses a new smaller process node, again yielding benefits. But the end result of all that is that the battery life is a bit better than the previous generation (already excellent) but the phone is thinner and lighter. Why would I give a crap about the mAh?

 

Rinse, repeat for graphics performance and overall snappiness.

 

 

After spending a few days with the EVO LTE in a LTE market, I was almost tempted to throw it out the window. It really pissed me off. The LTE Connection issues stink. Its hard to imagine it used to be worse!

 

Even the cheapo Viper was a LTE champ compared to the EVO. If I lived in a LTE market, I may be tempted to try another device. Dare I say it, maybe even an iPhone.

 

Come to the dark side... you'll like it over here

 

Here's the thing... if you don't like the iPhone, you can always sell it for a good price and you'll have a better understanding of what is good/bad about it. Don't use iTunes at all, just use iCloud and never plug it in to a computer.

 

Try it at least once; that's why I bought a Nexus tablet - I figured I should at least give it a chance.

[Dkoellerwx]

After spending a few days with the EVO LTE in a LTE market, I was almost tempted to throw it out the window. It really pissed me off. The LTE Connection issues stink. Its hard to imagine it used to be worse!

 

Even the cheapo Viper was a LTE champ compared to the EVO. If I lived in a LTE market, I may be tempted to try another device. Dare I say it, maybe even an iPhone.

 

I can say, living in an LTE market, after the last OTA, I haven't really seen any connection issues? My EVO grabs an LTE connection quickly, and holds on to it very well. I have LTE pretty much everywhere I go in my area, nearly representative of the very optimistic Sprint coverage maps. So, unless I'm being duped, and LTE coverage is even better than I think it is with another phone, the connection issue doesn't seem like an issue? From my experience anyway.

 

 

No on both counts, the iCloud for Windows control panel does the syncing as far as pulling down photos, syncing contacts, etc. I've gone iTunes-free on my stuff. There is iCloud.com where you can login and see your email, etc. But I also use some Google services and they work just fine with the iPhone.

 

However since customization of the OS is an important feature for you then I wouldn't encourage you to get an iPhone - stick with Android.

 

So I stand corrected. Did not know syncing had moved beyond iTunes. I do have an iPad that I used for school and now work, and it's great. But for my phone, I will stick with Android It's nice to be able to control just about every aspect of my phone through my Google account, including managing apps and sending texts.

[irev210]

After spending a few days with the EVO LTE in a LTE market, I was almost tempted to throw it out the window. It really pissed me off. The LTE Connection issues stink. Its hard to imagine it used to be worse!

 

Even the cheapo Viper was a LTE champ compared to the EVO. If I lived in a LTE market, I may be tempted to try another device. Dare I say it, maybe even an iPhone.

 

The EVO LTE though is a marvelous phone off the LTE network. And hopefully they will still get the LTE connectivity bugs worked out. But now there has been a few OTA's to address the issue and it's still a problem.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

I had no idea how bad it was until I started getting LTE yesterday.

 

I was inside the local sprint store @ 39 Winter Street, Boston, MA and every LTE phone was on 4G EXCEPT the EVO (and yes, I confirmed that 4G was on). If you look how close 39 Winter street is to the 4G LTE tower on Summer, your mind will be blown.

 

It's just dumb that at about -107dBm I am getting ~10mbit down/4mbit up on 4G and at about -110dBm I get pushed to 3G.

 

No wonder why nobody can find LTE.

[Dkoellerwx]

 

It's just dumb that at about -107dBm I am getting ~10mbit down/4mbit up on 4G and at about -110dBm I get pushed to 3G.

 

No wonder why nobody can find LTE.

 

I don't get pushed to 3G until -126dBm? Perhaps there's just not enough LTE yet?

[Feech]

I think its curious that they haven't released the specs on the process, RAM or battery size yet?!

 

Its really not curious, as you mentioned its what they do. After the announcement they said the price for the adapters to use you old stuff would be $30. This morning it was announced that HD Voice would not work with Sprint because of the codec. I'm sure tomorrow will be another negative. Where else can you report all the good and over the next week after that tell people about the negatives. Apple is very very good at making hardware that works well, but its stuff like that which will never make me buy a product from them. Imagine selling a car and the then telling customers that you have to pay another $1000 to get the air bags to work all the time..

[Feech]

the bad thing about the EVO LTE is if they don't get the radio fixed with a software update, what happens when people are out of the 30 day window for return like most of us are already? HTC has alrerady acknowledged a issue with the HTC One X but have done nothing to fix it because its a hardware issue. What if we are in the same boat?

[MacinJosh]

Come to the dark side... you'll like it over here

 

[irev210]

I don't get pushed to 3G until -126dBm? Perhaps there's just not enough LTE yet?

 

I think 3G just overpowers 4G.

[S4GRU]

All right. I hate doing this, but I've had to remove comments. Lets get a grip here, people.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[ITK79]

For what it is worth the choice is purely a personal choice. I believe that the iphone has failed to deliver in the this new one and the previous. The iphone 3 was the last huge advancement on the product and what drove androids advance. While people have had issues with the EVO I have found that as the phone learns the area it has gotten better at holding LTE even before the last OTA. It is a computer system that has to learn the environment it is in. It is just like your car learns your driving and when you change your driving the car performs strange for a period of time.

 

If you are more of a Mac person I would go with the iphone it will be a fine phone and function just fine for you. However the other side is that the EVO or any android phone will give you more choice and options to choose from. I personally went from a windows phone to the OG EVO and am happy with android. I have friends and co-workers that swear by their iphone to each their own.

 

You have already raised doubt in yourself that the EVO isn't for you give the iphone a test and see if it works for you. For me my life requires more then one button and one flavor so anything apple brings forward has failed to gain my attention. As I mentioned I think apple failed to present anything special I think they took a few side steps or even a step backwards with this offering. With that said I am sure they are presenting a product they like and will meet their core markets needs.