HTC EVO Design 4G Review
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When Sprint announced last year that the HTC EVO 4G was just the first in a family of EVO products we were a bit skeptical, but here you have the EVO Design 4G, the 5th member of the EVO family. The EVO Design 4G is quite the looker with an aluminum unibody design and 4” qHD display. Known as the Hero S elsewhere, the EVO Design 4G has WiMAX data and a dark paint job to set it apart. Other key features include a 5 megapixel rear and 1.3MP forward-facing cameras, 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor and DLNA for wireless media streaming. Included with the EVO Design 4G you’ll get the microUSB cable, AC adapter and a 8GB microSD card.
Design:
As the name implies, there is a large focus on the aesthetics of the EVO Design 4G. Following in the footsteps of devices such as the Legend, Desire S and Rhyme, the EVO Design 4G is crafted out of a single piece of aluminum for a unibody construction. Unlike the Rhyme, the battery is still thankfully removable.
From the second the EVO Design 4G touches your hands you know it’s going to be good. It feels wonderful in the hand - a perfect balance of weight and size. The smaller 4” display makes it more accessible to more petite hands. The display isn’t quite as big as the original EVO 4G, EVO 3D or the Amaze 4G, but the slightly smaller size combined with the qHD Super LCD display makes this the most pixel-dense display HTC has ever put out. Text is very crisp, the brightness is good and readability isn’t an issue in all but the most direct light.
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The HTC EVO Design 4G feels wonderful in the hand - a perfect balance of weight and size | ||
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You can compare the HTC EVO Design 4G with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool
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Capacitive buttons below the qHD Super LCD display | ||
The only physical buttons on the EVO Design 4G are the volume rocker and power button, both of which are shallow but still give good indication they have been pressed. We’re a bit disappointed to see that there is no dedicated camera key, especially since this has been a fixture on recent HTC devices. The back is mostly coated with soft touch paint for added grip, save for the brushed aluminum banding with an engraved HTC logo. The mirrored camera housing adds some more eye candy.
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Power button and 3.5mm jack (top) | Volume rocker and minuUSB port (left) |
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Left | Bottom | Top |
The sides of the HTC EVO Design 4G | ||
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Back | Rear camera | |
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Back cover removed | Battery compartment | microSD card slot |
Drag the picture or use the keyboard arrows to rotate the phone. Double click or press keyboard Space to zoom in/out
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9 Comments
2. DigitalMD posted on 31 Oct 2011, 10:37 1 5
HTC is on the verge of falling woefully behind. What is bad about HTC sense is that it now is holding back HTC. Honeycomb and ICS already incorporate many of the nice features that sense innovated. Now having that complex Sense UI layered on top of base android and tied into the supporting framework cost HTC months of delay in bringing out Android OS updates. They are woefully behind at this point with some of their flagship phones running Froyo and HTC seemingly unable to get updates out at all, much less in a timely fashion. Sense was once a marketing advantage, now its become an albatross hanging around HTC's neck.
Samsung and Motorola have both announced innovative new phones and tablets running ICS 4.0 HTC is still stuck on Froyo and Gingerbread, with no new product anouincements and on the verge of being left in the dust
3. Cyd07 posted on 31 Oct 2011, 12:39 2 1
Beautiful. Looks solid. Looks masculine.
Am I the only one who found the build quality of high-end Android phones is increasing these days ? Droid Razr, now this... Good things. It was the most obvious lack of Android phones in my opinion : you simply cannot have a good design without great build quality. No way to separate the two : good lines, good "design", is nothing without a solid build quality.
It feels cheap. Here, it feels good. With Iphone 4-4S, Nokia Lumia, and this kind of Android...the war is open, my friends. The iPhone was in its own league, honestly (except for the Nexus One - HTC again - and N9-E7- Nokia again).
8. sun0066 posted on 29 Nov 2011, 10:54 0 1
looks girly!!!!!!! 7 inhes screen that is masculine.!!!
4. andygallo posted on 31 Oct 2011, 16:19 0 0
So basically it's a Sensation with a slightly smaller screen (but same quality), single core (possibly better battery life) and same high level HTC build quality. For $99, I can't argue with that.
5. belovedson posted on 31 Oct 2011, 18:40 0 2
Not sure why this phone even came out? It sure seems like a waste. im not much of a fan for the iphone 4.
but the iphone 4 bests this phone as well as the samsung in the same price range.
i am not a huge fan of apple. but if i could not afford the premium phones i would definitely pick the 4 over its counterparts.
just saying.
6. vette21man posted on 01 Nov 2011, 13:34 0 2
I like the design, looks great.
Why is the phone so darn thick? A half inch? That's awfully large for today's standards. What advanced tech is under the hood that requires that thickness? The EVO 3D has better specs (dual-core) and larger features (screen, 3D, battery) that you could say REQUIRE the phone to be a little thick, but the HTC Design 4G is thicker than the EVO 3D! Maybe people won't necessarily put a case on this, but if they do, that makes for a nasty bulge in the pocket.
7. threeline posted on 03 Nov 2011, 22:39 1 0
Its really not thick at all in person. Its the perfect phone for the price.
9. msdemi posted on 19 Jan 2012, 09:08 0 1
This phone sucks.....the home screen goes out and the only way to bring it back to home is plug it in to a charger.......10 thumbs down!
