New Evo 4G phone far from perfect - Boston.com
HTC Evo 4G LTE smartphone
$199.99 at Sprint.com;$149.99 at Amazon.com
The original Evo 4G phone from Taiwan’s HTC Corp. was one of the first serious challengers to Apple Inc.’s iPhone. Now comes the latest version, and while it’s an impressive sliver of hardware, there are reasons to be wary.
The new Evo runs Google Inc.’s Android operating system. It sports the same thin form factor as the gorgeous HTC One X currently offered by AT&T Inc. But its black plastic casing has a slightly flimsier feel. There’s been no skimping on the electronics, though. There’s a dual-core processor, 16 gigabytes of memory, a 4.7-inch screen, and a superb 8-megapixel camera that takes much better pictures than the iPhone 4S.
So why hesitate? Well, there are multiple reports of uneven reception. The phone’s exclusive carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. is investigating whether there’s a serious problem here.
Beyond that, there’s the little detail that the phone’s vaunted 4G LTE data service doesn’t work in Boston, or most other places. That’s because Sprint has only just started deploying an LTE network. So this superfast data technology will be useless to you, probably for months to come.
The same thing happened with the original Evo, which used an older 4G network that wasn’t available in many cities at launch. But it was such a good phone, most consumers didn’t care. After a few minutes with this sleek, sophisticated phone, you might feel the same. |
