Anyone upgrade from an EVO 4G?

muzicman82 · #1 (**permalink**) 06-13-2011, 10:21 AM

Just wondering... I may have an opportunity to upgrade to a new phone early as another phone on my account is due for upgrade. That family member may just want an EVO, in which case I figure, they could take mine and I could take the upgrade.

The question is... Do I really want to move from the EVO 4G to the Galaxy S 4G?

Side by side, the EVO does look like the better phone given it has a microSD card slot and better camera. The S 4G has a better (though smaller) screen. I could care less about it being curved. I understand the S 4G does not have notification LEDs?

I have a 16GB card in my EVO, but I don't keep music/movies on it.

I'm also currently running CyanogenMod 7 Nightlies on the EVO, so I am not attached to Sense.

If anyone can give their thoughts, that'd be great!

[BTW, if you see this on other sites, I apologize, but I am looking for as many opinions as possible.]

GuyWithNoLife · #2 (**permalink**) 06-13-2011, 12:42 PM

I'm on the Nexus S 4G now. My Evo lost a fight with gravity, and I was able to pick between another Evo or the Nexus S for the same price.

Although the camera is less MP, I haven't noticed a difference in quality (although tbh I haven't compared the pictures side by side on a pc). That said, the camera application itself seems faster/smoother (higher fps maybe?).

The phone does not have notification LEDs, although that doesn't bother me; I always put my Evo face down at night when charging it, and if I'm going to check my phone for anything I usually turn on the screen anyway.

You can root it as easily as the Evo (although all I've done so far after that was install AdFree).

The phone is lighter and a little more natural to hold. The battery life is much better (although I'm not sure if some of it is a fresh new battery vs my Evo's... I remember my Evo having a nice battery but that was coming from the Touch Diamond, etc.). I use my Nexus S in the same way I used my Evo (same apps... although there's no Sense on the Nexus, I wasn't using the weather/clock widget or syncing any stuff on my Evo that I'm not on my Nexus).

The interface is smooth... I do miss some of the sense features (month calendar widget, contacts widget, and the system sounds I was used to), but apparently not enough to actively go download replacements for them. The phone app doesn't have the smart dial feature... the dialer is just a straight dialer.

It does not include the Sprint Visual Voicemail app... you could probably find the .apk and install it, but I ended up testing Google Voice for voicemail, and liking it.

I do miss the bigger screen at times, but have been enjoying the lighter phone enough that I can live without the landscape.

Overall, I'm happy I tried it out, happy enough to keep it. I wouldn't be disappointed if I had to go back to the Evo for whatever reason though.

muzicman82 · #3 (**permalink**) 06-13-2011, 12:45 PM

Thanks for the thoughts!

How is the build quality compared to the HTC? Samsung phones felt cheaply made for a while there.

I might actually consider waiting till next week if the EVO 3D is going to be up for pre-order for Premier customers.

iredline5 · #4 (**permalink**) 06-17-2011, 07:02 PM

I'm thinking about switching to the nexus s, as long as the battery can get me the whole day.

muzicman82 · #5 (**permalink**) 06-17-2011, 07:12 PM

After some digging, my inclination is to hold out until the Motorola Photon is out. I'm not a HUGE fan of Motorola devices, but I do want a dual-core phone, and I could care less about the 3D in the EVO 3D.

iredline5 · #6 (**permalink**) 06-18-2011, 07:20 AM

The one big drawbacks on the photon, that I read is that is has a locked bootloader.

muzicman82 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-18-2011, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iredline5

The one big drawbacks on the photon, that I read is that is has a locked bootloader.

Does this actually prevent people from unlocking it? I thought Motorola said they would eventually release an update to unlock it officially, but it just wasn't shipping that way.

I thought all Android phones came with them locked originally but people found a way to unlock them?

draghn · #8 (**permalink**) 06-18-2011, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muzicman82

Does this actually prevent people from unlocking it? I thought Motorola said they would eventually release an update to unlock it officially, but it just wasn't shipping that way.

I thought all Android phones came with them locked originally but people found a way to unlock them?

You're right, but there is a difference between a locked bootloader and an ecrypted bootloader. It's likely that Motorola will also encrypt their bootloader on the Photon which means there is no way to change the kernel running on the phone, which means the dev community can't develop updates (like updating a phone from Froyo to gingerbread via custom roms) and all customization on the phone is limited to what the phone shipped with.

Having an unencrypted bootloader is also nice if/when the manufacturer stops supporting the phone with updates etc. The dev community can keep the phone's software updated still.

There's an informative post on the xda forums if you were interested in reading a bit about it:
What is an Encypted Bootloader and What does it Mean? - xda-developers