Pros and Cons of Evo Shift

[markli]

Sprint HTC Evo Shift 4G

I like some of you have been fed up with WM for sometime. All the freezing and lack of updates just pissed me off way too much. So I went to RadioShack and saw the deal a new Htc Evo Shift 4G for 149.99$. I am a Sprint user so I asked how much my old TP2 and Mogul would be worth. For my TP2 in rough shape RadioShack gave me over 70$ and only 10$ for my old Mogul. I used the money towards a new Evo Shift.

After being a WM user since the PPC 6700 you know the one that was the size of a brick and had the inch antenna coming out of the top. Well anyways I decided to give Android a try.

My reasoning for going to Android and not waiting for WM7 are simple. I have had way too many frustrations with Windows in the past. The Pro 7 will only have a 16gig hd internal and not allow for a memory card. I called and talked to HTC reps and they all said how WM7 is having tons of problems and even everyone of them switched to Android due to this issue. I read tons of reviews and watched videos and even tried it myself and WM7 just seems like a big miss to me. Sadly all the fun and frustrations WM and I have had are now over.

At first I was completely lost and hating that I got rid of my TP2, I walked back into RadioShack a few times to ask the guy how to do certain things. Sure the interface was completely different and annoying at first but now having it for a few days I have become to like Android.

My biggest annoyence with the HTC Evo Shift 4G starts here.

Cons - You need to download an application for any additional function you would like to use. Sure it sounds annoying but what is even more annoying is that the good ones you either have to pay for or they contain google ads.

- There are way too many useless programs that come with the Sprint version you can not delete unless you root it from what I am told. I will never use the Kindel feature or that Amazon Mp3 feature or someother programs I find dumb.

- When using the phone either in landscape mode or standard the volume buttons are in the worst place. I have hit them over and over by accident and got very annoyed. I was told there is an app to disable the buttons without rooting the device but I have not found it yet.

- Lack of singal strength. When I have my hand anywhere near the top left side of the phone my singal strength goes to 1 or no bars. I called Sprint about this and they said it is not possible and my phone must be defective. I have read that I am not the only one suffering from this problem.

- No physical end call or answer button. Im used to my TP2 and older WM devices where I could click answer or end call without having to touch the actual screen. The problem is after a while the touch screen which is told to be activated by heat sense will wear out in spots.

- When in call if my face touches the screen it ends the call. For some reason my phone screen is still active even if its up to my ear and if my cheek touches the screen it will end the call.

- It's lack of custimization. I am still new to the device but so far I haven't had much luck custimizing it beyond the main screens.

- You can not transfer over your contacts from the TP2 to the Evo Shit. The Evo Shift uses Gmail. You have to export your TP2 contacts to a csv file and then export them to Gmail. When I did this I had to go and rewrite all my 900+ contacts. For some reason Gmail writes the contacts all different. Well at least for me. I spent way too many hours retyping them all.

- Lacks internal HD space.

- The contact tab on the OS is a pain in the ass. It took me forever to figure out how to use it all.

- Being a Gmail contact setup Gmail makes Groups I will never use and I can not delete them.

- Any old notes from WM devices can not be veiwed properally on Android.

- Lack of setting functions.

- My Evo Shift 4G would not sync to my Windows 7 computer. Said it could not find the driver and I could not find the driver anywhere myself.


Pros - Android runs a lot smoother than windows.

- My old TP2 batterys work with the device all I need to do is just flip them over for the contacts to line up.

- It is comfortable in my hands.

- Tons of free apps and games to download.

- 4G capiable where avaliable.

- It has a nice fast processor.

- Friend Stream is pretty neat.

- The camera takes great pictures. (Didn't use video yet)

- When adding or deleting a new contact it automatically saves to Gmail account.

- Pdanet makes tethering easy!


There are more Pros and Cons I am sure but I have not run into them yet. This rant is not to discourage or get anyone to love or hate the HTC Evo Shift 4G for Sprint but just to give someone an idea of what I have found to be different or lacking from being a WM user for over 5 years.

[dumpringz]

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Epic : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; SPH-D700 Build/ECLAIR) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

I used the shift for a few days and went back to the epic. CONS: the lack of signal when cupping the phone, slow screen scrolling with finger, when double tapping to zoom it rarely zoomed to where I tapped, inability to rotate n maintain page position either when flipping or sliding out keyboard, tiny a$$ screen, enter button not being able to select links (y have a dpad?), volume rocker location & just overall turtle experience.
PROS: amazing physical keyboard with inputs that don't skip(unlike epic) ..
I'm not knocking it, the device just isn't for me ... had I not used the epic(even tho I hate the keyboard issue) then maybe ida been ok

[emkorial]

I got a shift about 2 weeks ago, I just returned it yesterday and went back to my Mogul. For me...


Pro's:
Size of phone/screen size is just right
Keyboard is really nice, has cool shortcut buttons like the , and .com
Sense is a reallu cool UI
Market makes it simple to get apps

Cons
Volume rocker is in the worst, most annoying place possible. I hated hitting that thing every time the keyboard was opened or closed.

Battery life sucked, hard.

Android lauching things in the background is the dumbest OS decision I'v ever seen. Lets take a device that has limited CPU and battery power and randomly launch apps in the background. What a boneheaded decision.

Screen is WAY to reflective, and way to glare-y

Phone unlocks by itself when the keyboard is slid out, defeating the purpose of a lock screen.

Dropping signal when holding the phone

Originally Posted by markli

Sprint HTC Evo Shift 4G

Cons - You need to download an application for any additional function you would like to use. Sure it sounds annoying but what is even more annoying is that the good ones you either have to pay for or they contain google ads.

The market makes it easy to find wha you need. Compared to WM, it;s a godsend

- There are way too many useless programs that come with the Sprint version you can not delete unless you root it from what I am told. I will never use the Kindel feature or that Amazon Mp3 feature or someother programs I find dumb.

To be fair, that describes every smartphone launched on every carrier ever.

- When in call if my face touches the screen it ends the call. For some reason my phone screen is still active even if its up to my ear and if my cheek touches the screen it will end the call.

Thats something wrong with the phone then, my proximity sensor always worked fine.

- You can not transfer over your contacts from the TP2 to the Evo Shit. The Evo Shift uses Gmail. You have to export your TP2 contacts to a csv file and then export them to Gmail. When I did this I had to go and rewrite all my 900+ contacts. For some reason Gmail writes the contacts all different. Well at least for me. I spent way too many hours retyping them all.

Sorry you did that, you can export contacts from Windows Mobile in vcard format, then iport them into Gmail, and they come over exactly the same. Don't use a CSV file, gmail sucks at importing those

- The contact tab on the OS is a pain in the ass. It took me forever to figure out how to use it all.

- Being a Gmail contact setup Gmail makes Groups I will never use and I can not delete them.

- Any old notes from WM devices can not be veiwed properally on Android.

Yeah, that was all annoying too

[yankees45us]

Originally Posted by emkorial

I got a shift about 2 weeks ago, I just returned it yesterday and went back to my Mogul. For me...


Pro's:
Size of phone/screen size is just right
Keyboard is really nice, has cool shortcut buttons like the , and .com
Sense is a reallu cool UI
Market makes it simple to get apps

Cons
Volume rocker is in the worst, most annoying place possible. I hated hitting that thing every time the keyboard was opened or closed.

Battery life sucked, hard.

Android lauching things in the background is the dumbest OS decision I'v ever seen. Lets take a device that has limited CPU and battery power and randomly launch apps in the background. What a boneheaded decision.

Screen is WAY to reflective, and way to glare-y

Phone unlocks by itself when the keyboard is slid out, defeating the purpose of a lock screen.

Dropping signal when holding the phone




The market makes it easy to find wha you need. Compared to WM, it;s a godsend



To be fair, that describes every smartphone launched on every carrier ever.



Thats something wrong with the phone then, my proximity sensor always worked fine.



Sorry you did that, you can export contacts from Windows Mobile in vcard format, then iport them into Gmail, and they come over exactly the same. Don't use a CSV file, gmail sucks at importing those



Yeah, that was all annoying too

I may understand returning the shift and going back to another android. But going back to the mogul? Thats just no competition. Not in a million years is the shift that bad. Unless your doing it to get your upgrade back. I played with my friends shift and its faster and slightly smoother than my evo. I just can't see returning it for the mogul, unless your doing it to keep your $150 discount.

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[haus]

I'm going to keep my shift, but I see Android as a stepping stone for me until WP7 matures to the point where it is available for CDMA and competes with iOS and Android for the particular set of applications I need to do my job (nowhere near that yet, so I'm doing my best to get comfortable with Android).

As a business/Exchange user, there are just too many holes in Android for this to be a viable long-term solution. It reminds me of using Linux on the desktop. It's partway there and there is some cool free stuff available, but for me it just doesn't cut it in a production environment.

I think it's funny that I've read a few battery life complaints here and the folks at Android Central seem to think this phone has the best battery life of any phone on the planet. Weird.

As for OP's concerns, I'll post my thoughts after using this device for a couple of weeks now.

1. Having to download apps...yes. I've had to pay $20 for a decent Exchange mail client (tried them all and Touchdown is really the best in terms of functionality, though I like the interfaces of some of the others better). I had to pay a dollar (it's now more) for a voice dialer that confirms before calling, since the built-in dialer would always call the wrong person. This isn't a lot of money, but this stuff was built into WM and it's practically criminal in my opinion that it's not built into Android.

2. Volume buttons. I've gotten used to them and I almost never hit them anymore. Same with the hardware keyboard in general, which I actually like more than the TP2 keyboard now (!).

3. Signal strength...just don't hold your phone and you'll be OK. LOL.

4 and 5. I use bluetooth pretty much constantly. My issue here is that the prox sensor is DISABLED when bluetooth is in use, which is just plain stupid. There's no reason to disable the prox sensor as there was on the EVO because the sensor is in a better location on the Shift and is not as prone to accidental coverage.

As for the sync issues, I use Exchange. Since I'm migrating to Exchange 2010, Touchdown syncs email, contacts, tasks, calendar, and notes, and I'm pretty happy with that. I wish the stock email client did it as well as Touchdown, but Google will push Gmail forever since they want to read everybody's email and insert advertisements.

I very much miss the ability to swipe left/right to see different email accounts. I have two jobs and I need separate emails for each. Having to use Touchdown for Exchange and the built-in client for IMAP is a total PITA.

I like to harp on this phone mostly because I had much higher expectations for Android at this point. This is squarely on Google IMHO. HTC has built pretty impressive hardware in the Shift. But the OS is just lacking. I may have said this before somewhere but to me buying an Android phone is kind of like buying a really nice car but having to buy your own engine and maybe steering wheel to get it working. On WM most of this stuff just worked out of the box.

That said, the Shift is a pretty cool device. I like that it is small, yet feels very solid without being heavy. For the things it does well, it does *very* well (like browsing, and apps that are designed to do a specific task or two).

[yankees45us]

I myself love android and would never go back to wm. But wp7 looks promising. Even though wm was unstable it was secure. I also miss all the tweaking you could do for it when it came to enterprise solutions. I'm looking forward to wp7 getting better. Only problem I see is unlocking it and being able to wifi tether. Hopefully they'll figure it out. Lets see how far they get in the next months, especially since android is making some more improvements including some world phones. Looking forward to dual core world android phones. I miss the features from my tp2.

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[toddpedersen]

Did you install HTC Sync on your Windows 7 machine so you can get the drivers you need? You can get the download from htc directly.

Originally Posted by markli

Sprint HTC Evo Shift 4G

I like some of you have been fed up with WM for sometime. All the freezing and lack of updates just pissed me off way too much. So I went to RadioShack and saw the deal a new Htc Evo Shift 4G for 149.99$. I am a Sprint user so I asked how much my old TP2 and Mogul would be worth. For my TP2 in rough shape RadioShack gave me over 70$ and only 10$ for my old Mogul. I used the money towards a new Evo Shift.

After being a WM user since the PPC 6700 you know the one that was the size of a brick and had the inch antenna coming out of the top. Well anyways I decided to give Android a try.

My reasoning for going to Android and not waiting for WM7 are simple. I have had way too many frustrations with Windows in the past. The Pro 7 will only have a 16gig hd internal and not allow for a memory card. I called and talked to HTC reps and they all said how WM7 is having tons of problems and even everyone of them switched to Android due to this issue. I read tons of reviews and watched videos and even tried it myself and WM7 just seems like a big miss to me. Sadly all the fun and frustrations WM and I have had are now over.

At first I was completely lost and hating that I got rid of my TP2, I walked back into RadioShack a few times to ask the guy how to do certain things. Sure the interface was completely different and annoying at first but now having it for a few days I have become to like Android.

My biggest annoyence with the HTC Evo Shift 4G starts here.

Cons - You need to download an application for any additional function you would like to use. Sure it sounds annoying but what is even more annoying is that the good ones you either have to pay for or they contain google ads.

- There are way too many useless programs that come with the Sprint version you can not delete unless you root it from what I am told. I will never use the Kindel feature or that Amazon Mp3 feature or someother programs I find dumb.

- When using the phone either in landscape mode or standard the volume buttons are in the worst place. I have hit them over and over by accident and got very annoyed. I was told there is an app to disable the buttons without rooting the device but I have not found it yet.

- Lack of singal strength. When I have my hand anywhere near the top left side of the phone my singal strength goes to 1 or no bars. I called Sprint about this and they said it is not possible and my phone must be defective. I have read that I am not the only one suffering from this problem.

- No physical end call or answer button. Im used to my TP2 and older WM devices where I could click answer or end call without having to touch the actual screen. The problem is after a while the touch screen which is told to be activated by heat sense will wear out in spots.

- When in call if my face touches the screen it ends the call. For some reason my phone screen is still active even if its up to my ear and if my cheek touches the screen it will end the call.

- It's lack of custimization. I am still new to the device but so far I haven't had much luck custimizing it beyond the main screens.

- You can not transfer over your contacts from the TP2 to the Evo Shit. The Evo Shift uses Gmail. You have to export your TP2 contacts to a csv file and then export them to Gmail. When I did this I had to go and rewrite all my 900+ contacts. For some reason Gmail writes the contacts all different. Well at least for me. I spent way too many hours retyping them all.

- Lacks internal HD space.

- The contact tab on the OS is a pain in the ass. It took me forever to figure out how to use it all.

- Being a Gmail contact setup Gmail makes Groups I will never use and I can not delete them.

- Any old notes from WM devices can not be veiwed properally on Android.

- Lack of setting functions.

- My Evo Shift 4G would not sync to my Windows 7 computer. Said it could not find the driver and I could not find the driver anywhere myself.


Pros - Android runs a lot smoother than windows.

- My old TP2 batterys work with the device all I need to do is just flip them over for the contacts to line up.

- It is comfortable in my hands.

- Tons of free apps and games to download.

- 4G capiable where avaliable.

- It has a nice fast processor.

- Friend Stream is pretty neat.

- The camera takes great pictures. (Didn't use video yet)

- When adding or deleting a new contact it automatically saves to Gmail account.

- Pdanet makes tethering easy!


There are more Pros and Cons I am sure but I have not run into them yet. This rant is not to discourage or get anyone to love or hate the HTC Evo Shift 4G for Sprint but just to give someone an idea of what I have found to be different or lacking from being a WM user for over 5 years.

[emkorial]

I just can't see returning it for the mogul, unless your doing it to keep your $150

I'm a pretty basic smartphone user. I want to be able to make calls, send text messages, check my email, and check stock quotes. That's pretty much it. The Mogul does all that just fine. AND I can keep using the $30 SERO plan vs the $50 SERO Premium + data charge the shift costs

[tt C6]

Originally Posted by emkorial

I'm a pretty basic smartphone user. I want to be able to make calls, send text messages, check my email, and check stock quotes. That's pretty much it. The Mogul does all that just fine. AND I can keep using the $30 SERO plan vs the $50 SERO Premium + data charge the shift costs

I have been using the TP2 since released.
I don't think it can even do the above.

[swoope]

Originally Posted by emkorial

I'm a pretty basic smartphone user. I want to be able to make calls, send text messages, check my email, and check stock quotes. That's pretty much it. The Mogul does all that just fine. AND I can keep using the $30 SERO plan vs the $50 SERO Premium + data charge the shift costs

tp 2 is sero 30 dollar plan compatible.. have been using it for 14 months. it would be a great upgrade for you..

pulled my mogul out last week to give to a friend, did not realize how far the tp 2 had come..

beers