[HTC EVO 3D] ricsim78:
Hey everyone, most of you will know me from the Evo 4G, I am the creator of Azrael X and Stock Turbo ROMS. I loved my Evo 4G and I loved developing ROMS for it. I was due for Upgrade in July of last year, just in time to get the Evo 3D. I was excited because of the Specs of the Evo 3D and traded "up" for my "amazing Evo 3D". To be honest, I wish I had held out for the Samsung GS-II or switched to Verizon now!

Here is the issues I have had with the Evo 3D.

My first one: I take good care of my phones, I think in all the time I had my Evo 4G I dropped it once and it was in a case so no damage. One day, I went to use my Evo 3D's camera to take a picture of something funny to send to my friends. Well, my phone became unresponsive and then my phone's display got corrupted. I tried all the troubleshooting steps, redid the phone ROM, hard reset, EVERYTHING. No dice and I heard that sometimes the camera gets disconnected and you can press real hard and it will work again. Ironically I did that and it worked once, the next day I went to use the camera and it did it again, froze the phone for a few minutes and corrupted the display. So I went to a Sprint service center and they "could not fix it, my replacement would be ordered and I can pick it up in a few days." So I get my replacement and...

I get a replacement with Hboot 1.50: Hboot 1.50 really sucks, that is all there is to it. HTC lets you root your phone...for a price! You void your warranty (not completely but it's more or less at the discretion of the Sprint employee if your covered by warranty or not if you bring it in for service with an issue) and it's not even a full root! You cannot flash kernels or radios without jumping through hoops and your phone is not S-Off. There is no current method to get S-Off with Hboot 1.50 and all attempts thus far have failed. Why could they have not just fixed my camera on my original one? This is livable with but has taken away the desire from me to develop ROMS for this phone. Then there is the....

Other issues with my replacement Evo 3D: The new one likes to restart itself randomly. It actually caused me to nearly late for work one morning because my carefully set alarm went off when it decided to restart itself. Thankfully I woke up by myself and was able to rush, get ready, and barely make it! I no longer rely on it as my alarm unless there is nothing else available. This NEVER happened with my Evo 4G, it reliably served as my alarm. Then there is...

CIQ: Sprint and HTC are spying on you; even a tinfoil hat will not prevent them from logging your phone usage. I mean, I am sure there are ways that all phones and carriers can do this, but where did I sign a form that allows them to monitor my usage? Not to mention this logging still eats up memory, CPU cycles, and battery. Even if they took this out now, not to mention developers found ways to rip out CIQ innards from the phone, this is a lameness that I cannot fathom. Then there is....

Sprint:

They removed the "Sprint Premier" program, which is really stupid. Now you have to wait 2 full years to get an upgraded phone.

The Network seems worse than ever. 4G coverage around the south suburbs of Chicago is bad at best, not there at worst. There are a couple of dead spots I always hit on the way home from work on 294.

Rude employees at Sprint. I ended up talking to a lady who kept interrupting me and laughed at me when I said something about that. I have never said, "F%$ you" to a lady on the phone until then. I actually said that and hung up, I was fuming! (UPDATE: Yes I know any company has good and bad reps and it's always a chance you will get one or the other, but she took the cake for the rudest CS rep I have dealt with from any company maybe ever. It was not just what she said, it was how she handled my questions. I should also mention she is a manager.)

Other things that I do not like about the Evo 3D.

The Speakerphone: Both Evo 3D phones I have had have mediocre speakers. The first one is way quieter and has NO bass compared to my former Evo 4G. Minor but noticeable.

The signal: This may have been "early teething" problems but my Evo 4G seemed to pull in signal much better than the Evo 3D. This could be because of premature radio and PRL updates at the time but I would be interested now to see how they compare. My Evo 4G would have 5 bars while the 3D would have 1-3 bars.

The charger port: The Evo 4G was nice because the charging port was right on the bottom of the phone. This made it easy to charge it while you mess with the phone and/or want to charge and talk at the same time. The Evo 3D has the charger port on the upper-left side. If you attempt to charge and talk, you are putting stress on your cable and the port itself. Stupid placement IMO.

Less tinker friendly: Besides the already mentioned Hboot 1.5 (partial root and partial warranty breaker) you cannot use the volume or power buttons while the cover is off. This is of course REALLY being nitpicky as there is not much need for it. But when you need access to the battery, having to take the back off every time is an extra step.

Of course, the Evo 3D is a better phone than the Evo 4G as far as hardware specs and screen quality. I just wish it was better in almost all ways instead of just specs.

The good of the Evo 3D is quite numerous of course.

The specs

The 3D features are neat

Increased memory

The screen slightly better quality

No more light bleeding like on the Evo 4G

Hboot 1.5 is a stupid means of control and I cannot believe we void our warranty for the sake of a half-ass root! I had aspirations for Azrael X 3D but honestly I feel the Evo 3D has some great ROMS already and Hboot 1.5 is a big deal breaker for me.

I might have to pass on HTC and Sprint too next time around.

More on the next post, but I want to know if anyone else has buyers (and/or Sprint) remorse lately. I am thinking of moving to "Big Red" network.