[Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE] PoorCollegeGuy:
Hello guys! After months of false starts, broken promises, sudden price increases ("Yeah I can do $300...well okay how about $320 and you pay shipping?"), and other bits of misfortune, I have finally gotten my hands on this amazing device. So I thought I'd share my thoughts on it after giving it a few days to try out. You never know who would be interested in such an opinion.

**warning

This thread is absolutely useless and is only your friendly neighborhood XDA News Writer sharing an opinion. Feel free to not take it seriously.

**Note

Yes, I am aware the phone was released awhile ago. This is my first impressions personally, not world's first impressions.

Okay, since I suck at review-type posts in general, I'm going to start typing now. Stop reading at the end or when you're bored :)

Screen:

The screen is gorgeous. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. The size and resolution of this phone is simply beautiful.

Camera:

Above average but not "omgzorz amazing". It is good enough to skip buying a point-and-click. Not good enough for photographers. Thankfully, I am not a photographer. The features for the camera are nice, but I'm not an Instagram person (or even a photo filter person). So half the stuff I realistically use, and half I probably never will.

Form Factor/Hardware/Buttons:

This is by far the thinnest phone I've ever owned. I came from the Galaxy Nexus (which is a great phone too), and this one is so thin I actually had problems handling it for the first day. I kept forgetting the phone was that thin. Personally, I like the capacitive buttons over the on-screen buttons. I know all my screen real estate is being dedicated to apps. None of that "4.65 inch screen...but really you're only getting 4.3 inches because of the soft buttons" crap. Everything else is well placed and looks good. The kickstand is way better than the OG EVO. The back plastic plate isn't nearly as hard to get off as video reviewers seem to make it sound (read: they're pansies :p ).

Performance:

Holy crap. Once I got it tuned to how I like it, not even Google Voice lags (it lags in Bluestacks running on my freaking 8-core processor for Christ's sake). When I first got it and it was first activated, I had some hiccups in the app drawer and pinch-to-zoom in Chrome. I've since installed a custom ROM (MeanROM), set the governor to ondemand, clocked by processor back to 1.5GHz (stock MeanROM comes 1.7GHz OC), and I've had no lag at all ever since. Usually a phone I own lags in some way that's slightly annoying but not a deal breaker (i.e. when scrolling a list in Plume, that slight "pause" when you switch the home screen right after turning the screen on, or taking unusually long to make menu selections). This doesn't seem to have that problem.

Battery/Temp:

The battery on this thing is incredible. Yes, it's not removable. I never used multiple batteries anyway. I actually moved today and the phone held up like a champ. After packing up my computer and TV, my phone was my only source of entertainment for a good while. At the time of this writing, I have 35% after 14 hours (on track for ~20 hours, if I felt like waiting that long). It was at least moderate usage. ~250 texts, frequent messaging via gTalk and Facebook Messenger, SNESoid gaming, a Billiards game I like to play, 25 minutes in phone calls, over 2 hours in screen on time with about 60% of my day spent on WiFi and 40% on 3G. Includes some random web browsing (I recovered my Xbox Live password with my phone browser and checked my bank account a couple of times), app updates, and general phone stuff. Screen shots below:

What truly impressed me, though, is the temperature. I'd expect something so thin to vent heat well, but I also expected to get warm. It simply didn't happen. Once I put my CPU clock back to regular 1.5, my phone was an ice cube all day long, dropping down to as low as 20C, or 68F. My computer doesn't get that cool when it's turned off and tossed in the now in the snow. Admittedly, I wouldn't know, since I've never done something so stupid as to toss my computer in the snow. Screen shot below:

TL;DR (performance): I got a 6400 on Quadrant running MeanROM overclocked at 1.7GHz. My emulators run at 60fps and they stay there. My phone hasn't risen above 30C since I first turned it on (minus 5 minutes when I was restoring apps via titanium backup and when I flashed the custom ROM).

Call Quality:

I got 3 phone calls. They were all loud, clear, and wonderful. Didn't have to max out my speaker volume like with prior devices.

WiFi/3G/4G:

WiFi connects quickly and I don't lose signal ever. 3G is almost 2 times faster than it was on the Epic 4G Touch (in speedtest.net tests I neglected to screen shot. I got 300kbps down on Epic Touch, 550kbps down on EVO LTE...not great numbers but still better is better. Obviously YMMV). I have no 4G LTE where I live (damn you Sprint).

*Added*

Music Quality:

This is my first phone with Beats enabled. I freaking love it. I mostly use my phone to listen to music while in the car. Beats itself is a tad bassy, but I used my car's equalizer (primitive as it may be) to dial down the bass a bit and I got one of the fullest, best music experiences I've ever had with an Android phone. I blame it all on Beats, but hey this phone has it lol.

Root Stuff:

Creating a backup in TWRP 2.3.1 took 133 seconds (about twice as fast as it does on the Galaxy Nexus as of TWRP 2.2, I never tested on TWRP so it could be faster now for the Nexus). Restoring 45 user apps in titanium backup was faster than I've ever seen it go. I haven't had to restore a backup yet, but I imagine it's much quicker than I'm accustomed to. The S-Off process looks like it's going to be a lot of fun (currently just HTCdev unlocked) and I can't wait to try that out. I might make a video or something, who knows.

My pros:

1. Quick as hell.

2. Cool as hell (in both looks and actual, literal temperature)

3. Handles all games, all tasks, and all nonsense well.

4. My goodness I missed having a kickstand.

5. No connectivity problems (signal, data, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc)

6. Battery lasts for a really long time considering I used it more today than I ever will in a single day until I move again.

7. Great HTC build quality.

8. Sense 4.1 = best HTC Sense ever (it's still bloated, but not nearly as bad as older Sense)

My Cons:

1. Non removable battery isn't that bad, but I'd still like to battery pull when I need to.

2. Charging to 90% takes like 30 minutes. Charging from 90% to 100% takes twice that long for some reason.

3. Facebook as a system app? Oh hells nah!

4. That plastic back plate is ugly. And a finger print magnet. And it called my mom fat.

5. It doesn't pay my taxes for me.

Summary:

This is definitely among the top 3 best phones I've ever owned right up there with the OG EVO and the Galaxy Nexus. I include the OG EVO because it has one of the greatest dev communities ever. this phone doesn't have that huge dev community, but the devs we do have are talented and awesome (I know, I write about them quite frequently). Can't wait to start flashing random things and see what I can make this phone do.

Thanks for reading, don't forget to tell me how stupid it was and rate the thread a 1 star ;) lol.