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Android is on a roll. The relatively young mobile operating system by Google just overtook iPhone sales figures last month. Android fanboys (and fangirls) are already emerging even though the major Froyo v2.2 update hasn’t even been made available for most devices just yet (except Nexus One). The Droid Incredible is one of HTC’s best packages and Verizon’s best smartphone. And it’s selling out quicker than it’s getting stocked. Then comes the HTC EVO 4G. It’s one of the most revolutionary phones for the U.S. Market as it sports 4G mobile broadband, a front-facing camera for video chat, an 8 person mobile hotspot feature, and an overly large 4.3 inch display. As with any gadget, there are pros and cons. We hope that this infographic can help seal the deal on helping you decide which phone is best for you.
If you haven’t read our review of Verizon’s HTC Droid Incredible, it’s worth a read. We were lucky enough to pick up a HTC EVO 4G at Google I/O 2010 and although our full in-dpeth review isn’t yet published, we have posted some great high-resolution product shots.
UPDATE: EVO 4G vs. iPhone 4 vs. Droid X Infographic here!
Both phones are for the most part similarly matched. While the HTC EVO has an edge due to its 4G compatibility, coverage is limited to just 32 cities at the moment. While the EVO’s large screen is a plus, it might be a bit bulky for some. The Droid Incredible offers a competitive advantage with 8GB internal storage, which when paired with a 32GB microSD card offers more storage capacity than the HTC EVO. Verizon Wireless does arguably offer the best cellular coverage nationwide and the largest customer base; however, their pricing plans are more expensive than Sprint’s rates. Then again, the EVO does offer Skype Mobile Video Chat, 720p video recordings, and HDMI output. Deciding between these two phones might be a clear-cut decision for some but a hard choice for others; however I’ll assure you one thing: neither phone will disappoint. So, the big question, which one are you buying?
Editors Note: Contributed by Sharath Shroff, Sahas Katta, Jacob Mederos, and Ian Thackston.
I love the Nexus One because it doesn’t have “Sprint” or “Verizon” pimples all over it. Scars on a beautiful face, etc etc. Makes me sad, like a sad panda.
EVOOOOOOO. It’s not even close. Seriously the Evo is the best phone ever built. It even has a kickstand. Internal memory is a foss seeing with 2.2 its all about sd cards. It uploads live videos people. Huge screen and only .03″ larger overall. Do you know how little difference that is? Its not like the phone itself is that much bigger than the incredible, its that the screen takes up the entire frontage of the device. There is noo need for an optical trackpad with a 4.3″ screen. And youtube HQ automatic is nice.
GOOOO EVO, VERIZON SUCKSSS!
Just bought an Incredible. Very excited. Obviously, the Evo has better features, but the Verizon network is WAY better (even with 4G on Sprint, I get better coverage where I live). As well, the Evo is massive- 4.3” screen at 170 grams is too much. The Droid only weighs 130 grams. The EVO just doesn’t seem like a phone at that point- more like a tablet.
the evo is not the clear choice. i have an incredible. and verizon is way better thn sprint. i had sprnt a few years back. the incredible is 1.2 ounces lighter. plus the evo is to big and clunky. the incredible has a better battery and despite the screen size, they both have the same screen size
I changing from Verizon to Sprint to pick up the Evo…I don’t live in the hills of Arkansas so coverage isn’t an issue.
1700 MAMP battery vs. 1300 MAMP
lieesss i opened my friends evo he got from google i/o (he is a developer for android) it has 1500mAh.
EVO battery sucks, see tech crunch they say so. (I think iphone battery sucks too though)
Incredible is better.
just bought the htc incredible last week and it blew my mind away way better then the evo my friend owns one and he already wants to have mine so i bought his and brock it it wuz a sucky piece of shit can even fit in my pants had fun smashing it:)
oh my god why would you smash the jesus of cell phones?!
don’t feed the trolls. ;)
How did he get an EVO? There not available for purchase until the 4th of June.
Oh Henry!
Yeah nicolas dont feed the troll under the bridge. He totally just told a fib, none of that story was true.
I’m in love with the Evo. I’m a Sprint user and I will not change phone providers for any phone, the Evo is going to be the best phone that Sprint will offer. The more I read the more I get into it, ofcourse there are the issues, like the battery, but I’ll be changing from the Palm Pre… nough said.
I’m with you on that one. I’ve had a Pre since day one and have gotten used to shuffling radios on and off as needed. This will be a problem w/ smartphones for the foreseeable future and I don’t consider it to be a deal breaker.
Coming from someone who is also doing the Pre to EVO switch, I’d have to say I’m most excited about actually having updates to look forward to. I’ve been without flash support and many other broken promises of glory from Palm for over a year now. It’s terrible. I just want a good phone with a large community of users that contribute. Bleh.
The price plans are way better on Sprint. Plus Sprint roams on Verizon’s CDMA, EVDO REV A network. and Verizon does the same on Sprints network since they share the same technology (Except 4G/Wi-Max) I have a Sprint phone for personal use and a Verizon phone given to me by the company I work for. I have done speed test on both phones in the same places and they are typically about the same. When my Sprint phone is in “ROAM” it’s still connected to EVDO REV A because they are piggy backing on Verizon. Also the EVO is not THAT big. Yeah it wouldn’t fit in the jean pockets of my wifes tight ass jeans but it fits perfectly fine in my baggy jean pockets with little problem at all. I had a Nexus One for 3 months and the 5 MP camera on the Nexus One appeared to take better pictures than the EVO’s 8 MP camera does. I’d still be rocking the Nexus One if T-Mobiles overall nationwide coverage wasn’t so freaking bad.
A lot of people think Sprint’s network is weak because of the reputation they garnered back in the early 2000s of being a small fast network, but if you lived in a rural area you had to pay high roaming charges. Now Sprint includes nationwide roaming with all of their plans. basically, you can now access Verizon’s network ANYWHERE they have towers. Pretty much eliminates the difference between the two companies, coverage wise. Ill take the Evo just for the (possibly marginal) 4g speed boost. Speed/user experience will be the most important factor as resolution/image quality increases and flash is enabled in froyo… eventually using 3g will become like using analog towers today w painfully slow download speeds.
4G speeds were actually a fairly decent improvement. On Verizon Wireless 3G and AT&T 3G I get under 2MB/s most of the time throughout the California Bay Area. Verizon is generally more stable and receives more consistent speeds. While AT&T does have random awesome spikes of speed, at most times it’s unreliable. Requests don’t make it through and I often find myself refreshing a webpage.
And then comes Sprint. I tested Sprint 3G in the San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento areas. Upload speeds were almost always about 3-4x more than the AT&T iPhone in the same spots with the same SpeedTest.net application connecting to the same servers at the same times. AT&T often had a hairline faster of download speeds, but once again, like Verizon, Sprint’s speeds were consistent.
For those wondering about 4G speeds, read my review of the Sprint Overdrive 4G: http://skattertech.com/2010/04/sprint-4g-overdrive-review/
Evo 4G is the best Android phone out right now. Hands frickin down. I don’t know why everyone thinks the Incredible is better — it feels cheap in the hand, has screen problems, and the screen is smaller. No thanks Verizon!
What kind of screen problems are you speaking of? I’ve had mine since launch and never had a problem with the screen.
The screen problems he made up to make the Evo look better. Cmon Jimmy!
Woohoo! thanks to toastcfh at XDA-Dev… this bad boy already has froyo!!
http://briefmobile.com/froyo-hacked-on-htc-evo-4g
The only thing holding me back on buying an Evo instead of the iPhone is battery life. Can anyone tell me how comparable they are? Or just the battery life of the Evo in general. I can charge it regularly but I’d like to not be screwed after just a couple of hours of use/idle mix.
The infographic says 146 hours on standby (more than 24 means I’m good there) but only 5 in 3G. Isn’t that the standard data thing? So as long as I don’t use more than say 4 hours of the data in a day, like browsing, facebook, email, etc, then I’d be fine to charge it up that night when I got home?
That seems really doable because I don’t plan on using it for my main web surfing or anything. If this is correct, then I will surely buy one I think. I love the big screen idea and the lack of the optic ball. Plus I’m still on Sprint now and I can get a comparable plan to ATT’s iPhone for only 70 bucks. Sounds good to me.
I have an iPhone and am ready to move to the EVO. I have been worried about the battery life also, but I have seen a few reviews where they say that the EVO battery life is comparable to the iPhone 3GS. I wonder if some of the reviewers of the EVO are unfamiliar with the general lack-luster performance of smartphone batteries, as opposed to batteries of basic phones. If the EVO battery life truly is similar to the iPhone 3GS, then I will definitely get the EVO. I guess we will only know once we get feedback from the early adopters.
I’m not going to lie, battery life isn’t the greatest.
I’m almost done with my review, I promise!
On another note, the EVO completely crashed last night. Widgets won’t load, contact book is acting funky, navigation app keeps crashing, basic OS menus are freezing, and phone calls have odd beeping sounds. I’m going to do a hard reset and try again.
Sprint EVO 4G Phone is hands down much much superior to any iPhone or any phone in the world right now. It’s way faster, way sexier, 2 camarras, video chatting, FM Radio, 8 laptops connection hotspot, HDMI outlet. Not even one of these features are found at any iPhone
Sprint 3G is faster than ATT
Sprint 4G is even more faster than ATT/VZ
Sprint plans are less costly
tethering fee is $30 on top of the $30 data plan. 4G Service is $10 more on top of the data plan. So that’s $70 on top of the base $45 plan. This thing doesn’t come cheap.
$69.99 every thing plan plus $10 EVO fee plus $30 hot spot fee comes up to $110 and with Sprint you get unlimited calls to any mobile on any network plus 450 minutes to land lines. iPhone on AT&T you can get 450 minutes for $39.99 per month but that does not give you unlimited mobile to mobile (which 90% of my calls are any way) unlimited texting is another $20 per month plus another $30 a month for e-mail and data on the iPhone. that is $90.00 per month and you don’t even have the option of tethering or using as a hot spot (yet) and every time you call some one NOT on AT&T your going to eat away those 450 minutes pretty fast. Take away the mobile hot spot and sprint runs you $80 a month and you get more out of your plan than with the iPhone and AT&T…….
Robert is correct. It’s $70 + $10 for 450 minutes voice + unlimited text + unlimited data. And as you said Mobile-to-Mobile is included, not just within the Sprint network. EVO users can call VZW or AT&T cell phones without wasting any minutes. The hotspot feature is also free on 4G networks for now apparently, although under advertised!
On another note, I’m just excited to be getting a special Google I/O 2010 attendee plan. It’s $59 + $10 = $60 per month. I get an additional 50 landline minutes in addition to the standard features.
what an awesome chart – i have been considering both devices and this chart makes it easy to see the differences. amazingly how much bigger the evo looks but the specs are pretty close
i had read all of the above and it seems like the evo is a kick ass phone i have at&t phone and i had an iphone is ok, but the data speed is not that great, i never had spring; and i am thinking on giving then a break like what i hear on the spring network.
i also like the simply everything plan form spring i just may cut the deal
Fact Correction: The Incredible does not have an external camera button.
I think they’re referring to the optical button being the “shutter”. Since that’s “external” (not a touch on the screen) it qualifies.
JC, thanks for answering Tom’s question. You read our minds.
Mr. Katta, how does the battery life of the EVO compare to the iphone 3GS? I understand that the EVO battery life is not great, but compared to what? What I really want to know is how it compares to phones like the iphone, incredible, or nexus one. I really appreciate the help and the excellent side by side comparison with the incredible.
Our full review is going up in the next 3 hours or so, so stay tuned!
Sprint and Verizon use the use the same frequencies and there networks are the same. Except Verizon does not have WiMax. Wimax is a growing technology. You guys that are hating on WiMax 4g must have a temporary loss of memory. If I am not mistaken when 3G was first introduced it was limited as well. It takes time to get everything up and running. The iphone craze is going away. Sprint will finally gain some of the market share that it lost.
ive worked with both phones and i would personally have a hard time choosing. i like the bigger screen on the evo but you can see that its slightly more pixely than the incredible when theyre side by side because they have the same resolution but its more spread out on the evo. the kickstand is tight and so is the front facing camera but it feels like a brick in your hand and you get tired of holding it quicker than the incredible. i like the topographic shape of the back of the incredible but a lot of people think its weird. i LOVE the optical joystick because even with a giant screen its still hard to perfectly select text with your finger. and its nice to have for lots of games. all in all theyre both great phones and its a decision i would base on the network and the hype you get from buddies when youll say i have a droid incredible. if you say i have an evo people are gonna think you have a mitsubishi piece of crap. i personally am going to side with the incredible. because with the camera hardware being the same the incredibles inability to record video in 720p is just software and can eventually be corrected.
I liked the Incredible but it did feel “Cheap” after having a Nexus One for a few months….. The Nexus One felt great in the hand… Got my hands on a EVO demo and it’s got a slightly better feel in the hand. The Nexus One is by far and above the best phone. I think the size is perfect at 3.7 inches and I like stock Android over Sense UI. Spec and performance wise the Incredible and Nexus One were the same. I just got tired of T-Mobiles network.. Too many empty spaces… For me Verizon and Sprint both work equally great for where I live, work, travel and play. I just like Sprints plans better (more bang for your buck even with the $10 add on)
I will be picking up my Evo tomorrow from “The Shack”. They give a free $50 accessory bundle with each phone. I’m also signed up for an Incredible with Verizon in case the Evo doesn’t work out (30 day trial from Sprint). The Incredible’s latest next release date is June 24th so I’ll have some time to try out the Evo first. My main concerns are size, reception, and battery life. I hope the Evo works out because the family plan works out to be $30 cheaper for essentially the same features.
Correction – The free accessory bundle is $20 but only if you bought a $50 gift card before May 31st. However, you don’t have to send in for the $100 rebate. You get the phone for $199.
A little off topic though but is there gonna be a huge demand for the phone or will i be able to pick it up sometime soon without too much hastle
I am sure demand is going to be high. Best Buy (at least my local Nashville, TN store) stopped taking preorders over a week ago and they are calling each preorder customer and setting up appointments. They are holding preorder phones for 48 hours from store opening tomorrow and won’t be selling any phones until all the preorders are done or the 48 hours are over with (Sunday store opening) so you may or may not get one. My local Sprint store which I went to today just to see if they had a demo out yet told me they are opening at 6 in the morning and ONLY accepting customers who put down a $50 deposit and got on their list, If your not on their preorder list your not getting a phone on Friday.. He said they MAY have a few left over but they don’t plan on having any phones after Friday… Good luck.. You might get lucky.. I had an HD2 on T-Mobile for 5 days. I went to T-Mobile after work the day they released it and they were sold out, the kiosk at the mall was sold out but just for the hell of it I walked into Radio Shack and they had ONE left…
People arguing about which one of these phones is better need to SETTLE DOWN…these things are super close (as is made quite obvious in this article) and so it really comes down to preference. If you have an Incredible, don’t feel like you aren’t the cool kid anymore–just step away from the keyboard, take a deep breath and remember that you like your phone and that is all that matters. NUFF SAID