Will you get the Evo 3D or Pre3 (if Pre3 makes it to Sprint) this summer?

[milominderbinder]

Originally Posted by Melaza

For those going for the 3D, here's a link that could be helpful:

Palm webOS Homebrewer's Guide to Android

It also shows the differences in screens, synergy, notifications, multitasking, etc.

[joejoe1]

I am going for evo3D. It is the better phone hardware wise, and no update to the pre line on sprint means android. Also, flash, epocrates, word editing, so I think android has webos beats software wise as well. Only thing I'll miss is notifications and multitasking on pre was so easy. I'll be able to live with android's versions of multitasking and notifications for the better everything else

[Riboflavin]

Evo3D reviews are out. Looks like the 3D sucks, but the phone itself is pretty decent.

I think i'll wait around for the Galaxy S II (if Pre3 doesnt come on Sprint).

[blinktreo]

My Pre- is already the most useful and productive smartphone I've ever used. Just because Android phones have more features is not a reason to drop money on them, imho. What possible use could a tiny 3d screen have other than to impress your friends? Not that this is a bad reason to buy a gadget - I love buying a new gadget that does cool things that I can show off. But my phone is a tool - I use it to make calls, and since it's a smartphone, to do email and web, and maybe a few games.

This is a constant thread in these forums. Processor speed, memory, SD slot, dual cameras, voice-recog, etc.

I got a new appreciation for how silly those threads are when I went into a camera store recently (not Best Buy or some other big-box, a real, dedicated camera store). I had a great conversation with one of their pretty knowledgeable salesmen about the push for higher pixel-counts.

I came to find an adapter for a 3-year-old camera. Apparently that adapter isn't sold at retail anymore because newer generations of cameras have emerged with different connectors. I told the sales guy that I couldn't figure out what differentiated these new cameras from the old ones, except for pixel count, and my old camera seemed to take pretty decent pics. He responded "yeah, it's all about marketing". If your competitor has 5mp, you can beat them with 6mp. Gullible consumers will look at those numbers and buy your camera, even though the quality of the machine may not be any better.

And in fact, for 99% of the situations where folks share their pics, they'll be compressed to display on the web or in email attachments.

So the evo-3d has a "3d" screen. How does that make the phone more useful? If I'm browsing the web and get a call, can I answer that call and then resume browsing? If I'm playing a "3d" game, can I respond to a text message and then resume where I was with the game?

Nah. I'll stay with my Pre- until Sprint gets a new webOS phone or runs out of replacements. Frankly I'd rather go to a feature-phone than to an Android phone.

[GodShapedHole]

Engadget's Evo3D review:

Originally Posted by Engadget

While the EVO 3D looks solidly built and feels substantial (it weighs about the same as its precursor), the materials used fail to convey the same sense of quality as the Sensation. The volume rocker and power / lock button, which are a part of the back cover, have an unpleasant, mushy feel. It's also far too easy to trigger the power / lock key and accidentally turn the phone on (it lacks the safety delay found on other recent HTC handsets).
[...]
we also didn't see WiMAX perform significantly better than HSPA+ on other carriers [...] WiMAX works best outdoors (since 2.5GHz radio waves are more sensitive to obstacles and interference) and locking onto a signal usually requires staying stationary for a minute. We noticed this with the EVO 4G and the Epic 4G last year, but without other "4G" technologies to compare WiMAX to, we simply accepted the status quo. Things are different now that HSPA+ and LTE are viable alternatives -- WiMAX is suddenly less compelling. Power efficiency is another concern. As more carriers deploy HSPA+ and LTE networks, chip manufacturers are more likely to integrate those radios at the SoC level, while WiMAX continues to require a separate radio. Which brings us to battery life, or the lack thereof. After topping off the EVO 3D, it only took 14 hours and 44 minutes to drain the beefy 1730mAh battery down to 7%. We barely used the handset during that time -- we made a 15-minute call and slept 6 hours. The rest of it was spent taking a half-dozen pictures, and occasionally checking three email accounts plus one Twitter account with all the radios enabled (save for Bluetooth). This is particularly surprising when you consider the Sensation's stellar battery life. 3D photography is particularly taxing on the battery. We saw the charge level drop from full to 60% in about an hour and a half during which we snapped about 80 photos and captured four short videos (about half of this content was in 3D). So, whatever you do, be prepared to bring a charger along with that EVO 3D.
[...]
Both cameras share what appears to be a decent quality 5 megapixel sensor with better than average low-light performance and low noise. The limiting factor here is the optics -- not the autofocus lenses per se, but the panel protecting the camera pod. We're still not sure if it's made of glass or optical grade plastic, but it causes noticeable halos in the periphery of images containing bright light [...] As you'll notice in our sample gallery, the resulting pictures are adequate but don't show any improvements over HTC's existing 5 megapixel devices when it comes to 2D imaging performance. If anything, quality suffers from the poor optics and exposure problems. [...] Just to be 100% clear, contrary to the published specs, the EVO 3D does not support 1080p video recording in 2D. The highest setting is 720p*
[...]
Sadly, whether monitoring the live view in 3D or watching stereoscopic content, the EVO 3D's qHD touchscreen is a mixed bag. In addition to washing out in direct sunlight, many people have problems seeing the 3D effect on the display even after being coached to slowly pan sideways until the 3D photos or videos "pop" into place. To make matters worse, the 3D effect looks blurry at the left and right edges of the screen, and pinch-to-zoom switches the display back to 2D
[...]
Qualcomm's 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon SoC is a force to be reckoned with, and takes Gingerbread to an entirely new level of fluidity. Everything from the basic UI to the web browser to maps is utterly buttery smooth**
[...]
there's no escaping Sense, and we're not fans. As far as pigs and lipstick go, Sense 3.0 wears a professional makeup job. Other than adding instant access to the camera from the lock screen, it's mostly style over substance, fancy 3D effects on top of functionality that already exists in Gingerbread. A long time ago, in a land far away, Sense made, well... sense. It added important missing features to the OS. But today we'll take plain Android over Sense -- and its frustrating keyboard layout -- any day
[...]
now that other carriers are rolling out HSPA+ and LTE networks, WiMAX no longer feels like the new kid on the block. Despite the EVO 3D's 1.2GHz dual-core processor, the camera strangely lacks 1080p support, and the EVO 4G arguably captures nicer stills thanks to better optics and firmware. But our biggest gripe with the EVO 3D is its terrible battery life, which is even worse than what we observed on the already lackluster EVO 4G. As for 3D, we're not convinced it's fully baked yet -- right now it feels like a gimmick, but we're willing to wait and see how it develops beyond the initial "gee wiz" phase. Ultimately, we've come to think of the EVO 3D as a Sensation with a lesser camera, cheaper materials, worse battery life, and without the ability to roam worldwide

WOW, definitely the best phone ever Looks like it's got slower internet than a Veer (which people are bashing because it doesn't have Wimax), with mediocre build quality (which people have been bashing in the Pre), terrible battery life (definitely a downgrade from the two-year old Pre Minus), a dysfunctional gimmick 3D screen, and a feature-phone level camera (haven't seen haloes since my Nokia 3630) that shares the dysfunctional 3D gimmick.
Make no mistake - if this thing had "HP" on the back instead of "HTC", it would be considered an unmitigated failure because of its many glaring shortcomings.

HTC's marketing is, however, top notch since people have been convinced it would be the best phone in history since way before HTC ever released review units.

* A LIE! THEY LIED TO US! LIARS!! DON'T BUY FROM THE LIARS!!! Oh wait, it's HTC, not HP... well, it was probably just an innocent slip-up, no sweat, everybody makes a mistake every now and then And the one-year-old Desire swinging between getting and not getting Gingerbread (how long has it been out now?) is definitely not the same thing as the two-year old Pre not getting 2.0... HTC is merely running into technical problems whereas HP is just deliberately being evil.

** Funny that every single new high-end Android phone is the first one to be perfectly - perfectly smooth, isn't it? Before the Evo3D was flawlessly smooth and showed us that older Androids weren't, the Galaxy SII was perfectly smooth and showed us that older Androids weren't. Before that, the Evo was absolutely smooth and showed us that older Androids weren't. Before that, the Droid was unconditionally smooth and showed us that older Androids weren't. In a few months, the newest Android (the first to be really utterly smooth, this time for real!) will show us that the Evo3D was but a hitchy, clunky piece of lag.

[Melaza]

I made the official jump yesterday to android and while I do miss a few things about WebOS, I can tell you there way more stuff to compensate for it.

Those reviews like the one above were all over the place and all I can tell you from my own experience is that this phone kicks butt (you know what I really wanted to say :-P ). The 3D is not something I'll be using everyday, but let me tell you it is pretty cool (if your eyes can take it lol).

I hope WebOS comes back with a bad ***** phone and more support, because the only support we got for WebOS was from the HB community! NOT HP or Palm.

[addiarmadar]

Played around with the EVO 3D and was painfull looking at the 3D content. The photos are distorted on the side that makes you strain your eyes to compensate. Plus is proprietary so I fell all this 3D crap on mobile devices is just a gimmick right now to differentiate from the sea of android devices. Also didn't like how the camera lenses stick out in the back which is gonna cause scratches in the future thus crappy shots. The rest of the phone is ok IMO.

If it only had webOS on it......

[NABRIL15]

all you recent converts to the 3D...thank you for your comments and input.

I want to know if the 3D (or Android) is rootable and as changeable as we know the Pre to be. For example. I know which directory to go to in my Pre to change the icon for phone, or email, or whatever. Naturally this can be done with a theme, or manually like I have done.
1) Can you do that with any Android phone?
2) Obviously, the Pre would be an expensive calculator without the power of webosinternals and Preware. Does Android have an equivalent with patches and customizations?

thanks

[NABRIL15]

Androids

Is there an equivalent of doctoring for Android? Whether to fix something or to do it just to clean the phone periodically?

thanks

[milominderbinder]

Originally Posted by NABRIL15

Androids

Is there an equivalent of doctoring for Android? Whether to fix something or to do it just to clean the phone periodically?

thanks

There is really no need but you can always "RUU" the phone to restore it much like a trip to the webOS doctor. It is usually called a restore. Check the forums at Android Central for instructions for a specific model. You can also do a Factory Data Reset like with webOS.