HTC Evo 4G LTE review: Ticking all boxes

Introduction

The Sprint Wireless exclusive HTC Evo 4G LTE is the latest smartphone to come from the close and rather prolific collaboration between the carrier and the Taiwanese manufacturer. The handset is bound to take its spot as the flagship for Sprint's newly launched LTE network.

While its name might lead you to believe otherwise, the HTC Evo 4G LTE is rather closely related to the HTC One X for AT&T. It sports practically the same internals as its polycarbonate sibling, but with a few extra touches, which are bound to make a lot of HTC One X owners pretty jealous.

HTC Evo 4G LTE official photos

The abovementioned extras include a microSD card slot, a dedicated camera button, as well as a metal kickstand, which harks back to the glory days of the original HTC Evo 4G. In short, the HTC Evo 4G LTE offers the same top of the line functionality, which we came to love in the HTC One X, while addressing most of its shortcoming.

Here goes the full list of features, which the newcomer has to offer.

Key features

• LTE/CDMA network support
• 4.7" 16M-color Super LCD 2 capacitive touchscreen of HD resolution (720 x 1280 pixels); Gorilla glass
• Superb build quality
• Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.0
• 1.5 GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset
• 1 GB of RAM and 16GB of storage; microSD card slot; 25GB of free Dropbox storage for 2 years
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection and geotagging; dedicated button
• 1080p and 720p video recording @ 30fps with stereo sound
• 720p front-facing camera for video-chat
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• NFC connectivity with Google Wallet pre-installed
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor and auto-brightness sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• MHL TV-out (requires MHL-to-HDMI adapter)
• Smart dialing, voice dialing
• HD voice capable
• DivX/XviD video support
• HTCSense.com integration
• HTC Portable Hotspot
• Office document editor
• Beats audio enhancements
• Built-in metal kickstand
• 2000 mAh battery with impressive endurance

Main disadvantages

• Only available in the United States
• Sprint's LTE network is still in early stages of deployment
• Non-user-accessible battery
• The glossy plastic cover on the device's back is a fingerprint magnet

On paper the HTC Evo 4G LTE is the best equipped smartphone to hit the US market so far this year. The handset simply packs everything an Android junkie can possibly demand, wrapped up in solidly built, good looking package.

In fact, we really can't help but wonder why arguably the best smartphone that HTC currently has to offer is available exclusively from the third largest carrier in the United States. As thing stand now, it might actually be a while before you get to enjoy Sprint's LTE network in your area - it is still in early stages of rollout. The silver lining regarding this issue is that the HTC Evo 4G LTE showed a rather impressive battery life when connected to Sprint's 3G network. As for the small, glossy plastic cover on the back - it is a small price to pay for having a microSD card slot on board.

HTC Evo 4G LTE live shots

As always, we are going to kick off the review with an unboxing, followed by a design and build quality inspection.

Editorial: You might notice that this review is shorter than usual and doesn't include all of our proprietary tests. The reason is it has been prepared and written far away from our office and test lab. The HTC Evo 4G LTE is a US-only phone and it's unlikely it will be making rounds on the Old Continent. Still, we think we've captured the essence of the phone in the same precise, informative and detailed way that's become our trademark. Enjoy the good read!

Canalys expects Android dominance to continue in 2012

Canalys shared a few predictions on the smartphone market in 2012. The analyst company expects recent trends to continue at least until the end of the year with Android remaining the most popular platform around.

Canalys expects the global smartphone market to grow by just over a third compared to 2011, with the 34% increase equaling 653 million units sold in 2012.

Symbian and BlackBerry shipments are expected to drop by 60% and 17%, respectively, while Android smart phone sale volumes are predicted to increase by 56% over their 2011 levels.

The largest growing markets are expected to be in the Asia Pacific region. China and Japan the major contributors to an estimated 52% increase in smartphone sales in the area.

Source 1

Introducing our new search widget for webmasters

Here at GSMArena we've spent a lot of time working on new tools to help you, our readers, pick the right smart device for you. The latest thing to come from our lab is a little different though - it's not for our homepage, it's meant to improve your own phone-centric site.

We're introducing a search widget that is easy to use (for webmasters and users alike) and provides condensed info for a wide variety of phones and tablets. The widget has an intuitive interface and shows product images, so it will hopefully make finding the desired device pretty simple.

Here's what the widget looks like. Go ahead and start typing in the search box below:

When expanded, the widget provides condensed info on a device's availability, physical dimensions, screen, camera, chipset and storage. If the full specifications are needed, there's a link to our site at the bottom too.

When collapsed, the widget is just a single line so the impact on your site's design and screen real estate is kept to a minimum. We've done our best to optimize the search widget for both wide and narrow layouts. The narrow layout is for sidebars that are between 320px and 400px (in those cases the narrow version is chosen automatically, you don't need to make any corrections to the code).

The widget can be used with a traditional mouse/keyboard setup, or with a touchscreen device. Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and smartphone browsers are all supported.

Here's what webmasters who want to use our search widget on their site need to do: simply include the following JavaScript file in the location on your page where you would like the widget to be - the script will handle the rest.

The code should look like this:

The search widget is still in beta - we can't test everything in-house as there are far too many different web site designs and web browsers out there.

So, if you do use our widget, post a link to your site in the comments and whether you had any problems with it. We'll also appreciate feedback from people who visit those sites - please provide info about your browser and just what went wrong.

Note that not all phones and tablets in our database are accessible through this widget - the devices with the lowest interest aren't present, but very few people would be searching for them anyway.

We're keen to hear ideas for new features for the search widget too - this is the first tool we develop for external sites and we'd like to know if you want its functionality expanded in any way and if there's enough interest to warrant further development in the first place.

LG Optimus TrueHD LTE goes on sale in Portugal

It seems that LG are keeping true to their word, as the LG Optimus TrueHD LTE is at long last available in Europe.

The device, which has only been available in North America and Korea until now, had previously been announced by LG for a limited European launch in three markets: Portugal, Germany and Sweden.

Portuguese retailer Vodafone has the device listed as the LG Maximo True HD LTE, due to naming conflicts with local mobile operator Optimus Telecomunicaes.

The Gingerbread-running LG Optimus/Maximo TrueHD LTE has dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 4GB of internal memory, 1 GB of RAM, a 4.5 inch HD (720 x 1280) display, and an 8MP camera that can shoot full HD video, and is listed at 489.90.

We'll let you know if we hear anything else about the other markets of the TrueHD LTE namely Sweden and Germany.

Thanks Gonalo for the tip!

Galaxy S III gets 9 million pre-orders from 100 global carriers

Korea Economic Daily is reporting that the Samsung Galaxy S III has received over 9 million pre-orders from 100 carriers around the world. This information comes courtesy of a Samsung official who remains anonymous.

Whichever way you look at it, that's an impressive figure. We knew the Galaxy S III was going to sell big but these numbers are much higher than what we would have bet on. It's predecessor, the Galaxy S II, took 10 months to ship 20 million units and the Galaxy S III took two weeks to reach almost half of that. Also, these are pre-order figures, not shipments, and are almost as good as actual sales figures.

Looks like Samsung has another winner on their hands. Obviously, this does not bode well for rivals such as HTC and LG. And even though this figure is nowhere close to the iPhone 4S pre-orders, Apple should be feeling the heat as well, especially considering the 9 million figure excludes Apple's key market, the US of A.

Source 1 Source 2

LG LS970 Eclipse 4G leaks again, has NFC and removable battery

The monstrous LG LS970 Eclipse 4G LTE broke cover once again, revealing two more bits of its specs sheet. In case you missed it the first time around, the Sprint-bound smartphone packs a quad-core Krait processor (at 1.5GHz), 2GB of RAM, 13MP camera, LTE-connectivity and a 4.67" 1280x768px LCD.

Anyway, the new spy shot shows the LS970 with its back cover off, which reveals "LS970" engraved on the chassis. We get to see that the 2100mAh Li-Po battery is user removable and there's NFC connectivity available, too.

LG LS970 Eclipse 4G LTE (click to view a bigger image)

Interestingly, there's a hole in the back cover, but it's unclear if it serves a specific purpose or it's just that this particular unit is damaged (the hole seems too irregular to be on purpose).

The LG LS970 Eclipse 4G LTE is still unofficial and the rumor mill is quiet on expected availability dates, but we do know it's headed for Sprint. LG has another droid with 2GB of RAM - the Optimus LTE2 - though that's South Korea-only for now and it only has a dual-core Krait processor.

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Phones4U offers 32GB microSD card, flip case with S III preorders

It seems that the UK is a great place to get a Samsung Galaxy S III - Phones4U is the latest retailer to offer a little something extra if you place your orders there. If you pre-order an S III, you'll get a free 32GB microSD card along with a genuine Samsung case - the Flip Case - for your new flagship droid.

The deal goes for both the Blue and the White Galaxy S III units and the free memory card, will give you total storage of 48GB. Phones4U offers the S III with contracts on Vodafone, Orange and O2, there doesn't seem to be a SIM-free version.

Phones4U still lists the delivery date as May 30, though they still have a chance to change their mind and move the launch to the 29th.

For more deals, you might want to check the Carphone Warehouse (they also have deals for Three). If you pre-order from them, you'll score a 16GB microSD card, an in-car charger and a screen protector (at first they offered a free Galaxy Tab 10.1, but that deal ended pretty swiftly).

Thanks to Craig for the tip!

Source

LG Optimus LTE2 packs 4.7-inch screen, dual-core Krait CPU

LG announced the Optimus LTE2 and bragged about the 2GB of RAM but said little else about the device. Today, they decided to fill in the blanks. There is no official word on a worldwide release of the LTE2, but it probably will venture out of South Korea - the specs sheet reads like a true Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X challenger.

The phone has a 4.7" TrueHD IPS screen with 720p resolution. The device measures 134.7 x 69.5 x 8.9 mm and weighs 145g. It supports wireless charging with an optional charging pad ($85) and battery cover ($33).

The LG Optimus LTE2 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 chipset with a dual-core Krait processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM (a world's first as the press release is keen to point out) and Adreno 225 graphics. It will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box and a customized interface.

The LTE2 will come with an 8MP main camera (with LED flash) and a 1.3MP front-facing camera.

The phone's connectivity credentials (besides the LTE) include NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, USB 2.0 with MHL (which features 5.1 channel audio output). LG did a lot of work to improve power efficiency (up to 40%) and the Optimus LTE2 will reportedly last for up to 10 hours of talk time and up to 255 hours of standby. The 2150mAh battery helps here too.

The LG Optimus LTE2 will ship this week in South Korea with an price tag of about 935,000 won (that's about $800).

Source (in Korean)

One X for US running different ROM to avoid Apple's patents

Yesterday, we reported that the AT&T version of the HTC One X and the EVO 4G LTE are being detained by the US customs as per the court order by ITC for violating one of Apple's patents. Now as it turns out, these particular phones aren't using Apple's patent to begin with.

Once again, The Verge is reporting that the AT&T One X and the EVO 4G LTE don't have the data tapping feature found on the international version of the One X. For those who are not aware, this feature lets you tap on numbers, email addresses or links in messages and show a menu of options, a feature that has been patented by Apple.

On the international version of these phones, clicking on, say, a web URL, will give you a list of apps that you may want to open the link with. However, the US models will directly launch it in one of the apps and if you want to change which app the phone uses to open the link you will have to go to the Settings menu in the messaging app, where you will find a new option called 'App Associations' not found on the international models. Once you select the app, the phone will use it launch the associated links every time you click, thus never showing the menu at all.

Due to this, the US models of the HTC One X and the EVO 4G LTE are effectively not guilty of infringing on Apple's patents. Now it depends upon the US customs whether they still allow the phones to pass through.

Source

Specs for HTC Ville C leak, a cheaper One S with Sense 4.5

The rumor mill can no longer gossip about the HTC Desire C after it went official yesterday, but the HTC Ville C has come to fill its place. Ville, if you recall was the codename for the HTC One S and according to the rumors, the Ville C is a cheaper version of just that phone.

According to the leaked specs, the Ville C will have an "ultra slim" body (though it's not clear if it will be as thin as the One S and if it has a unibody design or not), an 8MP camera with 1080p recording, 16GB of built-in storage and even the same 1650mAh battery.

It will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, of course, but the HTC Sense version is listed as 4.5. Currently, the One series use Sense 4.0, so what can this new version bring?

The situation with the screen is a bit unclear - it's a 4.3" unit with qHD resolution, though the spec sheet calls it both "LCD" and "AMOLED". If the Ville C is going to be a cheaper One S, it might make sense to go for the LCD, but we'll have to wait to find out.

The processor has certainly been downgraded though - it's a Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 MSM8260 with the dual-core CPU clocked at 1.5GHz ala - the one that powers the HTC Sensation XE.

There's no mention of Beats Audio, though since the entry-level Desire C has it, we would be really surprised if the Ville C doesnt come with the sound-enhancing technology.

That's all the available info on the HTC Ville C for the moment, though we hope it will follow the example of the Desire C and leak a few more times to satisfy our curiosity.

Source

HTC flagships' US shipments get delayed for Apple patent violation

HTC just took a massive hit in its patent war with Apple. The import of the companys duo of U.S. bound Android flagships the HTC One X for AT&T and the HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed indefinitely by the US Customs because of potential infringement of Apples patent #5,946,647.

The abovementioned occurrence is due to an exclusion order, which Apple won against HTC in December last year at the International Trade Commission. The ITC concluded that Androids messaging app and browser infringed an Apple patent, related to the conversion of phone numbers and email addresses to links, which open menus of options.

Apparently the ban was delayed, so that HTC could reengineer around the patent. It has however, gone into effect on April 19.

ITCs order has been open-ended to ban the importation of any Android device from HTC. US Customs and Border protection are in charge of handling the order. There is no information on how and when will the saga end.

Here is HTCs official statement on the matter:

The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.

We are going to update you on the matter, as soon as we receive more information.

Source

OpenSignalMaps devs tell the Android fragmentation story

Every now and then the topic of Android fragmentation pops up, but this time we get to learn a developer's thoughts on it. Whether you think having multiple versions of a platform simultaneously available operating system is important or not, in reality it's a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it has given Google the edge in market share across smartphone OS's by quite a large margin, as it allows you to choose from a wide range of devices that appeal to different needs, styles and budgets.

From a developer standpoint, however, designing apps for different OS versions, hardware, screen sizes, and even custom ROMs can significantly increase the development cost of a given software application. It's essentially the classic open-source vs. closed-source argument, where you have the ability to incorporate 3rd party flexibility and added functionality, against the stability and oftentimes higher quality of in-house development.

If you're unfamiliar with OpenSignalMaps, it's an Android app which allows you to determine the optimum network signal strength for a given region.

Over the past six months, the developers of OpenSignalMaps have been gathering stats on the various devices that are used to download their app, and have decided to publish their findings to give us an idea on the overall fragmentation of the Android ecosystem. They've polled almost 700,000 devices this past half-year, and have published some charts you won't typically see from the more famous market analysis firms.

Perhaps the most unique is the screen resolution chart which shows the wide variety of screens used to display Android.

They've also included a graphic which shows screen sizes more accurately.

OpenStreetMaps reported that no less than 3997 distinct devices downloaded its app. The two most frequently met are the Samsung Galaxy S II and Samsung Galaxy S, followed by a few HTC smartphones.

They've also done a breakdown of the various manufacturers of Android devices. It's hardly a surprise that Samsung has a huge lead here.

The Android device breakdown The Android manufacturer breakdown

For more detailed info, and interactive versions of the charts, check out the study here.

Via

HTC One XL is now selling in Australia

SIM-free and unlocked HTC One XL is now available in Australia. Currently, Oz residents can only purchase the black version for AU$850 (660). It will work on every GSM carrier in Australia and on Telstras LTE network.

In case you are thinking of importing one you'd be glad to find that the HTC One XL supports the needed European GSM and 3G bands as well. There's even support for some of the upcoming LTE networks in Europe working on the 2600MHz band.

HTC One XL is similar to the One X we already reviewed, but for the chipset. The One XL uses a Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 SoC with a 1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU and Adreno 225 GPU. The NVIDIAs quad-core Tegra 3 does no offer native LTE support, which caused the chipset swap.

This makes Australia the second country to get a Krait-powered One X after the US, whereAT&T offers it. We already covered its chipset performance and found that it's often doing better than the Tegra 3 in the One X.

In fact we are currently putting the final touches to our HTC One X for AT&T review. It should go live later tonight so stick around if you want to learn more about it.

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Kantar: Android market share doubles in some EU countries

Analysts are keeping a close eye on the market share of the various mobile OSes. Kantar WorldPanel just reported in and its findings show that Europe enjoyed recent Android offerings more than they did the iPhone 4S.

Their report focuses on the 12 week period that ended in mid April. During that time, Android enjoyed massive growth, nearly doubling its presence in some Euro countries - Spain (where market share went up to 72%), Germany (62%) and Italy (49%).

Apple's iPhone 4S helped it secure the second place in the US and the UK, but the iOS position in continental Europe weakened. The UK also saw strong demand for the HTC One X - the 12 week period that the report is on covers less than a week of One X availability, but the phone still made it to the Top 10.

Windows Phone is slowly gaining traction thanks to Nokia's switch to the platform (the Finnish company still has a strong presence in Europe). In Germany, WP7 doubled its share to 6% and it got to the 3-4% mark in the US, the UK, France and Italy.

This growth came at a price though - Symbian was one of the biggest losers when it came to market share according to Kantar and so was RIM's BlackBerry. The analyst company claims RIM's platform only hold 3% of the smartphone market (down from 9%). A while back, Nielsen reported that during the three month period ending in February, only 5% of recently bought smartphones were BlackBerrys.

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HTC Desire C is a budget ICS droid with Beats Audio

After a number of leaks, the HTC Desire C (previously known as Golf and Wildfire C) went official today. It bears some resemblance to the HTC Explorer, but it's actually more of a One series smartphone.

HTC Desire C is an ICS phone on a budget

The Desire C runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0 on top out of the box. It also features Beats Audio technology (no headphones though) and packs a 3.5" LCD of HVGA resolution (the Explorer had a 3.2" screen). The handset is 12mm thick and boasts a durable metal frame.

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 chipset with a CPU clocked at 600MHz. The actual chipset model number wasn't announced, but it's probably the MSM7225A with a Cortex-A5 CPU and 512MB RAM (the one that powers the Explorer).

The HTC Desire C brings some more upgrades compared to its predecessors. The camera is a 5MP unit with F/2.8 aperture and 34mm focal length (in 35mm equivalent). You also get 4GB of built-in storage (plus 25GB cloud space from Dropbox for 2 years), a microSD card slot, 3G with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and USB 2.0. The battery has 1230mAh capacity and it's user-accessible. There will also be an NFC-enabled version of the Desire C.

The HTC Desire C will be available in Polar White, Stealth Black and Flamenco Red in select European countries (we've seen Romania for 200, the Netherlands for 220 and Portugal who jumped the gun a couple of days ago) later this month.

Update: T-Mobile UK will offer the Desire C starting early next month. You can get it for £170 without a contract or free if you sign a two-year contract (£15.50 a month).

Source

Nokia S40 phones with full touchscreens leak

Nokia has been dabbling with touchscreens on S40 phones for a while now so it was only a matter of time they released a phone with a full touchscreen. Now we have come across two S40 phones with such full-touchscreen displays.

The phones, Nokia 311 and 305, were first spotted on a Chinese forum being placed next to rulers. Both phones have a large touchscreen up front and call/end buttons below. The 311 seems to be the more expensive of the two and has a slightly more premium look to it than the very bland looking 305.

We have even more pictures of the Nokia 311, courtesy My Nokia Blog. You can see the phone much clearly in these pictures. Among things worth noting is a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back with no flash but a camera shutter button on the side.

There are also pictures of the user manual that uses cartoons to explain the various functions of the phone. Here we can see the N9-Harmattan style UI that relies on side swipes to move between different screens. There are also other things like pinch to zoom and a drop down notification drawer.

You can find more pictures in the source link below.

Source 1 Source 2

Samsung introduces C3782 Evan - a budget dual-SIM

Samsung has introduced a new addition to the DUOS lineup the budget C3782 Evan.

The phone supports quad-band GSM/EDGE networks and comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA display, a 3 megapixel snapper, FM radio, Bluetooth, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot. There is an optical trackpad as well.

The C3782 Evan is a feature phone running on the latest non-touch edition of Samsungs proprietary user interface. The first markets to get this phone are Russia and Ukraine with more countries to follow them shortly after that. The unlocked contract-free device should cost about 110.

Source

Nokia India online store reveals 808 PureView pricing

We recently learned that Nokia will be launching the 808 PureView first in Russia and India. And although Nokia is yet to announce the pricing for the phone, the page source for the Nokia India store has let the cat out of the bag.

Discovered by the folks at Androsym, the page source for the Nokia India store mentions the price as '29,999, which is approximately $557/432. The actual page itself does not mention the price anywhere, only asking you to enter your email so it can inform you when the phone goes on sale. Digging through the page source of phones that are on sale reveals that the source price matches the price on the page, which means it is highly likely that '29,999 is the official price.

As usual, the price is for the unlocked version of the handset and if true, would be inclusive of all taxes.

The pricing comes as a relief because the Italian pre-order price that we saw last months was close to an absurd 600. This new price is more in line with what a Symbian flagship should be priced at.

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HTC Desire C first press shot and specs leak on Vodafone

The HTC Desire C is not a stranger anymore. We've seen it star in not one, but two blurry photo sessions. However, this is the first time we get to see it in its proper attire - via a leaked press shot. Obviously, Vodafone Portugal jumped the gun on this one and included it in its May catalog even before the thing was announced.

Leaked specs and photos are the bread and butter of this job, so we are more than happy to introduce you to the HTC Desire C.

As you'll see below, the catalog also sheds some light on the specs of the device. Here's what we have confirmed for now: The HTC Desire C has a 3.5-inch screen with 320x480 resolution and runs on a 600MHz processor. Connectivity-wise it's 3.5G, whatever that means, but we're guessing it's HSDPA. The handset also has 4GB of internal memory and a 5MP camera. But most importantly, this low-spec'd device will run Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

According to one of our tipsters, the Desire C has a 1230 mAh battery and should retail below 200. After all these leaks, we should see the smartphone announced rather soon.

Thanks for the tip, Filipe and Daniel!