HTC EVO 3D arriving at Sprint Premier customers' doors
Many Sprint Premier customers who ordered their HTC EVO 3Ds yesterday are receiving their brand new dual-core phones today.
One of the lukcy recipients is G&E reader Ryan Hare, who kindly sent along some of his detailed first impressions, as well as a sample pic taken with the EVO 3D compared to one taken with the EVO 4G.
Here's what he has to say:
The first thing you have to do when you unbox the EVO 3D is open the back cover and remove the plastic that separates the battery from the contacts. The initial power up of the phone takes a few minutes, and mine ended up rebooting 3 times.
Included with this phone is a transfer program aptly named Transfer. It will transfer all your contacts and calendar appointments from your old phone to your new phone using Bluetooth. The only issue I had was that it took all my phone, Facebook, and Twitter contacts and I ended up with doubles and triples of the same person. It wasn't hard to delete them, but it's worth mentioning.
The next thing I will mention is the lock screen. I love this feature already. You can change out the 4 apps that sit at the bottom and you go right into them with no lag at all.
This phone in general has no lag at all. The message app received a makeover as well. It looks a lot nicer. The little bit I have used I really enjoyed it.
The camera on this thing is really nice. I took a sample pic from my old EVO then my new 3D and I can see how much lighter the colors look with the 3D (sample pics below). It's going to take me a while to get used to using the dedicated camera button. You have to hold it down the whole time to get the picture to take. It seems that the camera software has some sort of face tracker. When I point it at my TV, there is a box that goes around the head of the person on TV and when he moves, the box moves.
I took one 3D picture and if you don't have it in the sweet spot, it easily makes you go cross-eyed. Once you do hit the sweet spot, it's pretty cool. Easiest way I can explain it is that you can see depth in your pictures.
In the video camera, you have to select HD recording in the options.
The Spiderman game proves that you can make a 3D game for a phone and it can be fun! My only gripe is that you have to download it and it's over 100MB! The EVO 3D shows about 1GB free. I put my 16GB microSD card in and there are no problems about space anymore.
I was not a fan of the stock keyboard. I had to quickly get my ai type keyboard.
The other thing I do really love about the EVO 3D is the new notification bar at the top of the phone. When you drag it down at the top you get a list of the last 5 apps you used. At the bottom you have Quick Settings tab that lets you turn off or on any radios you need.
The one thing that caught me off guard was the notification light. To me it seems brighter. It's the same 2 colors, green and red, but it just seems brighter.
The phone came with about 30% charge. I have been using it now for about 3 hours very hard over WiFi, and I just got my 15% left notification.
As for the looks and feel of the phone, the back is a nice texture that provides a nice grip. I can agree with other reviewers that I have to relearn how to hold my phone so my hands don't go directly over one of the camera lenses.
I can without a doubt say that this will happily replace my EVO 4G. I can't wait to see what 3D programs will be out for this. This thing kills the EVO 4G in my opinion. Overall I am very happy with my purchase and can't wait to play with it some more after it charges!
Sample pics taken with HTC EVO 3D (first) and HTC EVO 4G (second):
Anyone else get their HTC EVO 3D yet? Is it living up to, exceeding, or failing to meet your expectations?
Big thanks to Ryan for sending in his first impressions!
