It seems like there are a bazillion Android phones on the market, which means any phone with a brand new feature seems like a colossal improvement.
The latest of these big steps forward was the ‘glasses-free’ 3D screen on the LG Optimus 3D. Now splashing down is HTC’s Evo 3D, with 3D features intended to be less alarming those on the Optimus 3D.
In fact, at first glance, you might mistake the Evo 3D for any other slightly chunkier Android phone with a bright screen and HTC’s Sense user interface.
The problem is that the Android line-up has recently moved on to greener pastures, with the super-thin and light Samsung Galaxy S2 widely considered the best Android phone ever made, and our phone pick of the year thus far. That leaves the Evo 3D in a quandary.
The 3D features are remarkably entertaining, especially for a full-length Hollywood feature film in 3D, yet the overall design aesthetic is so early 2011.
As it stands, the phone definitely feels a little chunky – and outdated. It measures 126.1mm x 65.4mm x 11.3mm, which is just a hair thinner than the LG Optimus 3D (11.9mm), but not even in the same league as the Samsung Galaxy S2′s 8.5mm. The HTC Evo 3D also feels a bit hefty, with a weight of 170 grams – two grams heavier than the Optimus 3D.
In display terms, the Evo comes out on top, though, with a 4.3-inch screen running at 540×960, surpassing the Optimus 3D’s 800×480.
With a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, the Evo 3D is also the faster of the two models. LG makes a big deal of the tri-dual technology on the Optimus 3D, since it uses RAM on the TI OMAP processor and Infineon chipset at the same time.
But, having run tests on both models, the Evo 3D proved to be faster for most activities – especially 3D gaming.
In terms of hardware design, the Evo 3D closely matches the HTC Sensation, except that the front layout is a bit different. Each has the same four buttons – Home, Menu, Back, and Search – but the HTC logo has been shifted above the Evo 3D’s screen, so it looks like the display is bigger (they’re both 4.3 inches).
On closer inspection, you’ll see the Evo 3D has a large switch on the lower right side for changing the display to work in 2D or 3D.
Essentially, the stereoscopic technology works the same as a home 3D TV in that, in a game or movie, there are actually two images being presented at the same time – one image being perceived by each of your eyes.
Both Samsung and Nokia had 3D phones in Europe several years ago, but they didn’t use such sharp, vibrant and massive screens (for mobile phones).
Otherwise, the Evo 3D has standard ports for microUSB (on the left), a large shutter release button for the camera (on the right), and the power and 3.5mm headphone jack up top.
You remove the case to access the innards by creaking the slot on the bottom. On the back, there is a red Darth Vadar-like camera staring at you: a red oval that protrudes slightly with two camera lenses for recording 3D photos and movies.
The overall impression here is that the extra 54g of weight compared to the Samsung Galaxy S2 could be a death knell. The main reason to carry this phone around is for the 3D features, so we’ll make sure we take a good, hard look at that feature.
Oddly, the HTC Evo 3D does not make as much fanfare about the 3D features as the LG Optimus 3D. There is no dedicated 3D interface (on the Optimus it is called 3D Space) and the Evo 3D doesn’t even group 3D apps together.
This could be because HTC rushed the production a bit, and maybe there is a software update waiting in the wings. A more likely guess is that HTC wants the phone to stand on its own and made the 3D features a bit more secondary. It is not a 3D phone, it is a 2D phone that also does 3D.
That means the HTC Sense interface is intact. You can flip easily between the well-design widgets on the home screens, accessing weather and the social networking streams of friends and mild acquaintances, staring at their visage in 2D only.
Our test phone came equipped with Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, which is a maintenance upgrade for speed and fixes a few bugs in the last release. Android is a solid OS these days. We experienced precious few force close messages in daily use of the 2D features.
With 2.3, you do get a few new interface tweaks, though. You can select words and copy/paste faster in a paragraph of text, and the soft keyboard is spaced a bit differently with rounded characters. The release supports near-field communication (NFC) for buying goods, but only if the phone has the chip popped in during manufacture – which HTC didn’t do for the Evo 3D.
Unlike the Optimus 3D, when you press the power button, there is no delay at all to see the home screen. Like most HTC phones, you drag a wheel up to access the phone. None of the home screen features are in 3D – which is unfortunate.
It means the 3D features are really accessed using apps; Android itself seems blissfully unaware of the screen tech.
The screen is bright and clear – in a side-by-side comparison to the LG Optimus 3D, it is obvious that the HTC Evo 3D has better resolution, but the screen is actually a touch more washed out and not as colourful.
Comparing the Evo 3D to the Samsung Galaxy S2 is not even advised: there is such a stark difference in brightness and colour that the Evo 3D looks outdated, even if that top smartphone can’t do any of the 3D tricks. As with most HTC phones, you can move widgets around and drop icons onto the home screen with slick ease.
It’s a bit jarring to realise that none of the widgets run in 3D, and most of the apps for 3D games and content are actually not even on the home screens. There is one app for accessing a store for 3D games that’s run by Gameloft.
One quick note at this point about the 3D switch: it is best to leave it off when you can. The switch actually enables 3D capability on the screen, which then drains the battery more. If you’re not actually using 3D, it makes sense to keep the phone in 2D mode.
Another reminder that the 3D features are merely an add-on is that the YouTube app takes you to 2D videos by default.
You can easily search for 3D content, but there is no portal into the 3D section of YouTube, and no interface section for 3D apps and content.
However, that is not necessarily a detriment to the phone. For those who want to use the many 2D features and switch over to 3D mode as needed, it’s handy to have less clutter.
There are no 3D features on the HTC Evo 3D that make the mugs of your friends pop off the screen when browsing through contacts, even though that would have been cool. There are no 3D phone icons, and no 3D video chats between Evo 3D models, which could probably have been expected.
Instead, the Evo 3D is a fairly typical HTC phone. Call quality sounded about the same as the LG Optimus 3D, without any distortion or other audio problems. We had one call where the person on the other line complained about not hearing us on the speakerphone, showing the microphone might be a little underperforming, but every other test call worked fine with the speakerphone.
To access contacts, you use the People app located on the main screen. The same contacts appear when you press the Phone button at the bottom of the touchscreen. If you add a Facebook account, those contacts are listed with their photo and phone number.
This approach is similar to other HTC phones, such as the Sensation and the Desire HD, and the social networking aggregation features of many Motorola models, such as the Atrix. It’s straightforward and logical.
You can quickly search for a name by typing it into a search box at the top of the screen, or use the keypad as a smart dialler by pressing the numbers that correspond with the letters… you know, like on phone keypads of old.
That said, the HP Veer and upcoming HP Pre3 do a better job of making contacts more searchable right from the main home screen.
Meanwhile, adding a contact is simple enough. You click a large plus sign and fill in the contact details. There’s a camera icon you can use to snap a photo.
You can also add a photo from your gallery (say, one you shot earlier of the contact), and this photo can be in 3D, but the thumbnail is so small that you can’t see the 3D effect.
Messaging on the HTC Evo 3D also doesn’t make use of any 3D features, which isn’t that surprising. There are no 3D chat sessions where icons loom out of the screen.
The Messages app handles text messaging only. There is a dedicated Gmail app and one generic app called Mail that you can use for Microsoft Exchange and other accounts. Your Facebook messages aren’t integrated into these apps, which is a shame as unified inboxes should be everywhere in our opinion.
Adding email accounts works the same as with other HTC phones: press Menu and select Account List, then Add an account. With the Evo 3D and its dual-core 1.2GHz processor, many of these tasks works quickly.
The phone also supports a 4G connection up to 12Mbps or so, which helps you receive emails as speedily as you’d hope on the go – we’re waiting to see if we can manage decent speeds on boring old 3G connections in the UK.
There’s a cool “conversations” button that shows you recent email threads. Select a thread, and you will see all of the messages in that conversation.
Typing on the Evo 3D is acceptable, but not great, and you must rely solely on the touchscreen keyboard since there is no slide-out or hard keys. With Android 2.3 there’s a bit more roundedness to the soft on-screen keys, and the touchscreen is responsive enough.
The haptics – which provide a slight buzzing sensation when you type – are quite minimal compared to the more obvious buzz on the Samsung Galaxy S2. There is also something to be said for the crisp, bright screen on the Galaxy S2, which makes soft keys stand out and easier to read.
Another small issue is that there are no new innovations here. On a phone that has a 3D screen, we wanted a bit more flash beyond the basic Android messaging functions.
There is an opportunity here for a third-party developer to create 3D apps (if HTC gives them access to the technology required) for messaging that shows 3D icons or text.
Finally, after a so-so experience using the HTC Evo 3D that mimics that of most recent HTC models, the phone started to reveal some of its power when we jumped online.
As a 4G device (in the US, where 4G tech’s in place, as opposed to the UK, where it’s still in the pipeline) speeds run as high as 12Mbps for fast access to content, and this is first and foremost a content phone.
The smartphone also uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the standard 3G service, as expected.
An important note: these games are all so new that every one of them requires a fairly massive update before you can even play them. For example, HTC includes Spider-Man 3D with the handset, but there’s a mandatory 200MB update which will kill the standard data plan over here.
In some cases, these downloads required that we connect to a Wi-Fi connection first. For YouTube 3D content, the 4G service meant smooth streaming for many 3D trailers, including older ones for Alice in Wonderland 3D and Avatar 3D.
The browser on the HTC Evo 3D is fairly standard for HTC’s Android range, and does support Flash content, like most newer Android phones.
On GamesRadar.com, graphics looked clear and colourful, but we didn’t find any web pages that rendered all content in 3D. Pages looked colourful and clear when zoomed in tight. Text flowed correctly when we zoomed in, filling to the borders of the screen and re-jigging depending on how much we zoomed.
Navigation follows the basic Android rules: press Menu, choose an icon to go forward and back. To bookmark, press Menu and then Add Bookmark. There are no brilliant 3D innovations here for browsing, so the main advantage on the Evo 3D is that you can expect fast browsing and fast downloads for media.
The HTC Evo 3D starts revealing its claim to fame once you start using the camera. In some ways, it is a bit of a finally realisation, especially compared to the Optimus 3D, which trumpets many of the 3D functions in a more obvious way.
When you start the Camera app, you can flip the switch on the side of the phone from 2D to 3D. When you do, the screen flickers just a bit as the stereoscopic tech takes over. When holding the phone, you have to position the device at arm’s length – about 12 inches or so from your eyes. Further away, and the 3D effect is not as obvious. Closer, and you go bug-eyed.
At the right distance, you can use the camera in 3D mode for long stretches, but we found that after about 30 minutes the headache will start.
Part of the skill of 3D photography is knowing how to set up the shot. For example, in photographing a car, the best results came when we angled the phone to capture a foreground object like a rear-view mirror and made the rest of the car look as though it is farther in the background. For straight-on people shots, 2D mode is best.
Oddly, the 3D camera, which consists of two lenses on the back of the phone, captures footage at 2MP per camera, even though they snap at 5MP for 2D shots. Presumably, this is to save on processing time and disk space. However, the Optimus 3D shoots in full camera-spec resolution. That said, the final 3D photos and videos look convincing and clear.
We also had no trouble with fuzzy images resulting from the phone moving around too much, since the auto-focus tends to work quite well.
CAR: The best 3D shots came after clever angling
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CLEAR: Shots are clear and convincing in 2D
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LAYERS: 3D images need to be considered for depth
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INDOORS: Colours are realistic in indoor shots
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LOW LIGHT: Colours are almost black-and-white in low light conditions
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In 2D mode, the Evo 3D offers many of the same features as any other HTC phone. You can apply digital effects such as a grayscale look or vintage. You can set manual white balance, use a timer, and add a geo-tag to any image. ISO speed runs from 100 up to 800.
For video, the HTC Evo 3D becomes a powerful mobile 3D videocamera that shoots clean, clear movies. You can record 3D videos using up to 720p quality. Our test videos looked clear as a bell, but the 3D effect was more convincing when we tried to position a foreground object for greater visual perspective.
Interestingly, the 3D video feature seems to work best at setting foreground and background objects on their own plane. This is the mastery that James Cameron developed on Avatar, and it means fewer headaches.
When we tried throwing an object at the camera in 3D video mode, the Evo 3D recorded the movement in less convincing fashion. Presumably, this is because we’re not talking about Hollywood-quality optics that can keep up with a ping-pong ball. The ball moves as a fuzz of motion and not realistically, despite what the US commercials suggest.
In 3D video capture mode, you have a few options available. You can use the MPO or JPS file format. A grid option helps you line up distant and near objects in the frame. You can adjust sharpness level, saturation, and other settings to improve the quality.
Content is king on the Evo 3D. If you have a hard time making your own movies and still shots in 3D (in terms of making them look convincing and interesting), or get bored with that creative endeavour, there are quite a few options for viewing 3D content.
One of the best ways to view content is on YouTube. The service uses a 3D emblem to indicate that the video in in 3D. You can search for the term “YT3D” and see hundreds of 3D videos. The Optimus 3D does a better job here, though.
In the 3D Space interface section, you can select a link to YouTube 3D, which essentially performs the search for you. Still, the end result on both phones means the same bounty of trailers, home-made videos, and some longer 3D videos – but no complete feature films.
Our test phone came with The Green Hornet 3D stored on the microSD card. This disappointing film is more of a comedy than a serious superhero movie, so the 3D effects are a bit dull.
During the course of this review, the app you’d normally use to rent 3D content, called Watch, did not actually return any results for 3D feature films, so the Green Hornet movie was more for show.
Still, it’s quite thrilling to see a glasses-free 3D movie on a mobile device. In some ways, the immediacy of turning on the phone and selecting the movie, then seeing the results in 3D, beats out a full 3D television for spontaneous entertainment. On a larger 3D screen, there are a few more steps involved, including setting putting television in 3D mode.
The Evo 3D comes with an 8GB microSD card, which inserts next to the battery. (There is no slot on the outside of the case for adding additional storage.) The standard Music app, which can play music stored in the Google Music cloud, worked smoothly. This app is available as a widget as you’d expect on any HTC phone.
The Evo 3D supports most common file formats for music, such as AAC and WAV, and a few extra formats for video, including the common BitTorrent format XVID.
Other than the Watch app, there are no stores we’ve found that contain any other 3D movies, and even the Watch app doesn’t offer any content yet. (On the LG Optimus 3D, Sanctum 3D is listed in the mSpot service, although we were not able to successfully rent the movie and download it – LG is looking into the issue.)
Sound quality on the Evo 3D is just average – there are no extra sound technologies such as Dolby Surround to add extra punch to movie-watching. Some forums suggest that the phone supports Dolby SRS, but we did not see a setting to enable this feature, and movies did not have any extra surround-sound effect that we noticed.
The Evo 3D does not have a kickstand for propping up the phone, which is a shame because it would have been a smart idea for this model.
The 4.3-inch screen is bright enough for movies and viewing 3D pictures, although the Samsung Galaxy S2 is more vibrant and brighter for 2D content. We also prefer the lightness of the S2 for holding onto the device for long movie sessions. For editing features, you can trim movies for size and cuts, but not much more.
Our test phone did have a digital radio app, and does support DLNA streaming to and from a device like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3D. The included app, called Connected Media, walks you through the setup process and, over an 802.11 router, streamed both music and movies smoothly to a large screen TV.
Games look amazing on the device. Spider-Man, NOVA 3D and Asphalt 6 3D all presented compelling game environments that looked realistic.
There is a toss-up between the Evo 3D and the LG Optimus 3D. The Evo 3D is faster, so some gameplay looks smoother. However, the Optimus has a brighter and more colorful display, so a game like NOVA 3D actually looks a bit more believable because of the colour contrast.
The Evo 3D is not going to set any records on battery life. One issue is that 3D playback tends to drain the 1730 mAh battery faster (although the extended power is a plus).
In our tests, watching the entire Green Lantern movie in 3D, then checking email and browsing a few Web sites, the phone only lasted about three hours. Importantly, we set the brightness level at a mid-point.
The battery life for most activities, though, is much greater – up to 14 hours for making a few calls, checking email, and occasionally playing a short video. Talk time on the phone is rated at about 8 hours with a stand-by time (non-use) of 355 hours.
Overall, if you make frequent use of the 3D features, the Evo 3D does not stand up to the 2D competition. In fact, after a day or testing, where we used the phone frequently to shoot 3D videos of a car, the Evo 3D drained down very quickly. Worse, once the battery level starts getting low, you cannot use the 3D functions of the phone any more.
The news is not all bad, though. We also tested the phone for only 3D playback versus frequent 3D recording on two separate days. You might think the phone would drain the battery in equal measure, but 3D recording used up the battery faster. That means, if you stick with 3D viewing for YouTube videos and movies, the phone will last longer.
The Evo 3D has the standard offerings for connectivity: Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and 4G service. A simple switch in the pull-down menu bar allows you to enable 4G and search for 4G service. The phone also lets you enable a Wi-Fi hotspot mode.
Adding media is a breeze. You can connect the phone to your computer using a USB cable and drag and drop content onto the 8GB microSD card or use a dedicated PC program to add it in with a little more finesse.
Our test phone included the standard Google Maps app and the TeleNav GPS Navigator. Both services worked perfectly for wayfinding around town, at least after we downloaded a large update file for the TeleNav app. The disappointing finding here is that the mapping apps do not take advantage of the 3D screen tech in any way.
That means, there are no road signs jumping from the screen as you drive to help you check speed limits or upcoming intersections, and there are no 3D effects for buildings or other objects that could make the mapping features more interesting.
Thankfully, the dual-core 1.2GHz processor did make mapping speedy enough for most tasks. We zoomed in quickly to a city locale, even with the satellite mode enabled in Google Maps. There was none of the typical blocky fill-ins and wait periods.
The Evo 3D is bright and clear, but does not match the quality of the Samsung Galaxy S2 by any means, so maps tended to look a little washed out compared to that superior phone.
GPS locked quickly in a variety of settings, including driving in a car, walking around town, and standing next to an office window.
HTC includes several extra apps on the Evo 3D. One is the game Spider-Man from Gameloft, which looks convincing in 3D even if you can only play in short spurts before the migraine starts. There’s a cool Car Panel app that is for use in a docked position in the car and shows large easy-to-click icons for nav and voice search.
There’s a Connected Media app for streaming content, an FM Radio app, Polaris Office for opening Word docs and spreadsheets, and a Twitter client called Peep. Many of these apps add functionality, but we’d prefer to see more 3D-related apps.
The HTC Evo 3D is a stand-out phone – and we mean that literally. The graphics jump off the screen in games, and you’ll notice a sleek 3D effect for movies and still photos.
Some might complain about headaches and eye-strain, while others might question whether this is a vanilla smartphone with a 3D gimmick tacked on. We’re not saying the HTC Evo 3D is the best phone ever made, but the 3D features are compelling enough to warrant serious consideration.
Unfortunately, we also think the LG Optimus 3D is the better device, mostly because the screen looks a bit more convincing and life-like. And, the Evo 3D tends to hide away the 3D features while the Optimus puts them into a 3D Space interface enhancement that makes the options much easier to find. Plus, the Optimus records better 3D video.
We liked
The Evo 3D is a remarkable phone if you want to explore new technology. Shooting 3D video is a blast, and the 3D games are convincing enough considering the screen size.
We disliked
The headaches start after about 30 minutes. The phone shoots 3D video at only 2-megapixel quality. Plus this is a heavy and bulky phone compared to new models.
Verdict
A decent contender for the best 3D phone crown, but this can’t quite make it to the top spot. The idea has potential, but it’s not as good for overall smartphone use as the Samsung Galaxy S2.
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