HTC EVO 3D vs. Motorola Photon 4G: Choosing the Best Sprint Phone
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 17, 2011 11:11 PM ESTFinal Words
I never thought I'd be so torn between two phones on Sprint's network before. The HTC EVO 3D and the Motorola Photon 4G truly have complementary strengths and weaknesses. The EVO 3D has a better display, while the Photon 4G has a better camera. The EVO delivers better WiMAX performance in areas with good signal strength, while the Photon is better in areas with poor reception. The EVO's browser scrolls smoother but renders slower. The Photon has better Flash performance, while the EVO has better 3D performance. The Photon does better on battery while the EVO has a better software layer on top of Android. To make matters worse, there are no good candidates from a third party. If you want the fastest there is on Sprint, these are your only two options.
How do you choose? I think it ultimately boils down to WiMAX reception. If it were me, I'd go for the Photon. Based on where I live I'm at the edge of WiMAX coverage. The EVO 3D can't hold onto a WiMAX signal reliably at my house so I'm constantly falling back to EVDO, while the Photon can hang on pretty well. If you live in an area with great WiMAX reception or find yourself on WiFi most of the time then the EVO starts to look a lot more appealing. If wireless reception is out of the equation then the EVO 3D's only major knock is its poor 2D camera quality, which is still good enough for sharing on the web.
So there you have it. If WiMAX reception matters, go for the Photon, otherwise grab the EVO 3D.
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RaLX - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Pentile RGBW blows and it's worse than Pentile AMOLED because at least the latter has great contrast and colors...Are yellows in Photon as bad as in Atrix where they look like brown tinted and uncalibrated?
JayQ330 - Saturday, August 27, 2011 - link
you havent seen the photon's screen its not the same atrix or droid x2 screen you might of seen or read of, how about you read another review from engadget, *everyone knows engadget is biased & only love the iphone, but even they couldnt deny the photons great specs* the plastic feel of the photon? the photon is the most solid, high quality & very detailed android phones released. read other reviews than this one , this is the only review where they said nothing good of the photon. quadrant scores of 2900 to 3100 * those are my scores * most websites report 2900 to 3000 & thats witch a qHD screen! also its only a 1ghz dual core saving much battery & its rgbw pixels save more than 40% battery than average lcd & more than 70% compared to amoled plus. another thing about the screen it seems to be a newer version of samsungs rgbw pentile tech *yes samsung makes that screen* because its not pixelated, no ghosting effect & the colors are better than super lcd while its contrast & blacks are comparable to super amoled..i owned a galaxy s so i know. even ifag sites reviewed the phone & said that the screen is second only to the retina screen which means allot coming from them. you cant see the pixels especially in blacks thats how good the contrast is & its not a washed out black its ink darkness. besides the resolution & not having a virtual keypad that takes up half the screen space because of its higher res screen which is better for any app that you need to text in & any app period. super lcd is already up there with amoled plus do your research before becoming emotionally attached & being worst than ifan boys. besides the tegra 2 is a better more efficient soc than the exynos want proof? look at all the quadrant & antutu scores they're all overclocked to 1.5 ghz! & a droid x2 with half the ram higher resolution and android 2.2 gets higher scores in antutu in graphics & only 200 less points in quadrant. a and heres a better one the galaxy R with its 1 ghz tegra 2 soc gets 3600 in quadrant while the 1.2 ghz exynos gets a 3400 in quadrant! 200 mhz more & still gets less? i guess the lower resolution screen wasnt enough to beat the galaxy R? seriously like a phone for what it can do not what your emotions tell you to do, that a girls job.Alchemy69 - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
With the Samsung Galaxy S II just around the corner why choose either?IKeelU - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
[Im]patiently awaiting Galaxy S II review...anindrew - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Exactly! Samsung is supposed to have a big announcement/press release on August 29th. Considering the image they're using for the event has the Roman Numeral II on it and the fact that Samsung's CEO made a statement about the GS2 being released by the end of August, it seems that the GS2 will be released in the very near future.As a Sprint customer who is eligible for a new phone in October, I'm planning to get the GS2 rather than either of the two phones in this review. I'm looking forward to seeing a review of the GS2 on anandtech, especially if it compares the performance on each network. The phones should be nearly identical hardware-wise.
jnads - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Because Samsung software support blows.The Moment never got Froyo, and got EOL'ed after less than a year. The Intercept got EOL'ed and won't get Gingerbread.
The Galaxy S phones _STILL_ don't have Gingerbread 8 months after it was released.
Do you really want a Galaxy S II, knowing you'll never see Android Ice Cream?
g1011999 - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
The two cores share a "512MB" L2 cache but have a dual-channel memory interface.Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
Fixed! Thank you :)Take care,
Anand
Vishnu NS - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
In the second paragraph, on the last line, you have written "the two cores share 512 MB of L2 cache...."A good read as always...!!
jjj - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
no WIFI perf or even specs ?