Database Users

Someone convince me not to get the Epic and stick with the EVO

I am thinking about switching teams to the Epic from the EVO. I love the development on the EVO, Cyanogen is just amazing. It's so lite and fast I love it.
The Epic calls because of features like S-AMOLED, physical keyboard!!!!, similar size, 45nm hummingbird and better battery life have me itching for this phone. The only think that would keep me in the EVO camp is that there is an uncertain path for development.
I have heard that in the past Samsung did not release open source drivers for their phones, but that in the case of the Galaxy S the drivers are out there(at least the international version)
What do people think? Will we see development for this phone? Cyanogen? What would you do?

I wouldn't mind the epic once it was able to be rooted and get that horrible launcher the heck off there.
I actually don't like physical keyboard...feels too much like a prepaid texter phone I guess =x just a matter of taste.
I'm absolutely satisfied with the EVO even if I do wish I could change several things about it. For me, I wouldn't change because I would have to pay full price, if I had an upgrade then maybe. I would possibly change to a phone that would get Android updates faster because as we know with the Hero/2.1 debacle, Sense UI makes things rough and even when the hero did get 2.1 ...it was a dumbed down version. I seriously hope our EVOs get better treatment.
Ultimately, I guess you have to maybe play with one and see how it feels to you.

One word...Samsung. Maybe Samsung will finally redeem themselves to me with this phone, but they have always given their phones poor support after release and in general been really crappy for hardcore enthusiasts. If this phone develops a large user development crowd, you will be safer. Either way your going to have monster hardware, what will the community and the support after the sale be like?

Have you tried swype? If not try it first and give it a few weeks to get used to it.
After using it I feel it makes physical keyboards obsolete.

Wasn't this topic beat to death like last week when someone was crying about leaving for an iphone?
Wrong word choice and misspelling courtesy of swype.

Slide-out hardware keyboards are crap in my experience. I will take Swype ANY DAY.
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Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.

who would ever want a physical keyboard again when we have Swype? no way you can type faster on a physical not to mention the extra bulk. with the evo's big screen there is no longer need for a physical keyboard - and this comes from someone who loved the tp2 keyboard.

herbthehammer said:
Wasn't this topic beat to death like last week when someone was crying about leaving for an iphone?
Wrong word choice and misspelling courtesy of swype.
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I was thinking the same thing. Just didn't want to say it and get the whole "don't be so mean" response
Sorry OP, but I wouldn't touch a phone with a physical keyboard anymore. No need when you have a freaking 4.3 inch screen

Get a second battery,u should get about 8 hours from each at the least. i get at least 10 hours. 1500mhz batteries just arent enough for a 4.3 inch android phone.blame htc for givin us this battery dont blame the phone plz. right now im on 7 hours and 40 minutes with 50% battery left

b1indsided said:
Get a second battery,u should get about 8 hours from each at the least. i get at least 10 hours. 1500mhz batteries just arent enough for a 4.3 inch android phone.blame htc for givin us this battery dont blame the phone plz
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The Droid X apparently has much better battery life than the Evo, and it has a 4.3 display. Then again, that might be due to its 45nm processor vs the 65nm found on the Evo.

and ive been using a live wallpaper this whole time

See
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

b1indsided said:
See
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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don't use your phone much as a phone eh?

The things I wouldn't want to give up on the Evo are:
The extra .3" of screen size -- it doesn't sound like much, but when you see the two side by side, the Evo screen isn't a little bigger, it's just flat out bigger.
I like Sense, and the home screen and app screen layouts are more my style.
The GPS on the Galaxy phones are reportedly poor. They lock on fewer satellites than the Evo does and are slow to do so.
I had a slider on the TP2, and I rarely used it. The keyboard on the 4.3" screen makes a physical keyboard only helpful in specific situations, and even RDP is fully functional and usable even without a physical keyboard. So I'd rather not have it and save on the bulk.
I also have zero interest in 3d gaming on the phone, so the 3d capabilities of the Hummingbird hold little interest for me. YMMV.

not today been sittin at home just texting mostly and some pandora and a homerun challenge orcourse and a few auto syncs

It really is up to you. Both are great phones. Personally I would go with the Evo. I wouldn't mind having the Samsung either though.
AFAIK all the Galaxy phones have been rooted no? Rooting the Epic shouldn't be much harder. Since the Evo has had such good development and a little experience with WiMax, should be easy to port over that development.

I am mulling over the same decision right now...
The big drawback for me is the display on the Epic... while it is true it is S-AMOLED and should provide more vibrant colors and such, the display itself is subject to burn in (not as much as AMOLED but still there) and the tech they use in the display makes it like half the effective resolution of what it really is... I can't remember the name of it right now... Its somewhere on the forums. I have seen a Galaxy S screen next to my Evo and its vibrant and bright but my Evo (Epson panel) is easier to see outdoors and text is much crisper on it.
Second, its a Samsung. I have never liked a single Samsung product I've tried from their TVs to their cell phones. While I would like to have a physical keyboard, the lack of support Samsung gives to their products sucks.
Third, yes the hummingbird and SGX540 absolutely spank everything else on the market right now... but dual-core snapdragons are coming and so is Tegra2. I would rather wait and see what happens than just jump from a phone that's working perfectly fine to another one with better specs... Only to kick myself in the balls come Christmas time.
Lastly, Sprint chopped the 16GB of storage to 2GB in their version which kills a main selling point for me. Internal storage tends to be much faster than a microSD card of ANY size.

The cyanogenmod will never be on the Galaxy S.
The Galaxy S will never be as snappy as the Evo.
And yes the hummingbird processor is much better than snapdragon and yes it does do graphics much better, but I'm running PSX4Droid right now FF7 maxed out what else more do you want from a phone lol...
Have fun supporting PS2 graphics...too bad nobody is developing anything and good luck when the phone comes out rooting / flashing custom roms.
But hey the phone is great you wouldn't be wrong getting it either but currently the evo looks better.

amirborna said:
The cyanogenmod will never be on the Galaxy S.
The Galaxy S will never be as snappy as the Evo.
And yes the hummingbird processor is much better than snapdragon and yes it does do graphics much better, but I'm running PSX4Droid right now FF7 maxed out what else more do you want from a phone lol...
Have fun supporting PS2 graphics...too bad nobody is developing anything and good luck when the phone comes out rooting / flashing custom roms.
But hey the phone is great you wouldn't be wrong getting it either but currently the evo looks better.
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When did Cyanogen say he won't release for the Galaxy S? Its a HUGE market base for Android since EVERY carrier will have a variant...
EDIT: Looking at the various Galaxy forums it looks like a community FroYo isn't going to be easy since the hardware info won't even boot in the emulator... Guess you're right.
But one more reason to get the Epic - it supports a crap ton of codecs out of the box and won't require most video files to be converted unlike the Evo.

Samsung is notorious for not supporting their devices after launch. Just look at Behold II users, Samsung promised 2.0/2.1 on video, then later pulled the video to remove any evidence of them saying that.
It's a great phone, just don't expect it to be supported down the road.

[Q] Rooted Evo vs Rooted Epic

I searched through the forums quite a bit and even good but have yet to find anything specific. I'm not sure which phone to get since I can not find a rooted comparison.
Please read about my HTC Hero and my original thoughts here:
jpklink.blogspot.com
Main Points:
Weight and size are not an issue: Glass screen is a +
Price is not an issue.
Standard Mini USB charging is a +
Battery life is not so important.
Texting Speed is 100% most important item - my hero can not keep up with my fingers and it is beyond frustrating.
I know this is the Epic forum so I can't say I don't expect you to be bias, but it would be nice to hear anything at all. Just wanted to hear how the phones compare as BOTH rooted devices with all speed benefits.

As of now the epic has an issue where it will miss keys on the physical keyboard every so often. Txlexting speed is also very important to me (I have an epic) and I have been dissappinted with the physical keyboard to say the least. That being said, the evo does not even have a physical keyboard and you could use any keyboard from the evo on the epic. The app "Smart keyboard" is the best of all that I have tried. The screen on the epic is also substantially better than the evo. The evo gets updates before the epic because it is an htc phone so that is always something to consider. Good luck.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

If you fancy yourself with modding then an Evo is a clear cut winner. There are much more Roms, Mods, and source codes are always released first for HTC phones. Samsung has a history of not really supporting their devices. Epic is no exception. And if you look at the news today in the Android world, signs point to Samsung focusing on supporting Windows 7 phones in 2011 while Android will slowly move to the back seat. http: //phandroid.com/2010/11/22/samsung-focusing-more-on-windows-7-in-2011-but-will-it-matter/

imwillzillla said:
And if you look at the news today in the Android world, signs point to Samsung focusing on supporting Windows 7 phones in 2011 while Android will slowly move to the back seat. http: //phandroid.com/2010/11/22/samsung-focusing-more-on-windows-7-in-2011-but-will-it-matter/
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Damn
Samusung needs to give up on smartphones because they have no clue what their doing.
They have great screens & top notch processor but missing the most important factors. QC & SUPPORT!!!

sling said:
Damn
Samusung needs to give up on smartphones because they have no clue what their doing.
They have great screens & top notch processor but missing the most important factors. QC & SUPPORT!!!
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Yeah you can tell how tarded they are by them having the hottest phone on the planet and neglecting it.

MLHickey:
Actually, I completely forgot to mention, I don't know that I would use the keyboard much anyway. I guess if it was there, I may start to use it, but I like the touch screen keyboard, I'm quite fast with them. In fact I still use T9 a LOT, especially while I'm driving. So as far as the keyboard goes, not a huge pro/con for me. When I mention texting speeds, I just want the phone to be able to keep up with me. My experience with the HTC hero is bad in the sense that I'll be waiting every few words for the phone to catch up so I can check for errors before continuing to type.
imwillzillla:
Those are some really good points! So if I root the Evo with a custom rom, the speeds will be comparable to a rooted epic? And how come HTC stuff comes out first/sooner? Just because the phone has been out longer?
Windows 7... ew. Those are definitely some good points. Do HTC updates and that matter much if I'm installing a custom ROM?
Thanks guys.
Note: I heard the Evo now comes stocked with something that prevents it from being rooted and still today they've yet to break it. Any truth to this?

YoshioDuo said:
MLHickey:
Note: I heard the Evo now comes stocked with something that prevents it from being rooted and still today they've yet to break it. Any truth to this?
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My Evo is a week old and UnrEVOked worked fine for me.

scriz said:
My Evo is a week old and UnrEVOked worked fine for me.
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Great news. I've been leaning towards the evo... looks like it's decided. Thanks again MLHickey.
Last note is, should I wait for early 2011 in case HTC releases something crazy. I mean, I can live on my HTC hero a few more months if I need to.

Just thought as an epic owner Im obligated to reply. The choice is a hard one, but the epic is faster, a better screen (even if slightly smaller) and since its basically stock android doesnt need roms like cynagen to be super fast and its only slightly thicker then the evo. You also get better battery life on the epic.
As for the keyboard, its really not that bad, and a keyboard is better then nothing at times when touch typing just isnt working out as planned.
I had the same hard decesion and luckily when I was visiting home a few weeks ago I got to play with my parents evo. Don't let the benchmarks fool you, the epic is much faster, plus that screen, you get size shock from the evo, but color and contrast shock from the epic. Plus you can install htcs awesome on screen keyboard on the epic. Its the best of all worlds in my book. The evo will have faster updates though, but really.. updates are almost superficial because by time android 2.2 is unsupported should they stop there you will likely be getting a new phone. Gps might or might not work better on the evo, some epics are fine, others aren't.
Just my 2 cents.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

TheDub said:
Just thought as an epic owner Im obligated to reply. The choice is a hard one, but the epic is faster, a better screen (even if slightly smaller) and since its basically stock android doesnt need roms like cynagen to be super fast and its only slightly thicker then the evo. You also get better battery life on the epic.
As for the keyboard, its really not that bad, and a keyboard is better then nothing at times when touch typing just isnt working out as planned.
I had the same hard decesion and luckily when I was visiting home a few weeks ago I got to play with my parents evo. Don't let the benchmarks fool you, the epic is much faster, plus that screen, you get size shock from the evo, but color and contrast shock from the epic. Plus you can install htcs awesome on screen keyboard on the epic. Its the best of all worlds in my book. The evo will have faster updates though, but really.. updates are almost superficial because by time android 2.2 is unsupported should they stop there you will likely be getting a new phone. Gps might or might not work better on the evo, some epics are fine, others aren't.
Just my 2 cents.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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But what about Epic's ugly azz cool color temperature?! Whites look grey on it, screen has blue tint... sorry, photographer coming out in me, but Evo's colors are much more accurate.

quote: "especially while I'm driving. " i dont care what phone you have, this is dangerous and very stupid. please refrain from texting while driving.

TheDub said:
Just thought as an epic owner Im obligated to reply. The choice is a hard one, but the epic is faster, a better screen (even if slightly smaller) and since its basically stock android doesnt need roms like cynagen to be super fast and its only slightly thicker then the evo. You also get better battery life on the epic.
As for the keyboard, its really not that bad, and a keyboard is better then nothing at times when touch typing just isnt working out as planned.
I had the same hard decesion and luckily when I was visiting home a few weeks ago I got to play with my parents evo. Don't let the benchmarks fool you, the epic is much faster, plus that screen, you get size shock from the evo, but color and contrast shock from the epic. Plus you can install htcs awesome on screen keyboard on the epic. Its the best of all worlds in my book. The evo will have faster updates though, but really.. updates are almost superficial because by time android 2.2 is unsupported should they stop there you will likely be getting a new phone. Gps might or might not work better on the evo, some epics are fine, others aren't.
Just my 2 cents.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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Is your two cents from owning both? My battery lasts way longer than my girls epic
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

BrianDigital said:
Is your two cents from owning both? My battery lasts way longer than my girls epic
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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I'm not tryna sound biased but u gotta be kidding me.. maybe ur gf's usage is much higher.. honestly 4 of my friends have evo's and whenever we're chilling on either of our houses, they fight over the charger.. although my epic is rooted and has custom rom+kernel and their evo doesn't but even b4 i rooted mine i had much better battery life..

The keyboard on this thing is not great, but it beats having none. WPM will not be high with this keyboard, although accuracy is not bad. Still, coming from a Hero, I really like having a keyboard now.
The main gripe is Samsung's poor support, small ROM, and the gps on this thing.
If you text a lot, this should still be your choice as it is faster than virtual keyboards.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

BrianDigital said:
Is your two cents from owning both? My battery lasts way longer than my girls epic
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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Lets be a smarta$$ about it.
Anyways.
No. I have asked about the Evo's battery life and I quite frequently hear it hardly makes it through the day from people who DO own them. I've had mine unplugged with moderate use and plenty of calls since 7am and its at 40% right now at 11PM. Now to be fair.. my Epic is rooted with the battery sucking processes from Sprint/Samsung cut out, the Evo's i've heard about are stock. If both were rooted you'd probably cut similar results.
They both have 1500MAH batteries, they will both be roughly the same if you cut the fat out of each I imagine.
As for the screen, yeah the colors are not as accurate, but you're not going to notice, they have a cooler look to them which bothers the heck out of graphics designers and the like heh heh but really.. it's still stunning in comparison to the evo, but thats just MY opinion.
You really need to go into the Sprint store and play with both as much as you can.... you really can't go wrong with either of them and their pro's and con's split pretty evenly.

1) for the keyboard issue..try disabling Swype and use the hardware kb.
2) Epic even with the custom roms we have is doing fairly well...I mean take all the custom roms on the EVO and the Epic and you'll notice there isn't too much difference...most of the advantages EVO had was gotten from the Nexus One which hopefully we will get from the Nexus S.
3) You can do a bunch with custom roms on the EVO to make it run smoother but It'll never run as smooth as the epic.
4) The colors can't be more accurate on the EVO because its only 64k colors..if anything Droid X has probably the most accurate colors...but since EVO is only 64k colors it won't be accurate...the Super AMOLED tends to be mroe blue because the blue dies out the fastest...over time it balances itself out...on my device though if I set it to 100% brightness its white as I lower the brightness it turns grayish..but thats what lowering brightness is suppose to do...
5) Yeah.. texting while driving is bad...
6) Battery life varies by your usage..overall though if you configure it best you can on both devices Epic will win.

TheDub said:
Lets be a smarta$$ about it.
Anyways.
No. I have asked about the Evo's battery life and I quite frequently hear it hardly makes it through the day from people who DO own them. I've had mine unplugged with moderate use and plenty of calls since 7am and its at 40% right now at 11PM. Now to be fair.. my Epic is rooted with the battery sucking processes from Sprint/Samsung cut out, the Evo's i've heard about are stock. If both were rooted you'd probably cut similar results.
They both have 1500MAH batteries, they will both be roughly the same if you cut the fat out of each I imagine.
As for the screen, yeah the colors are not as accurate, but you're not going to notice, they have a cooler look to them which bothers the heck out of graphics designers and the like heh heh but really.. it's still stunning in comparison to the evo, but thats just MY opinion.
You really need to go into the Sprint store and play with both as much as you can.... you really can't go wrong with either of them and their pro's and con's split pretty evenly.
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i had to read that twice, he wasnt talkin about you only having two cents... he was referring to owning both phones... just kinda seemed like u took that the wrong way...

Personally, I never got to actually play around with an evo but I will say these things about my epic:
The keyboard, though sometimes annoying, is a great bonus to have for those who text/email/im/fb/whatever a lot. And you can bring the htc keyboard over to the epic as well.
The battery life on custom roms/kernels seems to be better when compared to most evo scenarios (I don't have an evo so don't quote me)
The color temps can be fixed using voodoo color.
The phone DEFINITELY responds better to user input than the evo, hands down (probably due to the evo having so much bloat, and also due to the better built cortex processor)
Updates on the evo happen more quickly, this is very true. But our devs have done a great job fixing MOST of our major issues.
This is a big one that people seem to be failing to mention. The new froyo modems seem to FIX gps PERMANENTLY. I've been running wifi on my epic for days without a reboot and gps is on hot start (not using the cold start workaround) and every time I get a full lock within seconds (using gps status).
All in all, I love my epic and the way it runs thanks to our community, but if you want a more reliable manufacturer (and a community that isn't chock full of spoiled brats who's parents bought them the phone), go with the evo.
If you can deal with the slower updates and the forum nonsense, go with the epic.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Lol!
I think more kids end up with an epic over an evo just because of the keyboard. Look son it has a keyboard so you can type fast! "OMG L33T AHH! SWEET!" lol..
I wonder how many kids actually are on these forums when I was 12 I wasn't looking for ways to hack my cell phone... then again when I was 12 I think that Motorola "flip" phone that looked like something outta star trek was the most popular one for being so "portable". lol

uhm no, thats why there are sidekicks.. i doubt u will c a kid with an epic or evo..

It's almost my time to upgrade

Okay so here is my idea I am due for an upgrade february first so I was thinking maybe I would get the evo just to see what it's like an see you all the hype is about... and if it doesn't live up to my expectations I will just do the sprint 30 day trading thing and end up with an evo shift. I will be able to side by side both devices since my wife just got the shift on the seventh.
good idea?
sent from my gameboy.

my pre was ready to go and i got the evo because it's what was out at the time. got sick of the virtual keyboard, hated it on my iphone and i think i'll always hate virtual keyboards.
the shift is faster with a great keyboard and much better battery life. and $50 cheaper. that's enough for me.

I will probably end up coming back to the shift but I just want to try out a new you gonna have it for a little while to see if it will suit my needs cuz I don't really need the hard keyboard. and also I have rom add so I wanna try out the 50,000,000,000 there are ready for the evo...
sent from my gameboy.

I am looking to upgrade soon from my Hero and am contemplating the same thing, EVO OG or the Shift. I have seen a few comments about the shift being faster, is that just a placebo because it is new? I thought the OG EVO had a faster clock sped than the new shift (why it gets better battery life).

I have both an Evo and Shift. Stock, the Shift in benchmarks, even with being an 800Mhz cpu, benches quite a bit faster across the board.
Cam seems better on the Shift, esp. anyplace indoors where you need flash. Tho the megapixel rating is only 5.1. More doesn't always mean better.
Evo does have a significantly bigger screen which is good, esp for me. I don't HAVE to wear my reading glasses. Evo has the front cam and a kickstand, and of course, the worthless HDMI port. I've never used the front cam, not once. I really don't WANT to see the folks I chat with. LOL
The reason I added the shift to "probably" replace the evo is the keyboard. I type A LOT. Messages, notes, IM's, data from conf calls, etc and it does get extremely annoying to do it with only a soft keyboard.
Sense, for the folks that like it, has landscape capability on the Shift, not so on the Evo.
Phone wise, both are superb. No odd bluetooth dropouts, I was on the phone for exactly 4 hours and 52 minutes today at work, no issues. Clarity is awesome.
Battery life so far, has been better on the shift than evo. Both seem to get the same amt of signal on both 3g and 4G in my house. Data speed tests with 3g, 4g and wifi are very close to identical. GPS seems about the same, nothing odd there.
Right now, the Evo is nand unlockable and fully rootable, the Shift probably will be and is expected, but this may matter to some folks.
The screen on the evo is flush and has been known to "peel" in the corners. Shift is recessed about 1mm, which will probably eliminate the peeling effect that bothers some folks.
The usb/charge port on the evo is on the bottom, which make it easier to hold and use while charging/syncing, but probably makes it more prone to snapping the pins. The shift is on the side, probably stop the damage occurring, but does make it more awkward to hold/use while charging.
Back cover on the evo was quite easy to remove/swap batteries, whereas the shift, attaches really well to where you think you're going to break the clips.
As you see, both have their pro's and cons. All depends on what you're looking for in a smartphone.
In the end, it'll probably be the keyboard over the screensize that will make my decision.

I currently have a HTC Hero Nand rooted, with custom Sense rom and kernal. When you use roms and kernals on your Evo how does it do? Obviously nothing has been made yet for the Shift for comparison yet though. Just curious about your experiences.

indiscriminant said:
I am looking to upgrade soon from my Hero and am contemplating the same thing, EVO OG or the Shift. I have seen a few comments about the shift being faster, is that just a placebo because it is new? I thought the OG EVO had a faster clock sped than the new shift (why it gets better battery life).
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxI8vG6wT8g&feature=youtube_gdata_player somewhere in the middle of that video is a quadrant test with both of the phones their stock conditions. With rooting in overclocking the shift just goes even farther ahead. I've heard of G2. (which is basically the same phone is the shift) overclocked 2 1800 and a quadrant score of over 3000, so no question the shift is and will be faster. it's just a question of whether or not there will be as much of a development following IMO.
sent from my gameboy.

the5ifty said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxI8vG6wT8g&feature=youtube_gdata_player somewhere in the middle of that video is a quadrant test with both of the phones their stock conditions. With rooting in overclocking the shift just goes even farther ahead. I've heard of G2. (which is basically the same phone is the shift) overclocked 2 1800 and a quadrant score of over 3000, so no question the shift is and will be faster. it's just a question of whether or not there will be as much of a development following IMO.
sent from my gameboy.
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That is promising, just gotta figure out if I am going to miss not having the front camera that I have wanted for using Skype with clients for work when needed. Also Screen size.
Rom community is important to me as the Hero has a very strong development and theme community, no way to know if that will come to the shift yet though.

indiscriminant said:
That is promising, just gotta figure out if I am going to miss not having the front camera that I have wanted for using Skype with clients for work when needed. Also Screen size.
Rom community is important to me as the Hero has a very strong development and theme community, no way to know if that will come to the shift yet though.
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As if now at least, you cannot video chat skype. And hey what's up with all of us being/formerly being hero owners?
Sent from my gameboy

I dunno what to say. When I went in to the sprint store to get a case for the shift, I saw they had the extended battery (unknown rating) for the regular evo. That takes care of a major problem with the old evo. Depends on what's important to you. I've had all three 4g phones. The big screen is definitely a plus for bad eyesight and watching movies. If I had to get another phone, the original evo with the extended battery is tempting. The epic was slightly quicker with games since it had a gpu and the evo was plowing through it with just a single cpu. I'm so disgruntled with samsung, I would probably go for the more screen real estate. Good luck finding a case for it with the fat battery. It certainly makes the evo have some junk in the trunk!
Haa haa! My evo has a ghetto booty! LMAO

With the Hero being 18mos old I think a lot of people are coming up on their 1 year and looking for their next phone. Similar to how a lot of initial EVO adopters were early Hero adopters, we are the crowd who got the Hero 6 months late.
The Skype video chat just went live last week on Iphone4 so I assume it will be not too long for it to be on Android, that is what happened with Skype Voice chat as well. (Although Verizon had that by itself the apk from Verizon was able to be run on other phones, it is what I use on my Hero now)
From a battery perspective, I thought the Hero battery was compatible with the Evo, and along with ROM/Kernal tweaks the Evo battery wasn't horrible. Add in a second battery and you should be pretty good.
Now it would be even better with the shift, just not sure if I want to wait the 2 months for the modding community to pick it up in full stride if it ever does.
I need to get both in my hand to compare them soon and play with them. I really want 2.2 Sense which wasn't able to be achieved on the Hero. Unlike others I really like Sense for it's integration and I don't feel it slows the system down. Nfinites Roms on the Hero with sense worked great with a Zen Kernal.

Epic 4g vs evo shift?

My upgrade comes through on March 1st.. I've looked into each of these phones with great detail. This is what I've come up with in a nutshell. And I want everyone's professional opinion as ill be using this phone for a year or two.. thx guys and gals..(is there a girl on xda yet? ;p)
Stock pros of shift: pocket friendly, higher quality exterior, possibly more support on xda, I heart HTC.
Stock pros of epic 4g: better battery life, amoled screen, front facing camera, video card for twice the gaming potential
Both are 99.00 on Amazon with upgrade eligibility (so is the evo, but I don't need a tablet just yet, 4" is quite enough for me) .. I use sprint im not switching its cheap.. I'd rather have a steak then slightly improved cell service. I have wifi at home anyways..
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

I can feed you two different opinions. Stock or rooted/custom.
I, am one of the firm believers that a phone's true potentional is never stock. Therefor should not be judged on stock.
I will not speak about the epic 4g in terms I do not know, so there will be more opinions on the shift.
Everyday, I hear how small/slow the development is going on the epic.
The epic, without a doubt has a better GPU.
Development, will continue to be pushed on the shift for the next few years no matter what. Think about how long it took the epic to get 2.2, now there is gingerbread and honeycomb....The shift already has gingerbread. Every major release, will come to the shift. While the epic will either not recieve it at all(mixture of samsungs support and the devs dying down, no offense).
In real world performance, there is nothing the shift can't handle right now that's out there that the epic can.(In my opinion, nothing to back this up since I don't know everything that's out there).
The shift, can get fairly incredible battery life, it took me 27hours to hit 31%, using it quite a bit on 245-1.5ghz conservative on the 1.8ghz kernel.
It took rytesyde a lot longer to hit that low on the 1.5ghz kernel(undervolted farther). Point being, if you want to use your phone for a full day, it's fine. If you forget your charger for a weekend, your phone will make it if you don't use it much(Mine drained around 1% an hour when not in use, my overall average was 2.9%/hour on fairly heavy usage).
I know what you mean on the amoled screen, but I really haven't had much of a desire for it unless I was in the bright sun.
I would go with the shift because it has more development and support.....
Although, I would honestly go as far to say the epic has better hardware.
I would say more, but it's 6am and I'm getting sleepy.
edit: Oh, just looked at the froyo epic update. It seems that the update was buggy(surprise from samsung?). They're not very good at updating their devices. It really comes down to, what you want. No one here would discriminate if you went with the epic.

as a former samsung and moment owner. personally i will never own a samsung phone again. the shift just works out of the box. and the devs on the shift just keep making it better. all the deving on the moment couldnt fix all the problems it had. to me the epic isnt anything but a huge moment lol. and from i am reading sprint has already yanked the OTA update to froyo. imagine that lol

HTC > Samsung..that's all..no comparison
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

The Keyboard Settled it for Me
I've spent a couple of days on the same question. I finally settled on the Shift.
I stopped by my local Sprint store to get each in my hands. The Epic's keyboard had awful tactile response. I handed it to my son to get his opinion and he handed it back shaking his head. He said he couldn't feel the keys, couldn't tell if they were depressed.
That clarified what I was thinking. The HTC model also felt superior, even w/ the funky keyboard slide. I can't put my finger on why.
The Shift keyboard was much better, even with only 4 rows. I'm coming from a Touch Pro. I'll have to cope w/ missing the 5th row.
It didn't help Epic's cause that I kept coming across threads (ie AndroidForum) about Epic dropping/adding keystrokes.
Epic clearly has a superior GPU. However I wouldn't take advantage of it; in my regular use.
Epic's 1GHz Hummingbird and EvoShift's 800MHz Snapdragon look like a pretty even match; despite the clock difference.
I'd wish for a larger screen on the Shift; but it isn't to be.
Of course I'd also wish for a Dual Core Processor - as long as I'm wishing.
Like the above poster, I don't give the stock ROM any weight because it isn't sticking around. I found a lot more development for the Epic than I would have thought - and less development for the Shift than I would have hoped. But the Shift is recently introduced. It likely needs some time for the chefs to work their magic.
I tried to find reasons to prefer the Epic. But holding actually holding an Epic and a Shift in my hands almost decided it - all by itself.
Looks like I'll be Shifting in a few days.
NV

Want an easy answer to your question? Go over to the epic general section of this forum and read about the latest fiasco and read the general section in the evo shift and compare what the people are talking about.
For example, the epic people finally got an official version of froyo, but to many people, it's worse than the last official version update.

herbthehammer said:
Want an easy answer to your question? Go over to the epic general section of this forum and read about the latest fiasco and read the general section in the evo shift and compare what the people are talking about.
For example, the epic people finally got an official version of froyo, but to many people, it's worse than the last official version update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah there are reports of it bricking their phones

The Epic 4G may look like a better phone, specs wise, but Samsung clearly has no idea what they are doing when it comes to software updates. The Froyo update they pushed a few days ago is another in a long line of disasters for them. It was also the last straw for me. I dumped my Epic and went with the Evo Shift. Best decision I ever made. Yeah, the screen is smaller and the processor is a bit slower but, trust me, the Shift is a much nicer experience.

xiaNaix said:
The Epic 4G may look like a better phone, specs wise, but Samsung clearly has no idea what they are doing when it comes to software updates. The Froyo update they pushed a few days ago is another in a long line of disasters for them. It was also the last straw for me. I dumped my Epic and went with the Evo Shift. Best decision I ever made. Yeah, the screen is smaller and the processor is a bit slower but, trust me, the Shift is a much nicer experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Number wise the processor is slower but performance wise it can meet with the humming bird prossecor or beat it
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Where did u get the pro of the epic having a better battery than the shift? I highly doubt it as I very heavily use my phone and still get an easy 15-17 hrs of use out of it before it starts to get close to 20%
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

DWake014 said:
Where did u get the pro of the epic having a better battery than the shift? I highly doubt it as I very heavily use my phone and still get an easy 15-17 hrs of use out of it before it starts to get close to 20%
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and i doubt the epic gets better battery life than the shift. i doubt it gets better battery life than the POS moment i had

The battery life on the Shift is definitely better than it was on my Epic.

foxsdaddy67 said:
and i doubt the epic gets better battery life than the shift. i doubt it gets better battery life than the POS moment i had
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm considering blowing up my old moment.
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

Lol yeah a block of C4 and my moment makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside
sent from my EVO Shift 4G

I got the battery info from phone arena but I'm sure they use advertised statistics rather then do there own testing... I figured on the shift myself.. honestly I went there and messed with each for like 15 mins.. shift felt better all around.. I posted this on the epic forum as well.. some there suggested waiting for next round of android phones before upgrading. What do you guys think? Is sprint coming out with something worthy of my patience this summer.. I've been using this hero for about 3 years.
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.

noskoviak said:
I got the battery info from phone arena but I'm sure they use advertised statistics rather then do there own testing... I figured on the shift myself.. honestly I went there and messed with each for like 15 mins.. shift felt better all around.. I posted this on the epic forum as well.. some there suggested waiting for next round of android phones before upgrading. What do you guys think? Is sprint coming out with something worthy of my patience this summer.. I've been using this hero for about 3 years.
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ummm, 3 years? You sure about that?
Scent phrum mie fone!

EDIT: My bad 2 years and three months I have been using an android phone that was designed with 1.5 in mind. Started a T-Mobile plan for the mytouch. in between there I did try out webos and even rim again. Sorry westicle you were right for the most part I didn't mean to exaggerate... just feels like forever with all the newer better phones coming for less. When I can still buy this old trusty turd from sprint for more then a shift.
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.

The hero was released october 2009. That's less than 2 years ago.
Scent phrum mie fone!

noskoviak said:
I got the battery info from phone arena but I'm sure they use advertised statistics rather then do there own testing... I figured on the shift myself.. honestly I went there and messed with each for like 15 mins.. shift felt better all around.. I posted this on the epic forum as well.. some there suggested waiting for next round of android phones before upgrading. What do you guys think? Is sprint coming out with something worthy of my patience this summer.. I've been using this hero for about 3 years.
sent from my hero aosp2.2 cause aospcm7 2.3 was not as fast or stable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm still using my opening day touch pro, and hittin f5 on every mobile site trying to find out if i should wait or get something. it's brutal.

well i traded my epic for a shift days before the official froyo came out for the epic
i was a little weary giving up the 'more expensive hyped' device for the shift despite a generous cash supplement w/ the trade
but oh baby...now that i hear the epic froyo is failing i am happy to be off the samsung failboat
my shift came loaded with a 1.5ghz rom so i never tested stock htc
the battery life of the shift was underpar to the epic at first
but now that i am running bcnice kernel with mikshift i am easily surpassing the epic battery performance
i liked the shift more from the moment it was in my hand regardless of all other factors
and now its running faster/smoother/longer than the epic ever was
my biggest pet peeves of the shift:
1) no number row on the hardware keyboard...you have to double press the fn key
this is a huge pain in the ass as i enter numbers all day with lots of spaces in between...logging error codes on the machines i service...uhg...
i'm slowly migrating to the input panel but i hate input panels mostly
if i was an input panel fan i would have bought an evo...duh
but you cant have everything
2) the volume buttons are a little close to the center of the phone
had to remap the volume down to 'nothing' because i was always pressing it
all i really hope for in the future is that htc releases an android version of the old wm mogul...i loved the rocker switch/scroll...and no other phone has ever replaced that devices satisfaction with 13 hardware buttons in addition the hardware keyboard...and dedicated hardware wifi switch...please HTC wake up and smell success
HTC M3 - Android dual-core qwerty phone w/ rocker switch,5-row kb & endless buttons
yes please

Moving on [dying development]

This would fall under "General" or "Q&A" but we all know that no one clicks on those tabs anymore, in addition this has a little to do with development. Seeing that the mt3gs is ancient in smartphone years and that our major developers have moved on, I figured we could start a comparison thread. Before I start I would like to thank all the teams that worked hard for all of us to better enjoy the "slide"; Team Cyanogen, Arrayray, CR, CM, Guitarist, Highly Medicated so on and so on. (if I missed anyone its not personal your work is also appreciated.) With that being said its time to discuss what's next..
I myself am almost due for an upgrade and would like the communities opinion on where to go next. Right now I have two options MyTouch 4G Slide versus HTC Sensation. So far the advantage of mt4gs is the awesome camera software and hardware, but lacks in the screen section which is not qHD. I'm open to discussion and opinions, also if there is any other phone you'd like to mention please do so.
It would be nice to get a mt4gs since a lot of our devs went that route and I'd be able to keep following them but I seen some nice development in the Sensation community as well. Any opinions?
Sent from my fingertips using Android.

I have seen them both and I have to say the sensation is one of the best phones I have ever seen. It has a beautiful design and a really clear camera with 1080p HD camera. If you ask me, id go with the sensation. But that's only my opinion, in the end its all down to personal perspective. Whether you like a slide out keyboard or you like having a large screen. It all depends what you like.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

Wagedroid said:
This would fall under "General" or "Q&A" but we all know that no one clicks on those tabs anymore, in addition this has a little to do with development. Seeing that the mt3gs is ancient in smartphone years and that our major developers have moved on, I figured we could start a comparison thread. Before I start I would like to thank all the teams that worked hard for all of us to better enjoy the "slide"; Team Cyanogen, Arrayray, CR, CM, Guitarist, Highly Medicated so on and so on. (if I missed anyone its not personal your work is also appreciated.) With that being said its time to discuss what's next..
I myself am almost due for an upgrade and would like the communities opinion on where to go next. Right now I have two options MyTouch 4G Slide versus HTC Sensation. So far the advantage of mt4gs is the awesome camera software and hardware, but lacks in the screen section which is not qHD. I'm open to discussion and opinions, also if there is any other phone you'd like to mention please do so.
It would be nice to get a mt4gs since a lot of our devs went that route and I'd be able to keep following them but I seen some nice development in the Sensation community as well. Any opinions?
Sent from my fingertips using Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, on both posts, I do have a long time before I can upgrade (got this as a gift) but i figure I will jus pay cash for one from like amazon.com or something! and The Sensation is Absolutely hands down the best Android Phone to date! HOWEVER, while I am still a slide user, i will develop for it proudly!

Just got a 4g slide today and am liking it the way it is so far. I HATED sense on my 3g slide but Sense 3.0 is much better IMO. Camera is awesome as well. I need the hard keyboard so my choice was easy.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using XDA Premium App

Thank you guys for your opinions and input. I went and demo'd both phones today and I found something interesting.. the HTC Sensation is shipped with 2.3.3 while the mytouch 4G slide ships with 2.3.4. When I checked for an update on the sensation nothing showed up. Im sure they'll have the update soon
Sent from my fingertips using Android.

The update for the sensation is being pushed out as we speak lol
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

ameedi600 said:
The update for the sensation is being pushed out as we speak lol
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice!
Sent from my fingertips using Android.

Thx for the mention, but i feel like all i did was get people's toes wet concerning gingerbread with sense. Really wish i had time to do more for everyone. Thankfully team medicated worked hard to bring a working gingerbread rom for us.
As far as a new phone, its almost scary to buy a new phone knowing something better will be out in 6 months or so and we're stuck with that phone for another 18 months. Personally, i've looked so many times at other phones that i think the store reps know my face by now lol. I just cant bring myself to spend hundreds of dollars to get with the hottest handset. Its tough, but waiting till im due for a full discount on a new handset. Im really intreaged to see what google's next handset is going to be. It should be out by mid 2012. I just hope its better than the nexus s. Lets face it, nexus one blew us away, but the nexus s was a bit of a let down. A beautiful handset, i just expect a google phone to be the best out there.

Personally, at the start, i really hated the Slide and was getting disappointed that i even bought it. It's only thanks to developers here that had the SalsaSlide made possible that i've actually started enjoying using it.
As for a new phone, i don't run after technology, i've learned that it's a losing race and if my phone keeps working, then i see no reason of upgrading it just for saying i have the latest. What can i say, i'm not an apple fanatic that will rush to spend hundreds just to get the exact same phone in white
Anyway, if i'll be fully honest with you guys, once they get Android on the Fuze as native OS. I'd probably be switching to it, so instead of upgrading i'd be downgrading

Guitarist you deserve to be credited, in my opinion you introduced gingersense to the slide which gave devs the jumpstart to want to incorporate sense back into roms. Thanx again. Undoubtedly there will always be another smarter phone that's just how it goes. I also understand Sefy also, it is not only money draining to keep up with the latest handset but it is a bit cliche for that matter. (my secondary is still an iPhone 3gs, never upgrading my Apple handset)
Speaking of phones dropping in 2012, I stumbled upon an article earlier that's a game changer for Google. Google has agreed to buy Motorola mobility for 12.5 billion. Here's the article
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110815-708280.html
Sent from my fingertips using Android.

I've been using a G2x since June. I do miss the slide's community though. Not that it should really affect what phone you get.
I decided that now that I have a phone with not just one, but two 1ghz cores I can rest, haha. I hate looking at the G2x forums though, at least general anyways. It's full of trolls and rudeness, lol.
I kind of wish I had stuck it out a little longer and got the mt4gs and feel like I upgraded rather than just went to a new phone completely.
It IS fast though. I got lucky enough to not get one of the terrible ones.

Wow I felt like this a while ago and I am torn about getting a new phone when there are a lot of phones out there and its hard to choose what to get next. Mt4gs looks like a great phone and might jump ship to it.
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA Premium App

The developing community for the Slide slowed down a long time ago. I stopped really even checking back, haven't logged in for ages. I'm due for an upgrade on September 16th, and I'm DEFINITELY going for the HTC Sensation. The screen is bigger, super high resolution, 1080p video shooting, and better battery life. I liked having a physical keyboard with my Slide, but it is cumbersome as it makes the phone significantly thicker and heavier. On an MDPI device I would go for the hard keyboard, but on HDPI, ESPECIALLY qHD 4.3" screens, I have no problem typing on the screen's keyboard. It's worth the thinner and lighter phone. Plus, on the Sensation, almost the entire front of the phone is screen space. The mts4g seems to have a thick frame around the screen, especially on the top of it, which I don't like. Yeah, sure, the camera features of the mts4g are certainly attractive, but at least for me, since my Slide camera has been broken ever since I got the phone and I was never that big of a camera user to begin with, the Sensation is a MUCH better bet. Both phones are the same price.

I had the mt3gs since It's release, after much thought and consideration, I decided that like this forum it was dead, so I upgraded with the myTouch 4G Slide. I love it, the keyboard, the screen, the look and feel. It's just like I ran my mt3gs through an update machine and the MT4GS was the result. Although it doesn't have the giant 4.3 inch touch screen and while it is not a not a super light phone, I have had a great experience so far.
The camera, let's start there, fast, clear, macro settings better than any phone I've seen so far, don't believe me, my Google+ profile has a pic of a mosquito I took with no zoom. (Link on profile) the sweep shot, the HDR multi shot that layers different white balance shots up to get great definition and color in bright light, (backlit pics as well). The action shot and shutter (as long as the camera app is already open) is just as fast as they claim, but if not held very still can be just slightly blurred, but better still than most mid grade digital cameras on the market. The only thing keeping this camera from being an actual replacement it the lack of an optical zoom. Oh and night shots....they are pretty nice as well.
The screen, 3.7" inches, Super LCD, is crisp and clear, with resolution that has honestly impressed me. The best part? You have a screen that's big enough to enjoy watching videos on and you don't feel like your gonna break your thumbs trying to reach the screen's extremities. Although I do wish it was just a little larger when gaming.
The processor, a 1.2GHz Dual Core, Snapdragon, is a beautiful change from the 600mhz of the mt3gs, finally games and apps that none of us could enjoy like Gun Bros, Need for Speed, Dungeon Defenders, and Google Earth are smooth and flowing. Even Quadrant standard's video benchmarks are now enjoyable to watch.
The keyboard, which is the reason anyone wants the phone is quite different from it's predecessor's or any others I've seen or used. The buttons are almost flat and press very easily, almost too easily at first but after about a week of using it, it's almost a pleasure to use, just be careful of the back button when typing the letter 'M', I have lost several Facebook posts, even part of this post so far.
Sense 3.0 is beautiful but it and it's components eat up 3GB of the MT4GS 4GB of on-board storage and around 40% of its 768MB of RAM. And T-Mobile's removal of the 7 screen option and lockscreen shortcuts make it slightly frustrating.
Kid Zone is also a big annoyance, while it is a neat alternative lockscreen geared toward kids is built into sense and not exactly what I would make for a child.
The '4G' aspect is not quite all its claimed to be, in Pittsburgh averaging 3-4 Mbps, but is quite a bit more reliable than I would have thought. The GPS is fast to lock, till rooted it seems, and compass and multiple rotation sensors make it crazy accurate and very sensitive. This makes it great for gaming, almost as good as a gyroscope, if not slightly better in some aspects. And the Bluetooth 3.0 makes file pushes fast and simple. And the usb transfers at around 4MB/s making video upload easy.
The over all feel of the phone is awkward at first being just slightly thicker than the HTC glacier(MT4G) yet not as thick and stocky as the mt3gs, it has grown on me more everyday, and I am very happy I made this choice.
My over all rating of this phone would be a 4.5 out of 5, it is a beautiful piece of technology, and should be relevant for a while to come.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using XDA Premium App

Neanderthal, thanx for that beautiful review and sharing your personal experience with the mt4gs. I also must admit after I demo'd the handset I've been wanting it more and more.
Speaking of other phones, does anyone know if the Nokia N9 will work on tmobile? It's a sick piece of equipment and IS the best camera for smart phone. The UI is effin dope and from specs and reviews this phone is killer. Any help will be appreciated .. thanx again for all the input. If there are any other phones out there please post. (worthy of posting)
Sent from my fingertips using Android.

You could always wait it out for the samsung hercules, nexus prime and htc ruby to show up. As far as i know they should all be hitting the market fairly soon. Just a suggestion
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

I just replaced my wifes MTS (Warranty) with a MTS in red, she loves the phone with CM7 on it and she likes the keyboard all in total I have replaced the 2 mytouch slides 5 times through t-mobile due to hardware failure (Camera, Front buttons, and keyboard issues)
I however just ordered a G2x and it should be here today, I'm not going anywhere though, I have always liked the MTS though it has not been a reliable phone CM7 Makes it so much better. One of the reasons I got a G2x is it has Vanilla android so I will get updates faster (More likely than phones with Sense)
Troy.

thegreenfamily04 said:
I just replaced my wifes MTS (Warranty) with a MTS in red, she loves the phone with CM7 on it and she likes the keyboard all in total I have replaced the 2 mytouch slides 5 times through t-mobile due to hardware failure (Camera, Front buttons, and keyboard issues)
I however just ordered a G2x and it should be here today, I'm not going anywhere though, I have always liked the MTS though it has not been a reliable phone CM7 Makes it so much better. One of the reasons I got a G2x is it has Vanilla android so I will get updates faster (More likely than phones with Sense)
Troy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the release of sense 3.0 it wouldn't surprise me if phones with sense got updates sooner. Either way thanks your input. Let us know how that G2X goes for you
Sent from my fingertips using Android.

thegreenfamily04 said:
I just replaced my wifes MTS (Warranty) with a MTS in red, she loves the phone with CM7 on it and she likes the keyboard all in total I have replaced the 2 mytouch slides 5 times through t-mobile due to hardware failure (Camera, Front buttons, and keyboard issues)
I however just ordered a G2x and it should be here today, I'm not going anywhere though, I have always liked the MTS though it has not been a reliable phone CM7 Makes it so much better. One of the reasons I got a G2x is it has Vanilla android so I will get updates faster (More likely than phones with Sense)
Troy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a fellow G2x member, I say welcome! However to the updates, I'd have to say... Nope. We don't quite have Vanilla android... We waited a few months for Gingerbread and when we got it, it was "half-baked" and still not exactly Vanilla.
But the phone is a beast. Do enjoy it, cause I know I do.
And there's always rooting and roms.