The Smorgasbord

Since we are an EVO family – a lot of people ask our opinions of the EVO 4G vs. the EVO Shift. Basically it’s the same phone, one has a keyboard, and one doesn’t – or is it? I remember when the EVO Shift was first announced. My wife and I both had an EVO and she wanted the shift JUST for the keyboard – so it is kind of a personal preference.

They are both made by the same manufacturer but are the EVO and its “Alternative EVO ( read ego)” even comparable? Well read more to find out. Throughout the comparasion I will refer to the HTC EVO 4G as “EVO” and the HTC EVO Shift 4G as “Shift”.

Hardware – EVO

The HTC EVO 4G sports a 4.3-inch Widescreen 480-by-800 TFT LCD screen, a rear facing 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash camera, a front facing 1.3 megapixel camera, 1 GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 snapdragon, 512 MB RAM, 8 GB microSD card, 1 GB ROM, 1500 mAh Li-ion battery, Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS, WiMAX and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

Hardware – EVO Shift

The HTC EVO Shift is small and packs a 3.6-inch Widescreen 480-by-800 TFT LCD screen, a rear facing 5 megapixel with single LED flash, 800 MHz Qualcomm MSM7630 (second generation) snapdragon, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB microSD card, 2 GB ROM, 1500 mAh Li-ion battery, Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS, WiMAX, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and 4 Row Keyboard.

Winner – HTC EVO 4G

While the Shift has full hardware keyboard, it fall short with only 5 megapixel camera with a single LED flash. The Shift does have a newer snapdragon processor but the EVO still feels just a bit faster out of the box. Also there are several reports of GPS issue with the Shift whereas the EVO has none. And finally the 4.3-inch screen on the EVO just feels a lot better overall

Software – EVO and Shift

The EVO 4G and The EVO Shift both have Android 2.2 with HTC’s SenseUI skin overtop of the base operating system. Sense has its advantages and disadvantages but does have some the best Widget available which make it worthwhile for most. There tons of Custom roms for the EVO but because the shift is so new there are currently only a few and most lack basic features.

Winner – Tie

Both phones are virtually the same. If you want to the go the route of rooting and installing a custom rom then the EVO is the clear choice here, but if you plan to stay with factory settings you can not go wrong either way.

The biggest choice when choosing between the HTC EVO 4G and the HTC EVO Shift 4G is the Keyboard. This all comes down to personal preference but you really can’t go wrong with either. The HTC EVO 4G is the more powerful phone and if software keyboards do not scare you then the EVO is the clear cut choice here. If you feel the need for a hardware keyboard ( I did and thats why I switched to the Samsung Epic 4G for my personal phone) the get the HTC EVO Shift 4g. As for a clear cut winner? Get the phone that will fulfill your personal preference the most.

HTC EVO 3D - 1GB - Black (Sprint) Smartphone(Clean ESN)
	USD 165.00 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-19 22:50:53
HTC EVO 4G (Sprint) - White!!!
	USD 76.00 (13 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 13:09:48
HTC EVO 4G - 1GB - Black (Sprint) Smartphone(Clean ESN)
	USD 128.00 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-19 21:39:38
HTC EVO 4G (Sprint) - Works Great!!!
	USD 111.50 (21 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 13:10:46
SPRINT HTC EVO 4G SHIFT SLIDER SMART PHONE CLEAN ESN!!
	USD 119.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-22 15:19:08
HTC Evo 4G Sprint Android Smartphone (White) - Good Condition
	USD 107.50 (27 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 13:31:14
BAD ESN HTC EVO 4G - 1GB - Black/White Back (Sprint) Smartphone
	USD 99.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-20 02:21:58
HTC Evo 4G Sprint Android Smartphone (Black) - Good Condition
	USD 103.00 (36 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 12:31:08
HTC EVO 4G 1GB + 8GB Micro SD Card GREAT CONDITION! CLEAR CLEAN ESN!Black Sprint
	USD 145.00 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-20 03:16:48
HTC EVO 4G - 1GB - Black (Sprint) Smartphone
	USD 91.00 (16 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 14:08:49

SPRINT HTC EVO 4G SHIFT SLIDER SMART PHONE CLEAN ESN!!
	USD 119.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-22 15:19:08
HTC Evo Shift 4G A7373 (Sprint)!!!
	USD 51.00 (12 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 12:56:55
HTC EVO SHIFT 4G - 2GB - BLUE (SPRINT) SMARTPHONE CELL PHONE cr
	USD 159.29 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-18 03:08:03
*GREAT* HTC Evo Shift 4G A7373 Blue Sprint QWERTY Android WiFi Smartphone W61
	USD 134.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 12:44:42
HTC EVO Shift 4G - 2GB - Blue (Sprint) Smartphone
	USD 129.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-20 03:51:31
HTC Evo Shift 4G A7373 (Sprint)!!!
	USD 4.25 (5 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-18 02:30:47
3X 1800mAh Battery For HTC EVO 4G SHIFT 4G / Droid incredible 6300 Red
	USD 9.99 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-20 07:08:23
★BLUE★ HTC EVO Shift 4G (Sprint) Android 2.1 Clean ESN +2GB SD ★GOOD CONDITION!★
	USD 51.00 (18 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 22:36:23
2X 1800mAh Battery +USB Charger For HTC EVO Shift 4G Droid incredible 6300 Red
	USD 9.95 (0 Bid) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-18 01:59:26
HTC EVO Shift 4G - 2GB - (Sprint) WORKS GREAT CLEAN ESN NICE SHAPE MINT SCREEN
	USD 76.00 (29 Bids) | Buy It Now End time: 2012-05-17 15:53:19

A short while ago I reviewed the Asus Eee PC, which is an incredible sub-compact laptop that runs on Linux and you can buy brand new for only $300-$500. Some say it was inspired by the OLPC or One Laptop Per Child initiative. In a way the things that have derailed and plagued the OLPC front are now starting to creep into the computer industry as a whole – and it’s not really surprising.

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

Let me explain…in my basement I have a 6 or 7 year old Gateway box. When I got it (used) it had 128MB of RAM and a 20GB HDD. The processor I think is Pentium III, maybe 500-600Mhz?? I upgraded the Ram to 256MB and installed Redhat Linux. Over the years it has had many different versions of Linux, but for the last 3 years or so it’s been Ubuntu. Now that box has 512MB of Ram, a 100GB and 120GB hard drive, and a 128MB graphics card and an LCD dispay. It’s funny, the only thing I never upgraded was the USB 1.1 to 2.0. This box works great as an Internet / email workhorse. I can get any web work done on it, edit graphics, manage digital pics, or mp3′s. I converted video on this box for many years (and still can). My whole point here is that you don’t need a lot of horsepower or the latest hardware to have a solid affordable working home computer for many years (anymore). I know tons of geeks that recycle hardware and do the exact same thing.

Now that technology has evolved a bit, the same “sect” of geeks that recycle hardware wouldn’t mind using that same tech on a portable device they could take with them. There are lots of linux laptops now available, but many geeks have been installing linux on their windows laptops for years. It was inevitable that the Asus Eee Linux PC would be a hit in the geek community. Asus got a taste of success and predicted 2 million Asus Eee PC’s sold this year, and you can just hear somebody in marketing say “if we sold that many Linux Eee’s, just imagine how many we could sell if it had Windows on it!”.

Well, that time has come, and now Asus has come forward to release versions (4G and 12G) Windows XP Home installed. A lot of geeks are pissed off and screaming “sellout”, but Asus isn’t exactly a non-profit company. If the oil companies can make windfall profits the year of the largest hurricane in U.S. history – is it any surprise Asus released a windows version of the Eee PC? I think not.

So now that anyone can enjoy the sub-compact genius of the Eee PC – how well does Windows run on it? It comes with Windows XP, 12GB of storage, 900Mhz Celeron CPU, and 1GB of DDR memory. It has a new 8.9 inch display which can run at 1,024 x 600 pixels, which makes it much closer to a standard (non-wide) desktop. It even supports multi-gesture inputs, like the iPod touch and iPhone, something (that currently) no other PC made today can claim. You don’t get Skype and Open Office installed, but you certainly can install them yourself easily.

Some reviews say the Windows version of the Asus Eee PC aren’t as good as Linux, mainly because the storage is only 12GB instead of 20. The storage had to be sacrificed to pay for the Windows license. The speakers may suck, but they do on the Linux version too. At least the screen is increased to a decent (and still compact) size, and the camera is now a respectable 1.3 megapixels. It’s all give and take I guess.

I had read a lot of reviews on Amazon and eBay where some had purchased the Linux version of the Eee PC and just couldn’t do it. They had all kinds of problems, and probably no “geek” to turn to for help. So they either tried to return them or sell them on eBay. The Windows version is for the masses, and will make it much easier to just “plug and play” devices. Although “most things” work in Linux, there are still of lot of printers, cameras, and other devices that either don’t work, or take a bit of “tweaking” to get running. Let’s face it, none of us may ever drop anything off to the “Geek Squad” to be fixed, but there’s a reason they have customers.

My original Asus Eee (Linux) PC Review.

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