I got my new Evo. I’ll walk you through my early thoughts.
Size
When I opened the box and took out the phone, I was surprised at how light and th
in it is. I knew in my head that it was both bigger (screen) and smaller (thickness) than my Motorola Photon, but I still didn’t realize how big a difference. Extraordinary. I am impressed.
Appearance
I have read some criticism about the appearance of the Evo. Mainly it 
surrounds the vibrant red around the camera lens and on the kickstand. I think it looks pretty cool. Otherwise it is a pretty typical black phone. The sides and part of the top and bottom are silver. I think it looks very nice. It certainly won’t embarrass me to have it on the table in front of my colleagues.
Build
It feels light, and well built. I know as phones get this light people worry that they aren’t well built. I have watched with some amusement as some people have actually complained that the iPhone 5 is too thin. Really? How can it possibly be too thin? This is a good thing people. Anyway, I can see some people saying the same thing about the Evo LTE.
My first annoyance is with opening the device up. You cannot easily access the battery (requires a mini hex screwdriver.) It was easy to pull off the top to find the SD card, but pulling off the bottom is hard. And why you would want to require the back of a phone be broken up into so many parts, I do not know. Perhaps there is some engineering reason.
SD Card
Speaking of SD cards, why so many Android phones don’t put a diagram showing the location of the SD card I don’t know. Look above where the camera lens is located. If you have decent nails you can stick one in the very top of the phone in that area and open the top of the phone. Otherwise use something thin. The SD card goes in that area.
Activation
I actually had a bit of trouble activating the phone with Sprint so I had to call. Then Sprint had some trouble activating it. They had me on hold a while and then told me they would call me back in 10 minutes. Sure enough they got it running. The process probably took about 30 minutes total. I’m not sure what the issue was. But once the basic activation was done, it was easy enough to go through everything else.
HTC made me sign up for an account. How annoying. When I activated to the account I was taken to a website informing me that HTC has big plans for a portal. Good to know.
Otherwise, just your typical activation. I didn’t have to read any instructions, it was much like any other Android.
Speed
I could tell that the processor is faster than my Motorola Photon, which was hardly slow. So I am pleased with the speed. I don’t get LTE so I cannot comment on that. The speed of using the Web was similar to any other Android or iPhone I have used in this geographical area.
The apps all opened and ran very quickly. Installation of all my old apps took very little time. The Evo LTE is extremely responsive.
Call Quality
The call quality is quite nice. I have had several lengthy calls without issue. I understood people easily, they seemed to understand me just fine as well. No problems with being disconnected.
No Search Button????
There is no search button. Instead of a search button there is a button for recent apps. I would much rather have a search button. I appreciate that many apps are integrating search, but I lived by my search button. I really noticed it when using my music app, which does not have a search feature.
After a bit of thought, I found an easy enough solution. The bottom of the screen contains the usual icons. I simply removed one (camera) and replaced it with the Google search app. Then I made sure the app could search anything I might want, including my email, calendar, and music.
I am sure I’ll get used to it.
Conclusion
So there you have my first impressions. I am pleased with my purchase, but of course, I have only had the Evo for a couple of days now. It was easy to set up, aside from the Sprint activation issue. It is pleasing to the eye, very fast, and does what I need it to do faster than my old phone. I wish it had a search button, but such is life.