Product: HTC Evo 3D, a 4G Android smartphone from Sprint
-- Features: The back of the phone has dual 5-megapixel cameras with flash for capturing 3-D video and still images, which can be viewed in 3-D without glasses on the special 4.3-inch touch screen. Video is captured in HD up to 720p and playback up to 1080p on both 2-D and 3-D content. Next to the built-in photo shutter button, users can slide a switch to change between 2-D and 3-D picture-taking. The 3-D photos and videos can be viewed on a 3D television wirelessly with DLNA or with a HDMI cable (not included). This Evo screen can play 3-D games and movies, and it comes with a demo of a 3D "Spider-Man" game.
The phone is loaded with the Android 2.3 operating system and the latest version of the HTC Sense interface. It has a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. It has 4GB of internal storage memory and comes with an 8GB memory card, but can support a 32 GB card. It also can tap into Sprint's faster 4G Internet connection speed, where available.
-- Price: $199.99 after two-year contract
-- Ups: The shutter button was well-built and makes snapping pictures quick and steady. Playing "Spider-Man" in 3-D was quite comfortable to view with subtle 3-D effects, so the screen has the potential to be easy on the eyes. (On the other hand, watching some photos and videos I took had the opposite experience.) There are a handful of 3-D games available for about $5 each, and there's a promise to eventually have 3-D movies available.
If you didn't like how a 3-D image turned out, there's the option to save a 2-D version afterward. It also has all the software bragging features of other recently released HTC phones, which has a clean interface and quick access to change settings or jump to recent programs in the notification menu.
-- Downs: Depending on the lighting and positioning of objects, sometimes 3-D photos can look stunning when they pop. But for most of the time, the meshing of left and right images comes out as a muddy blur on the screen _ especially when objects are close up. There was a shortcut to view "The Green Hornet" in 3-D, but it just sent users to the HTC Watch app. No 3-D movies were available to download and watch at the time of the review, but supposedly Blockbuster's app should have some in the future.
The camera takes up a large portion of the back panel and is positioned right where the hand naturally holds the phone, causing the camera to always be smudged. And the camera sticks out slightly further than the rubber back panel, making it the first thing to get scratched. Also on design, it's too easy to accidently hit the bottom row of main navigation touch keys while simply holding the phone naturally. The T-Mobile HTC Sensation did a better job of avoiding that problem with its outer design, as it curved the edge upward by a hair.
-- Bottom line: You need a 3-D TV or 3-D computer screen to view the files, or you can just re-save a 2-D version of any 3-D image you've taken. But I'm not impressed with the 3-D camera and screen here compared to what I've seen in other 3-D cameras, like Fujifilm's FinePix model. The phone itself is decent, similar to other new HTC phones when not using 3-D.
We are still in the really early stages of this 3-D camera trend, so prepare for imperfections while companies rush to the marketing gimmick. But at $200, it doesn't cost more than other new smartphones. That means even if you don't use 3-D often, it can score you early adopter cool points without a higher price tag -- for whatever that's worth.
