Done! I’ve pre-ordered what is supposed to be the hottest new phone being offered in the US- Sprint’s HC EVO 4G. As far as I can tell, only Radio Shack is doing this.
I stopped at my local Shack and did not see any signs of the phone coming or an in-store ad for this program, but there are a lot of signs there so I may have missed it.
The manager wrote my order up. He had several pages on a clip board that guided him through the process, including checking that I am a Sprint customer and eligible for an upgrade. I had to buy a $50 gift card that I could use for the phone, accessories, or anything else I wanted. It seemed like an interesting way to get me to make a deposit. $50- no tax, that is all I spent so far.
Now, the odd bits…
No mention was made of the $20 accessories card. I’ll ask when I pick it up.
The paperwork specifically says that they can hold it for the first 2 days of the launch, which should mean it would be available on Sunday the 6th- but you have to make an appointment to get the phone (odd in itself, but they must expect crowds in some markets) and the appointment grid is set up for Friday and Saturday, so I have an appointment for both Fri. and Mon.
I am rather amazed by the lack of mock-ups, photos, etc. in the stores- it is a pretty quiet roll-out for a pretty interesting phone.
I did just find out that the much-ballyhooed 4G network is only in a very limited number of cities right now, but as far as I can tell, all EVO owners will be tagged for an extra $10/month for the 4G experience.
Now for some planning… what apps do I want and need? What tests need to be run on this baby? What do YOU want to know from the review when I finally get it?
I’ll probably post an initial review, and then a couple of follow-ups in the tradition of some other smartphone reviews. Now to find something to do until the 6th. Grrr!
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
It’s also available for pre-order at Best Buy. I hear a rumor that if you ask Best buy to match Radio Shack’s offer you will get a free $40 bluetooth ear piece. Again, that is just a rumor I read on a forum somewhere, but couldn’t hurt to ask.
I ordered mine at Best Buy a couple of weeks ago. Same account inquiry, received a flyer with my name on it stating it was for the HTC EV, $50 gift card, but pickup date is June 4th. This date also announced all over the internet. No pickup appointment.
Sprint needs to rethink this bogus $10 evo fee. noevofee dot com
Bloggers are the best when they don’t even try to do proper research before writing their crap. Like these guys said, you can preorder at bestbuy as well. It takes like 4 seconds on google to figure that out! Cmon!
I too have preordered @ my local radio shack (Nanuet,NY) & the great guys there did mention the FREE $20 accessories! can’t wait either !!!!
Hey,
Who wrote this? Some high school kid? Work on the grammar man. How can I take a review seriously if you can’t put a sentence together with some semblance of congruency or flow. It reads like a text message.
Not to mention that the $10. is not for 4g its for the much expected extra data usage that is going to be used with this phone. I agree the author of this needs to do a little better research before writing and posting. I too have pre-ordered mine from Best buy. Only to get my reward points with their reward system. 100 more points and i get a 10.00 gift card. This will put me over. No the phone only costs me 189.00….LOL
Sorry…. still can get past the $10 p/m premium data charge!… I can’t even get 4g yet and still get charged…. Just bugs me.
Um, not sure ths guy knew what he was doing but the phone is available for pickup on June 4th. I confirmed that when I did my pre-order. the 2 day holding is saying that they will hold it for UP TO 2 days before they either return it or sell it out of their system….. this was a horrible write up…
Best Buy- when I was researching the EVO, I never saw boo about Best Buy offering a deal. For that matter, I just stumbled across the Radio Shack offer by accident. I then called some local stores to see what they were offering, with no results. Now that I know about the BB deal, I changed my search parameters and found several references to it.
However, had I known about BB’s deal, it probably would not have changed much. I do not like our local BB store and I don’t want an earpiece- although a bigger gift card is a nice deal.
@Jason- Thank you for the nice example of Skitt’s Law.
This was not my best work, admittedly, but it was also not a review per se, just impressions of the ordering process. I would be interested in what others experienced at their own Shacks or BBs.
I ordered mine through walmart.. sure I wont get it on the 4th of June, but its free shipping and NO SALES TAX! Thats a savings of almost $50.. thats right preorder from Walmart!
ummm..this is not exactly breaking news. For almost 2 weeks, the Web has been full of the news that BOTH Radio Shack AND Best Buy are pre-ordering the EVO. Also, the release date is June 4, not June 6—if you wait until June 6, Radio Shack wont guarantee that you will still get the phone! Also, I paid the $50 deposit at Radio Shack and they did give me a $20 accessories card. (Am I supposed to get a $50 card AND a $20 card?! That doesnt sound right either…ummm….)
The two-day hold bit- the phone comes out on the 4th (and I never said otherwise), the paperwork I had to sign had a comment about a 2-day hold that the manager explained meant that it would be available on the 6th. We figured that this was to avoid the problems they had when the Palm Pre came out.
I did not get a copy of that form, so cannot post it verbatim, but the manager says that what he told me is what they were told in the district sales meeting. I confirmed this with him after reading these comments.
Considering that it is the Shack, it is probably IS meant more like what others have posted here, but my posting was intended to reflect what I went through, and that is what I was told. Your milage may vary.
A benefit of comment sections like this is to help overcome issues in the original report. Now, if someone else gets told what I did, they will know better.
It is interesting that this little ‘throw away’ piece gets all of the comments, and the articles I pour blood and sweat into get nada.
So, does anyone have any more helpful comments? Like apps to look for or something?
Radio Shack also told me that they will hold the phone for me for 2 days–of course it makes sense that they want you to pick up the phone as soon as possible if its on hold. In fact I also read that in all the media reports anyway, so I knew about that beforehand. They told you that the directive that they can “hold it for the first 2 days of the launch” means they are just going to hold on to it, and not let you pick it up for 2 days? What would be the logic in that??
I guess the articles you spend more time on aren’t full of misinformation!
I’ll go check them out now, and let you know if I find any. 🙂
I just got this phone before it’s market debut date! it’s CALLED EBAY! yes you pay a little more obv. but it’s worth it! I purchased it from a seller who got it from the google conference preimer. Shipped same day, got it next day and love it! Market value =500 w/ no contract. I got it for 550! the extra 50 was worth it to get it before debut date!!
Your other option is to go on ebay and grab one that was given away at the google I/O conf. It will cost you a fair bit(600$-650$). That comes with free unlimted service till the 20th of june. Im going to make sure i love it before i switch from blackberry. I’ve read a few reviews that the device is having a hard time making through a day without depleating the battery. That was the problem i had with the Samsung Moment. Theres also something about a 2 year discount on those devices from the google conf. I belive it was 10$ a month, so no EVO tax…
Congrats to everyone who got one of the early releases off eBay. I hope you enjoy them! Sadly there is no way I could have sprung that sort of money for one, which is OK because I am rarely an Early Adopter.
they probably wont give you a $20 gift card now since best buy already had the better deal so nopw they’re doing the $50 gift card as well…thats what best buy was doing from the start
Can’t wait to leave att and my iphone for this phone…
Hello folks…NO…Best Buy is NOT giving you an EXTRA $50.00 on a gift card. That is your down payment for the phone. You then give the gift card BACK that has your $50.00 on it, and pay the balance for the phone.
Also if you log onto radio shack website and fill out their customer service survey u get an additional $10 coupon to use on a purchase of $40 or more. I’m assuming you can use it on the purchase itself.
I just called the Bestbuy in Kansas City, MO and i was told that a free bluetooth headset would come with the Evo for free.
I pre-ordered my HTC Evo at Best Buy on May 24th. When I arrived there the sales associate told me he had already sold out, from pre-orders, all the Evo’s on the first shipment on June 04, 2010. I have to wait for the second shipment of the Evo’s on June 10, 2010. I put my $50.00 down and he gave me the gift card which I will turn in when I pick up the phone. The gift card holds my spot to get a phone on the 10th and acts as my down payment. I was a little upset that I couldn’t get it on the 4th. I went to local Sprint store and they were very rude and not helpful at all. Can’t wait to get my phone.
@Earl- didhja check the Shack? They rarely get the sort of numbers to sell out.
@Ty, etc.- It is odd that BB is not listing many details on their site. I would wonder how many of the deals they are offering are local?
@Oscar- I’ve looked on the Shack’s site and cannot find a survey. Do you have a link or instructions?
This is the worst article I have read so far. I really don’t think this guy knew what he was doing at all and he must not have been looking too hard for any signs. Or maybe he just can’t comprehend things correctly . *I’m just saying*
I pre-ordered my Evo from Radio Shack, and the guy told me that they’d have it 2 days before the launch, which is tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll have mine tomorrow!
ok so let me straighten some people out here…
1. The $10 fee is not for 4G, it removes the 5GB/month cap on the “unlimited data” Now before everyone starts whining about a 5GB/month cap, you need to know that EVERY SINGLE cell phone carrier in the USA has a 5GB/month cap on data usage, even if you get unlimited. read the fine print.
2. Both Best Buy and Radio Shack require the “purchase” of a $50 gift card to “reserve” a Sprint HTC Evo 4G cell phone for you to pick up.
3. the Phone will be in stores before June 4th, so you can pick it up on June 4th. Sprint has specifically demanded that all stores doing pre-orders open early, from my understanding that is 6am (at least the Radio Shacks here are opening at that time and I have heard on other sites that other Radio Shacks are too.)
4. Radio Shack will give you a “$20 discount” on your purchase of any accessory devices WHEN THEY ARE ON THE SAME TRANSACTION AS YOUR EVO. This means that when you pickup your Evo you can get as many accessories as you want and receive $20 off that single purchase, you can not buy the accessory later, you can make them ring it up on 2 transactions. I state this because I have multiple $10 discounts from completing the survey and I asked if I could use one on the phone AND one on the accessory (yielding $30 off my accessory) they said NO, you may only use 1 discount per transaction and you MUST buy the accessory on the same transaction to get the $20 discount. You may not use the $20 discount on any item that is currently out of stock, or is not stocked in-store (ie. no website orders qualify)
5. Radio Shack has a display with pictures and information about the Evo sitting in front of the door, including a non-working demo of the Evo, the placement can vary, but per corporate ALL Radio Shacks are supposed to have the same/similar layouts, in the stores I have been in, this display was NOT with the other cell phones in the store. The store I pre-ordered at had it with the Cameras and camcorders, so it would be right in front of you when you walk in the store.
6. I was told today June 1st 2010 that the Evo is shipping with 8GB micro SDHC memory cards, NOT 16GB micro SDHC cards. this information was received yesterday via email to all stores from an executive, the manager would not tell me which executive sent the email. The 16GB micro SDHC memory cards that have been in HTC Evo units given out prior to the actual launch of the phone were “promotional material” and are not indicative of the actual shipping product (if you don’t understand, it means they were a bonus gift for people that got free Evo’s). Also, there is no, non, nada, zero, ziltch printed material that specifies that the Evo even ships with a memory card, so we should be happy with what we get and it can change at any time.
Engadget unboxing of the Sprint HTC Evo Retail package:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/19/htc-evo-4g-review/
“Inside, you’ll find just the bare essentials under a recycled flip top: a package containing the usual assortment of manuals and documents, a recycling envelope for your old phone (which, let’s be honest, is probably better off being sold or handed to a family member than recycled), a Micro-USB cable, USB wall charger (without a second cable, unfortunately, so you’ll need to find one if you want to leave cables plugged into both your PC and charger), a 1500mAh battery, 8GB microSD card, and of course, the EVO itself. Our EVO arrived with the battery already installed and charged to about 50 percent, but it was a review unit — your experience may vary.”
7. Qik video/voice chat/calling IS free; however additional Qik service features require a $4.95 per month PAYPAL subscription, the only thing I know that this is for, is live video streaming to the web. But, I know next to nothing about Qik, never even heard of it before it was announced to be on the Evo.
8. The following is a supposed list of accessories that will be available on Friday for the Evo at Radio Shack.
HTC Black Skin
HTC Screen Protectors
HTC EVO 4G Hard Shell Case
HTC Holster
HTC HDMI Cable
Zagg EVO 4G Screen Shield
(this information came from :http://www.goodandevo.net/2010/05/htc-evo-accessories-coming-to-radio-shack.html)
9. The following is a link to a list of Best Buy accessories available on Friday for the Evo (I’d post it here, but it is an image)
http://www.goodandevo.net/2010/05/leaked-best-buys-complete-htc-evo-4g-accessory-list.html
10. The Evo will be getting Android 2.2 aka Froyo this year
11. According to the Radio Shack employees at the store I preordered from, the Evo mini HDMI output WILL NOT WORK with a normal mini HDMI cable, I will find out, as I just ordered a mini HDMI cable this weekend, so we shall see about that one…
12. the camera lens on the Evo does stick out from the back of the phone, and WILL SCRATCH if you are not careful, it is not recessed. For this reason alone I strongly recommend getting some type of cover for the back of your Evo, body glove, silicone, Carbon Fiber, whatever.
13. Seidio (who sometimes gets OEM approval for its products, this means it does not void your warranty by using it, IF they get OEM approval for the item) is making a 3500mAh battery for the Evo, claiming it’s availability on June 4th, but is not yet available. The Evo ships with a 1500mAh battery.
http://www.seidioonline.com/category-s/4213.htm
14. not real important, but an fyi, here is a link to 71 photo’s taken this weekend with an HTC Evo 4G, unmoddified.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodandevo/
What a difference a week makes. I stopped by my local Shack to check things out.
– My EVO is there and I got to handle the box. It is amazingly small and heavy, like a 2-pack of soap or something. He would not let me photograph it, though.
– A district person was there helping with sales and trying to set up the displays. With less than 48 hours to launch, the only display up was an endcap header and a table covered in boxes. I’d bet they were supposed to have it done before Memorial Day.
– Besides the products mentioned by Joel, the manager said there will be bundles available- a Gold, Silver, and Bronze bundle that should be specially priced. He declined to share the bundle contents. In the past, these have been combinations of cases, chargers, screen covers, etc.
– They were given more clear directions for pre-sales, including clarification of the two-day hold, the $20 accessory offer, etc.
– and so far, my store pre-sold a total of 2 of them. (It is a newer store in a fairly low-traffic shopping area. Not the busiest of the chain.)
By the way, Joel, thanks for the link to an interesting site!
I’m looking forward to hearing everyones experiences with this phone
I am leaving now to head to my Radio Shack for my pre-order, they start taking people in at 6am, I got the 6:45am appointment. oh and if you are worried about battery life on the Evo, go read this…
http://androidforums.com/tips-tricks-evo-4g/85497-tip-trick-61-hours-24-battery-remaining.html
I already used appbrain.com and queued up 236 apps to auto install on my Evo. appbrain.com works through the marketplace so you only get “approved” apps that have not been tampered with. taking my camera, have fun all.
Arrgh! 11:30am and I was at the Shack only to find that ‘the system’ is locked up from all the activity so far this morning. When I was there, three people who had not pre-ordered were looking for EVOS and not having a lot of luck. Most of the signs are still not up, and no EVO-specific accessories are in this store yet. I’ll check after work but they suggest Saturday. Sheesh.
FYI- the Shack’s “bundles” are built around a $99 2yr protection plan. The bronze is advertised as about $65, after discounts, and has a ‘mobile phone kit’ with screen protectors, a micro-fiber wipe, and a car charger; and a generic holster. The calculated savings include the $50 card you already bought (so how is that a savings?), the $20 accessory deal, and a 10% bundle discount. The other bundles offer better accessories and start to include Bluetooth earpieces, etc. for, I believe, about $87 and $102.
Went back to the store after work since some blogs mentioned that the wait was clearing up. Although it took about 2.5 hours (because of a quirk in the process the manager followed), and it took another few hours for the internet to get connected, I am pretty happy so far.
I’ll post a ‘first impressions’ post soon! This is a cool phone!
The Mugen Power Batteries website just update the extended battery for HTC Evo,
http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/mugen-power-extended-battery-for-htc-evo-4g-1800mah.html
have to get the 1800mAh for more battery life for my Evo, hope it can improve more time for me using it.
the original battery life time terrible!