Can HTC EVO Design 4G Outrun Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket?

HTC EVO family legacy was continued by Sprint with the addition of HTC EVO Design 4G, the first EVO family member touting World Phone capabilities. But the phone faces immense pressure from Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, which is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) version of the Galaxy S2 and debuted in AT&T network Nov. 6.

HTC EVO Design 4G boasts many of the must-have features of its predecessors, including Sprint 4G and a large touchscreen display of 4 inches while sporting a slim, pocket-friendly aluminum unibody design at an easily affordable price.

EVO Design 4G, which runs on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS and sports HTC Sense UI, is powered by a 1.2GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 MSM7630 processor with 768MB RAM. It also has a 5 megapixel LED flash camera with 720p HD video capture and a 1.3 megapixel camera for video chat. The phone has a 4GB ROM and an 8GB microSD card that is included in the package, which can be expanded up to 32GB.

Meanwhile, Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket runs on Google Inc.'s Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS. AT&T announced in the launch event that Skyrocket would receive an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich sometime in 2012.

The Skyrocket has a Scorpion dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm APQ8060 Snapdragon chipset, 4.5-inch Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) Plus display, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, 4G LTE support, an 8 megapixel rear-facing LED flash camera with 1080p video capture and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.

Here is a comparison between HTC EVO Design 4G and Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket:

Display: Skyrocket touts a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus Gorilla Glass display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and about 207 ppi pixel density. On the other hand, EVO Design 4G sports a 4-inch LCD capacitive touch-screen with 960 x 540 pixels qHD resolution and about 275 ppi pixels density.

Size: EVO Design 4G comes with 4.8 x 2.40 x 0.5 inches dimension and weighs 5.22 ounces while Skyrocket comes with 5.15 x 2.75 x 0.37 inches dimension and weighs 4.66 ounces.

Processor: EVO Design 4G packs a 1.2GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 MSM7630 processor with 768MB RAM. On the other hand, Skyrocket features a 1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm APQ8060 Snapdragon chipset with 1GB RAM.

Camera: Skyrocket sports a rear-facing 8 megapixel LED flash camera with 1080p HD video capture capability and a 2 megapixel camera for video chat. But the HTC phone has a 5 megapixel LED flash camera with 720p HD video capture and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing one for video calling.

Camera Features: EVO Design 4G has geo-tagging, and auto-focus while Skyrocket has geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, and image stabilization.

3G/4G: EVO Design 4G comes with Sprint's Rev. A up to 3.1 Mbps, HSDPA, and HSUPA. In comparison, Skyrocket has HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and supports 4G LTE.

Operating System: Both the smartphones have the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system with the promise of an upgrade to Google Inc.'s latest smartphone OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Android Head of Engineering Mike Claren announced the new OS - Ice Cream Sandwich - as Google's most ambitious release to date.

User Interface: EVO Design 4G uses HTC Sense 3.0 version user interface while Skyrocket comes with Samsung's TouchWiz 4.0 version.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: EVO Design 4G has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, WiMAX 802.16 e, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA, Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP, and microUSB 2.0 versions. On the other hand, Skyrocket has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 version with HS, microUSB 2.0 version (MHL), and USB-On-the-go.

Storage: EVO Design 4G has a 4GB ROM and an additional 8GB microSD card included in the package, which can be expanded up to 32GB. On the other hand, Skyrocket boasts of 16GB internal storage and via a microSD card slot it can expand up to 32 GB.

Battery: Skyrocket comes with a standard Li-ion 1850 mAh battery that gives up to 7 hours talk time and up to 256 hours of standby. Meanwhile, EVO Design 4G comes with a standard Li-ion 1520 mAh battery that gives up to 6 hours of talk time.

Pricing: EVO Design 4G is priced at $99.99 with a two-year Sprint contract and it is available for $39.99 at Amazon.com. Skyrocket, when compared, is priced at $199.99 with a two-year AT&T contract.

Additional Features: Skyrocket has accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass sensors, Assisted GPS, Adobe Flash, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, SNS integration, MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player, MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, and Picasa integration.

EVO Design 4G, when compared, has accelerometer, proximity, compass sensors, SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, stereo FM radio with RDS, assisted GPS, Java MIDP emulator, SNS integration, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration, MP3/AAC+/WAV player, and MP4/H.263/H.264 player.

Editors' Rating: HTC EVO Design 4G scored 4 out of 5 stars in PCMag and CNET editors' rating. Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, when compared, scored 4 stars in CNET and 4.5 stars in PCMag.