The Sprint HTC EVO 4G Review

The Camera

While the Camera app can switch between photo and video, HTC includes a separate icon for both Camera and Camcorder modes. The app launches relatively quickly. We timed a bit over a second to launch, and the shutter is quick once you get a focus locked.

Switching between the front and rear camera is possible, but requires an annoying number of steps. You need to tap to bring up the menu, tap again to bring up settings and tap once more to switch to the front camera.

The Camera app is entirely customizable. You can set filters on your shot, change white balance, resolution, metering mode, include a time stamp and even set a countdown timer. The app makes the camera feel like a point and shoot although most of the time you’ll never touch any of the settings.

Image quality is good enough to make the EVO 4G your only camera if you’re out and about during the day.

EVO 4G Rear Camera, well lit, indoors

Low light shots are helped by the use of two LEDs acting together as a really bright flash. If you’re shooting a subject up close you can actually shoot in total darkness. The LEDs will come on for a bit to give the camera enough light to focus before going full blast to capture the shot. The photo below was taken in total darkness:

EVO 4G Rear Camera, pitch black, indoors

The fact that you can shoot in pitch black is great, but the LEDs are blinding to the person standing on the other side of the camera. Thankfully the chocolate monster in our photobox didn’t mind. For a full set of comparison pics between the EVO 4G, Nexus One, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 check out our gallery below.

Taken outside with the EVO 4G's main camera

Overall image quality is good on the EVO but very noisy in anything but tons of light. Outdoor photos turn out great but indoors and in low light situations it’s far less impressive. The EVO’s auto white balance works very well in all lighting conditions, while color reproduction ranges from great to overly pink depending on the situation.

That hardwood is a little too pink

Video is recorded via the rear camera at up to 1280 x 720. Unfortunately the LED flash doesn’t work while recording video so you’re limited to situations where you have tons of light. A sample video I made while driving around Raleigh is below:

Taken with the EVO 4G's Front Camera, fully lit

Taken with the EVO 4G's Front Camera, no direct lighting

The front facing camera can shoot photos ast up to 1280 x 960 and video at a maximum of 640 x 480. Unfortunately there’s no flash on this side so you’ll have to rely on good ambient lighting. I did a quick video test inside my office with the lights on and the front camera pointed at me. The EVO unfortunately records the video rotated so forgive me for the awkwardness:

The resulting image is very noisy and generally not good, but passable. It looks like improving the front camera sensor is what we'll see happen in the next couple of years with smartphones.

Overall the EVO 4G, like the HTC Droid Incredible, offers enough with its camera to take the place of a point and shoot for photos that would end up on the web. If you’re making prints or capturing moments that really matter, you’ll want to carry around a real camera as well.