So I made this video in a hurry after rushing to my local Best Buy to pick up the Evo’s they just got in stock. I was buying it for a friend who I was adding to my Family Plan and after setting it all up and grabbing a quick bite to eat, I set the phone next to my current Evo (purely by accident).
Glancing over at the two Evo’s side by side I made a startling discovery. The colors between the two Evo’s LCD screens were MUCH different. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed this sooner! If you weren’t holding them right next to each other you might not even notice the differences but after playing around with the brightness levels the differences were apparent.
The newer Evo we had just purchased had a more “washed” out look to it while the older Evo had richer colors and better contrast. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Upon closer inspection we also found a row of dead pixels we initally assumed to be a hair on the screen.
Samsung was manufacturing the AMOLED displays for the Incredible, but struggled to keep up with demand. We don’t know if it’s related, but it looks like HTC might have gone shopping for new displays elsewhere. It seems whoever else is making these new LCD’s is using sub par materials and the quality of the phone is suffering.
I don’t know if this is a temporary fix or an isolated case but it has definitely tarnished my view of HTC and their ability to put out fine quality handsets. Keep in mind, this is just another in a slew of reports about many issues Android blogs have been finding with the Evo. Up until now, I figured they were unsubstantiated. Now I’m starting to question the preorder I made with Best Buy for thenew white Evo dropping this July. Especially with the thought of them coming equipped with lesser grade hardware.
If you happen to have two EVOs on hand, check them out and let us know if you can tell the difference.
Update: As pointed out on xda-developers, there are two versions of the EVO (002 and 003). It appears the 002 models have a Novatel LCD while most of the newer ones feature an Epson LCD, although I’ve seen reports of these being mixed. To check your model just navigate to Settings > About phone > Hardware Information > Hardware version.