HTC EVO 4G Problems: What Users Complain about the Most

September 1, 2010 By Nick Mokey

From screen separation to USB charging issues, here are the EVO 4G pitfalls users complain about most.

Looking into the HTC EVO 4G on Sprint? As the current king of the 4G hill, it has certainly earned its stars, but WiMax juggernaut has it’s shortcomings, too. Like the iPhone 4, early adopters ran into a handful of frequent problems with the EVO 4G. Here are the issues any potential buyer will want to be aware of.

Poor battery life

Sure, your shiny new EVO 4G will function as a Wi-Fi hotspot, sharing out your 4G signal to up to eight friends, but you had better find an outlet if you want to keep them happy. Although the EVO 4G has roughly the same battery capacity as most other smartphones, heavy 4G use can quickly whittle it down within just hours. It’s not a manufacturing error: Just an unfortunate consequence of pumping data way faster than your 3G peers.

USB charging issues

A small number of EVO 4G buyers report they have had issues charging their phones via the microUSB port. Some claim their phones will not charge at all, while others experience intermittent charging. The problem appears to be due to the female microUSB port working its way loose from the motherboard. HTC is aware of the problem and will exchange phones within the standard one-year warranty period.

Light leakage and glass separation

The 4.3-inch display on the EVO 4G, gorgeous as it is, has had some issues. Early adopters complained that the screens on some phones are not properly sealed, leading to light from the backlight bleeding out, and potentially in the long term, dust build up. HTC claims it has remedied issues at the factory that caused the problem.

Unresponsive touch screens

The EVO 4G uses the same capacitive technology found on devices like the iPhone and Droid, but some users complain the device can become unresponsive when it isn’t grounded (being held in the hand). Check out the demo video below.

Check out our full HTC EVO 4G Review.

Showing 41 comments

tony at 8:02pm 22nd May 2011 My Evo unlocks itself and calls random people
Sheka at 7:34pm 10th April 2011 I am through with Sprint and the HTC Evo as well. Since day 1 my phone has been giving me problems...not being able to make or receive calls, phone lagging, battery dying after a 5 minute call..so Sprint tells me that because its a 3g 4g android phone and it has to so much, that's why I'm experiencing all of these problems, so me being ignorant to the fact I accepted that...to make a long story short, they sent me a refurbished phone, that isn't working properly as well. I paid 500+ for a phone that never worked properly from the start, and when ever I spoke someone at Sprint they tried to tell me in a nice way I did something to the phone. I will be switching cell phone carriers, after this experience with Sprint I rate them a 0 and I will never refer anyone else to Sprint.
rodriguez at 10:52pm 24th March 2011 Im having the same problem.... how can we fix it ... waste of money on a stupid phone
1. l1234567 at 3:37pm 29th January 2012 the charger is loose plug the charger into the port then lean the phone against something that holds the actual phone upside down,the charger stays in the port and charges great now I was sick of going back to the sprint store,but they were very helpful trying if this is how I have to do it I can live with it
Soonerfan1283 at 4:47am 24th March 2011 I have the EVO and any time I'm on Craigslist and email someone about something on there it sends the message to my contacts as a sent item but when I go into my actual contact list it's not in there. Is anyone else having this problem? I've been to two Sprint stores and neither can figure this one out. When I go to forward a text message I have to scroll thru all the ones in my contact list plus the ones that are getting kicked into there from me responding to something on Craigslist. The problem is, you cant delete these contacts. Any suggestions?
joe at 1:13am 20th February 2011 My wife got the evo about a month ago. Works great. She loves it. So what do I do? I cancelled my BB and get an Evo myself. Worked well until I tried playing videos on you tube or any other website. We compared both phones side by side and hers works wonderfully. We don't have 4G where we live, so we were on 3G. Works good on WiFi but ota can't get it to play anything.
Ryan Lipscomb at 6:36am 10th February 2011 I have experienced very few issues since my purchase last August. The reboot issue happened twice but not since the last software update. I use a Zagg invisible shield and its great but must keep clean or the screen becomes almost unuasble. My only complaint would have to be the auto sync data icon fluttering in task bar and sometimes causing sync failure.
LMH at 9:04pm 25th January 2011 My phone decided to not take a charge at all after it died tonight. The light doesn't blink, doesn't power on, nothing...it's as if the battery is taken out of the phone all together. And yes Eddie, for some reason after I did the "update" on my phone it thinks I live in Minsk when I live in New Jersey. I called Sprint and they put an eTicket in to the local repair store but after reading about all of the refurbished pieces of garbage I think I might just return the phone since it hasn't even been 30 days since I purchased it.
Eddie at 7:24am 15th January 2011 Does anyone have an idea as to why my evo seems to think it's in china? BTW i live in Indiana reset location several times a day for weather but it goes back to fricken china.
KLM at 5:28pm 13th January 2011 I bought EVO for my kid because he had to have it. After he charged it over night and turned it on it kicked out the wireless airport for the house. At first i thought a power spike shorted the air port, not the case. I had to turn off the airport and restart from the desk top. My house system is Apple. Before he comes in the house he has to remember shut that function off. i think it because the phone it self is an airport. Any thoughts?
TJL at 8:06am 13th January 2011 Poor battery lifeClick one text takes me to anotherClick a contact to call, takes me to anotherCan't watch a full YouTube, ESPN, or any other video I've tried via the internetMain screen sometimes tells me I'm in Osijek, I'm in Florida (wtf?)My time frequently changes to different zonesSometimes when I send a text with "?" It follows with a. "," without me touching it...these are just some that come to mind.
ChuckN at 10:06pm 12th January 2011 Had my EVO since Sept. It is getting worse and worse. Poor battery life, freezes, locks, doesn't dial, doesn't charge on USB. Very frustrating. Not happy at all.
Bob at 11:55am 12th January 2011 I've been with Sprint for 13 years. This is my first EVO and it is wonderful. I have been a previous Black Berry devotee. I LOVE my EVO. I think it is the best phone I've ever had.
SoCaleF at 5:36pm 6th January 2011 I've had 2 Evo's so far and both of them gave me problems. The first one which I bought in June had no problems until not to long ago. The problem with my first one was that the speaker sounded like it was blown out. Not knowing that I would get a refurbished phone I had another one ordered and got it last Thursday. The supposedly new phone I got was worst then my first one.4 hours after I left the store it started randomly shutting off and sometimes when it would finally stay on it would say there was an error with my SD card and was mounted as read only. I took it to Sprint and left it all day according to them they found no problem with it. Also when I got my replacement found the bottom of the screen was separating. According to the ppl at the Sprint store its normal (which I doubt) and what customer service told me is that its from physical damage which is not true since I've only had the phone a week and haven't used it much do to the issue of it shutting off. Great phone but horrible quality in my opinion.
william at 7:08pm 3rd January 2011 I'be been with Sprint for eight years. Recently bought two EVOs. Haven't even received our rebates yet and both phones are having problems. My phone shut down when I tapped the camera icon. Camera wouldn't work after reboot. Her charger stopped working. Took phones to Sprint for repairs. Then, her phone rang once for every four rings to her from my phone. Her phone made her voice scrambled like a voice disguising device. Battery would get VERY hot to the touch. Sprint store repair. My phone began to display Singapore time and weather although I live in Missouri. Two and a half hours on the phone with Sprint but still broken even after two reboots and two factory default resets. Took it to Sprint store again today but still not showing current location's weather. I'll close my account and go with an iPhone before I accept a refurbished EVO.
1. william at 5:19am 7th January 2011 Now, both of our phones reboot on their own at random. So far, they seem to be rebooting about once a day.
Ron at 7:46am 31st December 2010 It's funny that most of the griping involves former iPhone (fanboy) users that somehow ended up with an EVO. So go back to the iPhone. If the iPhone was so great, what made you buy an EVO? I needed a replacement EVO to correct a problem with my phone. No big deal. Has worked great ever since. This happens all the time with ANY kind of product. Take the Apple jihad to a forum sympathetic to Apple expats & will stroke your "I miss my iphone" whining.
1. william at 4:57am 7th January 2011 Dud, it's not funny at all that I kick out a lot of money for two phones that are having multiple problems. It's not funny that people are returning unusable phones that they bought new and are getting "refurbished" phones that are coming pre_loaded with previous owner problems. it's not funny that there is a denial of this phone's problems by Sprint and HTC. And YOU think it's some kind of Apple iPhone user smear campaign. Now THAT'S funny!
Nic at 7:20pm 27th December 2010 I just downloades an auto update for my 4g and know it reads in the top left corner of the screen that the 4g antenna is on but it is still running on 3g. Prior to the auto download it was running fine at 4g speed?? Anyone else having this problem?
James W Voorheis at 5:39pm 26th December 2010 I've had two evo's for three weeks. They will not sync to gmail. Last week I found the evo will not open attachments like .jpg .pdf .eps I plan to go back to the Sprint store tomorrow. My Iphones had fewer problems, except for AT&T
junior at 11:38pm 19th December 2010 I've had my evo for 3 months now and I'm currently experiencing the same problem with the usb charger. After a few minutes of charging, it blinks green and red and when I check the battery status, it says "discharging" WTF? I can't see why after paying so much money for a phone they would replace it with a REFURBISHED phone. Thats a slap to the face. I mean c'mon, its common sense .... after you take a shower, do you put back on used underwear or a fresh one? Duuhhhhh
jody pickard at 4:44pm 30th November 2010 i have had my evo for 2 weeks, was happy until i lost all sound.no ringtone,notification sound. now it wont even vibrate...
ken at 11:42pm 3rd November 2010 my evo keeeps turning off and on off and on and when it finally turns on it stays on for 5 seconds ad turns back off, ive only had this phone for 1 day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ughh :( and i thought the samung exclaim from sprint was bad, ooh boy.
1. john at 7:06pm 13th November 2010 I am having the same problem. This phone is turning into more of a nuscence than i had expected.
2. Christine at 3:12pm 15th November 2010 I am experiencing the same problem. Have you found a solution??
3. Bob at 9:29am 25th November 2010 I was a contented Sprint customer until I bought a new phone (EVO) protected with a one year warranty. I also bought damage/loss insurance. My EVO also cycle crashes. Turns out the new phone warranty isn't really a warranty. Sprint will replace the defective phone (manufacture's problem, not anything I did) with someone else's problem phone that they claim has been refurbished. If they can't get the new phone right, why would they expect one to believe they can get their recycled junk to work properly? I'm without a phone waiting on one in the mail while Sprint has box loads of EVOs in their stores that they won't allow an exchange. Lousy customer service in their refusal to make it right. Their sales rep actually told me I could buy one of the ones in their store for $400+. I was insulted by her rudeness
albert at 10:30am 31st October 2010 My Evo frequently needs to be reset. And about 70% of the time when I click on a text conversation, it throws me into another different text conversation. And goodness forbid if u want to delete a full conversation, it locks up for a looong while. I miss my iphone 4, but too bad Sprint has better plans
1. Jessica at 5:54pm 26th December 2010 hey this is my 4th evo. Idk if i'm down loading crap my evo always freezes.
Wayne at 11:40am 23rd October 2010 This has got to be the most frustrating phone I have had and I have had a number of smart phones. I am on my 2nd phone from Sprint due to problems with the first 4G. Unfortunately they only send out refurbs. It constantly locks up and needs to have the factory reset done. The Exchange Account for my work email stops syncing and I have to delete and reinstall the account again. Looks like I should have stayed with my IPhone. Don't believe the advertising.
Nija Richie at 9:18pm 19th October 2010 Well I recently took my Evo to the Sprint Repair center 2 weeks ago because it was no longer charging. Seems my usb port got detached from the motherboard. Then after 2 weeks the same thing happened again so they ordered me a new phone. I got the phone yesterday and its in horrible condition. The microphone is bent in, light escapes from the bottom of the screen, white spots were in the background of the screen, and the earphone jack had a short in it. Also the touch screen works like crap. Cant text if I wanted to.. The H and U buttons dont even work. New phone (Probably Refurbished) will be here Thursday. I will keep my fingers crossed.
Steve at 2:47pm 7th October 2010 I've had my EVO for a month and the only problem I have had is when I use the video camera the phone shuts down completely then it cycles on and off. The first time it happened, I took out the battery for a few seconds and then replaced it, turned it on and it went back to normal. The second time it happened, I had to take it to the Sprint store where they attempted to fix it with a hard boot of the system. They are now sending me a new replacement. Great customer service but I am lost without my EVO.
1. max at 11:52pm 30th March 2011 Sometimes it happens when using navigation and talking at the same time.
Stephen Chapman at 8:41am 19th September 2010 Wow, I haven't had a single issue with either of my two evos. That video shows some guy ham-listing his evo and accidental pushing menu buttons, etc., multiple times. Not useful... I have never actually been happy with a phone until this one and I've had cell phones since the nineties. What a terrific device it is! I just wish we had 4g coverage since we have to pay a BS ten dollar fee every month for service we don't receive.
Jill at 6:41pm 17th September 2010 My talking tom is not as animated on the evo as it is my husbands hero. His mouth and bottom lip does not open as wide. Any reason why? Any suggestions
Sean-CDtek.com at 7:46am 7th September 2010 Battery life seems to be the big thing holding back a lot of portable devices. Balancing good battery life with the thin designs everyone wants is very difficult.
TexasIA at 12:38pm 6th September 2010 My EVO is also a month old and I LOVE it I have not experianced any problems at all with it. Thank God!!!!!!!
steven at 5:16pm 3rd September 2010 I had the evo for a month and have had no problems hence the fact I waited until all bugs w ere fixed
@crorella at 7:40am 3rd September 2010 FUD!!
big rich at 6:31pm 2nd September 2010 ditto. No issues whatsoever.
Insp_Gadget at 7:00am 2nd September 2010 All those issues were fixed months ago. By the way, I never experienced any of them on my EVO.
1. Nunads at 9:14am 3rd September 2010 The only issue that I doubt they fixed is the poor battery life (in general), especially when using as Wi-Fi hotspot.