HTC EVO Design 4G (Boost Mobile)

The HTC EVO Design 4G is Boost Mobile's first smartphone to run on Sprint's WiMAX network. It's also the best smartphone?currently available on Boost, with a lovely, crisp display, good call quality, and fast data speeds if you're covered by WiMAX. It's a little pricey at $299.99, and it lacks a dual-core processor like some other top-of-the-line contract-free devices out there, but if you're looking for fast data speeds at a low monthly price, it fits the bill, making it our latest Editors' Choice for smartphones on Boost.

Design and Call Quality
The Design 4G is a black slab that measures 4.8 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs a slightly hefty 5.2 ounces. The back is a mixture of black aluminum and soft-touch plastic that looks understated but classy. Your eyes will likely be focused on the 4-inch, 960-by-540-pixel qHD capacitive LCD, which looks bright and crisp. There are four capacitive touch buttons beneath the screen. Typing on HTC's on-screen QWERTY keyboard was easy in both portrait and landscape modes.

The Design 4G is a quad-band (800/850/1900/2600) CDMA/WiMAX phone that runs on Sprint's 3G and 4G networks. There's also 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. Reception is average and call quality is good. Voices sound clear in the phone's earpiece, if somewhat thin, but volume goes extremely loud. Ditto for the speakerphone, which is certainly loud enough to use outdoors. Calls made with the phone are easy to hear and feature decent noise cancellation, though voices are a bit digitized. Calls sound fine over a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked over Bluetooth without issue. Battery life is average, at 5 hours and 48 minutes of talk time over 3G. But turn on 4G, and that number drops considerably, even when you aren't using the phone. You'll probably only want to connect to 4G when you know you're going to use it.

Data Speeds and Data Plans
As we discovered in our testing for the Fastest Mobile Networks, Sprint has the slowest 3G speeds of all the carriers we tested. That means that all 3G-only Sprint, Boost, and Virgin phones are running at some pretty challenged data speeds. Thankfully, 4G WiMAX support offers the Design a major boost. Running Ookla's Speedtest.net app, I saw average 4G download speeds of 5.5Mbps in Manhattan, and upload speeds of 1.5Mbps, both of which are plenty fast.

Sprint's 3G network is much, much slower. I got an average of just 0.6Mbps down and 0.5Mbps up in the same test areas in Manhattan. But while WiMAX will get you much faster data speeds, keep in mind that it isn't available everywhere the same way that 3G is. Make sure you're covered before factoring it into your decision.

The best reason to get a phone on Boost is to tap into the carrier's inexpensive pricing plans. Android plans start at $55 for "unlimited" data, talk time, and texts per month. That amount is reduced by $5 every 6 months you pay your bill on time, until you reach $40. If you don't need as much talk time, you can get a similar plan from Virgin Mobile, but with 300 voice minutes, for just $35 per month. But for either carrier, there is a downside for heavy data users: After 2.5GB of full-speed data usage per month, your speeds will be throttled significantly until the end of your billing cycle.

For an additional $10 per month, you can use the Design as a mobile hotspot to share your connection with up to eight devices. Just keep in mind that you're drawing from the same 2.5GB well of full-speed data.

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