Deal Breaker sure is not the correct words I would use. With the capablility to turn off all the applications running in the background, battery life is no problem. When I purchased mine, Sprint was up front with the knowledge of the battery life but showed us everything we needed to know. Once you learn what applications you will or need to use just turn the others off. I also found plenty of Free task manager applications to download to control this and make it easy for the new users. Best phone I have owned.

Initally with my hero i was lucky to get four to six hours out of the battery. I found with certain tweaks, and turning internet, wifi and gps off when not in use (htc provides widgets to make this easily accessible from the home screen), i was able to extend the battery life to 12-36 hours depending on usage. While the screen on the evo certainly will suck down battery at higher rate, it does have a bigger battery then the hero. I expect battery life to be about equal. I just got mine, so I'll find out :D

Once again...a 5 sec text byte thats rather poorly informative second hand info. If need the real deal please stop whining on here and simply go to Engaget for correct info. If you were to read this, and this only...you might think the phone is a bad buy. Upon a closer look, this is clearly not the case. Poor article...nothing to see here.

Was really looking forward to this phone. Have the Palm Pre now and get great battery life. Used to have the Instinct and the battery life was so bad I hated it. Unfortunately this phone sounds like it will mimic the downside I found with that phone.
For now, I will wait and see what the reviews say when it gets into the hands of every early adopter.
Should know pretty quick if it's worth the jump.
Not giving up....just being cautious.

Its like buying a hummer and complain about gas..... Lets get serious.

I've been using my EVO for a week (Google IO) as I've been looking to upgrade my Blackberry Curve. It is a cool big screen, but is a true battery sucker compared to my other device - which was a smartphone. I got just over 4 hours off this last charge.

The advice in the comments posted here are a bit frustrating. Users do not want to have to remember to turn specific features on and off. Nor do we want to buy chargers for every location (well, replace old chargers if you didn't have a micro-USB). Talk about confusion...

You can imagine the scenario:
"Hey, [insert coworker name] check out my cool new phone. It has a hotspot built-in." fumbles to switch on hotspot which had timed out. "Ah, got it.. Wait, we want that in 4g mode too. Hmm, not being recognized by laptop..." wait for it, wait for it... "Ah, gotta hold it a lot closer"

"You know it also can use WiFi, so I can skip the 4g when I'm in the office or anywhere out of the nadful of markets that have it. Here, check it out." Turns on WiFi which powers down hotspot. No big deal, the laptop can run off the wireless network in the office, too.

"Err, ummm, it also has a great Camera and Video chat... though Qik does cost extra and I didn't sign up for it. But I'm sure I'd use video chat if I did pay for it... well at least once." Coworker rolling eyes...

"Hey check out the 720p video and 8 megapixel camera."

"Wow, umm dude, yer battery died." Coworker now holding back laughter

"Yeah, that happens... so I bought a home charger, a car charger, and an extra for the office."

"At lunchtime?"

i don't have mine yet, but from what I have read elsewhere, the battery will last the whole day with light use. using 4G (or searching for 4G signal) is not "normal use" since only a few cities have 4G. moreover, you could turn on 4G to browse the web/watch video, and turn it off when you are done.

Seidio is releasing an Innocell 1750mAh extended life battery along with some other accessories. For people who have been waiting for this phone, I'm sure purchasing a larger extra battery is not going to be a problem.

These are iPhone fanboy lies. The USAToday report stated that the EVO 4G battery lasts just as long as the iPhone 3G under heavy use.

Looking....don't recall ever saying ANY differently? Who's drinking kool-aid again? ;)
Nothing about the iPhone was mentioned in this article by me. Keep reading. :)

I know.. not to offend, but the person who wrote this tidbit sounds like an Apple FanBoy! Shame on you!

droid phones multi task .so if you do not know how to manage what is running on them the battery will go fast . after you use one and visit the app store a few times you will learn how overcome this issue .

The USAToday article states:
"The more concerning issue was the battery. It pooped out after only a few hours of general use, or well before the business day had ended. (To be fair, my iPhone 3G battery failed around the same time."

So why would battery life be a show stopper if the iPhone, and probably most other smartphones, provide similar battery performance? All smartphones are power suckers, making this a non issue and definitely not a show stopper for the EVO. Can you spell e-x-t-r-a b-a-t-t-e-r-y?

Now we have finally have a fair, accurate comment. Yes, the iPhone falls dead set into the same box here. And you bet, this phone will be awesome when some better batteries are released. Until then, I'd wait though. But thank you for not trolling and actually "getting it". ;)

There will obviously be aftermarket extended batteries available.

Yep.

Uh, anyone that gets their tech news/advice from USA Today probably shouldn't be using an Evo, iPhone or any smartphone.

You guys should really include the rest of the review from the article. It states that ON 4G the battery is poor. A lot of people obviously do not have 4G yet, so this will not be an issue. I love when tiny little sites try to post parts of an article to get people to visit. I visited just to comment...

Well, the take away is clear: it's fast, but the battery life is in my estimation from the article, is crap.

The "good" in exchange for poor battery life was...

"Still, Evo functions as a very respectable, feature-rich 3G-based smartphone."

Take this article off the internet. You clearly did not read the USA today article because he equated the battery life to the Iphone battery life. If that fails after a few hours then everyone that has the Iphone should not be happy or they should get the EVO with better functionality and the same battery life.

Seriously? FTA:

"The more concerning issue was the battery. It pooped out after only a few hours of general use, or well before the business day had ended. (To be fair, my iPhone 3G battery failed around the same time.)"

How is that not CRYSTAL clear indicating terrible battery life? RTA next time, ;)

My current HTC Touch Diamond suffers from short battery life. I must always keep it plugged in at the office to keep the battery charged and also keep it plugged in when in a vehicle. In the evening or weekends, I must keep it plugged in constantly or it will be dead by lunch time or dinner time (depending on when I unplugged it) I had great hopes for the EVO 4G. I really hoped that they fixed the short battery life issue. :,o( drat!

No smartphone in the market will let you do serious consumption without taking a hit on the battery life. It's the downside to all latest smartphones, unfortunately.

DUH who didn't know this, I mean what else can you expect from this amazing phone, I'm still getting it. HTC EVO can't wait to wait you in my hands

Not "normal" use like you are used to. If you are watching video (on any device) the battery drains quickly. It's the downside of all smart phones. Better features suck the battery up. If you want a phone with a big screen, multiple radios and a serious processor, you must consider the battery. This is not unique in any way to this device.

Since you stated that from the report of USA Today, you should have finished it with what the rest of the paragraph said.(It pooed out after only a few hours of general use, or well before business day had ended. (To be fair, my iphone 3G battery failed around the same time))

ok, like a software update couldn't fix that...or maybe a charging cable while your at work. Hopefully people are smart enough to just plug it up while their working and unplugging when they're not...i don't think it'll be that much of a deal breaker. I usually have my phone plugged in as soon as i sit at my desk...i also have a car charger which the phone is plugged into while i drive...i take every precaution to make sure the phone stays alive throughout the day...by the time i get home, i have a full battery and can use it til i go to bed. It's not rocket science...

"The battery is so bad, that it only lasts a few hours of normal use in a work day" --- The USA Today does not say "The battery is so bad..." --- I think its also important to be unbiased and state that USA Today noted "..to be fair my iPhone 3G died around at the same time" -- I think people should read the USA Today report directly, instead of reading an article from possible Apple fanboy.

While you're welcome to disagree with the words that I read directly from the article, I can assure you that if you read things here, you'll find that I am NOT by any stretch an Apple fan. ;) Speculation can come back and bite ya, careful.

Written on Ubuntu 10.04

This isn't nessasarily the case. The main problem they had in testing it was that the phone didn't have a strong 4G signal where they were. The phone kept searching for a signal which drained that battery quicker (much like my EVDO does when it doesn't have strong signal). They also say that it was still comparable with the iphone 3GS when both were using multimedia. I am not that concerned about the battery life. If it turns out to be an issue I will order a third party battery. I have seen a batterty with 1850 MaH compared to the 1500 MaH battery it comes with.

This is no worse than the HTC Touch Pro or the HTC Touch Pro 2. Give it a few months and the folks over at ppcgeeks.com will have a registry editor and fix for battery life. Most people don't realize that you need to turn off all the stuff you don't use or need when you're just sitting there waiting for a phone call. Battery life is all dependent on use. With my HTC Touch Pro I was getting 3-4 hours of battery life with normal usage until I found a fix at ppcgeeks. Now my battery lasts anywhere from 18 to 26 hours depending on where I'm at and what I'm doing with the phone.

Battery life is not as significant as you think. Think about where most people are heavily using their phones most of the time: either at work or at home. People don't typically engage in heavy usage (using the internet, navigation, music) when they're out and about because they are occupied with something else, and the battery draining is probably due to most people not knowing how to prevent heavy drainage by properly adjusting their phone settings.

This is by no means a deal breaker for me. I understand that the phone has a huge screen with a small battery, thats why I will have a charger at home, a charger in the car and a charger at work. No "worthwhile" smartphone has good battery life, none. My brother's Iphone doesn't last the day either, you want a smartphone that lasts a day, then get a Blackberry with no camera and a 2 inch screen. People who get this phone will know what it is capable and not capable of.

Good points.

You didn't mention the fact that his IPhone 3G battery failed about the same time.

Not really, most mobile phone batteries die a quick death.

I think "deal breaker for most people" is incorrect. Like "most people" I could charge at home and in my car. If needed I could charge at my desk at work. No big deal. Savvy buyers will be well aware of the battery life and still buy this phone.

Moreover, you just need to be careful with battery management and make sure you don't consume data when you can't access a wall outlet or when you know you will need the phone for other important tasks than watching videos.