HTC EVO 4G launch day line watch
By Vlad Savov 
posted June 4th 2010 3:50AM
posted June 4th 2010 3:50AM
New York reader Jordan Harding starts us off with a visage of the Bryant Park Sprint store. He's (clearly) the first in line, but barriers have been set up to contain the inevitable crush of Supersonic fanboys and girls. We love the tasty irony of him taking this picture with his Palm Pre, the previous king of Sprint's hill.
It's 4.30AM in Washington DC and... we've got another queue-less Sprint storefront to gaze upon. At this rate, we might need to go create the lines ourselves. Thanks, Bryant.
The tumbleweed keeps tumbling in front of RadioShack stores, while reader DevilGear shows us the first image of real fleshies waiting for their hot new Android friend. Thanks and kudos go out to Nick and Michael for keeping their local Shacks populated.
At long last, an honest to goodness line has materialized over in Washington at 7.30AM. Thanks again, Bryant.
Lexington Avenue in New York is just busting at the seams with muted anticipation.
Chi-town has come out in irresistible force, as this pic taken at 7.15AM local time shows. Another notable bit of info: it was snapped with an EVO by reader Eric, who was probably wise not to tread any closer to that massive crowd with the object of their desire in his hand.
Say hello to New Berlin, Wisconsin, where we're told the parking lot is unusually full and people are even waiting out in the rain. Thanks to Sanford for grabbing this snapshot at 7.18AM local time.
We've got nothing snarky to say about this one -- it's a fully formed, round-the-corner, bona fide line, even if it is a bit too well behaved for our tastes. Shot by Chad in New York with an HTC Incredible.
June 4th is also my birthday. Everyone will be too busy buying their Evo 4G to celebrate it, and I'm not even getting one (stuck on Verizon). D:
@Special Agent Steve
Many Happy Returns of the day buddy!
@Special Agent Steve Screw my Evo reservation, I'm selebrating Special Agent's birthday. Where do you want to go for breakfast and do you prefer blonds, red heads or brunettes? One of each?
@sonicwind
lol..... treat the boy nicely..... its his b'day..... treat him to some nice chicks with something to latch on to.....
@Special Agent Steve
You weren't to busy :D
Have fun with your Evos!
@Special Agent Steve By the looks of it everyone is celebrating your birthday after all!
@Special Agent Steve happy birthday buddy. I get my evo in 45 minutes and my bday is june 11...my bady present to myself. Have an awesome day and do something fun!
the only people that line up for phones are the ape fanatics.
@Special Agent Steve : Happy Birthday! If you forget your birthday, just remember it's on the day the Evo released! :D
I'm in line waiting right now... Yeah.... I'm the first one in line. Hahahahahahahahaha... THE EVO IS MINE MINE I SAY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
@Special Agent Steve Hey! It's my b'day too! I'm about to leave for my 7 am pacific app't at radio shack! I'll have my jamba juice (with a candle in it) and car charger with me!!! Happy birthday!!! ?;-/$)
@Special Agent Steve Happy birthday man :)
I have time to do this because the Evo isn't being released in the UK ;)
@Special Agent Steve
i dunno...but i'm kinda glad that a lot of people aren't waiting in lines for it. over the years working retail at i've seen a lot of people camped out for xbox 360s and ps3s, iphones and the like. I've never understood the big fuggin deal. you wait in like for 4,8,12 hours just so you can tell all your friends FIRST!! as if you were an engadget commenter. i've always thought these people were fairly well, sheepish, if you ask me (sorry for being inflammatory). I'd rather sleep in my cozy bed, and get it when i get it. Maybe its 2 days later, maybe its a week later. Especially with phones, i'm sure thats when people will start saying ''hey there's a problem w/ all the screens" or "hey, the _____ slot is messed up". I've always been hip to early adopting on new stuff, but never day 1 purchases, just too many things in QC that may go wrong. Just my .02
And from some of things i've been reading this morning about the storage card on the Evo 4G....i guess this unneeded rant proves my point.
@simbadogg Dude! I didn't even know it *had* a _____ slot! Totally getting one now, for pleasure.
@Special Agent Steve
I think it's ironic how they have a picture of a line for a Sprint 4G phone at the store in New Berlin, Wisconsin. I don't believe Sprint has even got the Metro Milwaukee area on their radar yet for a roll-out of the 4G system. Will these Wisconsinites still be coughing up the extra cash monthly for 4G data even though they'd have to venture all the way south of the border into the Chicago market to use it?
@Special Agent Steve I've been at the Bestbuy desk for 2 hours. There are so many activations happening right now, both Bestbuy's and Sprint's systems are crashing!! Argh!!
@Special Agent Steve: It's my birthday too! Happy birthday! :)
@Special Agent Steve ...The Incredible is no slouch. Get yourself some high powered Android flava brother!
@Mezmryz03
Lmao, that's actually what I bought :D.
It's no Evo, but as my first Android device, I'm excited as hell. At least it's not AT&T XD
I just got my Evo and its freaking amazing. The screen is gorgeous, the video and pics are crystal clear, the interface is elegant and smooth, its crazy fast, the kick stand is surprisingly useful, etc, etc. I love it.
I pre-ordered from Best Buy. Went to the store to pick it up yesterday only to find that "UPS lost the shipment of Evos". "We don't know when we will be getting them in." Some turd at Best Buy snagged a box of them. Shame on me for using BB.
So it doesn't look like the lines are too long....
@mjones41
Probably better than any other Android phone. Considering since Android is on more than one device, and the EVO isn't like releasing the iPhone 3G and everyone upgrades to that.
You get what I mean.
@mjones41 at radio shack you make appointments for certain times so there isn't lines. And your preorder is held for two days after they arrive. So you set your pickup fri, sat, sun. Good planning isn't a bad thing. If there were lines I'd wait to get one or order online.
@Drybones5
Until the Motorola Shadow is released in July on Verizon!,
This proves to me why android shoppers are smart, we know how to pre order so we don't have to lose sleep waiting inlines. Not to mention that sprint hasn't pushed this phone yet on tv besides one commercial noone saw
@mjones41
Apple must be smiling now.
@Jean Marc
Yeah, preorders. That must be why those lines are so short.
LOL.
@Jack
Selling out across the land, bro. I'm LOL @ you.
@mjones41
So lazy me didn't preorder at the local Radio Shack in time but on Wed was able to schedule an "appointment." That meant no $20 or 15% accessory discount but I was offered 10% on the scene, made moot 'cause they had no 16G sd and I'm gonna hold off on a hdmi cable.
Anyhow, the system was delayed when I walked into NYC's Midtown East branch for my 11:30 AM appointment. There were maybe 3 people ahead of me, just hanging out by the register. Staff weren't being super-clear but said it was roughly a 1.5 hr wait for either delayed/stalled or repeatedly failing orders through the computers. They initially thought it was the Sprint system crashing under the combined Shack, BestBuy, WalMart & Sprint Store load but the manager surmised it might have just been the thousands of Shacks, 2-3 dedicated registers at least, as they slowly opened from the East to West coast.
But shortly after I arrived, they were notified Sprint opened another bank of phone numbers and got through promptly. I was the first phone call order and perhaps because I was just a Sprint "eligible upgrade," the whole operation went through extremely fast. Literally, 15-20 minutes standing and waiting my turn and then 15-20 of the process, start-to-finish. They then passed the phone off to the neighboring register so the same operator could help the iPhone convert wrap up quickly. As I was heading out someone mentioned the computers' speed seemed to brighten up as well.
If they sorted out their minor backlog, I imagine lines were nonexistent for the rest of the day.
Sigh* Too bad that Sprint sucks in my area. I'll be crying myself to sleep tonight :(
@SiRMuP
Dude, I'm posting this comment around 3:20am and I'm not even in line. I'm online waiting for my order to process which now is a big red bar and still waiting :(
@cdf74dc9
Guys! Not trying to be a party pooper but have you taken a look at HTC Mondrian? The phone sure is months away but I like it!
@krishansy
Well, it's a completely different OS. So, whatever.
@SiRMuP
I just went to Radio Shack with a friend who was getting it. They only pre-ordered 7, and they said that the best pre-ordering they knew of was 3 hours north in San Antonio, where a mall location had 33 on pre-order. That surprised me. I thought there would be way more demand.
On a crappy note, and seemingly NOT mentioned by any of these cool blogs... and some of you may be pissed at reading this...
Apparently, the $10 "Premium" for 4G access doesn't just apply to your new EVO... it applies to EVERY PHONE within your family plan.
Have 5 teenagers and a wife? That's 7 phones on the Sprint plan, and $70 dollars extra per month, just because your ONE PHONE has 4G access... even if your city doesn't provide it.
WHAT THE F&@# was Sprint thinking???
This is no joke folks. *SIGH*
@KennyB123 NOT TRUE! I just went to Sprint.com and priced out a family plan, choosing the Evo 4G and the Samsung Moment as the two phones on the plan. The $10 premium was ONLY for the Evo 4G. Stop spreading lies when you haven't even done the due diligence of checking their site...it took me all of 4 minutes.
@KennyB123 is this true??
@KennyB123
Is that legit? You double checked with Sprint?
If true that's gonna be a deal breaker for many potential buyers on family plans. Me being one
@SiRMuP :'(
@SiRMuP
I guess it must not be true.
For the record, I freaking argued with Radio Shack over this for 15 minutes for my friend.
Then I called another friend who has three lines on her family plan who was picking up the phone in 30 minutes, and she said she was already notified that she would be paying 30 more a month.
This is the way Radio Shack was trained. This is the way it SEEMS to be going into their system.
Everyone seems to disagree, which is GOOD. I’ll have them contact Sprint and get their contracts fixed once they can get through.
For the record, I use a Tmobile HD2 on AT&T, and I’m sorry for the mistake. I wasn't trying to spread lies.
@uansari1 is it likely @KennyB123 simply meant each person in the fam got an EVO? As opposed to only one is an EVO (or 4G) and the rest are old school (as you point out)? Possible simple mis-int. no?
@thecolor
You should have heard me in the store. "Even if your two little kids use toy phones on the family plan, you're telling me that Sprint will charge 10 dollars per EVERY phone???"
Radio Shack idiots, "Yes. That's how we were trained, and we couldn't believe it either."
Argh. Why did I expect more from a Radio Shack employee than I normally do?
Again, sorry for making some people panic, and for needlessly pissing off the whole lot of you. LOL
@KennyB123
That's just not true. The $10 add on only applies to lines that have an EVO 4G
I just drove by the two Sprint store locations in Logan, Utah (about 90 miles north of SLC) and there were 0 people in line at both locations.
I had been antsy to get an Evo 4G up until tonight when I read a few reviews that really poo pooed the device, especially for the battery life. I'm an iPhone user who is ready to abandon AT&T and, to some extent, the ever-more-evil Apple. I was hoping this would be the device, but I might get sucked into the iPhone 4 hype next week.
@Triggdor
What shitty reviews are these? Every review I've seen have said the device ROCKS, the only partial downside is battery life but it is apparently very similar to competing phones battery life...
@Triggdor Evo purchasers are too classy to camp out for the phone. Putting yourself at such an inconvenience and subservitude to a manufacturer and a device is imbecilic. We purchase the device and own it. Apple fanboys are owned by Apple, and thus will wait in line for hours and camp out.
@TickLe MY eLMo
Gizmodo guys didn't like EVO at all..... I wonder why...
@Triggdor I wouldn't count techcrunch and gizmodo as "reviews".
I only read them if I want some good lulz.
@CL Admittedly, the poor review that turned me off was Techcrunch. Perhaps I should take it with a grain of salt. Either way, It's probably good that I am not going to rush out and get the device. Never hurts to wait a few minutes and see what people say, and especially in this case, wait for Android 2.2 to be released for the phone and see if it improves the device at all.
@sonicwind a local Sprint rep advised getting to the store at about 4 or 5 this morning in advance of the 8 a.m. opening because of all the hype surrounding the device.