Stock music applications are usually things that get ripped apart by the tech blogs when ‘new phone reviews’ hit. Whether they truly deserve these poor marks or not is usually an afterthought to the reviewer as they head back to their iPhones and Zunes. It’s my opinion, that HTC missed a few features in the player on the Evo, but for the most part, did a fantastic job with it.
The stock music player on the Evo is simple, but very functional. Pictured above is the basic interface you will see when launching the Music application. The top features the Now playing title, followed by the number of tracks in the playlist. The artist album art is located on a ‘filmstrip’ style flick forward and reverse control. The song title, progress slider, artist name and album name round out the information section of the interface.
By pressing the buttons located at the bottom of the screen, you will see the ‘menu’ with the left button. This allows you to access your library and view it by Artist, Album, Song, Composer, Genre or Playlist.
By selecting the view from the bottom of the library menu, the new lower menu becomes the filtering mechanism. You can select how you want to view your library. With a quick swipe, you can switch between views.
With a press of the right button from the main menu, you will be taken directly to your ‘now playing’ playlist. You can then scroll through the current album or playlist you have selected to your favorite track.
The last feature that HTC has done marvelously is integrated the music player into the lock screen of the Evo. By making this simple lock screen, you can pause, reverse or skip to the next track on your list. This is a great feature for use when working out, running or even bicycling. It’s also a great additional feature when you have the device playing in your car.
Now with all the good, of course there is bound to be a few issues. The biggest of which can be fixed with a simple app to ‘tag’ your mp3 files. If you somehow copy music to your device without the wonderful artwork associated with it, you will see the lovely HTC Music Note for your background. A simple app from the market will let you find the iD3 information for you songs, but it would have been wonderful for HTC to build this feature in.
The next feature that seemed to just miss the mark is the factory ‘ringtone trimmer’. The trimmer works great, but doesn’t allow you to adjust the audio quality making it very difficult to send more than a 20 second tone to friends. Again, not a deal breaker, but a bit of a pain.
Overall, as far as stock media players go, Sense offers a great experience. When you combine this with programs like Music Junk and a good iD3 tagger from the Market, you will have a top notch music player experience. Also, the player integrates very well with AmazonMP3 from the Market as well.
If you’ve been thinking about getting the Evo but haven’t yet, our online store has both the Black and White versions in-stock. The Shift 4G is also available for a special low price as well. Stop by our site at http://www.getsmartphones.info for more information and specials on phones, plans and accessories.
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