Using the FCC-approved Ookla Speedtest.net app, I tested Sprint's 3G network in two cities: New Orleans and San Francisco. In New Orleans, the HTC Evo achieved an average of 1.4 Mbps for download speeds and 0.52 Mbps for upload speeds. In San Francisco, Sprint's 3G network was a bit faster, with an average of 1.69 Mbps for downloads and 0.90 Mbps for upload speeds.

These are okay speeds for 3G, but I've been spoiled by 4G. Videos started and stalled over YouTube and Web pages weren't loading as quickly as I'm used to. Even T-Mobile's HSPA+ network seems much faster than Sprint's 3G network. But until Sprint LTE comes to your city, you're stuck with 3G. Even if you have WiMax in your city, the Evo 4G LTE isn't compatible with that network.

I ran both the Quadrant and Vellamo benchmarking apps to see how powerful the Qualcomm S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor is on the HTC EVO 4G LTE. With Vellamo (which was developed by Qualcomm), the Evo had a score of 2392, slightly ahead of the HTC One S, which has the same processor and achieved a score of 2365.

Under Quadrant, the HTC Evo got a score of 5145, which put it slightly ahead of both the One S and the Galaxy Nexus. I also ran a few graphics-heavy games, like World of Goo and Osmos, and the Evo handled them flawlessly.

While we haven't yet completed our formal battery tests, I used the EVO 4G LTE for an afternoon photo outing. After 2 hours and about 50 photos later, I noticed a significant drop in battery life. You might not use the camera as heavily in a short time span as I did for this review, but one of the main selling points of this phone is the camera. I also ran a 26-minute video over YouTube with the battery starting at 76 percent charged. After the video was finished, the Evo had a battery life of 67 percent. We'll update the Evo's battery life results once we finish our formal testing.