By The original HTC EVO 4G was dubbed the best smartphone on the market. Its HDMI port was one of many different factors that helped put it over the top, but its successor – the HTC EVO 3D – is missing one. Don’t worry, though, as HTC is one of many hardware partners teamed up with MHL to usher in a new standard of hard-wired connectivity between your smartphone and your television.
MHL stands for Mobile High-Defintion Link and essentially turns your microUSB port into an HDMI port. Using one of MHL’s cable, you can simply plug the USB end into your phone and your HDMI end into the television without having to worry about signal degradation in the conversion and without needing to setup weird converter configurations.
Not only does MHL send video and audio through the same cable to your HDTV, it also charges your phone in the process. There is currently no setup that can feed HD signal to an external source while charging the device using the same connection port. (You can set a phone inside of a multimedia desktop dock and have it charging while multimedia signals are throughput via an actual HDMI port, but that’s not really the same thing.
The only downside to MHL is that you must have the technology inside both the phone and the television, but the company behind it has gotten the likes of Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Acer and more to back it. These are major television and handset manufacturers and if they start incorporating MHL technology into all of their televisions you can expect the rest of the industry to follow.
The HTC EVO 3D shares space with the Samsung Galaxy S II as the only two smartphones with this technology, but I’m sure more will join the ranks as MHL continues to gain traction. A big “thing” for mobile now is physical downsizing. How can we make technology simpler, cheaper, and more convenient? MHL is yet another piece to that puzzle and it looks to fit very well.
So I have to buy a new TV for this to work…great idea HTC make a feature no one can use
why did HTC and Sprint put the chargingport on the side of the phone instead of at the bottom like on the EVO4G? i usally have my phone charging while im watching videos on my EVO4G using the kickstand(which for some idiotic reason the EVO3D lacks)know i can’t do that anymore so i can only watch short videos or i’ll just have to stop and switch batteries in the middle of what im watching.this is a horrible design.HTC and Sprint screwed up the EVO3D..shame on you
That “idiotic reason” is because HTC couldn’t fit the kickstand in because of the 2 cameras and battery. They’re making a case with a kickstand for it. But I do agree that they should’ve put the port at the bottom of the phone like the original Evo.
My best guess as to the side plug is probably a dock that let’s it sit sideways. Hopefully the dock is affordable. I personally would like the built in kickstand as well, but if I have a dock, then I won’t need the kickstand in too many places.
now on top of wanting us to buy a case so that we can have a kickstand,they also want us to buy some dock?? sprint is really messing up
they could have built it into the battery cover.they just want us to buy their case.sprint is trying to nickel and dime us.
They could have but if the battery cover is going to be as flimsy as the original Evo’s then it won’t be very durable.
Edit: Theres a video showing the Evo 3D with the battery cover removed and there’s literally no place to put the kickstand.
Edit 2: Look here -> http://androinica.com/2011/03/why-doesnt-htc-evo-3d-have-a-kickstand/
In CM7, the screen rotation can go either way (…like a bi-sexual).
Therefore the buttons on the bottom would be on the left when tilted sideways, instead of the normal right.
I don’t know if this is true for Stock Sense Evos lately, but if CM can do it, certainly HTC should be able to!
Any word on wireless DLNA, negating the need for the port in the first place?
I can’t see how they thought it was a good idea to limit it in this way so soon – I hope there is some sort of adapter to allow it to work with EXISTING High Def TVs. Otherwise it is useless to most people. People who use the HDMI output won’t be buying a new tv just to use it. Not to mention people who use it when they travel – hotels won’t just up and replace their tv’s because your phone can’t connect to it – nor all the TV’s used in your office when you want to use your phone to make a presentation. It’ll be great once the new TV’s have made it out into the market and replaced a lot of the ones in use now, but until then it’ll just be another unusable feature.
It will connect to show video over hdmi, it just won’t charge at the same time
From what I’ve read, yes, the EVO 3D has DLNA.
If they weren’t going to put the port on the bottom, they should have put it on the back! The reason is because on the back, you can still clamp the phone into a generic windshield dock while it’s still charging. On the back, it shouldn’t have many, if any issues with protective cases either. And being cases would need to be designed specific to this phone, they could have always designed it to accommodate the charging port (usb) on the back.
In portrait mode you don’t want the port on the bottom. You want it on the side. The EVO 3D will be able to use its kickstand for portrait mode like the Thunderbolt.
What kickstand? The EVO 3D doesn’t come with one, so one would need to get a case that has one to even use it.
htc has made a really thin case with a kickstand because they didn’t have the room to build one into the phone. So they made a case with a kickstand as an accessory to the Evo 3d. (: