MY sprint EVO 4G experience

[Lestat]

ok first let me say that i have never owned a smart phone although own an ipod touch (iphone without the camera and phone) and love it, but am very open minded about these things and went into this with said open mind.

So the wife and i decided to take the plunge and embed ourselves further in debt with a data backage and new phones.

she thought the droids looked cool because a guy at work had one (not sure which one) so we went balls deep and got the Sprint EVO 4G, and, well, they are going back today after less than 24 hours, and here's why.
(aside form the fact that she has now taken over my Ipod Touch because of all the cool apps and games that will never be on the android store)

THE BAD

1. First and foremost is the android market, there are zero apps on there that neither her or I could find that were worth it, be it free or otherwise, i showed her, again, the itouch and the apple store and she was just floored at all the applications and games. The always LAME excuse that "the Android market is new" is no longer valid, and those that SITLL use that excuse are in for a very rude awakening when 1 year from now the crappy apps and games are still there, or more so not there. The market has been out long enough to have good app's and there are none, not even the most basic fun games are on the market. some light reading will easily show you that the game/app developers are NOT developing for the droid and not for lack of want, people want those apps/games but those companies are not doing it.
   
2. Quality of app/games - ok this is huge and for the life of me i have no explanation for why this is - Games and Apps (more so the games) look like every single one, and i mean that, every one, look like they were direct ports of old Win95 DOS games. The Iphone has a few of those but i have yet to find an Android game that even looks 1/2 as good as the iphone games. why is this??? i thought the droid phones, expecially the EVO with the 1Ghz SnapDragon were a power house, well i can confirm that is not the case, they may multitask but they are NOT gaming phones, not like the iphone is turned out to be. doubt me, look at the games, then look at the iphone games. Not even the most simple games like BeJeweled are on the Android market let alone some of the wicked cool 3D or 2D scrolling shooters... again,, quality,,, and people not programming for the droid.
   
3. Battery life,,, yup it sucks, period. everything turned off i get about 2/3 the battery life of just my Ipod.
   
4. Mutlitasking - this will kill your gaming experience, that is IF you find a game worth having. things sit in the background and destroy the power of the platform. even using the Advanced Task Killer program games still churn out a whopping 10 frames per second or less, even some of the basic puzzle games will chug along.
   
5. Camera - it might be 8MP but i do not think its a true 8MP, i think its probably 5mp expanded to 8. the camera is crap,,,, period. the iphone's is no better but sheesh, if you are going to put a camera like that on there use something usable. Focusing is slow, anything other than ISO 100 is horid. and Video, oh god, the video is just garbage. Again i know its a phone so i was not expecting much but i think i let the Hype go to my head. well not any longer. i know the camera and video are bad.
   Not only that but they made the camera lens protrude out past the back of the camera so that if you sit the camera on its back as 99.999% of the people will, you sit it right on the camera lens cover, scratching it and beating it to hell.
   The camera lens is also directly where you hold the phone so not only will you scratch it on its back, but you constantly have finger prints on the lens cover glass causing the camera to be even worse!
   
6. This is a suppliment to my multitasking comments - Most Apps do not actually shut off, they sit in the background just killing the phones performance. the Advanced Task Killer application should be included as a standard tool because you NEED it. even exiting the camera leaves it running in the background, its not live, but its a point of system resources being used for no reason what so ever.
   
7. The build in Wifi of ryour home network (not the hotspot) is pathetic. the Ipod Touch has a MUCH better built in WiFi
   
8. This is a sprint complaint but SprintTV is worthless, the videos are sent to you in what appears to be the lowest resolution and quality known to video codecs. massive and i mean MASSIVE pixelation, video and audio not syncing were always there. voices and video didnt exactly 100% not sync, its just that the video was such low quality and low frame rate that they didnt sync up totally, yes the video is running a low frame rate which causes choppy video.
   
9. You've heard the Android phones are clunky? yup i can guarentee you right now any Android 2.1 phone will impress you with its choppy GUI, Menu system, and apps/games.

THE GOOD

1. Network performance here at home in Cedar Rapids, IA was pretty good, supposedly 3G, so the phone says and it feels pretty fast. i ran the speedtest.net application and only got a couple of hundred kb.sec down and 700+ upload. but when you use the phone you wouldnt know the download was not that great, and with any cellular phone or carrier, speedtest NEVER show the true nature. so overall at home where i would use it most, i was happy with the network.
   
2. GPS is supposedly real GPS with the option to use WIFI (how they GPS you for WiFi outside of your IP i have no idea), it put our location, over and over, with 100ft of my house. pretty cool!
   
3. The screen is big and beautiful, i love it! - nuff said! - it makes the iphone look like you are holding a toy. quality wise, form what i can tell, they are equal i suppose. but i can not comment on app for app or game for game quality since nothing on the iphone i have is available for the Android,,, and i mean that nothing. and what games are available, as i stated above, look like they are DOS games. (dont believe me, try your friends droid)
   
4. all the different gadgets and tools the EVO 4G has are pretty cool but the downside is they destroy your battery.
   

If you are an Android fan then i have to ask you why. i see no reason aside from what appears to be a better internet browsing experience, why you like or would want an Android based phone.

Supposedly Android 2.2 will fix the clunky issues of Android 2.1 but since no one knows when 2.2 is coming for the incredible or the EVO (officially) i am not going to take any chances on being stuck with a crappy phone with Z E R O apps or games.

the phone is cool, kudo's to HTC for making 2 killer phones (incredible and EVO) but the android is just not where its at in my opinion.

If i had never touched an Ipod or Iphone i probably would like it, nah who am i kidding i would still be pi$$ed about the droid market and its lack of ANYTHING usable. But i use my ipod touch daily and frankly, hands down there is absolutely NO comparison, none, the ipone/itouch is lightyears beyond any android based phone when it comes to apps and games.

DO NOT buy an androidphone if you like games and apps, you will hate yourself for getting one.
DO get an android, especially the EVO 4G is you want a fast internet experience on a large screen and all kinds of social networking gadgets.
other than that,,, blah! these 2 phones are going back and we are getting iphones today as it is the last day to get in with ATT and the truly unlimited $30 data plan.

[krogen]

Can anyone explain the reasoning behind why apps don't turn off when you quit them?

I'm not a phone person, know very little about them, but this seems completely ridiculous. A friend of mine purchased some phone not too long ago, he gave it back just for this reason.

It's just such a stupid idea. I think battery life is one of the most important things about a phone, yet it seems to be completely neglected nowdays.

[Starscream]

Apps stay open on the background so that they load faster when you open them again.

Apps that are made properly will stop themselves after being on the background for a while for all others i use a task killer.

The battery life on my Samsung Spica also sucked at the start but after changing some settings it now lasts some 2+ days with normal use.

The simple things are ofc to switch stuff off when you dont need it like GPS, Wifi and 3G.
There are apps wich wil let you switch them off and on from the home screen.
I also turned off that it vibrates and makes sounds everytime i press the touchscreen.
Also lowered the screen brightness (got an app that lets me raise it on the homescreen). Turning off animations and active wallpapers also saves battery time.

@Lestat
Pretty much all cameras on modern phones suck. When people say theirs is great they probably never had a good one.
The only good one i ever had was on my SE K750i wich stil rocks.
Gotta say that the quality of my phones camera did go up a good bit with the last firmware.

The problem that you have with the app market is a thing of taste.
You and your wife dont like any app on the market when i and many others have found several very usefull apps.

I suggest you visit some of the many Android sites and maybe then you wil find some apps that you like.

Cant comment on you having the feeling that your phone is clunky.
My phone is slower then yours and also runs 2.1 and doesnt feel clunky at all.
Got to admit that this is my 3rd diffrent 2.1 firmware (there stil isnt an official 2.1 for my country). The first one was very snappy faster then my current one but it didnt support 3G, the 2nd was extremely slow and the one im using now is in the middle. Not slow but not as snappy as the fastest one but atleast it supports 3G.

About the gaming. I dont game on my phone. If i want a mobile gaming device id go with the DS or PSP myself.
The reason why the games arent that good could be because many game developers jumped on the Iphone and started making good games for the Iphone. This hasnt yet happened for Android rly.
I think with the coming of 2.2 and many of the newer Android phones having faster CPUs this is going to change.

[Envydia007]

I ditched my iphone for EVO 4G because of
1) 4.3 display & flash I can watch any videos from the internetz
2) Wimax coverage is really good in Philly and Baltimore area where I work
3) the mobile hotspot feature for 30 dollars is awesome, I cut my 60 dollar at&t 3G air card for this
4) I saved a bunch of money with $69 plan w/ unlimited texting, $10 premium data unlimited & $30 mobile hotspot unlimited data.

[Lestat]

I ditched my iphone for EVO 4G because of
1) 4.3 display & flash I can watch any videos from the internetz
2) Wimax coverage is really good in Philly and Baltimore area where I work
3) the mobile hotspot feature for 30 dollars is awesome, I cut my 60 dollar at&t 3G air card for this
4) I saved a bunch of money with $69 plan w/ unlimited texting, $10 premium data unlimited & $30 mobile hotspot unlimited data.

You have a perfect scnerio for the EVO, Philly and Baltimore are lit up big time. and the Hotspot, which isnt an extra $30 that i can tell, its part of the package and so is tethering... right?

you cant watch Hulu, so although i am nitpicking, you cant watch videos everywhere on the internet.

i did see a Flash apk and downloaded = Adobe Flash Player 10.1_10.1.61.68.apk but it wont install on my EVO.

i honestly dont understand why all the games, no mater how big or small look like DOS games, and for those who havent seen them, that is a statement of pure personal fact. i have not seen one single game on the Droid that offers the smooth graphics of the ipod/phone.
not to mention anything 3D, Asphalt the racing game comes to mind, is 100% unplayable because it runs at less than 15 fps and when more than 1 car is on screen or your racing fast down the track it drops to about 7fps.

i dont hate the phone but they have A LOT of work ahead of them to make it even remotely close to the iphone.

i havent tried the video chat either, seems cool but i did see some reviews state that it was kind of pointless because it ran so horribly bad.

[Envydia007]

the tether/mobile hotspot not part of the package its an option. The premium data of $10 is part of the package.
The game will change when Android 2.2 comes out.

I tried to convince my wife but she is keeping her iphone and might upgrade to the new one.lol women and mac

[zabomb4163]

Not even the most simple games like BeJeweled are on the Android market let alone some of the wicked cool 3D or 2D scrolling shooters... again,, quality,,, and people not programming for the droid.

http://store.handmark.com/p/108560/b...ed-for-android

[Lestat]

i did find why the apple apps wont ever find a home on the current droid based phones, they are memory limited.
all apps and games must be programmed to run off the phones limited internal memory.

zabomb - I searched for it in the market app. and it couldnt find it... go figure.
but i also see that it is again, the same issue i spoke about; that Bejewelled looks like a DOS version and the ipohe/pod version looks like the PC version only smaller.

now i have read that google said back in January that they will overcome the Androids LIMITED internal memory "limits" by allows encryption on the SD card, but i am not sure if thats enabled yet,,, i cant find where the EVO can use apps that go beyond the phones internal memory to allow better graphics, etc.

this is a deal breaker for alot of developers if it has not been implemented yet and is the main reason why all the games look like crappy sprite based "DOS-like" games.
but i keep reading even the Android fanboys and sites saying the android is not a gaming system, go buy an itouch or DS or PSP.
but that is one if the biggest appeals the iphone is the applications and games that look like you have a mobile handheld gaming system.

p.s. - the wife has become 100% reaquainted with my ipod touch and wont leave it alone, she saw plants vs. zombies and wont put the damn thing down.

after getting completely jerked around by the ATT store i called the resolution center at ATT and he told me the store was full of BS and they could do what i asked, but it took a vice president to approve it... ok lets just go wayyyy overboard here.
i said "i know i cant upgrade until Oct, but you guys are trying to charge me 399 for a 16GB iPhone instead of $199, i refuse to do that and i can not believe that no one here is willing to step up and take care of 2 of their customers who want iphones, and to get on the $30 unlimited plan before it expires. the guy said if i talk to the store they can do it, and he didnt know why they told me they cant, but since its sunday, it would take a few days to get approval, and IF they approve it, there is a good chance i wont get the $30 unlimited, i said well if thats the case i will just get the Gen 4 when it comes out, oh wait, you start the 2GB limit tomorrow,, yeah i think i am done with you guys, you now have a 100% unusable data plan for me and my wife. Verizon, and Sprint do not have that, and are more than happy to take my business from you. he said he was sorry but no one could do anything for a couple of days and there are no guarentees. i said i understand so lets just go ahead and cancel my service, and i am refusing to pay any cancellation fees.
well we went on and on for almost an hour, so he ended up knocking $20 off my bill by giving me a minutes plan they dont offer on the website and giving me another 1000 rollover minutes.

I took the deal and am returning the EVO 4G phones and am not going to get a data plan with anyone, not until someone comes out with an iphone for sprint or verizon, or a true iphone killer comes out.

Google/HTC have a LOOONGGGGG way to go with the EVO 4G, be warned before you go out and get one....

p.s. i just went and took the EVO out of the box and turned it on.... i wanted to play with it again to see if i could convince myself to wait for Android 2.2..... and..... nope.. god what a clunky turd... i ran SprintTV again... man what a pile of sh|t... when you hit the screen size button to make it show its native resolution, it is.. ohhh about 200x200 MAX omfg! and even then the voices and video dont match and the video runs at about 15fps ... my god, i know they are offering it, but they could atleast make it watchable!

[Soulburner]

Your complaint about battery life is invalid. A 1-day old lithium ion battery is going to go fast no matter what device its in. You can't assess it until it can reach full capacity at least a week later after charging every day.

IMO you come off as really whiny. I have one and I love it. I don't see what all the fuss is about. Most of your complaining seems to center around games. I think you bought the wrong device for that. I don't game on my phone, I have enough to do during my day that I need a multi-tool that is my EVO. My GPS+Navigation, phone, internet tablet PC, music and video player, among many many other things.

I game at home on my PC, or PS3 + HDTV.

Its the most solid, well-built phone I have ever had my hands on. It just feels amazing to use.

It multi-tasks great. Can't say that about the Apple devices. They would rather tell you that "you don't need multi-tasking". And all the Apple fan boys nod their head as if they were being controlled by a Jedi force.

What's wrong with the Wi-Fi? It connects. It gets me way faster speeds than 3G (5000kbps) and uses less energy. It works. What's more to say?

The camera is great for a phone. Not much more to say about it. Laying it on the lens is a valid complaint - get the HTC silicone case for it and that problem goes away.

Background apps do not use CPU. You can verify this using the Running Services.

20fps 720p video is frustrating, I agree. Though most of the rest of your complaints don't seem to be a real reason to return it after the first day.

[Cpl Ledanek]

p.s. - the wife has become 100% reaquainted with my ipod touch and wont leave it alone, she saw plants vs. zombies and wont put the damn thing down.

that game is very addicting...I avoid that game on my Touch as much as possible. People on FB say Farmville is addicting, I tell them try PvsZ and their are hooked.

PM send btw

[masterg]

Well the iphone 3gs + and the androids all use the same architectured chip, either the ARM cortex A8 or the ARM cortex A9. theres like 5 different manufacturers who make them atm. so the only difference would be the operating system on the two types of phones.

[Starscream]

Your complaint about battery life is invalid. A 1-day old lithium ion battery is going to go fast no matter what device its in. You can't assess it until it can reach full capacity at least a week later after charging every day.
.

I thought modern batterys have full capacity from day 1.

[Jokester_wild]

no apps ? are you kidding. The market is getting bigger every day. I have a tone of great apps mostly free that I found not only interesting but useful. Oh and I have the Magic+ and even my phone which has a slower processor has no problem playing an old school fighter plane game. and... theres actually is a game like bejeweled on android... its just not named that because thats a brand name.

The camera isnt great, but the iphone doesn't seem to take amazing photos either. Its a phone camera what do you expect.

Your right that the android should come with auto-task killer or similar. but any smart user will find soon enough the ones that are good and download them for free from the app store.

My magic battery lasts for well over a day even with a handful of calls and browsing fb and playing some games randomly.

Android from my experience is an smooth, enjoyable os that just works. I plan on rooting my phone shortly to allow me to update my os.

[Ethelred]

I've had an Android phone for about the past 18mo and love it. Like alot have said if you want to game get a DS or something, that being said there are several great games on Android (Tower Defense, Armoured Strike (online play), Radiant (fighter game), Jewels and WordUp are the ones I play most). When I do game it's only when I have a few minutes before an appointment or something.

I found that my battery wasn't lasting to long when I first got my phone (take into consideration the first day of the phone is anything but an average day of use since you are constantly playing with it), with the use of Advanced Task Manager (an essential App IMO cost .99usd) I have it kill all the apps I don't want running the background every 30min, I found that my battery life was much improved. I don't have 3G going all the time and only switch it on when I have time to sit and browse the net or something.

And as far as multitasking and apps not shutting off after you close them, it usually keeps the previous six apps running in the background for quick start-up you can obviously control this with a task manager if you wish though.

The apps I use most often are obviously GMail, Google Maps/Latitude/Navigation, OperaMini and AK Notepad (a great program indeed). Along with that are the things my wife uses: Pandora, CardioTrainer (calculates the distance you ran through GPS among other things) and YouTube.

-I've never had issue finding apps, I think it's a little disingenuous to say the market has no apps. Shoot, the Google Developer Challenger produced apps that alone make Android worth having (Google Voice anyone?).

The thing I like most about Android is that I can customize it in anyway I need to, the integration with Google Services and particularly between GMail and Maps.

In short I need a device to communicate with (we don't have landlines), get me directions and keep me connected to my email and the internet. Android does all this for me, perhaps you need something more, but I wouldn't dismiss Android based off one day of use and merely "it doesn't have many games."

[Soulburner]

From Anandtech:

More reasonable real world battery tests give me more optimism that the EVO can last a full day of use, if you're careful. 15 hours of use with quite a few phone calls, some texting/email, GPS navigation to dinner, and a bit of 3G browsing took me from full charge to about 60% remaining (4G, GPS, Wifi, and Bluetooth radios all off). I got similar battery life on WiFi with zero phone calls, some email and browsing, and a 1 hour long Skype video chat through Fring. So, most people who aren't going crazy with the 4G can get a full day of use out of it (but not more than that).

[Soulburner]

From Goodandevo.net

1. Lower screen brightness. Go to Settings -> Sound & display -> Brightness. Slide the brightness switch to the left to lower it or check the "Automatic brightness" box to let the EVO use its sensors to adjust the screen according to the ambient light. If you're in the dark, use your Power Control widget to set the display to its lowest (the icon on the right). Your eyes will adjust and it will feel natural. Otherwise I leave it on automatic and I think it does a great job on my Evo.

2. Turn off 4G, 3G ("Mobile Network") WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth when you don't need them. The easiest way to manage these wireless radios is to use the Settings widget preinstalled on your EVO. Tap the + button on your home screen -> Widget -> Settings. Once your chosen widgets are on any of your home screens, a simple tap turns each one on/off. There are other widgets that do this in Android Market, but these are already preinstalled and they're a nice-looking set. I leave the "Mobile Network" (3G data connection for internet) off while I'm at work and only flick it on when I need it, then I turn it back off. This does not affect phone calls and text. Widgets such as Weather, Facebook and RSS feeds won't update on their own, but they won't use your battery either.

3. Disable WiFi and 4G network notifications. Go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Wi-Fi settings. Uncheck the Network notification box so the EVO isn't constantly scanning and looking for open networks to tell you about. For 4G, go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> 4G settings.

4. Disable "always on" mobile data. This is one of the biggest battery savers. Go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks. Tap "Enable always-on mobile data" to uncheck the box. I haven't found a negative consequence of disabling this feature, as Gmail and other apps/functions still work perfectly.

5. Turn off background data. If you're not using Google services, go to Settings -> Accounts & sync and uncheck the Background data box so that applications cannot sync, send, and receive data whenever they want to. The App Market will need to turn this back on when you use it. It will prompt you. Don't forget to turn it back off when you aren't using your phone. Widgets such as Weather, Facebook and RSS feeds won't update on their own, but they won't use your battery either. Technically background data is impossible with the 3G network disabled, but who knows if some CPU time is used if apps attempt to send/receive background data. This one will be hard to prove its benefit, and may be more hassle than it's worth.

7. Manually turn off the screen when not in use. Since the screen timeout function ensures that the EVO's screen will turn off (unless you have it set to "never turn off"), it can be tempting to put the phone down when you're done using it and just let the screen turn off by itself. Instead, give the power button at the top of the EVO a quick push to turn it off manually.

8. Turn off auto-sync. Go to Settings -> Accounts & sync -> Auto-sync.

9. Change auto-sync frequency (Weather, News, Stocks, Twitter, etc). If you don't want to turn off auto-sync, you can adjust how frequently data is retrieved/updated. The settings vary depending on the app (and some don't offer the setting at all), but it's generally found in the same place: Settings -> Accounts & sync. Select an account from the list and then tap "Account settings" to change the sync frequency.

11. Turn off window animations. I know it's nice to look at and fun to show off, but eye candy uses extra power (albeit not very much). To turn it off, go to Settings -> Sound & display -> Animation -> No animations.

12. Don't use a live wallpaper. Live wallpapers were one of the new features in Android 2.1, so it feels like a step backward not to use them. They don't hit the battery very hard when used, but they do make a small dent. So if you're trying to improve battery life, even if only incrementally, use a static wallpaper instead.

14. Change WiFi sleep policy. This may sound counter-intuitive, but leaving WiFi on when the EVO isn't being used and the screen is off is actually better than letting it sleep. When WiFi sleeps, 3G/4G wakes up to sync, get email, and retrieve other data. 3G will eat up more battery than WiFi, so go to Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Wi-Fi Settings. Press the Menu button and tap Advanced, then Wi-Fi sleep policy. Choose "Never" from the pop-up menu.

15. Monitor your running services. Just because Android 2.1 is supposed to an intelligent operating system that will manage your running apps for you doesn't mean it will always do things the way you want them to be done.

You can take matters into your own hands by going to Settings -> Applications -> Running services, where you can view what your EVO is doing and manually stop certain activities. You can also download a third-party task killer from Android Market and kill selected apps to free up some resources and potentially save some power. Task killers are a polarizing topic in the Android community, so tread lightly when looking for recommendations or asking for help with them.

16. Choose your home screen widgets carefully. Widgets that need access to the internet to update information (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Engadget, Slacker Radio, Weather, Stocks, News, Mail) can suck up a lot of juice if not managed well, so choose them carefully and set their sync/update frequencies to a reasonable interval.

18. Turn off phone vibration. If the ringer is on, why do you need the phone to vibrate? You're already in a loud environment that drowns out the ring; answering the call won't quiet your surroundings so you can hear what the person at the end of the line is saying. If anything, you're just adding to the noise by yelling, "What? What?" into the phone.

And if the EVO is set to silent, then an incoming call should be silent. Yes, the buzzing vibration may not be disruptive as your ringtone, but people still hear it.

So go to Settings -> Sound & display -> Phone vibrate and turn it off. I prefer vibration so I don't agree with this.

19. Turn off audible touch tones. In Settings -> Sound & display, uncheck Audible selection and turn off Audible touch tones.

20. Turn off haptic feedback. Once you get the hang of typing on the EVO's on-screen keyboard, you can turn off the haptic feedback that was turned on by default. Go to Settings -> Language & keyboard -> Touch Input -> Text input -> Vibrate when typing. For now, I enjoy this feature so I'm leaving it on. Some don't like it.

[Starscream]

btw overhere in Europe an app called APNdroid is very popular.

It changes the APN settings so no app can make internet contact and it also prevents data roaming for when your in another country.

[Envydia007]

Thank you Soulburner

[Wiggy McShades]

Apps stay open on the background so that they load faster when you open them again.

Apps that are made properly will stop themselves after being on the background for a while for all others i use a task killer.

apps don't stop themselves, I'm working for a cellphone application developer and we are working on a lot of android stuff so I'm not just making this up. The operating system has full control over when an app is killed unless you go into manage applications menu and force stop it (even then its 99% a suggestion to the OS).



@OP: I have to use android phones all day, literally 8 hours straight every day and I completely agree with you on the android OS being clunky. I honestly have zero desire to use an android phone for personal use after using the droid (my favorite so far), incredible, evo, my touch, nexus one, and another htc phone i don't know the name of. I also am a big fan of games on phones, surfing the web is a good time killer but sometimes stuff like plants vs zombies or peggle can be rather clutch.

[Starscream]

apps don't stop themselves, I'm working for a cellphone application developer and we are working on a lot of android stuff so I'm not just making this up. The operating system has full control over when an app is killed unless you go into manage applications menu and force stop it (even then its 99% a suggestion to the OS).

I always thought it also depended on the app and if the app was badly made it wont get killed.

[Blaaammmm]

I actually was torn on the background applications running and using more battery.

But give this a read: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-b...-with-android/