HTC has been known to cut some corners on their hardware. For example they ship some variations of the HTC Hero with a tiny 1200mAh battery, others with a 1500mAh and will sell you an extended life 1800mAh. Why not just include the best battery possible? The HTC Evo ships with a 1500mAh battery -- the same as my HTC Hero that is half the clock speed with a smaller display. I don't get very good battery life on my Hero so I can only imagine the Evo with the same sized battery is really going to struggle. It looks like there's a 1750mAh extended life battery coming but that's not a huge improvement. (and it's going to cost you $50)