More on the Evo

I decided to keep my Evo and switch to Sprint. The switch from the G1 to the Evo was a no-brainer. The Evo is far far superior, as it should be since it's a later generation of an android-based device.

I did get a chance to play with the iPhone4 the other day and I was quite impressed with the UI and general feel of the phone. Functionality-wise, I think the Evo is better (Evo versus iPhone4), especially if you're a power user and use the internet a lot. I've found that the 3G AP feature is not only extremely useful for me, but it is far more stable than the access point connection I have at the CS lab at school. The bandwidth is great for productivity. I've evened streamed tv using the slingbox client, for hours on end without any hitches. It's really fantastic!

However, that said, the iPhone's UI is FAR superior. I very much hate to admit that but it's true. Their engineers and artists have clearly spent an inordinate amount of time making the feel of the phone just right. They really nailed it. It's sensitive to the user's touch, but not too sensitive. It's very responsive and is able to decipher user gestures with high accuracy and it just looks so pretty. I understand why it is that people love the phone so much.

From a functionality perspective, I think the Evo is a better phone. Once 4G is ubiquitous it will make the phone much more valuable. But it's going to be difficult to get the lay-person user to see that those differences matter since the lay-person surely doesn't use the sophisticated features. Apple has focused it's attention on the lay user while not compromising too much on the technical end of things. It's certainly a nice tradeoff. Secondly, most people could care less about Apple's practices because it really does not affect them. I am against apple in principal, since they have a closed platform -- a walled garden usage model. Andriod is quite the opposite, and there are certainly tradeoffs to consider there as well, but all things being equal, i'd rather have choices.