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HTC Evo or iPhone 4?
billwill
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have an HTC Evo 4G right now. I got it launch day, but I still have a week and a half left to return it (thanks to Sprint's thirty day return policy). My friend, however, just got an iPhone 4, and seeing it has made me envious. I'm going to list the relevant pros and cons, and I would love your help in deciding.
HTC Evo 4G:
+The big screen rocks.
+I love the unlimited internet option from Sprint. I use Pandora radio all the time, and I'm already at 6gbs of use.
+WIDGETS. I think they are awesome.
+That free GPS kicks ass, too.
-Glitchy. I have to force close apps a couple of times a day, and the phone has completely frozen on my many times already.
-Battery sucks horse balls. This is my first smartphone, and I get roughly eight to ten hours of moderate use with about an hour of heavy use (while being on a charger in my car, though).
-Android may have thirty thousand apps, but many of them are ugly as hell.
-Wireless isn't very good. My bedroom is closer to the router in our house, and I can barely manage one bar in there. My friend, however, is further than me with a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom in between, and still manages almost full connection.
iPhone 4:
+Amazing screen. So vivid.
+Great camera (better than Evo, I would say).
+I like the 32gbs of included storage.
+Great build quality. My Evo looks like a toy next to it.
+So outrageously smooth.
+Superb battery. I screwed around with the phone for about half an hour, at full brightness, and the battery only went down five percent.
-No widgets. Just a boring field of apps.
-I HATE AT&Ts data plan. 2GB? I don't like having limits. This, however, is counteracted by the strength in picking up wireless signals (my school has tons of wifi).
-Stupid notification system.
So it seems pretty one sided, but I really do hate the plan AT&T offers. Can anyone comment on how much they use a month, with no Pandora streaming (except in wifi), and a lot of checking of Facebook and websites daily? (I have a very boring job).
I know it seems stupid. Damnit, billwill, you're lucky to even be in the position to have a choice between these two amazing machines! Think of the billions that don't! But I am a poor college student, and this is a big purchase for me. I just want to make sure what I get has staying power, you know? I'll be with it for a year, at least.
So should I jump ship to iPhone, or wait and see if froyo is awesome enough to counteract the cons of the Evo?
HTC Evo 4G:
+The big screen rocks.
+I love the unlimited internet option from Sprint. I use Pandora radio all the time, and I'm already at 6gbs of use.
+WIDGETS. I think they are awesome.
+That free GPS kicks ass, too.
-Glitchy. I have to force close apps a couple of times a day, and the phone has completely frozen on my many times already.
-Battery sucks horse balls. This is my first smartphone, and I get roughly eight to ten hours of moderate use with about an hour of heavy use (while being on a charger in my car, though).
-Android may have thirty thousand apps, but many of them are ugly as hell.
-Wireless isn't very good. My bedroom is closer to the router in our house, and I can barely manage one bar in there. My friend, however, is further than me with a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom in between, and still manages almost full connection.
iPhone 4:
+Amazing screen. So vivid.
+Great camera (better than Evo, I would say).
+I like the 32gbs of included storage.
+Great build quality. My Evo looks like a toy next to it.
+So outrageously smooth.
+Superb battery. I screwed around with the phone for about half an hour, at full brightness, and the battery only went down five percent.
-No widgets. Just a boring field of apps.
-I HATE AT&Ts data plan. 2GB? I don't like having limits. This, however, is counteracted by the strength in picking up wireless signals (my school has tons of wifi).
-Stupid notification system.
So it seems pretty one sided, but I really do hate the plan AT&T offers. Can anyone comment on how much they use a month, with no Pandora streaming (except in wifi), and a lot of checking of Facebook and websites daily? (I have a very boring job).
I know it seems stupid. Damnit, billwill, you're lucky to even be in the position to have a choice between these two amazing machines! Think of the billions that don't! But I am a poor college student, and this is a big purchase for me. I just want to make sure what I get has staying power, you know? I'll be with it for a year, at least.
So should I jump ship to iPhone, or wait and see if froyo is awesome enough to counteract the cons of the Evo?
I hate you and you hate me.
billwill on
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Boring? Hardly. There's a ton of fun and useful stuff out there for the iPhone.
I didn't say a field of boring apps, I said a boring field of apps. I like glanceable information.
I've had an iPhone for a long time and have upgraded each year. So I have the new iPhone 4 and it's awesome. Multiple things people complained about are now fixed in the new phone. Which is great. As for usage, I checked into it and I'm normally under 2GB and that is without connecting to wifi very often. I use my phone for a lot of things, but don't really use Pandora to much. So I think most users will be fine with the 2GB limit especially if you are on wifi most of the time.
The iPhone uses a pretty gilded caged garden, pretty, and gilded, but caged. If you want something as a ringtone be prepared to have to buy it from the store. You can't just plop a MP3 on a iPhone and use it for a ringtone.
You're also going to be stuck with AT&T, and they're known for their notoriously bad call dropping. I actually bailed out of AT&T for Verizon myself because I got tired of dropped calls on my Sony Ericsson phone. trust me when I say that AT&T can be full of epic fail depending on where you live.
The iPhone does not support flash, you cannot change out the battery yourself, and it has no option to allow you to expand the memory. (I know the Incredible more then the Evo so I honestly don't know if the Evo does this).
And then, like you mentioned there is the data plan issue with AT&T. Its very easy for a heavy user to go over 2 GB a month with a smart phone. So the question is whether you are comfortable throttling down your usage, or potentially paying a fee every month for overage.
This is actually not true. You just have to prepare it to the iPhone's ringtone format first on your computer (with GarageBand or one of the million free applications out that do this, or you can do it yourself by using Audacity to cut the length and changing the file extension). The format is any AAC file cut to less than 30 seconds in length with the file extension changed to .m4r
AT&T can also be fine where you live, so YMMV. It isn't where I currently live, but they had the best coverage in my college town. These are true statements. How much they'll actually effect your usage depends on how much you care. Keep in mind though, that while the iPhone doesn't let you expand the memory, you can buy a 32GB iPhone whereas you'd need to find a 32GB microSD card for your android phone (good luck!) and MicroSD cards in a larger capacity do not currently exist.
It's actually not that easy for a heavy user to go over 2GB a month with a smartphone. Even with heavy music streaming, it's not incredibly likely you're going to hit that limit unless you are literally never using WiFi and streaming media for hours per day. Sprint caps their 3G usage at 5GB (though there's no current usage cap for WiMax), so you aren't choosing between Unlimited and 2GB, it's between 5GB and 2GB.
No, the regular plans for the Evo are Unlimited/Unlimited. The wifi hotspot plan for it and their 4G data plan have those limitations (unlimited 4g and 5gb 3g).
If not, it's pretty even. I have an Evo and a recent ipod touch (based on the 3GS), and I can definitely say I like the Evo better as an email/calendar/web platform.
Most apps from big companies are available on both platforms, and if there's an interesting niche app on one, you can bet someone has at least written something that attempts to duplicate the functionality on the other.
The biggest win for the ipod/iphone for me is the games. Gaming on Android is essentially non-existent, but the iphone has tons of games worth playing.
I'd say go with the Evo unless Sprint has really bad coverage in your area, though.
The best thing I've found for the battery issues is to use the included widgets to turn stuff off when you aren't using it - especially the 4G radio.
Also, today's OTA update (Menu->Settings->System Updates->HTC Software Update if it doesn't prompt you) is supposed to help with wifi issues. Hold off if you plan on rooting the phone, though.
B.net: Kusanku
I do alot of web browsing on my phone (these forums). I love the Evo's screen for this and when I'm on 4g, forum pages load like they do on a laptop with a cable connection.
Personally I think that in the long run, you are going to appreciate unlimited data much much MUCH more than anything else, particularly if you're fond of streaming Pandora.
Also about the force close stuff: Isn't the Evo on the next generation Android platform, unlike most of the current Android phones? It may just be that a lot of app authors haven't gotten around to updating their apps yet, and you may see an improvement in this very soon.
edit: It sounds like bad wireless is the main reason you are turned off from the Evo, and the secondary reason is battery power. For the first, I recommend checking to see if that's better for you with this recent update. For the second, there are apps that can turn apps on and off based on your battery level. Also, I apologize if I'm being too simplistic (no idea if this is your first Android phone or not), but you do have and use an app-killer, right?
Android 2.2 was just open sourced last week, but the only phone that would be using it is the Nexus One (excluding people who've rooted their phones to install the newer OS version without official support).
I recently got AirVideo and am streaming stuff off that. We will see if that finally pushes me over. The point is to go over that 2GB plan you've gotta be streaming a veritable fuckton of stuff without ever having wifi access.
Additionally, given what the OP posted (websites facebook and no streaming on 3G), the 200MB plan would probably cover that level of usage.
PSN: TheScrublet
Oh, really? That's a bit of a bummer. I was thinking of getting a Android phone at the end of the year, I'll be eligible for the NE2 thing, so I'm hoping I can put that towards an android phone.
My wife has an iphone, and I've found myself playing a lot of the games on it. So I was hoping there were droid games too
8-)
Sorry, I misread their Terms of Service. If unlimited data is super important to you, getting on with Sprint now is a good idea because you'll likely be able to grandfather in your unlimited data plan to at least one subsequent contract extension. The market is shifting so that nearly all mobile phone providers will likely be dropping their unlimited data plans in the near future.
I have had my iPhone 3G for about a year and a half and in that time I have used 1.8Gb total. I'm a heavy app user, download tons of stuff, check news apps obsessively, but I have wifi at home and get most of my apps from the safety of my couch.
Sorry we don't like to be fucked in TOS's like ATT users.
I work anywhere from 8-12 hours in a cubicle. I have music or podcasts streaming roughly 75% of the time.
Why does everyone tell us we don't need unlimted?
Because a corporations arbitrary limitations are forced upon for your own good. How dare you questions their authority to control you. think different
Look man, we can all sit in this forum and witchhunt AT&T, but at the end of the day while they deserve plenty of shit for the coverage issues, etc, this issue is not just them. Verizon has already said their unlimited data is ending any day right now, and my bet is that any announcement for Verizon iPhones will be directly preceded by such an announcement if it hadn't already happened. While I can't make any promises, I doubt Sprint or T-Mobile will be far behind the two giants on this one. The phone networks simply aren't going to be able to handle this kind of use. If you really are streaming more than 2GB a month, whatever, I'm not going to demand a screenshot or some bullshit, but the majority of users aren't doing that and everyone who IS doing that is going to have to scale back their phone use.
This obviously isn't D&D (the real venue for this discussion), but for the subject of buying a phone (this thread), I would say if you want unlimited data, you need to get in a contract with a carrier that still has it right now and forget the iPhone (unless you jailbreak). Because like it or not AT&T is merely leading the charge, and before too much longer unlimited data isn't going to separate one phone from another.
And not to be a dick (I swear I'm serious saying that here) but you DON'T need unlimited data. I wish we could all stream HQ audio/video all day, but unfortunately the networks simply aren't there yet. Someday we will! As shit continues to improve sooner or later at least one carrier will realize a competitive edge by returning to unlimited. But for now it's not going to happen and I would not define 24/7 streaming as a "need" for your phone. (that being said I DO feel like iPad users are getting screwed with their deal)
PSN: TheScrublet
The iphone's ease of use and industrial design are second to none. I got a droid and verizon because I got fed up with AT&T's lousy coverage, but I feel like it was a lateral move at best. I am currently going through some serious iphone 4 envy, death grip or no. That said i'm happy i'm not in a walled garden, can multitask, and successfully complete most calls. If Verizon ever gets the iphone 4 i'd probably pay full freight to switch.
edit: that's not true. i thought it cost $400. the unsubsidized price is $600????
PSN: TheScrublet
because for most people this is absolutely unnecessary
I did this on my (non-jailbroken) iPhone for about a week and decided that I'd much rather just transfer MP3s to the device more often because I was sick of songs cutting out because I lost service in subway tunnels (which, guess what, happens with Sprint too)
there are certainly use cases that will result in larger than 2GB of data usage, but for most users, you aren't going to hit that cap in 30 days. My advice for the OP would still be to buy in with Sprint now if unlimited data is really important to him, but also to realize that unlimited data won't last forever and it's very likely he won't hit the limits imposed by AT&T anyway
Wait a second. Is that 6 GB (GIGABYTE) or Gb (Gigabit)?
If you seriously used 6GB of data in less than 30 days, then yea you need to go Sprint with unlimited data. But holy fucking shit that is a lot. 6Gb makes a ton more sense because that's only about .91 GB or so.
PSN: TheScrublet
That's assuming that Pandora is directly streaming mp3s, though...
A bad internet connection combined with sloppy programming COULD be the cause, though. There are a number of ways for that to go wrong and cause an FC situation depending on just how lazy they were with the code.
Pandora streaming (the free version) is not very good. I'm talking 64 or 96 kbps/sec bad. If you have the iPhone, download the Pandora app, then the AoL radio app, and make sure the AoL radio app is on its high quality option. You can stream a fuckton of pandora on 2GB.
PSN: TheScrublet
- The battery life sucks on the Evo compare to the iPhone
- There is no 4G coverage in my area, and probably won't be for the next 2-ish years
In the end, I figured that I might as well get the iPhone for now, and that way in 2 years when my area gets 4G and the battery life/a few other things have caught up to what the iPhone is offering I could gleefully swap to an android phone.
Sprints entire marketing campaign is based on how they are 100% unlimited. I don't think the are going to turn around and end unlimited everything..
Oh and sprints Network is there.. They do have the best data network and their 4g network can support unlimited streaming.
I love it when people make this argument as if their data network is put under anything remotely resembling the load AT&T's network is under with all the iPhones. It's a lot easier to offer unlimited data when your network share is so much smaller. As an anecdotal exercise (and this would be good for the OP making a buying decision), google "Sprint market share". The results are hilarious. There is a very obvious trend in tone that Sprint is:
1. Not doing well as late as Feb 2010, with no change that I can find between then and the Evo release
2. Has 100% bet its survival on capturing as much 4G as possible prior to Verizon and ATT
3. Seems to be doing a better job retaining the customers it DOES have (even while it loses market share)
What that suggests to me is that if you're buying an Evo 4G, you are buying specifically for unlimited data and the hope that 4G is going to mature into widespread usefulness over the next two years. You are also signing yourself on for abysmal battery life while using 4G...from what I've seen, the Evo is the mobile-phone equivalent of a gaming laptop: extremely powerful provided you're plugged into a wall. I guess the point is that from a data standpoint Evo/Sprint is a good buy if unlimited streaming at your cubicle that doesn't have wifi is the primary use of the phone.
Edit: where the hell is the OP anyways was some sort of decision reached?
PSN: TheScrublet