3g (or EVDO) is ALOT faster web browsing. Think of 3g as Cable internet, and 1x like 56k internet (literally a very good comparison).
Do NOT keep it in EVDO mode all the time, otherwise you won't get phone calls or texts and stuff. This is where hybrid comes in. If you get a text or phone call, your phone automatically switches to 1x, as you cannot use the sprint network for internet while you are on a call (but with AT&T, you can b/c its a GSM network, while Spring is a CDMA network).
If you keep your phone in 1x mode always, your internet will be very slow, and google maps will be slow to load because of this slow internet, BUT the upside to this is that your battery life will increase alot. You may get 50% more battery life by doing this.
What some people do is keep it at 1x always, and if they want to surf the net/use google maps or sprint nav, change it to hybrid (but that is annoying as you then have to switch it back all the time if you choose to do that).
hope this helped!