I don't have any problem with someone on the Evo forum claiming the Epic is a worse phone than the Evo, but calling it a "downgrade" isn't at all correct technically. If someone called the Epic glitchier, rougher around the edges or guilty of having a worse UI, I could agree: HTC's Android overlay is a work of art not only visually but functionally. The Epic's 3G reception at this point in the launch -- which is tilted in Evo's favor by several months, as anyone who remembers the Evo's initial issues should admit -- is clearly worse than the Evo's. Why that is, or whether it will be fixed with the next firmware upgrade, as Sprint claims, no one knows.
But that doesn't make it a "downgrade."
Saying that Froyo is faster than 2.1 is also true. But the Galaxy phones are slated for Froyo and that's going to happen soon. It's a question of a scheduled software upgrade, so, again, the phone's not a "downgrade."
For those and a number of other reasons, calling the Epic a downgrade is factually false. Worse than that, it's Tea Party false in that it quotes itself as a reliable source and then claims its views are validated by said reliable source.
The Epic's processor is faster, etc., etc. Fewer megapixels on the Epic, but better white balance and, as any professional photographer will tell you, megapixel counts are misleading. More screen real estate on the Evo, but the SAMOLED on the Epic is better. On a spec level, the downgrade argument doesn't hold.
The real argument for the Evo is that it provides a better user experience than the Epic, and I agree with that. If it weren't for the Epic's keyboard, I'd choose the Evo without thinking twice. It feels more solid to me as well.
But calling the Epic a "fairly universally accepted downgrade" on a "competitive" forum is monumentally childish. The part I take issue with is this:
bigddybn: EVO to Epic is a fairly universally accepted downgrade unless you just absolutely have to have the hardware keyboard.
Those three words show where bigddybn plunges from mere incorrectness to obnoxious phone bigotry. It is not "accepted" anywhere, "fairly" or "universally," that the Epic's a downgrade from the Evo. None of the reviewers' comparisons of both phones conclude the Epic's a "downgrade." Reviewers simply prefer one smartphone or the other, which is the truth about users on Android Forums as well as critics. Bgddybn can assume a professorial tone all he likes, but he's still making false claims to support personal preference and calling them factual.
And by the way: Which is it, "fairly" accepted or "universally" accepted? There's no such thing as "fairly universal."
He also fails to help the OP, who is complaining not about smartphone specs but reliable voice service. She wasn't trying to engage us in a smartphone pissing contest. She simply wanted advice on choosing the best phone that worked as a phone. You know, as in
receiving and making phone calls.
I'm here to tell missdeevi to stick with the Evo. As of this moment on a day-to-day level, the Evo's the better phone -- specifically in terms of 3G reception and dropped calls.
That's all that needs to be said.