Yeah yeah, another one. I have taken a week to familiarize myself before posting some of my more common observations.
Note: This is just my opinion and I am no editor or writer.
(Oh and tl;dr!)
____________________
I’ve been using an iPhone for the last 2-3 years, and most of that time was spent with the iPhone 3GS. Since I primarily use Macs for my daily life, the iPhone was the most obvious choice for a long time.
The EVO is my first Android phone and the entire OS (2.1) is new to me. I’ve listed a few pros and cons and will briefly describe why.
iPhone 3Gs
Pros
Excellent Multi Touch
The iPhone 3GS, even years after its release, is by far the most responsive multi touch device on the market. I’m not sure why, given the insane amount of power in the EVO, it doesn’t even come close. Someone in these forums said it best, when they said it feels like the iPhone scrolls at 60 fps and the EVO at 12FPS. Regardless, when I scroll my address book on my iPhone, I can still make out the contacts due to the insanely smooth scrolling. Even better, the second I touch the screen, the scrolling stops, instantaneously. On the EVO there is a half second delay from when the scrolling starts and stops.
Easy To Use
Not going to say much here because this can ultimately be a con, due to lack of customization. But out of the box, the iPhone works, and is easy to use. I can see my parents using an iPhone but hardly see them putting up with an Android device.
Syncs flawlessly with Macs and iTunes
Obviously being a Mac user, this was incredibly huge to me.
Good Picture and Video Quality
I’m an amatuer photgrapher aside from my main job, and I can’t even begin to say how dissappointing the EVO camera is. First of all, MEGAPIXELS MEAN NOTHING. I shoot with Canon DSLRs and the finally seemed to have understood this allowing them to excel in developing camera sensors. Nikon has joined the party and realized the MP war was dying and it was QUALITY over QUANTITY that counted.
Welcone to HTC, who still thinks quantity > quality. I don’t blame them though, the press went nuts over the 8 MP camera. “On paper this thing is a beast.” Well guess what, we don’t use it “on paper”. As a consumer, we just shoot a photo/video and look at the results. And the results will surprise you, just not the way you’d want.
This thing could have been 22 MP and it wouldn’t really matter. The quality sucks. Period. Every now and then, in “the right conditions” you can pull off a decent shot, but that’s where it stops. Low light photos are unusable.
“The best camera is the one you have with you.” I have taken more photos and video on my iPhone than any of my other cameras. Mostly because it’s always with me and my SLRs and even point and shoots aren’t. I don’t use the iPhone when shooting high grade pictures, but my daily life just requires quick snapshots.
My biggest complain on the video, aside from the 100000% compression and junk quality, is that, it also appears to be something like 10-15 FPS. It’s very very choppy and there is no fluidity in the video. I should put up two comparison clips from the iPhone 3GS and EVO to show you what I mean. But basically, when you hand shakes, the iPhone is very smooth because its recording so many FPS. The EVO is very choppy giving you a headache.
I’m confident, that the iPhone 4 will obliterate the EVO’s “camera”. I was quite disappointed here.
(p.s. I understand this is a cell phone, not a DSLR, but I am by no means comparing the EVO to a DSLR. I never felt unhappy with the iPhone camera, but the EVO leaves me wanting something else. Anything else.)
Cons
Customization
It doesn’t exist on the iPhone 3GS.
Multitasking
It’s coming out today on iOS 4, but it didn’t exist before.
Notification System
This one is big too. The iPhone would pop up an annoying box in the middle of ANYTHING you were doing. Dialing a phone number, taking video, typing an email, BOOM! You get a text, the box opens and kills anything you were doing. You have to tap close to get rid of it, but god forbid another message was on its way, you’ll have to fight of the onsalught of annoying boxes.
GPS
It’s somewhat quick to find a signal, but not that accurate.
Network
AT&T.
**** them.
They have lousy coverage for me, in a major market (Los Angeles). The iPhone excels at dropped calls. I dial in fear. I literally call someone, hit talk, and stare at the screen to see if it will connect. If it does, I just wait for the call to drop. If it doesn’t connect, we’ll that’s the norm.
I will say this, coverage is very different for different people so even though I had poor service with AT&T the same can be said for Sprint, Verizon, and so on for many other people. Generally though, AT&T stinks.
EVO
Pros
Customizable
I have only spent a week getting into my EVO, but I am enoying the depth of this OS. There is much that can be customized and this is in strong contrast my the iPhone. Although there can often be too much to customize, it’s better to have the options and leave them alone, than to not have them at all.
Great GPS and Nav
The GPS is quick and suprisingly, very very accurate. It’s more accurate than my iPhone by far and even more accurate than my car. Maybe the EVO cheats and uses cell towers + GPS + Compass? Either way it works well and the Nav programs are great.
Screen Resolution
The resolution is great. I didn’t really appreciate until I went to look at my iPhone the other day. The higher depth resolution is beautiful to look at. Howeverm this screen has a few flaws, so see the Cons section.
Network
Sprint! I was about to download a large file at about 900 KB/sec on my MacBook Pro last night just by using the FREE USB tethering option on the EVO. The quality of my calls is very impressive and the 3G speeds feel fast. I’m starting to wonder if AT&T even has a 3G network, now that I’ve tried Sprint’s real 3G.
Cons
Screen
So as great as a 4.3” high resolution screen is, it’s not quite that great when it only shows 65,000 colors. It sure sounds like a lot, and honestly, most people won’t know what that does or doesn’t mean.
In reality though, it means that when you take picture of the sky, or anything with a gradient, you’re gonna notice a lot of banding. I have seen this on pictures I’ve taken, I’ve seen it on websites, I’ve seen it all over. It’s not obvious always and sometimes can be easily overlooked, but overall, the lack of a 16 bit screen or higher is extremely disappointing when you start to notice it.
Unresponsive
It’s 2010 and the iPhone has been around a lot longer than the Android system. But let me say this, if I were to release my own phone OS, the FIRST THING I would do, is make sure the most basic level of operation was flawless. Apple did this. When you touch their screens and interact with their devices, you subconsciously come to expect superior performance. As a result, it FEELS SMOOTHER!
I don’t care with the EVO has a 15 ghz fire breathing dragon processor. It stutters when it comes to simple things. The most obvious proof of this is to take something with a long list, like your contacts on both phones. Scroll them. End of story.
Poor framerate for animations
Somewhat correlated to the above, the animations are choppy. In fact, my first EVO experience was turning on the phone and watching the Sprint 4G Network animation.
It looked like it was maybe..... 3-5 FPS!
What were they thinking? I know it’s the menu animation and an into, so who gives a ****, right? But this problem shows their attention to these details and more importantly, foreshadows the phones jumpy performance.
Now to be fair, it’s better than almost every Android device I’ve used (that’s not saying too much) and it is quite usable, so I’ll take it. But let’s be real, it can use a lot of work. Maybe 2.2 address some of this.
(p.s. programs run and load fast but I’m talking about human interaction with the device being somewhat jerky and not processing / load times.)
Camera
You’re tired of hearing this and I’m tired or writing, so for all the cons on the EVO camera, just see the pros of the iPhone camera.
____________________
Final Thoughts:
I couldn’t pay AT&T $100+ a month for an iPod. I needed a phone. AT&T is permanently history. The EVO is an excellent replacement, but it’s flaws are fundamental ones which really digs under your skin. Being new to Android it’s easy for me to spot these and nit pick.
Maybe over the course of the next few months I may feel entitled to start berating new users and “trolls” for saying the iWord. But until then, I can honestly say, both companies do a good job and the competition is OUR friend.
Should Google steal a page from Apple, and make their OS run smoothly (without Task Killers, restarts, reboots, extra battery calibration, extra battery tweaking, special battery care, custom settings to make the phone smoother, slow/inconsistent OS releases, outdated phones who can never upgrade their OS thanks to the phone manufacturer, and a sloppy app store) they will really take off and eclipse the market.
I am keeping the EVO. Tethering last night really got me going. The iPhone is toast. I can live with the EVO’s flaws. I can live with the iPhone’s flaws. It’s hard to say one phone and company is better than the other, but right now I am enjoying this Android OS and device slightly more than my iPhone 3GS. I would probably enjoy the iPhone 4 but I think I still would prefer the EVO given Androids flexibility.
Note: This is just my opinion and I am no editor or writer.
(Oh and tl;dr!)
____________________
I’ve been using an iPhone for the last 2-3 years, and most of that time was spent with the iPhone 3GS. Since I primarily use Macs for my daily life, the iPhone was the most obvious choice for a long time.
The EVO is my first Android phone and the entire OS (2.1) is new to me. I’ve listed a few pros and cons and will briefly describe why.
iPhone 3Gs
Pros
Excellent Multi Touch
The iPhone 3GS, even years after its release, is by far the most responsive multi touch device on the market. I’m not sure why, given the insane amount of power in the EVO, it doesn’t even come close. Someone in these forums said it best, when they said it feels like the iPhone scrolls at 60 fps and the EVO at 12FPS. Regardless, when I scroll my address book on my iPhone, I can still make out the contacts due to the insanely smooth scrolling. Even better, the second I touch the screen, the scrolling stops, instantaneously. On the EVO there is a half second delay from when the scrolling starts and stops.
Easy To Use
Not going to say much here because this can ultimately be a con, due to lack of customization. But out of the box, the iPhone works, and is easy to use. I can see my parents using an iPhone but hardly see them putting up with an Android device.
Syncs flawlessly with Macs and iTunes
Obviously being a Mac user, this was incredibly huge to me.
Good Picture and Video Quality
I’m an amatuer photgrapher aside from my main job, and I can’t even begin to say how dissappointing the EVO camera is. First of all, MEGAPIXELS MEAN NOTHING. I shoot with Canon DSLRs and the finally seemed to have understood this allowing them to excel in developing camera sensors. Nikon has joined the party and realized the MP war was dying and it was QUALITY over QUANTITY that counted.
Welcone to HTC, who still thinks quantity > quality. I don’t blame them though, the press went nuts over the 8 MP camera. “On paper this thing is a beast.” Well guess what, we don’t use it “on paper”. As a consumer, we just shoot a photo/video and look at the results. And the results will surprise you, just not the way you’d want.
This thing could have been 22 MP and it wouldn’t really matter. The quality sucks. Period. Every now and then, in “the right conditions” you can pull off a decent shot, but that’s where it stops. Low light photos are unusable.
“The best camera is the one you have with you.” I have taken more photos and video on my iPhone than any of my other cameras. Mostly because it’s always with me and my SLRs and even point and shoots aren’t. I don’t use the iPhone when shooting high grade pictures, but my daily life just requires quick snapshots.
My biggest complain on the video, aside from the 100000% compression and junk quality, is that, it also appears to be something like 10-15 FPS. It’s very very choppy and there is no fluidity in the video. I should put up two comparison clips from the iPhone 3GS and EVO to show you what I mean. But basically, when you hand shakes, the iPhone is very smooth because its recording so many FPS. The EVO is very choppy giving you a headache.
I’m confident, that the iPhone 4 will obliterate the EVO’s “camera”. I was quite disappointed here.
(p.s. I understand this is a cell phone, not a DSLR, but I am by no means comparing the EVO to a DSLR. I never felt unhappy with the iPhone camera, but the EVO leaves me wanting something else. Anything else.)
Cons
Customization
It doesn’t exist on the iPhone 3GS.
Multitasking
It’s coming out today on iOS 4, but it didn’t exist before.
Notification System
This one is big too. The iPhone would pop up an annoying box in the middle of ANYTHING you were doing. Dialing a phone number, taking video, typing an email, BOOM! You get a text, the box opens and kills anything you were doing. You have to tap close to get rid of it, but god forbid another message was on its way, you’ll have to fight of the onsalught of annoying boxes.
GPS
It’s somewhat quick to find a signal, but not that accurate.
Network
AT&T.
**** them.
They have lousy coverage for me, in a major market (Los Angeles). The iPhone excels at dropped calls. I dial in fear. I literally call someone, hit talk, and stare at the screen to see if it will connect. If it does, I just wait for the call to drop. If it doesn’t connect, we’ll that’s the norm.
I will say this, coverage is very different for different people so even though I had poor service with AT&T the same can be said for Sprint, Verizon, and so on for many other people. Generally though, AT&T stinks.
EVO
Pros
Customizable
I have only spent a week getting into my EVO, but I am enoying the depth of this OS. There is much that can be customized and this is in strong contrast my the iPhone. Although there can often be too much to customize, it’s better to have the options and leave them alone, than to not have them at all.
Great GPS and Nav
The GPS is quick and suprisingly, very very accurate. It’s more accurate than my iPhone by far and even more accurate than my car. Maybe the EVO cheats and uses cell towers + GPS + Compass? Either way it works well and the Nav programs are great.
Screen Resolution
The resolution is great. I didn’t really appreciate until I went to look at my iPhone the other day. The higher depth resolution is beautiful to look at. Howeverm this screen has a few flaws, so see the Cons section.
Network
Sprint! I was about to download a large file at about 900 KB/sec on my MacBook Pro last night just by using the FREE USB tethering option on the EVO. The quality of my calls is very impressive and the 3G speeds feel fast. I’m starting to wonder if AT&T even has a 3G network, now that I’ve tried Sprint’s real 3G.
Cons
Screen
So as great as a 4.3” high resolution screen is, it’s not quite that great when it only shows 65,000 colors. It sure sounds like a lot, and honestly, most people won’t know what that does or doesn’t mean.
In reality though, it means that when you take picture of the sky, or anything with a gradient, you’re gonna notice a lot of banding. I have seen this on pictures I’ve taken, I’ve seen it on websites, I’ve seen it all over. It’s not obvious always and sometimes can be easily overlooked, but overall, the lack of a 16 bit screen or higher is extremely disappointing when you start to notice it.
Unresponsive
It’s 2010 and the iPhone has been around a lot longer than the Android system. But let me say this, if I were to release my own phone OS, the FIRST THING I would do, is make sure the most basic level of operation was flawless. Apple did this. When you touch their screens and interact with their devices, you subconsciously come to expect superior performance. As a result, it FEELS SMOOTHER!
I don’t care with the EVO has a 15 ghz fire breathing dragon processor. It stutters when it comes to simple things. The most obvious proof of this is to take something with a long list, like your contacts on both phones. Scroll them. End of story.
Poor framerate for animations
Somewhat correlated to the above, the animations are choppy. In fact, my first EVO experience was turning on the phone and watching the Sprint 4G Network animation.
It looked like it was maybe..... 3-5 FPS!
What were they thinking? I know it’s the menu animation and an into, so who gives a ****, right? But this problem shows their attention to these details and more importantly, foreshadows the phones jumpy performance.
Now to be fair, it’s better than almost every Android device I’ve used (that’s not saying too much) and it is quite usable, so I’ll take it. But let’s be real, it can use a lot of work. Maybe 2.2 address some of this.
(p.s. programs run and load fast but I’m talking about human interaction with the device being somewhat jerky and not processing / load times.)
Camera
You’re tired of hearing this and I’m tired or writing, so for all the cons on the EVO camera, just see the pros of the iPhone camera.
____________________
Final Thoughts:
I couldn’t pay AT&T $100+ a month for an iPod. I needed a phone. AT&T is permanently history. The EVO is an excellent replacement, but it’s flaws are fundamental ones which really digs under your skin. Being new to Android it’s easy for me to spot these and nit pick.
Maybe over the course of the next few months I may feel entitled to start berating new users and “trolls” for saying the iWord. But until then, I can honestly say, both companies do a good job and the competition is OUR friend.
Should Google steal a page from Apple, and make their OS run smoothly (without Task Killers, restarts, reboots, extra battery calibration, extra battery tweaking, special battery care, custom settings to make the phone smoother, slow/inconsistent OS releases, outdated phones who can never upgrade their OS thanks to the phone manufacturer, and a sloppy app store) they will really take off and eclipse the market.
I am keeping the EVO. Tethering last night really got me going. The iPhone is toast. I can live with the EVO’s flaws. I can live with the iPhone’s flaws. It’s hard to say one phone and company is better than the other, but right now I am enjoying this Android OS and device slightly more than my iPhone 3GS. I would probably enjoy the iPhone 4 but I think I still would prefer the EVO given Androids flexibility.
