iPhone 4 vs. HTC Evo 4G: Smackdown Edition

First of all, I want to say, for posterity, that I will never wait in line for an iPhone ever again. They can come out with a 12G dicksucking model next year for all I care - I'm never doing that again. I was in the RESERVE line and it still took 4 hours in 98 degree weather and probable skin cancer to pick up an ultimately defective phone. Four hours! For a phone! I really have lost my mind. For someone who owns so many of them, I don't even really like Apple products, almost solely due to the sealed batteries. Ugh.


Yes, I clicked "Agree" without reading any of the 45 pages of text

But, without further ado (and keeping in mind I've only been using the iPhone for 3 hours), let us commence the smackdown:

AESTHETICS:

Let's get it out of the way: the iPhone is drop-dead gorgeous. I don't need to rehash the specs, but suffice it to say, it looks like something that belongs in a museum. The glass/metal combination give it a classy look and confidence-inspiring heft. When I first handled the Evo, I thought it was pretty nice, but next to the iPhone, the Evo flat-out looks and feels like a cheap toy. That's not an indictment of the Evo - everything looks like a toy next the the iPhone.



Round: iPhone

ERGONOMICS:

Truth be told, I don't find either particularly comfortable to hold next to my ear, but I've felt that way about every wide, flat smartphone I've used. God, I miss the Samsung x105. The iPhone's new sharp edges, while beautiful, don't exactly melt into your fingers. On the other hand, the excessive size of the Evo makes it quite a bit unwieldy in my (admittedly girl-like) hands. I was on the Metro the other day trying to look up Phil Hughes' xFIP with my left hand, and I just couldn't do it because as my thumb was moving around the keyboard, the edge of my palm kept hitting the touch button on the bottom corner of the phone and continually booted me back out into the home screen. Not cool. The iPhone hasn't undergone the Metro test yet, but until then, I guess we can declare it the winner by default.


It's also much, much thinner

Round: iPhone

OS/INTERFACE:

Maybe it's the Windows user in me talking, or maybe I'm just tired of i[Phone]OS, but I prefer Android, hands-down. There's a lot to be said for customizability, and it's telling that it took four iterations of the iPhone before they allowed you to even change the background of your home screen. But it's not just that, it's the little things too. The onscreen keyboard has the symbols above the letters, so you can just hold down the letter to access that symbol, instead of having to hit a separate key to switch the whole keyboard out on the iPhone. More importantly, if you hate the default keyboard on Android, you can just download a new one.



I also really like the little Android guy.



Round: Evo

DISPLAY:

I'm pretty sure that all that "Retina Display" talk was a bunch of hot air, but there's no denying that the iPhone's IPS screen is stunning. It's the nicest screen I've ever seen on any handheld device, with the sharpest text and really eye-popping colors. That's not to say that the Evo's TFT screen is bad (it's certainly got a bit more real estate), but if you put them side-by-side, the difference is noticeable, if not glaring. I don't know if this is a problem with the lower resolution or the limited color palette of the Evo, but some graphics look awful and splotchy, like the blue areas below:



The iPhone renders the same area with slightly more...grace:



Round: iPhone

CALL QUALITY:

They both stink, but for different reasons. The iPhone's sound quality is great, but as I linked to earlier, I can make the phone drop a call by holding it in my left hand. The Evo connects just fine, but then I can't understand what the fuck anyone is saying. I was using it to call Apple support and since I couldn't make out what the guy was trying to say, I basically stopped trying, said "yes" a lot, and when I thought the guy was laughing, I laughed too. That was not a productive call.

Round: Draw

FEATURE SET:

This is where the Evo, whose feature set reads like a trade show tech demo, blows the iPhone out of the water. Facetime wifi video chat? Psh. Please. The Evo does video chat over the CELLULAR network. I hate the idea of video chat anyway because I like attending conference calls in my boxers, but that's neither here nor there. It's got WiMAX 4G (or 3.5G, I should say), and any text input field can be filled in via voice recognition. Not that it works that well all the time, but I appreciate any progress towards the voice-activated computer in Star Trek. Throw in tighter integration with social media and Google cloud services, and the Evo's got more "Ooh" moments. The trade-off is that the battery lasts just a smidge over seventeen seconds, but that's the price of progress. Also, 4G coverage sucks. You can be getting 4G and then walk three steps and then it's gone. But it's cool when it works.

Round: Evo

BATTERY LIFE:

No comparison.

Round: iPhone

APP STORE:

There is little doubt in my mind that given enough time, most of the differences in the respective app stores will eventually even out. But at this juncture, it's hard to argue against the superiority of Apple's offering, especially if you're really into games. Fortunately, my favorite game, Homerun Battle 3D, is available on both iPhone and Android. I bought it twice. For some reason, the game is smoother and faster but with more jagged graphics on iPhone, and choppier, but more anti-aliased on Android.

Round: iPhone

So what is that, 5-2? As much as I'm pulling for the Evo and other assorted Android devices, the iPhone is just a really polished, really slick device, and sad as I am to admit it, at this point I am willing to trade off a little bit of customization ability and get locked into Apple's draconian app requirements for the sake of predictable battery life.