iLoqin

iTrader: (5)

Lets have a thread of phone reviews of folks who actually have owned the phone. I'm just keeping my eye open and looking around 'til my upgrade comes around.

Make sure to mention the specs or provide a link to them.

As of right now, I haven't done too much research, but Android = Droid right? And Droid is gaining if not surpassed the iPhone OS?

I come from a Blackberry user for a couple of years, but Droid or Android (I'm gayt&t) is looking more tempting. So personally I'd like to know if Droid/Android are kicking iPhone's *** in the smartphone category.

Links to any real popular websites of droid phones would be useful too. I know Blackberry's have crackberry.com as a huge tool to fix things and get questions answered from crackberry guru's.

Unit 91

tesh

iTrader: (5)

im bored, so here goes (im going to review the phone, will try to stay away from network or 'market/app store' things):

HTC Evo (Sprint, Recently Retired for the iph4):

Pros: Big Screen,
HDMI out,
Works with many popular rooting methods,
"ok" internal speaker,
decent day-light camera,
front camera is useful,
very thin for it's size,
the kickstand is pretty awesome actually (i'm surprised how much i miss it).
flexible sd card memory.
micro sd charge/sync so no proprietary cables...
gps locked pretty quick,
bluetooth strength was good (ie stereos etc, pairing was easy)

Cons: Battery Hog,
craptastic camera at night,
android was sloooooooow and jittery,
earpiece audio crackled at high volume (even after warranty).
went in for repairs twice,
sprint network is good, but simultaneous browsing and talking = impossible, not good for business (i can elaborate later).
slow memory card read/write,
had trouble updating music from the card even after reboots...
'typical' headphones on the market cannot control apps! ie headphones with click-to-answer will not answer/hang or pause/play etc...
there so many more, but the big three: Battery, camera, OS hesitation.

HTC Incredible (Verizon, Current):
Running the same android 2.2 as the evo aaaand...

pros:
faster than the evo in every way;
screen density seemed better than the evo,
overall less 'buggy' feeling.
nice external speaker quality,
internal speaker still suffers;
great size to 'live with' ie pocketable, slim,
great battery life;
optical joystick takes some getting used to, i usually dont use it.
camera quality seemed better than the evo, overall great in daylight, so-so in night.

cons:
again like sprint, simultaneous data/talk issue- i'll leave it at that.
not as responsive as the iphone's screen,
no sense of 'immideacy' when you 'click' or swipe.
hdmi connector is part of the charging port, so the cable is $$$, i never found it.
'typical' headphones on the market cannot control apps! ie headphones with click-to-answer will not answer/hang or pause/play etc...
overall, not many cons, it's a great phone to live with

iPhone4 (ATT, Current): there are enough reviews in the world of this phone, so i wont belabor the point

Pros:
simultaneous talk/data (i use it constantly),
decent camera w/hdr effects,
nice form factor,
comparable to the incredible in size/weight.
huge aftermarket accesory support,
dunno if this is a pro or not, but it works with every 'dock' equipped product i have ie the apple-catch22.

Cons:
can't really gauge the battery life unless you're monitoring it 24-7, ie it'll last a day of regular use, but an hour conversation will put a serious dent in it.
the all glass and non-replacable back make it seem more 'fragile' where on other phones even w/o a case, you can just buy a new back covere if things go arai.
the single speaker w/2 grilles annoys the hell outta me.
speaker quality is so-so compared to other phones.
proprietary I/O...have to use itunes for everything (i'm not going to debate jb'ing, obviously there are options, but this review is for the 90% who'll use the phone as-is)

Treo6xx Series (Verizon, Retired): the maker of this phone should have been shot, along with everyone who helped create that abomination.

iLoqin

iTrader: (5)

^ Thanks, exactly what I was looking for. So far out of all the web browsing etc, the iphone still kicks butt. I hope they come out with some enamel screen or a longer battery life for the iphone, would make me more interested. I know when I had a 3GS previously, just programming and getting used to the phone for a couple of hours (guess it would be classified as heavy use) I had to charge it. In addition, I absolutely dislike iTunes. ><

tesh

iTrader: (5)

So I thought I'd reply to this separate from my reviews - to put it in one sentence, if you plan to use the phone as-is, iOS vs Android right now, it's still an iphone market.

I feel pretty confident in saying this since I use an Android (HTC Incredible) and iPhone4 on a daily basis, they sit side by side on my desk.

Which is better for you? It all depends on your situation... I came from owning ipods back in the day, so I've amassed a collection of 'dock' enabled devices, speaker docks, eventually got an apple laptop and now i'm 'stuck' - my droid never really played well with my macbook, but worked great w/my pc (yes, I also have two laptops, not counting the two I use for work... i'm literally hemorraging technology). If you're a pc user, don't like or use itunes, then an iphone is not for you. if you already have another apple device you use constantly ie ipod, ipad, macbook etc, then i'd go with the iphone over a droid simply based on day to day convenience.

the droid is gaining alot of popularity, it's true. its flexible, i enjoyed being able to mess with my Evo all i wanted, rooting, modifying its file structure to suit mine, etc was great, but it always required an 'extra step'... i had to get a new program to sync with, i had to manually move folders around to make simple things work (like ringtones) i had to be more 'involved' to keep it running smooth. If, however, you dont use it for music or media other than pandora/similar, i can surely recommend the HTC Incredible. Battery life out the wazoo; on equivalent use with my iphone, it gets a solid hour or two of more battery life.

Comparing "Market Support" - this one's a touchy subject. in Retail, there are more products, sellers, and constant creators of accessories for the iphone than any droid (and probably all droid phones combined). It's a byproduct of making one-singular object with one unified connection type. people may cry 'proprietary' about apple's 30-pin port, but it's a staple now. 50+% of the market has an "i-product capable' sticker on it, so it's not so proprietary any more (especially with accessories available on ebay). good luck finding a dock for your Evo or Incredible or other Droid/Windows/Palm/WebOS phone that works at your desk, home theater, car, office etc... unless it's all bluetooth (then make sure you have a charger handy). So for flexibilities sake, I got 'stuck' with the iphone; I have a dock everywhere, and it charges as it plays, all with one cable. Hell, if you wanted to watch a movie with the Evo, you'd have to connect HDMI for video, Micro-Usb to charge and optionally the 1/8" jack if you wanted to output to a different source! vs a $15 cable from ebay that charges and outputs video from my iphone, and charges via standard usb.

Comparing App Stores - the droid is up-and-coming, again, it's not 'there'. every app for the droid that i have on my iphone has an 'unfinished' feel to it. whether it's laggy in operation or just not visually finished, well established apps (ie Mint, money manager) which you'd expect have the develpment money to invest, look miles apart on both phones. Droid's open source market is great for develpment of new apps that dont have to run around apple's authorizations and approvals, but do you really want some 18 year old's app with potentially hazardous code on your phone? I constantly 'approve' random apps to have control of my phones functions just to use them, and while the iphone hides the fact that you've implicitly agreed to allowing controls, i have a little faith in the fact that they are error checking the code before allowing it in their appstore - essentially, their quality is consistent, wheras android market is hit or miss; for now. there are apps on my droid that i simply can't get for my iphone because small startups cannot invest in new coding, developer fees etc. so the iphone is late on some apps...

Comparing Browsing - this is another catch-22. yes the iphone doesnt have flash, the evo did; surprisingly i dont miss it - the world has been adjusting the www to fit idevices for a while; where you can't use the zillow website, you can use the equally if not more powerful app; but that's a double edged sword. you dont see the 'world' for what it is, you'll only see it through 'apple-tinted-glasses'. this is a long topic, so i should probably get back to work...

good luck in your search!

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