Dangerous as it may be to try to make a fair comparison between the HTC EVO 4G exclusive to Sprint and Apple iPhone 4 from exclusive to AT&T, I’m gonna give it a whirl.
Now lets be honest here – these are both impressive phones in their own right.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWqjywmLLwA
Display
This comparison seems like the biggest “apples” to oranges comparison. The EVO 4G has a gigantic 4.3 inch 800 x 480 screen. That may not sound much bigger than the industry standard 3.5 inch but trust me, once you hold it in your hand and play with it, going back to a regular sized screen seems constrained. It’s big and pretty.
The iPhone 4 uses their new “retina display” which packs 960 x 640 resolution into a 3.5 inch screen. It’s a great looking display and everything is ultra crisp. It is, however ,smaller.
Speed
Both phones boast fast processors. The EVO 4G has a 1GHZ Snapdragon processor inside whereas the iPhone 4 has Apple’s own 1GHZ A4 Processor. Having enough power to run all your apps without the OS grinding to a halt shouldn’t be a problem on either phone.
Data
HTC EVO 4G (top left) - iPhone 4 (bottom right)
While many people in the tech community christened the new iPhone, the iPhone 4G, the new model (the iPhone 4) is still a 3G phone which makes sense since AT&T’s 4G network isn’t expected to go live until 2012.
The EVO 4G, on the other hand, is a 4G phone (though some would say not true 4G yet) and while it’s only available in a limited number of cities right now, it’s blazing fast where it is available. When 4G isn’t available, it uses 3G so in many areas speeds will be comparable.
One thing to note is that AT&T has just changed their data plan from “unlimited” to 2GB whereas the data plan on Sprint is not only cheaper, but still “unlimited.”
Video Conferencing
Both phones have a front facing camera for video conferencing and a back facing camera for taking pictures. The EVO has a 1.3 megapixel camera for video chat and uses the Qik system. The iPhone has a VGA (640×480) camera and uses their new FaceTime standard for chat (since Apple has made it an open standard, expect it to be available on Android in the coming months).
I’d say the FaceTime system is a bit more elegant than Qik, but FaceTime is unfortunately Wi-Fi only right now whereas Qik has no such limitations, only requiring you be in a 3G service area.
Camera
While Apple finally added an LED flash to their camera and upgraded it to a 5 megapixel camera, they’re still trailing the EVO 4G which has an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash. Both can record 720p HD video.
Battery
Apple claims to have really stepped up and improved the battery life of the notoriously power hungry iPhone by installing a bigger battery in an ever slimmer phone and now claims 7 hour talk time on 3G or 40 hours of audio playback – if those are even close to accurate, that’s a pretty big step up.
The EVO 4G also has some drabacks in the battery department. That big Snapdragon processor and huge 4.3 inch display suck up juice pretty quickly as well.
Then again, with the EVO 4G you can simply buy an upgraded battery whereas as you probably know with iPhones, the sealed internal battery is not user replaceable – you’re stuck with what you got.
Operating System
For many, this phone comparison will come down to an Android vs iOS comparison (iOS 4.0 is the new official name for the iPhone OS 4 since the operating system runs on more than just iPhones, namely iPods and iPads).
While both have their advantages, I’d say in many ways, it’s a win/win – either way you’re getting a sweet operating system.
The Apple App store boasts far more apps with at well over 200,000 compared to the 75,000 or so available in the Android Market. However, you can find apps that do just about everything for BOTH operating systems.
Froyo 2.2 (which will be on the EVO 4G soon – currently it runs 2.1 Eclair) and iOS 4.0 are both very capable of providing an excellent user experience.
Games
One of the new additions the iPhone 4 has that the EVO 4G does not have is a gyroscope. Gaming on the iPhone is still the best of all cell phones and Apple raised the bar with their new Gyroscope. Games are certainly available for both, but the iPhone does it better and has more.
Carrier
Even if you’re undecided up to this point, this final comparison may be where you make up your mind. The iPhone is exclusive to AT&T (in the United States, anyway), and the EVO 4G is exclusive to Sprint.
I won’t claim to know which one is better in all areas, but I can tell you I have been a past customer of both carriers and while I had Sprint for about 5 yrs, I was only an AT&T customer for 6 months before I just couldn’t take it anymore and terminated my contract early due to them having dead spots in my city and where I lived happened to be one of them.
Getting a reliable carrier is critical as these phones aren’t much fun is you can only use them in your house or apt when you have a wi-fi connection. It’s still a cell phone after all and you’ll probably still make and occasional phone call or two with it.
The decision is up to you. And just to be fair to AT&T, my brother has an iPhone and where he lives (Minneapolis), he hasn’t told me of any significant problems using his phone as he pleases.
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