iPhone 4 vs EVO 4G: Total Cost of Ownership

From: http://www.billshrink.com/

The iPhone 4, EVO 4G, Droid Incredible, and Google Nexus One; when it comes to choosing a smartphone, there are several worthy competitors on the market to consider. It is important to compare the key features that each phone and its carrier offer before making a decision. By looking at the chart below, you can compare pricing, plans and smartphone features and decide which phone will best suit your individual needs.

Editor’s note: Though the category is listed as “unlimited plan,” you should note that due to AT&T’s recent data service pricing change, they’re no longer offering unlimited data plan for new subscribers. Instead, new users will have the option to a 2 GB plan for $25 or a 200 MB plan for $15. This is rather unfortunate as other carriers may soon adopt AT&T’s tiered rate for data service, and the current a la carte pricing may not really reflect what the average user needs (it’s either too much data given, or not enough).

This cost comparison is also specifically tailored for a balance mix of users. Obviously, if you’re a gadget geek, you know each phone’s specifications and dimensions by heart, but if you’re just average Joe, you may not care if the phone is powered by a Qualcomm 1 GHz Snapdragon or its competitor sports the similar ARM-based Cortex-A8 CPU packaged with a PowerVR SGX graphics chip.

Comparison Notes:

Unlimited plan – Unlimited plan is the maximum plan you can get with each respective carrier to get the maximum service coverage as a new service subscriber.

Minimum plan – Minimum plan is the lowest voice plan you can subscribe to while still retaining all smartphone usage feature (data & messaging). Note: We’re considering changing AT&T’s minimum data plan to the 2 GB offering instead of the 200 MB plan to better match competitor’s offering.

Click to Enlarge

Noteworthy Phone/Carrier Features:

If you’re not familiar with the cell phones below, you should note that the EVO 4G is the only smartphone listed with 4G network speed, though coverage is limited nationwide, and you’ll be required to pay an additional $10 data surcharge. Having said that, you can enable the EVO 4G to utilize its mobile hotspot, allowing you to connect up to eight device. Why pay for AT&T’s questionable $25 3G connection on your iPad when you can just WiFi hotspot with your EVO 4G?

The iPhone 4 is not a 4G device, it is the 4th generation iPhone (hence iPhone 4). Though it has the highest resolution on all the phones listed below, it’s also the phone with the smallest screen size (3.5 inches vs. 4.3 inches is a big difference, so we encourage you to see the difference in person if possible). Having said that, the iPhone 4 comes with Apple’s lovly marketing jargon of “retina display” — which in essence is just very sharp display: an in-plane switching (IPS), thin film transistor (TFT), LCD screen. IPS LCDs certainly aren’t magically produced in recent days, and have been around in many displays for awhile (though at a heavy price). The difference in sharpness though is evident and a majority of users will notice the difference.

The Droid Incredible, Nexus One, and EVO 4G are all made by HTC, so you’ll find some similar aspect to them across the board. All of the phone sports Google’s Android operating system, and in essence is much more “open” in respective to what an end-user and developer can do to the phone. On the other hand, with an iPhone, you’ll be subjected to certain restrictions Apple/AT&T may place on the device (e.g., though the hardware is fully capable, you will not be able to tether your iPhone 4 to an iPad). It’s a personal preference on what type of experience you prefer and enjoy. While many users and developers may dislike Apple’s App Store environment and policy (I’m personally one of them), the average user can certainly appreciate a user experience that’s tightly controlled to engineer the best possible experience — with the recently announced news of 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4 (even though with the heavy glitch and server meltdown), there’s obviously a heavy demand for Apple’s latest smartphone. Feel free to check the links after the comparison graphic below for more detail on each respective phones!

More Links and Resources:

CNET’s coverage on the Apple iPhone 4. A decent, well-rounded review on the EVO 4G from CNET. Engadget’s Droid Incredible review (in brief, it was one of the best Android phone offering right before the release of EVO 4G). You’ll find a nice consolidation of review from PC World on Google’s Nexus One.

Showdown: iPhone 4 vs. HTC Evo 4G

• By Priya Ganapati
• 
  
• From: http://www.wired.com

Updated to include more information on Qik

Apple’s new iPhone 4 is the company’s biggest update yet for the handset and it will have you drooling.

The phone is a snazzily slim, glass-backed slab that boasts some impressive specs: dual cameras, a big operating system update and video chat, among other things.

Apple introduced the phone at its developer conference Monday and said it will be available on AT&T’s network starting June 24.

But when the iPhone 4 hits retail shelves it will have to battle a gaggle of Android devices for consumer attention — the most significant of which is the HTC Evo. The Evo has one big advantage that Apple can’t beat. It runs on Sprint’s 4G network, while the iPhone is stuck on AT&T’s 3G service. Sprint 4G, though, is not available in most major cities, including San Francisco and New York.

If you are considering upgrading to the latest version of the iPhone or getting an Android device, take a look at how the iPhone 4 and HTC Evo 4G compare:

	iPhone 4	HTC Evo 4G
Display	3.5 inch display with 960 x 640 pixel resolution	4.3 inch screen with 800 x 480 pixel resolution
Processor	Apple A4 chip, speed unknown	1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
Size	4.5 inches in height, 2.3 inches wide, 0.37 inches thick.	4.8 inches in height, 2.6 inches wide, 0.5 inches thick.
Weight	4.8 ounces	6 ounces
Operating system	iOS 4	Android 2.1
Cellular access	3G	4G
Storage capacity	16 or 32 GB flash drive	8 GB microSD card included, supports up to 32 GB.
Camera	Dual cameras. 5-megapixel primary camera. Front-facing secondary camera (resolution unknown).	Dual camera with 8-megapixel primary camera, 1.3 megapixel front-facing secondary camera.
Video Recording	720p, up to 30 frames per second. Built-in video editing.	720p at 25 frames per second.
Video Conferencing	Yes. Native support through FaceTime application, via Wi-Fi only.	Available through Qik app that costs $5 a month for premium features and higher-than-VGA quality. Basic app is free. Can be used over 3G or 4G wireless.
Sensors	Three-axis gyro, digital compass, accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, GPS.	Digital compass, accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, GPS.
Battery Life	Talk time of up to 7 hours on 3G and 14 hours on 2G.	Up to 6 hours of talk time.
Price	$200 for 16 GB version, $300 for 32 GB (both with a two-year contract).	$200 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) with a two-year contract.
Availability	June 24	June 4
Service provider	AT&T	Sprint

Sprint HTC EVO 4G - As Good As It Looks? Yes!

intomobile.com — The Sprint HTC Evo 4G is the kind of Android phone that will probably be the talk of the town even after the next iPhone launches. That should say a lot about Evo’s badass-ness.

Click here for the full in-depth review: Sprint HTC EVO 4G - As Good As It Looks? Yes!

HTC EVO 4G is Sprint's Android-powered knight in superphone armor, we go hands-on

By Paul Miller
From http://www.engadget.com/
We've been rumoring a WiMAX "HTC Supersonic" for a while now, and Sprint just dropped the hard news: the phone will be dubbed the HTC EVO 4G, will be released this Summer and it's easily the best specced phone we've ever witnessed. The hardware is of quite obvious HD2 descent, but with Android onboard and some nice aesthetic tweaks, the EVO 4G takes on a life of its own. The handset is centered around a 480 x 800 4.3-inch TFT LCD, with a Snapdragon QSD8650 1GHz processor under the hood (the CDMA version of the QSD8250 in the HD2 and Nexus One), and even a helpful 1GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAM -- hello app storage! Even the battery is bigger than the HD2, and the camera is an 8 megapixel monstrosity with flash, that's capable of 720p video, and is augmented by a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for good measure. The phone features HDMI out (though you'll need an adapter for turning it into a TV-familiar HDMI plug), 802.11b/g WiFi, and an 8GB microSD card. There's that still-rare Android 2.1 underneath an updated version of HTC's Sense UI. But... despite all these wild features, what actually sets the EVO 4G apart is the fact that it's Sprint's first 4G phone. The handset runs a combo of EV-DO Rev. A and WiMAX, with calls still being made over CDMA and the EV-DO / WiMAX options for data. Interestingly, it sounds like concurrent data and voice use might be possible for the first time on CDMA carrier in this way (killing AT&T's well-advertised differentiator), though Sprint says that's still in the testing phase. One other new feature is the Sprint hotspot app, another MiFi-style connection sharing number, which is obviously aided greatly by the WiMAX on board and can support up to eight concurrent users. Follow after the break for our hands-on impressions and videos of the phone in action, including an up-close-and-personal test of the touchscreen keyboard. Below you'll find galleries of the phone by its lonesome and up against the Nexus One and iPhone 3G.

Update: We've got a graph comparing the Nexus One and Droid with the EVO spec for spec, and there's also a pictorial shootout with the Desire and HD2. Pick your comparo poison!
HTC EVO 4G press shots



HTC EVO 4G hands-on



HTC EVO 4G vs. iPhone vs. Nexus One



We got to play with the phone for an all-too-brief matter of minutes, but everything we saw was frankly breathtaking. The camera does seem to be indeed of a high quality (though we'll still be holding on to our compact shooter, thank you very much), the screen is naturally gorgeous, and the Sense UI was as responsive as we've seen it, and frankly delicious at this jumbo size. The capacitive face buttons are flat and almost a little difficult to see due the thin chrome icons, but the physical buttons (a volume rocker and a power button up top) are very large, tactile and friendly. Around back there's strong, chrome kick stand, and when you pop off the cover the battery is surrounded by beautiful "Ferrari red" plastic. The touchscreen keyboard is positively ginormous, though we're not sure we're feeling some of the recent things that have been crammed in there like huge cursor buttons and the voice recognition button -- just because you can fit stuff in there doesn't mean you should, and they look a little comical at this size. In our testing we weren't really able to get a feel for the browsing speed on WiMAX, but at this point we're primarily enthused that it's even an option, and obviously the theoretical speeds are far beyond 3G, with a bunch of new markets due to go online this year. Battery life is stated as "comparable."

Our biggest questions at this point are availability and pricing. Sprint is keeping mum, just stating a "Summer" availability, and interestingly clarified that not only is it not announcing device pricing, but it's not announcing plan pricing yet either -- sounds like a 4G-on-a-phone surcharge could be somewhere in our future.

Sprint

Electric Superbike Uses iPhone For Its Dashboard

Written by Jerry James Stone

Apple fanboys might still be drooling from yesterday’s iPhone 3Gs announcement, but I bet they never saw this coming: an electric superbike with an iPhone for all its instrumentation!

Heck, I was happy to finally get MMS support!

The MotoCzysz E1pc is one of the many entries in the TTXGP race this Friday. How the iPhone is integrated into the bike is still a mystery but features like its native GPS will surely be used. And whether it wins or loses, it definitely gets points for creamy white geeky goodness.

The E1pc can go from zero to 120 mph in “seven or eight seconds” according to Michael Czysz, the company’s founder. It uses ten lithium-ion battery packs with three electric motors all mounted on a carbon fiber main frame.

Here’s a video of its test run:

Czysz explains, “With teams from around the world ascending on the Isle, this is a true international competition and even though the machines are futuristic the race is not and the premise even less so- this is an old fashion ‘run what you brung’ race. Never would my Grand Father or even my Father imagined such a motorcycle would ever exist, even I would have doubted this event possible in 2009 only a few years ago.”

The TTXGP is a zero-emissions motorcycle race taking place on the famed Isle of Man Mountain Course. Some of the teams include Mission Motors, Brammo, EVOdesign and of course MotoCzysz. Other entrants include Barefoot Motors, Electric Motorsport and one of my favorites…KillaCycle Racing. Teams from the United States, United Kingdom, India, Austria, Germany and Italy all plan to compete.

TTXGP founder, Azhar Hussain, said, “With twenty-four confirmed entries, we are thrilled with the high level of interest the TTXGP has generated globally, and the superb quality of teams that will be involved.”

Source: Hell for Leather