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Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

The better CPU is what makes this a better Android phone. I have used Android on an HTC Magic, where the performance is OK, and I've used it on an Archos 5, where the performance is amazing. Web pages load as fast as they do on a desktop, screen rotation is instantaneous, and so on. It's very nice.

And FWIW, the HTC Magic performance is about the same as the iPhones I've played with... so the "Droid" could definitely be the "iPhone killer". (Because it's as fast, has the same basic functionality, and has persistent apps. It is nice to have "push" Google Talk, and it's also nice to ssh port-forward from your phone, and then run an IRC connection over the forwarded ports. All possible with Android, none possible with the iPhone.)

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That all seems reasonable, but Apple has a powerful brand at the moment. That must be factored-in too.

And Verizon has the best network.

That depends on the area. I just got an iPhone and it has much better reception than my old Verizon phone at my parents.

The best reception in one fixed area is a landline.

Agreed. My brother's Verizon phone is usually unable to make voice calls at my house in North East Denver.

Sure, but Verizon demonstrably has the best network overall. The fact that Verizon sucks for some locations that AT&T etc. serve well is only relevant if there are fewer cases for which that's true than when you swap the statement around.

Citation please? I haven't seen anything other than Verizon advertising that would back that claim up. Are there any objective third party comparisons of US cell carrier coverage?

Consumer Reports surveys of their membership.

given the location of the tech press and bloggers, whoever has the best coverage in SF and NYC (maybe Austin TX once a year) has the best coverage as far as reporting is concerned. I think a version of this phenomena was in the Fark book.

which HTC Magic did you try out? I have the one with the larger RAM and I find the performance to be really good.

I have the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. But I should point out that I also find the performance to be good... it's just that with more CPU/RAM it's like using a desktop machine.

IMO, Android does a lot for the minimal hardware it runs on, which could be bad for the iPhone -- iPhone OS requires more expensive hardware and is not as featureful.

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