Extremely positive reviews of the Sprint HTC EVO 3G from Engadget:
"..this is one of the best smartphones ever made"
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/19/htc-evo-4g-review/3
To be honest I don't quite get what you mean by inconsistencies, I've now tried the stock VFZ 1.6, The modded 2.1, had a play with the 1.6 Hero (with HTC Sense), the Nexus and the X10 (SE 1.6).
Comparing version for version, the 1.6 Hero, VFNZ Magic and X10 - well its all just Android. You make it the way you want it. It pretty much all behaves the same.
Press the icon, slide the finger, whatever. There are some differences in apps between 1.6 and 2.0, but that's largely a result of new apps being written to take adavantage of the increased horsepower and graphics resolutions of new 2.1 devices.
There are nearly 60,000 apps on the android market now and android beat out iPhone in US smartphone sales last quarter.
The vaunted SE Mediascape and Timescape on the X10 are just applications and widgets on top of android. System apps maybe, that are on by default, but apps nonetehless.
It's not like you are choosing Gnome over KDE.
Once you get off the homescreen it's all just android. The are are different apps preloaded in some cases maybe, but you just go to the market and get what you want anyway.
Similarly, HTC sense is really just a homescreen widget set.
Looking at Nexus v. Desire, they are pretty much the same phone, just one has HTC sense.
I don't know of anything that will run on a Desire that won't run on Nexus or Droid or Motorola Milestone
It's like vendors shipping Windows 7 with different themes and desktop gadgets preset. Not a huge deal.
