Just thought I'd chime in, in case anyone else is considering the Photon.
I recently joined the smartphone world, after years with a Nokia 6133. I had no commitments to any carrier either, so I was pretty much free to pick any phone on any carrier. My main criteria was bang for the buck. I ended up moving to Sprint, because of the unlimited data, plus port-in credit and corporate discount.
I actually waited a while for the SGSII to come out, because I wanted to get the most advanced phone possible to delay eventual (relative)obsolescence. The day after it came out, I spent about an hour playing with it, but just couldn't get over the size. With a case, it was actually uncomfortable to hold for calls.
So I checked out the Photon instead. I will say this first: if you are looking for the "pentile effect," then you will find it. After reading every review possible, I was afraid of how bad it would look. But in real world applications, it is a complete non-issue. At least for me. I played with the SGSII and the Photon side-by-side, loading up identical pictures from flickr, and at a normal viewing distance, I was unable to discern a difference in quality. If there is one, the Photon makes up for it in other ways. The screen is pretty gorgeous. After a month of use, there has been maybe a handful of times when the pentile display even remotely bothered me, and those have been when I've had a photo at 100% rez and I was looking at it from 12" away. If that's your thing, then the screen might bug you.
Enough of that. The phone is quite solid in the hand. Not iPhone level, but holding it alongside a Sensation, each phone had a similar heft to it. Back cover is a bit hard to get off, but is solid once on. It does creak a tiny bit in one spot, at the radius of the curve on the bottom edge. It feels like the cover has a quarter mm gap between it and the body.
Reception has been great, better than I was getting with TMO on a regular basis (Chicago burbs). Earpiece is super clear and quite loud, and speakerphone is awesome. No problems with volume there. 3G coverage has been pretty good, though I have occasional troubles if I'm in the back of a grocery store or something. 4G coverage is spottier, but when I do get it, it seems to be as fast as my Comcast cable internet. Wi-Fi antenna might be a little fickle, because I sometimes have trouble connecting to the network that my desktop card has no problem finding, even if I'm closer to the router.
The GPS has also been great. It takes only a few seconds to locate satellites, even when I activate it someplace far from where it's ever been before. I've had no problems using it for directions, either in Google Maps, or the navigation app.
Battery life has been better than what I'd feared with a smart phone. Standby drains almost no battery life, maybe 10% over an 8 hour night. I usually plug it in at the 12-14 hour mark anyway, but haven't had any problems with battery dying. I'm a light talker, but might send 40 texts a day, and surf for a couple hours over the course of a day. GPS does seem to drain the battery pretty quickly.
Overall, I love the phone. New releases might tempt me, but I can't see any advances in the next year that would really make me want to upgrade. Keep in mind, this is written from the POV of a smartphone/android newb, so power users might find otherwise.
Facebook
Twitter