I have the HTC desire hd and I think it is excellent, it does have its faults like the battery is crap, but imo it has more going for it than the ip4, for example you can download free movies music and tv programs where as Apple are all about money money money! I only use my HTC for surfing the web not my laptop, I'm on it right now infact, all my forum posts and my pictures were all uploaded and taken on my phone which has an 8mp hd camera as opposed to ip4 5mp camera, I always found my ipod touch quite limited surfing the net because it does not have flash player. My massive 4.3 inch screen is brilliant too, although it does not look quite as good as the ip4 retina display but tbh it must be the next best screen anyway. When it comes to Apple you know you are getting a top quality bit of kit but at a high price but they also hold their value really well, my HTC dhd is not worth much more than 200 quid already where as an iPhone is worth 350 quid all day long, so if you're flush and don't mine paying for everything maybe Apple is the way to go and if you don't want to pay for everything you download yet still want a quality bit of kit then the HTC is a worthy rival.