Here's the challenge... the life cycle for smartphones has dropped to less than a year. While the HTC may be the newest and greatest available to you today, it likely won't be a month from now.
Go down to a wireless store and spend some time with the HTC phone in hand. Make sure it looks OK, feels OK, functions the way you want it to.
Personally I have some issues with HTC over all of the plastic they use in their phones. That said... they make good phones! Samsung used to make great phones but they do tend to be somewhat quirky (e.g., KIES).