I picked up a Photon in the middle of August. I had a Blackberry Tour for the previous two years, so my experience with Android had been with my wife's Epic 4g.
I decided on the Photon after playing with the evo 3d and feeling sick when looking at the 3d camera/pictures. The 3d was too gimmicky for me at this point.
Even though the Epic Touch wasn't announced yet, I did explore my wife's phone knowing a GSII phone would be released. The screen was great at first. And I liked the TouchWiz overlay over the HTC Sense. But the fact that updates were so slow was a major negative in my opinion.
After having purchased the Photon, I can say I prefer the pentile screen over the amoled on the epic 4g. To me, the Photons screen looks better in bright sunlight. The Samsung screen may look brighter, but I feel the colors are too saturated. IMO the Photon screen renders more realistic. I only notice a grid layout when the phone is at just the right angle in direct sunlight of bright lighting while the screen is off, I never notice it while one. The qHD resolution shines through.
The camera on the Photon isn't the greatest, but once you know how to utilize it, it is pretty good. It is probably the biggest disappointment on this phone, but still better than a lot of other phones I've played with... But the positives of the phone far outweigh this issue.