Instinct-Pre-Evo myself. Instinct was so much cooler in the ads than in real use, but it worked alright. Pre was my first foray into apps and homebrew stuff. Evo just rocks, 'nuff said.
I only upgrade once every two years so I did have the original Instinct that I purchased on its release day to the EVO, and I will say the EVO is a much more refreshing experience. The instinct was so bad I was ready to drop Sprint altogether until the EVO was announced.
the instinct really had a couple of cool features eg..visual voicemail and speech to action. but very slow and laggy. my niece inherited the instinct when i got my pre and then i got us both evo's.
Instinct (on launch) the commercials were very misleading the phone was terrible. Palm Pre (on launch) webOS is amazing, Samsung Moment (on launch) it was ok not better than Pre imo. Evo (Day after launch) phone is pretty amazing so far.
Same for me. I liked each one until new one came out. How fickle we are. Next year we will probably all be on new phone forum. I am glad there is new and better phones every year. The technology gets pushed because there are always the group who wants the latest and greatest. My loyalty is to whatever is the best for my needs at the time i can upgrade.