IPhone Vs Android

The IPhone and Android phones are defiantly the best two smart phones available on the market and although Blackbery and Windows phones are also good they don’t come close to winning the smart phone battle. The IPhone runs IOS and Android phones they obviously run Android OS. Both OS’s are good but which one is the best?

IOS was at first quite a disappointment to be honest especially on the ipod touch devices. Now I’ve never owned an idevice before the IPhone 4s, but I have owned an ipod touch 2^nd gen and that was terrible. Good for me because it was my first idevice but compared to my iphone 4s it is terrible. Now I’m going to presume the first iphone and idevices running IOS 3.0 to 4.0 where the same. Completely rubbish compared to the android OS. It didn’t even allow wallpapers to be set on the home screen (or springboard in IPhone terms) and IOS even to date hasn’t been close to as customizable as the Android OS has been. Android on the other hand is a slightly more featured OS. From the early stages it had wallpapers, other customizable things and home screen widgets which I wish the IPhone has. Android also has the ability to be featured on loads of different devices such as the HTC, Samsung and Nokia. The IOS only appears on Apple products not on other companies products. Some may think this is a good thing making it unique others may say it’s a bad thing the IOS should be featured on other devices, I myself don’t mind what device it is on as long as it performs well.

The latest IOS is IOS 5.0.1 which first appeared on the IPhone 4s but apple made it possible for the iphone 4, iphone 3gs and the ipod touch 4^th gen to run IOS 5 which had no differences except the IPhone 4s has the amazing Siri which I’ll get on to later. The latest Android firmware is 4.0 which is new to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus the first phone to come shipped with 4.0 although it’s possible to run it on some older devices. I’m going to base this battle between the two best smart phones on the market the Iphone 4s and the Galaxy Nexus, which are both brilliant phones. But the question is which phone is better?

Now before I continue I have nothing against Iphone or Android users and think really the best phone is down to personally preference but I do have an idea in which phone would most likely win a competition if there was one and I reckon the winner would be the Iphone 4s. Now I know what you’re thinking you’re thinking obviously you would because you own one but honestly I would say the same if I owned the Nexus. But hear me out; let me tell you why I think the Iphone 4s is better.

OK, first of both phones have a Dual core processor making them faster than earlier models but the iphone has always had smoother pinch to zoom and smoother animations than the android and if you’re thinking that I’ve never owned an android you’re wrong. Although I’ve never owned a phone I’ve owned a tablet, admittedly a rubbish one running Android 1.7 but also my friend owns a HTC wildfire running 2.2 and that is terrible even angry birds lags like If you try playing GTA 4 on pc with only 512mb of ram. But in all the Nexus and the iphone don’t have much of a performance difference. Next the camera and I can’t really judge on this as I’ve never seen for myself how well the nexus camera is but it is pretty good and although I believe the Nexus has 12mp and the 4s has 8mp, the iphone has better colour saturation and crisper edges to objects but again I can’t be 100% how much difference there is.

The one big thing I would say I hate about the 4s is its screen size. The Nexus wins hands down when it comes to the screen size but requires to hands to perform across the screen tasks like pressing a button on the opposite side of the screen to which hand you’re holding it in whereas the 4s and older models you can do that with one thumb in one hand. But the android is better for viewing videos, pictures and web browsing because of the large screen size.

The Nexus is also lighter but the materials apparently feel cheap according to reviews I’ve seen. The 4s’s weight is noticeable at first but you soon become accustom to it and feels solid in your hand and it’s quite a tough exterior as I’ve dropped it several times not on hard surface but on a carpet in my room and it somehow survived considering I was standing at the time and my hand I was holding it in I used to turn on the light switch so the phone was quite high when it fell.

Ok, now down to the OS. The best thing about the 4s is Siri. The new intelligent assistant from apple and is only available on the 4s model. It allows you not only to perform all the tasks voice control can do but it also allows users to write emails or sms, check the weather and search the web. You can also call people and do maths calculations with it. It’s also good for setting reminders which is also new to IOS 5 and allows reminds to be given at certain times or when you reach a location such as when you get home. When I first heard about Siri I thought it was going to be rubbish, I mean things like windows dictation for pc (built in) is rubbish and I though this can’t possibly be any better, but it is. It made a few mistakes at first but after a short while like within two weeks it learnt how I pronounce things and I have the tendency to mumble but it still works well. Android has Google voice which is similar but not as intelligent. Both phones have the ability to speak to type using text to speech technology which works not only on text messages but any text such as web browsing and posting Facebook statuses.

Android admittedly win in the User interface department. IOS has remained the same with the Icons on the home screen which in a way is convenient but would be nice to have the option to put widgets on the spring board. Although the UI is better on the Android the 4s seems to have better quality display and referring to my friends HTC wildfire, the icons are better designed on the IOS rather than the android presuming the app Icons on the Nexus is still the same designs as older android phones.

The next thing that makes the iphone better is the numerous amount of apps it has. Both app market and app store have 100’s of apps but iphone apps seem better designed and has better apps with better graphics than the android although some paid android apps are good. One app that me and my friend have is Waze, which is a free app and is a navigational app and is probably one of the best free ones out there. The iphone version has a better design than the android and better quality but remember my friend has a wildfire not a nexus so it may be better on a Nexus.

Also the one really big thing I love about the iphone is that it has loads of hardware add-ons than any other phone and I don’t think many other phones even have one thing to attach to it.

The most popular thing being iphone docks which depending on the make and model have different features. Some cheaper ones just play sound through better speakers than the inbuilt iphone ones which have never been brilliant and more expensive docks have features like remote controls and clock and weather display etc. Also the iphone has hardware add-ons like cases some being very simple others being able to project the iPhone’s screen on to walls etc. And others to act as a second battery extending the iPhone’s battery life. I have a remote control helicopter from apptoyz in which I plug an IR device that came with it into the 3.5 mm earphone jack and I can use the accelerometers or on screen d-pad to control the helicopter and it’s by far the best RC helicopter I’ve owned. 

There are even cases that allow SLR camera lenses to be attached to the iphone. Not only has the iphone got tons of hardware add-ons it also has software related features as well. For example there’s an app called acquire for photoshop which cost £1.99 from the app store which allows me to take a photo or choose photos from my library and send them wirelessly directly to photoshop meaning I don’t have to mess around clicking file > open etc.

There’s also the new icloud on IOS 5 which as features like sending photos to computers with icloud for mac and icloud control panel for windows over Wi-Fi although I have be signed into my apple ID so I don’t need to mess around plugging in a usb cable and transferring photos. Not to mention air play which lets users stream iphone songs to their mac or if you install shareport4w you can stream to windows pc as well. It also allows videos to be streamed to an apple TV which annoyingly cost £100. Also apps from the app store allow wifi communications such as apps that allow the use of an iphone mic to be used as a wireless microphone for the pc.

Although the iphone 4s is better than the admittedly fantastic Galaxy nexus, it still doesn’t have loads of cool in built features like android does for example face unlock and I don’t know if the nexus does it but the HTC hero has a feature where you flip it face down and it puts it on silent. Luckily there is a jailbreak for the iphone 4s and older models which was once illegal but now isn’t for those who think it’s illegal and its purpose isn’t to get paid apps for free although you can, the term jailbreak actually means to free it from jail if you imagine all those cool features in bars and you set them free. With a jail broken iphone like mine, you can do things that android may or may not have such as a tweak called Barrel which allows you to change the transition between the pages such as a flipping animation, fade and loads more. There are also tweaks that let you add extra features to Siri for example I can now open apps with it and turn of my phone and even have a proper conversation which is a bit sad to be honest but I’m a lonely guy. There are also tweaks to allow facedown to silent and to allow panorama image taking in the default camera app.

So in conclusion the iphone wins the smart phone battle, just. Although lacks in customizability and a large screen. Also doesn’t have as much features as the Nexus does and the home screen needs changing for a change. But it has a better display, better and more apps, has smoother performance, better camera just about and feels sturdier than the nexus. And on top of that have tons of hardware add-ons such as SLR lens attachment. Admittedly the iphone lacks in features compared the Nexus which by the way was going to be my phone if I didn’t get my iphone for Christmas, I’m only 17 I can’t buy a phone on contract, but once the 4s is jail broken which was easier to do than my IPod touch was, it makes it that little more better than the Nexus and older android phones.

But that’s my own opinion and my own judgment. I prefer the cool hardware add-ons and apps that I can use with my pc but if you want a cheaper near enough just a good phone with a larger screen and don’t really care about all the gadget stuff then you may prefer android and android is more to the geeky people as you can change the ROM etc. on an android which I am geeky-ish, dual monitors and fix computers just for the sake of it and obviously because people ask me to but I like tinkering than anything else the plug this in to there and see what happens kind of person. So I like getting my iphone to do cool things like control my pc and stream videos and I’m trying to find a way to send and receive phone calls on my pc I’ve already got a way to do sms but your phone needs to be jail broken to do so before you try doing that yourself.

So it’s all down to personally preference and I could be wrong maybe the android has got things like RC helicopters but on gadget sites I never see android accessories but I see iphone accessories although this could be down to the fact that the iphone is unique everyone of them has the same hardware or better but android being on different models of phones, one phone hardware could have a gyroscope where as another one may not but they run the same firmware version so gyroscope apps won’t be compatible to certain phones.

If you have any questions about either phone or OS or simply just need computer issues sorted feel free to email me at mike309saa@gmail.com and I will reply to every question.