my unbiased iphone vs N1 debate

[paradox]

Hey guys, i'm a noob here on the site. I've lurked for long enough before joining. no need to go into personal detail about me. just figured i'd throw this out there



As a previous user of the iPhone, and a current user of the Nexus One, I feel that I can provide a good unbiased point of view to the debate. I’m no fan-boy to either phone, and they are both great phones. I want to put an argument to each side. I’m not trying to make an end all argument by any means, but I will provide from both sides.

Processing speed: Nexus One
This can be debatable; however I noticed that when the iPhone is loaded up with apps, its performance suffers. It lags when opening apps. I’ve got comparable amount of apps on the Nexus and it’s quicker to load them up.
Apps: iPhone
Yes, the iPhone has to win this one. 100,000+ apps in the app store. More than half, however, are garbage. The Android Marketplace is new and up and coming so I feel, in another year it will be comparable. Maybe not by amount of apps, but quality of apps it should be a closer competition.
Keyboard: iPhone
I’m going to go with the iPhone. That was one thing I noticed immediately when I switched phones. Apples keyboard design was much easier to text on than the Nexus, even with “Better Keyboard”. I think it has more to do with screen width, not so much with sensitivity. Bigger buttons on the iPhone is an advantage.
OS Design: Nexus One
Android 2.1 is a beautiful operating system, and outstandingly user friendly. Apple has a great interface, but it’s become a bit dated and just lacks the appeal that 2.1 possesses.
Phone Design: Nexus One
Both phones are sleek, weigh about the same, have large visible screen, but palm of the hand feel, the visual aesthetics of the Nexus is wonderful. My only gripe is the track ball. WTF purpose does it serve?
Battery Life: iPhone
I’m a pretty heavy user of my phone on a daily basis. I consistently got my iPhone down to 20% or less from 0600 when take it off the charger til about 1700 when I get home. I’ve noticed that I need to make a conscious effort to use it less, so that I don’t have a dead phone by the time I get home. Luckily I have a spare charger at work.
Screen Output: Nexus One
AMOLED. Nuff said. The screen can be difficult to see outside in sunlight, in fact impossible to see outside… turn up the brightness. Congratulations. Fixed. Your welcome.
Camera: Nexus One
We’ve all seen the pictures an iPhone takes. I don’t need to go into detail.
Reception: N/A
I can’t honestly validate a winner here since I’m able to utilize the Nexus One’s 3g on T-Mobile, whereas with the JailBroken iPhone I was only able to painfully access EDGE.
Support: N/A
I said non applicable because with the Nexus, you can’t walk into T-Mobile with a problem, which is a bit of a pain in the ass honestly. But then again, with my JailBroken/unlocked iPhone, I couldn’t do it either. Unless I put it back to apple spec which meant rendering it useless anyways.

So you see, I haven’t picked a clear winner and I don’t intend to. I just put my opinion on several debated topics between the phones. It covers what it needs to cover. Which is all I intended to do in the first place.


Paradox

 

[ap3604]

Battery Life: iPhone
I

 

[sourmilk]

only using edge on a 3g phone, like you did with your previous phone, will save a lot of battery life.
set the n1 to "use only 2g networks" and you should get extended battery life.

 

[inspiron41]

only using edge on a 3g phone, like you did with your previous phone, will save a lot of battery life.
set the n1 to "use only 2g networks" and you should get extended battery life.

actually that's a good suggestion. I like to see how the Nexus One fairs when it's on edge to iphone on edge, since u cant use 3G with tmobile with the iphone. My guess only a few more minutes or an hour more of battery life. but i guess that depends on how much you use your phone.

 

[|mpulse]

Nexus One>>>iPhone on battery life for the simple fact that I can carry a $25 spare battery in my pocket to last me all day of power use.

Beat me to it! I also like the Nexus Ones Powerstrip which provides the option to easily enable and/or disable power heavy services.

I was an iPhone user for almost three years and am LOVING Android (just got it this week!), especially the batter option!

So lame... See what the iPhone did to so many of us! LOL... I can't believe I'm raving about a feature that EVERY OTHER PHONE supports out-of-the-box!

 

[grainysand]

Keyboard: iPhone
I

 

[Lucan]

I'm sure I've started to sound like I'm a shareholder in their company or something, but try Swype. Bigger buttons, smaller buttons, all of this becomes irrelevant. You'll type faaaast. I can actually reply to IMs nearly at the speed I do on a PC.

But with the N1, don't you lose the voice to text option with Swype?

 

[grainysand]

Oh., you can still voice to text in navigation and search, but yeah, swype doesn't have a voice button. I don't use the feature much, though, due to having a non-standard accent.Tr

 

[Ayrow]

Great review. Thanks.

Now, if VZW would just get this damn phone on their network.

 

[150_cav]

YouTube - Nexus vs unlocked iPhone 3gs

sorry idk how to embed youtube videos on here but that is my video on a unlock and jailbroken iphone 3gs and a stock nexus one, everything is as it happened we didn't purposely make the iphone look like crap it just happened

 

[150_cav]

YouTube - Nexus vs unlocked iPhone 3gs

sorry idk how to embed youtube videos on here but that is my video on a unlock and jailbroken iphone 3gs and a stock nexus one, everything is as it happened we didn't purposely make the iphone look like crap it just happened

SWEET I EMBEDED IT LOL, i didn't know it was that easy
sorry bit of a noob myself

 

[150_cav]

but seriously, when you think about that fact that the nexus one has a ton more hardware and the iphone still at least keeps up that says alot about the iphone os and how the android os needs to improve

even if i was given an iphone i would still use android but thats cuz i love the layout and navigation more

but if the iphone (4g or hd or whatever) get the A4 chip from the ipad (made by samsung designed by apple) if the next iphone gets it, it will be extremely fast but too fast for at&t 3g but not too fast for Verizon LTE, hint hint

 

[Teknologic]

You have a point there cav, but I don't think the android OS will be able to improve by learning from the iPhone OS. I think the main reason the iPhone OS will probably always be a bit faster then android is because of the openness the android platform provides. You're practically able to use your phone like a computer. While apple still retains its closed attitude, but by doing so it has alot more control over how the OS will run exactly.

 

[grainysand]

but seriously, when you think about that fact that the nexus one has a ton more hardware and the iphone still at least keeps up that says alot about the iphone os and how the android os needs to improve

Keep up in what way? Performance? A phone running one single (1) task at a time will of course perform smoother than one that's running multiple processes. Apps? Android's lower number of available apps isn't an OS flaw. Simplicity? Android is complex and encourages power users; the iPhone OS has one button, one task, and no customization at all (jailbreaking doesn't count).

 

[ccoager]

Battery Life - Nexus One
I gotta disagree with this one. The Nexus One battery is replaceable, meaning you can carry multiple batteries with you or just replace it with a large 3200mAh from Seidio.

Multitasking - Nexus One
iPhone can't do "real" multitasking, Android can. However there will be some future iPhone update to add support but the current iPhone 3GS won't multitask well with its current hardware.

Carriers - Nexus One
Nexus One currently supports T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon in the near future so you have more choices available. You're stuck on AT&T with the iPhone at the moment.

Storage - Nexus One
Nexus One supports SD cards, iPhone doesn't.

Flash - Nexus One
Supported on the Nexus One, iPhone will never support flash.

Unlocked Phone - Nexus One
The Nexus One is sold unlocked while the iPhone has features locked down.

Free Texting - Nexus One
With Google Voice integrated into Android, you have free texting. Apple has rejected the Google Voice application. While you could use the mobile version of Google Voice on the iPhone, it doesn't integrate at all.

Apps - Android
I agree with iPhone having more apps available, but that will change in the future. With more phones and networks available for android, more users means more developers means bigger growth. Plus android apps are written in java, lots of people know java. Also, no app approval holding back Android development. When Apple blocks app from being approved or delay them, it pisses off consumers and developers which hurts them in the long run.

 

[150_cav]

You have a point there cav, but I don't think the android OS will be able to improve by learning from the iPhone OS. I think the main reason the iPhone OS will probably always be a bit faster then android is because of the openness the android platform provides. You're practically able to use your phone like a computer. While apple still retains its closed attitude, but by doing so it has alot more control over how the OS will run exactly.

true ture
that was the downfall of winmo before 7, there was too many differnet types of phones, different processors, screen size and resolution, some had keyboards, different UI, too many options

i don't think it will be the downfall of android but if anything is it will be that

 

[ParishyM]

as for multitasking, can you text, mms, and use other apps during a phone call ?

 

[150_cav]

Keep up in what way? Performance? A phone running one single (1) task at a time will of course perform smoother than one that's running multiple processes. Apps? Android's lower number of available apps isn't an OS flaw. Simplicity? Android is complex and encourages power users; the iPhone OS has one button, one task, and no customization at all (jailbreaking doesn't count).

customizing isn't what we are talking about, we are talking about speed and the iphone actually does do some multitasking but you're right not as much as android and i'm not compairing app store to market place (hate the app store)

and the iphone has more than one button but i get what youre saying, the menu button is a huge thing for android

 

[150_cav]

as for multitasking, can you text, mms, and use other apps during a phone call ?

yes, even windows moblie can AS LONG as you are on a gsm network AKA not sprint or verizon

the phone call and sending texts and being on the web has nothing to do with android vs iphone, it's in the network

 

[BillOwnz]

I am surprised you rated the 3gs with better battery life. I had a jail broken 3gs on ATT and I would have 10% remaining after an honest days use. With my nexus (att 3g version) I manage to finish within yellow levels. Although similar, I would rate the N1 slightly better.

On second thought... You had tmobile and edge, that would explain your battery savings. 3g is known for killing battery.