iPhone 4s and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus

With this blog, we introduce the two newest members of our ABT staff, Mario Vasquez and Ivan Tenorio , who will be heading up our “Mobile corner” as Contributing Editors.  Mario (aka ZeroEnigma) and Ivan (aka punkpwnzor) will help ABT with mobile platforms.  This is the first of many of their blogs and articles

We also welcome your comments on these blogs and articles and all of our staff are ready to serve you. Also, please remember that each editor speaks his own mind and is responsible for what they write. There is no ABT site “point of view”.

Mark Poppin,

Senior ABT editor

The iPhone 4s vs. the Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Cell phones have come far although some say without the iPhone, the “smartphone revolution” would have never happened.  The first smartphone was introduced as a concept device in 1992, as the IBM Simon. The original smartphones were combinations of features everyone wanted, being a personal data assistant combined with telephone use.  Apple and Samsung are two major smartphone manufacturers today both with their own diverse user interface that make them attractive to a certain demographic.

Android or IOS? – that is the raging question.  Just this past Superbowl Sunday, we saw yet another Samsung commercial bashing Apple for its latest release; pointing out its lack of an overall refresh, while Samsung toted their new beast of a phone the Samsung Note, with a whopping (maybe too big?) 5.3 inch display.

Apple and Steve Jobs have created a legacy of patent lawsuits against the world of Android, creating jokes that Apple will sue Samsung for having any 3.5 inch black phone that has a screen.  Just use a Google search and type in Patent lawsuits by Apple and you will see the sheer amount of them occurring.  For every Android device Samsung sells it must pay $10-15 per device to Microsoft in “licensing costs”.  Amidst all this, Samsung creates the iPhone 4s processor while it collaborates with Google in creating its newest flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.  In Q4 2011, Apple shipped 37.4 million iPhones.  In comparison, Samsung shipped roughly 35 million smartphones.

Consumers eat these devices up but why choose one over the other?

For some Specs:

The iPhone 4s vs. the Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Design

Apple wins, hands down. Glass and steel win over plastic and the typical feel that you get from a Samsung device. Although nice and light, the iPhone design just flies past the Nexus.

User Interface (U.I.)

User Interface is the feature that advertises to the consumer or potential customer and both of these phones have their own style of interface. Look at Path – a social network with a horrible UI and horrible delivery that started and then failed when it first released – now has had a major upgrade to a fantastic UI design and features and it’s an up and coming social offering.

The newest Android update, Ice Cream Sandwich, is based on completely revamping your experience to make it beautiful, intuitive, easy, and fun!  Oh and we finally get hardware acceleration for multi-core devices. All these features are what Jobs and Apple based the original iPhone on – simplicity and beauty.

The Android U.I. once mastered is an overall better experience than that of iOS.  The sheer amount that you can do on your home screen to make it your own and to stand out is the best part of Android. While iOS has a beautiful interface, it needs a change and that change you can get whenever you want in the form of custom icons, widgets, etc., out of the box with the Nexus.

All these features are what Jobs and Apple based the original iPhone on, and now these two can compete.

Apple’s UI has remained relatively unchanged since the iPhone’s birth back in June 2007.  It features nice, clear icons, well-designed folders and so on. All of these features are finally in Google’s latest Android update to Ice cream sandwich. Both companies have taken from each other and this time Apple took what Android did well in its drop-down notification bar and has made it better. By separating each apps notification into a well-designed and easier to use method than Android’s here-you-go style.

Push-Notifications: Both have them, who implements them better? Android

Let’s say you’re browsing the web and your friend messages you. A non-intrusive notification on the top of your screen will appear notifying you and Android will show your message from start to finish on top of your screen. iOS 5 will allow you to swipe clear them after you’ve seen them, but if you’re in a game in Android you will have to swipe down the notification bar if it’s even showing, and then clear the notification or reply if you want.

How does Android win? Well it doesn’t in stock, but a messaging app like Handcent SMS or GO SMS will allow you to receive a complete popup allowing you to instantly reply and continue with your current task. Does the need to customize Android’s stock interface hurt it? Or is the simple fact that Android isn’t so tightly locked down like iOS is a positive? Should the stock experience for the average consumer be the absolute best?

(source:mashable)

(source:zimguardian)

Keyboards

Another feature that is impressive, accurate, and for the most part excellent, are the keyboards on both devices. Since Gingerbread, Google has stepped up their stock keyboard experience by focusing on issues with autocorrect and its copy-paste implementation. Which keyboard wins?

Well again, does the fact that I can pay to download Swiftkey x and totally destroy both of these keyboards with prediction technology and precision that is not offered stock, hurt the Nexus?  I think not.  Both keyboards have their faults, however, with the Nexus screen in portrait mode the keyboard is fantastic.

 

Cameras

One of the many functions of these phones involves the camera and how well it can take pictures. In this day and age, mobile phones are used more and more to take photos, and phones have the capability of taking pictures with extreme quality.

With the latest hardware update to the iPhone 4s’ eight megapixel optics, when taking a picture of an object, more ambient light is brought in for clearer and sharper images, thanks to its larger aperture and added fifth lens. Taking pictures is not the only feature this camera can do though, video capturing also can be done at 1080P.

The higher amount of pixels don’t necessarily mean quality pictures; the optics and sensor works in conjunction with the amount of pixels there are to determine the clarity of the picture. So having only a five megapixel camera that’s on the Galaxy Nexus means, less quality compared to the iPhone’s camera.

Still, the Nexus is a competing phone by looking at camera specifications as this phone can still record 1080p, has zero-shutterlag, offers panoramic photos, effects built in, and can be used by using only your smile to unlock your phone!  Either are great choices, but the iPhone wins in this section.

Menus and other parts of the overall experience

The Galaxy Nexus has similar features equal to the iPhone, but some unpleasant aspects of the user interface are in the settings. iOS cleaned up a lot of messy areas in the phone and made it “pretty.” While you can get used to finding things, one can sometimes look in more than one menu for what they need.

iOS is easy to use and a one stop shop for all your settings needs including every app on your phone. Android offers a unique customization level that you never see in iOS. Launchers, for example, allow you to have a completely different UI, gesture control of your phone, widgets, and more.  Replacement dialers, lock screens, messaging apps, nearly every aspect of your stock phone can be changed. Unless yours is jail broken, you’re stuck with what you have on iOS.

Siri

Siri is great, it actually does what you need it to do such as schedule a meeting.  Now do I see myself asking Siri where I can get my hair done in the middle of gym? No, but maybe in the future I will be allowed that freedom as more and more phones have their implementations of this – and trust me they are coming. Android for now has Vlingo, and although it does not come with a voice to reply, it has plenty of features and it works very well.  This is just one of many offerings on the Android market.  While there isn’t a baked-in implementation in Google’s OS yet, I can place my money on there being one as this concept becomes more widely used.

 Size

Another aspect when choosing a phone is size. The iPhone 4s is 4.5 inches high, 2.30 inches wide, and has a 3.5 inch display; this phone is relatively small and light weight. It feels perfect in the hand and your thumb can literally reach every corner of the phone, something the Galaxy Nexus cannot claim.The Galaxy is large, it has a 4.65 inch display, 5.33 inches high, and 2.67 inches wide, but watching media is superb on this large screen and messaging is excellent for people with large hands.

When taking the width and height of this phone into consideration, someone that has come from being an iPhone user, or any phone in that same approximate size, will have an awkward experience with the Galaxy Nexus. Or one would think that way, but the Galaxy phone is a perfect fit in ones hand as not only is it lightweight, it’s almost feels natural to hold.

One can be thrown aback by its size when compared to iPhone, but the Nexus is a great piece of technology to have in your hands (now if we could only get rid of that plastic material).

iTunes

Whether you use it for your personal music library the sheer dominance iTunes has over Android is embarrassing. Updates can be downloaded, music automatically synced over wifi, apps/photos/videos/podcast backed up and synced in one central location.  This is something the Android community desperately needs for whatever device you use.

One should spend less time tweaking their system and do other things, like enjoying an app.  iPhone has one source to go to and consume everything you need. Sure all things can be done on Android as well – but as easily and fun?  No.  You have to actually work and look for your entertainment on the Android market versus with iTunes. Google needs a central destination where users can plug in, or make it cloud-based.

One last thought

With the huge amount of market share that Android has when talking about physical devices in consumers hands,  why has there not been as many apps developed for its ecosystem?

–Mario Vasquez and Ivan Tenorio

 

Please join us in our Forums

Become a Fan on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

For the latest updates from ABT, please join our RSS News Feed

Join our Distributed Computing teams

• Folding@Home – Team AlienBabelTech – 164304
• SETI@Home – Team AlienBabelTech – 138705
• World Community Grid – Team AlienBabelTech