iPhone 4 vs. ?

J

JBallaa

New member
Hardware wise my only requirement is that there be no physical keyboard.

What's way more important for me is the OS. I haven't tried iOS4 but I'm sure it's more of the same. I like the idea of Android, but it seems like manufacturers still have a lot of control over the UI. How do you know if you're getting the most out of it? BB is functional but I don't need a keyboard. And then there's Windows 7 which I don't know a lot about.

All I need are really solid stock apps. Good (= threaded) texting and mail, calendar, etc. If there's a decent variety of free (legal or not) utilities and high quality gaming that's a plus.

I'm definitely not an Apple person but I've been happy enough with the 3GS that I haven't kept up with what's out there. The closest I've seen is the Samsung Captivate/Vibrant. Any GSM network, Canada or USA is fine.
 
I would throw the Nexus One in there as well, but you've nailed it with the Samsung Captivate/Vibrant, no other phone I have seen lately comes close to the iPhone 4 in terms of specs, then the Samsung models. I currently have a Nexus One and an iPhone 4, I thought i was done with the iPhone when I dumped my 3GS to get the Nexus One, but the iPhone 4 is winning me back. My iPhone 4 is JB so I am loving that, there are things I miss about the Nexus One, but that was not your question, so I won't stray off topic.
 
In some ways, manufacturer UIs do improve over the stock variety, such as the Samsung and HTC UIs over Android. The stock Android UI is nice, on both 2.1 and even better on 2.2. But the UI layers do add superb conveniences.

For example,

The lockscreen on the Samsung Galaxy S can be unlocked by a swipe on any direction, instead of just left to right on the button. You can also press any part of the screen to slide it in any direction. The lockscreen is also transparent, which means you can see the wallpaper, or better yet, the living wallpaper behind it. I got a circuit board living wallpaper, which has glowing tracers, pulsating diodes and rotating fans, and from a distance, I look like I'm holding a live circuit board.

The lockscreen on the Galaxy S will not only notify you of new SMS and email messages, but lets you interact with them directly without unlocking. Again, no lockscreen does this, except a third party app on Android (GOTO).

Another neat improvement ir on the Galaxy S is that Wifi, Bluetooth, Silence and Vibration settings are now accessible on the notification bar. So you need wifi and its not turned on? You don't need to exit the app you're in, just pull down the bar and activate wifi.

Some of the built in widgets on the Galaxy S are also outstanding, the weather app clock, the stock app-clock, the calendar clock app, Daily Briefings, Social Updates.

HTC Sense has awesome widgets, like FriendStream, but take a look at its RSS News widget and app, which beats almost all standup RSS apps I've seen. The centerpiece of HTC Sense is the fantastic Caller. This UI has some valuable nuances, such as the ability to turn data on and off, useful for data and battery rationing, by pressing the power button and the pop up menu comes up. Very very convenient if you're traveling.

An important difference between the UIs over the standard UI is that they have up to 7 screens, even when HTC Sense was on Android 1.5 (default 3 screens). To jump from one screen to another, you can pinch the screen on HTC Sense, and wallah, you get a view with all seven screens. Pressing the screen you want takes you there. This multi screen behavior is being copied in the Launcher Pro UI app.

Generally, on Android 2.1, you want to see all five screens in miniature simultaneously, you have to press longer on the dots on the lower corners of the screen. Your view is like five miniature screens all displayed on the bottom in a row, whereas on HTC Sense, all seven screens displayed all around the screen with the home screen on the center. It creates a real awesome image.
 
Not at all. The Nexus One is still available internationally from distributors, shops, and carriers. My local Docomo Pacific carrier on this island got some under their glass cases. This means you will still examples being reverse imported by distributors and ebay shops into the US. Furthermore, the revised Nexus One will now feature the Sony Super LCD display instead of the Samsung AMOLED. The thing is, I'm not sure which version is the one coming in, the one with the 850 for AT&T or the 1700AWS for T-Mobile. You have to ask the importer for that one.

Inside the US, the Nexus One remains available only through Google's Android Developer program.
 
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You know I have both, for a while, now and I still don't know what's the best for me. I have my nexus overclocked, undervolted and running frozenyogurt ROM with swype. The battery life on that rom really gives the iPhone 4 a run for it's money, and if it falls short you can throw in a spare battery. The wireless bluetooh dock is also a nice one up for the nexus, and froyo with flash runs great. Really the main thing making me question getting rid of the iPhone 4 is the media, and games aspect. It's simply not there with android.
 
The sad thing is that we have to customize both phones to get them to have what we want, we have to jailbreak the iphone to get it to where we want it, and use customize ROMS on the android for the same reason, now its now quite fair to say that about both phones as in my opinion, we have to go further with the iPhone then the android, but you get my point. As far as the phone aspect goes, I would say that Nexus One edges over the iPhone4, the voice dialing for example, the iPhone can't touch how good the Nexus One is at this which is a shame. The visual alerts that you can activate with custom ROMS on the Nexus are great, no such thing on the iPhone. I will conceded that the one button/touch screen navigation of the iPhone works well and is easier then the android, but not my a lot. Apple owns the music/iTunes aspect, no argument there, although I think we can all agree we hate iTunes! I expect I'll be returning to android in the not too distant future, all I can say is Apple better really listen to their customers in terms of the features that they want in their mobile devices because android being open source is simply going to implement them and pull farther and farther ahead of Apple.
 
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I agree, I love android (part of me hopes to see froyo on iPhone 4) but camera quality really is a winner for me on the iPhone. I use the iPhone as my primary camera and it works perfect. However, everything else (excluding games and media) sways totally towards the nexus.
 
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