iPhone 4 vs. Nexus One

[gunetilake]

What tests?

The browser on the Nexus One at Android 2.1 is faster than the iPhone 4. The browser on the Nexus One at Android 2.2 is even faster still. Faster.

Oh, it has some perks too. Enhance the browser with some add on alternatives, such as Skyfire, Dolphin, Flash, etc,. and you can do a lot more things.

Like watch Flash videos on any web page.

Like the ability to share pages and links to Twitter and Facebook directly (Dolphin).

Like being able to download things and stuff.

Like having tabs and all.

A vastly more complete PC like experience and freedom.

I laugh at what you mean by "UI interaction". Do you know that Android can save contact numbers into the homescreen? Do you know how fast I can call friends with my Android that way vs. an iPhone? Want to count the keystrokes needed to access a telephone number shortcut on the homescreen?

What about swiping to access this and that? I see a message on my notification bar that is a Twitter reply, I click on that message, and wallah, it opens the message directly with the app. I don't have to swipe screens and launch Tweetie to get to that message.

As a matter of fact, I may not need to launch a Twitter app at all to read the messages. An onscreen widget would have displayed such right there on the screen.

Fully polished product? You call losing signal bars when holding a fully polished product? I never experienced that on a single Android phone. You call issues on the proximity sensor a fully polished product? All the stories of cracked phones that fall on the floor, a polished product?

Polish? You call that iOS4 multitasking polished? How many strokes does it take to kill 10 apps on the tasking bar? With Android's Advanced Task Manager I can kill 50 in a single press of the button. Whatever deficiencies Android has, its more than compensated by apps that are allowed to creatively enhance the core functionality. Cant do that on iOS4.

[ard16]

I LOVE the Nexus One, but i hate to have to juggle around with a task manager. Oh, and battery life is a no brainer. I just hit 4% after not charging my iPhone since yesterday at 6am (its now 8pm the next day. If the nexus was polished enough to not have to worry about managing tasks, and the battery live was even 75% of what iPhone 4 has, i would drop apple like a bad habbit. I still question myself if i should trade my iPhone for a Nexus almost daily tho.

[PackFan13]

Actually, Google advises against Task Managers. Android efficiently manages all tasks on its own and it was improved moreso with Eclair. Apps share common processes and so it may look like the app is being launched but it actually is just sitting there not taking up any processing power. In fact, running a task manager uses up more battery as it has to constantly monitor the apps and killing the apps takes more processing power every time you run it than to let them idle. Task Managers may also make the phone unstable by killing essential system processes. Eclair and onwards has an app manager for the purpose of killing apps that don't close properly if needed. But all in all you shouldn't be hassling with a task manager unless you have an app that crashed.

http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

[Dak K]

To each his own. To me, every few days I visit XDA forum and there is always a new improvement on N1 Rom for me to flash. Froyo on N1 is fast, wait until you try different custom Roms. Even faster than the stock Google's Froyo.

Regarding the trackball on N1, yes...it does feel kindda pointless to have the trackball. Most of the time i don't even notice/or use it. However, it function very well if you need it....oh wait...The trackball actually Flash Green when i have email, Red when i miss a call, Blue when there a text....etc...and i don't even have to turn on the phone to check. Now lets see if the Iphone4 has that kind of flash notifications.

[McAtheist..]

Also one more note about the battery on the Nexus One. I personally don't have a Nexus One but reading about it from others who have it. They're getting the same battery life as the iPhone 3GS which is about a whole day on normal use. So I'm not exactly sure how that's bad for battery life. You can probably make that argument for an HTC Evo but even then people who cycled their batteries are getting crazy battery life (think 30+ hours) on their phones which you can read about in the HTC Facebook discussion group:


http://www.facebook.com/evophone?ref=ts#!/evophone?v=app_2373072738&ref=ts


On my Google Ion I can get anywhere from 1-2 days of moderate phone use (1-2 hrs) with heavy wifi surfing (5-6 hrs) without having to cycle the battery. (Oh and my phone is overclocked to 528 Mhz which is a lot more than stock.) And its been getting this type of battery life from the first day I owned it. So it definitely comes down to how you use the phone. The people who are getting crappy battery life are probably the ones running their task killers every 15 mins, leaving their brightness high, syncing on, and gps on as the phone comes with those on from the get go. Just my .02 cents.

[NewOwner]

Well now that I've used both the 3gs and the Nexus One (Both on AT&T) I can weigh in and give my opinion. The nexus one has a bigger screen, a faster processor, an more open OS, better camera, more opportunity to mod, faster browser, multitasking, along with much more. On paper it should be the better phone by far, but is it...absolutely not.

While the Nexus excels in many areas, it fails in some of the most simple ones which make it a pain to use and a difficult phone to live with. First the battery life is terrible. I'm coming from an iphone which has mediocre battery life so my standards arent too high, but the nexus one couldnt even last an entire day with light to moderate use. I turned the brightness down, turned off interactive wallpapers, forced 2g etc and still couldnt get a full days use out of the phone. It also charges incredible slowly.

The keyboard is also not nearly as smooth as the one on the iphone. I was running the official froyo 2.2 on my nexus on every once in a while I would still get some keyboard lag. The spellcheck/word replacement on the nexus is inferior to the iphones and often times it would incorrectly change one of my words.

Browsing on the nexus is definitely quicker, but the problems with the keyboard make typing a chore and in general the browsers arent as easy to navigate as safari. Especially because on the nexus you need to use a combo of the 4 buttons on the bottom with the touch screen.

Multitasking is great and there are times when I miss it on my iPhone, but on the Nexus one and all other powerful android phones(evo 4g, droid x etc) is that it burns up battery life on phones that already have weak batteries. I tried not using an app killer as suggested in previous posts, and I tried using one and neither improved the battery life. Multitasking isnt useful when you're running out of battery at 2pm everyday.

I have more minor gripes, but those were the main few I encountered. Don't get me wrong I loved the Nexus. I used the mobile hotspot which worked fantastically and I loved the ability to mod the phone. But the iPhone is simply more polished and more consistent. Once the iPhone 4's antenna problems are solved and a jailbreak is released for it, it will become the most complete phone on the market.

[dbzgalaxy]

Just going off the tests of the N1 vs. 3GS the 3GS consistenly beat it out in graphix and 3D rendering. iPhone 4 is obviously faster so naturally would be even faster. What I mean by UI interaction is how fast the phone's os reacts to your touch,swipes and scrolls. The iPhone is just faster/smoother.\

As far as the browser goes. You can list all the features you want I've remember when the Symbian nokia people made the same arguments in the end most would agree the iPhone browser is still BETTER. Even they do now. And none of the 3rd party browsers you mention can match safari's pinch to zoom ease and accuracy of its tap to zoom features. It just renders and operates in a superior fashion to any browser out there. PERIOD.

And yes the iPhone 4 like it or not is an extremely polished device compared to the n1. The swiping across screens is smoother, scrolling is more fluid, menu transitions are nicer, the settings menus are more visually apealing as opposed to the text based android menus. Also the touchscreen is more responsive and dosen't have all the issues the n1 suffers from which are well documented. Not to mention how bad the amoled screen from N1 performs in direct sunlight, its pretty unacceptable. And also if you remember/read up the Nexus was the original phone that "you couldn't hold a certain way" becuase it had such serious reception issues.

I don't have it out for Android in fact I'm seriously looking at the XT720 android phone. I just realize the the Android os still has a way to go be as smooth as iOS.

I'm done argueing. As I said before 3GS vs. N1 is a more fair comparison because iPhone 4 is just a much better device. It is undeniable when they are used side by side.

[xxxAuraxxx]

I think there must be something wrong with you're phone, I have experienced nothing of the sort you mention, no particularly hideous battery drain, no keyboard lag, and the apps will close themselves, there is no need for an app killer, Froyo takes care of it all by itself. I will agree that typing is not as good on the Nexus as it is on the iphone, but it takes getting used to. What gets me is that I have to jailbreak my iphone to get everything the Nexus one gives me already. I don't have to spend $20.00 buying an app to turn my phone in to a wifi hot spot, or to buy themes, although you can buy them on the android market. Personally, I am sick of the Apple 'sandbox' and want to break away from their exclusiveness, I want to embrace open source and will put up with the few idiosyncrasies that the Nexus has over the iphone 3GS or 4, because every phone has them.

[a_little_help_here]

Same, and ever since the latest 2.2 OTA download, my battery life has been awesome. I used to have to charge every day (unplug at 5pm, by 5am, it's like 64%), but since last update I only have to charge every two days. Go FROYO!

[JACKSPRACK]

Personally, it just depends what you like. in terms of media, iPhone wins hands down right now. There are apps that let you sync your itunes library with your Nexus One but it's still not the same as with the iPhone. As far a usability, customization, and openness, Nexus One is far ahead of the iPhone. It really just comes down to your personal preference in the end. For myself, Android does exactly what I need, and yes I have used an iPhone, several times actualyl and owning it twice, and Android is just a friendlier experience. It's best to say what you want in a phone and honeslty finding friends that have them so that you can see which suits you best



that's a personal taste really, just depends how you like it.