I’ve been a dedicated iPhone user for the last five years since importing and jailbreaking the original iPhone. Back then the iPhone was out-of-this-world, a crisp block of glass and metal, in contrast to the competing plastic counterparts.
In late 2012 I was yearning for a change from the current iPhone 5, a little bored with the lack of software innovation and a desire to take a peak at the competition. The Google Nexus line appeared to be the best way to experience the true ‘Google Android’ experience and the Nexus 4 looked to fit the bill perfectly. After several (failed) attempts to purchase through the Google Play store (why is international eCommerce for Google so hard?) I snapped one up from Hong Kong through eBay. Total cost ~ $400 NZD for a brand new 16GB unit.
This isn’t an attempt at a review, it is a few thoughts on the contrasts between Android and iOS software and hardware platforms in an attempt to understand where smartphone technology is headed.
Syncing
Apple has slowly transitioned away from a constant need to synchronise your iPhone with your computer to relying on iCloud for some information transfer. With the Nexus 4 this physical synchronisation is an abstract concept. Setup is complete by logging into Google accounts for email, contacts, calendar and bookmarks. Music transfer is pretty clever too - automatically synced through wifi to a Google Play account. This also means backups are done away with as most of the data is in the cloud already. Googles cloud-competencies is really paying dividends and Apple really needs to (properly) execute on iCloud to compete.
I do miss synchronising all my photos nicely with iPhoto (like a typical Mac user) but auto-uploading to Dropbox is actually incredibly cool.
I am a bit of a GMail fanatic and always appreciated the tagging, filtering and general user interface of the web application. I never had any qualms with the iOS Mail Application but after using the Android GMail Application I don’t think I can go back. The ability to tag, swipe and seamlessly manage mail is incredibly powerful. The iPhone GMail Application pales in comparison.
Camera
The iPhone 5 camera easily wins here. Almost every photo comes out perfectly on the iPhone 5. The Nexus 4 camera is slow and gaudily inconsistent. However the 360º panorama feature is pretty neat to be included out-of-the-box.
Multitasking
The dedicated button for switching between applications is really handy and makes usage incredibly efficient. The multi-pane concept of displaying states of applications is very intuitive and am glad to see Apple adopting this in iOS 7.
User Interface
95% of the user interface is on par with Apple iOS but the other 5% absolutely awful and incoherent. The lower quality-control for third party applications further hinders this, where menus are often hard to find and inconsistently placed between applications. There are moments of brilliance, such as the timer and clock which are beautiful and functional.
Widgets
How long will it take for iOS to get widgets on the lock screens? Having calendar and email summaries one swipe away is incredibly useful. There are some UI quirks (only one widget per panel on lock screen) and the setup is a pretty confusing. But all in all, it is an incredibly neat function
Google Now
THIS is the future and it is mighty impressive. Being able to pull up information based on your current location and calendar (ie. when do I leave for the airport? Is my flight on schedule? Do I need an umbrella?). Also voice recognition is top-notch and puts Siri to shame.
Notifications
Absolutely amazing. Clear (without gaudy skeumorphic textures) and easily quick review of information and management - intuitively zoom in and swipe away unwanted messages. The ability for entire messages to flash across the top bar is incredibly informative and the ability for all applications to show meaningful notification messages is awesome.
Physical Design
- Buttons
The lack of a physical home button is actually pretty noticeable - the home button of the iPhone is an excellent waypoint in judging the orientation of the iPhone. I also miss the physical aluminium buttons feel precise and robust compared with the plastic buttons on the Nexus.
- Screen Size
I thought the iPhone 5 screen size was perfect, however the additional width allowed by the Nexus 4 is incredibly valuable. The additional few pixels when reading, emailing and using applications is easily worth the extra bulk. The colours aren’t quite as crisp (or white) as the iPhone 5. The need for a tablet after having a 4” touchscreen in your pocket is definitely diminished.
Price
The $1100 premium price point of an iPhone 5 in New Zealand is definitely under threat with the Nexus 4 and other Android-based phones coming in at around $400. It is very interesting to see the market responding with TechCrunch reporting that the sales mix price is tending towards cheaper legacy iPhone models.
It is really disappointing that the phone is not easily accessible to purchase for New Zealanders from the likes of the Google Play Store. At a ~$400 price point this would be incredible but at the ~$700 retail prices faces a tough-sell against the well advertised Samsung Galaxy phones.
Conclusion
Incredibly excited about the future rivalry between Android and iOS. The innovation from Google is incredible and would
I have swopped back to an iPhone 5 (with iOS7 beta) but will be definitely looking out for a new Android phone. Apple and Google have two different ideologies in producing products, however for the average value-hungry consumer there is definitely less value in the iPhone product offering compared to last year.