(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Hey guys, thought I would post a very in depth explanation of why I feel that Android at this point in time is superior to iOS. Although this is mostly opinion, this thread will use nothing but cold hard facts. I will not have an ounce of bias.

Let us begin:

Usability

There is no doubt about it. iOS is simple. A little too simple. Which can actually amount to some very large problems.

For instance, with a Android based phone (take the S3) the buttons will always be in the same place. There will not be any back buttons scattered about the screen. The button will remain the same at all times. With an iPhone, the single home button causes App developers to do two things:

- Put an back button (lets take the browser for example)
- Waste screen space (On a 3.5 inch phone it does matter)

Now these are all small things, however it does actually contribute to the overall simplicity of Android. Which is often overlooked in situations like this.

Another big thing to note: Google services. Honestly this is a big one nowadays. Everyone uses Google to do things. We all use YouTube, Gmail and Google itself. Not to mention GOOGLE MAPS.

Take YouTube or Google Maps for example, as these are two of the most widely used things.

On Android, the YouTube application is very robust, and contains many more things than the iPhone application does. Here is a screen shot comparing the two:
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I'll let you decide which one is better, but I have a hunch you'll pick Android.

Maps:

Both the Android and iPhone applications include the following things:

-Business listings
-Traffic Reporting
-Compass mode
-Street View
-Driving directions
-Public transport (Gone in iOS 6)

Both also save frequent and recent searches.

Here are things that Android has and iOS doesn't:

-True Navigation (Updates your next turn based on your current location)
-Offline Reliability (You can cache frequently used places so you don't need to jack up data charges)

Lastly, the Android variant has strong integration with Places pages and Hotspot recommendations. You also get access to Mobile labs features, which allows you to try out experimental new features before they are released to the public. Lastly, it has voice search capability.

So as we can see, Android is the clear winner in these two areas. And is definitely something to consider when purchasing that next phone.


Music and Video


Apple may be leading in the music industry, but there are key factors that people forget about Android phones.

1. No software is required to transfer music to your phone. Simply drag and drop. And you're done.
2. Android supports many more formats: MP3, AMR, WMD (, MIDI, WAV, OGG Vorbis, and M4A.
3. Android (depending on which phone) has expandable storage. Which allows you to hold basically infinitely many songs and movies, as you can place in a SD card.
4. Android has a choice of many music player. iPhone only supports one. (iPod)


But we cannot forget the simpleness of the iPhone in this category. The iPhone has iTunes. This allows you to purchase a vast amount of content directly on to your device. That is, if anyone still pays for them.

Oh, also the HTC One X has beats audio. Which is also a plus if you were planning to pick up that beast.

We'll call this round a draw. As both devices have a their pros and cons.


Expansion

There's no doubt about it. Everyone would like to hold HD videos on their phones, however most phones only come with 16Gb-64Gb of storage.

However most android phones have SD card capability which is a huge advantage and it allows you to hold much more than just 64Gb of stuff.

Also, the battery on some Android phones is replaceable. Which is a huge advantage under any circumstances.

There is no doubt about it. Android is clearly superior in this category.

Stability

Ok, this is where the hard core fanboyism comes along and ruins everything. This isn't something that can be backed up by facts. Oh wait:

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Yup, iOS crashes more than Android.

Although these pictures are from a few months back, they still provide a relatively decent explanation of crashes. Granted, Android and iOS both have applications that crash, and older versions of Android are known to crash. However these graphs don't lie. We'll cut Apple some slack though, ICS was not included in these graphs as it was not fully released yet. So we'll call it even at this point.


On the other side, we may have a slightly smoother device, however this is mainly due to the fact that iOS has NO widgets, NO customization. Try Jailbreaking and running a Winterboard theme and see how slow your iDevice gets.


No clear winner, however:

If you like a smooth and customizable device: Android

If you like ultra smooth and that's it (doesn't mean apps or anything launch faster): iOS


Here are some other videos that compare Android vs. iOS



It's a 5 part video. Watch the whole thing.

Multisking

Android does real multitasking, while iOS does "multitasking"

On Android, apps are free to do their thing, for example download things without being interrupted. On iOS if you switch to another app, the app you were on beforehand is frozen.

This is problematic in certain situations. For eg. Facebook.

On an iPhone you would need to leave your Facebook app paused, and when you would come back to it, it would still have the old news feed loaded. Meaning you would have to refresh it over again in order to see your most recent news.

Small things like this really amount to an amazing user experience. At the end of the day, Android is just as simple and easy to use as iOS.


Choice:


On Android you are free to chose whatever device you wish. Hardware keyboard, 4G LTE, expandable storage.

Some devices have mini HDMI etc.

With Apple, you get the same device, with not that much meat on it.



Last but not least: (Granted Flash is dead, so don't bother responding about that)





These are just some of the many reasons I will be most likely picking up an S3 when it hits the shelves in Canada.

"Included in Maps are turn-by-turn directions that work with Siri, local search with 100 million business listings from around the world, Yelp integration, a free crowd-sourced traffic service, and 3D mapping with a Google Earth-like feature called 'Flyover'." This also powered by TomTom btw. Maps can't do this either.

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Uhh what's your point. Android has every single one of these features. Except flyover. Which isn't useful to anyone really. There's Google earth and streetview, which can actually be useful.

I like that they openly admitted that it was a Google-like feature.

And I just love how you're such an Android fanyboy yet you have an iPhone. I'm amazed. Lean the facts kid

I wrote this thread for a reason. It was explaining why I am switching. Please point out the facts that I am missing. "Kid".

1) Apple was first, therefore. They created more than half of what Android "already has."

2) Who needs an overpowered phone with a quad-core? Dual-Core and Single-Cores are enough, hell. My old PowerBook can still do all the things I do daily on my MacBook.

3) Read for yourself You must login or register to view this content.

4) All iOS devices use the same charger and cables, so you don't have to worry about finding that certain charger or when you switch phone. ou won't have to buy another. Ex. Switching to 4S/5 from 4.

I could keep going on but I'm busy and can't think of any off the top of my head "kid."

1) Apple was not first in the Mobile OS platform. Palm and Windows were first. And if you want to play the "Who was first game" lets start.

Personal Computer: Unix beat both Windows and Mac

Tablet: Although there were some other tablet concepts etc. Microsoft made a few stylus based ones in the early 2000's I believe.

Phone: See note one. RIM and other companies were already well established before Apple. They were not the first.

There's others, but I can't remember them off the top of my head and I can't be bothered to look them up.

2) Who wouldn't want a quad core phone with better battery life than the iPhone? I want a powerful and capable phone with 2GB of RAM (4x the amount a 4s has) and a dual core ( it's actually a dual core since the North American version get's a LTE friendly CPU) makes it a very powerful device. Obviously you must use your PowerBook for e-mail, because I would love to do more with my phone.

3) Did you even read what it said? It's obvious that he just want's people to buy iPhones to make more money. It's like asking Steve Jobs whether he prefers an iPhone or an Android.

4) Most (if not all) android devices have mini USB chargers. Oh and the New iPhone is rumored to have a smaller connector, they will most likely sell an adapter for $29.99 and force more people to buy them in order to make even more money. How's that for fragmentation.

1) I don't care

2) You don't need a Quad-Core in a phone, that's way overpowering :dumb: We don't want phone turning into laptops, that's what laptops are for :dumb: The next iPhone will have a Quad-Core, I'm going to laugh so hard if Android comes out with a 6-core, because that'd be completely useless. Its like having an 8-Core processor in a desktop but only using it for the internet :dumb:

I am a mobile developer, and I create apps for both iOS and Android, and as a consequence I have come to learn both operating systems very well. I very, very slightly prefer iOS, simply because of slicker user experience. Things are simpler, slightly better designed, animations are smoother. iOS allows me to make slicker, better performing apps than Android. There's just an indescribable level of polish to iOS which is slightly lacking on Android. On the other hand, I really appreciate the freedom that Android gives you and the richer feature set. On iOS, iTunes and the process of adding music, videos and photos makes me want to self harm. But user experience slightly tips it over the edge for me.

Lol yeah right. Turn by turn navigation has been on Android for a long time now. Backgrounds weren't introduced until iOS 4. My mom's T-Mobile flip-phone had background picture capabilities since 2003 :dumb: Apple's version of multitasking is not true multitasking, and once again, Android has had this for a really long time, and it wasn't introduced to iPhones until iOS 4. Honestly, all Apple really does is take features other phones have had for years and add maybe 1 or 2 useless features (Flyover, just an example), and it makes consumers say, "Let's buy that." Apple fanboys are just to stubborn to accept it. And before you say I don't know what I'm talking about, I've had an iPhone for 2.5 years, an Android for two years (and is my current phone), and currentley have an iPad.

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A lot of Android phones come with Tom Tom built in. No one is forced to use Maps.