iPhone 5 vs Nexus 4

Having been an Android blogger for 6 months I’ve come to realise how “dedicated” fans of both Android and iOS can be.

I have come to the conclusion that there is little point trying to convert fans of either persuasion, I guess we all have our own preferences.  No one product is going to be all things to all people.

However as an Android blogger I believe it’s in my remit to stick up for Android and champion it as a credible choice for buyers.

It’s not perfect, but neither is Apple’s iOS, and more and more people are waking up to the fact that there is a credible alternative.

Common Android vs iOS Myths

The prompt for this post is actually an article written by an iOS developer and long term Apple fan who has made the switch to the Nexus 4 phone.

• You can read his article here.

There are some great points in his post that I want to highlight:

First of all, a common criticism of Android is the app ecosystem.  Yes, we know the iPhone came first, we know the iPad has had a big jump start on the Nexus 7, but why would anyone think this lead wouldn’t be eroded in time?

The Facebook app is identical in terms of look and feel and features. As a plus, it has better cross-app integration. The Google+ app is better on Android, but that’s to be expected. Flipboard is fantastic on Android, plus better integration. The same is true for Pulse News. The list goes on: Instagram, Path, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Quora, Pocket, Amazon Kindle, Spotify, Shazam and Google Talk. They are all great on Android. Plus better integration. Plus home screen widgets.

Next point, Apple has a reputation for being super user friendly and providing the best user experience.  But hold on, hasn’t Google built a billion pound empire off the back of one of the simplest and easy to use sites in the world.  Why wouldn’t the Google engineers be able to come up with some cool stuff for their mobile OS?  Time for another quote.

In fact, I think iOS has reached a point where usability starts to significantly decrease due to the many workarounds that Apple has introduced. All of these just to prevent exposing a paradigm like a file system or allowing apps to securely talk to each others. There is a better way of doing this. Apples knows about it but simply keeps ignoring the issues.

And the final one to mention, I often hear that Android is slow and a bit rubbish but this is definitely not the case with the current offering.  If you get the chance to use a Nexus 4 you’ll be blown away.

I’d say both platforms are at least even. In some cases, Android even feels a bit ahead of iOS 6. I especially got this impression when it comes to rapidly switching between apps – which I constantly do now – and scrolling through a huge number of more complex content.

The article makes a tonne of other points, go and have a good read through.

Debate Rages On

Like I said, at the end of the day I think it’s really a case of each to their own.  In the context of this blog I will champion the Nexus range but in the grand scheme of things I don’t really mind what phone or tablet people buy (my wider family are all big Apple consumers and I still love them!).

For an idea of how passionate some people are have a look through the comments in the article.  You’ll see the old favourites:

• Did Apple invent the phone? The tablet?  The MP3 player?
• Did Android rip off iOS?  Has iOS ripped off Android?  Which inevitably leads to – who invented Windows?
• Is Jail breaking an iPhone cheating?
• etc

But either way, any journalist who states that iOS is more intuitive or faster in their review better have some hard examples to back up their claims.  If not, it’s time to change your news source!