iPhone 4 and iOS vs. Android: hardware features - Page 2

What I don't get about this whole battery thing is the fact that very people use extra batteries and the few that do can more easily just plus one into the iPhone that suits your specific needs than the rigamarole of having to play musical-battery-bay with your extra battery bay with your phone, which cuts the power every time to change it, you can lose or break the cover, and you have to do it all over again just to charge them up. It's silliness.



In the number of megapixels, sure, it has more, but that doesn't mean much if it takes worse pictures.



Speaking of... Jobs mentioned the Phone 4 as having larger pixels at 1.75μm (compared to the EVO 4G's 1.1μm pixels) to grab more photons and a back-illuminated sensor (which the EVO 4G also has) for low light photos.

While these specific features for camera phone sensors were demoed from Micron Technologies back in 2007, Jobs played it up to appear as if the iPhone 4 was the first to have these features. That's fine, because the other handset vendors had long since dropped the ball by only marketing the number of pixels to consumers and now that the biggest competition are moving to the smaller pixel size it was a prime opportunity for Apple.

1.75μm is 59% larger pixles than 1.1μm, yet 8Mpx is 60% larger than 5Mpx so this is just marketing without actually being a bigger active-pixel sensor.

Does anyone know if these other devices have a book store?

Yes, that's why the EVO 4G also wins on weight on size. Those need to be green, too, because if it's bigger and heavier you're less likely to loss it.



Is that a hack or did it get v2.2 with 802.11n enabled? According to Engadget, which slams the iPhone 4 for such things as having a MicroSIM (as if that worse than MiniSIM) and gives Symbian a top grade for the AMOLED (laugh!), the EVO 4G only has 802.11b/g and notes the HTC HD 2 can get 802.11n with a hack.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/07/i...-plus-and-hd2/

Come on guys, i was expecting more from you !

The Shapdragon SoC is NOT a Cortex A8 design. It's similar to it, but it's NOT a real Cortex A8 CPU core. In fact, its CPU performance is somewhere between an ARM11 core and a Cortex A8 clock for clock.

In other words, at 1Ghz, the Cortex A8 in the iPhone 4 is faster than the 1Ghz Snapdragon.

Also, the PowerVR graphics core in the A4 is WAY more powerful than the super OLD ATI graphics chip in the Snapdragon SoC.

Adi

No phone wins in that category, they all have crappy sensors and lenses.

One ponders if the 8MP sensor of the EVO is physically bigger than the 5MP sensor of the iPhone 4 and if so is it only by the same proportions in which case it isn't better, it's the same.

One also ponders if the glass and focus apparatus in the EVO is better than the iPhone 4 which would have a greater impact on quality than more MP.

One also ponders the processor attached to the sensor, for example the Canon 5D2 has a much better sensor even though it has less pixels than some as such noise is significantly reduced.

I don't know if any of us are qualified to comment on if the camera in the EVO is better than the iPhone 4. A dumb ass marketing spec isn't the determination.

You may have missed it, but the reviewers turned off all of the common features, and simply left the phone in standby, and still only got 14.5 hours. One reviewer left twitter, and some other app and tried the same test and got 6 hours. Screen brightness wouldn't have much to do with such use cases. Bluetooth could, but unless they were actively using the connection, the drain should have been greatly reduced as it is on my iPhone. I get 3+ days of standby on my phone, and about 3.5 hours of actual usage. This is common usage for me (browsing, playing an occasional game, texting, and checking e-mail throughout the day).

Most reviews for HTC will all mention the poor battery life of the EVO. The folks who claim 24+ hours between charges are very few and far between, when the vast majority find it to be more along the lines of 6-12 hours total time (including standby). I'd suggest you follow the links from the reviewers comments linked in the article below. It has some very interesting feedback (including the user comments) as well as a variety of use cases. I suspect the multi-tasking, touted as such a must-have for that phone is a major contributor given the OS is the biggest drain on the battery, not the wireless radios, bluetooth, etc (excluding 4G which can kill it in as little as an hour or two by some reviewers).

http://www.switched.com/2010/06/04/s...npage_engadget

I've never heard of either of these things. Do you have any good links to share that breaks it down?

PS: Note that the iPad's A4 is 1GHz, while Apple has simply marketed the iPhone 4's SoC as A4, stating no clockspeed. While I think it's actually 1GHz I also think they have likely underclocked it to save power.



From my post above...

Speaking of... Jobs mentioned the Phone 4 as having larger pixels at 1.75μm (compared to the EVO 4G's 1.1μm pixels) to grab more photons and a back-illuminated sensor (which the EVO 4G also has) for low light photos.

While these specific features for camera phone sensors were demoed from Micron Technologies back in 2007, Jobs played it up to appear as if the iPhone 4 was the first to have these features. That's fine, because the other handset vendors had long since dropped the ball by only marketing the number of pixels to consumers and now that the biggest competition is moving to the smaller pixel size it was a prime opportunity for Apple.

1.75μm is 59% larger pixles than 1.1μm, yet 8Mpx is 60% larger than 5Mpx so this is just marketing without actually being a bigger active-pixel sensor.

who wants a FM radio? i mean come on. next youll be wanting VCR output. i have no idea what id do with HDMI output. transferring videos to cell phone is something you never see any one do. hooking your phone up to a tv? completely useless, when have you or any one else came across a moment when you said, damn if only i could hook my phone up to a tv. all i can say once the newness wears off the EVO and you get tired of the buggy ness and patch work of android... you'll be back, they always come back

The HTC EVO has an 8 MP rear camera, not 5 MP.

I have to agree there. With thousands of tunes on the device, and free services like Pandora, FM radio just seems...quaint. I haven't listened to a radio in years. I just don't see any value. I never understood the attempts to include the on MP3 players either. Ah well, to each his own.

As to the video out, I could see limited use cases, if you take into account the video recording capabilities. The article mentions it is only Video out though. I take it the HDMI connector doesn't support audio? I suspect that may be a mistake in the article. I agree it's a limited use feature though, as most will just sync the video back to their PC. I actually transfer a large number of movies to my phone as I watch them when I travel, but I have no use for piping the video out. It's more of a time waster when I'm on a plane for instance and the in-flight movie sucks

quite useless outside of this few towns in the states, iPhone sold globally, not in a niche market.

And both cameras are run by a shitty OS with buggy camera software, so 'tis a moot point, really.

Daniel -

Amen brother. I'll second the motion that AT&T be put in red on the chart, BTW. As long as Apple leaves the Verizon hole open, Android will continue to gain on the iPhone, no matter how good the hardware is. I switched to the Incredible in spite of how much I wanted the iPhone 4 after having been an original and then 3G iPhone user. I like making calls on my fancy new phone too, not just carrying around a 10 oz paperweight. Looking forward to your upcoming comparison of the service providers in this series.

Yoy dump, stupid blind asses. The IP4 is green because it can record 720p at 40FPS comparing to 20fps on Evo.

Look at the "Carrier" section of the chart. Orange and Softbank aren't on there. This is a US-focused article. 4G is niche? I wonder if you'll be saying that in June 2011 when the next iPhone comes out.

hilarious how they just sort of guessed at 20fps for the Evo's 720p video recorder. Where was that spec listed btw?

The threads I read at PPCGeeks have people complaining that they were getting ONLY 30.

Let's face it, the timing of this article is biased. I mean to compare Android with the newest iPhone in the month they launch and you expect what? If you compare 3GS with newest Android handsets four months ago, more things would turn to Android favors.
That said I wouldn't buy Android just for features and specs alone, and neither would I buy iPhone just for that. I would buy iPhone knowing Apple will take good care both in hardware and software aspects which should result in more satisfying product as a whole.
When Android has better touchscreen than iPhone and more and better software to choose from then we talk. Removable battery? FM radio? what a laugh!

Very good article! But what about Droid X?

I really like the chart; however, you said the iPhone 4 can capture 40fps (which would be awesome if true).

Well, all but the original Droid came out in the past couple months.

Bravo. You haven't owned an iPhone 4G.

I don't recall any Android phone selling 600,000 just on pre-order that we know of. I think Apple's sales for the iphone speak for themselves as far as competition. I don't think Apple even has to have better features, it is still gonna crash servers and break the internet every time a new iphone is released. When an HTC or Palm does that, then I'll think there might be some competition.

30fps not 40. The chart is wrong.

AppleInsider can provide good information. Good rumors. But it seems so increasingly biased towards Apple products that it loses all semblance of credibility. Even Apple's website is more balanced. If AppleInsider becomes nothing but an Apple cheerleader, it loses relevance and people will eventually ignore it as a source of news.
For the moment this isn't happening because not enough people recognize the inaccuracies presented. But this is a sure way to narrow down your audience.

The article is full of unsupported innuendo indicating the vast superiority of iPhone over Android while contradicting itself at the same time.

"Certainly, a three month cycle in new Android phones is going to be difficult to sustain."
Why? Its not one company doing it. Its practically every company other than Apple (HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Dell, Acer, Garmin, etc.). So the entire phone industry is incapable of producing a new phone every 3 months??? Have you looked at how often phones are introduced?

Making the case the iPhone is better by saying, "a feature only a few of the fanciest Android phones have."??? Doesn't that automatically mean that the best Android phones DO have the feature? How does that make the iPhone better? What... you want to compare the iPhone against the lowest Android phones? Are you calling Android phones 'fancy'? Compared to the iPhone???

The outrageous biased line, "The HTC Incredible only supports basic composite video output (putting it on the technical sophistication of the 5G iPod from 2005)". While you admit that this is also the same technology used in the iPhone 3GS which Apple still sells from 2010! Nice to cherry pick 2005 technology when complaining about Android but not the currently shipping iPhone!

And the table is just too funny. You could have made valid points, but degenerated into silliness.
For the camera, EVO wins on 8MP (vs 5mp), dual flash (vs. single), 1.3mp front facing camera (vs VGA), yet you somehow give the iPhone the win based on a higher frame rate. I've NEVER seen Apple publish 40fps. They say 30. I've never seen EVO claim 20fps. I've seen 24. Why stretch the truth if the truth would make the point anyway?

Display, you misstate the size of the iphone display as 3.7" when its 3.5" and give it the edge over the huge gorgeous 4.3" screen of the EVO. Why? Apparently because it has higher resolution than anyone can see. Hmmm...

You seriously give the video output win to the iphone when it doesn't even support HDMI? Hello?

Unique features? Never occurred to mention 4G coverage with up to 10x the speed of AT&T's network not to mention better 3G coverage than AT&T. Hmmm.

So many poor statements, "App Store, which actively discourages software theft. ". Like Android market encourages software theft? That is total BS. Android does protect developers against software theft. This is an unfounded untrue statement.

iOS4 abstracts hardware differences? Ya right. Thats why the screen had to double in size each way. Because there is no abstraction for the screen size. Android does handle varying screen sizes, resolutions and aspect ratios. Something that Apple has not yet built into their design but will eventually have to.

I should mention that I develop iPhone and Android applications and have owned an iPhone for 2 years.

Sure, but the news come before that.

I agree with the article in the majority.

One thing I don't agree with but will qualify is that Android can't keep up the pace of new handsets.

Actually it can.

Android only needs 4 hardware manufacturers to do so, which it already has. With 4 the platform can release a new phone every 3 months and still each manufacturer will be releasing only one a year.

This though does not mean much in real advancement. Though to the consumer it will appear as "new", "new", "new", "new".

The reality is that the manufacturers are simply releasing devices with whatever is coming out of the chip foundries, if a device comes out later, then the foundry provides them whatever is available then.

If Apple released in December instead of July then the iPhone 4 would be better specced, simply because of advances in the foundries, not advances from Apple.

To actually advance in a meaningful way companies need to engineer completely new concepts and a lot of that is actually manufacturing process. iPhone shows this for example with the new antenna system, more than being faster or having a better camera, or a gyro. The antenna system will be hard to duplicate without crossing IP.

The EVO is not an advancement in any way, the baseband chip isn't, that's just the next thing out of the chip fabs, its inevitable

Some pundits estimate approx 50% where upgrades of existing iphone users.
Not sure what it means, just pointing it out.

So the chart is for the purpose of comparing handsets in the market as defined most favorably for the iPhone? I didn't realize. Maybe there should have been a disclaimer...

Apple is also adding leading support for the latest OpenGL ES standards for graphics hardware acceleration in iOS 4 to enable game developers to create sophisticated titles that look great and perform well, while also incentivizing development of third party software using its high volume App Store, which actively discourages software theft.

Even if Google delivered the same software support to take full advantage of the fast GPU hardware its partners are including on their phones, it can't attract the attention of developers because its store is geared toward hobbyists, not commercial developers. In part, this is because Google does little to protect developers from having their software "openly" stolen by users who don't want to pay for content.


This is all well and good, but as presented, it is only the author's opinion. I'd like to see some citations to back up these statements... otherwise leave them out, as they show only the author's bias!

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And for all the blatant Apple fanboyism. What about listing Android's significant advantages over iPhone?

As a note, what iOS4 adds is what Android already had.
Folders: Been there since day one. And done better than iPhone. Without the silly limitation of 8 or so apps per folder.
Multitasking: True its not as controlled, but its more flexible and can and is used to enable many things that simply cannot be done on the iPhone.
Go back to where you left off after an ad. Big deal. Android has always worked this way with its innovative 'activity' approach. For the most part each screen is an activity. You can quickly move between apps and press the back button to get back to where you were. No new special case like with iOS4.

Some Android advantages:
- Browser: When I first tried Android, I thought the browser was worse than iPhone. But now that I've used it more, I realize its the opposite. Android somehow can reformat pages so that the text is displayed in large letters on the screen in a single column. On the iPhone you have to switch to landscape and pray thats big enough. Nothing else you can try. On Android it almost always works to make the text as big as you want without having to scroll horizontally. Its a HUGE improvement. Not little, HUGE.
- Calendar over the are sync with Google. Seriously Apple. Get with the times. To sync your iPhone calendar you have to get your Mac calendar up to date, then physically attach a 'cable!' to your iPhone, start up iTunes and wait for a long drawn out sync to occur. Get with the times. This is such an ancient concept. Talk about iPod 2005...
- Voice recognition: As part of the keyboard, anywhere you can type in text you can have Android recognize your voice. It works amazingly well. Almost eerie. I think it ties in with Google search and your location to best guess what you meant.
- Turn by turn navigation: Not an add on. Not a huge one time fee nor monthly fee. Free. Included. Awesome. Works. Just works great.
- Widgets: Apples home screen hasn't changed at all. Android allows active widgets which display useful information like weather or stock quotes etc. on the home screen without having to manually fire up a bunch of apps.
- Flash: I hate flash. But I must admit, it is really nice when I'm able to view at least part of a flash page on my HTC Incredible. On my iPhone I'm presented with nothing. No ability at all. Flash support can come in really handle.
- Lots of smaller features which can be debated. Including the ability to refer to files. Makes sharing data between applications easy without having to invent complex new systems and unusual usability.
- Believe it or not, Android manages apps for you to allow quick switching between apps without having to worry about whats running or not. Unlike the new iOS4 where the user has to manually worry about closing apps that are running. To be fair, this confuses many Android users and many insist on using task killers, but these are unnecessary by design and slow down the system.

So the operating system has tons of advantages even over iOS4.
Then the hardware is better. EVO is 4G. Higher resolution forward and back cameras. HDMI output. 4.3" HUGE screen while the phone is not much bigger that the iPhone.

Apple now has some serious competition. Time for them to get movin.

I believe this may be what they are referring to, specifically the return policy allows someone to purchase an app, and then immediately request a refund. They buy the app, back it up, request a refund, and then restore the app from backup.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/...f8ac88b3&hl=en

http://www.androidsoftwaredeveloper....apps-problems/

Yes, WiMAX is niche. As it looks now, I doubt the 2011 iPhone will have LTE. SoftBank, which is the primary carrier to benefit from the fifth and yet undisclosed UMTS band on the iPhone 4, isn't expected to have any phones with LTE until 2011 and I'm those aren't likely to be small or well optimized chips .

wow...spec sheet is wrong. EVO shoots 25fps in 720p and has an 8mp rear camera. and it can output any video on the phone via HDMI. Nice biased review.... Ive had 2 iphones, a pre, moment and now an evo. Im a huge fan of the iphone, loved the multitasking on webOs (hardware sucks) and think the EVO is by far the best hardware. Maybe i like the EVO because I have less than 20/20 vision and wont even be able to see the higher dpi on the new iphone so a 4.3" screen is nice.

None of the specs really matter because ATT is going to cripple APPLE sales in the future. Im a business owner and had to transfer all my lines to sprint because I just couldn't handle not being able to use the phone part of the iphone. I put up with the dropped call and lack of service before there were any real competitors, now that android has closed the gap I think people will be switching back to there old carriers.

If apple hadnt signed an that terrible exclusive agreement with ATT then this article would not even be relevant because android would have never gained any ground. None of these phones have anything significant on the iphone except theyre on carriers that dont suck.

When you pretend Apple hardware is equal or superior in every category? Android surpassed the 3GS before the 4 came out, and it will do it again before 5 comes.

Just look at market shares to confirm that Android is out of WebOS's league (with no disrespect to that polished OS).

Have fun writing for your echo chamber.

ha! Lol!

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True. But there is the iOS inteface, 32G memory, and the 'just works' part.
It will be interesting to see the camera 'picture' comparison to other phones. But they will all eventually be 'on par' as you suggest. Luv it that all these pocket gadget items are combined (cell phone, car keys(if you want to pay$), GPS, music player, pocket camera etc). What else?

As a thought experiment, what will these 'smart' phones look like/have in 5 years?

By the way, not to mention the availability of voice communication over some of the handsets' career(s), what about the COST OF DATA?

Surprise. Android is not one and only one phone like the iPhone. The problem you mention was unique to the Nexus One.
The HTC Incredible and HTC EVO do not have this issue. They have excellent touch screens.


Never heard of such a limitation. You're probably referring to Android requiring apps to fit in permanent memory on the phone, which in the early phones was as little as 256MB. This issue still partly exists, fully resolved with the new Android version 2.2 coming out soon. But in practice this has never been an issue because applications during their install, could install their data on the removable memory, usually 8-32GB.

The hobbyist base wanting an Android phone in the US (the only place where there is a big market for Android phones) is not going to be able to buy a new phone every 3 months because they have 2 year contracts with $350 escape clauses.


The iPhone 3GS supports component video output, like recent iPods. Component video is significantly higher quality than composite video. The iPad and iPhone 4 support 1024x768 video for displays and projectors. HDMI done right would be nice, but HDMI done poorly is not an advantage to iPod + VGA video.


HDMI output would be nice, but the EVO's isn't very good, and the ability to run a regular TV or mobile projector is missing entirely on the EVO.


WiMAX isn't available anywhere that matters, and burns batter rapidly. It's not a big feature.


No, Google doesn't care about developers at all. It's only there to get ad revenue. It will ditch the Android platform as soon as it can launch Chrome OS and move everything to web apps. It has no desire to build a sophisticated long-term platform.

No, this author hosts the blog:

Poorly Researched and Roughly Drafted-- mistakes don't count as long as they support the author's premise!

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Yep, apps can be saved to the SD card now on 2.2. And there's REAL flash in 2.2, which is pretty good I think. I'm actually wondering why they didnt compare to the Motorola Droid X. The Droid X seems like a better competitor specs wise, especially since it blows every other Android phone to high hell. Check out this benchmark (the evo 4g would score around the nexus one/ droid incredible score since they have pretty much identical specs)

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=18798

The Droid X demolishes every phone except the nexus on 2.2, while only running on 2.1 at the time. I can only imagine what it will do when it's upgraded to 2.2. I'm interested to see what it will do compared to the now iPhone.