Once upon a time, Android was the ugly duckling of mobile operating systems. Until recently, manufacturers' skins such as HTC's Sense and Samsung's TouchWiz were necessary to cover up the shortcomings of "vanilla" Android. But starting with Android 4.0 (out in late 2011), Google's core design has actually been better than the overlays — and has the benefit of getting upgraded faster.
As Android matured, iOS started reaching old age. Critics have lately given it flak for its 2007-rooted interface. iOS 7introduced a whole new user experience, and whether you find its frosted glass and pastel theme jarring or delightful, there's no denying that it comes along with a lot of handy new features.
Let's see how the latest versions stack up against one another on a few of the most important points.
User Experience: Elegance vs. Customization
image copyright Apple Inc.
People
who like complete control over the customization of their phones, and
want to be able to fiddle the lowest level functions, will prefer
Android thanks to its greater openness (one downside of this, though, is
that each company that makes Android phones can tweak them, sometimes
replacing default Android apps with inferior tools developed by that
company). Android customization can also require some complex technical
skills that the average person rarely has.
Taken as a comparison done on a features list, the distance between Android and iPhone doesn't seem that far--and it seems that Android is ahead in some areas. And while that's true, the experience of using a phone, a device that's with you all day long, doesn't boil down to what boxes get checked. The experience is driven by quality and attention to detail, how the device works and how you feel about it. There's a reason people feel passionately enough about the iPhone to wait hours to get one on the day of a new model's release. This happens sometimes with Android phones, but less often and at lesser scale.
Most people want a phone that works well, lets them run the apps they want, and is easy to use. On that front, the iPhone wins hands down. Apple’s intense focus on ease of use, quality experience, and things just working (see hardware, apps, and Flash above for examples of how Android’s openness can make life harder) makes it the clear choice for most users.
Apple has released the brand new, top-of-the-line, flagship iPhone 5s and less-expensive, colorfully fun iPhone 5c.
But is either of them the right phone for you? While everyone here at
iMore certainly believes the iPhone is still the best phone for most
people, most of the time, we're lucky that every major platform now has
one or more great phones for us to choose from as well. The iPhone may
have the best overall user experience, the highest quality apps and
games, the widest range of services, the biggest selection of
accessories, and the best customer support, but there are also things
the iPhone doesn't offer that other phones do, like much larger screens,
physical keyboards, high power cameras, greater hardware options, or
simply no Apple about them. How do you know which one is for you
Taken as a comparison done on a features list, the distance between Android and iPhone doesn't seem that far--and it seems that Android is ahead in some areas. And while that's true, the experience of using a phone, a device that's with you all day long, doesn't boil down to what boxes get checked. The experience is driven by quality and attention to detail, how the device works and how you feel about it. There's a reason people feel passionately enough about the iPhone to wait hours to get one on the day of a new model's release. This happens sometimes with Android phones, but less often and at lesser scale.
Most people want a phone that works well, lets them run the apps they want, and is easy to use. On that front, the iPhone wins hands down. Apple’s intense focus on ease of use, quality experience, and things just working (see hardware, apps, and Flash above for examples of how Android’s openness can make life harder) makes it the clear choice for most users.
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