5 ways the iPhone beats the Nexus One
Despite my recent post about the Nexus One being a better phone than the iPhone, there are several things that the iPhone does better than Android. Here's my short list:
1) Copy and paste. Ever tried this on an Android phone? It's horribly clunky and counter-intuitive while the iPhone's copy and paste implementation is slick and well thought out. To make matters worse, you can't copy from an email on the Nexus One. Case closed.
2) Touchscreen. The Nexus One is praised for its WVGA (480x800) AMOLED screen, but in reality text appears less sharp and crisp than it does on the iPhone. As it turns out, the N1 doesn't have true WVGA resolution, the PenTile matrix pixel layout of the AMOLED screen in the Nexus One means that the total effective addressable spatial resolution of the display is actually more like 392 x 653 (sans signal processing). The N1 touchscreen also has less precision and sensitivity than the iPhone's. Although anecdotal, the bottom half-inch of my N1 screen would frequently "go deaf" and not allow me to answer a phone call or retrieve voicemail.
3) Music app. The music app on Android in tolerable if you've never used the iPod app on the iPhone, but if you have, it's a kludge. The interface is completely, wait for it, LAME. As I previously wrote one benefit of the Android Music app is that it gives you unrestricted access to the music library on the microSD card. The iPhone? Not so much. Although access to the music files on Android is a plus, the iPhone's iPod app wins the day for its UI, store integration and support for podcasts. Note: I fully expect Music to get overhauled much like Gallery did, see my note at the end of this post.
4) Google Voice. Although Google Voice is probably one of the single best Android features, the SMS drives me nuts. It doesn't thread SMS conversations properly like the iPhone's Messages app. Messages threads all SMS/MMS from a contact into one screen, which is logical and convenient. However GV sometimes splits the threads randomly causing you to have to check multiple messages from the same person. It isn't because of time or number of messages as far as I can tell. Although it sounds trivial, when using GV exclusively for SMS it's a royal pain.
5) App Store. The Android Market doesn't have the selection or quality of the App Store, although it is gaining ground fast. Most of the majors are there: Amazon, eBay, Facebook, but other more obscure or more vertical apps will probably arrive in the App Store first.
So there you have, life isn't perfect in Android-ville. The iPhone definitely has its pluses, but at the end of the day the Nexus One is still a better smartphone.
What about you? Android or iPhone?
Note: Android's original Gallery app was originally on this list because of its horrible UI, but that all changed with the new 3D Gallery app that came with Android 2.1. It has transparency, stacking, accelerometer support and more ways to share than ever. Gallery really belongs in my reasons Nexus One is better post.
Image: Planet iPhones