So what about the iPhone 4S?
First and foremost, the iPhone is way too small. The 3.5 inch screen is nice when I’m holding it 8 inches from my eye, but out and about it feels like my hands belong to Andre the Giant. I try to touch the screen and my thumb covers at least 10% of the surface area. How can you have accurate touches like that? I guess I should file down my thumbs and fingers. It’s so tiny that it killed all two-handed operations for me (especially since you can barely fit two thumbs side by side). I’ll admit that for some pockets, having a tiny screen is nice, but 4.3 inches might be better. This is just too small.
While the screen is too small, I’m happy that Apple has stuck to their decision to have one button that does different things depending on what version of the OS you have and how many times you press it and even how slow your presses are. It’s like opening a Christmas present every time I press the home button. Will I go to the home screen? The search screen? The recent apps? The Siri frontend for Wolfram Alpha? The music app?
To be fair, the small screen on the iPhone did introduce me to some new people. I heard that you can do a five-finger swipe to bring up the multitasking bar, but I couldn’t fit five fingers on the screen, so I had to go to Starbucks to find some fellow Apple users with smaller fingers to try. Then I found out that gesture just works on iPad. When will Apple develop a consistent user experience?
I like the missing software back button that is always in one place like on the Galaxy Nexus. On the iPhone, you can have it sometimes be in the top left with the word “Back” or “Home” or something else, or at the top right with the word “Done” or at the bottom as a “Cancel” button. This forces the user to be much more aware of the UI and whether something is a modal dialog, an action sheet, or whatever else. (Of course, the iPhone still has a power/wake button on the top.)
I also like the lack of indicator light on the iPhone. It’s helpful because I can make sure everyone knows I use Apple products since I have to always hold up my phone to turn it on to check for messages and people can see my important Apple logo and know that I’m creative. Why Samsung included a multi-color indicator light that tells me exactly what I missed without turning on the device, I will never understand.
The rest of the iPhone hardware leaves something to be desired. The Galaxy Nexus feels like a completely and thoughtfully designed product. By comparison, the iPhone is made of glass, something we intuitively think of as fragile. It’s also heavy/dense, giving it the consistant feeling of 80s technology that goes well with the click of the home button (or double click or long click or…). It’s not awful, but you’d think Apple could do better at this point. Some people will like not having the option to remove the back to get at the battery because that makes the iPhone almost as thin and as light as the Galaxy Nexus and gives you an excuse to buy a new phone every year.
The battery life itself is very good. I felt like the iPhone was lasting at least as long as the Galaxy Nexus on a fully charged battery, perhaps even a bit longer in some cases. Of course, I don’t have to worry about having the option of using it on 4G and possibly lowering the battery life.
The camera on the iPhone 4S is definitely worse than the Galaxy Nexus in both terms of front-facing camera (the 4S has a measly VGA camera and the Galaxy Nexus has a front-facing camera capable of 720p… a resolution the iPhone can’t even display) and in speed. If you want to get a picture of where something exciting was happening two seconds ago, the iPhone 4S will not let you down. Just press the shutter button when the scene is composed and you’ll get the scene that happens two seconds later. It’s like time travel.
And let’s talk about iOS 5. There is no question that the software is much improved over previous iterations in terms of copying Android’s notification system (though improved with X close buttons that are polished so much that they shrank to a size where you need a 2-year-old’s pinky to press them) and supporting Twitter. You know an OS has improved when Twitter is a selling point.
Unfortunately, the system still lacks much of the features that Android users enjoy. The majority of iOS users will probably think such criticism is bullshit, but that has always been the case. I imagine it’s probably pretty hard for a person who bought the car that made the most sense to him or her to explain to the person who bought a Prius because it was popular how perception affects the driving experience. The person with a personally-fitting car can attempt to explain why he or she likes a stick or more room, but the Prius owner will just believe that having the car pick gears for you is the best and would never spend enough time with any other car to appreciate the differences.
Still, if the iOS team ever wants to convert (or at least convice) most Android users, they still have quite a bit of work to do here. Then again, they probably don’t (or shouldn’t) care too much about converting Android users over to iOS. All the non-smartphone users out there remain the much bigger prize to go after (for both Apple and Google).
Other things that will sound like nits but drove me crazy with iOS 5 included having widgets only in the notification center. If I am adding a widget, I clearly want to see it where I want it. Why should I have to have it sit somewhere invisible that requires an extra swipe? What’s the different between being on my homescreen and having to open a full weather app (iOS4) and being on the home screen and having to swipe down the notifications to see the weather widget (iOS5)?
Another: why do I have to go into the Google Voice app to make a phone call using my Google Voice number? Google baked in support for alternate dialers into their OS; why didn’t Apple? If they’re worried about competition, why did they finally approve the app after a year-and-a-half and an FCC inquiry? Why is Siri letting people look at my private calendar while my phone is locked? And why on Earth is the web browser not the desktop version of Safari yet!?
The new WiFi-syncing is nice — I love not having to find the proprietary cable. But my god Apple needs help with iTunes. I have to reboot my computer into an OS they support and leave it on while my phone is plugged into a power outlet. As if iTunes weren’t already the worst software on the planet, I also have to waste a bunch of electricity keeping my computer on all the time in one of the two OSes Apple supports just to sync my data?
Apple’s universal support of voice dictation is a joke compared to Ice Cream Sandwich.
Some other authors have noted that iOS is ahead of Android when it comes to custom settings for apps, but I have to disagree. Why do I have to leave an app to go find the settings app to change the settings for the app I was just in? That’s completely illogical. Of course, some apps support changing their settings within the app and others don’t, so now we get back to the inconsistancy problem present in the iOS experience.
When it comes to web browsers, arguably the most important feature of any of these devices, there is no question that Android still has a big edge here. I’ve seen arguments on both sides for why iOS does not support third-party plugins–but doing a simple test proves that much of the web is still inaccessible from iOS. Worse, many pages render as large missing tiles featuring a checkerbox to keep the illusion of scrolling smoothly, even beyond the point at which the actual page ends. You try pinching to zoom and everything just stays fuzzy until your fingers stop moving. How am I supposed to know if the text is large and clear enough if it just zooms in and out on fixed pixels?
You’ll also see a bit of impossibility in iOS when you do simple things like trying to attach a file to an existing email draft or trying to attach a second file or trying to store any arbitrary data on your device. For the most part, iOS 5 does a good job of hiding its limitations, but there are plenty of times that you’ll still hit your head on a wall here and there.
The main problem I have with apps on iOS is that, well, they aren’t on iOS. I try to find my favorite keyboard replacement (SwiftKey) and it’s nowhere to be found. I try to get the ever-useful Wifi Analyzer, also not available. I’ve heard that the entire experience has a lot more polish on iOS, especially with the Twitter integration, so I gave it a try. I found one of my favorite links online and decided to open it on the Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone to verify it looked right. For the Galaxy Nexus, I simply clicked the Chrome to Phone button and it instantly popped up on my device. It looked good, so I long-pressed on the URL within the browser, picked share, selected my favorite Twitter app (hint: not the official one), and sent it with a tweet and a comment. I tried that on iOS, which involved trying to type the long URL in by hand in the stock keyboard. That was a pain, so I decided to long-press it in the Android browser again, share, and send it via Google Voice to the iPhone. I opened it in the iPhone, it looked pretty much the same as on the Galaxy Nexus (though tiny), so I copied the URL, pressed the clicky home button (just once), scrolled to the right through ten screens of apps, opened a Twitter app, pasted it into the new tweet box along with a comment, and tweeted.
It’s these tangibles where Android holds the huge advantage. And just like in sports, you can clearly teach the fundamentals. At some point, Apple may simple have to acknowledge that Android works better than iOS because Android’s entire open concept is woven into the product. Apps can properly communicate to each other without having to know of the other apps. The user can do what he or she wants. Even the launcher app can be replaced. Apple’s strengths are elsewhere; they should embrace that.
Apple has done some very nice work here. Both the iPhone 4S and iOS5 are a new pinnacle of the iOS platform. But in the end, it still comes down to something very simple: which device do I want to use day-to-day? Which phone do I reach for when I’m not doing a review? It’s still an Android phone. Without question.
Keep at it, Apple.
(For those who don’t know, this is a parody on the post MG Siegler did called “An iPhone Lover’s Take On The Galaxy Nexus.” I strongly recommend that you buy the phone that makes the most sense to you, whether it’s an Android phone, an iPhone, a Windows phone, or whatever. Any useful review will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a given device and never tell you that it’s the one-size-fit-all solution.)
