Zer0's Smartphone War Part 2: An Apple's Battle to Lose

OK, so I finally got the best smartphone your money can buy - the iPhone 5.  But please discount the HTC J Butterfly cause it's only available in Japan.  I know 6 months down the road, many more iPhone 5 killers are going to emerge e.g. the Oppo (Gangnam Style) Find 5.

I have now own the both up-to-date Apple and Android devices and it's time to pass the real judgement.


Apple
What is like-able.

The iPhone is a purpose build smartphone to function as a smartphone. I cannot begin to imagine how much effort Apple has put in order to create this piece of wonder.  Thinner, lighter, longer and probably better finishing than any other phones you can find out there.  The A6 chip is a purpose build chip for the iPhone 5 and the iOS 6 is the purpose build OS for the iPhone 5.  If it doesn't run well, what else will?

What's wins for Apple is everything just works, flawlessly.  It's kind of rare (although I don't rule out the possibility) to find a not working apps on Apple devices.  Many apps just don't run properly on Android and the robot fanatics blames Android have to support many screen sizes.  Mind you, the fruit company also have many screen sizes.  Good try.

Apple has one of the most intuitive UI you can navigate around.  They sell familiarity.  And many users who are so accustomed with the iOS are reluctant to change.  When iOS6 introduces some add-ons from Jailbreak communities, people bashes Apple for ruining the user friendliness.  I don't mind having these candies but Apple must continue to put more in as the Jailbreak communities already breaks down.


What is not like-able.
For many, i-devices design kind of stale.  The 5 is just a longer 4.  But I don't own any i-devices between the 1st until the latest 5.  So it's a big win for me at least.  But surely everyone takes out the same black or white phone distinguished only by the skin it wears.

Jailbreak is always the prime of me not moving away from iOS.  Android is customizable. Yeah right, I can do the same over Jailbreaks.  And Android is just more customizable compared to stock iOS unless you root your device.  But the recent withdrawal of Hackulo.us is a big hit.  I can no longer free my iPhone.  I can no longer get all the cool upgrades, cool add-ons for the iPhone.  Suddenly, the iOS is not so cool anymore.

Apple has stolen a lot of ideas from the Jailbreak communities and implanted those in the iOS.  Which is a good thing.  But shutting down the underworld that give the joy to the iOS power users is beyond forgiving.  Apple users have to give in that the iOS is no longer customizable and will have the same pale look abide being the most powerful mobile OS.

Apple is one of many companies that defines the platform that they're releasing.  So as a result, you'll get a funny 30pin (old) or lightning (new) connector instead of a standard micro USB.  Good thing is that there were so many Apple fanatics out there and supply for these odd technologies are limitless.  But bad thing is an Apple lightning cable cost your a whooping $39 while you can get a micro USB cable for a mere $2.

If you're already using Apple families like MacBook, Apple TV etc, then adopting an Apple phone is not a problem as long as you have the money.  But getting the iPhone to work with the rest of the world is a challenge.  Bluetooth file transfer, not without Jailbreak. Well, we can't really blame Apple cause they really want each and every one of you to shop their 99 cents iTunes store.  DRM prevails freedom.

Android
What's like-able.

It's undeniable that Android is taking the world by storm.  And Google is backing up the most activated mobile OS in the world.  But there's just one problem.  Because iOS is not free, OEMs is dumping Android in every device imaginable.  Putting together a bunch of body parts doesn't make a perfect human.  Most of the time, it's just abominations a.k.a. Pudge.  Many adopters like  is putting add-ons which claimed to make the AOS friendlier.  In truth, it just spoils the good jelly bean Google is making.  BeanBoozled anyone?

But it's the truth is that AOS is more customizable.  All the junkies you can think of.  And there's no 2 Android device that looks the same.  With AOS still root-able, the power of users to customize the OS is infinite.  Something that iOS user is going to miss.

In truth, buying an Android device is like buying an empty shell.  In which the shell comes in different sizes, colors, smell and comes with a possibly the worst tuned AOS ever.  This is where the power of root and custom ROMs comes in.  Salvation for those who bought Samsung or HTC.

The ability of hacking and slashing your Android is probably one of the winning point of me to not get the iPad mini and continue meddling with my Android powered tablet.

Google kind of know that OEMs tend to break their blood sweat effort to make AOS on par if not better than iOS.  This is when the Nexus comes in.  Nexus is probably the best Android since Android.  Fluidity and all the best android you can get, it's on the Nexus devices.  Not some Android wannabes who're talking "The next big this is already here".  More good news is that now, there will be more devices bearing the tag of Nexus that runs vanilla Android.  No mumbo jumbo.  Just Android.  And I have been using vanilla Android for quite some time and to my surprise it's matching iOS in terms of performance.  Although mine is still running ICS and things still breaks up and down.

OEM who adopted Android also tend to put in the best hardware they can find to their devices.  Like the J Butterfly's 1080p screen.  Latest and greatest Qualcomm or Atom chips.  LTE and NFC.  All the latest junks you can think of, one of the Android device will have it.  And at a good price too.

What is not like-able.
Unless you get a Nexus, you'll never experience Android to the fullest.  That's awfully similar to what the fruit company is selling.  Although there might be more Nexus devices in the future, but these are not as popular as what the Koreans are selling.  Android devices are suppose to be universal friendly.  But OEM companies like Samsung always tries to be Apple and sell their proprietary add-ons which doesn't sell.

And yes, Android devices has all the latest and coolest gadgets.  But the practicality of it still remains a question.  If Apple is selling something on their phones, it comes with usage models.  Apple provides Facetime infrastructure to utilize the front facing camera for video calls.  Android devices has front facing camera before Apple but many wonders how to utilize it other than cam-whoring before Skype and such comes to light.  And yes, Samsung galaxy have NFC built in.  But other than touching the backside of another Samsung phones, there's not much widely known usage models yet.

Then comes the apps compatibility and support.  My argument of app developers should give more attention to Android is still true.  Take for example, my smurf village on iOS has received latest updates 2 days ago while the new update remains elusive on Android.  Pop Cap's PvZ in Android still lacks features and extra contents compared to the complete version in iOS while costs 3 times more.  And when you pay for an app in Android, you better pray it works or you'll start bashing the developers.

We all know iOS users enjoys the native Facebook apps for a while now and Android users are not receiving the same treatment for the most popular social networking company until 4 months later.

And don't bring the argument of  screen sizes because Apple is known for it's funny screen resolutions like 960x640 or 1136x640.  If the iOS counterpart can work out their apps with all these funny resolution, I don't see why it won't work with Android's more standard 800x480, 1280x720 or 1920x1080 offerings.

The Play Store is really full of what I call junk apps.  Google shouldn't even count this as apps that they accumulate to overtake Apple's App store.  For example, if you're looking for PvZ, there's 1 PvZ game, 20 PvZ game guides, 10 PvZ cheats app and 20 other zombie games.  And then there's a possibility that one of these contains some malware that might just steal your Facebook account.  And we all know that Android is prone to malware attacks.  But unless you do something stupid, you'll probably won't be hacked (although I don't rule out the possibility).  Better safe than sorry.

Conclusion
If you looking for something that is known to work and does not want to modify much of the stock OS, pick Apple.  If you like to meddle around with your device, hack and slash and blue screen the next day, pick Android.  If you seriously dislike Apple, which a lot of Android user does, pick anything else which is not Apple.

Both seems to be an equal choice.  A better hardware vs a more refined software.  Apple is still a must have device.  But Android, alongside Nexus is being more attractive now.  Google has polish Android UI to a great extend.  Until they fix the Play store and free it from malicious and junk apps, I will going to stick with Apple.  Not by religion, but by choice.