iOS
I recently bought an iPhone 4S, because it’s finally on Sprint! I’ve owned a 1st gen iPod touch for a year, but a lot has changed since then. Yet, iOS 5 still has a similar look and feel, but more features have made it way more productive.
Some of the features I like the most about iOS: fast app switching, excellent battery life (I’ve never had problems, despite the bad press Apple has received), plethora of apps, gorgeous screen, and musicality. Yes, other platforms have fast app-switching, but iOS gets it done quicker. A home button double-tap takes no time, and the scrolling list stretches for miles, and includes media playback controls! On other platforms, you have to hold a button for at least a second, and then the switching begins. Even then, it’s not as useful as the iOS way.
I get excellent battery life with my iPhone and with the HTC Trophy. I’ll admit, at times I was afraid to use my Android phone because I didn’t want to eat up battery life and not make it through the day without recharging. Some people have told me that Facebook Android app notifications can really drain the battery. I haven’t been able to confirm this, but I think that it’s ridiculous that installing (or uninstalling) a single app can ruin the experience of the whole phone.
With the plethora of apps, there’s no shortage of what the iPhone can do. The app sandboxing is nice in that I can install whatever app I want without fear of ruining the whole phone. One thing I noticed with Android is that as you install apps and widgets, the system doesn’t run as smoothly, and the phone takes a hit on battery life. The awesome user interface looks amazing on the screen.
The one thing my phone does more than anything else is play music. Playback controls are well integrated with the entire iOS, from the lockscreen to the fast app-switching. iTunes Match (unfortunately delayed) is going to make buying and enjoying music even more awesome.
Even after singing Apple’s praises, there’s plenty that I don’t like about the iPhone. I wish that apps could share data on the phone. When I installed the Google apps, I had to log into my Google account within every app. Though it’s a one-time thing, it’s still annoying that I can’t log in once and use those credentials within different apps. There are security advantages that apps can’t directly share data between each other on the phone. Data sharing will just have to occur over the air.
Overall, iOS is a fantastic mobile operating system. It’s intuitive and easy to use, yet powerful enough to be productive in everyday use.
Android
My first smartphone was a Windows Mobile. After that terrible experience, I moved onto an HTC Evo and then a Samsung Nexus S 4G. Android is a decent mobile OS, and honestly I’m excited about the new features that Google is bringing in Ice Cream Sandwich. With any open system, it’s prone to abuse and insecurity. The burden of security lies primarily on the user: apps are not screened in the Marketplace and you have to confirm the app’s permissions when you install. Seriously, who actually reads what the app requests? Even if the app only asks for “internet permissions”, security was seriously compromised on certain HTC Sense phones.
From a user experience standpoint, some may argue that iOS is too simple. Widgets, custom home-screen launchers, and limited app backgrounding are fully in place on Android. These tweaks might we appropriate for a desktop system with copious resources and screen real estate. On a mobile device, I need to do certain things quickly and efficiently: email, calendar, and music. Most of the time my phone plays music, and I love that the iPhone is built around the iPod. It’s a phenomenal music player. Double tap the home button, and bam, you get playback controls on the lockscreen. Within any app, double tap the home button, swipe to the right, and music controls are ready to roll.
I think it’s terrible that the user experience changes from device to device. It’s quite nice to have an iPhone 4S, and overall it’s as easy to use as my 1st gen iPod touch. Of course there are tons of awesome new features (amazing camera, Siri, best mobile gaming, etc.), but the day-to-day operation is a seamless transition.
Windows Phone 7
My up-and-coming favorite is WP7. I got an HTC Trophy for my work phone, and it’s a great blend of what’s good about Android and iOS. The recently released Mango update brings a boatload of amazing features. It’s not without its quirks and room for improvement, but it’s a big step in the right direction.
I really enjoy the consistent user experience of all WP7 devices I’ve used. It’s commendable that Microsoft has minimum hardware requirements for devices, so a manufacturer can’t put WP7 on a device willy-nilly. It’s a good way to ensure that crappy devices don’t tarnish the Windows Phone brand and experience. Overall the phone runs silky smooth is fun to use.
Music playback is a key feature which has been drastically improved in Mango. Playback controls are always on the lockscreen when you have media queued up or playing. It’s super easy to switch tracks or pause playback. I’m not a big fan of the Zune software, because it’s more confusing than iTunes. I’ve subscribed to some podcasts on the Trophy, and it’s quite easy to manage downloads and listen.
Mango brought some much needed features, like app fast resuming, though it still needs some more polish. It’s easy to hold down the back button and switch back to the last 5 launched apps, but I don’t always use it. Let’s say that I’m in the Spotify app listening to music, but then I go back to the home screen to check out a live tile or something. With a Mango-ified app, I could hold the back button and get right back into the app. But if I re-launch the app from the home screen, it completely reloads the app instead of the fast resume. I think it would be easy to implement something that checks if the app you’re launching is on the recently ran list. Then you do a fast resume instead of a full start.
I love the social integration in Windows Phone 7. Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and your contacts are very nicely merged together. Even messaging is integrated between Facebook and texts. Now if only we could get a decent Google chat client for WP7…
There are many apps available for Windows Phone, and they recently passed a significant milestone of 40,000 apps in the Windows Marketplace. Most of the apps I’ve used are very high-quality. Many major apps are available, but it’s still not the caliber of iOS and Android apps. For example, you can search and do many things on the Yelp app, but you can’t check-in with the WP7 version for some reason. There still isn’t a Mint.com app yet.
These are a small selection of my experience with all three platforms. Because of maturity and selection of apps, I’d rank iOS #1 in my book. Windows Phone is super slick, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone considering a new smartphone. Next year dual-core and LTE is coming to WP7, which will make it more competitive within the industry. Android still has a lot of maturing to do. The overall system isn’t well integrated and runs sluggish many times, even on my stock “official Android” Nexus S. We’ll see what happens in a couple of years when Gartner and IDC predict that Windows Phone will become the 2nd most popular mobile OS (and I hope it comes true).