Apple v Samsung....

Davidmator

Just wondering which is a better choice in general.......

- Samsung Galaxy S

-Samsung Galaxy Ace

-Apple iphone 4

???

Abelloid

You need to decide exactly what features or functions are important to you, there is no 'best'.

Davidmator

JustinOval wrote: »

You need to decide exactly what features or functions are important to you, there is no 'best'.

I'd be talking internet and camera functions primarily.

Abelloid

Galaxy S doesn't have a flash, which may be a problem... iPhone doesn't have Flash, which may also be an issue...

Hogzy

If you have to ask then just go for the iPhone

Abelloid

Hogzy wrote: »

If you have to ask then just go for the iPhone

PogMoThoin

Chosing iPhone ties you to Apple, choosing Android means you have a choice of phone manufacturers in future

Abelloid

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/28/charlie-brooker-pfroblem-with-macs

Ardennes1944

rooted galaxy s ftw

Davidmator

Hogzy wrote: »

If you have to ask then just go for the iPhone

???...

KrisW

Davidmator wrote: »

I'd be talking internet and camera functions primarily.

Split vote, then: The iPhone's camera is much better - one of the very few that would double for a dedicated point&shoot, the Galaxy's is pretty **** . On the other hand, the Galaxy's web browser is better than iPhone's, and it supports Adobe Flash too.

For a slightly better camera in an Android phone, go for Desire HD, but battery life is worse than Galaxy, which is only okay in the first place.

LukeS_

I've been using Android for about a year up until two days ago when o got my iPhone 4. I don't really use Adobe Flash (not LED ) for anything so that's not a problem, but the browser on the Galaxy S is not better than that of the iPhones. It's so much more fluid and the pinch-to-zoom is flawless whereas with Android it's usually buggy no matter what browser you're using. That's one of the main reasons I bought sn iPhone 4. I'm in no way an Apple fanboy either before you say anything.

Android has a lot of great features, does most well but there's just something lacking.
iOS has some good features, but they make sure they do them really well.

With Android it feels like google made the page and are telling you to do whatever you like with it.
iOS on the other hand feels like you're reading a book and you're just going along with apple and it's closed OS with limited tweaks via jailbreak.

The only thing I hate is syncing to iTunes for music but that's easily passable by jailbreaking.

Ps. Don't ask about the page/book thing.

PogMoThoin

What android phone did you have LukeS? Because you're comparing that to the new iPhone 4 which has a 1Ghz chip. Dolphin HD feels very fluid on my Galaxy S running Darkys 9.5

pocketvenus

I bought the new Samsung Galaxy Ace last weekend and I have to say the camera on it is brilliant.

It has a 5MP camera with a flash. You also get an SD crad with the phone.

Internet I have had no problem with, fast and using gmail it can sync the applications. Also has a youtube app installed already.

For a upper mid range smartphone you couldn't go past it.

LukeS_

PogMoThoin wrote: »

What android phone did you have LukeS? Because you're comparing that to the new iPhone 4 which has a 1Ghz chip. Dolphin HD feels very fluid on my Galaxy S running Darkys 9.5

HTC Desire, HD2 and Desire Z (OC'd at 1.5Ghz) and none were ever as fluid as the browsing is on Safari on iPhone. Look at any phone comparison video between an iPhone and a Atrix even and you'll see the difference.

I'm not saying Android isn't good (I still love it and I'll be back to it soon I'd say) but the iPhones web browsing is better and easier to view with that 960x480 screen or whatever it is.

srsly78

Luke, Android and iPhone both the same browser internals (webkit) :rolleyes: iPhone only seems faster because it doesn't load flash etc. Browsing on a 1ghz android device is just as fast as the iphone. You must have been testing on an old android version, it's much faster since 2.2/2.3. Oh, and the iPhone has a tiny screen as well, not as good for browsing not matter what resolution.

LukeS_

srsly78 wrote: »

Luke, Android and iPhone both the same browser internals (webkit) :rolleyes: iPhone only seems faster because it doesn't load flash etc. Browsing on a 1ghz android device is just as fast as the iphone. You must have been testing on an old android version, it's much faster since 2.2/2.3. Oh, and the iPhone has a tiny screen as well, not as good for browsing not matter what resolution.

Yeah I know they do. No I haven't been testing on older versions of Android, tried many ROM's like CM7 etc. and it's still the same. The only Android device I've seen with nearly as fluid pinch-to-zoom and browsing in general is the Xoom.

Actually I think the screen is okay once you get used to it. It's hard coming from a 4.3" to a 3.5" but after a while it's all grand and it seems iOS is more tailored to the 3.5" and 9.7" better rather than it just being android on many different screen sizes. On the iPhone though, I can read boards fully zoomed out without any problem, on any other phones I've had, I couldn't.

The browser lag in Android you wouldn't even notice until you see how fluid it is on iOS though.

Oh god, I sound like such a fanboy... Of Apple. :eek: (which I'm not at all and not a fan of their ecosystem)

KrisW

The iPhone's browser is more responsive simply because the iOS graphics system uses hardware acceleration, and Android does not.

The Android phones have faster CPUs, which makes them quicker at turning the received HTML document into a visible page, but against this the CPU also has to deal with all of the display updates.. because the CPU is doing many things at once, it sometimes misses a screen update, and that is what makes the display stutter sometimes.

srsly78

Nope there is no difference in speed. Android is only slow because it is loading flash etc. There are many variables in the test, was it a buggy samsung galaxy with lag problem? What version of flash player? Some android devices don't actually support flash with hardware. This is likely what is confusing you.

Android devices have the same hardware accel built in (maybe slightly different chipset, but still uses opengl ES 1.x or 2.x), used exactly the same as on the iphone except for the flash plugin, Kris you are wrong man.

edit: For completeness, the stutter that Kris is talking about is casued by the android garbage collector. This kicks in when low on memory, to reclaim memory not being used anymore. This can cause a *slight* delay when launching apps or switching between apps, but that's it. Only way you should see stutters at runtime is if you have buggy apps installed. Can you provide a link backing up your "no hardware accelerated browser" assertion? Maybe back in Android 1.0 it wasn't in, but it certainly is now.

Also, with android 2.3 there is a concurrent garbage collector that does it's job more nicely without causing stutters. iPhone doesn't need any of this because it can't run multiple apps anyway lol.

fenris

I have an jailbroken iphone 3GS and a Galaxy S (work phone running Darky's ROM 9.5). I find that I am using the iphone less and less which is a bit of a bummer when I look at how much I have spent on apps for the iphone.

I prefer the look and feel of the iphone on a superficial level but find that the Galaxy is more useful and less restrictive and more directly user friendly

Simple things like being able to load up my music and audiobooks without having to convert the files and then sync through itunes, I just connect over wifi (if I cannot be bothered to find a cable or I am in a friends house) and work away.

I can delete stuff directly from the phone without having to connect to a computer first.

Syncing contacts, appointments, todo tasks etc. between Outlook on my work laptop and my Galaxy just works - in both directions!

Wifi connections and bluetooth just work on the Galaxy, without the shenanigans that have been "normal" on the iphone#

I find myself constantly trying to hit the "back" button on the iphone (it isn't there)

The haptic feedback on the Galaxy is actually useful

You are not restricted to rip off priced iphone specific headphones if you want a volume control and a pause/play button

It is okay if I don't charge my Galaxy every night - I can still get through the next work day - granted I will be on approx. 20% battery by going home time!.

GPS based apps just work without faffing.

On the other hand the iphone app store is better laid out
The Galaxy camera is great for a phone camera (no flash, but phone flashes are rubbish any way) and beats a lot of point and shoot cameras for features - Samsung also make cameras

So basically the head would say Galaxy and the heart depends on how much marketing you have bought into/has wormed it's way into your subconcious!, either way you get an alright phone.

KrisW

@srsly78, Android 2.3 has no hardware acceleration of the GUI. Last I heard, it was due in 3.0, but 3.0 seems to be a non-phone release now, so that's moot. As for my sources, here's one of the bug tickets: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914 - you'll see it was deferred to a future release.

Yes, Android does have OpenGL support, but OpenGL is a separate API to the normal Android UI's View classes. Everything you normally see on screen, including web content, is generated by what are called View objects. There are lots of different types, for lists, buttons, webpages, text, pictures, movies, etc, but they all rely on a small set of functions to actually put stuff onto the screen. These functions do not make use of hardware acceleration, therefore almost none of the UI View objects do. (Video decoding is a notable exception)

The stuttering effect can also be garbage collection at work, but it's a mistake to say that GC only affects "badly written" apps. The Java runtime uses delayed collection - so the pauses even affect code that correctly deallocates resources when not needed anymore (and most Java code I've seen doesn't do this, instead it allocates new objects rather than reusing, and relies on the GC to pick up the mess). Google's Garbage Collector settings are better than normal for a JVM, but GC still has a habit of kicking in just when you're doing something time-critical... like updating the display.