Im gonna do this review real quick and direct for easy reading.
My first iOS device was an iPod Touch. I liked it so much that I bought the iphone 4 the year after and been with it 2 years until last month, after several months of having the home button broken and Apple not fixing it. I also own the ipad 1, so I have really enjoyed and appreciated ios over the years.
Decided to buy the SGS3 after over a year wanting to try Android, but no device was good enough and Gingerbread was not that polished either. When ICS was announced I felt it was the correct time to try it.
Being 3 weeks with the SGS3.
Pros:
- Screen. You just cant love a device with such a big HD screen. Negative point is that its not as bright as the iphone 4. I can notice this when I am in the street with direct sunlight. The screen looks awful in direct sunlight. Really bad. I forgot that amoled displays had this problem even before the iphone 4, when I had a Samsung Omnia HD. With the iphone 4 I never even remembered that and thought it was already fixed on all devices. So screen is great in resolution, color and size, but awful in direct sunlight and lower brightness (although not that much, but still is a shame).
- Battery. Really good for an android phone. I can get 2 days with normal use. 1 day with heavy use. Its as good as the iphone 4, which lasted the same.
- Smoothness and lag. The device is as faster as ios or even faster on many things. The only problem is homescreen redraw, but this is a problem made by samsung and not android. I expect a bug fix sometime, but its clearly samsungs fault for not giving the homecsreen ram priority so it never closes down. This kind of little stupid mistake makes you appreciate Apple and hate Samsung, but its obvious that they dont spend the same amount of time than Apple optimizing their software to each of their phones released in a year.
- Sound. Its louder than iphone 4. Same clarity.
- Design. I remember watching the sgs3 announcement and hating the design. It wasnt until I saw it in person that it changed my mind and now I think its really nice. I just love how thin and light it is. Much much more than the iphone. Maybe a device so small must be thicker by logic, as to include every component in less space. Two problems are that the back is slippery (I have the feeling that it can fall anytime) and the home button (I hate hardware buttons after the iphones 4 broke). Capacitive buttons are amazing and I cant understand why apple hasnt implemented them yet. No problems whatsoever with build quality. To me it feels the same as the glass of the iphone 4.
- Software. With android you get the feeling that the software is not 100% optimized for any phone except the Nexus, and this is correct. Touchwiz is way better than its previous versions, and its sad to say that its better than iOS, since it allows much more options and customization. Well, touchwiz and android in general. Just a few hours after buying the phone I saw endless possibilities and since then I enjoy changing my homescreens and stuff whenever I feel like.
Ios really feels like a simple os design for people who just want a simple phone that works and gives them zero problems. I wanted that 2 years ago after many awful phones like the Omnia HD, Nokia N95, etc. Those phones were terrible. That is why I changed to ios, but after two years I have outgrown the os and want more. Android works just fine and I have had no problems like freezes or things like that. No reboots or weird stuff.
Software feels much more advanced in android, and that is logical. When I had ios I felt I didnt need widgets, and now they are completely useful: weather, my rss feeds, social updates, google search voice, music controls, radio controls, etc. And with this 4.8 HD screen widgets look awesome and you have no space problems.
Camera has many nice options, like taking pictures while recording or changing the video to lower resolutions and other stuff. Much better than the simple camera app in ios.
The settings toggles in the notification area are just essential now. I can enable and disable 3G in 2 seconds when in ios it took me longer (on stock obviously. I had my phone jailbreaked). There are many useful toggles like wifi, 3g, bluetooth (real BT thank god), power saving mode, synchronization, gps, etc. All are useful.
I would say ios is nicer looking and android is easier to use. Many people say ios is easier to use but thats wrong when I can do most stuff on android faster or in different ways to adapt my style. For example: multitasking. On ios pressing the hardware button to exit and app and double tap for multitasking and long press for siri will make the button less responsive in a short time. I know because it happened to me only 1 year after buying the iphone 4, so wheres that high quality apple presumes of? On android you have the capacitive buttons for back, which is faster and smoother, and I just installed a multitask shortcut similar to the one on the nexus for even faster and nicer multitasking. There are many other ways to customize this and many more things, so I decide the way I want to access things. Way better than ios.
The notification led is a great plus also. I wish iphone had it. This is the kind of stuff that made me switch to android. I feel apple wont include capacitive buttons or notification led in a very long time, if ever. This things are useful and not just cute introductions. They serve a purpose.
I cannot express enough how advance many of the stock apps are in android compared to ios. People app (with social updates and several accounts to sync), youtube app, maps (after trying google maps in android im certain apple will take a few more years minimum to catch up, if they even can, which I seriously doubt), gmail, photos (organize it they way you want and not depending of iTunes, which cannot even sync different subfolders of your photo library from your computer), etc. Really, ios apps are very, very far behind. Its ridiculous. Google chrome is way better than safari also, and I feel it will get even better with future updates, making safari feel so outdated.
There are incomprehensible limitations to ios that also made me jump ship. One example: uploading any type of file to my NAS, and not just pictures and videos like ios. The other day I downloaded on my SGS3 a subtitle from the web in rar, extracted the file with an app and uploaded to my NAS to watch a movie with it. Took me 2 minutes. Never could do this on iOS. This just shows you that ios is kind of a toy os. It needs to give users more power, but that is just a dream I guess. These phones are called smartphones for a reason, and should allow this kind of stuff. ios is like a cripple os. Even the system file manager is now essential to me. I use it every day to do several tasks, like move photos from one album to another, files from the internal memory to the SD card, deleting files, etc. Just like finder in Mac.
There are many, many things you can do with android that ios does not allow. It feels like you can do anything you need, and all this stuff is important nowadays.
The play store is even a better app than the app store. Im not talking about content, rather than the app itself, allowing swype gestures and multi-downloads and more stuff. You know whats awesome? Going to the play store on safari and downloading apps directly from there, which automatically sends them and installs them on the phone. This is a really cool feature.
Voice search and voice dictation is awesome also. Cant believe it took apple so long to introduce them with siri last year, but now with the new google search they are already ahead again. On the other hand, s voice on the SGS3 is really bad, way behind siri, so its almost not worth it besides making calls and setting alarms. Im waiting for the update to JB.
Another awesome feature is installing different keyboards. Swiftkey 3 and swype are miles ahead of the ios keyboard. Just another area where android is way better than ios.
So my conclusion is that android feels more like a true smart os than iOS, which now seems even more limited than when I had it. To me, android is better and way ahead of ios, but iphone is also a much much better phone than any android phone out there, but it also has problems like the deathgrip in iphone 4 and battery issues in the 4s, so no phone is perfect.
If you want a true powerful os android is the way to go. If you want a nice and simple os then ios is the better choice. Android is just growing at a much much faster pace than ios in hardware and software. The best choice in android is to go with the new nexus.
My first iOS device was an iPod Touch. I liked it so much that I bought the iphone 4 the year after and been with it 2 years until last month, after several months of having the home button broken and Apple not fixing it. I also own the ipad 1, so I have really enjoyed and appreciated ios over the years.
Decided to buy the SGS3 after over a year wanting to try Android, but no device was good enough and Gingerbread was not that polished either. When ICS was announced I felt it was the correct time to try it.
Being 3 weeks with the SGS3.
Pros:
- Screen. You just cant love a device with such a big HD screen. Negative point is that its not as bright as the iphone 4. I can notice this when I am in the street with direct sunlight. The screen looks awful in direct sunlight. Really bad. I forgot that amoled displays had this problem even before the iphone 4, when I had a Samsung Omnia HD. With the iphone 4 I never even remembered that and thought it was already fixed on all devices. So screen is great in resolution, color and size, but awful in direct sunlight and lower brightness (although not that much, but still is a shame).
- Battery. Really good for an android phone. I can get 2 days with normal use. 1 day with heavy use. Its as good as the iphone 4, which lasted the same.
- Smoothness and lag. The device is as faster as ios or even faster on many things. The only problem is homescreen redraw, but this is a problem made by samsung and not android. I expect a bug fix sometime, but its clearly samsungs fault for not giving the homecsreen ram priority so it never closes down. This kind of little stupid mistake makes you appreciate Apple and hate Samsung, but its obvious that they dont spend the same amount of time than Apple optimizing their software to each of their phones released in a year.
- Sound. Its louder than iphone 4. Same clarity.
- Design. I remember watching the sgs3 announcement and hating the design. It wasnt until I saw it in person that it changed my mind and now I think its really nice. I just love how thin and light it is. Much much more than the iphone. Maybe a device so small must be thicker by logic, as to include every component in less space. Two problems are that the back is slippery (I have the feeling that it can fall anytime) and the home button (I hate hardware buttons after the iphones 4 broke). Capacitive buttons are amazing and I cant understand why apple hasnt implemented them yet. No problems whatsoever with build quality. To me it feels the same as the glass of the iphone 4.
- Software. With android you get the feeling that the software is not 100% optimized for any phone except the Nexus, and this is correct. Touchwiz is way better than its previous versions, and its sad to say that its better than iOS, since it allows much more options and customization. Well, touchwiz and android in general. Just a few hours after buying the phone I saw endless possibilities and since then I enjoy changing my homescreens and stuff whenever I feel like.
Ios really feels like a simple os design for people who just want a simple phone that works and gives them zero problems. I wanted that 2 years ago after many awful phones like the Omnia HD, Nokia N95, etc. Those phones were terrible. That is why I changed to ios, but after two years I have outgrown the os and want more. Android works just fine and I have had no problems like freezes or things like that. No reboots or weird stuff.
Software feels much more advanced in android, and that is logical. When I had ios I felt I didnt need widgets, and now they are completely useful: weather, my rss feeds, social updates, google search voice, music controls, radio controls, etc. And with this 4.8 HD screen widgets look awesome and you have no space problems.
Camera has many nice options, like taking pictures while recording or changing the video to lower resolutions and other stuff. Much better than the simple camera app in ios.
The settings toggles in the notification area are just essential now. I can enable and disable 3G in 2 seconds when in ios it took me longer (on stock obviously. I had my phone jailbreaked). There are many useful toggles like wifi, 3g, bluetooth (real BT thank god), power saving mode, synchronization, gps, etc. All are useful.
I would say ios is nicer looking and android is easier to use. Many people say ios is easier to use but thats wrong when I can do most stuff on android faster or in different ways to adapt my style. For example: multitasking. On ios pressing the hardware button to exit and app and double tap for multitasking and long press for siri will make the button less responsive in a short time. I know because it happened to me only 1 year after buying the iphone 4, so wheres that high quality apple presumes of? On android you have the capacitive buttons for back, which is faster and smoother, and I just installed a multitask shortcut similar to the one on the nexus for even faster and nicer multitasking. There are many other ways to customize this and many more things, so I decide the way I want to access things. Way better than ios.
The notification led is a great plus also. I wish iphone had it. This is the kind of stuff that made me switch to android. I feel apple wont include capacitive buttons or notification led in a very long time, if ever. This things are useful and not just cute introductions. They serve a purpose.
I cannot express enough how advance many of the stock apps are in android compared to ios. People app (with social updates and several accounts to sync), youtube app, maps (after trying google maps in android im certain apple will take a few more years minimum to catch up, if they even can, which I seriously doubt), gmail, photos (organize it they way you want and not depending of iTunes, which cannot even sync different subfolders of your photo library from your computer), etc. Really, ios apps are very, very far behind. Its ridiculous. Google chrome is way better than safari also, and I feel it will get even better with future updates, making safari feel so outdated.
There are incomprehensible limitations to ios that also made me jump ship. One example: uploading any type of file to my NAS, and not just pictures and videos like ios. The other day I downloaded on my SGS3 a subtitle from the web in rar, extracted the file with an app and uploaded to my NAS to watch a movie with it. Took me 2 minutes. Never could do this on iOS. This just shows you that ios is kind of a toy os. It needs to give users more power, but that is just a dream I guess. These phones are called smartphones for a reason, and should allow this kind of stuff. ios is like a cripple os. Even the system file manager is now essential to me. I use it every day to do several tasks, like move photos from one album to another, files from the internal memory to the SD card, deleting files, etc. Just like finder in Mac.
There are many, many things you can do with android that ios does not allow. It feels like you can do anything you need, and all this stuff is important nowadays.
The play store is even a better app than the app store. Im not talking about content, rather than the app itself, allowing swype gestures and multi-downloads and more stuff. You know whats awesome? Going to the play store on safari and downloading apps directly from there, which automatically sends them and installs them on the phone. This is a really cool feature.
Voice search and voice dictation is awesome also. Cant believe it took apple so long to introduce them with siri last year, but now with the new google search they are already ahead again. On the other hand, s voice on the SGS3 is really bad, way behind siri, so its almost not worth it besides making calls and setting alarms. Im waiting for the update to JB.
Another awesome feature is installing different keyboards. Swiftkey 3 and swype are miles ahead of the ios keyboard. Just another area where android is way better than ios.
So my conclusion is that android feels more like a true smart os than iOS, which now seems even more limited than when I had it. To me, android is better and way ahead of ios, but iphone is also a much much better phone than any android phone out there, but it also has problems like the deathgrip in iphone 4 and battery issues in the 4s, so no phone is perfect.
If you want a true powerful os android is the way to go. If you want a nice and simple os then ios is the better choice. Android is just growing at a much much faster pace than ios in hardware and software. The best choice in android is to go with the new nexus.
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I'd like to have more storage, and I'm eligible for an upgrade from AT&T. I might save the upgrade and wait for iPhone 5, but I don't see Apple putting a much larger screen on it, and I can't go back to having less than 1280x720 pixels any more.