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Comments
Rating
- Reception and call quality Other than changing the standards for wireless call bitrate, I don't think there's a way to make calls any crisper than they are on the iPhone 4S.
- Display Coming from a Galaxy Nexus with a 720p display, I thought I was going to a little bit of a downgrade screen wise. I was wrong. I forgot how amazing it looked.
- Battery life The phone has been on standby for 8 hours since unplugged, and I've used it for 1.75 hours and it's at 80%. Not horrible, but not incredible either.
- Camera The 8MP shooter in the 4S absolutely blows my Galaxy Nexus out of the water. They aren't even in the same realm. Low light performance is awesome.
- Ease of use It's the standard Apple experience. No prior knowledge necessary to pick up an iPhone and just start using it, unlike the Nexus which took a while to figure out
- Design and form factor It feels great in the hand, and Apple uses great materials. But, the design feels stale. Hopefully they'll rectify that with their next release.
- Portability (size / weight) The size is definitely pocketable - far more so than the Galaxy Nexus. It also has a very nice heft to it, like you're holding a quality piece of engineering.
- Media support As with all Apple products, media support is corralled into particular areas deemed appropriate by Apple. Only .mov or .mp4, for instance. No .mkv.
- Durability Being made out of glass, it's obviously prone to shattering. With screen protectors, its less of a worry, but it's certainly less durable than a plastic phone.
- Ecosystem (apps, accessories, etc.) Apple, by far, dominates Android when it comes to ecosystem. Way more quality apps, and way easier to find accessories for your device.
Detailed review
I noted in my Galaxy Nexus review that it was the best phone I've ever used, and that remains true. It's just not the most practical or easy to use phone I've owned, which are two of the main reasons I gave it up.
Apple has created an almost flawless ecosystem that demands quality and uniformity, and it took me a decent stint with Android to realize that those are more prized possessions to have in a phone than a big screen or an open operating system. The ability for Apple to deploy an update and have it adopted by 61% of users in 15 days (www.macrumors.com/2012/03/23/developer-sees-quick-...) is a great example of what I mean by quality and uniformity.
Android is a great platform that offers several features that I wish were in the iPhone: chiefly widgets and inter-app operability/sharing. But, it also has several bugs that would never have been allowed to exist in an iPhone as long as they have with the Nexus.
I'm going to miss the big, beautiful screen, the instant information delivered by widgets, and the feeling of hackability than my Nexus brought with it. But, I'm moving into an ecosystem where usability and uniformity is king, and I'm glad to be back.
Apple has created an almost flawless ecosystem that demands quality and uniformity, and it took me a decent stint with Android to realize that those are more prized possessions to have in a phone than a big screen or an open operating system. The ability for Apple to deploy an update and have it adopted by 61% of users in 15 days (www.macrumors.com/2012/03/23/developer-sees-quick-...) is a great example of what I mean by quality and uniformity.
Android is a great platform that offers several features that I wish were in the iPhone: chiefly widgets and inter-app operability/sharing. But, it also has several bugs that would never have been allowed to exist in an iPhone as long as they have with the Nexus.
I'm going to miss the big, beautiful screen, the instant information delivered by widgets, and the feeling of hackability than my Nexus brought with it. But, I'm moving into an ecosystem where usability and uniformity is king, and I'm glad to be back.
good review!
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idolatrare