the last word

Photography meets digital computer technology. Photography wins -- most of the time.

  • site home
  • blog home
  • galleries
  • contact
  • underwater
  • the bleeding edge
You are here: Home / The Bleeding Edge / Droid X vs iPhone: preliminary conclusions

Droid X vs iPhone: preliminary conclusions

August 18, 2010 JimK Leave a Comment

The Droid X appears to be a worthy competitor to the iPhone. It is a less mature product, with releases to the OS coming thick and fast, and it is a bit less polished.

The philosophical difference between the two OSs appears to be similar to the philosophies of the two companies: Apple’s approach sacrifices control for simplicity, and wishes to control all aspects of the user experience: the hardware, the GUI, and the apps. Google takes a more cavalier approach: let others design the hardware, let the user control more things, and let the marketplace sort it out. The two companies agree on control of the application purchase experience.

Droid X negatives:

  • The iPhone music player is prettier and more functional.
  • There are a lot more iPhone apps available, although, with Android now outselling iPhones, that could change. The iPhone apps that are available appear more mature.
  • The controls on Apple’s own apps are better thought out than on the apps that ship with the Droid X. The cute rolling wheels to set the date and time of an appointment, for example, have no counterpart anywhere near as elegant on the Droid X.
  • The OS communications on the iPhone appears to be somewhat more reliable. Setup is easier on the Apple products.

Droid X pluses:

  • Because of the widgets, the Droid X can be set up to be prettier and more convenient to use than the iPhone.
  • The interchangeable battery on the Droid X is a big plus, and there is supposed to be an extended-life version available, but I can’t find anyone who has it in stock. Battery life on both phones is about the same: marginal to get through a whole day. The Droid X does charge quite rapidly.
  • The big screen is a joy. The bigger virtual keyboard is a huge improvement. I don’t miss the extra resolution that the iPhone 4 provides.
  • Verizon. ‘Nuff said.
  • The ability to serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot is nice. I initially thought that it was a waste of twenty bucks a month, then I realized that I could drop my thirty-dollar AT&T subscription on my iPad if I used it. I haven’t tried it yet, though.
  • The haptic feedback is surprisingly useful, especially in bright light.
  • The gesture-based device unlocking is fast and convenient, although more prone to a bystander seeing the unlocking information than entering keystrokes.
  • Performance is good, except with Flash. I haven’t seen any evidence of memory leaks like on the iPhone OS, but it’s early days.

Overall, if I could get it on Verizon, I’d rather have an iPhone. But hardware and software choices dictate network choices, and I’m happy with the Droid X.

The Bleeding Edge

← More Droid X OOBE Droid X vs iPhone: how many buttons? →

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

February 2023
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728  
« Jan    

Articles

  • About
    • Patents and papers about color
    • Who am I?
  • Good 35-70 MF lens
  • How to…
    • Backing up photographic images
    • How to change email providers
  • Lens screening testing
    • Equipment and Software
    • Examples
      • Bad and OK 200-600 at 600
      • Excellent 180-400 zoom
      • Fair 14-30mm zoom
      • Good 100-200 mm MF zoom
      • Good 100-400 zoom
      • Good 100mm lens on P1 P45+
      • Good 120mm MF lens
      • Good 18mm FF lens
      • Good 24-105 mm FF lens
      • Good 24-70 FF zoom
      • Good 35 mm FF lens
      • Good 60 mm lens on IQ3-100
      • Good 63 mm MF lens
      • Good 65 mm FF lens
      • Good 85 mm FF lens
      • Good and bad 25mm FF lenses
      • Good zoom at 24 mm
      • Marginal 18mm lens
      • Marginal 35mm FF lens
      • Mildly problematic 55 mm FF lens
      • OK 16-35mm zoom
      • OK 60mm lens on P1 P45+
      • OK Sony 600mm f/4
      • Pretty good 16-35 FF zoom
      • Pretty good 90mm FF lens
      • Problematic 400 mm FF lens
      • Tilted 20 mm f/1.8 FF lens
      • Tilted 30 mm MF lens
      • Tilted 50 mm FF lens
      • Two 15mm FF lenses
    • Found a problem – now what?
    • Goals for this test
    • Minimum target distances
      • MFT
      • APS-C
      • Full frame
      • Small medium format
    • Printable Siemens Star targets
    • Target size on sensor
      • MFT
      • APS-C
      • Full frame
      • Small medium format
    • Test instructions — postproduction
    • Test instructions — reading the images
    • Test instructions – capture
    • Theory of the test
    • What’s wrong with conventional lens screening?
  • Previsualization heresy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Recommended photographic web sites
  • Using in-camera histograms for ETTR
    • Acknowledgments
    • Why ETTR?
    • Normal in-camera histograms
    • Image processing for in-camera histograms
    • Making the in-camera histogram closely represent the raw histogram
    • Shortcuts to UniWB
    • Preparing for monitor-based UniWB
    • A one-step UniWB procedure
    • The math behind the one-step method
    • Iteration using Newton’s Method

Category List

Recent Comments

  • Brian Olson on Fuji GFX 100S exposure strategy, M and A modes
  • JimK on Picking a macro lens
  • JimK on Picking a macro lens
  • Glenn Whorrall on Picking a macro lens
  • JimK on What pitch do you need to scan 6×6 TMax 100?
  • Hatzipavlis Peter on What pitch do you need to scan 6×6 TMax 100?
  • JeyB on Internal focusing 100ish macro lenses
  • JimK on How focus-bracketing systems work
  • Garry George on How focus-bracketing systems work
  • Rhonald on Format size and image quality

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Daily Dish Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Unless otherwise noted, all images copyright Jim Kasson.