The iPhone 4: How Does it Stack Up?

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With the relatively recent announcement of the iPhone 4's release later this month and an increasingly Apple-oriented office, it felt appropriate to give the next generation of the phone that started the smart phone explosion a bit of a comparison with one of its competitors - the Nexus One from Google.

We've talked about the Nexus One before, but didn't at the time pit it against the current generation iPhone. Similarly, there's a few newer Android-based phones slated to be released in the coming months, however without official specifications being released we felt it was inappropriate to compare these with the iPhone 4. For now, we'll just have to make do with comparing Google's flagship offering with Apple's newest addition.

Why the Nexus One? Put simply, Android is one of the biggest competitors Apple faces right now and it's starting to show. For the first time ever it's been reported that Android-based smart phone sales in the US have surged past that of the iPhone, with 28% to 21% sales figures in the first three months of this year.

So, let's have a look at Apple's latest offering versus Google's flagship phone.

When Bigger Isn't Better

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The iPhone 4 is Apple's smallest phone yet. With a height of under a centimeter (9.3mm), Apple’s definitely shown that they've learned something in the past three years of the iPhone's evolution. In addition to being thinner than predecessors, it also looks to be more hardy – the screen is touted to be ultra-durable and scratch-resistant, and the outer edge sports an aluminium band which, while being aesthetically pleasing also doubles as the phone's two antennas.

On the other hand, the Nexus is slightly thicker than the iPhone 4. Although it's obvious that the slick curves and polished look that make the iPhone so appealing have been adopted for Google's offering, this is a bit of a break away from previous offerings from HTC (who actually make the handset for Google). It looks like a good choice – it's hard to deny the obvious appeal of the Nexus. To take things one step further, Google also lets you add a touch of personalisation to your Nexus – they'll engrave a short message of your choice on the back as part of your purchase.

Displays and Weight

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While it’s larger than the iPhone, the Nexus is slightly lighter – just 7 grams less. The larger size however does mean a slightly bigger screen for the Nexus, however actual resolution is won out by the iPhone with a gorgeous 640 x 960 px display. This difference is definitely noticeable for anyone who uses their phone heavily for browsing, email or gaming.

Out in daylight, the iPhone's screen seems to perform much better than the Nexus, the reverse however is true in low-light situations – the Nexus' display really seems to shine here. Unfortunately, the downside to the Nexus' display is it's quite draining on the battery at full brightness, with a little tweaking this can become less of a concern.

Multimedia Capabilities

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Stepping up from the 3GS's 3 megapixel camera, the iPhone 4 is on par with the Nexus in this department, edging it out slightly when it comes to video capture, which it does much more smoothly under the right lighting conditions. One big loss for the iPhone, however, is the well-publicised lack of Flash support which the newer Android 2.2 (Froyo) will soon provide. Unfortunately for Apple enthusiasts, it doesn't seem like they'll be gaining Flash support at any point in the near future, meaning their web experience may be limited to whatever Safari can provide in terms of HTML5.

Having mentioned browser, we should have a quick look at what these two phones offer in terms of web experience. The iPhone has its usual offering of Apple's own Safari, which has excellent rendering capabilities and scores 100/100 for ACID3 compliance. By comparison, Android's default Webkit based browser only scores 93/100 for ACID3. To put this all in perspective: Internet Explorer 6 - long the bane of web developers – only scores a 12. IE7 and 8 aren’t much better, scoring a 14 and 20 respectively. Android's saving grace here, however, is the ability to replace the default browser with something more to your liking – Dolphin is a beautiful and zippy alternative, Opera Mini is also available, and Firefox Mobile is well on the way.

One major reason for this being the case is Apple's insistence that developers use Apple's own Javascript engine, or none at all. Some of you may point out that Opera Mini is available on the iPhone – and you're right – however Opera does not render any Javascript on the client device, pages are downloaded pre-rendered from Opera's servers. As we've seen with Chrome on a desktop platform, the underlying efficiency of a Javascript engine can be a determining factor in how well a browser can run overall, and being tied to what Apple provides simply doesn't seem like a good idea for some.

Market vs App Store

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The Apple App Store is currently reported to provide over 200,000 apps. Conversely, the Android Market currently only has about 70,000 apps. For a vast majority of productivity-based applications, you should be able to find what you're looking for on both platforms. In terms of entertainment, the iPhone wins out for the moment with a vast array of games compared to Android, more recently this gap has begun to close.

In terms of provided services, Google is a clear leader – and yes, while most of this is available for the iPhone as well in terms of downloaded apps, they can't compare in terms of performance for Google-provided services. Gmail, Maps, Voice, all of these and more are available natively on Android devices – and if you don't like the default variants Google provides, you can always replace them!

Another key point to note is that Android will allow you to load third party apps – it's not necessary to go through the Market at all. iPhone users are unfortunately restricted to only purchasing apps through the App Store, unless they perform a 'jailbreak' on their phone. Such an action also voids any support from your phone provider, so should be done at the user's risk!

While it may not affect your choice in phone as an end user, you'll almost certainly care as a developer – your ability to get your work published in the appropriate distribution channel. On the Android platform you'll simply need to sign up as a developer with a once-off registration fee of $25US, know Java, use your own IDE (there's plugins for Eclipse if you are thus-inclined) and have an Android device to test on –  the freely available SDK provides an emulator to test on.

On the iPhone, however, you'll need to join the developer program ($99US), sign a contract with Apple, have a development platform running OS X, and plenty of patience once you get around to submitting your app to the App Store. There's been a number of publishers who have experienced the frustration of Apple's tight and often inconsistent approval process and have simply left the platform in disgust. Oh, and if you're planning on running the app you wrote only on your phone, you still need to pay $99US to do so. Yes, it's free to do so on Andoid.

Really, App Store vs Android Market comes down to 'what Apple approves' vs 'what the community approves'. While the Apple approval process aims to protect users by filtering out 'bad' applications, it has the side effect of limiting what developers can and can't do.

Overall Performance

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One aspect where the iPhone's engineering shines is overall performance. Compared to another phone with a similar specification, the iPhone's A4 processor will generally win out in terms of raw responsiveness. This is due in large part to the package on package, system-on-a-chip design whereby RAM modules are physically 'stacked' on top of the processor, helping both with performance as well as reducing power requirements and meaning the phone overall gains greater battery life.

Battery life in general is much better on the iPhone 4 due to the better management of background tasks and the operating system's ability to switch off unused services to save power. Android is, however making strides in the latest release of its operating system (2.2, Froyo) which does much the same – but while also reducing background process overhead it also increases overall performance, with some sources citing up to a 450% increase in processing performance.

In terms of future expansion you're stuck with the 16gb of internal storage on the iPhone, unless you replace the unit completely with a brand new 32gb variant. The Nexus One is much friendlier in this regard, allowing you to replace the 4gb microSD card that’s provided with anything up to 32gb – or use more than one if you want to truck around a collection of music, videos or other content with you.

The Verdict?

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Ultimately, the decision comes down to the type of user you are. The iPhone is a very polished experience, from the physical unit, to the software and ultimately the downloadable applications. Heavy integration with iTunes means synchronising your music with your phone is simple, and many of the services available from Google are also available via the iPhone, such as Maps. Everything on the iPhone is slick – nearly every action is accompanied by some form of smooth transition and the UI simply has that extra level of shine compared with Android. Would you really expect anything else though, given Apple have been at the UI game for... how long?

With this said, however, Android is making leaps and bounds to catch up in terms of user-friendliness. You may never have an experience that looks as tightly integrated as that of an iPhone, but the tradeoff is that you're able to make the experience what you want. Don't like your browser? Replace it with Dolphin. Dislike GMail? Replace it with K-9. Want a better music player? Grab MixZing. Need more room for your music? Go grab an extra microSD card (or two!).

So really, the choice is yours – if you're more about multimedia and you don't care too much about your web experience and are ok with Apple dictating what is and isn't appropriate for you to use, grab an iPhone. Otherwise, if you prefer freedom with your smart phone, look towards the Android platform – more manufacturers and more flexibility in development for the Android will mean better quality, although it may take longer to show. Also, let's face it – you won't need to sell your home, family and your soul to be part of the Apple flock!

Comparison between Apple iPhone 4 and Google Nexus One

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	iPhone 4	Nexus One
Release Date	June 24th, 2010	Jan 5th, 2010
Size	115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm	119 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm
Weight	137g	130g
Display	640 x 960 px 3.5 inches	480 x 800 px 3.7 inches
Storage	16 gb (Not Upgradable)	4 gb (Upgradeable to 32gb)
Network - 2G	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Network - 3G	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100	HSPDA 900 / 1700 / 2100 HSPDA 850 / 1900 / 2100
WiFi	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes	Yes
Camera	5 MP (LED Flash)	5 MP (LED Flash)
Video	720p @ 30fps	720p @ 20fps
CPU	Apple A4 Processor (1GHz)	1GHz Snapdragon ARM
RAM	512 mb	512 mb
OS	iOS 4	Android 2.1 (Eclair)
Browser	Safari	Android Browser (Replaceable)
Stand-By	300h 2G / 300h 3G	290h 2G / 250h 3G
Talk Time	14h 2G / 7h 3G	10h 2G / 7h 3G
Music Time	40h	20h
Price	$1,099 AU	$849 AU