I assume most of view reading this article already have a favorite and I don't plan to change your minds. But I think at least it's fun to give each side more details on why their option is better. So here are the pros and cons of owning any of them:
Look and feel
Now, most of you will always say that Apple's design is the best and you can't show your face in the world if you don't have an iPhone welded to your ear, but here are real arguments for both sides:
Apple IPhone PROs
- Slick design, very intuitive and easy to use.
- Elegant and clean
- One button does all layout
- Quality multi-touch and quality screen
- Marketed as original design
Apple IPhone CONs
- Not-so original design
- Each new model is a larger and thinner model of the previous, not much creativity from such a great design
Android PROs
- A very huge range of sizes and designs
- Both robust and elegant models, to your choice
- Touch-screen and QWERTY models.
- With and without detachable batteries
- Aluminum, titanium or plastic phones
Android CONs
- Too many options for the average user, can be hard to choose from
- Both high quality and low quality designs available
- Some designers have gone out of their way with creativity. making usability a second priority (eg. Motorola Flipout)
Interface and speed
From an interface point of view both have strong arguments, but if how IOS looks is not to your liking, you should go to Android, because at least Android can be customized to your liking.
Apple IPhone PROs
- Easy to use interface.
- All apps are there on your main screen
- All notifications grouped in the notification center.
- Quick access to most of the things you need
- Good computation speed, although all models have lower hardware specs than their Android counterparts
Apple IPhone CONs
- Hardly any customization is available
- Going through settings can be a pain if you are not used to the interface as most apps don't handle their settings internally
- Going through the open tasks manager can be a pain.
- Deleting items, writing can be a pain if you were born anything else but piano fingers
- With each IOS update, which is somewhat mandatory if you want your favorite apps to work properly the system works slower and slower
Android PROs
- Every customization is available through third party apps or widgets
- Good interface speed with Vanilla Android or with an interface build for speed
- Easily manage current tasks and settings
- Decentralized apps settings
- Quick access to things you need and things you don't
- High computation power, going up to 3 times the power of an Apple counterpart for the same money
Android CONs
- Interface can be lagging if you use too many widgets or a proprietary interface usually clogged (eg. Samsung's interfaces)
- The system starts also lagging if you are not careful what services your apps are installing
- The memory management is in the hands of the user so although you can do much you can also ruin your phone
Accessories
Apple IPhone PROs
- High quality accessories
Apple IPhone CONs
- Expensive accessories
- Only proprietary accessories are recommended
- No SD card available on any model
Android PROs
- SD cards available on many models, supporting from 2GB up to 256Gb of additional memory
- Many accessories available on the market
- With the introduction of PROJECT ARA, everything is modularized
Android CONs
- Low quality accessories available that can break your phone
- Some accessories might be compatible only to some models
- You need to research things before doing a purchase
IOS vs ANDROID
Generally all the above PROs and CONs are related to the operating systems used or what the producer thought would be a good idea, both as hardware or software enhancements. IOS was launched as iPhone OS initially, which is a mobile centric, touch based version of the OS X, so it is build on a UNIX infrastructure. All coding done for IOS must be done on OS X with XCODE support. The memory management of the system is very good, but access to core libraries is extremely limited and the application review process for the App Store is a pain in the coders backside.
Android is Google's mobile OS, build over a LINUX kernel. The memory management is also good, unless the memory is being leaked by non-optimal build apps or interfaces. All apps run as their own sandbox user with limited access to the system, unless the phone is rooted and root access is provided to the application. The caching for ANDROID is done with Dalvik caching, being a swap based interface with a high access rate. Currently this is being worked on for improvements.
IOS apps during development are limited to be installed on a maximum of 100 devices, which UDIDs must be registered in the provisioning profile, one by one. Over internet deployment is possible to such a device if the UDID was previously provided, otherwise the IPA's provisioning profile must be created when the IPA is installed on the device.
Android apps during development or if not using Google Play as a deployment services can be packaged into APK and deployed to any Android phone as long as un-signed developer installation is permitted. This feature can be activated or deactivated at any time from the Settings.
IOS PROs
- Clean apps, each of them needs to pass a very restrictive approval process.
- Fluid apps, with very few or no crashes
- Very stable operating system
IOS CONs
- Usually apps are quite costly as apps supporting ads are quite limited on the deployment process
- Apps are restricted to what they can do to be approved, usually the developer or the client being forced to do changes to their business model to encompass Apple's requests
- Very limited to what you can do and change, from a configuration point of view
ANDROID PROs
- Accessible system and easy development
- Easy application review
- Easy Google Play deployment
- A huge number of apps available, which is growing daily
ANDROID CONs
- Lagging due to badly developed apps and interfaces
- You need to research the market to be able to get the best apps as it's quite hard to choose
- Rooting is dangerous and it opens your system for intrusion
Now please do comment and provide your opinion on which is best (IOS vs Android) bellow and, if you are not sure, if you are not very secure about how to use a smartphone, get an IPhone, otherwise choose something that will let you be creative like an Android or something else.
image source: 9gag.com