After over four years of using an iPhone daily (first a 3G and then an iPhone 4), for the past month I’ve had the pleasure of using the Google-sanctioned LG Nexus 4 as my work phone. Trying to have a positive angle on things, I put together a short list of things I like about both OS’s:
Things I like about Android
- The freedom to choose my default browser/camera/whatever
- Third-party apps are less restricted by the OS
- The notification system (mostly)
- Superior autosuggest system (both in the stock keyboard and alternatives such as SwiftKey)
- Widgets
- Google Now (have no experience of Siri though, since it wasn’t supported on the iPhone 4)
- Integration into Google’s ecosystem and support for multiple Google accounts
- Automatic app updates
Things I like about iOS
- Better scrolling and touch responsiveness in general (not sure how much this is a hardware issue)
- Consistent, well thought-out UI
- Despite #2 in the previous list, overall better selection of quality apps
- Better default lockscreen notifications
- Seamless integration with Mac OS X
A few words about the hardware
A big part of the experience is of course defined by the hardware. The Nexus 4 is a very powerful but elegant phone, and I have found myself truly enjoying the big 4.7″ screen. Surfing the web and reading articles definitely feels less cramped, but I couldn’t imagine going any bigger, at least on a day-to-day phone. The camera on the Nexus 4 is OK, clearly better than the iPhone 3G but worse than the iPhone 4.