Battle of the Smartphone Platforms: Android VS Windows Phone

[Arcmanov]

...but you've missed my point.

You've used how many Samsung  Galaxy devices?  One?  The Galaxy Note (N7000), am I right?
A lot has changed since the Galaxy Note 1/S2 hardware.


All those 'issues' you rant about needlessly are now a thing of the past.

... and I've been using very fluid Touchwiz-based ROMs for the S3, Note 1 and 2 since 2012, so again... not having used a Samsung flagship device for so long, you're not in a position to comment.  You're basing your whole philosophy on 2 year-old hardware/firmware.





Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | SwiftKey | Tapatalk 4

[Spazosaurus]

I hear you buddy. True, I havent used a Sammy device personally since the Note 1. Hardware has changed and gotten more powerful but the OS has also become more bloated which is an undeniable fact. Whether this is a good thing or not will vary depending on who you ask. If you ask me, its bad. Ask you, its good.

I'm not saying that the experience isnt fast and fluid though. What I would like to propose is that between a Samsung device and one from another less "feature intensive" implementation of android (Sony or HTC) will have superior performance on similar hardware.

Again, it all depends on user preference. You want fancy/unnecessary (different view depending on who you ask) features at the expense of slightly less performance or less additions in favour of a lil more performance. Personally, i'd always take the latter.

[MessiaaH]

Having used a note 2, I can say that the android "lag" is still very much there, and still very much annoying. Based on what Wyatt and spaz saying, like the latest nexus devices solve this issue. Still need to see it for myself. But if Samsung bloat is d reason that device still jitters and lags, then meh...

@Nokia drive, glad to see its working fine now, I was about to comment on my experience and saw u updated your post. It works brilliant for me, and has detailed maps of the Caribbean that I wasn't expecting. I used that thing to find a remote beach in Tobago that my father had find when he was young and couldn't find it back. Whip out drive and boom. Also works great in Cayman for addresses, find all my clients house address easy with drive. Voice navigation epic too when driving.

@Notifications. The problem with whatsapp notification is indeed annoying, but the OS itself has that issue. It have one centralized volume and notifications for everything. This is going to change in wp 8.1, they adding the notification features and systems and UI to match android. So that one coming soon.... Also, whatsapp in a rapid release cycle trying to bring features up to par, they only recently added the ability to send multi pics and previously recorded videos. They coming to come, but they release updates all the time plugging features as they go on. Right now to quell notifications, I does just mute the whatsapp group I question till I ready.

@Sammy features: Nokia devices sport those features as well as of GDR3. I.e., flip to silence, wave to display brief status, double tap to wake, etc.

If you are using Facebook, use the MS beta version, it has all the latest features etc. The standard version lil behind īn functionality. Although I think the latest release plugged some features.

Glad to see wp getting a fair shake, and yea I know it missing plenty still, so the fact you guys still like it is impressive. When 8.1 hit it should bring the platform features more onpar with android to combine with what is already good about it. At that time, ur impressions go be even more interesting. And o yea, the devices alyuh own now, will be running 8.1 when it release.

[Spazosaurus]

Oh niceee I now seeing the glance settings. Nice. Double tap is sweet as well but with impact on battery life. Sweet. The saga continues.

[MessiaaH]

Yea man check out all d settings, it have features disabled by default up in they. Make sure and set ur auto upload settings to max on SkyDrive too. That way I does never have to plug in my phone. Anything I take waiting max quality on SkyDrive.

[TriniXaeno]

...but you've missed my point.

You've used how many Samsung  Galaxy devices?  One?  The Galaxy Note (N7000), am I right?
A lot has changed since the Galaxy Note 1/S2 hardware.


All those 'issues' you rant about needlessly are now a thing of the past.

... and I've been using very fluid Touchwiz-based ROMs for the S3, Note 1 and 2 since 2012, so again... not having used a Samsung flagship device for so long, you're not in a position to comment.  You're basing your whole philosophy on 2 year-old hardware/firmware.

I have used both an S3 and a Note 2...so my view is a lot more current than spaz and I concur that the nexus 5 is indeed faster and more fluid with the stock android OS than touchwizz.

That is no doubt the reason the nexus 5 is coming out on top of samsung's offerings in "top 10 lists" all over the internet.

In fact, my kids are kicking dog with the Note 2 right now playing level Angry Birds Go. I regret nothing (Thanks again Spaz)

@ w1n, nice review. Definitely cements the Moto G as the value leader. Was waiting eagerly to hear your views on it.

[Arcmanov]

... ah, but you see, my experience was significantly different to yours.  I 'upgraded' mine with a custom ROM/Kernel the day after I got it, so the 'lag' people speak of was nonexistent.

Even on stock, there was no 'lag'.  Don't know how people seeing 'lag' where there was none.

...and the people who buying a Nexus 5 certainly weren't looking at/for a Note 3 anyway.
I don't think you'll find anyone who would have traded in a Note 3 for a Nexus 5.

I can't compare Touchwiz to stock Nexus, having never actually used a Nexus device, but the Custom CM ROMs give me a pretty good idea of the speed.

What I don't agree with is the assertion that Touchwiz is 'bloated' and 'slow'.
As of 2012, especially with Android 4.1.2, 4.2, and 4.3,this simply isn't the case.

If you guys find the stock Nexus faster, then fine, but stop spreading misinformation.





Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | SwiftKey | Tapatalk 4

[MessiaaH]

Interestingly enough I hear all tech sites complaining about touchwiz bloat.

[Spazosaurus]

Tapatalk on WP can't share topics. That's an important feature they miss there boy. Still, the app is free on WP so I can forgive this oversight...for now.

[MessiaaH]

Tapatalk on WP can't share topics. That's an important feature they miss there boy. Still, the app is free on WP so I can forgive this oversight...for now.

U know I dont even use that app, I does just use IE. Go have to check it out.

[MessiaaH]

Time to break out the champagne and celebrate the first winner of the Smartphone Champions League, the Nokia Lumia 1520. The first Lumia phablet had a lot to overcome some high-profile challengers, including its Lumia 1020 sibling at the end.



We’d like to thank the dedicated fans that swayed the results and several times gave us some surprising turnarounds.

We had no influence over the results, other than selecting the top 32 devices in our database, the winners in each round were determined by your votes. It was exciting to see fans band together to support their device of choice. Keep in mind this was all for fun, so please don’t take it personally if yours didn’t win.

There will be a second tournament at some point in the future with new devices and probably some of the old ones, so you might get a second chance.

Let’s recap how the Nokia Lumia 1520 got to the final. It started off with relatively easy marks like the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini and the Lumia 720. The first real challenger came in the face of the Sony Xperia Z1. Then at the semi-finals the Lumia 1520 was back to sibling rivalry, facing off against the Lumia 520 (this device alone is a third of the Windows Phone market).

[MessiaaH]

...

Our other semifinalist, the Lumia 1020 had a much tougher path – the very first match was against the highly popular samsnug Galaxy Note 3, then came the Moto G, the Galaxy S III (a favorite from last year) and finally the Nexus 5. There was a rally behind the Nexus, but the Lumia eventually prevailed, only to lose in the final round to its newer sibling.

http://blog.gsmarena.com/smartphone-champions-league-the-winner/

------------------------

Boom! The 1020 bolt out some strong competition boy, seems that camera technology Nokia has is very attractive. If that same 41mp sensor was in d 1520 eh, ways, but the 20mp variant epic still.

Over 1 Million votes cast by the public, on an impartial site,  haters could hate now GG Nokia, WP.
Your move MS, Nokia did their part. (No wonder MS buy them).

[TriniXaeno]

lol, arc you're guilty of the same thing you're accusing Spaz off.

By your own admission, you quickly installed custom roms. I lived on the stock device from day one with my Note 2. Likewise, the S3 was stock samsung experience immc.

The nexus 5, out of the box, wtfpwns these two phones (imo of course, though judging from reviews and awards online, a lot of people seem to agree)

[TriniXaeno]

It's the little things, like sliding to call/text from the contact list, turn over to mute, hover your hand over the proximity sensor for a quick status view.

I don't miss any of those at all.

In fact, I have never turned over my phone to mute....ever.

However, today I did come across one omission on the Nexus. The ability to rename photos after you take them. This is a simple matter on the Samsung Galaxy devices but the option was nowhere to be found on the stock android phone/camera app.

Luckily, someone made a plugin to fix that.

Creatively named the "Gallery Rename Plugin"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tatuas.android.grp

Installed a few minutes ago and works. A bit odd that they stuck the functionality under the "share" option but I'm not complaining.

On the fly renaming immc

[Spazosaurus]

Advantage Windows phone: The ability to display last whatsapp messages on lock screen. At a glance I can see what the last couple message was so I could decide whether to unlock to view or not. Also, news reader called Weave  is pretty good. Aggregates from a variety of news sources and piles them in one place. Of course there are many of these on Android but this has the added benefit of delivering random photos from aggregated articles to your lockscreen on a daily basis...a simple yet subtle feature that I wish my Android had.

[MessiaaH]

I didn't even know whatsapp coulda do that lolol, checking it out now.

Also, check out next gen reader, their is a windows 8 version as well. I use feedly to keep articles in sync. Weave should be getting SkyDrive syncing with win8 version soon. The free weave should already have that, paid version delayed.

Edit: That whatsapp feature mustbe added in a update and I didn't notice nah.

[TriniXaeno]

Not sure I'd want that spaz???

What about privacy? Whatsapp messages on your lock screen is a bit risky you don't think?

I used an rss reader on my note 2 but it was probably the single most crashed app. Have yet to install one on the nexus as a result.

Suspect the reader crashed due to burgeoning database size because it was pretty stable at first but degraded into a crashfest overtime.

Just using tapatalk for the forums at the moment.

[MessiaaH]

Whatsapp messages on my lockscreen working Bess, and I have no privacy issues concerning it to worry about.

As for news reader, I have hundreds of articles syncing at any given time using next gen reader and it never crash. Maybe see if there is an android version of that app available.

[Spazosaurus]

@ privacy, it looks like the last received message only that's being displayed on the lock screen. I wouldnt argue that it is or isnt a privacy issue because views will vary depending on who you ask.

I would have liked some more customization options though.

[TriniXaeno]

You go ahead. When some out of timing red 'oman send you a romantic text and your misses sees it, don't call me for back up.

You on your own. lol

@ messiaah, will look into it...but I know even on my desktop, newsreaders could get a little out of hand as the DB size increases. Not sure if I want to go down that road on the nexus since it does have considerably less storage than my Note 2 did (without the additional sd card)