In a previous post I briefly explained why I decided to give iOS and iPhone 5 a chance after years of using Android devices. It has been a bit more than a week since I got my iPhone 5 and I've used it extensively since then. I have to say that I am fairly impressed with it so far.
Hardware Case and Design: it's very light (and I mean about half as heavy as Galaxy Nexus) and feels super well built and durable. It feels right in my hands. The buttons are well placed and tucked away. Definitely an outstanding example of form and function.
Screen: in one word, gorgeous. Both, when it's on and when it's off. When it's off, it melds beautifully with the case design (at least with the Black version), un-intrusive and well placed. When it's on, it's even more impressive: tack-sharp, well balanced colors, contrast and saturation. Under direct sun light, it's surprisingly useful, you can still read text well and see web sites and apps (mostly) alright.
Battery Life: of all the features, I have to admit the one that has impressed me the most has been the battery life. After heavy 3G/4G usage, WiFi, camera both still and video, a few games, mobile banking plus my usual mobile activities, I charge my iPhone 5, literally, once every two days. That is approximately three times better than my Thunderbolt and about two times better than the Galaxy Nexus under similar usage.
Camera: as a photography enthusiast, the camera on my phone is a very important feature. I was thoroughly disappointed on all the cameras of all the Android phones I owned. The shutter lag made it almost impossible to shoot anything that moved, the auto-focus was always way off, shutter speed was entirely too slow and exposure would be easily thrown off (and no way to override any of these settings). The iPhone 5's camera, on the other hand, has been great. Near zero-shutter lag, auto-focus works well, not excellent, but good enough for most of my usage, shutter speed is much better (although it could be improved) and auto exposure has proven to work about as good as a point-and-shoot camera. So, overall, I'm pleased with the iPhone 5's camera -- but I will not be completely satisfied until (some day) I can manually control every aspect of the on-board camera.
iOS: is a very opinionated OS, but from my experience thus far, I'd say it has a reasonable and well thought out opinion. A beautiful, simple and intuitive UI, predictable gesture and navigation patterns, what you need right in front of you, anything you don't is stashed away. It feels very snappy and seamlessly integrated with most apps. One thing iOS lacks that Android OS is excellent at, in my opinion, is sharing assets among apps. For instance, in the Camera Roll I cannot select a picture or video to be opened with another app, be it Instagram or Pixlr and so forth. Instead, I have to go directly to the app I want to use and open the asset from within it. It's a minor inconvenience, but it's one feature I sure miss from the Android world.
A valid argument could be (and has been) made about iOS's lack of user customization and why Android OS is better in this regard; but, I'm not big on UI customization neither on my PCs nor on my phones, so the lack of UI customization is not all that important to me. Although I can see how it will be a hinderance for those who do.
Since I don't use and didn't use Apple Maps, I cannot comment on that fiasco, but I imagine that would have been annoying and disappointing to those who rely on Apple Maps. But Google Maps works fantastic, and, again, its look-and-feel is much better than Google Maps for Android (ICS and Jelly Bean).
I hope this review will be useful to those researching before making their minds one way or the other. Comments/feedback from zealots on either side of the Apple vs. Google (imaginary war) will be deleted.
No comments:
Post a Comment