To start this post off, I have to admit something. I’m writing this using an Apple Wireless Keyboard, connected to a MacBook Pro, attached to an Apple Cinema Display. I just corrected a spelling mistake on Pages ’09 with a click of my Apple Mouse. I have owned and used an iPhone 3G for two years. It was a wonderful device that changed the way I consumed media. It’s fair to say that I love Apple products. It’s also fair to say that I’m a prime target for the fourth generation of Apple’s iPhone.

Having said this, it may come as a surprise to hear that when I chose to upgrade my phone, I chose a HTC Desire running Android 2.1. This is the best phone for me that money can buy.

But “WAIT” I hear a crowd of (imaginary) Apple lovers shout! Android is inferior to iOS! It’s common knowledge that people are broadcasting over Twitter and blogs. And that’s one of subjects I wish to address with this post in an attempt to disrupt the echo-chamber. Because of all the irrational hyped-up giddy FUD fellow Apple lovers are spreading, I’d like to put information out there on why, if you have a similar use-case to me, the iPhone 4 isn’t the best smart phone. I also want to bring light on the fact that the iPhone 4 has a very standard set of hardware when compared to other flagship smart phones.

Here’s my evaluation of the HTC Desire vs an iPhone 4: The UI is more pleasant on the iPhone 4, there are more transition and animation effects available to iOS applications, and more games are currently available on the app store. The HTC Desire using Android has a more functional OS, more services available to its users, a better notification system, a better display, and a lower price point. Overall, the HTC Desire is the better phone (caveat: for my use-case).

So grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and read a rational comparison of two smart phones currently on the market – the iPhone 4 and the HTC Desire. Warning: this is a long post.

Let’s start with the hardware.

The display

Before comparing phones let’s establish what is important in a smart phone display and why. I’ve identified three areas that together have a good overall impact on how good a smart phone display can be.

Contrast ratio	In my eyes, this is one of the most important factors of contemporary displays. Simply put, this factor determines how black black is. If the contrast ratio is low, black will be a shade of grey, if it’s high, black will be closer to actual black. This also has an effect on every other colour on the display (more on this in the ‘colour’ attribute below). The higher the contrast the better.
Density of pixels	When using a device that is held so close you your eyes, it’s important that the density of pixels is high enough so that applications on the phone can be used to their full potential. Photos look better, text can be more easily read, applications have more real-estate to use, etc. The higher the better.
Colour	When your eyes resolve a colour, they compare it to other colours on the display. This is why contrast ratio is so important in combination with this attribute – the black that your eyes are comparing to the red should be closest to the actual colours as possible. If you’re comparing a shade of grey to a washed out red, this does not produce an optimal result. The higher the range of colours, the better.

At the beginning of January 2010, Google and HTC released the Nexus One. This smart phone had a high density AMOLED that blew the display on the iPhone 3G S out of the water. The most striking thing about the display was the vibrant colours and massive contrast ratio.

The nexus One also had a much higher density display that brought with it the idea that you could still read text on a website when you zoomed out. This display is still being used in flagship Android devices seven months later (including the HTC Desire).

At the end of June 2010 Apple released the iPhone 4. With it came an even higher density screen. They had to improve dramatically in this area as Apple’s competition had a clear advantage. The iPhone 4 has a higher pixel density than the AMOLED used by HTC.

When comparing the HTC Desire and Apple iPhone 4 displays, we see that the iPhone wins in the area of pixel density but the HTC Desire has the advantage in two of the other three important factors. The AMOLED has a much better contrast ratio – the black levels on this display are stunning. The colours on the iPhone 4 look washed out in comparison to the HTC Desire. Although there is a noticeable difference in pixel density between the two phones, the Desire’s weak point in this area is too not dramatic as the pixel density of the AMOLED is still very high.

Apple have changed the goal posts when it comes to choosing a display and have decided that a number – the pixel density – is the most important thing to focus on.

Now we have to take a quick detour to deal with the marketing hype about Apple’s display. It’s called the “Retina Display”. The concept behind this is that it isn’t possible for the human eye to resolve such dense pixels. This is a lie – depending on how good your vision is and how far away you hold the phone, you will be able to see the pixels. In most cases you wont notice and it’s like reading a glossy magazine with a back light. It’s an odd lie from Apple as in my mind, it takes away impact from the fact that this pixel density is so good that it will be considered the benchmark that all other phone displays will be compared.

In a brilliant marketing move, Apple have changed the goal posts when it comes to choosing a display and have decided that a number – the pixel density – is the most important thing to focus on. Do not compare different displays on this quality alone as there is not one all-important attribute to focus on when choosing a display.

Side bet 1: Apple will focus one or more of the other two important display attributes in their next iPhone iteration.

Side bet 2: HTC will match or overtake Apple with ppi in the next 3-6 months.

Side bet 3: The iPhone display will stay at this ppi for at least 2 more iterations

What happens when viewing these displays in direct sunlight? The iPhone 4 wins in this area. I find that the AMLOED has to be cranked up to its full brightness on a bright day while the iPhone 4 display doesn’t suffer to such a great degree.

Although the AMOLED on the HTC Desire and the LED backlit LCD display on iPhone 4 have their differences, the AMOLED wins in my use-case. The vast majority of my time using the device is spent in doors and this is where I benefit from an AMOLED display the most. If you’re outside most of the time when you are using your device, I would say the iPhone 4 display holds the advantage. However, the use-case for using the phone outside for great periods of time can be considered rare (landscape gardeners perhaps?).

The processor

Top-of-the line smart phones currently use 1 GHz processors. This is likely to change very soon for Android phones as they move to 1.2 GHz and above ARM CPUs in the next few months.

Apple has its “custom silicon” A4 CPU while HTC use a Snapdragon CPU. Both are based on ARM architecture, in fact both are from same architecture version. Although there are differences in the CPUs and they do slightly better in some areas as each other, this is pretty much a zero-sum game.

In short, for the end-user, the CPU on the HTC Desire and iPhone 4 can be considered the same.

Side bet 4: HTC phones will have faster CPUs than Apple in the next 3 months.

Side bet 5: As Apple typically release one iPhone innovation a year, they will only hold the advantage of processor speed for limited times. This is something they will continually want to not draw attention to.

The camera(s)

This is where I’ve read the most crazy, idiotic statements, and where the irrational “wow this is amazing” psychosis seems to focus. My N95 had a 5 Megapixel camera in 2007 (2592 × 1944 resolution, auto-focus, Carl Zeiss optics). It was a good camera for a phone.

That’s something that you will read many times in this section – “for a phone”. In fact, this caveat will be in italics and a different colour to push the point.

Lets start with the main rear camera. 5 Megapixels. That’s it. Yep, just 5 Megapixels. At this resolution, it can just about do 720p video capture, mostly thanks to the CPU being able to process all the information that needs to be captured.

The iPhone 4 camera is good for a phone. It has a small lens with limited ability to capture light. The video capture is good for a phone, capturing and processing video at 720p so things don’t look blocky if played on your HD TV.

The HTC Desire camera is good for a phone. The hardware supports 720p video capture but this is not activated in Android 2.1. When upgrading to Android 2.2, users are reporting they receive the added ability to capture 720p video. I am not yet one of these users (I’m on Android 2.1) so I can’t report on video quality of the HTC Desire just yet.

Let’s compare photos taken with each device. A search on Flickr for pictures taken on an iPhone 4 and on a HTC Desire can be done easily. Of the two photos shot in similar conditions shown below, which one has the better camera sensor?

I’ll let you click on them to visit the respective Flickr accounts where you can see who took the photos and on what device. My answer to this question is that they’re more or less the same.

It was hard to find like-for-like photos on Flickr. What I mean by this is that many of the iPhone 4 photos have gone through a degree of post processing. Running an image through a set of automated level, colour, brightness, contrast, etc balancing can give an unfair perception of how well the hardware is performing.

Now for video capture. When the iPhone 4 was first released, I watched a YouTube video (it has now been removed) of a guy driving around a city in the US capturing 720p video on his iPhone 4. The comments were along the lines of how stunning and amazing this was. The video was good for a phone and can be considered a steady advancement for all smart phones with that feature. This isn’t a phenomena that is limited to the iPhone 4.

Let’s just stop this now, shall we? I love Apple products, but the iPhone 4 is not the best smart phone camera on the market. It will not replace your consumer £70 12 Megapixel camera, nor is it trying to.

Let’s take a quick look at what your money can buy with regards to cameras.

Cost of iPhone 4: £499
Cost of a DSLR with an interchangeable lens kit: £499
Cost of a consumer 12 Megapixel camera: £50 – £100

If Apple are trying to compete with cameras at a similar price point, they’re doing a really bad job. If Apple are trying to compete with cameras with similar hardware (5 Megapixel autofocus), they’re doing a really bad job as it’s too far behind currently available consumer hardware (ie, the current standard is 12 Megapixels).

But the iPhone 4’s primary function isn’t a camera – this is an added extra. It’s the same as any other camera phone on the market for the last 15-20 years. The quality of pictures taken on phones today are pretty good for a phone when compared to devices that are sold with the primary function of being a camera.

One day, the quality of phone cameras will negate the need for dedicated consumer devices. We’re not there yet, and Apple is (and has always been) behind the market-leaders in this area.

When comparing the HTC and iPhone 4 cameras it turns out they are pretty much the same. As an owner of either device, you gain the added extra of a 5 Megapixel camera that can capture 720p video (with the latest software). This is brilliant for me as I can go back to having a camera constantly in my pocket that is able to take photos that look fine as a wallpaper and to archive friend/family events.

until the front facing camera is ubiquitous, the use of this feature will be minimal

OK, let’s quickly talk about the front facing camera on the iPhone 4. It’s a good idea that currently only really applies to Facetime. If two or more iPhone 4 users know their email address, they can call each other via Facetime. This became slightly more compelling since the iPod Touch received a front facing camera. Going back to my N95, this also had a front facing camera and I didn’t use it as no one else had one. And that’s the point I’m making here – until the front facing camera is ubiquitous, the use of this feature will be minimal.

In conclusion, the HTC Desire and iPhone 4 rear cameras are more or less the same. There is a front camera on iPhone 4 and while I tip my hat to Apple for pushing out devices that have front facing cameras as I hope video chat becomes more commonly used in the future, at the moment this is a moot feature as it has extremely limited use.

The touch screen

Similar to the processor, this is a quick point. Resistive screens suck while capacitive screens rock.

Resistive screens typically have two transparent layers that have to connect to register a touch from an object such as a stylus or finger. Think Nintendo DS with the squishy bottom touch screen.

Capacitive screens work on the transfer of electrons. There is one surface and your finger doesn’t actually have to make contact with the screen for the electrons to transfer and the touch to register. They can have a higher resolution to detect the touch input and can be much more responsive than resistive screens.

To have such a responsive screen is an achievement that Apple can be proud of and is something that Google should aim to match.

The vast majority of flagship smart phones use capacitive screens. The other factor to bear in mind with this is how good the software is at registering and processing each touch. Apple hold the advantage here as the iPhone 4 has a lightning fast response. When using an iPhone 4 I feel that the interface lag is lifted and I’m directly connected to iOS.

Although Apple’s response rate is higher than the HTC Desire, the lag experienced on the Android device isn’t so high for it to become a problem. To have such a responsive screen is an achievement that Apple can be proud of and is something that Google should aim to match.

Summary of hardware

There are many other pieces of hardware to go through but they all cancel each other out with two exceptions worth mentioning. The iPhone 4 has a gyroscope, the HTC Desire has a built in FM radio. Other hardware capabilities such as GPS, accelerometer, OpenGL ES capable GPU, WiFi, 3G, EDGE, HSDPA, bla, bla are more or less the same.

Other things worth mentioning include the physical back button on the HTC Desire, which is something I use every day and something I miss when using an iOS device. The many different interfaces on the iPhone seem awkward without a physical back button located in the same place and my thumb heads towards this non-existent phantom back button when using my iPod Touch. The same applies with the search & menu buttons on the HTC Desire.

The other thing to point out is that the HTC Desire has a Micro SD slot which means I can expand capacity. However, until I get the Android 2.2 update I cannot install applications to the main bulk of memory on the Micro SD card. This means I’m using the limited phone memory which is preventing me from consuming apps. This is the current main negative point regarding the HTC Desire for me, but this will change with Android 2.2 which will enable apps to be installed to the Micro SD card.

When the marketing hype of Apple’s product is pushed aside we find that we’re left with hardware that’s pretty standard in the industry.

And lastly the HTC Desire has a removable battery. This is brilliant as I can bring a replacement battery with me when camping at festivals. I can’t think of another occasion where I would not be able to charge the phone, but one may present itself in the future.

When the marketing hype of Apple’s product is pushed aside we find that we’re left with hardware that’s pretty standard in the industry. Actually, perhaps I’m being a little unfair here as I’m not taking into account the perceived value of Apple’s product. The iPhone 4 does have a sexy design & uses materials with a high perceived value. This comes at additional cost but gives the perception of a premium smart phone. In other words, iPhone users can think of the hardware as the best on the market – if they want to.

In an industry where hardware is developed and manufactured by many different companies and is available to anyone creating a product, it’s hard to differentiate one device above another in this regard. Apple does not have access to hardware that gives an industry leading advantage that is exclusive to them and limited to others. The design of the product must take this into account and the perceived value of the product must be increased to maintain the perception of the “best available device”. HTC does not have a device that is manufactured with glass and stainless steel. This gives Apple the opportunity to use this to present a product that is compelling to users who wish to feel secure in knowing they have chosen the “best device” when in fact there is no such thing.

The psychology of product design is perhaps a subject for another time.

I could continue with antenna issues, call quality, materials used, manufacturing processes, etc, but I’m going to stop here. The post is already very long and I feel the most important hardware factors of both smart phones have been explored. To finish things off, I’m going to put a price stamp on each device. These prices are how much you have to pay to own the device out-right (in September 2010) and do not take into account the various contract options out there. Prices found via apple.com and amazon.co.uk.

HTC Desire: £320 – £415
iPhone 4: £419 – £650

Software

Are you still reading this? Great! When comparing the hardware of the iPhone 4 and the HTC Desire, a slight advantage has been found for the HTC Desire. However, things are pretty close with either phone in this respect.

Now for the software. I’m going to break this down into a few subsections.

Software services

This is where Google shines. In fact, Google shines so much in this area Apple uses its services. You guessed it, I’m talking about maps, email, search, latitude, street view, location aware services, etc.

Apple has MobileMe. And now Ping. They have a long way to go in this area (assuming they wish to aggressively pursue a direction in this area). Apple provides a service to an everyday consumer that allows for remote wiping of the phone which is very cool. It also has iDisk as part of the subscription. However, as Apple charges for access to MobileMe it’s not fair to include this feature set with the purchase of the phone – you don’t get them unless you pay extra. With Android, they are very much part of the phone feature set and always have been a compelling reason to purchase a device with Google’s OS. Eneter your Gmail address and your phone is pretty much setup.

Apple use a watered-down subset of what Google has to offer.

Google doesn’t have an option for cloud storage, which is odd, but I personally use Dropbox for this. In addition to these services my city-level location is presented on my home page, chat status, and on Google Profile. This is constantly and automatically updated thanks to Google’s Latitude service that is part of Google Maps. I work in Harrogate and live in York (located the UK). Google Latitude tracks my location, tells me how long I spend at work, at home, how long I travel, how far I’ve travelled, how many times I go out in a week, etc. It also alerts me when other users of the service are near by.

The iPhone’s hardware is capable of providing the Latitude service but currently without the automation. If I were an iPhone user, I could not track my location automatically and would have to log into Latitude via a browser. This renders the service mostly useless.

Google’s Android OS is currently the industry leader in this area and there’s no sign of them slowing down. Apple’s offering by comparison is small, mostly behind a pay wall, and Apple use a watered-down subset of what Google has to offer.

OS capability

Firstly, let’s talk about widgets. If you haven’t used an Android device, this something that is important and you’re missing out on. These range from the simple ability to place a photo of your girlfriend/wife/baby/whatever on one of your main screens, placing easy-to-access hardware controls such as turning WiFi on and off, displaying news headlines, current location of friends using latitude, and more. The idea that this information is locked up within many different applications is an alien concept to an Android user.

Let’s talk about notifications. My iPhone plagued me with blue pop-up windows that I have manual control over. This solution to notifications means that I was able to see a very limited number of pop-up windows. On Android they are all presented by dragging your finger from the top of the screen to the bottom. This includes all Twitter @ replies, Gowalla updates, new emails, text messages, missed phone calls, messages, etc. Again, if you haven’t used an Android phone you wont know how graceful this solution is.

It makes sense that Google would excel in this area as it’s a company full of engineers.

Multitasking is something that’s new to iPhone users and has been implemented in an odd pseudo-tasking way. An iPhone app goes into a sleep state and is allowed to pass on tasks for the main OS to finish (such as downloads, processes, etc) or continue specific processes (such as playing music). This enables some of the functionality that multitasking brings, but it isn’t multitasking. Multitasking is present in Android and with multi core ARM processors on the road map and coming very soon, this is going to become increasingly important.

I’m going to stop here again because the length of this post is out of control. Android has more capability, better notifications, true multitasking, and has made more progress and innovations in this area than Apple.

It makes sense that Google would excel in this area as it’s a company full of engineers.

Usability (including aesthetics)

Google has made a lot of progress in this area, but Apple has the clear advantage here.

In my opinion, iOS is the most usable OS on the market. They are masterful at understanding how to deliver an unmatched user interface and have evolved to focus on a consistent user experience on all their iOS devices. A stunning achievement that has set the standard for all to live up to.

It makes sense that Apple would excel in this area as it’s a company with a strong backbone of designers.

The iPhone is simply better in this area and this shows especially when using iPhone apps. Apple has passed on the development tools they use to other companies helping them to deliver industry leading applications with regards to usability. The interfaces built using Apple tools is simply excellent and something Google should aspire to recreate.

Google is making progress in this area and, reading the tea leaves, could be 6-12 months away from delivering their own solutions to the many issues that fall under the subject of UI and UX design on Android. We will have to see what happens in this area.

It makes sense that Apple would excel in this area as it’s a company with a strong backbone of designers.

App Store / Android Market

Apple has the advantage here again, although this appears to be changing rapidly, and the advantage isn’t so great that Android is left dry when it comes to apps. Money is being made on the Android Market and as the number of app-hungry users increase, it’s becoming essential to release software on both iOS and Android platforms.

What appears to be happening in this space is that the number of Android users is overtaking the number of iOS users. The numbers reported by Apple is the best possible optimistic case for all iOS devices, including Tablet and iPod touch users. The numbers from Google are conservative as only devices with Google services are counted. Expect this number to continue to explode in the next few years.

Why is this important? Well, it isn’t at the moment. Apple lead the way with thier app store, but their advantage isn’t as big as iPhone users seem to think it is. Although there aren’t any missing important apps for me on the Android market, it is certainly lacking in games. This is changing but for now I use my iPod Touch for Broken Sword, Mist, Beneath a Steel Sky, etc.

Side bet 6: Apple will continue to lose market share of iOS devices and Android will become the dominating platform. Once this happens, major software companies will develop for Android first, then iOS. Parallels will be drawn with what happened in the personal computer market (Apple vs Microsoft).

End of a long post

If you’ve made it this far – well done! Why not leave a comment to complain how long this has been?

At the end of what has proven to be a complicated road, my choice has been an Android device. The hardware is pretty much the same. Software has a way to go with regards to usability on Android, Apple has a very long way to go if they wish to catch up with Google with regards to services – but why would they want to? Using a watered-down subset of what Google has to offer seems to make sense to Apple at this time. Although ultimately (and I think reluctantly) Apple will (hopefully) open things up enough as Google’s feature set continues to grow. Apple don’t want to lose too many people to Android because of the restrictions they place on these services on the iPhone.

Quick side note: Apple restricting the latitude service on the iPhone is reported here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10295121-37.html.

The main reason for my choice to switch from an iPhone to Android has been added functionality. There exists a list of functions that the iPhone simply can’t do when compared to Android. I can’t think of a rational argument to support this claim when it is reversed (ie, there exists a list of functions that Android simply can’t do when compared to the iPhone). When we leave the concept of functionality and look at usability, the iPhone is ahead of Android, however this gap isn’t so vast.

My other major reason for getting off the iPhone platform is that I do not want to pay Apple to make decisions for me. I want to decide what maps app I have, if I wish Google Latitude to work properly, what apps I can and can’t use. I’m not a user that requires a dumbing down of a platform because I get all confused over what the volume down button does

Another quick side note: Info on software restriction enforced by Apple here: http://taptaptap.com/blog/cameraplus-volumesnap-rejected/.

Here’s my evaluation of the HTC Desire vs an iPhone 4: The UI is more pleasant on the iPhone 4, there are more transition and animation effects available to iOS applications, and more games are currently available on the app store. The HTC Desire using Android has a more functional OS, more services available to its users, a better notification system, a better display, and a lower price point. Overall, the HTC Desire is the better phone (caveat: for my use-case).

Smart phones are part of such a young market and things are changing rapidly all the time. I’m due an upgrade around March 2011 time. Will reevaluate things then. If you have made it to the end of this post and agree, disagree or have a different point of view, please leave a comment below.