Apple Iphone4 vs Samsung Galaxy S2

Having had a Galaxy S2 for a number of months now I really loved this phone, and to be honest I felt there is very little wrong with it apart from the physical size when you put it in your pocket.

Now I recently changed jobs and was given a new company phone, an Iphone4; so the question is, which is best?

Athestics:

The Galaxy pretty good from the front and is amazing thin, but the bumpy back feels a little on the plastic side and it curves outwards towards the camera end which spoils the lines a little.

The IPhone on the other hand looks fantastic, with the mirror finish on the back and the aluminium sides it really looks the part. No plastic here, and I think that's the point!

Screen:

The Galaxy has the most amazing AMOLED screen I had ever seen, it's so amazing bright and colourful and also due to it's size really easy to read.

On the IPhone screen actually has more pixels than the galaxy, but being smaller as well it's not so easy to read. The screen is actually very good once you turn the brightness up a little, as by default it does look a bit washed out.

Getting started:

Setting up for the first time they are both pretty easy and neither require a PC, although the IPhone does take a little longer if your not already an ITunes user.

Charging:

Both charge via an USB cable, but the Apple one isn't a standard USB, which is a shame as you need another set of cables for the car and office.

Android vs IOS

Here is where the battle is won or lost! Here I am comparing Android 2.4 with Samsungs customisations against IOS 5.0.1.

To be honest they are both pretty good and both have their problems also.

The IPhone is really quite simple to use, it has your applications and a bunch of settings and that's about it. You can re-arrange your applications between the home screen, but you can not even place them in a particular order.

The Android has a much more configurable set of home screens where you can choose from widgets (e.g. Facebook news-feed, google search etc), applications and even shortcuts (e.g. web links). This is really nice to customise your own set of favourites and have just what you would like to see right on the home screen. Android also has notifications so you can see if you have pending email, voice messages, text messages and suchlike by seeing a little icon on the top of the screen and pulling down for more details.

The area the IPhone really excels as is the notifications, here you can configure different applications to notify you with just a notification at the top of a screen, a banner in the middle of the screen or a dismissable alert. You can also see all the notifications in the nofication area (pull down from the top) just like in Android, but unlike Android you also see the contents of your messages here (e.g. the first 4 lines). It's a shame that when you try to re-order the notifications it often goes wrong and randomises their order - a bug that will no doubt be fixed over time.

Applications:

I have no doubt that there are more mature applications for IPhone than for Android, although the Android selection is growing every day they apps themselves are often ports of the IPhone versions with some features or nice bits missing.

On the other hand a lot of the Androd apps that are free cost money for IPhone, although they are often only 69p each it still makes you think carefully what to install rather that just grabbing everything that looks good.

One other good thing about Android is you can still apps outside the Android market, meaning your not tied to any sets of rules on what you can and can not use.

Camera:

The Galaxy S2 camera is far better than that in the IPhone 4 but the 4S bring it back onto a level playing field, so if you care about taking photos you have to compare the more expensive 4S against the Galaxy S2.

One thing that is really nice in Android is that you can share your pictures directly onto Facebook, while on the IPhone only Twitter seems to be linked to the Camera app and for Facebook you have to load Facebook and then find the photo in your gallery - minor but annoying!

Wifi:

The Wifi in the Galaxy S2 appears to be much faster than in the IPhone. The IPhone also seems to have some bugs where it disconnects from your access point and re-asks for the password, not fun if it's a long complex password to type in.

Keyboard:

Despite the Galaxy S2 being physically bigger I don't really notice much difference when typing, the Apple on screen keyboard works really well. One annoying thing about the IPhone is the keyboard doesn't show upper/lowcase as you select shift, but okay it's minor.

Battery Life:

To be honest I couldn't tell much between them, if I don't either of them too much and keep the Wifi connected at home and work then they both need charing every other day. If on the other hand I start using them a lot, especially on the 3G data then they both need charging at the end of the day.

Conclusions:

In this article I compare the IPhone 4 against the Galaxy S2, but wpecification wise the IPhone 4S is actually more comparible to the Galaxy S2, but the 4S is quite a bit more expensive than the Galaxy.

Honestly there isn't much in it - in the end they are both great phones. The Galaxy S2 is technically faster and the Android system has a few more features, but the IPhone is a little more smooth and polished.

For me, although the bigger screen on the S2 is great when you are using it, I found it doesn't fit as well in my pocket. That together with the nicer looks of the IPhone 4 and the great notifications features means I'm sticking with the IPhone 4 for now despite it's shortcomings.

On the other hand, if they put the Galaxy S2 into the IPhone 4 case then for me it would be a clear winner... And for that reason I can quite understand why Apple are running Scared of Samsung and Google right now!