Why not see three of the newest smartphones during a hot Saturday in NYC? Since the Apple store on Upper Broadway is a five-minute walk from where the Samsung Galaxy S was receiving visitors in the Time Warner building, we could hop from one air-conditioned venue to another without getting broiled. Along the way we could also check out the Motorola Droid X at a cell phone shack.
It seemed like a good idea when my friend, let’s call him Dr. Smartphone, suggested it to me this past weekend. He was anxious to see how Galaxy’s 4” super AMOLED 800×400 display performed, and I had yet to gaze upon the iPhone 4.
Having misread the train schedule, I was forced to take my carbon spewing car into the Manhattan (reminder: buy offset to make amends). On my way in, I couldn’t help but notice that Manhattan is iPad country.
Welcome to iPad country
Dr. Smartphone was convinced that the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S, which is sold unlocked in Europe, would be the gadget to dethrone the iPhone 4.
I was an iPhone fan, and remained skeptical … until I fell under the spell of this magical machine. The Galaxy has an amazingly sharp, bright display. And the rippling water effect on the wallpaper was mesmerizing. This graphics wizardry was courtesy of Samsung’s Hummingbird chipset.
As I started to navigate and launch apps and Swype in my text entry (neat!), it seemed to me that the iPhone was now in for a real race. In the meantime, Dr. Smartphone was in a heated talk with one of the Samsung associates about unlocking this thing in the US. Bottom line: unlocked Android makes more sense in Europe, where you have lots of GSM carriers to switch between.
Avatar on the Samsung Galaxy
The Samsung guy then decided to show off the Galaxy’s video capabilities by playing the movie Avatar, which had been loaded onto the 16 GB SIMM. By the way, Samsung really trained their staff on the new Galaxy.
I’m not sure that I could watch a 2-hour video, but for such a small screen, the effect was cinematic. Some future Spielberg will start his movie making career with the Galaxy, which allows would-be directors to both record and playback HD video.
And the 4” screen, though making the Galaxy bulky for some tastes, was just the right size for Web browsing and viewing Google maps. Maybe the Galaxy S was less of a phone and slightly more of a tablet: a phonelet?
We left the Time Warner building feeling that the gap between the iPhone and the rest of the pack had narrowed.
On the way to Apple store, we stopped by a cell phone retailer and got a chance to have a Droid X interlude. The Droid is not a stylish thing of beauty like the iPhone, and it was not nearly as responsive as the Samsung. Yes, the YouTube video I streamed was fluid, but I had a hunch that Motorola’s Droid was going to be drowned out by the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy parade.
iPhone 4: Beauty and Truth
Then we found our way to the Temple of Apple, near Lincoln Center. You have to give Apple credit for creating a unique shopping and religious experience: there’s an overwhelming sense that you’re entering a shrine devoted to Truth, Beauty, and Justice.
So we both quickly got our mitts on the iPhone 4 and launched into a WiFi-based FaceTime video conference. The background noise in the store blotted out the speech channel, but the video part was superb. Of course, this was all being transferred over the store’s own WiFi network.
When AT&T gets around to carrying video bits on their 3G network, and assuming they can offer a reasonable quality level, mobile video conferencing, IMHO, will be h u g e.
Was it me or did the fonts appear to be clearer on the iPhone 4 than on the Galaxy? I was able to read parts of an eBook on the 3.5” screen without my glasses. Hmmm.
And one more thing: the iPhone 4 does a kind of foreground-background multi-tasking—actually, all the Android-based devices do this now as well. Dr. S’s iPhone was struggling with its tasks before he realized the previous customers never exited out of the apps they had launched.
Maybe multi-tasking is too much of an OS power feature for the lay user? I’m betting there will be reports of sluggish performance on the iPhone 4 as more and more apps gets loaded by forgetful users.
After our afternoon of demos, we walked through Central Park arguing whether the US carriers have dictatorial control over the device market. In any case, Apple’s iPhone 4 is still, I felt, the better smartphone.
Dr. S was not as convinced, and believes the open Android app market will eventually outweigh Apple’s temporary advantage. But he agrees that some of the benefits of open and unlocked Android gadgets may have less value in the US, for the short-term.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Samsung Galaxy S review: T-Mobile Vibrant and AT&T Captivate (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
- Droid X and T-Mobile Vibrant launch today (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
Very interesting read! Having played with both, I will agree that iphone4 is better smartphone than Samsung’s Galaxy S overall. The i4 display is sharper but the Galaxy display is more ‘vibrant’. But it gives the iphone a good run for the money. The 4″ form factor is perfect (for my hands) plus it’s very light compared to the iphone4 and net net costs heck of a lot less. But, the i4 is sexier (without the bumper), has better camera with flash, more apps including facetime, has a gyroscope etc. but it’s a worse phone!
iOS4 is getting stale. The iphone homescreen sucks!
Hearing some rumors that Galaxy S GPS has some problems!