Rating the Mobile Operating Systems

[Unprocessed1]

I've had the honor of trying out every major mobile OS on the market for a decent amount of time (at least one month as a primary phone for each OS).

Here are my honest impressions on each:

1. Windows Phone 7 - I've been using the HTC Trophy the past month. WP7 is on par with iOS in terms of speed and I much prefer the eye candy of the Zune player to that of the fairly simplistic music player of the iPhone. Simply put, WP7 is a gorgeous UI - the animations are slick and elegant, the typographic-based interface is unique. The only thing holding up WP7 is hardware and apps. Hardware will obviously be corrected once Mango phones comes out in the Fall, and I'm confident MS is on the right track in terms of apps - 20,000 and counting. As of right now though, a non-Mango WP7 phone looks great but there simply isn't enough functionality - no multitasking, no Pandora, mediocre app selection, and an annoying app store layout.

However, I can safely say I will be getting a next-gen WP7.

2. iOS - it is what it is. Fast, simple, and app-centric. The entire OS is totally coherent in terms of appearance (like WP7 and WebOS but unlike Android). Unfortunately, iOS is far behind its competitors in terms of the sophistication of the UI, even with iOS 5. Apps selection is obviously the best, and even discovering news apps is very easy to do on the iPhone and on iTunes. Apps are great - the problem is that once Android and WP7 closes the app number/quality gap, iOS has little benefits over its competitors currently.

I like iOS but I become incredibly bored after a few weeks using an iOS device. The advantage of simplicity of iOS is the thing that keeps away advanced users who want to be able to do more. There's nothing to do but apps - Android, and Honeycomb in particular have a more computer-eque interface that keeps things interesting.

3. WebOS - WebOS's major weakness is a terrible app store and two years of atrocious hardware. The Pre 3 looks great, but does WebOS have the ability to attract developers and a sizable customer base? I do think WebOS as a whole is overrated - maybe it's because competitors have stolen the best part of WebOS (notifications, universal search, etc), which removes a lot of the WebOS luster.

As much as I love the card multi-tasking, I don't think it should be the main UI element of the phone. I think the most intuitive and ideal multi-tasking UI would be a combination of the multitask gestures of WebOS and the layout of Honeycomb in which you could have a software/hardware button to bring up a live carousel of apps running.

4. Android - Android has the obvious advantage of being ridiculously open and customizable. My main problem with Android is that the UI is ugly and not uniform. Android apps simply don't look like they were made for the Android OS. I've owned many Android phones and always hated how the UI/skins lacked uniformity. On the other hand, I think Android has the rest beat in terms on functionality. Voice capabilities are amazing, google maps navigation is excellent, as is google integration and gmail.

There is no doubt Google will continue to innovate and add more compelling features to Android, but iOS 5 (notifications), and WP7 (Bing navigation, visual search, etc) are closing the gap.

 

[KingCrimson]

Wow a rational, thought out post comparing the various products! How long will it take before this thread devolves into an insult-match?

 

[cube]

I don't see Symbian, Blackberry, and bada there.

 

[Unprocessed1]

I don't see Symbian, Blackberry, and bada there.

I have no personal experience with Symbian and Bada (and it appears that Symbian will be phased out by WP7). Chose not to include Blackberry because I think any techies/serious consumers outside of business people aren't thinking about getting a BB. I included the 4 best OSes in my humble opinion.

 

[TheSideshow]

Nice summary. I agree with most of your points after owning Android and iOS and following WP7 pretty closely. I want a WP but as of now the Trophy is the only option and I dont think I can bring myself to lose a couple hundred bucks switching from my Droid X to the Trophy and essentially downgrade in hardware. I will probably just wait until the Mango devices unless I can make the switch for under a hundred bucks. I agree that Zune is awesome and thats one of the biggest draws.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Having used WP7, Android, and iOS, I pretty much agree with every point, but you forgot one major one:

Apple's hardware is, hands down, the nicest hardware to use. Compared an iOS device with that iconic single large button that really clicks when you hit it, compared to a Samsung Focus with 3 touch-buttons...

Otherwise, yes. I agree. Give me a WP7 with buttons, but an AMOLED screen, and I would be in geek heaven.

 

[neiltc13]

Having used WP7, Android, and iOS, I pretty much agree with every point, but you forgot one major one:

Apple's hardware is, hands down, the nicest hardware to use. Compared an iOS device with that iconic single large button that really clicks when you hit it, compared to a Samsung Focus with 3 touch-buttons...

Otherwise, yes. I agree. Give me a WP7 with buttons, but an AMOLED screen, and I would be in geek heaven.

I disagree with this. Sure the touch buttons are not the best, but at least there are buttons there for back and search, as well as a hardware camera button (that isn't sharing functionality with something else). I also see VASTLY better reception on my Samsung Omnia 7 than I did on my iPhone 3GS.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Wow a rational, thought out post comparing the various products! How long will it take before this thread devolves into an insult-match?

So the OP prefers WP. No reason to take it personally and insult him.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I have no personal experience with Symbian and Bada (and it appears that Symbian will be phased out by WP7). Chose not to include Blackberry because I think any techies/serious consumers outside of business people aren't thinking about getting a BB. I included the 4 best OSes in my humble opinion.

I would feel you are wrong there.

Blackberry I find is by far the best when it comes to being a communication device. Communication being Email, cell phone, sms ect and is heads over heals better than the others. Along with the hardware keyboard that is the gold standard.

Now for multimedia device well that is another story on blackberry. It is not so good in that department. It browser is good enough if you want to read the news and read text but just is not that good, It has some apps but no real games.
It is a device that is information at a glance.

 

[TheSideshow]

So the OP prefers WP. No reason to take it personally and insult him.

I think you missed the meaning of his post. He is simply saying that it was a good post and pretty soon it will turn into a pissing match between fanboys (which it hasnt yet since LTD hasnt come in yet).

 

[ucfgrad93]

I think you missed the meaning of his post. He is simply saying that it was a good post and pretty soon it will turn into a pissing match between fanboys (which it hasnt yet since LTD hasnt come in yet).

No, I got it. Just a statement to those fanboys who will eventually show up.

 

[KingCrimson]

Because fanboys must show up and piss all over a good thread. I'm just ruining this thread before they can.

 

[-Ken-]

I'm a big fan of webOS, but in order to use it properly you had to overclock your phone, unless you were one of the lucky folks who got a Pre 2. Palm simply didnt have the money to get some good hardware for it. I'd agree that the competition has taken many of its good points. Multitasking and notifications are very fluid.

I preordered a TouchPad today, should be on my doorstep on July 1st, so we'll see how that goes. I've been a big fan of Palm for years, hopefully HP doesn't suck the life out of them.