Given my reputation as a "Mac Guy", one would expect me to be ignorant of other platforms. It's actually quite the opposite since, at work, I am a well-experienced Windows and Linux developer. I've only recently started programming on iOS, so I thought it would be a good idea to also learn to develop on the Android platform. While not strictly necessary for software development, I bought an Android phone, to get used to its environment and idioms. To get the best possible experience of the platform, I bought a Nexus 5, which I received by mail a little bit over a week ago. Already, I observed a few differences with iOS beyond the typical "iOS versus Android" feature comparisons.
I quickly noticed how much "Android versus iOS" has parallels with "PC versus Mac" in terms of the software platform. Android is highly customizable, though it's unclear if that was done for the users or to appease the manufacturers and carriers. If I haven't gotten a phone directly from Google, I suspect that buying a typical non-Google, bundled-with-a-plan Android phone would have given me something filled with crapware I couldn't uninstall. Like a PC. That, and given how much havoc rogue Apps can do, I immediately installed an anti-virus, firewall and backup software. Again, like a PC.
Then, there's the screen. It's spectacular. At 445 dpi, it may be the first screen I've ever used where I can't distinguish its pixels at any distance. Cramming a full-sized 1080p screen in 5 inches is amazing. The colours are great too. Still, the screen is physically too large for casual one-hand use. It almost feels like a mini-tablet rather than a phone. Also, its large screen size has an impact on battery life.
Speaking of battery life, when the screen is off, battery life is spectacular. Sure, comparing any new device against the aging battery of a 30-month-old iPhone is unfair. But this Nexus 5 can be casually used for days before fully draining its battery. Oh, and that induction charging is really nice too, compared to fighting with those asymmetrical micro-USB cables… Of course, its battery life depends on well-behaved Apps. As an example, a runaway Songza App leaked a CPU spinlock, causing it to keep the CPU fully powered for hours. Even in this extreme scenario, the battery life could still be compared to my iPhone.
Speaking of music Apps, audio on the Nexus 5 suck. Using the exact same high-quality headphones, I can tell that the headphone jack (or whatever else in the audio chain) is significantly worse than the iPhone. There are many Apps to add equalizers and bass boosters, but even then it still doesn't sound as good. Also, volume controls from my headsets don't work. Well, for now all of my music is in the Apple ecosystem, so I don't mind using my SIM-card-less iPhone as an iPod.
I'll be comparing iOS and Android development once I'm more experienced in both. For now, I'll start getting used to it, both from a user and developer perspective.
Published on April 2, 2014 at 20:25 EDT
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