Android vs. Windows Phone 7

[MessiaaH]

-----------Introduction----------

Today i went to a company that experiencing some network problems, i went to analyze their network and tell them what wrong, how to fix it, and proceed to fix it over the weekend.
The I.T. Admin had a...dun..dun..dunnnnn, ANDROID!
A Samsung Galaxy S.

I was like, wait, thats the galaxy s? he was like yea..wait...dies wp7?

Round 1, FIGHT!

We proceeded to show off our devices to each other.
And it fell into a side by side comparison of doing tasks.

I clicked on the people hub, panned across to whats new, tapped on a photo someone posted, and replied to the post, pressed the windows key, and was on the homescreen. When i looked at his progress, his fb app had just finished opened lol. he scrolled around a few pictures and exit.

We decide to try web browsing, i quickly opened ie, new tab, google.com, 'loaded', home.
He had reached: g.o.o.

At this point, we decided to swap devices. I took his droid, he took my wp7.
We were both scrolling around, checking out UI performance.
In my head, i was like "wtf is this, another laggy droid?",
He said, "wow, this thing rel smooth"

I decided to open the browser myself, juss incase it was him. I clicked on opera mobile, attempted to type google.com, and the experience was slow and clunky and The keyboard sucked.

I panned around his home screen, looking for different programs, i signed into msn, closed it, opened up a few other apps, closed it, juss general browse around the device, and yet again i was thinking, "this thing is too clunky" This was the 4th android device i've used, and was left with the same conclusion, the android UI is laggy! its not a fault of the hardware, the fault is in the way dey design the UI. it juss doesnt have that silky smooth feel that ios and wp7 has. And becuase of it, it felt clunky, and laggy when comapred to wp7. That ui flaw, also affected how fast the device felt opening programs, and doing things in programs.

We re-swapped devices, and he proceeded to open up some movies, he put on megamind.
I had xmen 3 on my phone so i pull that up.
Both devices performaned like expected, no lag no nothing during movie playback.
But the larger screen on d hd2 made it easier to view the movie, and the colors on that samsung screen
juss kick my hd2s ass.

He opened up emails, again i was like "wtf is that", small text? browsing around email felt clunky "AGAIN",
opening ah dam attachment was so wm6.5. i Opened up my mail client, he was amazed, scrolling around, the full rich view, the way it was presented, the ease of attachment management.

We did a couple other tasks, the droid lost them all.
When all else failed he asked "what apps u have on that"
And proceeded to browse through some apps he downloaded.
My response was, i have a few, but its new dont have alot on there.
Once again, i was impressed by the only thing dat impress me about android so far. The sheer variety of apps he had on his device. I said that wp7 is new, so the apps library building. And conceded that his droid had more apps.

In the end i was left thinking, the droid is good, but the clunkyness of the platform, i juss cant see myself using it. He was like..."is windows", he din want to know nothing else, even doh his droid juss get its ass cut lol. Guess that kind of thinking is common amounts certain android users.

In walked his network assistant, with a blackberry and iphone 4, needless to say, we run his ass. lolol.

--------------Conclusion:--------------

The rate at which wp7 apps library is building is staggering, and pretty soon, apps would not be a concern.
Juss like Console/PC Games, apps will be developed for all platforms, IOS/Droid/WP7.
Another link to show this is already happening "Upcoming WP7 Titles", and Pulse is on its way to WP7 also.
So the war will no longer be about apps, but exclusive features / hardware / ecosystems.
Which boils down to:

Android - Customization, HTC/Samsung
WP7 - Speed, Fluidity, Efficiency, Xbox Live, Corporate Support, Nokia
Iphone - Speed, Fluidity, Steve Jobs

If moving icons around and remapping hardware buttons is what u need, Android is for u.
If you want to get shit done busy busy, wp7
Sorry cant see a valid reason to recommend iphone 4.

P.S., all android web based tests were performed on a Wifi Network, my wp7 was using edge!, and still won all web based tests. not becuase of d speed of d net, but wp7's brilliant design.

That's all she wrote!

[woodyear99]

Hey Folks,

We've recently seen both Android and Windows Phone 7 Operating Systems increase in popularity. Lets use this thread to compare the strengths and weaknesses of each. Feel free to post your experiences with either platform but please respect the opinions of others. Hopefully this discussion will aid others trying to make a purchase decision between the two.

Check out this video comparison I found online

[Fkacn_tt]

seriously why you create this thread, wasn't there enough wasted post in the android thread. Stop instigating which OS is better cause at the end of the day it's up to what floats the users' boat.

[woodyear99]

Trying to keep the Android/WP7 threads clean. I agree it does come down to user preference.

[Preston786]

I agree with Slaming and Woody @ the end of the day its up to preference

[TriniXaeno]

Microsoft thoroughly delivered on Windows 7.

And from reports, looks like they've impressed with Windows Phone 7 as well

Seems 7 times a charm for the guys at redmund

[phoenix31tt]

@ preston and woody.. at the end of the day everything is up to preference cuz everybody will choose what they like..

but comparisons help people decide.. these forums are not limited to people with the devices.. many people dont have it and a thread like this will help them make a decision...

n btw is woody create the thread eh.. dunno why he start it with messiaah post

@ wyatt.. yea boy they lashin hard this rounds yes... what i liking alot to.. is they actually listening to the masses this time around...

[TriniXaeno]

Well put phoenix. +1 to you sir.

I commend woody for the thread creation. That is precisely why I read these "vs" discussions.

To help guide future purchasing decisions (still stuck in blackberry land, corporate/dinosaur ftl)

[UltimateGamer]

That was a spendid comparison by messiah! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Perhaps my next phone may just be a wp7.

[Arcmanov]

Just make sure you're comfortable with the limitations of WP7 before you purchase one.

That 'ease of use' is a very clever smokescreen (and I use that word loosely) to ensure
that you, the user, conform very nicely to the somewhat closed ecosystem that exists
within WP7.  Don't expect a bevy of customisation once you have the device in hand.

It's been said that the very nature of this closed system is one of the OS' strengths.  I'm inclined to disagree with that.  A glaring example of this, is the fact that once I install a memory card into the phone, it becomes 'part' of the overall storage subsystem of the phone.  So much so, that you may not be able to use said card in another device.  Not sure what effect removing the card entirely will have on the WP7 phone itself.  You cannot even remove it to upgrade to a bigger card.  Preposterous.

Windows Phone 7 SD-card limitations.

Oh, and get this...you must use a 'certified for Windows Phone 7' compatible SD-card.
Good luck finding one of those.  Regular SD-cards 'should' work though.

Does M$ think all consumers are made of money?


Of course Android has no such limitation.  I can happily take the very same 32GB SD-card
I just put in my Galaxy S and use it in another phone, camera, card-reader, etc without
even having to reformat it.

This issue was one of the biggest reasons for me not wanting a WP7 device.  Some of you may be OK
with this.  I am not.  I frequently change/upgrade memory cards.  The Galaxy S even supports
hot-swapping, so I don't even have to power down when changing SD-cards.  This is the type of freedom
I think most smartphone users demand of their devices when they pay over 500 US for them.

M$' implementation here essentially 'breaks' your SD-card.  Not cool.


Still eager to hop aboard that train?

[phoenix31tt]

yea i hear what you saying about the sd cards... me being able to hot swap my sd card on my touch pro 2... when i hear wp7 was messing with that i was like :S...

but then i realised that i dont really take out my card that much.. the only time i actually took it out was to load it up with music when i now get it... and to add music/movies cuz usb copy was slower, but with wp7 zune works much better with it than copying files...

and of course you can add extra space but you will have to hard reset your phone, same goes for removing the memory card to use it somewhere else (the sucky part is it WILL require a hard reset)... "officially" it is not supported but hey, we always use things outside of the "official" uses

[TriniXaeno]

You've got to be kidding with that sd card limitation.

That's a serious "gotcha".

(again, thanks to discussions like this, these sort of issues are brought to our attention)

In the past five years, I have changed SD card in my phone at least four times.

Started with a 128mb, moved to a 256mb a year later....then a 4GB, which was soon replaced with an 8gb and currently sporting a 16GB.

Along side changing blackberry phone models about three times during the same period.

How could such a basic and mundane convenience be overlooked by Microsoft in WP7?

[Arcmanov]

It's not that it's 'overlooked'.  M$ designed it that way intentionally.  One of the
core requirements of the OS is that the phone storage was not supposed to be
user-upgradeable, so that manufacturers could offer different SKUs of the same phone
with different storage capacities...a la iPhone.  Some of the hardware vendors, unfortunately,
decided to make the SD-card slot user accessible anyway, so of course users expect
that they could just swap cards as normal.  Not so.

Personally I think it was very unwise to implement the storage in this way.  I can understand
why though, but it will lead to a lot of customer confusion and frustration.

There is hope though.  Once you have a Nokia smartphone around, you can 'rescue' SD-cards
that were locked down by a WP7 device.  Apparently, Nokia smartphones handle SD-cards
a little differently than most others, and will allow you to bypass the security code on the card,
but you will have to reformat it, losing any data you stored on it of course.

I really hope M$ patches this out.

[TriniXaeno]

ah, understood.

Well it may not be such a deal breaker when taken from that perspective.

Knowing the limitation going in, I would just spring for a large SD card from the offset and treat it, like you said, as an Iphone/Ipod where storage is not user upgradeable.

Judging from my usage patterns in the past, a 16GB or 32GB sd card should be sufficient till time to upgrade the device itself anyway.

[phoenix31tt]

not only that...

that limitation also forced manufacturers to release phones with AT LEAST 8gb internal storage (not including the default 512+mb rom)...

so as you said wyatt... basically what folks have been doing is adding another 8-16 from the onset based on their usage patterns.

also a point made by arcman but it must be extended... Nokia is now in full partnership with MS, who knows maybe they might implement removable storage again?

but as it is it's not a deal breaker for many as they don't use their mem cards like a flash drive

[MessiaaH]

For me, when i put ah sd card in my phone, i doh remove it, my HD2 has been runing wiht 16gb for 2 years, becuase 32gb was juss too dam expensive. Now dat its cheaper, i will spring for it.

Also, u dont NEED a nokia phoen to recover d card, u can use partition tools like partition magic etc to do some magic. Also, if u want to extend d card wihtout a hard reset, same tools can be used. For instance, men dual bootin wp7 and android on d same device right now, WP7 is installed first on a 8gb card, then 8gb removed, and cloned to a 16gb, leaving d space for android u need. Install back, wp7 sees d extra space, android runs fine in its partition.

So men like us who REALLY want to do it, wont have ah problem atal.
Fortunately i eh need to go through all dat, i buying my phone wiht ah 32gb card, + 8 is 40gb. That going to last me d lifespan of d phone, cuase if 64gb release tomorow, d price of dat, it will wait it ass their for ah good year or 2. At which point i go be switching phones anyways.

1 Advantage i gettin from d consoldated storage dat i din expect is dis:
On my hd2, since it only have 512mb of rom, eventualy my phoen wil say, "out of storage space" becuase i do so much web browsing, rdping, etc etc, d cache eats up d rom. And i find myself, using regedit to redirect certain cache locations etc, and sometimes i stil end up in trouble in ah pinch, where i find myself searchign for files to delete from rom.
With 1gb rom it less likely to happen, but with wp7 implemetnation, i dont ever have to worry bout that problem. Select 100apps, click go, and not have to worry about puting certain ones sd , certain ones rom, redirecting cache, etc etc. So its not all bad.

[woodyear99]

I was just wondering, in reference to that "Samsung Focus vs Samsung Fascinate!" video I posted. The hardware seems to be pretty much identical, is it therefore possible to install a port of Android/WP7 OS onto either phone? A future possibility?

[MessiaaH]

Alert! :

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/27/gmail-accidentally-resetting-accounts-years-of-correspondence-v/

Dont know where to post this, so i juss drop it here, admins could fix up to suit.

[phoenix31tt]

I was just wondering, in reference to that "Samsung Focus vs Samsung Fascinate!" video I posted. The hardware seems to be pretty much identical, is it therefore possible to install a port of Android/WP7 OS onto either phone? A future possibility?

i'm sure it is... messiah have wp7 running on a HTC HD2, which is more or less the same hardware as the HD7... so you might even be able to dual booth of that

[MessiaaH]

WP7 Device Manager - Homebrew

WP7 Marketplace Hits 9000 apps already

Most Popular WP7 Phones

IE9 with Silverlight support to hit wp7 before mango