Give the smartphone industry of the present day a glance and you’d be surprised at the number of smartphones cluttering the world market. It’s very hard to believe that only a couple of decades ago, mobile phones and pagers were enjoying the exalted status today’s smartphones seem to be enjoying.
The personal computers of yesterday have paled in comparison to the smartphones of today. These smartphones come packed with features jostling against one another in an attempt to capture the world smartphone market. But, in the present market scenario there is no single winner or loser. New companies are cropping up at every turn; new features are being added as we speak, new hardware’s are being developed to support these phones. What about the cost? These highly advanced, ultra-thin smartphones certainly come with quite heavy price tags.
Well, here are today’s most sought after smartphones each having a loyal fan base; the iPhone 5, Windows Phone 8 and the Android powered smartphone. Having to choose one among these smartphones is a tough task as they need to be compared on various parameters. And each smartphone comes with its own set of virtues and vices. Let’s get started on our comparison.
The iPhone 5 vs. Windows Phone 8 vs. Android powered smartphone – A comparison
- The Operating System:
Although all the three smartphones have stable operating systems, Android powered smartphones are more flexible when compared to iOS. The freedom to customize your iPhone is very limited. Notifications in Android phones cleanly pop up from the screen’s top in a neat single line. Integration also works smoothly in Android phones. While it seems like iOS apps work well in isolation but without proper integration among them. The iPhone uses an OS X based kernel while Android 4.0 and Windows 8 use Linux and Windows based Operating system respectively. - Apps:
As far as the applications for smartphones are concerned, Apple still rules the roost. The iOS powered Apple iPhone 5 has access to close to 650,000 apps available in Apple Store. The applications and games available in iPhone 5 far exceed other smartphones. Although Windows Phone 8 and Android Jelly Bean smartphones are fast catching up with Apple in this regard, they are unable to beat the quality of Apple apps. Windows Phone has close to 100,000 apps available for downloading that’s way less than the other two. - Display:
All these smartphones have high resolution display. On the whole all the three smartphones have come up with very different ways to make using their phones easier. The home screen of Windows 8 phone makes it look like squares of different apps placed together. Each app represents one function such as music, Facebook, messages etc. Android has made life easier with widgets. Although Android has always used widgets, it has made resizing and placing these widgets easier. Apple, on the other hand, sits very well on simplicity. It doesn’t come with grids or widgets; all it has is a plain screen with its icons placed neatly adding to its functionality. - Games:
Android gives a much smoother gaming experience than windows Phone 8 or the iPhone. The display screen in iPhone is still way too small for watching movies or for playing games for an extended period of time. But, the sound that comes out of an iPhone is still among the best in the industry. - Camera:
Windows Phone 8 has got a camera app that has a clean and neat appearance. You can easily access the camera with its small menu button. Android phones camera has become faster and sharper. It makes editing and deleting photos easier. The iPhone is simpler to use as the settings such as the focus and flash work automatically. - Browser:
Windows Phone takes internet browsing to a new level by bringing in the latest Internet Explorer on board. Malicious websites may find it very hard to track you with Windows Phone’s anti-phishing filter. Android’s internet browsing comes either with its standard Android Browser or with Chrome depending on whether you are using Android 4.1 or Jelly Bean. Apple’s iPhone comes with Safari and integration to iCloud.
Although these phones vary on various parameters, each phone comes with different benefits for different users. The history of the technological world is replete with instances that looked like a particular consumer gadget will rule the world market forever only to falter against a new and exceptional gadget. With a new smartphone being released every now and then, it seems that nothing is unique forever.