iOS vs Android vs Windows Phone 7 vs Symbian vs Blackberry! Five operating systems enter the CHOICE labs… but only one squeaks out a victory.
CHOICE’s testing methodology is different to any other technology publication in Australia, not the least because they won’t use review samples provided by vendors; anything they test is something that’s been purchased by CHOICE itself. So when a friend of mine commented last night that they’d tested smartphone operating systems, my interest was piqued, both to see their recommendation and to see how they’d assessed each operating system.
A quick disclaimer: With my freelancing hat on, I’ve performed testing work for CHOICE previously; I had nothing to do with this particular test.
The winner? Android, by a nose. CHOICE tested five operating systems and six phones — an HTC Incredible S, Google Nexus S, Apple iPhone 4, LG Optimus 7, Nokia E7 and Blackberry Bold 9780 — and assessed the operating systems running on each for ease of use, browsing, multimedia and app availability.
Android OS 2.3, and specifically the HTC Sense enabled version on the Incredible S beat out iOS 4.3.3 by a slim three point margin, but iOS was judged better than the plain vanilla version of Android 2.3 found on the Nexus S. CHOICE’s testers liked the overall ease of use and app availability of the iOS platform, whereas Android scored best for customisation of the interface and the initial setup experience. In the corner with the dunce cap sat the Blackberry Bold 9780, although that’s a Blackberry OS 6.0 phone; from my own tests I’d say the Blackberry OS 7.0 experience is much better. [CHOICE]
Joel
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 10:51 AM“CHOICE’s testers liked the overall ease of use and app availability of the iOS platform, whereas Android scored best for customisation of the interface and the initial setup experience.”
That pretty much sums it all up. Although I’m not sure how the initial setup could get much easier than on an iPhone, especially when iOS5 comes around and we don’t even have to hook it up to iTunes lol
They’re hard to rank, they target two quite different audiences.
BenDTU
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:06 AMDefinitely. They’ve weighted all the criteria evenly which is a bit strange considering different things will matter to different people.
Namarrgon
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:14 AMAs you say, different things matter to different people. You might as well weight them evenly, as no scoring system will suit everyone.
The Android setup is pretty damn simple – enter your Google account details (or create one), choose your region (or just accept the default), and that’s about it – no tethering. Though I expect iOS could at least equal this once the iTunes umbilical is finally cut.
ozoneocean
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:26 PMOn the setup- two of my co-workers on one of my friends recently got iphones (2 iphone4′s and one iphone3 respectively), and all found difficulty in setting them up. They found them pretty easy to use once that hassle was done with though.
-A big part of the hassle was itunes. Not only did they have to download and sign into it but having to have it on a specific computer meant they couldn’t just get it done at work. And in one case, since the lady was travelling at the time she did not have access to a computer for that purpose.
-Another issue was the simple transferral of contact info from one phone to another. It seems you cannot simply just save it to your simcard or even an SD card and import them like you can on almost all other phones since the sim in the iphones is incompatible…? Instead the easiest way is to manually input each one?
I tried to help them out but all other “easy” solutions I found were too exotic and technical for their level of expertise.
SO as a last ditch I advised them to “get the guy in the Optus shop to do it”, but no matter where they went the advice was the same: Manual input.
I’m sure I wouldn’t have had as much trouble if I was doing it myself since I’m a tech savy user, but for these people who are a lot less tech savy it was pretty hard. I really expected a bit better of iphones, especially since these basic users have almost no trouble with them in operation. Why so tricky to setup?
Brodie
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 2:20 PMAgreed on the setup thing. Android was beyond easy. I managed to set up my Incredible S in a Maccas about 500Km away from home.
AnthonyP
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:08 AMI could tell you how to make the setup of an iPhone easier, NO BLOODY ITUNES!
Its a phone for christs sake! It should activate over the air!
Astro
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:56 PMWith iOS 5 it does.
Wardski
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 7:16 PMAbout Fekking time.. After 5 versions of iOS and only now we get OTA setup??
I mean WTF Apple!
shumanfu
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:10 AMI’m waiting for CHOICE to tell me which is better.. apples or oranges.
Twitchel
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:30 AMOranges for sure!
Pmac
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:54 PMMan I hate Fanboy’s
Joel
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 4:57 PMWhere are the fanboys in these comments?
Superman
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 6:14 PMBananas !
Graeme
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 3:23 PMOoh, rich kid eh? :)
ritik
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:55 PMI’m an orange fanboy, down with apples (the fruity kind)
Simon Reidy
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:17 AMFunnily enough, I don’t turn to Choice before making a smartphone purchase. For my research I primarily use this little site known as ‘Gizmodo’ :)
Evan
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:32 AMJust Apple V Android; did no-one tell them about Microsoft WP7?
Joshua
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:37 AMRead the paragraph after the disclaimer.
Sam
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:49 AMHe can only see the pretty picture it seems
Inspector Klaus
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:40 AMAfter reading plenty of Choice articles in the past, they are not the decision-makers they used to be. Their testing models have suffered in recent years and I’m not sure why, but much of their conclusions and summaries are very limited and poorly weighted. These days, specific websites such as Giz and many others are much better for reviews. Heck, productreview.com.au is far better than most of Choice’s articles. I hate to say it, but Choice has jumped the shark. I remember the old choice mags of the 80s and 90s in my local library. These days, they are a relic of a bygone era. RIP Choice.
ozoneocean
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:11 PMAre you saying that now because you happen to disagree with the results of their little test here? :)
Barii
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:48 AMI would have loved to see a WebOS in the list!!
I only tried it with my cheap HP touchpad but i actually like they way the OS interface and style. too bad its on the edge :P
Steve
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 8:33 PMThis study compares smartphones and seeing how the Pre has always been virtually nonexistent on our shores, I think it’s a fair exclusion.
Jackson Bison
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 12:22 PMI’m just waiting for a Zoot Review…
…the authority in absolutely everything
BigChaps
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 2:20 PMIf it hasn’t been scientifcally tested at the Ponds Institute, it isn’t worth looking at…
Tb
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 5:52 PM^ more of this please.
Derek Jenkins
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 12:25 PMI was at a conference last week which included a presentation by futurist Craig Rispin. At the end of his (awesome) presentation someone cheekily asked him, ‘So which smartphone should I buy?’ His response cracked me up. I’ll attempt to share it here, paraphrased of course.
He explained, to the largely non-techy audience, that there’s currently two major mobile operating systems, Android and iOS. Which one you choose, he suggests, depends on where you’d prefer to live.
You can live in the inner-city. It’s where all the noise and action is. It’s gritty. Choices galore. Good and bad. There are dumpsters and rats…and pornography. That’s Android.
Or there’s the suburbs. A clean & pure community with Steve Jobs at the entrance to the gated estate. A safe, clean place to play and learn. No lap dancing or police chases. That’s iOS.
Mike
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:57 PMLol, love it. Though perhaps at the end of the iOS line: No lap dancing or police chases. Or anything that isn’t officially sanctioned by Steve.
Steve
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 8:34 PMPornography?! Where do I sign?
MDolley
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 12:39 PMI found the out of the box experience much better on Windows Phone 7 compared to Android devices I have previously set up.
Entered my Facebook details and my Windows Live ID. I had already imported my contacts into Windows Live. Also, unlike Choice I do use Outlook to manage my contacts (Via Outlook Connector)
I also get Microsoft Office for free, including cloud features
MotorMouth
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 2:52 PMYeah, I’m with you. I don’t recall having to do anything to set it up other than put the SIM card and battery in, then switch it on (didn’t even have to charge the battery first).
Setting up email just required me to enter my hotmail address and log-in, which auto-populated my contact list. I then imported all my phone contacts from the SIM, having copied them from my old phone, and linked profiles, where appropriate. After that I was able to do anything I wanted. I’ve installed a few apps and loaded on some music but never really used any of that. I do use it for a lot of things I used to do on my PC though, but it is all stuff that ships with the OS (email, maps, browser, etc). Now I can keep it all up to date and swap around the music (never know when I might need to listen to some) wirelessly and setting that up was about the easiest part of all. Gotta love WinPhone 7!
TSH
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 11:25 AMIt’s this kind of thing that’s attracting me to WP7. I already use Hotmail, Outlook and Office for work and for myself. Nokia’s S60 and S^3 work great with Outlook – WP7 comes straight from MS!
Jason
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:52 PMIt shows how knowledgable the writers of that article are when for a good portion of it they refer to WP7 as “Windows Mobile 7″. No such thing there chief. Shows you really considered the subject at hand if you can’t get the name right. It’d be like calling iOS iPhone OS still. Damn.
William
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 2:53 PMNot to mention in their summary they mention no support for Outlook and the picture right next too it has an Outlook inbox.
warcroft
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 5:20 PMAnd not to mention WP7 has the entire Office package included.
The reviewers didnt know what they were doing.
gizmo
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 2:40 PMI hope you all know that iOS was actually a typo when it was first loaded into the first apple products. It was meant to b
warcroft
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 5:34 PMWhich letter? The ‘O’?
iBS?
Steve
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 8:35 PMIrritable Bowel Syndrome? I can get behind that.
Husky
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 6:52 PMYou realise iOS was only named last year, long after the first apple products?
gizmo
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 9:01 PMhmmm my troll kinda worked.
I faked the cutoff message – so people would expand on their thoughts.
Anyway – more next ti
MotorMouth
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 3:30 PMThere is not a lot of info in that article and therefore no way of knowing what they tested. I looked very closely at all three OS’s before settling on WP7. Comparing it side-by-side with an iPhone 4 and an HTC Desire it seemed both better featured and much easier to use. The forthcoming Mango update will take it several steps further again. It makes me wonder if people bother to check these things out at all, or if they just buy what every other idiot is buying.
chris
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 4:04 PMSimilar experience to Motormouth above – I had a good look at iOS and Android before settling on WP7.
Really impressed with the product on a Samsung Omnia – and really haven’t had to do a heap of setting up out of the box. Just dived straight in and was able to use almost immediately – which I guess is a tick to the platform’s set-up, etc.
TG
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 4:29 PMNot sure one of the cons they listed for iOS is entirely correct: “…many of the tasks such as app purchases (for apps over 20MB) and updates need to be carried out on a home network connected to a PC or Mac. This is set to change with the release of iOS5 which will allow Apple users to sync with other devices without connecting to a PC.”
Isn’t it that any app store purchases over 20MB needs to be downloaded over a wifi connection rather than 3G, not that you need to be on your home wifi network or connected to your computer?
The synching without connecting to a computer and the 20MB download limit over 3G are two separate things. As far as I’m aware iOS5 only addresses the synching (and you will need to be on the same wifi network for that), not the download limit, or am I wrong?
warcroft
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 5:14 PMWhen you look at the individual categories scores WP7 performed great!
Sure, it scored very low for ‘Customising the interface: 38′ and thats what killed its overall score so much, but its other categories were ranked just as high as iOS and Android.
‘Handling personal information and content’ only got 58? They obviously didnt merge all their contacts/Facebook/Twitter accounts into one big social group.
And “no Outlook support and contact synchronization”? Did thet actually use the phone?
And Im willing to bet they werent using Mango.
What Im beginning to see with these sorts of comparison tests is WP7 getting punished because it doesnt do things like people ‘expect’ it to do with iOS and Android.
Steve
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 8:44 PMWP7 is being punished because it doesn’t have the features people expect it to. Mango will change that, but this is CHOICE Australia, if you mentioned ‘Mango’, they’d have asked ‘In season?’
Future updates don’t count, otherwise it’ll be an IO5 vs Ice Cream Sandwich vs Mango. They’re testing what’s available now, and be as it may, Microsoft’s been very sluggish. How long did it take to get Cut and Paste or Multitasking?
MS started in beyond 3rd place. Google’s updated Android like a fiend, MS should have thrown their gazillion dollars behind it, done the same thing and thrown money at manufacturers to make nicer phones than Android’s Sensation, Galaxy S II, etc.
Leo
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 1:02 PMOutlook does not sync natively to WP7, you need an exchange sync on your Outlook, which is why they say it does not support it, because it’s got nothing to do with Outlook.
Sheeds
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 7:16 PMWhat a joke review. Almost enough to make me instantly kill my Choice subscription.
Quality of reviews and jornalistic merit is falling there like it has at engadget.
very sad.
Steve
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 8:38 PMYou’re complaining about reviews and journalistic merit of Engadget but you post on… Gizmodo?
I know full well the tabloid nature of this blog, but sometimes it’s nice to roll with the pigs. And I’m pretty your point is going to be rather biased fullstop unless WP7 was ranked #1 in everything.
Sheeds
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 11:16 AMActually – go read my piece and see for yourself:
http://www.wpdownunder.com/?p=2496
I dont shy away from the fact that I love my WP7 Mango handset, or that I run a blog on WP7.
However, I like to think that I can objectively criticise a so-called “expert” comparison on it’s merits regardless of my personal view.
Let me know what you think.
Steve
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 8:31 PMAhahha what? How does Sense-equipped Android > IOS > Vanilla Android?
I was eyeing an HTC Sensation but I’d root that thing lickety split.
But sounds like an awfully vague study.
g1nchy
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:03 PMIt’s good to see such great response to WP7 in the comments and their user experience. Hopefully Microsoft have a marketing campaign for Mango and don’t just rely on hardware partners to promote their handsets because it won’t happen. I think people having been holding of on jumping to WP7 because they know Mango ripness is arriving with front facing cameras and eventually skype. Which is a shame for all the stock that is currently out there.
g1nchy
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:21 PMquote from choice test “MS Office users will see the lack of support for Outlook for mail and contact synchronization as baffling when it’s a Microsoft program and Apple support it more effectively.”
makes me wonder how I’m syncing my outlook and contacts so easily.. hmm I will take with a grain of salt any future Choice review.
Chris
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 7:29 AMi feel that the reviewer didnt know a lot about wp7 and didnt bother to find it out based on some of their comments.
Leo
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 1:00 PMBecause you have an exchange sync, it’s got nothing to do with Outlook, Outlook is just your client. if you use Outlook with a Pop or IMAP service other than exchange you won’t be able to sync your phone contacts.
g1nchy
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 4:35 AMLeo, i installed the free outlook connector to sync local outlook.
warcroft
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 7:27 AMLets not forget the Google/Motorola partnership which is going to hurt the availability of Android on other brands.
More manufacturers are now looking to WP7 as an alternative.
Peter Murphy
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 7:43 PMNot a good review