Dangerous Dave's Dlog

I considered for a while the possibility of buying an iPhone 4. I eventually decided against it, simply because I would never want to carry it around with me for fear of losing such an expensive phone. One drop, its screen could be destroyed. I'd also be a pickpocket target. I decided instead that I should get an Android based phone so I could compare.

I had a few rules for choosing which handset to get; Obviously, I wanted an Android based phone. Secondly, I wanted a touch screen phone. And thirdly, it had to be significantly cheaper than the iPhone 4, because otherwise I might as well just get one of those.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much choice over here in New Zealand. iPhones have been around for some time, but Android phones are only just starting to take off. To my knowledge, there are only around 5 different handsets available. When I started research, around two months ago, there were 3. Back then, the only one worth taking note of was an LG, for around 60% of the cost of an iPhone 4. I seriously considered buying it (I don't believe in plans), but I struggled to find a good review of the phone. Instead, I waited. Eventually around a month later, the LG GT540 was released. The good parts? The price (Around 1/3 of the price of an iPhone) and price ratio. The bad parts? Where do I start...

Firstly, it has a resistive screen. High end touch screen devices (like iPhones) have capacitive touch screens. They are more responsive, more accurate, allow multitouch and are significantly more expensive. I expect a large part of the cost savings on this phone are from the use of the resistive screen. For a resistive screen, the GT540 is very usable.

Secondly, it's battery life. I've heard that Lithium ion batteries can take a few charges to "warm up" to get to the point where they hold a full charge. I hope that's true, I have charged the battery about 5 times in the week I've had the phone, often just from sitting on standby. That may be Android though, it's hard to say since it's the only Android handset I've used.

Finally, it's running Android 1.6, so it's not the most up to date version of Android (2.2). I would update it myself, but somehow I get the feeling there must be a reason why they didn't use the latest version (with it's latest features, including Flash). I'm not sure if it's possible to un-update it, or back it up, and I don't really want to brick my phone a week after I got it.

Android vs iOS

The number one selling point for iOS is the quality of the applications. There is no doubt that the App Store has much better applications, whether paid or not. The Android Market is also incredibly difficult to browse for good applications, or any application that you don't know the name of.
With that said, iPhone applications on an iPad just don't work. They go fine, but when they were designed for the smaller device, really the only apps that work just as well or better are the racing games. iPad versions of apps are pretty much a necessity (And unexplainably more expensive, to the point of iPhone version: $1, iPad version: $10).

There is one thing that Android does well, and that is widgets. Instead of opening the weather application, like you would on an iPhone, you just glance at the widget on your homescreen that autoupdates itself. One glance and you know whether it's raining or not. Even easier than the old fashioned way. There's also a widget for powersaving, enabling you to toggle wifi, bluetooth, screen brightness, GPS, and background synchronisation (of emails, contacts, calender). Switching these off should help to save battery.

Speaking of synchronisation, Android does this well. It synchronizes with your Google account, so there's really no surprise it does this well. But it does, just FYI.

Besides these differences, Android seems to take a lot of things from the iOS system. Picking it up, you know exactly how to use it. They gain a few points for consistency and ease of use, but lose a few for lack of originality.

The last issue is with multitasking. Everyone complains because the iPhone doesn't (or didn't) have it. Android allows it quite freely, which means you could have half of your applications running in the background without your knowledge. It chews through the battery, making a task killing application 100% necessary.

This review may seem predominantly negative towards Android and the handset, but I certainly feel I got value for money. The LG GT540 is probably about 2/3 as good as the iPhone, for 1/3 of the price. It's very usable, and should it suddenly be a week ago I would make the exact same purchase.

If you have the money to buy an iPhone, and to replace it if you fall in a river or something, then it is most certainly the best experience. On the other hand, if you are looking for the best value for money, the LG GT540 ("Optimus") is certainly up there on the list.

-Dave