[pook1e]

In the past, I'd agree with you. However, comparing Google's latest lineup with Apple's latest lineup tells a much different story (all 16GB):

Nexus 4: $349; iPhone 5: $699

Nexus 7: $199; iPad Mini: $329

Nexus 10: $399; iPad: $499

Of course, Apple and Google aren't in the same business, but they are very much competitors.

[w1ntermute]

> Apple and Google aren't in the same business

And this makes a world of difference. Google is selling products at cost to drive their ad business. There's no way you can compare that to Apple's business model. The idea that Apple sells expensive products is a belief born out of the PC market, and if you want to compare apples to apples, you should be looking at the iPhone 5 vs the Samsung Galaxy S3.

[eertami]

> you should be looking at the iPhone 5 vs the Samsung Galaxy S3.

But the S3 is so far ahead of the iPhone that it also is not a fair comparison.

[Steko]

What's this rubbish?

iPhone 5: thinner, lighter, higher quality construction, better battery life, better cpu, better gpu, superior display quality (full sRGB, IPS, higher ppi), better ecosystem, better apps, will be regularly updated for years, better customer service, etc.

GS 3: bigger screen diagonal, more RAM, NFC, better front camera

Go back to Engadget kid.

[w1ntermute]

You pop up in so many threads to defend Apple that I recognize your username by now. Do you work for Apple's PR department or something? If so, I sure hope they're paying you overtime for being here on a Friday night. Well, here we go...

> thinner

Yeah, by 1.2 mm. If you're wearing skinny hipster jeans like your average Apple fanboi, it makes a difference, but for the rest of us, that's insignificant.

> lighter

Again, 21 g. Not a big deal.

> higher quality construction

Right, that's why so many people are reporting chips and scratches on the aluminum back the day that they get the phone. It looks like Apple didn't learn anything from the glass back disaster with the iPhone 4/4S.

> better battery life

Both phones can easily last a full day of intense usage. The iPhone's slightly longer battery life is a result of its puny screen.

And don't forget that the Galaxy S3's battery is user-removable and replaceable. You can carry an additional battery with you and swap it in as needed, or you can get an extended battery - for just $30 on Amazon, you can get an extended battery with 4200 mAh, double the standard 2100 mAh battery and nearly three times the iPhone 5's 1440 mAh battery.

> better cpu

Uhh, no. Just no. The iPhone 5 has a 1.3 GHz dual-core processor, whereas the Galaxy S3 has a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor. Next time, please try to extricate yourself from the reality distortion field before making statements related to Apple or its products.

> superior display quality

Ignoring the fact that display quality is inherently subjective, that the iPhone has a better display is far from a foregone conclusion: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57524291-37/color-me-prett...

> better ecosystem, better apps

Are you kidding me? Let me know when there are functional Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Voice apps for the iPhone, and when I can use the default mapping software (which can't be replaced) without ending up in the middle of a river. And let's not even get started on the inability to install 3rd party browsers on the iPhone or use apps like Locale and Tasker without jailbreaking.

> will be regularly updated for years

I'd rather not have updates than have them break core functionality, like mapping.

> better customer service

This is probably the only thing Apple does better. That said, I've never actually needed customer service on my Android phones, unlike my friends with iPhones, who've taken their phones in to have the broken glass backs replaced with alarming frequency.

Go back to Daring Fireball kid.

[Steko]

"If you're wearing skinny hipster jeans like your average Apple fanboi,"

Christ, what an asshole.

"but for the rest of us, that's insignificant."

Mentioned in almost every professional review but whatever, I'm clearly on Apple's payroll here.

"Again, 21 g. Not a big deal"

Mentioned in almost every professional review but whatever, I'm clearly on Apple's payroll here.

"so many people reporting chips"

That sounds scientific. Maybe every time an apple product is released and 4-10 million people get their hands on them in the same weekend perfectly normal quality issues are magnified by the size of the release pop and tech blogs who want click traffic.

Almost every professional review says higher build quality but whatever, I'm clearly on Apple's payroll here.

"iPhone's slightly longer battery life"

+60% > web browsing. Almost every professional review says the same thing but whatever, I'm clearly on Apple's payroll here.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/13

"is a result of its puny screen."

+14% hotspot battery life with the screen off. Same link.

"<replaceable btty>

http://www.mophie.com/

"1.3 GHz dual-core processor, whereas the Galaxy S3 has a 1.4 GHz "

Newsflash: different ARM processors have different Dmips/Mhz making this an Apple's to Oranges comparison. Samsung's cortex A15's at 2 Ghz are twice as fast as the A9 chips at 1.5 Ghz.

North American GS3's don't even have the quad core 1.4 Ghz chip tho, they run a dual core Snapdragon.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/10

GS3 not shown in all charts on the page but:

Anand: it's clear the iPhone 5 ... tends to outperform the latest ARM based Android smartphones.

FWIW I'll say the international GS3 is very close and ahead in some benchmarks but this is paid for by even worse battery comparisons and heavily mitigated by the gpu difference.

"that the iPhone has a better display is far from a foregone conclusion"

From your article:

"Another study done by DisplayMate, which conducts testing for manufacturers, found that the iPhone 5's display was "state-of-the-art accurate," and only fell short to the new iPad in terms of accuracy and contrast.

DisplayMate president Raymond Soneira blasted the study, arguing that the color gamut test IHS conducted was based off of an old standard that has led to incorrect conclusions.

Jakhanwah declined to comment on the new standard or Soneira's comments.

So lols and all the superior quality of Apple's display is mentioned in almost every professional review but whatever, I'm clearly on Apple's payroll here.

"<re: apps/ecosystem> Are you kidding me?"

No. Almost every professional review says the same thing but whatever, I'm clearly on Apple's payroll here.

"Let me know when there are functional Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Voice apps for the iPhone"

Besides the fact that asking for first party titles on another platform is total bullshit there actually are substitutes for all of those and have been for awhile. There's actually a Gmail app as well, I haven't used it because there's better.

"<maps>"

Zing. Maps for Android is indeed better. Google Maps has never routed anyone off into a comical place. One of those statements is laughingly false.

"I'd rather not have updates"

Well I can see why you're so happy with Samsung.

"Go back to Daring Fireball kid."

Go back and look at the post I was responding to. Do you really want to encourage the sort of empty derp OS cheerleader comments like that?

Despite being wrong about everything (as cited) above you probably thought you were right. You probably still think you are. But I'll leave you with someone else who thought the iphone 5 wasn't that great until he used it as his phone and learned something on Daring Fireball which is a good blog that I have many criticisms of:

I’ve made a huge mistake. I’ve had the iPhone 5 for about a week and a half, and I’m still annoyed about the dock connector thing. But it’s a small problem, and in retrospect I was wrong to allow myself to become overwhelmed by dock-based frustration.

That’s because, in all other ways, the iPhone 5 is the best phone ever to grace the earth. It beats every single rival on just about every metric you can think of, including speed, battery life, and especially beauty and workmanship.

...

I could have remained silent about my reversal. It’s been weeks since the iPhone 5 went on sale, so there’s no real point in my writing a review—dozens of critics, and more importantly millions of actual customers, have had a chance to use the device, so the opinion of one more tech writer isn’t really a big deal. But I decided to speak up after reading John Gruber’s review of the phone...

Farhad Manjoo:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/10/...

[mardix]

You also have to see in USA, people will get the phone at subsidized amount. Like most phone on a two year plan cost between $99 to $199.

Macbook maybe luxury in the computer world, but iPhone, not really

[hiddenstage]

So isn't that telling then that Android is outpacing the iPhone in sales?

[sbuk]

Not when the market is flooded with cheap commodity handsets, no.

[scottm01]

The iPhone 5 is $649 unsubsidized, not $699. Other features aside (some of which it lacks compared to Nexus), it does have an LTE radio and works on, say, Verizon.

Source: Someone who just paid full boat for a 5 after my Droid Charge was destroyed. At least I still have my unlimited data and subsidy coming up next year.

[taligent]

Of course just comparing on price ignores some big differences.

Nexus 4 has no LTE. Nexus 7 has terrible build quality. Nexus 10 has nearly half the battery life.

[Tyrannosaurs]

You're the first person I've ever heard say that the Nexus 7 has terrible build quality and the AnandTech figures show that the 10 has around 90% of the iPad battery life rather than "nearly half".

[czhiddy]

Build quality issues were rampant when the device was introduced. I had to swap out my Nexus 7 twice because of loose-screen / screen-flicker issues. I did order it the day it was released, so maybe there were some unresolved factory quality control issues at the time.

My current unit has a speck of dirt trapped under the screen, but I don't really care that much anymore given that the thing was $199. You'd be a lot less annoyed about a rattle in the dashboard on a new Corolla than you would if you bought a BMW.

Battery life during use is generally good, but the battery in mine dies completely after ~4 days of non-use. Stock install, nothing but my Google account signed in. I'm not sure if it's a hardware issue, but reinstalling the OS hasn't fixed it.

[taligent]

Maybe you should Google it because it is pretty common knowledge that Nexus 7 is very hit/miss in terms of build quality.

And I stupidly compared battery life against iPad Mini. So it is not half and not 90%. It's about 65% of the iPad according to Engadget.

Nexus 10: 7.26 hours, iPad 4: 11.08 hours

[bryanlarsen]

You're really good at cherry picking, aren't you? Anandtech for the performance numbers, Engadget for battery life numbers. By Anandtech's numbers, the Nexus 10 gets 93% of the battery life of the iPad, even though the Nexus 10 uses a much smaller battery. Between the lighter battery and the grippy back, Google designed a device that can be safely held in one hand, a tradeoff I appreciate.

[drivebyacct2]

You're wasting your breath. There's three or four them that do this in every, single, last Android thread.

[Tyrannosaurs]

To be fair they have their equivalents in the Apple threads.

[pook1e]

Ah, yes. The old game of taking a perceived flaw of a product that is competitive to a product you like, and blowing it way out of proportion. I'll play a round.

- The camera on the iPhone 5 has the 'purple haze' issue.

- The iPad mini has an embarrassingly low resolution display for (almost) 2013, despite also having a larger display than the Nexus 7.

- The iPad 4 doesn't run as hot as the iPad 3, and no longer makes me scrambled eggs for breakfast while I play Infinity Blade.

Seriously. All products have flaws, and therefore there is no perfect product. Pointing out flaws to prove that your favorite company is better than their competitors is counter-productive. I really wish people would stop this childish debate and just agree that both Google (with their hardware partners) and Apple make fantastic, competing products.

[drivebyacct2]

It's really just painful to watch you comment in these thread. It really just hurts.