Samsung Galaxy S vs. iPhone 4: Personal Comparison
As our readers may be aware I am an Android supporter whereas my colleague Mark is one of the iPhone faithful. I own a Samsung Galaxy S while he prefers the iPhone 4. I have come up close with an iPhone 4 before but when Mark visited me the other day I managed to have a good look at his iOS device while he checked out my Samsung Galaxy S.
Now I know all you iPhone 4 fans out there are going to say I’m bias towards Android, but I do have to say out of both smartphones my Samsung Galaxy S was not as weighty as the iPhone 4, was slimmer due to the iPhone 4 having to wear the overcoat of a bumper case, and my Galaxy S seemed smoother in use.
Mark seemed to be quite impressed with the multi-touch on the Samsung Galaxy S and also with its lightness in the hand, which obviously is due to the Galaxy S not having glass on both surfaces, but then again the Galaxy S doesn’t suffer from what has become known as Glassgate.
Another attribute to the Samsung Galaxy S is that I don’t need to cover the device up in any way if I don’t want to, thus I am not forced to make the device more bulky by having to slap a shield round the edge so I can maintain a connection unlike the iPhone 4 and its antenna issues which even though has gone quiet still does exist as Mark showed me by removing the bumper case.
There are of course a few neat little things I find more preferable on the Samsung Galaxy S to the iPhone 4 as well such as an incoming message is depicted by a jigsaw piece and to view the message all you do is slip the jigsaw piece into the designated cut out and you are taken straight to the message.
Obviously the iPhone 4 does beat the Galaxy S when it comes to apps as the Apple App Store is considerable larger then the Android Market, but then personally it’s not all about apps for me. In all honesty I like the Android platform and especially the Samsung Galaxy S which in my personal view beats the iPhone 4 hands down as the iPhone 4 is hampered with the necessity to carry a bumper, the obvious lunacy to place glass on both surfaces and not even using Gorilla Glass like the Galaxy S.
Having said that, I’m not totally down on the iPhone 4, the white iPhone 4 does look a very pretty device even though Apple seems to have given up the ghost on that one, and the black version is also an extremely attractive handset without the bumper, but the inclusion of the bumper makes it look somewhat less attractive and certainly more heavy in the pocket, and let’s face it Mark can’t help being an iPhone fanboy lol.
Comments
9 thoughts on “Samsung Galaxy S vs. iPhone 4: Personal Comparison”
Android is getting better & better everyday with every new realse. That's established. Having said that, Samsung is a joke of a smartphone company and the only decent thing they seem able to make is displays. with the hardware it possess, the galaxy should perform at least 2 times better than it does. To get it close to achieving that, you've got to root the phone , apply a lag fix, install a decent task killer app and so on.
One thing is for sure, that'll be the last time I buy a Samsung handset (I stay in awe of the android platform though!)
I LOVE ANDROID TILL I I DIE THIS ARTICLE IS THE BEST LOLLL
I am an owner of an iPhone 4(my first iPhone) and i do not have a bumper & my phone works fine. I am not in the USA right now so a big factor could be that I don’t have to deal with AT&T’s terrible network. So far the only argument that you have made for that phone being better is that it doesn’t have to wear a bumper.
i was on the fence for a long time for both these phones. I ended up with an iPhone 4 only because I was in line early in the morning getting one for my wife.
Long story short, the iPhone is neat; there is no doubt. but I find it very … apple-ish… i wish it had a larger screen, that i could delete apps at will (some are defautls and cannot be delete), that the multi-task was real, etc etc etc.
I'm sure if I had gotten the Galaxy, I would have my issues with it too, but I would feel like I have a "Product" rather than a "Market Frenzy" item. Needless to say, I do not see the Hype behind the iPhone 4 since other phones do the same and maybe even do it better (who knows, I'm still looking for a recent tech review on that…)
I'm still on the fence and still looking at the Galaxy S, but stories of forking code bases, malware and more attacks against the Android OS are keeping me under the safety blanket that is Steve Jobs armpit…
Android doesn't support CalDav and CardDav but iPhone does.
Google plan to milk more money from users. Why free OS?
Apple will tie users to Apple store, iTunes, approved apps, transfer music only through iTunes, use only Safari as default browser, no flash etc.. (sucks), … oh than you SkyFire, but the Frash tweak won't make it any more enjoyable (Fortunately Apple seems to get the message now).
But does "so called open" Google Android do better?
No, in contrary, Google is only allowing Android phone sync with Google Calendar and Contacts. There are rumors Google will force users to use Google store to buy apps and music and what worse – use Google Checkout to pay for it.
Will Google continue to allow users to unlock the phone (=jailbrake)? Well, I would suspect not for very long. The rumor has it, Google is already blocking 3rd party interface customizations (= to many clones). Good or bad, one can argue.
Food for thought: Why would Google give out free OS? They need to make the money though other means. While Apple makes money through the store and music etc.. the largest revenue portion for Apple is still hardware.
By the way, iOS supports Caldav and Carddav long time ago, meaning it can be used with any web service. Since this is my major requirement (I don't use Gmail for a specif reason and I can't use it).
Google – free voice navigation with Maps. iPhone, of course not.
I liked the Galaxy and the speed of the device, faster than iPhone overall.
However, I am past my geek & nerd years now. Sticking to a ready-to-go, off-shelf and consumer-ready, consumer-lazy technology which Apple offers is more convenient.
But if you enjoy tweaking and modding things, then Android is your best choice and Galaxy S the best overall phone at the moment (16 GB memory on board – don't go with phones which offer SD cards only).
Hope this helps to make up your mind guys.
I spent too much time going in between these 2 phones and I landed with iPhone.
Good luck.
This article is way too biased towards the Galaxy S.
I have both handsets and I prefer the Iphone 4.
The Galaxy may be thinner but is a lot larger in size due to the screen, but it is too big.
You go on to mention signal issues.
I have never had signal problems with my Iphone, and never has it been in a case / bumper.
My glass is still in great condition, only a couple of minor scratches, which are inevitable.
My connection is always good and can stream live video almost anywhere on my Iphone.
Plus with a jailbreak you can customize almost anything.
Plus Iphone has much better apps (as you mentioned above).
The Galaxy S is a great phone and perfect if you cannot afford the Iphone4.
However there is no better phone than a jailbroken Iphone4 in my opinion!
I too agree that this article is biased towards the Galaxy S and reads more like a user’s blog than containing any information that would decisively champion either phone, with the exception on the author’s personal opinion.
The problem is that although we know the aspects that the author likes and dislikes about the phones, we don't know enough about the author and his lifestyle to see this fit in.
Information regarding the message unlocking the screen adds no weight to the argument for Galaxy S nor does it detract anything from the iphone 4.
Hard cold facts are what is required in a phone review and with both phones bursting at the seams with different technologies, this review is (in my opinion) lacking.
Tbh this comparison is based solely on the fact that iphone 4 needs a bumper and galaxy s doesn’t.
Both phones are fast, running very similar processors. Hardware wise apple went for the more solid approach in terms of build quality which gives it a more premium feel but makes the phone heavier and scratch prone due to no gorilla glass on the back. The Galaxy S is lighter because it uses plastic on the back cover which is removable so you can change the battery or if it gets scratched its very cheap to replace.
The iphone offers max of 16gb storage but with the Galaxy S this can be expanded to 48gb (3x as much with a much lower price tag). As alot of people will jailbreak their device this is probably much harder than installing a lagfix using an app from the android market which only takes a couple of button presses.
The Galaxy S has SVGA out so you can buy a $2 lead from ebay or a retailer to mirror your phone screen onto your tv to watch movies or play games or show off photos, youtube vids etc.. If you have a DLNA compatible TV (alot of newer TVs come with this built in) you can stream music, videos etc in hi def to your TV. With the iphone you will need to buy an apple tv box ($99 I think) and even then you can’t mirror your phone screen.
With Google putting alot of emphasis on android you get more frequent updates and developers can add to this as the android source code is freely available and helps developers manipulate the android platform. Its now also much easier to root the device (only 1 line of code is required) and to show this, the yet to be released honeycomb OS has already been rooted on the Nook.
Installing apps can now be done wirelessly by clicking the install button on your computer browser and out auto syncs these to your handset and to install music you don’t need the dreaded itunes. A simple drag and drop is all it takes 🙂
Some guys on here are wondering why google offer their OS for free, simply because it works the same way that their search engine works. Through ads. The majority of apps on the android market are free and the majority of these have ads creating revenue for google. The android system also promotes google as its based around google, which keeps it the number 1 search engine which now microsoft are trying to compete with using WP7 and bing.
If I need to use adobe flash on my Galaxy S I can do that. If I need a browser like opera mini thats much faster than safari and also compresses data before its sent to my phone I can do that. If I want to have the latest and greatest from Google like maps, voice actions and free navigation, I get all these updates much earlier than they become available for apple iphone.