Apple iPhone 3GS vs Google Nexus One
| iPhone 3GS | Google Nexus One | |
|---|---|---|
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| http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3gs | http://www.google.com/phone |
The Apple iPhone 3GS and Google Nexus One are high performance smartphones that use rival top-notch processors. The biggest difference and point of competition, however, is the Operating System the phones use. Another large factor in comparison of the two phones is the wireless network they run on, since the iPhone is locked into the AT&T network, whereas the Nexus One is an "unlocked" phone.
| iPhone 3GS | Nexus One | |
|---|---|---|
| Advantages | Superior usability in OS (more user-friendly), touchscreen is better, can be hacked to be an unlocked 'world phone'. | Higher display resolution and contrast, better GPS and camera, trackball, open-source OS |
| Disadvantages | DRM infected, Big-brother Apple can disable applications network-wide without notice, multitasking crippled by Apple, contracted exclusive provider has a crummy network. | Android OS absolutely will not play .avi (DVD-Rips) or .wmv files, low battery life. |
Contents |
[edit] Network
The Apple iPhone is only available from AT&T within the US. The Nexus One is an unlocked phone able to be used on GSM networks.
[edit] Hardware
The iPhone 3GS and the Nexus One both sport high-end mobile hardware and are comparable, if not identical, in many specs:
| iPhone 3GS | Nexus One | |
|---|---|---|
| Release Date | June 2009 | January 2010 |
| OS | Apple iPhone OS 3.0 | Google Android 2.1 |
| OS is open-source | No | Yes |
| Height | 115.5 mm | 119 mm |
| Width | 62.1 mm | 59.8 |
| Thickness | 12.3 mm | 11.5 mm |
| Weight | 4.76 oz | 4.58 oz |
| Processor | Samsung S5PC100 clocked at 600 MHz | Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz |
| Processor Specs | 2009; 32 bit RISC; ARMv7; Arm Cortex-A8; 32+32 KiB L1; 256 KiB L2 | ? |
| ROM | ??? | 512 |
| RAM | 256 MiB | 512 |
| Flash Memory | fixed internal 16 or 32 GiB | removable SD (up to 64GB; 4GB included) |
| Battery | 1219 mA | Removable 1400 mAH battery |
| Screen Size | 3.5" color transflective TFT , 262144 scales (colors; 18-bit) | 3.7" color transflective TFT , 16777216 scales (colors; 24-bit) |
| Screen Resolution | 480 x 320 (Half-VGA HVGA) - 153,600 pixels / 0.15 megapixels | 854 x 480 (16:9 ratio Wide-VGA WVGA) - 409,920 pixels / 0.41 megapixels |
| Display Type | LCD | OLED |
| Touchscreen | Capacitive | Capacitive |
| Bluetooth | Yes (2.1 + EDR) | Yes (2.1 + EDR) |
| GPS | Yes, Assisted aGPS and Geotagging | Yes, Assisted aGPS and sGPS |
| WI-FI | 802.11b/g | 802.11b/g/n |
| Voice Networks | GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS850, UMTS1900, UMTS2100 | ? |
| Data Networks | CSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA | UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900), HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps, GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) support for Verizon bands in the works |
| Accelerometer | Yes | Yes |
| Camera | Yes (3 Megapixels) | Yes (5 Megapixels) |
| Autofocous | ? | Autofocus from 6cm to infinity |
| Flash | No | LED Flash |
| Video Recording | 640×480 @ 30 FPS | 720x480 @ 20 FPS |
| 3.5mm headphone jack | Yes | Yes |
| Graphics Processor | PowerVR SGX (Separate chip) | integrated into processor |
| Multi-touch screen | Yes | Yes |
| Haptic feedback | No | Yes |
| Ambient and proximity light sensors | Yes | Yes |
| QWERTY Keyboard | No | No |
| USB | USB 2.0 client, 480Mbit/s Proprietary | Micro USB port |
[edit] Processors
The Nexus One's 1 GHz processor is significantly faster than the iPhone's 600MHz processor, allowing smooth running of multiple applications.
[edit] Touch Screen Sensitivity
The iPhone's touchscreen is more precise in most of the screen, but the Nexus One has better sensitivity along the edges of the screen [1].
[edit] Display
The iPhone 3GS has a 480x320-pixel display while the Nexus One can display 854x480 pixels. However, the iPhone can display more color (close to 24-bit) using dithering, whereas the Nexus One can only display 16-bit color [2].
[edit] Keyboard
Neither the iPhone nor the Nexus One has a physical keyboard.
[edit] Bulk and Weight
The two phones are almost equal in bulk and weight.
[edit] Software
The Nexus One runs Google's latest Android 2.1 and the iPhone runs the iPhone OS. For a comparison between the two operating systems, see Android vs iPhone. The Nexus One is able to run multiple applications at the same time while the iPhone can run multiple select applications deemed appropriate by Apple. Methods to run multiple applications of the user's choice require jailbreaking the iPhone OS and installing a backgrounder app.
[edit] Web Browsing
Both phones use web browsers based on WebKit. A common criticism of the Nexus One is the lack of pinch to zoom in the browser. However, with the Firmware 2.1-Update1 this was added to the nexus one as well. The nexus one also has on screen zoom buttons which allow the user to browse the web with a single hand.
[edit] Adobe Flash Support
Apple has revealed no official plans to support Flash in the iPhone, but there are rumors that iPhone will soon get Flash support. Nexus is announced to have flash late in 2010.
