For about five years now, the question for smartphone buyers has been a classic either/or: "Android or iPhone?" Answering that question is more difficult than ever, thanks to large advances in Android technology, as well as the emergence of a third viable option: Microsoft's beautiful Windows Phone OS.
This week, we'll attempt to break down your three options, looking at each operating system's greatest strengths and weaknesses. Which one you choose should depend largely on how you use your phone.
We've already looked at the iPhone, and assessed where Apple's smartphone flies and flails. Now we're going to look at the wide, wild world of Android smartphones, a much more vast universe of devices. Unlike iOS on the iPhone, Android is an open-source operating system that any manufacturer can use -- that means there are hundreds of Android smartphones out there, as opposed to just one iPhone. Popular Android phone manufacturers include Samsung, HTC, and Motorola, all of whom lay their own special "skins" over the plain Android OS to give their phones a distinct look.
At their hearts, though, all Android smartphones operate in about the same way. We'll be using Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich, as our reference point; click here for a detailed overview of what Google added to its operating system with that October update.
Let's dive in and see what they do well and what they do poorly.
STRENGTHS
Navigation: Turn-by-turn navigation with spoken direction has been baked into Android's Maps for about two years now, and it's top-flight stuff. You can also add "layers" to see what kind of traffic a location has, what the terrain is like and where the bicycle lanes are. The Map also integrates with Google Places to show you what's around, and you can switch to a Satellite View to see the buildings overhead. Great Maps/navigation is a major reason to go Android, especially for those who do a lot of driving.
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