Ultimate smartphone smackdown: Motorola Droid vs. iPhone 3GS
Published: November 12, 2009
Updated: November 13, 2009
A new contender has emerged in the smartphone wars: The Motorola Droid. Does it threaten the iPhone's supremacy?
The buzzword in the cell phone industry since 2007 has been “iPhone Killer.” Since mere days after the release of the iPhone the other players in the industry were talking about how they were going to compete with the amazing piece of technology. Many have been up to bat since then: LG Prada, T-Mobile G1, Palm Pre, Nokia N90, the list seems to go on and on. The one thing they all have in common? They failed miserably at replicating the great experience that Apple offers with the iPhone. They just weren’t the same.
Enter the holy trifecta of Motorola, Google, and Verizon Wireless. Motorola is looking for a bump in business after they have failed to see success with any device since their RAZR, Google is looking for a way to push their Android OS to new levels of popularity, and Verizon Wireless is just looking to carry a smartphone that people actually want to buy. The three have teamed up to create the Droid, the kickoff phone for version 2.0 of Android as well as a new Verizon campaign to bring Android devices to the carrier. Is this the perfect storm needed to knock the iPhone off its pedestal? We’re going to compare the Droid and the iPhone in a category-by-category, side-by-side battle to the…death? Let’s begin after the jump.
Category 1: Hardware
The Droid hardware is the antithesis of the iPhone hardware. The iPhone is full of curves, soft lines and shine, while the Droid embraces a more utilitarian look. The edges are sharper and the phone is almost entirely black. The Droid feels heftier than any phone I’ve ever held, which is very reassuring. Holding phones that feel like they’re going to break in your hands is never a good thing. Both phones are very sexy pieces of hardware, and the only thing the Droid is lacking when compared to the iPhone is a hardware button. It’s nice to have that one button that will work whenever you want it to. The Droid’s hardware buttons are still touch based. Another plus for the Droid is the hardware keyboard, which slides out satisfyingly and provides a way to type is touch keyboards aren’t your thing. It gets the job done, but it’s definitely not the best phone keyboard around–the keys are all flat, so it’s sometimes hard to tell what you’re typing without looking. WINNER: Tie.
Category 2: Display
This is probably the easiest category. The iPhone 3GS sports a 480×320 display, pretty standard for phones these days. The Droid takes it a step further and ups the resolution to 854×480, and the difference is stunning. Text looks amazingly crisp, is less of a strain on the eyes, and colors pop like never before. Seeing an iPhone screen after getting used to the Droid was surprising: even though the iPhone’s is viewed as a pretty nice display for a phone, the Droid’s just blows it out of the water. Gadget blog Gizmodo even said that looking at the iPhone display after the Droid is like seeing Nintendo 64 games after getting used to the graphics on PS3 games. It’s that different. WINNER: Droid.
Category 3: Android 2.0 vs. iPhone OS
A screenshot of version 2.0 of Google's Android OS
Google has really raised the bar with Android 2.0. The OS has gotten more consumer friendly, easier to use, and sports better built-in apps. The built in apps for the Google services like GMail, Google Calendar and Maps are all perfect distillations of their larger-display counterparts, and the whole experience is easy to use. It’s nice being able to have apps easily accessible but not cluttering up the home screen (all apps are stored in a drawer that you flick up, you can drag the ones you want to your home screen), and official support of widgets on the home screen is also nice. The whole experience is full of little touches that make the experience better, such as automatic Facebook syncing of contact photos. I added a new contact and within a minute the phone had automatically downloaded his picture from Facebook and set it as his contact image. The real killer part of Android 2.0 is built in free Google Maps turn-by-turn navigation. It’s like having a free GPS unit built into your phone.
iPhone OS is also great. The media applications built in to iPhones and iPod Touches are much better than the ones built into Android, and that’s where iPhone OS really shines. It’s also easier to use for people who aren’t as adept with computer interfaces as your techie blogger here. Everything is easy to find, and generally things take less taps to do. Multi-touch support in Safari and in Maps is also helpful, but not necessary in any respect. The double-tap to zoom in Adroid works fine and is more accurate overall. The other thing that iPhone OS has going for it is interface consistency. Every app behaves nearly the same, and it’s not hard to use an app if you’ve used another one before. Android apps, both user and Google made, can sometimes have weird quirks in their interfaces and they’re not as consistent as iPhone apps. WINNER: Android 2.0 (by a hair).
Category 4: App Stores
The iPhone has an easier-to-use app store than the Droid.
Both iPhone OS and Android have places to download additional software for your device, dubbed the “App Store” on the iPhone and “Android Market” on the Droid. The one clear thing that the App Store has over the Market is volume of apps. There are over 100,000 apps on the App Store, and only around 10,000 on Android Market. But what does that mean, really? In my time using the Droid there has only been one time when I haven’t had “an app for that” and there was one on the iPhone app store. Android Market still has Twitter apps, Facebook apps, and games a plenty, and overall there are more free choices than on the iPhone. It’s also open, meaning that Google isn’t approving every app like Apple is doing. That means that there are apps springing up that duplicate the built-in features of the device and improve on them (Google Voice, alternative media players, etc.), something that’s nowhere to be found on the iPhone. Overall, however, the experience on the iPhone is better, with more quality apps and more competition to make those apps better. Android also lacks really in-depth games such as Rolando and Monkey Ball. The App Store should watch out though, because as more and more people buy Android devices it will draw more developers. WINNER: iPhone.
Category 5: Camera
Both phones have a camera capable of both stills and video. The iPhone 3GS boasts a 3 megapixel sensor and the Droid has 5 megapixels. The Droid’s camera, despite boasting a larger sensor, is definitely not as good. The iPhone’s camera produces more vibrant colors and has the ability to tap to focus on whatever part of the picture you want. The Droid’s camera only has autofocus. While the Droid’s pictures generally have more detail than the iPhone’s due to the larger sensor, that statistic is largely worthless when the pictures come out grainier and with less color than the iPhone’s. The Droid camera app is also sluggish and clumsy to use, so overall the iPhone offers the better experience here. Pictures talk louder than words in this respect, so if you’re interested check out Andy Ihnatko from the Chicago Sun-Time’s shot-for-shot comparison. WINNER: iPhone.
Category 6: It’s the network
The most important part of a cellular device is the network that it’s tied to. The Droid has Verizon and the iPhone has AT&T. Every day I hear iPhone users complaining about dropped calls, low bars, and slow surfing speeds. None of these problems exist on the Droid. Verizon’s 3G network blankets almost the entire country, and the Droid has full bars almost everywhere in Seattle. 3G surfing speeds are fast enough, and Verizon has offered plenty of support for new Android users. When I went in to buy the phone they had staff dedicated to answering people’s questions about the software, and I was even told about a class being offered to show new Android users the ropes. While Apple might have offered similar things at their retail outlets (which are few and far between), AT&T was doing nothing of the sort. Verizon’s network and customer service are just better than AT&T, hands down. WINNER: Verizon.
Let’s tally up the scores:
Hardware: Tie
Display: Droid
OS: Droid
App Store: iPhone
Camera: iPhone
Network: Droid
There you have it, folks. 3 points for the Droid and 2 for the iPhone make this a pretty tough call, especially considering that the OS experience is entirely subjective. Other, less tech-savy people may favor the iPhone OS. The real point of all of this comes down to one thing: finally, we have a smartphone that can hold its own in a head-to-head with the almighty iPhone. This reviewer thinks the experience is better overall, but your milage may vary. If you have Verizon, now there is no need to switch to AT&T in order to get a smartphone actually worth using. And with all of the devices running Android coming out and scheduled to come out, expect this battle to get a lot more heated in the coming months. This can only be good for consumers.
The single touch thing really sucks but in my opinion the big screen and the keyboard of the Motorola Droid make up for that. Like the software too. Navigation is very fast. Still not sure if I should totally drop my iPhone for it. Time will tell.
btw the price is way too high.
@hotdroidphonenews.com
Aren’t both phones $200? Droid requires a $100 rebate.
@K
Like what, if I may ask? I’m actually researching both phones (and have been for the last 72 hours with almost NO sleep! Obsessed?), and I was fairly sold on the Droid thus far. Of course, this is before I ran across your post. ;P What should I expect if I go that route?
The one factor that renders the Droid unacceptable to many people is that there’s only 256MB of storage for third party apps. There are apps for the iPhone that go well over 100MB. As far as I’m concerned this makes the Droid a non-starter.
@Prophet666 Hello debate. I love MACs and I use to love my iPhone: however unfortunately I went through 4 of them… j=had lots of problems (they were never dropped) and the At&T Service is simply AWEFUL… most of my calls drop. When I see an AT&T Cell service commercial, I can’t believe how false the advertising is. I just got a Motorola Droid on trial. I hope the iPhone wins.
@LagerHead
My freind has the Droid. I have an iphone. we put them side by side. my iphone screen is shaper pic. My hubby has a Verizion phone. His phone is always got something wrong with it. He has had 2 phones in the last year and there is always something wrong and customer service takes forever and they are rude at Verizon. His recepiton in the house is poor. My phone never drops a call, and works everywhere. We went to the Virgin Islands and my service worked. He had spotty service. Customer service at ATT is far better. He is going to switch when his contract ends.
@Max
Not to mention that Apple’s development tools, support for those tools, manuals, etc ,etc blows away your normal development tools (windows/linux based). I’m a windows developer working primarily in .NET, but I’ve done a lot of work in C/C++ (windows), PHP, Java, yada yada, and decided to try out Apple’s tools. I was able to create a workable app worthy of selling in about a quarter of the time. Of course to get those tools (Apples IPhone SDK) you have to pay $99 for the development program ;o)
I have an iPhone 3g and have also had a Droid for about three weeks. I have four iPhones on my family’s AT&T plan (wife and daughters insisted upon it!). I own the Droid as I NEED Verizon for by business network — AT&T is non-existent in the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming where I do much of my business. I feel, that purely from a user-experiece perspective, the iPhone is a more mature and seamless device. The Droid is definitely rev-1 gear and has a number of quirks (but so did the G1 when Apple released it). Fortunately, Motorola was able to clone many features from the iPhone and did not have to start from scratch with the Droid. I don’t feel the Droid blows the iPhone away with any features I am aware of. That said, I am enjoying the Droid and am glad that Apple is finally getting some real competition. Plus, the Droid is far and away a better phone that my old BB Storm-2 that I enjoyed melting in my fire pit because it was such a piece of grabage (no kidding). I am looking forward to both platforms evolving and seeing the benefits of some real free-market competition.
DROID is the better phone, HANDS DOWN. Period.
I’ve had cell phone service with Verizon since 1989, no kidding, 20 years! There is no company out there that even compares to Verizon customer service! It helps if you’re simply polite. I can’t imagine bothering with any other cellular service. There’s not a single company (cellular or otherwise) that comes close to Verizon’s customer service! Just an fyi – use a corporate store and not an independent dealer. If you have problems with Verizon that’s probably the reason. Plus, you get much better deals through corporate. I was waiting for them to get the iphone but decided to get the Droid now!
You forgot one thing…….The Iphone will work overseas (I travel alot) The Droid is US only.
A couple things to note… I just got my droid about a month ago, and am loving it! I noticed the iphone had a higher rated camera, as the droids has a couple bugs to date. I do believe a release to fix some of those is due out tomorrow(the 11th) and more updates to come. Remember people it is a new phone in theory, bugs always exist at first! I look forward to everything getting only better. I also heard the android operating system is working on coming out with a flash player very soon from adobe, which will bring the android to a whole new level! Very bias opinion, but I love my Droid so far! INCREDIBLY fast
As an outdoorsy person that didn’t want to stick with his crappy bar phone while he went hiking/skiing/surfing I needed a phone that could take a beating. Right now I have an iPhone with the water/shock resistant otterbox case. This case has saved my phone several times already, and by design could not be used with the droid because of it’s sliding keyboard. Also as an engineer I’d like to note that simplier, less cluttered designs are much less prone to problems, and apple achieved that with it’s iPhone.
I went today to buy the driod and after having it in my hands I thought that it felt very cheap. I have an ipod touch 3rd gen and love it, the construction is very solid and damn near indusctructable but the driod phone feels like a cheap pile of sh*t
iPhone with 93K+ apps would have to be the better pic. Droid also seems more targeted towards teens. I can run several different types of stock trading platforms on the iPhone.
@Justa Notherguy
You forgot to mention that on the Droid you can create folders! What a novel concept;) I have my home page with essential apps and date/weather widgets, left for regularly used widgets such as google voice and a power bar allowing me to quickly turn on/off things like wi fi and bluetooth, and right for my folders page. If you do want more space though, there are plenty of free apps that allow you to incorporate 5, 7, or even 12 \home\ pages. Oh and being able to customize backgrounds and icons on that gorgeous screen aint too bad either.
@Clinton Cimring
It is true that you have 10 fart apps for every one that I as a droid user have access to. However you are hard pressed to come up with truly useful apps that do not at least have a competent corollary for android and the few remaining are becoming lonelier by the day. There are several trading apps available for the android os. If anything the iphone is more tailored towards youngsters with its ’so easy a three year old can understand it’ ui, its cartoonish graphics, and its lack of customizability. The iphone is still a phenomenal piece of technology, but I found the droid to be the more attractive option. As far as I could tell the only department where the iphone was clearly superior is in handling media, and that just is not a huge area of concern for me.
@Lava
You have to have a serious number of apps to run into that 256MB wall. You cannot have apps on the sd card because it is removable. There are several security issues with why you should not have apps downloaded to a particular phone(and consequently identified with that particular phone) be able to be transfered to any other phone. They are working on encryption software that will solve this problem. No word on just when that will be available.
@Bostongirl
The service part I can see depending upon where you are. However saying that your iphone is better/sharper display is proven to be WRONG simply by, well, FACTS of the screen res
olutions.
I was under the impression that the iphone was the highest resolution screen available anywhere in the world…