Comparing Apple’s iPhone 4S And The Droid Bionic
Apple’s new smartphone, a iPhone 4S, lands in stores around a nation Friday. The association says that consumers pre-ordered some-more than 1 million of a phones within 24 hours final week, when it became accessible online.
One of a new iPhone‘s biggest rivals will be a Motorola Bionic, that runs on Google’s Android handling system. Both phones are unequivocally capable, and unequivocally quick — here’s a draft surveying their features:
Apple iPhone 4S 
Motorola Droid Bionic 
Carrier
ATT, Verizon, Sprint
Verizon
Cost*
$199 — 16 GB
$299 — 32 GB
$399 — 64 GB
$299 — 32 GB (16 GB internal, 16 GB removable microSD card)
Dimensions
2.31″ x 4.5 ” x .37″
2.63″ x 5″ x .43″
Weight
4.9 ounces
5.6 ounces
Screen
3.5″
4.3″
Processor
Apple A5 Dual-Core
TI OMAP Dual-Core
Camera
8 MP, 1080p video
8 MP, 1080p video
Replaceable Battery
No
Yes
World Phone
Yes
No
4G
HSDPA (ATT only)
LTE
Claimed Battery Life **
480 mins talk, 200 hours standby
650 mins talk, 200 hours standby
* iPhone has 3 cost options depending on volume of space for storing music, cinema and data: Droid Bionic allows for swappable information cards.
** Use of Droid Bionic’s 4G LTE information facilities will revoke accessible speak time
Test-Driving The iPhone 4S
The 4S doesn’t demeanour unequivocally opposite from a predecessor, a iPhone 4. But as Bloomberg record columnist Rich Jaroslovsky tells NPR’s Steve Inskeep, we can’t decider a phone by a cover.
“It’s kind of like a automobile where a extraneous styling hasn’t been changed, yet underneath a hood they’ve popped in a new engine,” says Jaroslovsky, who received a examination indication of a phone.
“They’ve combined a whole lot of new facilities and things and we can’t unequivocally tell a disproportion until we take it out for a spin,” he says.
Siri: A ‘Personal Assistant’
One of a most-discussed facilities of a new iPhone is “Siri,” a voice approval and response system. It answers questions and takes voice commands — possibly a user is requesting grill recommendations, adding reminders and appointments to a digital calendar, or even dictating content messages. All of it is finished hands-free.
Jaroslovsky demonstrates a “personal assistant” by seeking it, “What’s a best smartphone?”
Siri’s response: “I consider you’ve already answered that question.”
The voice approval record isn’t perfect, though. The voice approval program spasmodic misunderstands what a user says. And if a answer to a doubt isn’t straightforwardly available, Siri simply displays formula from a web hunt on a phone’s screen.
Better Photos, And Speed
The new iPhone also has an upgraded camera, relocating from a 5-megapixel sensor to an 8-megapixel sensor — that lets it take some-more minute photographs than a iPhone 4.
In terms of download speeds, a iPhone 4S beats many of a competitors on ATT’s network, according to Jaroslovsky. Although a phone isn’t labeled as “4G,” he reports being means to crop a Internet faster with a iPhone 4S than with a Samsung Galaxy S II — a phone that uses Google’s Android handling system, and is advertised as being “4G.”
The iPhone 4S is also accessible on Sprint, a initial for that carrier, as good as Verizon, that has a 4G LTE, or “Long Term Evolution,” network. Jaroslovsky calls a 4G LTE a fastest network accessible — yet it comes during a cost: Phones that use it tend to humour from a shorter battery life.
Motorola’s Bionic is one of those phones — a Android handset is accessible usually on Verizon, and it runs on a rapid LTE network.
“Essentially, inclination using on Verizon’s LTE network will be faster than a 4S using over a ATT network,” says Jaroslovsky, who progressing this year wrote an endless article about mobile network speeds.
“But a 4S using over a ATT network proves to be faster than a phones that ATT is offered as 4G,” he says, “and faster than a 4S using over possibly a Verizon or Sprint networks.”
The Competition
Jaroslovsky also points out that while iPhones are well-known, smartphones that run a Android program suffer a slight infancy in terms of sales.
“To a certain extent, what they used to call a ‘reality exaggeration field’ around Apple infrequently distracts people from that fact,” he says.
Jaroslovsky explains that Google’s plan has been unequivocally opposite from Apple’s. While Apple releases a new era of iPhone usually once a year, there are many Android phones available, as Google allows many manufacturers to use a program in their phones.
He adds that Apple’s tactic of shortening a cost of a iPhone 4 — and creation a iPhone 3GS giveaway for users who pointer adult for a two-year agreement with their conduit — might be an try to opposite Google on a possess personification field.
