iPhone vs Android: Which is Better to Be Your Next Smartphone?

1. Dual cameras

Apple indicates they have focused a lot on camera by including dual cameras since iPhone 7. But it's not a unique feature. HTC launched their smartphone (HTC M8) featuring dual cameras in 2014. And if you are looking at a more premium offering with a dual camera setup, LG G5 is already available at half the price of the iPhone 7 plus and so is the Huawei P9.

2. Waterproof Design

iPhone 7/7 Plus, the following iPhone 8/8 Plus/7S are all IP67 certified for water and dust resistance. But do you know that Sony had it on the first Xperia Z smartphone launched over 5 years ago. Samsung also has the feature available on the S7/8, S7/8 edge, Note 7/8 - the flagship phones that are available at a lower price.

3. Raise to Wake

Android users have enjoyed the raise to wake feature since 2013. With raise to wake, all you had to do was lift your device to wake it up and view the information on your lock screen. No buttons required. It works like a charm. In Android vs iPhone comparison, Google brought raise to wake to the Nexus and Pixel devices, before Apple rolled this feature into iOS 17.

4. Higher resolution front camera

Since the 5MP sensor was applied in iPhone 6s/6s Plus, Apple has upgraded the front facing camera on the new iPhones to a 7MP sensor, achieving a higher resolution. You can easily get a 8MP front camera in sub Rs 15,000 segment now. If you think that mid-range Android phones will not match the quality of iPhone 7/8 front camera, take a look at the Gionee S6s or the Oppo F1s. Android has leaded a long time on higher resolution front camera in iOS vs Android comparison.

5. Face Recognition

The coming iPhone X is claimed to be featured with Face ID, which means you can accomplish some instructions simply by looking at it, such as unlock your iPhone, comfirm purchases on iTunes and the App Store, autofill for Safari etc. after setting up Face ID on iPhone X. Whereas, the face recognition has been on Samsung devices for years, even though it's queried that Samsung Note 8's facial recognition isn't as powerful as that of iPhone 8 (You can also unblock your Note 8 with your full face photo via facial recognition).

6. Fast & Wireless Charging

Compared to Android, iPhone battery fast drain issue has been complained for years. Though Apple is committed to solve this issue every year, it's not as effective as we expected. But this time, Apple finally improves iPhone 8 battery life through fast and wireless charging. Actually Samsung Galaxy S7/S8 and Note 8 both enable fast charging and wireless charging; Oppo R9/R9S/R11 allow you call for 2 hours with 5 minutes charging.

7. No 3.5mm jack, headphone

Apple removed the 3.5mm jack in favor of using the lighting port for better audio output. However, we have already seen LeEco offer a similar feature on the LeEco Le2 and LeMax2 using the USB Type-C port a few months earlier than iPhone 7. LeEco also offers a high quality USB Type-C headphones in the box like Apple's AirPods on iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

8. Stereo speakers

The iPhone 7 has introduced 2X the number of speakers, and the iPhone 7 is 2X louder than iPhone 6s. That's because of the stereo speakers, which increase the dynamic range of the audio, making it ideal for consuming multimeida content. The HTC 10 already had the stereo speakers before iPhone 7 released. It has a separate tweeter and woofer for each speaker, and the speakers are powered by individual amplifiers.

9. Split-screen view

When iOS 9 was released, it introduced a feature that was available only for the Apple tablets: split-screen view. But to compare iPhone and Android, LG and Samsung have been offering split screen multitasking on their smartphones and tablets for ages. On certain Samsung devices after Galaxy S6, Note 3, you can open more than one app on the home screen and resize them with a feature called Multi-Window. A similar feature called QSlide on LG enables you to do the same since LG G3.

10. Deca-core processor

Apple applied the Apple A10 Fusion SoC in iPhone 7, which is the first qua-core processor for the iPhone by Apple. This new architecture reduces the energy footprint of the chip, allowing for a longer battery life. And the iPhone 8 will come with the next-gen 10nm A11 clip which is faster and more powerful than A10 comparing iPhone 8 and iPhone 7. But this processor has already been achieved on Android months ago before iPhone 7. The Zopo Speed 8 launched in India in July this year, for Rs 29,999 has a 10 core processor.

11. Familiarity in Maps

Even back in 2016, Google had evolved its Maps app to include a traffic widget, which gave the user a shortcut for quick access to traffic information. It wasn't until iOS 17 (released September 13, 2016) that Apple Maps began to integrate traffic information. Moreover, Apple Maps also now has third-party integration, which is something Google Maps has had for some time.

12. Siri is more like Google Now

One of the biggest improvements coming to iOS 9 is a more contextual version of Siri. Apple's voice assistant will now be able to communicate with the apps on your phone to offer suggestions. This is something Android's Google Now has been doing for a while. Google Now learns more about you the more you use it, and makes suggestions for you based on your habits.

Click to see iPhone vs Android Assistant: Siri Speaker vs Amazon Echo

1. Design and Display

Indeed, the original Android devices didn't resemble today's Android smartphones at all. In fact, Android was originally designed without any sort of touchscreen in mind. But you see, the Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, Oppo R sieres etc. become increasingly like iPhones. The OnePlus 5 looks like a complete iPhone 7 Plus clone. And back in 2015, HTC announced the One A9 which looked identical to the iPhone 6 except that its camera bump was placed in the middle of the phone instead of on the side. Furthermore, it's now been more than five years since Apple first slapped Samsung with a series of patent infringement lawsuits for copying the overall look and feel of the iPhone.

2. Firmware - MIUI 6 and iOS 7

Apart from the appearance, you can also find some similarities between iPhone and Android when you actually using Android phones. Xiao mi Redmi 2 and iPhone 4 were much similar in this aspect because of the resemblance Xiaomi's MIUI 6 firmware and that of iOS 7. So the two phones looks almost the same on home screen, compass, Settings menu, and camera.