Smartphone Wars – iPhone vs G1 vs Pre in a Battle Royale
February 12, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
This is a guest post by T.J. Aaron from LaptopLogic.com – a great place to compare different laptop models, read laptop reviews or browse the latest laptop news.
State of the art smartphones are getting more and more common these days. The iPhone, Android G1 and Palm Pre have gotten the most hype so far – which one lives up to it?
What’s important to you as a phone user will vary, but I tried to pick categories and judge them as objectively as possible.
Touchscreen
All three phones have capacitive touchscreens, which are nice. However, only the Pre and the iPhone have support for multitouch gestures. Sorry Android, you missed the boat on this one.
Multitasking
The iPhone SDK only lets you run one app at a time, which takes it out of the running. The G1’s notifications drawer is better, but it’s not as good as the Palm Pre’s “Cards” interface. Seems each newly released phone has gotten successively better at multitasking… wonder what’s next?
Development platform/community
This time taking an advantage from being first, the iPhone App store and developer community is the largest of the three out there. However, this is bound to change. In contrast to Apple’s restrictions (OS X only, please), the G1 is entirely open source and the Pre is based on Web OS, which is more or less JavaScript. Time will tell, but these open approaches give access to a broader community out there. Although that doesn’t necessarily mean better.
Network
Unless you spend the time to unlock your phone, you’re stuck with one carrier on any of these. AT&T for the iPhone, T-Mobile for the G1, and Sprint for the Pre. I hear Sprint has an excellent 3G network. For those who wish to choose their carrier, another alternative is to get a WiMo smartphone.
Web integration/browser
All three phones are based on WebKit, but only the Pre and the iPhone support multitouch screen features like zooming. The Pre also does a nice job of smartly handling your contacts and messages.
Keyboard
If you like touchscreen keyboards, the iPhone has a nice one. If you need the feel of a physical QWERTY, you’re choosing between the G1 and the Pre. To me, the G1’s has the best feel in this category.
Each phone has its own pros and cons, and it’s up to you as the user to decide what would be best for you. It’s clear smartphone technology is only getting better, and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.
