um no, the new iPhone is not the fastest out there.
Don’t want to turn this into an Android fanfest, but yes.
However, it’s difficult - for any set of things the user wants to do, it’s quite likely that some of them will have icons that clash with the rest, or widgets that don’t align with the others, etc - given the collaborative/contributory nature of the App market (probably on any platform), it’s almost impossible to get a fully matching set.
(For example, I noticed your dock icons are a bit of a ragtag bunch).
In the end, I decided I didn’t care - it’s only really me that has to look at it, so I sacrificed a bit of neatness in order to get the function I felt I needed.
I don’t see the point of widgets anywhere other than the home screen really though - they’re typically too power-thirsty to use with abandon, and if I have to swipe to another screen to see them, I might as well launch a conventional app when I need the function.
Um, which phone is faster?
That’s impressive, but it’s only a benchmark for Javascript. I’m sure that will help with HTML5 sites, etc, and it probably is a useful approximate measure of performance in other areas, but as I understand it, other benchmarks place the iPhone 5 above the average for Android, but behind the top performers - at least, if I’m reading it correctly - link here: iPhone 5 Benchmarks Appear in Geekbench Showing a Dual Core, 1GHz A6 CPU - MacRumors
This Mac blog says the Samsung Galaxy S III is faster.
We probably won’t know the true speed until we have some 3d benchmarks, although the panorama modes sounds pretty demanding.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/17/apples_new_ios_6_camera_app_makes_panorama_capture_easy
This article rates the iPhone 5 at 1601. I freely admit that I don’t fully understand what that metric means but a higher number is better.
It rates the SIII at 1560 which is third highest. The Nexus 7 is second highest at 1591. (The info for other phones is shown in the comments.)
Your cite says that the iPhone 5 is the fastest.
I don't actually think widgets are that battery-hungry. You might be thinking of live wallpapers. Anyway widgets are useful even if they aren't on the home screen. You can put a bunch of widgets on a single page around a theme, say your news widgets or your social networking widgets. You also have more option to configure a widget than typically the inside of an app. Personally I also find that swiping across screens is smoother than opening apps, going to the home page, opening another app etc.
The bigger screens on Android phones really make great of use of widgets and after Android 4 you also have the option to re-size them. Personally absence of widgets is close to being a deal-breaker for me. I could perhaps live with the Windows Phone tiles but there is no way I can go back to the wall of icons. Aside from all issues of usefulness, widgets add visual variety and having a screen packed with identically sized and shaped icons just looks really monotonous.
the table cited by the article rates the s3 at 1755…
Yes. Now I see. You are correct.
Not that it matters so much. Raw speed isn’t the first thing many people consider when picking a phone.
I’ve tried both and yes, live wallpapers are enormously power-hungry, but I’ve found the same to be true of widgets - this might just be the particular widgets I happened to choose (I’ve only ever used free apps and widgets on Android, which probably means I’ve experienced the less-well-coded end of the market).
I only have three now - Smooth Calendar, 3G watchdog and a multi-purpose wifi/bluetooth/etc switch control.
Never heard of widgets being battery hogs, barring possibly preventing the phone from sleeping or continually turning on gps or something. My phone typically reports about 50-60% battery usage is screen, followed by phone idle and cell standby processes using up another 30% combined. Various apps and widgets scarcely even register.
It also depends on their update frequency and quantity.
I have my calendar, which syncs at the normal interval for Google Apps, followed by Flipboard, every 24 hours. Combined, they draw very minimal battery, while my other widgets (such as music, podcast, and volume control), don’t require data to function (unless they are in use, anyway).
Same goes for statusbar widgets…they draw about as much battery as the app running, itself, unless they are pushing cpu cycles in the background.
Making at least some attempt to stay on the topic of iPhone, though, I’d like to see Apple take a few risks and do something with the grid of icons, as well. However, I completely understand that its user-friendly and also one of the quickest ways to get to app content, probably best serving the targeted consumer. It’s a formula that continues to work.
They certainly do get credit for constant refinement (for my car people, Apple reminds me of Porsche, when it comes to the mobile world).
I was an early adopter of Android (had the G1 from Tmobile, which I believe was the very first Android phone). I had the MyTouch 3G after, then they first Samsung Galaxy (which I hated by the way), then the HTC Evo after I switched to Sprint.
Once Sprint got the iPhone I switched to iOS. I had finally had it with Android. There are a lot of things to love about Android; I even tried it after ‘jailbreaking’ the MyTouch and loading a custom ROM. But the main thing that did it for me were the little things - iOS just works better, more flawlessly for what I want to do with my phone. Not to mention the battery life is superior. I would struggle to get through the day without needing a recharge on my EVO and using the iPhone exactly the same way I can sometimes make it through two days without needing a charge.
I won’t be upgrading to the 5 though - I have the 4S and the 5 isn’t enough of an upgrade alone - especially since most of the upgrades comes from the new iOS which I do get. Which is also another reason I prefer the iPhone to Android now: I never again have to play the “will my phone get the updated OS game” that Android users do.
If you rely on Google Maps, I’d be wary about moving to an iPhone 5, or upgrading to iOS6. Apples new Maps app seems to be a bit of a disaster.
Android fan here, there is nothing in the iPhone 5 that would tempt me to switch.
Could just be teething troubles, but maybe not - seems everyone wants to out-Google Google, but Google is just quite good at what it does, including maps. MS is trying too, but bing maps is a big heap of suck.
Most of the complaints I’ve seen (admittedly mostly from the UK) is that the map data is unreliable and incomplete, which is pretty surprising as it’s from Tom Tom.
I am not certain but I think that you can download a Google Maps ap and essentially get it back if you don’t want to use the iOS one.
I think on iOS6 the only option is to use the browser, for the moment.