Comparisons of the iPhone 4 and DROID Incredible
The release officially of the iPhone 4 is causing a big stir. Many are wondering, “Will iPhone’s new 4 phone be able to stack up with the competition from the now dominant DROID Incredible?” Apple seems to have pulled it off once again is the short answer to this question. The new iPhone 4 will be bringing quite a bit of firepower along with it due to many features that are not just better than the DROID Incredible’s features, but the Incredible cannot even keep up on some because Apple holds hardware and software with proprietary rights so no one else can beat them. Take notice that the iPhone 4 is certainly not completely better than the DROID Incredible in every facet, since it has quite a few options that the iPhone can’t match up with. The DROID Incredible has fought a very hard battle thus far, gaining a substantial portion of the market share over the last year, but once the iPhone 4 is released it is almost definitely going to crush all competitors in market share over the upcoming quarter. The main competition that the new iPhone will probably face will move more towards the HTC EVO, not the Incredible.
DROID’s main point of sales up to this point has been it’s multi tasking abilities. They also have put together quite a large marketing effort to show the advantages that the DROID has over the iPhone 3GS. This was extremely effective and the DROID market share increased considerably over that period, but now that the OS 4 operating system can also multi task, the DROID Incredible just doesn’t seem all that spectacular anymore. Think about the app difference with the two platforms alone. Apple currently has over 215,000 apps and counting in the Apple Store, while the Android Market only carries about 70,000 apps and counting. This massive difference in apps can be a big part of the reason many choose Apple’s phones. With that in mind though, if your reading this, then you may need a little more persuading than some app numbers and one ability of the operating systems, so we put together a descriptive comparison of both the main selling points and features that both platforms bring to you. Hope you like it!
Surface Differences
We all know the sleek designs of Apple and this new iPhone 4 won’t be any different. It comes equipped with a band of stainless steel that is also the antenna which they designed to be up to 4 times the strength of steel which allows the phone to have the super thin and powerful design. Besides the band of stainless steel, their is also aluminosilcate glass in both the front and back(this is the same material used in top speed choppers and trains). Designed to be twenty times more stiff and strong than plastic, and extremely durable, this glass itself is super hi-tech. The DROID Incredible compared…is plastic. Seriously that should say quite enough on this point as the iPhone has a much sharper design and better appeal.
Dimensions(Weight/Size)
There are not any huge differences between either of these smartphones. The DROID weighs 130 grams/4.59 ounces, and the iPhone weighs 137 grams/4.8 ounces. The DROID is around 4.63 inches in height, and the iPhone is around 4.5 inches tall. The DROID is about 2.3″ by .47″ in width, while the iPhone is slightly less at 2.31″ by .37″ wide. So really, the two small differences here are the weight and depth for the iPhone 4, being slightly heavier, but still thinner than the DROID Incredible. Mostly due to Apple’s design and craftsmanship on the casing of metallic glass that makes up the iPhone, this will not likely be a deciding factor for many consumers in any case.
Wireless/Cellular Network
Verizon and Alltel use the Dual Band CDMA 2000 system they offer for the DROID Incredible. AT&T will continue its affiliation with the iPhone 4 as expected, operating their GSM/EDGE network. For more detailed differences please review the article on our website comparing AT&T’s network to Verizon’s.
As for wireless capabilities both the iPhone 4 and DROID Incredible offer 802.11 b/g/n. Additionally each also offer Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and I believe the new iPhone 4 is going to offer wireless tethering via the OS 4 release which will allow for automatic syncing much like the MacBook’s and other current Apple devices.
By far, one of the biggest complaints with the current iPhone 3GS has been its cellular carrier, AT&T. For most, this may be the deciding factor in which phone to purchase, but AT&T has made promises to beef up it’s network and fix the problems that many users currently complain about such as dropped calls, or limited 3G coverage. Though these promises have been made, they have yet to be seen, so at this point it appears that if users are to go with the iPhone 4 they are going to have to deal with the existing network problems that most are encountering now.
Location Services
One differing fact that the past models such as the iPhone 3GS had that the new iPhone 4 won’t, was offering directions and even mapping them out through Google Maps using one of Apple’s proprietary apps. The iPhone 4 will now use assisted GPS and their standard digital compass(which is one of the least used items on the phone in my opinion). All things dealing with location services for the iPhone 4 will be done using wi-fi and cell triangulation services. The DROID incredible will stay in line with other previous DROID smartphones and carry navigation services through Google Maps. This is not a quantum difference we are talking about here, but it seems to me the Android based DROID Incredible is the better option in this category. The fact that there navigation is tied directly with Google’s own system, could be enough to sway a decision not just towards the DROID Incredible, but towards all the Android OS phones.
Power and Battery
The iPhone 4 carries with it the power of a lithium ion battery which is rechargeable via a USB connection with a computer or by plugging it into a wall with a standard power adapter. DROID’s Incredible can do the same thing and comes with rechargeable lithium ion battery too. The battery for the DROID can be taken out though which allows you the ability to replace it with another battery if the one your using goes dead. Who really cares though unless your going out of town somewhere like camping or something and don’t have any outlets for power around anywhere and no car charger. If this is the case, you probably won’t need to charge it anyway because you may just not want to deal with it for a few days.
They say hindsight is 20/20 and that is why the iPhone 4 had an advantage when it comes to talk time, usage, and standby times. It can produce a very healthy total talk time of around 7 hours if on 3G and 14 if on 2G. Standby can pull off in the 300 hour range too. If your a music lover you can listen for 40 hours! If you love videos, you can keep your eyes on about 10 hours worth of them. Surf the net for about 6 hours straight if your using 3G to do it, or 10+ if your on Wi-fi.
When you compare the DROID Incredible’s numbers for these same statistics, you soon realize it does not quite match up. It only offers you about 300+ minutes of usage and close to 150 on standby. The iPhone 4 battery is just large and in charge(pun intended). If you are like most users, you will be plugging your phone in to charge at some point during a day, or at the very least letting it charge overnight, so that total time difference may not be that big of a deal. If you are one of the users however that require tons of media consumption from your phone on a daily basis though, the iPhone 4 is going to be your best bet.
Capacity (Memory and Storage)
One let down for the iPhone 4 is that it will carry a very similar internal memory storage capacity as that of the iPhone 3GS. Although rumor had it that they iPhone 4 would have around 64 gigs of internal memory, it turns out it will be 32GB. You can get a smaller version(16GB) just like the 3GS offered when it first came to the shelf. The DROID Incredible will only offer 8GB’s on their memory, but you can expand that 16 gigs up to a total of 24GB’s by using a microSD card, although you still cannot store any of your apps on the extra 16 GB card so this can be a massive downfall for the DROID Incredible.
So when looking at the memory, the iPhone 4 may be the better option if you plan on downloading a bunch of apps to your phone. If you use your phone mostly for music, photos or videos however, the DROID Incredible could pose the better option for you because you can swap out microSD cards with other users, or give you the option to store photo’s on one card, videos another, and music on yet another to be able to use when you need that medium. Really, both phones will be able to bring plenty enough memory to the table for pretty much all users to satisfy your requirements.
Screen Display
Okay this is where the MAJOR differences begin to come into play as both phones have been fairly similar up till now. Apple stepped it up a notch with their new display though offering a retina display with an enormous 960 x 640 pixel resolutions and 326 ppi. The 800 x 480 pixels that the DROID Incredible had that was so impressive, just got trumped. The DROID Incredible’s display is a little bit larger when compared to the iPhone 4′s(3.7″ to 3.5″), that larger screen area makes the fact of having less pixels even more apparent. When we get to the camera comparison for these phones below, the pixel difference will again become a huge advantage for the iPhone 4.
Not only is the iPhone 4 carrying a better pixel quality image to their screens, the screen will also be fingerprint resistant due to an oleophobic coating which will be on both the front and back side screens. Contrast settings on the new iPhone will be a little better as well at 800 to 1.
This is only the beginning of the comparisons between the DROID Incredible and iPhone 4, and hopefully it helped you out, but if you would like to read even more on these two phones, take a look at our iPhone-DROID site below.
Want to read even more about iPhone 4 features compared to DROID Incredible features , then visit our site on iPhone’s and DROID’s. Help yourself choose the best iPhone 4 features or DROID Incredible features, for your needs.