Speed
Surprisingly,
the most efficient and fastest mobile operating system here is one from the PC
kings: Microsoft. WP is a light and quick OS, and in echoes of OS X versus
Windows, it’s a tale of hardware not telling all the story. Indeed, there are
presently no dual-core WP phones, but while Android and iOS are about to leap
into bed with quad-core CPUs, Mango runs extremely well on a 1GHz CPU and 512MB
RAM. What’s more, the next minor revision, 7.6, will cut that RAM to 256MB, to
aid cheaper devices for developing countries. All from the same people who
brought you Windows ME…
iOS is
still a slick OS, though it’s speed has never been a factor; it’s never super
fast but it’s never been slow either. Recent revisions of iOS have begun to
take their toll on less powerful devices, though, with the iPhone 3GS not
having as good a time with the OS as later devices. On the whole, though, iOS
is still the same beast it was and will likely ever be.
For all it’s
great points, Android’s Achilles heel is its need for power. Coupled with the
breadth of Android devices, it’s very possible to see it running like a dream
on one device and like a dog on another. This can be often down to hardware, or
it can be poorly optimised manufacturer UI customisation. Either way, it’s
often tough to get a handle on Android’s true speed. However, on a phone with a
1GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and reasonable GPU, vanilla ICS should run well. Less than
that and you’ll be relying on hacked optimised versions, but it’s entirely
possible devices such as HTC’s Desire may get a useable ROM. On devices that
can take it, ICS is as quick as Gingerbread, and it’s slicker UI may even make
it feel quicker. Certainly, it’s an improvement, if not immediately noticeable.
Freedom
‘If you
want freedom, tinkering and personalisation, Android is for you.’
Chrome OS will not
create a walled garden
As we’ve
mentioned, iOS and WP are very much walled garden systems and have been from the
start. But have their new revisions allowed any new freedom? In a word, no. iOS
is still as locked down as ever, the widgets present in its desktop cousin, OS
X, haven’t made an appearance here yet and the layout remains the same with
still only the wallpaper changeable. As before, apps are still only available
from the App Store, and there’s still no access to the file system or storage
expansion. Frankly, this is not likely to change as long as iOS remains in its
current form.
Mango’s
Metro UI still dictates the overall layout, and customisation is still limited
to adding tiles to the start screen. Sadly, Mango doesn’t even add freedom to
the colouring of the tiles or their backdrop, with only 11 shades of tile and
black or white backdrops available and no apps to really change that much. Like
iOS, you’re also restricted with apps, this time to the Windows Marketplace,
and again like iOS there’s no access to the file system nor storage expansion.
It’s coming, though, but just not yet.
Android is
still the most open OS, though possibly increasingly to its detriment with the
spectre of viruses hanging over it more and more. You can do what you want with
Android, and ICS does little to change this. USB slave and host, DLNA sharing,
storage expansion, HDMI – the list is seemingly endless. If you want freedom,
tinkering and personalisation, Android is for you.
Media
Although
Apple prefers to keep its customers within its iTunes ecosphere when it comes
to media, it’s loosed its grip a fair bit, allowing some great apps like
Airvideo to use your PC to transcode a ton of formats and stream them to your
iPhone or iPad. iOS 5’s main advances with media, however, lie in Apple’s
AirPlay feature, streaming audio, video and even games to Cupertino’s Apple TV
2. If the application is enabled, you can have your iPad 2 happily stream a
film to the ATV2 while you mooch around the web in Safari. Interesting stuff…
Windows
Phone’s focus for media has not really amounted to much more than an on-board
facsimile of Microsoft’s own Zune media players. Like Apple, Microsoft prefers
WP users to keep things MS, so here you’re not going find support for DivX, MKV
or AVI. Video-wise you have MP4 and WMV and that’s you lot. You’ll need to
convert them as well as syncing them through Zune, as you would audio.
Improvement is coming in WP8, but for now Mango is okay for music, but it isn’t
the best platform for video.
Due to it’s
open-ended nature, media playback on Android has always been as comprehensive as
you’ve needed it to be. Hardware accelerated playback, DLNA, HDMI output – all
there. ICS doesn’t bring much more to the table besides a video-editing app,
the ability to use USB gamepads and a faster camera, but that’s because it’s
already pretty good.
