A Comparison Table of 4 Android Phones
Thursday, February 11, 2010 |I’ve been an iPhone user for about 1.5 years now. I’m mostly happy with it, but I’d kinda like to write applications for it. The problem, though, is that the iPhone uses Objective-C (and I don’t consider writing web apps the same thing as writing an iPhone app ; ). Enter Google’s Android. I can use my existing Java knowledge to write applications for an Android device, giving me a much smaller learning curve. The question, then, is which device should I get? There are several available, unlike the iPhone, so the choice can be difficult.
Recently, I ran across 6 of the Best Android Mobile Devices, which has a pretty nice run down of six different devices, not all of which are phones. The problem with this particular comparison, was that each phone was on a different page, making comparison more difficult as I had to switch tabs a lot. My solution, then, is the table below. Inspired by the link above, though taking most of the data from the devices' product pages, I’ve compiled the following table. Obviously, this isn’t every Android phone on the market. I took the three listed in the article above, and added one other phone that I’ve been considering. Hopefully this table will be helpful in those looking at these devices.
| Feature/Device |
|---|
Processor |
Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz |
ARM Cortex A8 600MHz (underclocked to 550MHz) |
Qualcomm® MSM7600™, 528MHz |
Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz |
Screen |
3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED 800 x 480 |
TFT 3.7-in. ; WVGA (480 x 854 pixels) |
3.2-inch 320 x 480 HVGA |
3.2-inch TFT-LCD 320x480 HVGA |
Memory |
512MB Flash ; 512MB RAM ; 4GB microSD (expandable to 32GB) |
16 GB microSD pre-installed |
512MB ROM / 288MB RAM |
ROM: 512MB RAM 288MB |
Network |
UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900) ; HSDPA 7.2Mbps ; HSUPA 2Mbps ; GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) |
2G Network : GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ; 3G Network : HSDPA 900/2100, HSDPA 850/1900/2100 |
CDMA: Dual-band 800/1900MHz ; CDMA2000 1xRTT/1xEVDO rev. A |
HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100 MHz ; Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz |
Hardware Keyboard? |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
GPS? |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Camera |
5MP auto-focus ; 2x digital zoom ; LED flash ; geo-tagging ; Video captured at 720x480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher |
5MP ; 4x digital zoom<br>dual LED flash ; automatic focus ; geo tagging ; DVD quality video capture (720x480 resolution) up to 24 fps capture ; up to 30 fps playback |
5.0 MP w/ Auto Focus |
5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus |
Connectivity |
WiFi (802.11 b,g) ; Bluetooth + EDR ; A2DP stereo Bluetooth |
WiFi (802.11 b,g) ; Bluetooth + EDR |
WiFi (802.11 b,g) ; Bluetooth + EDR |
WiFi (802.11 b,g) ; Bluetooth + EDR |
Support Audio Formats |
AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+), AMR-NB, AMR-WB 9, MIDI SMF (Type 0 and 1), DLS Version 1 and 2, XMF/Mobile XMF, RTTTL/RTX, OTA, iMelody, Ogg Vorbis, WAVE (8-bit and 16-bit PCM) |
AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, eAAC+, AMR WB, AMR NB, AAC+, MIDI |
MIDI, M4A, QCP, AMR, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WAV, WMA, MP3, EVRC-B |
MP3, AAC(AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows Media® Audio 9 |
Support Video Formats |
H.263, MPEG-4 SP, H.264 AVC |
H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 |
MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV |
MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows Media® Video 9 |
Expansion Slots |
SIM card slot ; microSD slot |
microSD |
microSD |
microSD |
Battery Life |
Standby time: Up to 290 hours on 2G; Up to 250 hours on 3G Talk time: Up to 10 hours on 2G; Up to 7 hours on 3G Internet use: Up to 5 hours on 3G; Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi Video playback: Up to 7 hours *Audio playback Up to 20 hours |
Standby – up to 270hrs ; Talk – up to 6:25 |
Standby: 373 hrs ; Talk time: 214 min |
Standby time: Up to 750 hours for WCDMA; Up to 440 hours for GSM Talk time: Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA; Up to 470 minutes for GSM |
Weight |
4.56 oz/130g |
5.96 oz/169g |
4.23 oz/120g |
4.76 oz/135ga |
Size |
4.64 x 2.35 x .45 in ; 118 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm |
2.4 x 4.6 x .5 in ; 60 x 115.8 x 13.7 mm |
4.45 x 2.19 x .51 in ; 113 x 55.6 x 13 mm |
4.41 x 2.21 x 0.57 in ; 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm |
Other features |
Haptic feedback ; Second microphone for active noise cancellation ; Proximity sensor ; Light sensor ; Digital compass |
Flash-enabled |
G-sensor ; Digital compass |
I am in no way a cell phone expert. I merely combined the data that seemed important to me in this table to help in my decision making. This table may be completely useless to anyone but me. Since I had it, though, I thought I’d share it. If you don’t like it, well, it was free. :)
My name is Jason Lee. I am a software developer living in the middle of Oklahoma. I’ve been a professional developer since 1997,
using a variety of languages, including Java, Javascript, PHP, Python, Delphi, and even a bit of C#. I currently work for Red Hat
on the WildFly/EAP team, where, among other things, I maintain integrations for some MicroProfile specs, OpenTelemetry, Micrometer,
Jakarta Faces, and Bean Validation. (Full resume 