iPhone vs Android: 5 Years Later #Helpful Post

Hey Austin this is guys. How does the iPhone stack up versus Android five years later?

To find out we’ve got the iPhone 4s and Samsung Galaxy S2. As the best of the best

in 2011 it’s interesting to see just how well they’ve aged. The first thing you’ll

notice is just how much bigger the Galaxy S2 is, I have the US T-Mobile variant here

which sports a big for the time 4.5 inch screen compared to the tiny 3.5 inch screen on the

iPhone. That said while the AMOLED screen on the Galaxy isn’t bad the Retina display

of the iPhone looks a lot nicer. At 326 pixels per inch it’s identical to the iPhone 6s

and while displays have gotten better in the last five years there’s really not much

to complain about…except for the size. The iPhone feels tiny by today’s standards where

the Galaxy is much more comfortable. While the S2 was a decent looking phone back in

the day it hasn’t aged too well. You do have a removable back which gives you access

to a MicroSD card slot and removable battery, as a five year old phone being able to swap

a fresh battery in easily is a big advantage. It’s fairly thin but the plastic build has

taken a beating over the years and it shows. This iPhone has been nicely taken care of

but there’s no denying the appeal of glass and metal, this is still one of my favorite

phone designs ever with a nice heft in the hand and an expensive feel. Even though you

can pick up a 4s for cheap these days it’s clear that this was once a $600 phone. Something

that surprised me is the software. The Galaxy S2 tops out on Android 4.1 Jellybean which

came out in 2012 where Apple actually still supports the iPhone 4s as it’s fully up

to date on iOS 9. While it probably won’t get updated much beyond this it’s really

impressive to see a phone supported for five years, even the Nexus line usually only gets

updates for two or three and the S2 only got a single year of updates. Mind you iOS 9 isn’t

exactly buttery smooth on the 4s but it’s at least usable. While Jellybean is still

stuck in 2012 it’s not all bad. Google has steadily moved more and more apps into the

Play Store which means you’re able to use the latest versions of things like Chrome.

Unfortunately a lot either won’t work on 4.1 or can’t be updated, apps like Twitter

that work are few and far between. Having iOS 9 helps the iPhone a lot. Things like

Spotify work just fine and although you’ll notice some slowness in Snapchat it’s totally

usable. More demanding games are going to be a problem but lighter titles like Minecraft

work just as well as with new phones. As long as you lower your expectations for speed there’s

not much you can’t do on the 4s. One thing that has definitely improved in the last few

years are the cameras. Both phones have eight megapixel sensors that are decent but nothing

special. As long as there’s enough light both the iPhone and Galaxy S2 can deliver

a nice image but the S2 doesn’t handle color very nicely and the iPhone gives better dynamic

range. On the other hand the front facing VGA camera on the 4s is pretty terrible where

the S2 has an actually usable selfie camera. Video is 1080p across the board and here there’s

not much comparison, the 4s has far better stabilization and color where the S2 gets

shaky and blows the highlights out easily. The Galaxy S2 more than anything shows just

how far things have come in the last five years. Things have also improved in the iPhone

camp but the 4s has held up impressively well. Which would you go for? Let me know in the

comments below and I will catch you in the next one.

It feels decent in the hand. [laughing] You know I’m going to cut that part.