The best choice for smartphones and tablets: Android, iOS or Windows Phone 8? PC magazine editor Klaus Länger helps with the question of the right mobile operating system. When one with a mobile phone actually only telephoned and perhaps SMS still shipped, the choice of the manufacturer actually did not care. Because if you do not like the new Nokia phone, then you have just switched to a Siemens, Motorola or whatever.
Android: customization is everything
You did not have to choose a platform. Today, the decision for a smartphone, or at least for the smartphone operating system, is more serious. For this, one binds to a complete ecosystem of services and apps, which make a later change not easy. Unless the smartphone or the operating system on the other side of the fence is so attractive as to make a change worthwhile.
Apple iOS: avant-garde for the masses
Android is for smartphones what the early Windows XP for PCs was: it runs practically everywhere, leaves the user relatively many freedoms, offers a wealth of applications, but is prone to digital pests. The Google operating system has managed to catapult first place among the smartphone operating systems in the shortest possible time. It runs on a wide range of devices, from entry-level low-cost smartphones to quad-core high-end devices with full-HD display.
Windows Phone 8: The Latecomer
In general, however, Android compared to iOS or Windows Phone also requires stronger hardware, so it runs smoothly. For updates to newer Android versions one is dependent on the manufacturer of the device, often also modified Android versions are preinstalled. Users sometimes have to wait very long for a new Android version for their old smartphone or the requested update does not come at all.
With the number of apps in Google Play, Android has now passed over 800,000 Apple. There is also the possibility to use alternative stores. However, Android is not only the primary target for real malicious software among the smartphone operating systems, but also many "normal" apps released by Google for the Play Store allow the user very broad access rights to the data of the user. This also applies to the Google services themselves, Google is still an advertising company and therefore needs to know its users as well as possible in order to deliver targeted ads.
Apple's iPhone has managed to sell tens of millions of these smartphones, but still maintain the image of the elite and avant-garde. Apple has the merit to have created the smartphone in its current form. Although there were also previously smartphones and, of course, also touchscreens, but the close linking of device, Appstore and services came only with the Apple device. As a result, the ecosystem is also the most advanced, which is also the abundance of accessories for the iPhone.
However, one has to bind with the decision for iOS also completely to Apple. The selection of devices is limited to the iPhone 4s and the iPhone 5, both are relatively expensive and technically not more up to date. In addition, Apple's App Store is the most heavily regulated. There is a lot of high-quality apps and the risk of malicious software being much worse than Android.
Microsoft had once with Windows Mobile one of the most successful smartphone operating systems in the portfolio, but its development has been negligently neglected and was thus caught by the success of the iPhones cold. The restart with Windows Phone 7 suffered under the very limited operating system based on Windows CE, which made the use of modern dual-core processors or high-resolution displays impossible.
Also the app developers suffered from limitations due to the operating system. All this has changed with Windows Phone 8. Because this version is based on the Windows 8 kernel and supports powerful hardware such as the Nokia Lumia 920. The choice of smartphones from different manufacturers and price classes is not as big as for Android, but more than Apple.
The tile surface is at first glance to be habituated, but modern and liquid to use. The live tiles do not occupy as much space on the screen as the widgets on Android, but provide more information, like the icons at iOS. In addition, the interface of Windows Phone 8 with now three different tile sizes can be better adapted to your own needs, similar to Windows Phone 7. The integration of Facebook and Twitter is very good, with the children corner you have the possibility to create your own interface for To set up the small ones, which can then only access apps and websites that are shared with them.
The Achilles heeled of Windows Phone 8 are still the apps. Although there are now more than 150,000, but some big names and above all many games are still missing. In addition, Windows Phone is empty for small apps, through which you can order concert tickets, for example, or find special offers in stores or online shops. Microsoft's policies for their own store are not as strict as Apple's, but they have no way to integrate other stores or install apps themselves by sideloading.
A weak point is also the lack of integration of the stores of Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. If apps exist on both platforms, then you have to purchase them separately. All in all, it remains a matter of taste, to which platform you want to bind yourself. Lesetipp: Do you need help with the question of Windows 8 or Windows 7? Our expert Klaus Länger will be happy to help you.
