Is Apple's iPhone 6 just Google's Nexus 4?

[badb0y]

A graphic wandering around Twitter suggests Androiders had an iPhone 6 two years ago. Can this be true?

 

Apple's launch events tend to stir emotions even more than Justin Bieber taking his clothes off.

The Apple acolytes swoon with joy that there are new designs to behold. The Apple detractors emit fumes that would choke a medium-sized city.

So it was that when iPhone 6 was revealed, a comparison graphic began to drift about the Internet, courtesy of Ars Technica's Ron Amadeo. At its heart was the idea that Androiders had an iPhone 6 two years ago. It was called the Google Nexus 4.

Yes, it too had a 4.7-inch screen and NFC payments. It too had 3rd party keyboards and cloud photo backup (so useful these days). It even had 760p resolution against the iPhone 6's 750p.

So why wasn't Nexus 4 a pounding success? Well, Google wasn't terribly good at marketing hardware.

Moreover, the Nexus 4 also suffered from not being an iPhone. The reason Apple users continually upgrade is because they have bought into the ease of use, simplicity, beautiful design and in-store customer service that only Apple offers.

It's a painful truth for competitors and for those who believe that iPhones are inferior at the engineering level.

 

Clearly, this graphic picks at details that seem favorable to the Nexus.

Omitted, though, are essences such as iPhone 6's (hopefully) excellent camera and processor. And then there's that fingerprint scanner, which promises to keep your identity as secret as it can be. (I'm not sure if you can hold the iPhone 6 with crossed fingers.)

Apple is rarely the first with anything. It ponders longer and harder about what it wants to market. It considers details a little more deeply. And it has a ready-made audience of the relatively monied that buys into its essential ethos, not merely into any specific product.

Apple's loyalists are exceptionally forgiving because they believe that Apple does, indeed, add things to their life. (Including, of course, a chest-puffing sense of self-worth.)

So even if the Nexus 4 was ahead of its time, what did it matter? Not too much, it seems.

 

Source :

http://www.cnet.com/au/news/is-apples-iphone-6-just-googles-nexus-4/

[Noir Angel]

Apple are good at packaging yesterday's technology and charging substantially more for it. The camera in the iPhone is reasonable and the "motion coprocessor" might be good for fitness fanatics but I see nothing in these "new" iPhones that justify paying double the price.

[Draconian Guppy]

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I hate when those sort of images are made, that leave out important specs just for the sake of making one seem lesser than the other.

 

The iPhone 6 has a motion coprocessor and apples latest gen processor as well, latest improved "ion-hardened"  glass, iOS optimization is not on the same level as the nexus 4, touch ID, etc. I don't want to go further in spec comparison because I don't write at cnet, but one would think before posting click-bate articles (cnet, not neowin), they would post a thorough comparison.

That's not to say apple was late to implement some of the features android already had, but can you blame them? They still sold milliones of devices.

 

 

edit: Owner of a Galaxy S4 btw, switched away from apple because I wanted to handle my music freely, not through craptunes, I mean iTunes.

[game_over]

I just can't believe someone has sat and made the time to do this to try and prove a point... I can't even think of a word for this, desperation? Is this really Android users? .. and they call Apple fans obsessed.

[techbeck]

I just see a lot of "new" features Apple releasing they either said would never happen, or Apple fans said they dont need/want/care for.

[Astra.Xtreme]

That's one of the dumbest and most narrow-minded cherry-picked comparisons I've ever seen...

The N4 doesn't even have 4G LTE support...  Proof enough that the author is an idiot.

 

The things that Apple trolls nitpick at are getting more and more hilarious.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

No, this is definitely not true and is a useless and misleading attempt at click bait.

 

I am still trying to figure out why people worship products and brands...

[techbeck]

I am still trying to figure out why people worship products and brands...

 

Let me know if you figure that out.....

[DaveBG]

"So even if the Nexus 4 was ahead of its time"

 

Nexus 4 was not even on time if you ask me. There were better Android phones at the time N4 was released.

[Noir Angel]

That's one of the dumbest and most narrow-minded cherry-picked comparisons I've ever seen...

The N4 doesn't even have 4G LTE support...  Proof enough that the author is an idiot.

 

The things that Apple trolls nitpick at are getting more and more hilarious.

 

Actually the hardware did, it was just disabled.

[Noir Angel]

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I hate when those sort of images are made, that leave out important specs just for the sake of making one seem lesser than the other.

 

The iPhone 6 has a motion coprocessor and apples latest gen processor as well, latest improved "ion-hardened"  glass, iOS optimization is not on the same level as the nexus 4

 

OS optimisation? Have you ever actually used a Nexus device? They're usually the slickest Android handsets you will use. Not to mention even the factory images for the Nexus 5 only weigh in at ~ 900 MB whereas the latest iOS update is in excess of 5 gigs. Optimisation my foot. And people call Android bloated :laugh:

[Astra.Xtreme]

Actually the hardware did, it was just disabled.

I was under the impression it supported 4G on a single frequency that was only available in Canada and basically nowhere else.  Or is there more to it than that?

[Draconian Guppy]

OS optimisation? Have you ever actually used a Nexus device? They're usually the slickest Android handsets you will use. Not to mention even the factory images for the Nexus 5 only weigh in at ~ 900 MB whereas the latest iOS update is in excess of 5 gigs. Optimisation my foot. And people call Android bloated :laugh:

Hmm poorly worded by my part.

 

What I mean to say is, since apple design their own hardware and OS, they optimize all the default programs to their liking to better the user experience. I have used  N4 and N5, both slick as you say, however, not apple slick, even the default note apps on an iphone 4 load faster than on a N5.

 

OOB the user experience from apple simply can't be denied, they have the upper hand when it comes to hardware/OS integration, which is why to this day (iphone 6+) they still use 1gb of ram... versus some android headsets which are on 3GB

[xWhiplash]

So, phone companies are not allowed to use ANY feature that already exists in other phones?

[AsherGZ]

So, phone companies are not allowed to use ANY feature that already exists in other phones?

No but they are not allowed to screw their customers by charging double, triple for the same two year old hardware that they just gave a fancy name.

[+E.Worm Jimmy Subscriber¹]

they put lower res on iphone 6 because that way everything will look normal. (and only added it on 6 plus, since 5.5 with low res would look PATHETIC)

they are not optimized yet for 1080p at all.   so they ARE playing catch up...   maybe in a few month developers will update the apps... blah blah blah

 

yeah, hardware design is still one of the better ones out there!    and some great software too.

 

but people make this comparisons, because apple could have led the market in everyway, with the money and support they have.

but since iphone 4 they miscalculated the direction it is going, and now they are just competing on some features and user loyalty.

 

 

hell, if they just accepted that people want bigger phones, in the world of media consumption!    we could have had IOS6 optimized for 1080p already.

 

and they still would have being raking in tons of money. and we would not have to had this discussion.

 

 

 

i switched to android because i wanted all the new features and the ease of media consumption while ignoring itunes altogether

 

if they brought bigger screens earlier and added hi-res,  i would have put up with itunes, and android userbase would not have grown as fast.

 

 

yeah a lot of people switch to android because of low cost devices...  but a lot of HIGH END phones are android too. and that is the market apple simple farted away due to their mistake

[Praetor]

Hmm poorly worded by my part.

 

What I mean to say is, since apple design their own hardware and OS, they optimize all the default programs to their liking to better the user experience. I have used  N4 and N5, both slick as you say, however, not apple slick, even the default note apps on an iphone 4 load faster than on a N5.

 

OOB the user experience from apple simply can't be denied, they have the upper hand when it comes to hardware/OS integration, which is why to this day (iphone 6+) they still use 1gb of ram... versus some android headsets which are on 3GB

 

You clearly never used an iPhone 4 with iOS 7, it's just marvellous slowish.

 

And the fact that Android phones have allot of memory is...competition. This days a modern phone like the LG G3 or last years Nexus 5 have allot of RAM, powerful CPUs and GPUs is because every brand out there wants to sell and selling powerhouses with a low tag price is a winner product; also those high specs are handy for other uses, like padphone like products (smartphone + tablet + keyboard = complete solution to replace 3 separate products, smartphone, tablets and notebooks). So competition is good for the consumer because it loweres prices, increases the quality of stuff and brings more features for less money. iPhones, on the other hand, is a premium product and since Apple controls the hardware and the software, there is no chance the prices will drop and the one that gets hurted is the consumers wallet.

 

btw: i could swear i saw that comparison image but it was an Nexus 5, not an Nexus 4. Still the main problem is that people are paying alot of cash for last years technology when they could be using it already in a Android phone, that is why.

[Draconian Guppy]

You clearly never used an iPhone 4 with iOS 7, it's just marvellous slowish.

 

And the fact that Android phones have allot of memory is...competition. This days a modern phone like the LG G3 or last years Nexus 5 have allot of RAM, powerful CPUs and GPUs is because every brand out there wants to sell and selling powerhouses with a low tag price is a winner product; also those high specs are handy for other uses, like padphone like products (smartphone + tablet + keyboard = complete solution to replace 3 separate products, smartphone, tablets and notebooks). So competition is good for the consumer because it loweres prices, increases the quality of stuff and brings more features for less money. iPhones, on the other hand, is a premium product and since Apple controls the hardware and the software, there is no chance the prices will drop and the one that gets hurted is the consumers wallet.

 

btw: i could swear i saw that comparison image but it was an Nexus 5, not an Nexus 4. Still the main problem is that people are paying alot of cash for last years technology when they could be using it already in a Android phone, that is why.

I did and to be honest, my galaxy s4, stock seems to as slow sometimes... the camera app on iOS 7 on iphone 4, is much more snappier, focusing for one, than the one on the galaxy s4 (and I tried multiple phones, just by touching the camera app icon to demostrate to several friends of mine.. ) Want another example? The contacts on android is a separate app and not builtin within the dialer, eg. it has to open that app, while in iOS it's one whole no extra seconds just to bring up contacts.. And my personal favorite, the notepad app!! its crazy fast on any iPhone (after the 4 anyways...) whereas i have yet to find.  note app on iphone, write and close, it saves automagically.  note app on any android IF you don't click save before hitting that home or back button, say goodbye to anything you wrote and IF you do press save, add 2 seconds or more worth of wait. I tell ya man, android is cumbersome, perhaps Android L will lessen the gap ( kinda like project butter did), but as it stands, you can feel apples streamline (because of how you pointed it out, they control both hardware and software).   Don't get me wrong, i love iOS as an OS... I dislike it being so closed.  I love android for being open, but I guess this comes with a great deal of sacrifice, OEMs do whatever they want. IMO Microsoft hit the stop when setting minimum recommendations as to what must on each handset according to category and the result? the Lumia 530 feels just as snappy as the 930.

 

 Games on the other hand on iOS 7 on the iPhone 4, were terrible slow ill give you that. On quality, have you ever used any galaxy phone and compared it against anything apple built? There are good android vendors (HTC), but this is a whole different topic.

 

Also, the nexus5 image exists, so does one with the one plus one...

[Quillz]

Comparisons based entirely on raw specs are always dumb. As noted, it's not just about specs, it's about how things are integrated, what is available on one platform against the other, etc. My Nexus 5 is still very much on par with the iPhone 6 in many ways, and yet after using Android for some time now, I still miss a lot of things in iOS (but the opposite is also true).

[notuptome2004]

You clearly never used an iPhone 4 with iOS 7, it's just marvellous slowish.

 

And the fact that Android phones have allot of memory is...competition. This days a modern phone like the LG G3 or last years Nexus 5 have allot of RAM, powerful CPUs and GPUs is because every brand out there wants to sell and selling powerhouses with a low tag price is a winner product; also those high specs are handy for other uses, like padphone like products (smartphone + tablet + keyboard = complete solution to replace 3 separate products, smartphone, tablets and notebooks). So competition is good for the consumer because it loweres prices, increases the quality of stuff and brings more features for less money. iPhones, on the other hand, is a premium product and since Apple controls the hardware and the software, there is no chance the prices will drop and the one that gets hurted is the consumers wallet.

 

btw: i could swear i saw that comparison image but it was an Nexus 5, not an Nexus 4. Still the main problem is that people are paying alot of cash for last years technology when they could be using it already in a Android phone, that is why.

 

 

 

they fix the slowness of it with the  update  7.1`  i know they did cause a friend of mine   had a iphone 4   and it worked  much better after the update

[Shiranui]

 I still miss a lot of things in iOS (but the opposite is also true).

 

Indeed. No free U2 tracks on Android.... 

[Draconian Guppy]

Indeed. No free U2 tracks on Android.... 

Gentlemen, we've struck Gold!

[BajiRav]

You clearly never used an iPhone 4 with iOS 7, it's just marvellous slowish.

 

And the fact that Android phones have allot of memory is...competition. This days a modern phone like the LG G3 or last years Nexus 5 have allot of RAM, powerful CPUs and GPUs is because every brand out there wants to sell and selling powerhouses with a low tag price is a winner product; also those high specs are handy for other uses, like padphone like products (smartphone + tablet + keyboard = complete solution to replace 3 separate products, smartphone, tablets and notebooks). So competition is good for the consumer because it loweres prices, increases the quality of stuff and brings more features for less money. iPhones, on the other hand, is a premium product and since Apple controls the hardware and the software, there is no chance the prices will drop and the one that gets hurted is the consumers wallet.

 

btw: i could swear i saw that comparison image but it was an Nexus 5, not an Nexus 4. Still the main problem is that people are paying alot of cash for last years technology when they could be using it already in a Android phone, that is why.

I am no fan of Apple but that comparison is as dumb as it gets. Android in 2012 was a mess (and subjectively still has worse perf. than competition) and wasn't that before Project Butter or whatever Google tried which didn't make much difference?

Android needed those specs because it was a pig back then. You needed a lot of lipstick.

[Praetor]

I am no fan of Apple but that comparison is as dumb as it gets. Android in 2012 was a mess (and subjectively still has worse perf. than competition) and wasn't that before Project Butter or whatever Google tried which didn't make much difference?

Android needed those specs because it was a pig back then. You needed a lot of lipstick.

 

in 2011 ICS was released and that was a major improvement to the stock experience, compared to previous versions; in 2012 JB was released and performance wise, it's one of the best releases so far. So I don't get your claims of "mess" when pre-2011 Android was much slower then post-2011 releases. And if you use a modern android phone that has the latest release (not the cheap <100? ones), you will see much improvements. Heck, i even have KK in my 2011 Samsung phone, that has very low specs.

 

while i agree that Java (in this case, Dalvik) is damn slow, it does have a huge advantage: it's more easy to convert the code base to smaller or bigger devices, putting in that way Android in most devices as possible.

[xWhiplash]

No but they are not allowed to screw their customers by charging double, triple for the same two year old hardware that they just gave a fancy name.

 

I am sorry, how are they screwing over customers?  Is it better than the iPhone 5s?  YES.  So what is the problem?  Who cares if Samsung phones had some of these features already.  My iPhone did not.  That is the point.  They are not saying they are the first with 5.5" screen, or first with NFC.  Their NFC implementation is much better than what I have seen in Android -- only giving merchants a single-use code instead of your credit/debit card number.