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业内人士细数主流手机操作系统七宗“最”

发布时间:2010-11-01 09:07:13 Tags:,,,,
Windows Phone 7正以全新的姿态加入手机操作系统的战局,智能手机用户可能犯愁,选择太多也是一种烦恼,为此我们专门针对微软WP7、苹果iOS 4、黑莓OS6、Symbian^3、Android 2.2五个手机操作系统进行了一番比较,你可以根据自己的需求,从界面设计、联系功能、网上冲浪、多媒体功能、用户个性化体验、电邮和键盘、应用软件这七个回合的PK中判断孰优孰胜。
mobile OS-logo

mobile OS-logo

1.设计风格

设计风格是手机操作系统最重要的元素之一,相当于系统的脸面,要经得起时间考验。因为用户一年到头都要盯着同一个操作界面,如果很快就生厌了,那就说明他们想给手机变脸了。

Android从设计角度来讲,给用户操作的选择余地最大,虽然有一些Android手机硬件设备比如说HTC在这方面上仍然有所保留,但总体而言,Android手机用户享受的自由最多,该系统界面活泼的背景很赏心悦目,不过有时候看起来有点杂乱无章。

Apple手机界面在图标排列上领先了一步,以文件夹形式对应用进行归类,这也是该公司一贯坚持的风格路线。苹果低调不张扬的字体和设计时尚的原创应用图标已经风靡世界,现在用户如果不喜欢单调无趣的黑色背景,还可以自己替换界面图案。

黑莓OS6的界面图标有那么点浮华的感觉,半透明的图标背景使整个操作系统看起来有几分虚幻缥缈之感。

Symbian在这一轮的角力中无疑落于下风,它采用的是90年代中期的过时网页字体,主界面浮动的黑匣子简直俗不可耐,多看一眼都让人恨不得戳瞎自己的眼睛,等到Symbian系统的设计更上得了台面时再考虑复明。

Windows Phone 7看得出来在设计上狠下了一番功夫,重新考虑了系统的布局。平心而论,WP7能有如此成绩,是因为它最晚出世,可以充分借鉴前人经验,少走弯路,因此WP7活泼的大号图标排列和应用枢纽的全景式布局着实令人爱不释手。

结论:每个系统设计风格都相当于一款家具

Symbian是廉价但实用的松木材质宜家书柜,WP7是Habitat出产的漂亮咖啡桌,Android是根据用户设计需求而量身定制的架子(可能很赞,也可能很糟);黑莓属于Heals牌的产品,质量不错但设计偏简单,而iOS则是值得珍藏的经典、永远不过时的家具。

最优者:Windows Phone 7

次优者:苹果iOS

2.联系功能

还记得以前拿到新手机时,费力地手动输入联系人信息的情形吗?所幸这种日子已经一去不返了,那么这一轮的较量又将花落谁家呢?

Contacts

Contacts

Android用户在手机上输入Gmail帐号信息时,系统会自动根据这一操作将其填充入通讯录,如果这一操作并非用户本意,就会有点烦人,但无可非议的是,这个自动保存联系人信息的功能,确实很让人省心省力。它的功能初级而实用,虽然并不那么养眼,但它会将最亲密的联系人信息保存到主界面,使用户查找更快捷。

苹果通讯录的表现同样要纳入实用而不美观的行列,虽然iOS系统并不支持连接所有的电子邮件帐号,但如果你已在自己的苹果电脑或iPhone上建立了一个联系人通讯录,那么只要登陆iTunes,该手机系统就能自动同步更新所有的联系人信息。虽然这个操作很简便,但功能也非常初级简陋,要导入其他的帐号也有点小麻烦。比如说得通过手机应用才能登陆Facebook,不能直接通过通讯录实现这一操作。

黑莓系统导入Facebook联系人的方法倒很省事,通过手机通讯录就能实现这一操作。该系统的6.0版本和Adnroid、WP7一样,支持用户将通讯录保存到主界面,虽然它也是一个单调的联系人列表,不过拔号方式倒很灵便,通过传统键盘输入也能快捷而直接地查找到所需号码。

Symbian最近升级换代的通讯录倒没那么不济,在联系人列表中添加了用户头像这一时尚设计,所以看起来比较有味道了。另外,该通讯录还可以通过Ovi Social功能与社交网站灵活绑定。

Windows Phone 7的通讯录看起来还是那么新颖抢眼,联系人列表搭配了用户头像,你点击这些头像甚至还能看到朋友们最近在Facebook和Windows Live的更新动态,而且还可以在他们的用户墙上留言。

结论:每个系统都可以用一本书来形容

Android是一本专门面向孩子发行的书,孩子就是书中的主角;iPhone就像是一本逻辑缜密而枯燥无趣的用户手册;黑莓是一本Judy Blume著作,亲切随和、敏感,时而闪烁着智慧火花。Symbian是一本夹杂插画的图书,人们通常习惯跳跃浏览,不会细嚼全文思想;WP7是一册装帧精美、大开版本的咖啡桌读物,展示和炫耀的用途大于阅读功能。

最优者:Windows Phone 7

次优者:黑莓

3.网上冲浪

且不论应用软件的配置如何,仅网络体验一项就足以决定一款智能手机的成败,只是这一回合的比拼挺让人意外,多数操作系统专用浏览器的表现并不尽如人意。

Browsing the internet

Browsing the internet

Android自Froyo 2.2升级以后,其原装浏览器功力倍增(不过并非所有的Android用户都已经用上了Froyo 2.2)。这是一款非常达标的浏览器,其升级版本的运行速度更快,使用起来也更令人舒心。再加上Adobe Flash 10.1助阵,更为用户获取Flash手机内容创造了绝佳条件。

苹果手机的专属浏览器是没有多少出众之处的Safari,但它毕竟也算是这一领域头个吃螃蟹的人,运行起来也还不赖,而且还有分页浏览功能,因此也可以给它点掌声,遗憾的是它不支持Adobe Flash 10.1,这种保守姿态确实让它失分不少。

黑莓OS6上运行的是WebKit内核浏览器,经过升级换代后,其功能远胜于之前运行的Opera Mini。该浏览器更新版本可以轻松打开图像超载的页面,具有分页浏览功能。如果你还是不满意,先回头试试Opera,就知道什么叫进步了。

Symbian最新的网页浏览器也得到了Flash 10.1的支持,但看起来更像是一个含蓄而容易怯场的少年小丑。网页导航选项的设置并不人性化,运行速度也是令人抓狂地缓慢,它的糟糕表现还不到要命的地步,但也确实远不及其他智能手机的标准。

Windows Phone 7的浏览器是IEM(Interner Explorer for Mobile),但请注意,它已经不再是以前大家所知的那款蹩脚浏览器了。这款渲染引擎很强大,页面加载也很轻松神速,渲染文本也很美观,不会有分散像素。目前还不支持Flash功能,而且每次只能同时打开6个页面。

结论:每个浏览器都可以用一种交通工具来描述

苹果Safari是网页浏览器中的沃尔沃汽车,无论装了多少东西,都会很安全,但比较无趣;Symbian是一台拖拉机,速度慢得实在让人崩溃;Android好比是一辆工具车,如果你组装得正确,而且运行的是2.2版本,就会变身为一部拉风的跑车,否则就是在浪费时间和钞票。WP7是斯柯达车,曾经臭昭名著,但洗心革面后又挽回了声誉;黑莓是小轿车,快捷而安全可靠,驾驶起来很愉快,但如果可能的话我们还是会想把它换成其他新车。

最优者:Android

次优者:Windows Phone 7和苹果

4.多媒体功能

现在如果还有手机不能播放音乐、视频,欣赏照片,那就不能再叫“手机”了,在这一局中,究竟哪一个操作系统是赢家?

Music,media and photos

Music,media and photos

Android在这方面的组织能力无与伦比,可通过相关图片应用整理图像,并将图片下载到一个独立文件夹中(这样用户就很容易设置手机壁纸)。这种图像管理方式有点混乱,但至少比一串冗长的缩略图强些。它的音乐播放器非常达标,足与苹果相媲美。

苹果手机系统的相簿功能非常初级,采用的就是那种大家所诟病的、一连串式的缩略图管理方式。不过滚动浏览时倒很方便有趣,它可以把所有的图片保存在同一个位置,这样用户就不需要搜遍其他文件夹四处找图片。它删除和分享多重图像的方式也很好,在iPod上的表现尤其出色,不管怎么说,我们所需要的随机播放和列表建立等功能,在这一系统上都能准确实现。

黑莓系统的媒体播放工具在6.0版本中进行了一翻修整,但功能还是非常初级。图片全部塞在同一个大文件夹里,让用户一阵好找;虽然增加了关于黑眼豆豆乐队(Black-Eyed Peas)的元素,但音乐和视频播放器功能并没有更完善;而且也没有同步、购买音乐的专门软件,反正在黑莓手机上找内容简直就是一种折腾。

Symbian的音乐收藏功能和苹果走的是同一条路线,有点山寨的嫌疑,但我们还是很满意主界面那个用于提示播放曲目的小部件,艺术相簿也还不错。从电脑移送音乐和视频文件、创建播放列表等功能还算不赖。它的相簿功能还凑合,但无法一键直达图片库,所以也并不十分理想。

Windows Phone 7的媒体中心非常讨人喜欢,在全景式的背景中,你所收集的音乐都会有对应的艺术家照片,艺术相簿的功能表现也很出色。缺点就是功能不全,用户无法在手机上创建播放列表,除了个人电脑上的Zune软件以外,你不能从其他平台移植播放列表。它的相簿看起来很讨巧,甚至把Facebook相簿都给比下去了。

结论:每个系统的多媒体功能都是一支乐曲

黑莓是一首让人昏昏欲睡的圣歌,WP7是贝多芬情绪高昂的杰作,iPhone是苹果最近为iPod敲定的广告歌,很酷很时尚;Symbian是和苹果iPod当前广告歌唱腔最相似的一支歌,但没有原创韵味;Android是英国真人秀节目《X-Factor》中获胜者的第一首单曲。

最优者:iPhone

次优者:Windows Phone 7

5.用户个性化体验

Customisation

Customisation

Android在这方面的成就无人能敌,从OEM制造的皮肤(比如说人见人爱的HTC Sense)到大量主界面采用的部件、卡通式背景、珍藏通讯录、手机应用等简约的用户个性化设置,没有哪两款Android手机会呈现完全相同的面貌。

苹果iOS的个性化设置就不那么灵活多变了,虽然你很容易就能重新整理应用程序,但不能自由改变应用图标、文件夹的排列模式。用户可以改变主界面背景图案,但只能选择静态图,不能是滚动图片。

黑莓的设置有点意思,从表面上看,用户最大的自由在于可以重新安排手机应用程序,甚至可以来个全盘调整,给系统换个新主题。这种操作可以很有趣,也可能很悲剧,假如你不幸没有很好的设计天赋,就可能将此搅成一摊乱局。你可以采用现成的系统主题,但是要多花钱。不管怎么说,让自己的手机看起来比他人的黑莓更炫酷,准不会有错。

Symbian和Android情况相同,允许用户对主界面部件进行调整,对最重要的应用程序和信息进行分类。除此之外,还可以改变背景图案,但不幸的是,那种90年代的老掉牙字体是甩不掉的了。

Windows Phone 7的表现就有点不如意了,尽管微软一直喋喋不休地自称该平台可以极其“个性化”,可事实上我们能自主决定的东西并不多。这个系统所有的信息都已经自动安排妥当,你日历上的约会安排、开始屏幕(start screen)要显示相簿中的哪张图片、媒体播放工具背景应该选择哪个艺术家的资料等等,这一切都由手机来替你作主。所以就算你已经把自己所需的信息和图片全部导入系统中,但除了改变开始屏幕的那些分类格子(tiles)以及锁屏(lock screen)的背景颜色,其他什么都不能变动。

结论:用户个性化体验好比是俄罗斯方块

如上图所示,正在下落的绿色方块是WP7,这种令人为难的形状,有时候用起来很顺手,有时候并不是那么灵活。

长条形的红色方块是Android,横摆竖放无不妥当;黑莓是粉红色的L形方块,随意往下插时很顶用,但匆忙完成之后,整个拼图就很难重新塑形。

大块头的蓝色方块正好对应Symbian块状的主界面部件,橙色的T形方块就是苹果,虽然不是很让人满意,但搁哪都能派上用场。

最优者:Android

次优者:黑莓

6.电子邮件和键盘

如果你需要通过智能手机敲出一条真诚的信息和措辞严谨的商务邮件,最好选择一个可以帮你纠正拼写错误,且能同时处理多个电子邮件帐号的手机操作系统。

Email and keyboards

Email and keyboards

Android的屏幕键盘是我个人所排斥的,不管是风景模式(landscape)还是描述模式(portrait),都让我觉得非常糟糕。我们Recombu网站有位叫Tom Newton的同事是一个地道的Nexus One手机用户,他极其痛恨Android键盘的微笑符。所幸我们还不至于对此出离愤怒,因为还有其他文本输入方式可选择,比如说Swiftkey和Swype。不过这仍然不能改变一个事实,那就是谷歌必须尽快改变Android默认的文本输入方式,不然我们迟早移情别恋,选用其他更好的手机。但是Android的电子邮件功能却出奇地好,对于多个电子邮件帐号管理、Gmail功能整合、邮件发送等各项服务,它都能处理得游刃有余。

苹果在文本输入的自动修正这一点上绝对能夺冠,它的功能强大得有点可怕。不知道史蒂夫·乔布斯是不是在iOS手机中装了什么具有读心术的特殊芯片,我们这么说可不是在否定他。不管怎么说,苹果手机的键盘功能实在是无可挑剔,除非你是个顽固而满口脏话的家伙,非跟苹果键盘死磕不可。它的电子邮件功能也非常好,支持多个帐号管理,简便快捷的设置实在是太贴心了,几乎让我们欣喜得泪流满面。

黑莓手机采用的是物理标准键盘,在这一点上它的表现实在是出类拔萃,因为RIM一直是这一特殊领域的霸主。强大的电子邮件装备也是黑莓的长处,虽然其他系统和黑莓在这方面已经没有多大差别了,不过我们没人会对它抱怨,它的电子邮件功能运行很快,很稳定,而且易于设置,查看和发送附件简直不费吹灰之力。

Symbian在诺基亚N8手机中的最新升级版本中,提供了风景模式的标准键盘,敏感度够高,但是在描述模式中使用T9输入法时,往往因屏幕宽度问题卡在那里,让人纠结不已。电子邮件的设置直接针对网络邮件和交易帐号,虽然你也可以使用多个邮件帐号,但不能把这些帐号合并到同一个收件箱中。

Windows Phone 7即使处于风景模式也仍然可以保持完整的标准键盘布局,创造令人舒服的触摸屏键盘体验。它不仅能自动更正你的输入错误,而且还提供一连串的输入选择。电子邮件设置也超级简单,但不能通过同一个收件箱甚至是一款手机应用,接收所有帐号发送来的邮件。这样造成的结果就是,手机开始屏幕上会充斥多个邮件的格子,每一个格子对应一个邮件帐号。

结论:文本输入方式是一种乐器

黑莓物理标准输入法是钢琴,弹奏起来灵活而舒心,但因为自动更正软件并不是很出众,所以有时候会出现乱谱。Android键盘比较糟糕,可以把它比作弱音小号,虽然一般情况下总让人好生郁闷,但比起Symbian这支短笛,有时候听起来却非常悦耳。iPhone是一张漂亮的竖琴,纠正输入错误时易如反掌;Windows Phone 7键盘是一台过于繁琐复杂的教堂风琴。

最优者:黑莓

次优者:苹果

7.应用软件

这是头等重要的指标,直接关系到一款智能手机的成败。如果一个手机操作系统不能提供大量的应用选择,那它还值得人们采用吗?

Apps

Apps

Android的应用一直很棒,而且还在不断进步。虽然在Android应用商店淘宝很需要费一番功夫,而且前十名应用榜单几乎每周都是那几张老脸,但它确实值得我们花点时间好好逛一回。但它的设计可能非常杂乱无章,而且这里还充斥着大量免费应用;付费应用价格奇高,不过你买了要是不满意,还可以享受24小时内无条件退款服务。

苹果在这一方面独占鳌头,还没有其他哪个手机系统能出其右。App Store存货充足,设立了极高的应用准入门槛,坚决抵制低劣产品,却仍有许多刚出炉的应用正排队等待它苛刻的检验。用户不需要花太多钱就能获得丰富的应用功能,再加上它的产品用户数量庞大,所有最强大的应用都可以在苹果应用商店中找到,这里的东西最齐全。

黑莓的应用产品虽然美誉度不高,但也确实在进步和提高。它的许多应用虽然很贵,不过质量也很过硬。主要缺陷在于,应用范围太狭窄,种类太稀少,因为开发商并没有将黑莓视为首选平台。

Symbian的应用产品更接近于诺基亚Ovi应用,它们并无过人之处,但人人都知道诺基亚正不遗余力地改进和优化它的应用商店,虽然可选择的产品还比较有限,而且看起来和Symbian一样落伍、上不了台面,但已经在向前看齐。问题就是,它有可能赶上苹果和Android吗?我们表示怀疑。

Windows Phone 7是刚出窝的雏鸟,所以在应用商店的比试中,我们可以酌情放它一马。这个平台刚问世时已经有一系列可观的应用支持,而且微软也砸下重金,投入大量心血,招来了不少知名应用品牌。因为设计元素是微软批准或拒绝应用产品的重要标准之一,所以WP7针对应用设置的通行标准也是居高不下。

结论:应用软件就像游乐场中的奖品

苹果应用是头奖,是一只外形巨大、让谁都想抱抱的独角兽;WP7应用是一只装在塑料袋中的金鱼,看起来很漂亮,如果放到大号的水缸还可以长得更大;Symbian应用是你弟弟赢来的一支丑陋玩具枪,他只会拿这支枪不停地射你;黑莓应用是你煞费苦心熬了两个多小时,花了20欧元才从抓娃娃机中赢来的一只普通泰迪熊。

最优者:苹果

次优者:Android(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译)

Windows Phone 7 v Apple iOS 4 v BlackBerry OS6 v Symbian^3 v Android 2.2: OS showdown!

So another mobile phone OS has hit the shelves in the shape of Windows Phone 7 – now smartphone fans are spoilt for choice so we decided that an epic five-way fight to the death was the only way to decide whether Windows’ new approach is really a contender.

So join us as we journey to the depths of each OS and examine which is the best for what to help you decide what’s right for you.

Design

Design is one of the most important elements of an OS. You’re going to be stuck looking at it for a year, if not longer, so you want something that doesn’t raise your heckles the way that Comic Sans does.

Android hands full control over to you when it comes to design, although some manufacturers like HTC have taken things into their own hands. The freedom is great, live backgrounds are a boon but it can sometimes feel a bit scrappy.

Apple was the first to go with the rows of icons and it’s a design move the company has stuck with, introducing folders to group apps together. The unassuming fonts and well-designed native app icons are familiar the world over now. We gained the ability to change the boring black background to any image we like this year too.

BlackBerry OS 6 has some rather snazzy line-drawn icons and makes good use of semi-transparent icon backgrounds giving the whole system a kind of ethereal feel.

Symbian is the definite loser when it comes to design. Those out-dated mid-’90s dawn of the internet fonts and floating black boxes on the homescreen make us want to rip our eyes out and hurl them back through time to when Symbian handsets were good.

Windows Phone 7 has definitely put the most work into its design, completely rethinking the OS layout. To be fair, Microsoft has had the benefit of hindsight, being the latest one to come out and all. Still, the big live tiles on the homescreen and panoramic layout of apps and hubs is really lovely.

Bonus breakdown: Each OS likened to furniture brands

Symbian is the cheap yet functional pine Ikea book case to Windows Phone 7′s beautiful Habitat coffee table. Android is custom-made shelving unit which you designed yourself (could be awesome, could be awful). BlackBerry is Heals – it’s good quality but the design is quite basic, while iOS is the classic antique that’ll never go out of style.

WINNER: Windows Phone 7

RUNNER UP: Apple iOS

Contacts

Ah, the humble address book. Remember the days of painstakingly replicating contacts by hand when you got a new phone? Thank god those days are over. But who can claim the contact book crown?

Android automagically populates your contact book as soon as you enter your Gmail account details anywhere on the handset – it can be a little disconcerting if you’re not expecting it but the fact that it remembers contact images and saves you having to do literally anything is superb. It’s basic but functional and not very beautiful – but favourite contacts can be saved to your homescreen for easy access.

Apple falls into the functional-not-beautiful category too. Although it’s not linked to any email accounts, if you’ve got an address book on your Mac or have had an iPhone before it’ll sync all your contacts when you first plug into iTunes. Although the address book is super easy to use, it’s very, very basic. Linking other accounts is tricky too – Facebook, for example, is done from within the app and there’s no option to get this process going from the phonebook itself.

BlackBerry makes importing Facebook contacts a simple, integrated process from within the contact book. On the 6.0 version, you can save contacts to a homescreen, just as you can with Android and Windows Phone 7; the address book itself is another boring list-based one, although smart-dial makes it easier to jump straight in and search for a number using the Qwerty keyboards that are usually part-and-parcel of the BlackBerry experience.

Symbian’s latest iteration of the phone book isn’t all that bad. It’s snazzed up a bit with the inclusion of contacts’ photos in the list, which makes it a bit more interesting. The contacts book also integrates quite handily with social networks using Ovi Social, although we’d rather not have to go through a third party for this.

Windows Phone 7 contacts, again, look beautiful. The list is populated with contact images and you can even click through to see their recent Facebook and Windows Live updates as well as write directly on their wall.

Bonus breakdown: Each OS re-imagined as a book

Android is one of those books you get printed specially for kids, where they become characters in the story, whereas iPhone is like a really boring user manual for a drill you bought in the Ukraine in 1992. BlackBerry is a Judy Blume book – familiar, sensible and occassionally brilliant. Symbian is a book with pictures in the centrefold which you just skip to instead of reading the actual story, and Windows Phone 7 is a big coffee table book you leave out to show off but never really read.

WINNER: Windows Phone 7

RUNNER UP: BlackBerry

Browsing the internet

Despite the success of apps, browsing the web is still a key element of any smartphone – so it’s a bit surprising that so many of our OSes’ proprietary browsers aren’t yet up to scratch.

Android’s native browser has vastly improved since the Froyo 2.2 update – although not all Android users are lucky enough to have this. A pretty standard browser, the upgrade has simply made things faster and thus more pleasurable to use. And, of course, you get Adobe Flash 10.1 support with the 2.2 update, so you can enjoy Flash content on your handset ’til the cows come home.

Apple offers its proprietary Safari browser, which is nothing special really. It does have to receive special kudos for being the first one to feature pinch-to-zoom and for just, well, working. Tabbed browsing is another pro but points must be lost for the absence of Adobe Flash 10.1 support.

BlackBerry’s WebKit-powered web browser on OS 6 is an incredible improvement on the previous iteration which had us all running for Opera Mini as fast as our legs could take us. The upgraded browser renders image-laden pages with ease and offers tabbed browsing. And if you’re still not impressed, you can always go back to Opera.

Symbian’s latest web browser also has Flash 10.1 support, but it’s about as elegant as a teenage clown. Navigating through options isn’t intuitive while rendering speeds are frustratingly slow. It’s not a devastatingly awful, but it certainly doesn’t meet the standards set by other smartphones.

Windows Phone 7 has an Internet Explorer for Mobile web browser – but wait! Come back! It’s not as awful as those who have been burned by IEM before may think. The rendering engine is powerful  and sites load quickly and effortlessly. Pinching to zoom reveals beautifully rendered text as well, not a stray pixel in sight. There’s no Flash support here though, and you can only have six tabs open at any time.

BONUS BREAKDOWN: Each internet browser as a form of transportation

Apple’s Safari is the Volvo of web browsers – no matter how much product placement they invest in, it’ll always be the safe, boring option. Meanwhile, Symbian is a tractor – infinitely frustrating. Android’s a kit-car – if you build it right and have 2.2 then it’s an excellent sports car; if not, it’s a waste of time and money. Windows Phone 7 is the Skoda of the internet browsers – it used to be atrocious but a revamp has left it with a better reputation. Finally, BlackBerry; it’s the sedan car of the group. Reasonably fast and reliable, we’re happy with it but we’d probably trade it in if we could afford it.

WINNER: Android

RUNNER UP: Windows Phone 7 and Apple

Music, media and photos

A phone is not a phone these days unless it can play music, videos and show you your camera photos in a well-populated image gallery. But which OS offers you the best overall media experience? Let’s find out…

Android offers tip top organisational skills, arranging images by the app you took the photo with and storing downloads in a separate folder (this makes setting wallpapers a doddle). It’s rather cheesy arrangement of oh, I just dropped this pile of photos in this scatty arrangement is kind of annoying but it’s better than a long list of thumbnails, we suppose. The music player is quite a standard affair, having taken a serious leaf out of Apple’s book.

Apple’s gallery is pretty basic – it’s the long list of thumbnails we just insulted, to be fair. Still, scrolling through them is easy and fun, and it stores all images in the same place so there’s no searching through a bunch of folders. We also like how easy it is to delete or share multiple images. The iPod feature is tip top, however; all the features we want, including shuffle and the ability to build playlists are present and correct.

BlackBerry has given its media gallery a revamp in OS 6, but it’s sill quite basic. Photos are all stuck together in one big folder which makes finding what you want a scroll-y chore. The music and video players aren’t much better, despite the Black-Eyed Peas tie-ins. Without dedicated software for syncing and purchasing music, it’s a real pain to get anything on to the handset.

Symbian has gone for an Apple-esque cover flow look for its music library, so there’s points docked for copying – but we do like the homescreen widget that shows you what is playing, complete with album art. Transfering music and video from a computer is a breeze, as is creating playlists. The photo gallery is acceptable but there’s no quick shortcut to reach your photo store, so it’s not ideal.

Windows Phone 7 – and forgive us for the repetition – has created something rather lovely in the media hub. The panoramic backgrounds are populated with photos of the artists you store in your music collection and the album art is displayed nicely too. The downsides are the lack of features; you can’t create a playlist on the handset, nor can you import playlists from anywhere other than the Zune PC software. The photo gallery is equally lovely to look at, even pulling in your Facebook galleries.

BONUS BREAKDOWN: Media capabilities on each OS as pieces of music

BlackBerry is a plodding hymn while Windows Phone 7 is a soaringly triumphant Beethoven masterpiece – except it’s one of the ones that ended up unfinished. The iPhone is whatever Apple has recently decided is cool enough for their iPod adverts while the Symbian media section is one of those songs that sounds a lot like the one that Apple used in its latest iPod advert but isn’t quite as good. Android is an X-Factor winners’ first single.

WINNER: iPhone

RUNNER UP: Windows Phone 7

Customisation

Android will be hard to beat when it comes to customisation. From OEM-created skins like the much-loved HTC Sense to simple user customisation of the multiple home screens using widgets, animated backgrounds, favourite contacts, apps and more, no two Android phones can possibly be alike.

Apple’s iOS is less flexible when it comes to customisation; although arranging your apps is a doddle, you’re stuck with those rows and rows of app icons and folders. You can now change the background of your home screen, however this isn’t scrollable and has to be a fixed image.

BlackBerry is a funny one. On the surface, the best you can do is re-arrange your apps. But you can go further by going all out and investing in a whole new theme for your handset. This can be fun or it can also be disastrous if you have the design equivalent of two left feet. You can get ready-made themes, but the good ones will cost you a bit of cash. Still, it’s a surefire way to ensure you’ve got a slightly snazzier handset than your other BlackBerry wielding pals.

Symbian, like Android, allows you to place widgets on your homescreens so you can choose what apps and information are most important to you. Aside from this, you can adjust the background but sadly you can’t ditch that awful ‘90s font.

Windows Phone 7 is a little disappointing in the customisation arena. Microsoft bleated and bleated about how each handset can become ‘wonderfully mine’ and yet we can’t actually do anything with anything. All the information is automatically pulled in – so your upcoming calendar appointments, what images show from your picture gallery on the start screen and what artists appear in the media backgrounds are all decided on by the handset. So although you do get your own information and images popping up all over the place, you don’t get to do anything yourself, other than change the colour of the start screen tiles and the lock screen background.

BONUS BREAKDOWN: Customisation as tetris blocks

Observe the image above. The green block on its way down the screen is Windows Phone 7 – these annoying little shapes are sometimes really handy but they’re not very flexible.

The long red block is Android – always brilliant whether you’ve got a space waiting for it or not. BlackBerry is the pink L shaped block – often very useful for slotting in and dashing off several lines at once, but it takes a bit of effort to set that scenario up.

The big fat blue cube is Symbian in tribute to its blocky homescreen widgets, while the orange T shaped cube is Apple: it’s not very exciting but it fits anywhere.

WINNER: Android

RUNNER UP: BlackBerry

Email and keyboards

If you’re going to be tapping out heart-felt messages and serious business emails on your smartphone, you’ll be after one that can handle all your misspellings and your forty-three email accounts.

Android’s onscreen keyboard divides the masses. I, personally, hate it. Landscape, portrait – either way I think it’s awful. Full time Nexus One user and Recombu-ite, Tom Newton, harbours irrational hatred for the Smiley key. Luckily for us and our blood pressure, you can use other text input methods, like Swiftkey and Swype. But that doesn’t change the fact that Google needs to do something about its default text input before we chuck all our Androids out the window and opt for something better. Email, on the other hand, is dreamy. Multiple accounts, incredible Gmail integration, push email… you name it, we love it.

Apple takes the crown when it comes to autocorrect – it’s so good that it’s kind of creepy. Has Steve Jobs implanted special mind-reading chips in all iOS devices? We wouldn’t put it past him. Anyway, that keyboard is good – unless you’re a hardcore potty mouth, in which case you’ll most likely hate it. Email is done pretty well too – again, multiple accounts are a boon and the easy set-up makes us cry tears of joy.

BlackBerrys tend to come with physical Qwerty keyboards, which is brilliant as RIM does rule the roost in that particular hen house. BlackBerry is also known for it’s fabulous email facilities and, although there’s not much between BlackBerry and other OSes any more, you’ll hear no complaints from us – email is fast, reliable and easy to set up, while viewing and sending attachments are easy as pie.

Symbian’s latest iteration on the N8 offers a landscape Qwerty keyboard which is responsive enough, but it’s annoying that you’re stuck with T9 when in portrait mode because of the width of the screen. Email set-up is straightforward for webmail and Exchange accounts, but although you can have multiple email accounts, you can’t amalgamate them all into a single inbox.

Windows Phone 7 gives you quite a nice touch-screen keyboard with a full Qwerty layout even in landscape mode. Instead of just auto-correcting your mistakes, it offers you a lengthy list of options, which is generous of it. Setting up email is super easy, but there’s no option to receive emails from all accounts in a single inbox, or even a single app. Instead you end up with multiple email tiles on your start screen, one for each email account.

BONUS BREAKDOWN: Text input as musical instruments

With its physical Qwerty keyboards, BlackBerry is the piano of the text input world. It’s flexible and satisfying to play, but can sometimes cause dischords with its less-than-brilliant autocorrection software. The muted trumpet is how we see the terrible Android keyboard, while the generally-annoying but sometimes quite beautiful piccolo steps up in place of Symbian. The iPhone is a beautiful harp, seemingly effortlessly correcting our mistakes, while the Windows Phone 7 keyboard is an over-complicated church organ.

WINNER: BlackBerry

RUNNER-UP: Apple

Apps

The big daddy. The smartphone make-it-or-break-it. If an OS can’t offer you a plethora of brilliant apps, is it even worth having?

Android apps are great and getting better all the time. We’ve got a lot of time for the Android app market although finding what you want can be a bit of a chore, and top ten lists don’t change much from week to week. Design can also be awfully hit and miss, particularly with such a lot of free apps. The paid apps are generally quite expensive but you’ve got 24-hours to claim a refund if you don’t like the app.

Apple has led the way when it comes to apps, and it’s almost impossible to imagine any other OS actually surpassing it. The App Store is well stocked, but militant approval criteria from Apple means that you won’t see many risqué apps and the more juvenile ones are coming under the banning stick too. But, you can get a lot of brilliant functionality without spending much money – and as the app ecosystem with the greatest number of users, all the biggest apps end up on the iOS store so you won’t miss out on anything.

BlackBerry doesn’t exactly have a glowing reputation when it comes to apps, but it’s certainly improving. Many of the apps will set you back a lot more money but they do tend to be very good quality. The major downside is that the range of apps is quite narrow because many developers don’t see BlackBerry as a priority.

Symbian apps tend to be Nokia Ovi Apps. They aren’t brilliant, but it’s clear that Nokia is putting a lot into getting the app store up to scratch; choice is a little limited and there’s usually quite a ‘Symbian’ aesthetic (i.e. they look a bit rubbish) but it’s definitely on the up. The problem is, will it ever catch up to the likes of Apple and Android? We doubt it.

Windows Phone 7 is a fledgling OS so we’ll cut it a bit of slack when it comes to the app store. There’s already a good range in there even on the day after launch and Microsoft has put a lot of time and money into ensuring that a range of big brands are represented. Because design is one of the elements that Microsoft uses to approve or reject apps, the standard is quite high.

BONUS BREAKDOWN: Apps as funfair prizes

Apple’s apps are the jackpot – the enormous cuddly unicorn or the roll of twenties you managed to get your hoop over against all the odds. Windows Phone 7 is a goldfish in a plastic bag – it looks cool and it’s going to grow as soon as it gets a bigger tank. Symbian’s apps are like the ugly nerf gun your brother wins and won’t stop shooting you with, while BlackBerry is like the painfully average teddy bear it took you two hours and £20 to win in the claw machines.

WINNER: Apple

RUNNER UP: Android(source:recombu)


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