GPS and Smartphone Reviews

Droid X vs iPhone 4

When the original Motorola Droid was launched in 2009, it was really the only worthy competitor the iPhone had.  These days there are plenty of smartphones on the market many of them quite good but the title of best smartphone really comes down to three phones – the Droid X, iPhone 4, and EVO 4G.

I’ve already done an iPhone 4 vs HTC EVO 4G post so I won’t rehash that here, instead we’ll do a rundown of how the Droid X and iPhone 4 stack up against each other.

iPhone 4 vs Droid X

Processor

Both phones are fast… really fast!  The Droid X features a Texas Instruments OMAP 1GHZ processor while the iPhone 4 features an Apple A4 1GHZ chip.

Display

One of the most obvious differences in the two phones is right here.  Apple’s iPhone 4 has a 3.5” screen (small by current smartphone standards) but it uses their new “retina display” technology at 960×640 resolution which results in a gorgeous display.  The Droid X, on the other hand, with its 4.3” screen makes the iPhone 4 look puny and while the display is good looking and sharp, it does run at a mere 854×480 resolution.

Memory

The iPhone 4 comes with either 16GB of memory ($199 with 2/yr contract) or 32GB of memory ($299 with 2/yr contract).  The Droid X comes with 24GB of memory, but it can be upgraded by the user to 40GB of memory.

RAM

Both the iPhone 4 and Droid X have 512 MB of RAM.

Camera

I’ll say this now before we compare specs – in real world testing, pictures look to be of nearly equal quality.  That being said, the Droid X has an 8MP camera with a dual LED flash while the iPhone 4 has a 5MP camera with single LED flash.

OS / Apps

The iPhone 4 runs IOS 4 while the Droid X will initially ship with Android 2.1 (will be updated to 2.2 shortly thereafter).

Which OS you choose is really up to you.  You are granted a lot more freedom to do what you want with Android while the user experience is better with IOS 4.

As far as apps go, the Apple App store has over 225,000 apps while the Android Market has about 75,000 apps.  For all intents and purposes, even though there is a large app discrepancy, at this point it’s a wash as to which is better – both have a ton of apps and if you want to do something with your phone, you probably can find an app for that on either marketplace.

One thing which isn’t in question here is gaming – gaming is vastly superior on the iPhone – there are more and better games available for the iPhone.

Carrier

For many, this will be the deciding factor. One is exclusive to the carrier many consider to be the best in America (Droid X – Verizon Wireless) and the other is on the carrier many consider to be the worst (iPhone 4 – AT&T).   This is really up to you – some people don’t have problems with AT&T, some do.  Where I currently live AT&T was hopelessly bad – Verizon has awesome coverage – in my hometown, neither is very good.  Both companies have an evil streak, but Verizon does consistently score better than AT&T in just about every category.

One thing to keep in mind, both networks will let you test their network for 30 days before you are locked into two years with them.  You can return your phone if you’re unhappy within 30 days with no penalty.  My recommendation is to test it out and make sure it works to your liking before you’re stuck for 2 years.

Other

Each has a bunch of features you won’t find on the other.

The iPhone 4 has Facetime and a front facing camera for video chat.  The Droid X has no such application and no front facing camera.  It also has a gyroscope, which as best I can tell has no practical purpose other than to make playing games even more awesome on the iPhone.

The Droid X has true multi-tasking (the iPhone has quasi-multi-tasking), HDMI outputs, wi-fi tethering and soon will be able to display Adobe Flash.

Conclusion

Declaring a winner is really not easy here and really it comes down to preference.  Plus I don’t feel like starting a flame war here on this blog.  Anything involving Apple products seems to bring out people who feel like any slight on Apple is akin to saying Hitler tried to do us all a favor or that Jesus had it coming.  Yeah, it’s that bad and I’m not falling into that trip.

Here’s the bottom line – they’re both spectacular phones.  Get the one you like better – go play with each of them at the store before you buy.

Motorola Droid X Vs Apple iPhone 4