Gadget Show iPhone 4s vs Convergance Tech Special

The experiment is simple and was really hyped by the Gadget show broadcast here in the UK on a monday night 8pm GMT. Is the iPhone 4s really better than the gadget it seeks to replace? and equalling the price of the 16gb 4s

The 4s goes head to head vs a collosal bag of standalone gadgets carried around in a rucksack all day. The total cost of the gadgets equal that of the 16gb iPhone 4s as bought from Apple. There was some interesting points in the segment but what really prompted us to write this article were the amount of glaring gloss over moments. More about that after the jump.

Note we’ve included the best pictures of the lovely Suzy Perry because….well.. she’s bang tidy (free prize for the person to yell Us! with the name of the show that comes from)

Before we go any further here it’s not that we honestly don’t mind these sort of tests. In fact we are doing the same right now, always testing things to see what is the best, trying out different products to maintain some objectivity. Getting our hands on Windows phones alongside android handset’s to play and tinker is very much part of the office culture. We like to think this helps with reviewing and steers our site away from a “fanboi” site. With that being said it does irk all of us here when tests are done in a somewhat blazé manner and a fair crack of the whip is sacrificed for time or a sound bite.

In this article it;s not like we are setting out to disprove the end result but instead question some of the decision and choices made in a relatively short segment. Yes, this does happen all the time it;s just that the preceding weeks episode had built up to this so a lot of gadget fans would have tuned in for such a segment. With that explanation out of the way, let’s crack on.

Test 1 – Standby Times

iPhone 4s vs Samsung E1080

iPhone 4 features up to 300 hours (source. Apple) standby time and the Samsung E1080 has 560 hours of standby time. At the start of the segment we get told the 4s had 200 hours of standby and didn’t even bother telling us how long the 4s can last in airplane mode. Also ignored was that did the iPhone have wifi turned off, 3g tuned off, screen dimmed etc etc. I don’t mind that the 4s got soundly beat on that 1 statistic but it still irks me when the first line of a segment like this is false. It’s a bit harsh to compare a smart phone with a dumb phone but none the less the Samsung does last longer

There is a hell of a lot of Apple supplied information here with regards to battery life times and how to get the most from your phone along with a plethora of tech sites with guides on saving your battery life battery time. Ok so in airplane mode you can’t do anything bar play music but still, this seems to have been glossed over.

This part of the tested lasted less than 1 minute. Including why the Samsung was better.

Gadget Show Winner. Samsung E1080
Essentialmac Winner. Samsung E1080 or Any dumb Phone

Test 2. Internet and Email Capabilities.

iPhone 4s v Acer eMachine E350

[pullquote_left]”How smart is a smartphone when it comes to internet browsing and email capabilties?”[/pullquote_left]After purchasing a refurbished Acer eMachine E350 (spec not disclosed) and decided to compare this to the iPhone for loading up a video from youtube with the internal app. The overall difference here was marginal and agreed to be a draw. Both used the same wifi connection and it’s nice to see that they didn’t just head down the route of “it doesn’t support flash” argument and did a fair test.

How the iPhone didn’t win here on sheer usability I will never know. You get a pc, install flash, wait for an update, the downloader downloads it, another dialogue then asks you to install it etc etc. Surely for ease of use out of the box the iPhone should win hands down? There is a leap of faith here to assume that the machine came with windows and then flash pre installed before using. Perhaps I digress here.

Couple of boot notes. ANYTHING to do with email was passed over here so the iPhone got a draw and the 4s monkier was dropped and now purely referred to as a smart phone. See my follow up article here on why this annoys me.

Gadget Show Winner. Draw
Essentialmac Winner. iPhone 4s

Test 3 Photographic Quality When Printed.

iPhone 4s vs Nikon Coolpix L23 £39.00

10mp sensor with a digital zoom. The detail is much stronger in the iPhone picture. Again another surpise, who would of thought that a point and click camera for that price really wouldn’t stand up that well. Here I start to wonder who is this segment aimed at. Gadget freaks would watch a gadget show surely so dumbing down a test like this makes no sense.

“What I think this clearly when it comes to digital photography youre not comprising your technology at all with the iPhone 4s. In fact it’s better”

Perhaps a somewhat unfair test as the iPhone 4s has been panned when up against proper contenders.

Gadget Show Winner. iPhone 4s
Essentialmac Winner. iPhone 4s

Test 4 HD video

iPhone 4s vs Toshiba Cmileo B10 (57.90)

1080p and full hd on both devices with the same capabilities on each. The 4s wins here because of the bigger screen. No mention here about the controls, how easy it is to transfer and use video etc. A big winning point is the back facing camera but another review that misses out the whole experience of using that device along with the convergence factor.

Gadget Show Winner. iPhone 4s
Essentialmac Winner. iPhone 4s

Test 5 Reading (the biggest gripe on this article)

iPhone 4s vs Amazon Kindle

The test is simple, What reads better? No connectivity, how easy it is to upload, update or install media, all that’s forgotten in the interest of what’s the best screen to read with.

[pullquote_right]”this standalone technology wins hands down” [/pullquote_right] That’s interesting after all the blurb about e-ink and how clear things are not one mention is made of the industry leading retina display. iBooks is missed out completely letting you mimic that of a kindle. Yes the kindle is bigger but there and the argument is valid about less screen reflection but there is so much more to reading a book than just it being on there. The whole experience really needed to be taken into account and glossing over the iPhone seemed a little mercenary.

It doesn’t reflect the light but to say this technology wins hands down with such glaring omissions completely ignores the screen technology in the iPhone.

For out and out reading yes, I would agree the kindle wins. Take into account what need’s to go into this and the lack of other features then its a different story. A fair shout out would of been nice.

Gadget Show Winner. Amazon Kindle
Essentialmac Winner. Amazon Kindle

Test 6 Sat Nav

iPhone 4s vs TomTom Start 20 79.99 refurbished.

Getting a local taxi drive to compare the iPhones built BASIC google based navigation system the TomTom won hands down. Things here are a little fairer with the TomTom having the larger screen bigger buttons and being custom made for the job but then the baked in sat nav is from Google so this could apply to any phone.

Gadget Show Winner. TomTom Start 20
Essentialmac Winner. TomTom Start 20

Test 7 Music

iPhone 4s vs SanDisk Sansa Clip+ god awful mp3 player.

An outright winner here despite the SanDisk having an FM radio. Again no mention with regards to ease of use to get to a point of listening to music.

Gadget Show Winner. iPhone 4s
Essentialmac Winner. iPhone 4s

Test 8 Portable Gaming

iPhone 4s vs Blaze Gear Master System

Think megadrive or sega genesis and this is what they pitch HD resolution gaming up against. Ok so games like Batman Arkham City may not set the world alight with game play but surely there was a better fight on offer?

Gadget Show Winner. iPhone 4s
Essentialmac Winner. iPhone 4s