Best of iOS, Android and Windows 10

When you are looking to buy a tablet, there are so many choices available.  I personally own an iPad 4 (iOS), an Asus Memo 10 (Android) and recently the RCA Cambio (Win10).

I can safely assume that I have enough user experience with all three major operating systems on mobile devices.  With iOS, I've been a user starting with the iPhone 3GS and I do appreciate the Apple ecosystem.  I also got my hands on on several Android devices mainly tablets.  Windows 10 is a bit new to me as I always used Ubuntu on my computer.

My main factor when choosing a mobile device is the experience.  I do not care about the CPU speed or device weight.  All that matters is the user experience with the device and how well it will integrate into my daily tasks.

Let's compare the three of them from my point of view...

Apps

The diversity of available apps is amazing on all of them.  iOS and Android do have a few featured apps that is not available on Windows 10 but on the other hand, Windows 10 being a full operating system, you do have access to more apps and software.

I would consider the three operating system on par, with a slight advantage to iOS for providing great apps like GarageBand or iMovie out-of-the-box.

Store

The Apple AppStore, Google Play and Microsoft Store are great.  They do provide a way to search easily for an app, a movie or anything else.  I would consider that Google Play and Microsoft have a slight advantage over Apple and they to provide more suggestions and searching for something is easier...

Online accounts

Interacting with your online accounts is a must these days.  iOS and Android are clear winners on that level but I can also say that Windows 10 is not far behind.  The notifications are well implemented on all three OSes, but there are a few missing players on Windows 10 (Side note: Instagram finally made it on Win10 last week...)

Online files, movies, music

Accessing data, movies and music on a remote storage is something that Windows 10 can handle without any issues.  In second, Android does have a few apps that do the job and in the last place, iOS where you need a specific app to reach those file.

Fluidity

One of the worst thing for me is when the device is lagging.  You start an app and then you have to wait for it to be ready...  only to find out that it does lag and you have to wait...

iOS is almost flawless on that level.  Even my old iPad 4 is still fluid after many upgrades and whatever app I may used.  In second, I would choose Windows 10 over Android.  Surprisingly, on my cheap RCA Cambio tablet, Windows 10 is fluid and smooth.  The only lagging experienced was with some heaving 3D games pushing the limits of the hardware.  With Android, I've always been disappointed had all devices I've had or tried, the apps are slow to open, the keyboard is often unresponsive as I type.

Maybe it's just me, but Android is far behind in terms of fluidity, even with a 300$ tablet...

Updates

Not much to say here: iOS and Windows 10 are clear winners with frequent updates.  As for Android, it all depends on the brand you got and it's has safe as the weather forecast.  I think that an old Nexus 7 is still being updated by Google but it was so slow that I gave it to one of my kids...

Integration

When speaking about integration, I mean interacting with your life.  iOS is amazing on that level has you can even copy and paste from your iPhone to your MacBook (if you have the latest...).  Start browsing on your iPad and continue on your iPhone later one.  Apple has made an amazing job at making it work, easily.

Android does offer a great alternative with Chrome and ChromeCast.  There is no true ecosystem as on a computer, you have Google Chrome mainly.  So it's a matter of integrating your Google account more than having dedicated devices.

Windows 10 does fall behind as there is no serious integration between devices and computers.  Of course, since it's Windows, you can actually installed whatever you need to make things work.

In the end...

Overall, they are all great, depending on what you want to do.

• iOS: Amazing apps for media creation, best ecosystem, long term updates
• Windows 10:  Smooth and fun.  On a tablet, it's the best of both world.
• Android:  It's Google!  If you live by Google, this is the way to go.

Personally, I would recommend iOS for casual stuff and when it should just work.  For more serious stuff like working on douments or creating softwares, Windows 10 is the way to go.

I do like Android, but it has often disappointed me to a point where I won't consider buying another Android device again.  iOS and Windows 10 are sure bets in my mind as opposed to Android.

Google Pixel against the exploding Galaxy Note 7: Best timing ever!

For the last few weeks, we heard about the exploding Samsung's phone, the Note 7.  It's one of the worst case scenario a company can face.  It's bad for Samsung, it's bad for the industry and it's bad for the consumer.

Currently, Samsung is the best alternative to Apple.  Google has it's Nexus/Pixel line but consumers are always comparing the Galaxy's with the iPhone.  There is a good chance, in the next few months, that consumers will shift to another brand for their mobile device simply because of this bad event.

Some will consider Apple's product, some will consider the next best in line.  Since last week, all we hear, all we see is the new Google's Pixel phone.  For Google, the timing could not have been better.  The Android fans won't hesitate to move to the Pixel for this  reason:  The affordable devices may explode, so a pricier device should be safe.

We all know that this reasoning is total BS, but deep in the subconscious mind, that how it will sound.  This false impression of security toward a pricier device will help Google's share on the market.

There is still something strange about this case:  How come Samsung never saw this coming?  I mean, they have qualified engineers, they have the knowledge and the experience with mobile devices and batteries...  It is a bit awkward that such a knowledgeable company cannot figure out what is happening.

Some may even see a conspiracy as I said earlier, the timing could not have been better for Google and the Pixel.  I won't go in that direction as it is pure speculation, but I still wonder.

Read your news feed and all you see is about the new iPhone 7, the exploding Samsung's Note 7 and the amazing new Google's Pixel...

Windows 10 is much better than Android

I've had a few Android devices in the last few years even if I do prefer Apple products for their build qualities and their great interactions.

As a software developer, I am curious about what's new and I do enjoy investigating the new stuff that is available on the market. So curious that I even got my hands on a Playbook from Blackberry when the device was on sale a few years ago.

Remember that I have the point of view of a regular iOS user as I do own an iPhone 7, an iPad 4 and an old Macbook 2009.  My main OS on my main computer laptop is Ubuntu 16.04 and it's been like that for many years.

So why am I claiming that Windows 10 is better than Android?  User experience...

Last week, I bought a cheap  Windows 10 tablet to have a device to explore as I never used Windows 10 before.  It's the RCA Cambio tablet, with 32 Gigs of space and a detachable keyboard.  The price tag is around 200$ CAD as I am writing this post,  The hardware is far from premium, but not that bad.  The battery lifetime is around 6 hours, not quite on par with my iPad and the physical keyboard is a bit klunky but usable.

For Android, I had the Asus Memo 10 FHD, the Galaxy Tab Lite 1 and the first Nexus 7 generation.  A few others came along also from friends.  Nevertheless, I tried many brands and flavors of Android and found out that they are nice, but not perfect.  Aside the physical built quality, the experience was OK at best.  There is always a missing app or features and the major annoyance of them all, they lag...  From the cheapest one to the priciest I've bought, they all lag at some point.

Android friends told me that I had to buy a premium Android device tablet for a premium experience which will cost almost as much as a brand new iPad...

I've been longing for a Windows device since the launch of  Windows 10.  There is no need for Windows as I am a Ubuntu user on a computer.  But the attraction of the novelty was there.  After many months of torturing my self not to buy another device, I gave up last week and bought the RCA Cambio.  It's cheap, it's Windows 10, it's good enough to explore and maybe build some software on it,

After playing with it for a few days, even with few hiccups I got with the hardware, I find it far superior to any Android device that I tried.

The RCA Cambio hardware is almost decent.  You get what you pay for,  Windows 10, on the other end, is really great.  You have access to tons of apps from the store, and you can even install your favorite Windows software as you would do on any computer.

The Windows 10 features are still missing a few things compared to iOS.  Cortana is hard to setup, at least on this device.  I could not find the Instagram, Snapchat or Periscope app or equivalent as I do have access on my iPad.  But I was able to install Netbeans for developing ScreenStudio (on Windows...), iTunes to access my music and a few games to experiment.

I can say that Windows 10 is the best of both worlds.  It can behave as a mobile device and also as a regular computer.

There is no hesitation that I would recommand a cheap Windows 10 device over any Android device.  Of course, not too cheap as Windows 10 do need some basic requirements.

What about the iPad?  There may be not a next iPad.  I already have all the same features on my iPhone and I need a computer more than a tablet.  The next premium tablet device may be the Surface Pro instead of the next iPad.

Let's wait and see if I will grow tired of this new device and go back to iOS...

 Note:  Yes, I did try to boot-up Ubuntu on the RCA Cambio without success...