Android Cupcake Hardware Review
This is a review of all the mobile phones currently being sold (outside of China) that run Android Cupcake. I am an Android Third party Application developer (i.e. not a Google employee or handset manufacturer) and will be reviewing various technical differences that affect developers like myself.
With the late arrival of the Samsung Galaxy, I now finally have the full set to play with.
The Samsung Galaxy comes in a bigger box because it comes with a “PC Studio” and drivers CD. You shouldn’t need a CD to develop on an Android device, because the ADB and USB drivers are included with the Android SDK (more on this in the Galaxy review).
Comparison table:
|
HTC Dream (i.e. G1) |
HTC Magic |
HTC Hero (+Sense UI) |
Samsung Galaxy |
| Internal storage |
71MB |
291MB |
155MB |
912MB |
| Camera |
3.2MP |
3.2MP |
5MP |
5MP + LED Flash |
| Battery |
1150mAh |
1340mAh |
1350mAh |
1500mAh |
| Connector |
ExtUSB |
ExtUSB |
3.5 Audio + ExtUSB |
3.5 Audio + MicroUSB |
| Keyboard |
Flip out |
None |
None |
None |
| Controller |
Trackball |
Trackball |
Trackball |
D-Pad |
| OpenGL |
Hardware |
Hardware |
Hardware |
Software |
| SD Card |
2GB |
8GB |
2GB |
Not included |
| Upgrade |
OTA |
OTA |
Via PC |
Via PC |
| Screen |
30.0cm2 |
30.0cm2 |
30.6cm2 |
30.7cm2 AMOLED |
| Edit |
254px |
254px |
229px |
212px |
Additional information, including unrelased devices is avalaible
here (documented by Eric Wong).
Comparison notes:
All devices have roughly a 3.2” HVGA (480x320 pixcel) capacitance touch display, support 3G, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, accelerometer, digital compass and Micro-SD memory cards. Only the HTC Dream and HTC Magic are Google experience phones which support automatic updates, the others instead come bundled with software customisations (both good and bad) developed independently by their respective manufactures.
Internal storage
Currently applications cannot be run off the SD Card (unless you have root access), and I don’t expect this situation to change any time soon. That means the internal phone storage represents the upper limit on how many applications (including contacts/mail/calendar storage & Web Browser cache) that you can install on your phone.
The Samsung Galaxy’s ~6.7GB internal SD card isn’t included here, because you can’t install Applications onto it.
If you have less than 10MB of space remaining, you will get a low space notification and all synchronisation tasks will stop. To find out this value for your device, look in the device settings:
Menu > Settings > SD Card & phone storage
Look for “Available space” under the “Internal phone storage” header.
All these values are for a fresh device (i.e. reset to the factory settings) and are running a similar retail Cupcake build. Your results may vary.
Camera
More Mega-pixels usually denotes a better result, but having a flash is important when taking pictures indoors.
Battery
Bigger the better really. Android background processes can eat up a lot of juice, but us software developers are working on improving this situation. Actual battery life was not tested.
Connector
MicroUSB is the new standard (according to the EU), so get ready to replace all your chargers and connection cables once again. All the HTC devices use the ExtUSB which
is a proprietary connector is
apparently under some debate. Also, don’t confuse this with the older Mini USB which you probably already have chargers for, as these will also have to go into the bin.
Keyboard
Cupcake comes with a usable on screen software keyboard, which makes it possible to type one handed with your thumb. This works quite well as long as you remember that you only type a character when you *remove* your finger from the screen. This makes accurate typing a click, and then drag affair.
The HTC Dream comes with a flip out keyboard (for use in landscape mode), with a good key layout design but effectively requires two hands to use (i.e. typing with your thumbs). This is much better for data entry, as you get some good tactile feedback from the keys, and the lack of soft keyboard leaves you with more screen real estate for your application.
Controller
For all practical usages, the click ball and the D-pad are identical. I am yet to test if this makes any difference to Android game play.
OpenGL
All the HTC devices come with OpenGL hardware “acceleration”, i.e. calculations are performed on a separate GPU chip. The same code is implemented in software on the Galaxy, meaning that animations run proportionally slower (compared to processor speed) on this device than you would expect, and there is more animation judder when the processor is asked to perform other tasks.
While this isn’t a big issue today, I expect to see greater use if OpenGL in Games and user interfaces in the coming year. A good example of what to expect would be the
Rachael UI prototype from Sony Ericsson.
SD Card
Its nice when the device comes with a decent SD card, although only some applications will make use of this space.
Upgrade
Android is quite new, so new revisions and security fixes are coming out all the time and you want to make sure you are using the latest build. Google experience devices will upgrade themselves, but it’s a bit unclear at this point how (and how often) non-Google experience devices will be upgraded.
The HTC Hero and Samsung Galaxy currently require PC software to download and install their latest updates. I expect that most users wont bother (or know how) to upgrade, so Application developers should expect to support Cupcake devices for many years to come. I will call these devices “Dead Ducks” until someone comes up with a seamless way of bringing everybody over to Donut, then Éclair, etc.
This is one area where owning a Google experience “in the cloud” Android device is advantageous, and I wouldn’t recommend any of the other devices until this issue has been resolved.
Screen
Physical screen display area of the device, measured with a ruler.
Edit
The virtual keyboard is essential, but uses up a lot of on screen real estate that your application must take into consideration. Surprisingly this size varies considerably between firmware customisations, with the Samsung Galaxy using the greatest space with its oversized keyboard. HTC Dream users have the option of flipping out their physical keyboards, nullifying this limitation.
I have measured the amount of usable on screen pixels available when the virtual keyboard is shown in portrait mode. This is the distance between the top of the virtual keyboard and the bottom of the on screen notification bar. Fewer pixels means there is a larger virtual keyboard, but conversely, there is less area for your application to display data in.
Individual device reviews to come…
