I really love some of the WP features, especially being able to send out an update to all my social network services at once, definitely loving my Focus S. I keep the iPhone 4 around for the app support(can't survive without my games) and the music/video player.

Hahaha, that's a great way to put it!

I just got a Galaxy Nexus over the holidays (upgrading from an OG droid) and it is literally the best piece of tech i have ever owned. My droid was painfully slow at the end of its 2 year cycle, but i decided to stick with android because i love the customization and tweaking options it offers over iOS and WP7. Couldn't be happier with my decision. In my experience, ICS is just as smooth and nearly as intuitive as iOS, but much more powerful in terms of what your allowed to do with it. For my money, android is the only way to go

It's not just as smooth, not at all. I work at Bell, I was playing with the Galaxy Nexus on the first of December which is likely before you ever touched one, and it's not as smooth as my Focus S or my iPhone 4. It has so many things that just scream incompetence at Google. I mentioned it before, the app drawer will stutter at times because the icons for apps and widgets aren't cached and they need to reload. So the OS tries to render the icons and perform the transition at the same time rather than letting the transition finish and then loading the icons. That's a rookie mistake and Google's software engineers should feel horrible about themselves for ever making it. Even without that, scrolling through lists is still not as smooth as it could be, and the browser is certainly not as smooth as iOS on WP7, although it may be "faster" in terms of loading if the benchmarks are true.

Hmm well maybe i got lucky or Google released an update or something because i haven't noticed any issues with choppiness or UI rendering. The only thing that does bug me sometimes is the webpage rendering, which can be a bit glitchy at times. Regardless i wouldn't want to deal with the loss of functionality if i switched to iOS or WP7.

You not noticing=/=it not being there. Trying to argue it isn't there is pointless, because it's there. You never got lucky, you're just choosing to ignore it or you just don't have the eyesight to notice the issues in the animation framerates. I will go to work tommorow, I will scroll to the widgets page or perhaps I will navigate in the browser on the store model of the Gnex after I factory reset it to remove any installed apps that could possibly slow it down, and I will watch in horror as I see an OS that requires non-existent hardware or an entire rewrite to become smooth.

Also the loss of functionality argument only goes so far, you completely ditch having a smooth interface with Android. You also lose stability and compatibility compared to iOS and WP7. If you don't go with a Nexus device or you buy a tablet you're at the mercy of the OEM and possibly the carrier to get you updates. You're also stuck with the OEM bloatware and UI, unless you want to flash a custom ROM.

It honestly seems that it's the only argument Android fans have to defend their choice, that they get extra functionality. Is that all you guys have got? The only other argument I see is that Android phones have the best hardware, but that doesn't mean anything when the weaker devices on other platforms are still faster.

@princeton
You summed up my feelings just about perfectly, I always thought that droids has usually the best hardware, but the one of the weakest OS's. Simple fact is, android took off because it was/is given away freely to the manufacturers, which meant that they had/have greater profit margin on the finished goods they sell, hence, it is where it is now.

I'm just gonna pop in here, and say that iOS isn't anywhere close to 100% smooth either. iPhone 4S and iPad 2 both lag when flicking left to the spotlight search (just one example). Friends iPhone 4 also has lock-up issues sometimes.

But I do agree, that overall android is noticeably laggier more often than iOS.

quad core (and the part number really) is a bad sign for the ipad.

either they have to significantly increase the die size, or shrink the gpu. neither are good options.

even the part number evokes the image of it being only a half-step up from the previous processor.

@ everyone

You guys need to realize that it is futile to argue with Princeton. He will own you on this subject as he has evidently spent more time and effort doing extensive research on this matter. Everybody knows that the iOS platform is the smoother than frogs hair. /end of thread

I really want a new iPhone.. I am currently placing my car in the for sale section on craigslist in hopes to get enough monies to buy one. :-D

seriously though, droid phones than run OEM roms and are cluttered with bloatware are laggy and not as smooth as any of the i(insert apple product)s. However, I run a custom ROM on my old samsung EPIC 4G and it will out preform most of the droid cell phones I see being used today. No the UI is still not as smooth as the new iPhone, but it still works well enough for me.

I do agree, the spotlight search thing drives me nuts. I think Apple could fix it by having it so the keyboard renders after the movement to the screen is completed, but I would assume if it were that easy they would have done it already. As well as the settings menu sometimes having an issue when you first load it. But it's not near as bad as Android which can't do anything smoothly. Also I have no lock up issues so I think that's probably an isolated incident.

As for WP7, I very rarely notice any stutter. Usually when I restart the phone and immediately scroll in the app list it will take a second to become smooth, but after that it's pretty much smooth sailing 24/7.

Not just OEM roms, as I've said, even their Galaxy Nexus can't keep up. Might I ask which rom you run on your epic 4G? Has Teamhacksung released an ICS port for you guys yet? I've been planning to try out their i9000 version when I get a chance.

Custom ROMS do make a huge difference. The amount of tweaking done adds to both synthetic and real-life performance.

Also, one thing I forgot to mention.. I am of the belief that the stock CPU governor on Android is lower-performing than on iPhones. Just my opinion, no proof. But the battery life is definitely worse on iPhones, and pumping up android governor to the most performance-based one makes a HUGE difference.

Interesting stuff.

@Princeton

On my Epic 4G, I am running ERA's "Legendary" Rom from XDA devlopers. Upgraded from EI22 to the EL30 kernel. There isn't any bloatware or any sprint apps installed. I have a few apps that I chose personally and installed. The phone is very fast and not laggy at all. *My battery lasts all day long with casual use. You may dig up a video on youtube of this rom by qbking77 if you want to see how it runs straight out of the box.* Anyone who flashes a custom rom should always re-calibrate their battery.

-systym