Settling this iPhone vs. LG Prada Nonsense
Get ready for an onslaught of LG Prada vs iPhone comparisons. They're both touch screens, but the only way an LG Prada phone can beat an iPhone is if the iPhone is a papercraft model. I'm not going to honor it by doing a side by side. My comparison last month, based off of previous iPhone use, still stands.
We're a month or so from
iPhone, and phone nuts talk about the
LG Prada as being one of its main competitors. Another one of those "iPhone-Killers" every phone company is pushing. But I just got an
LG Prada, and based on my hands on time with that and my
session with the iPhone back at Macworld (not the
papercraft in the photo), I can say it's a great phone, but it's also no contest.
galleryPost('lgpradascreens',8, 'LG Prada Gallery);
iPhone wins. Here's why:
The LG is smaller, sure. It's a better size, for an un-smartphone.It's the nicest LG I've ever seen. But it often uses it's touchscreen to boring effect. There is no interface advantage here. You touch buttons on screen to scroll and click around, much like a Palm or WM6 Phone. The menu design itself is similar to that on any high end LG phone, like, say the Shine. The 3-inch diagonal comes in useful as the entirety of it becomes a viewfinder in camera mode. The touchscreen let's you drag the home screen's clock around, and that fishy in the photo above is actually "touchable". And it ships with some touchscreen games. But generally speaking, it operates just like a regular phone. No revolutionary usage models here, either.
The iPhone uses it's touchscreen to zoom photos and webpages, flick scroll through long lists. iPhone has all the iTunes and data syncing integration built in, and the neato factor of coverflow. iPhone has networked widget compatibility for weather, stocks (yawn), and who knows what else is coming down the line. The Prada's sync software is rudimentary, allowing you to transfer contacts and calendar appointments. The Prada does have 3G, although that may be in Europe only flavors, while the iPhone only has EDGE and WiFi. (Since this is an import phone for the foreseeable future, it's likely.) The LG's 3-inch screen is 240 x 400. The
Apple's is 3.5 inches, at 320 x 480. 8GB vs whatever you can fit into the LG's few megs of internal mem, plus the microSD slot. The browser sucks on the LG phone. LG phone has the advantage of being able to run J2ME progs. And has SMS and IM, which IMO are very obvious things that the iPhone should have. (Firmware!)
The Prada would be a good phone, the nicest non-business user touchscreen phone, I can think of at the moment. But at $700-850 bucks, it's just way too expensive. The iPhone isn't perfect, but the amount of innovation it has pushes it into another class. This is a really stupid comparison: iPhone wins. (The better comparison is iPhone to Helio Ocean of N95. – Brian Lam
iPhone [Gizmodo]
LG Prada [Gizmodo]
