What is the best mobile OS in 2015?

Since iOS and Android are all-time competitors in the mobile OS world, it was always arguable which one is faster, prettier, more reliable, more user oriented. Also, both have their pros and cons that make comparing these two mobile OS quite hard. It’s like comparing apples with cookies, they are both delicious but in their way, but they are also fundamentally different. However, we have created a system of comparison for the two mobile platforms, and we are ready to let you know which one is the 2015 champion! Is it iOS 9 or Android Marshmallow?

Best battery life on mobile OS

Battery life is quite a big issue for all the smartphones, and we could even say that the smartphone is as good as its battery. And if you are wondering if the operating system has anything to do with battery - the answer is "Yes!". The mobile OS defines how the phone resources will be used and distributed battery power to these resources. You've probably heard of Doze - it's a new cool feature in Android Marshmallow that uses the motion sensor to see if we are using the phone or not. If the smartphone is not in action, the operating system will end all background processes. In this way, Android M can prolong battery life up to four times (in standby mode). [caption id="attachment_8387" align="aligncenter" width="169"] Android Doze mode[/caption] Apple introduced a "Low power mode" with iOS 9, but it is not as cool as the Doze is. It's not detecting if the phone is active, but it provides a simple toggle to turn off features that are taking too much of the battery juice. Winner: Android M - because you don't need to disable extra features manually on this mobile OS. Marshmallow will do that for you.

Best user interface on mobile OS

This one will be though because neither Android Marshmallow nor iOS 9 has changed their looks comparing to the past generation. Yes, there are some smaller tweaks on both sides, but nothing has changed drastically on neither of these mobile OS. Android has made some order in the "Settings" area and enabled us to use lock screen notifications and a lot of other interesting tweaks, but the "WOW" feature has been left out. The same applies to iOS 9. Apple has changed the default font ( the new one is called San Francisco) and fixed a few things up, but it was not something that will make us lose our breaths. So, we have no winner in this category and we will not give points to our contestants. They are both fine looking, but we hope to see some makeovers next year.

Best mobile OS virtual assistant

Have you already meet Google Now and Siri? They are virtual assistants that can make your life easier, at least, this is what Google and Apple are saying. Lets' start with Android - Google Now has a cool new feature "Google Now on Tap", which understands the context of the question based on an app that you are currently using. In return, we get a better answer and result that is meaning something to us at that point. Also, Google Now is much more reliable and accurate than Siri. But the critics say that it lacks the “soul”. On the other hand, Apple has improved Siri with the "Proactive screen" that learns who you contact the most, which apps do you use more often and similar. It then offers you a shortcut to those contacts and apps when it thinks you need it. [caption id="attachment_8384" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Siri Vs. Google Now[/caption] Winner: Google Now! Even without a soul, it is still better in this area than its mobile OS competitor.

Best user privacy in mobile OS world

iOS used to have the best user privacy features built in, and it still has. iOS 9 is not bringing any new safety innovations, but it still protects our data and identity in a very quality manner and without a hassle for us, as users. If we look on the other side, we will see that Android Marshmallow still has permissions for apps that user must grant when installing a new application. Yes, we can do it separately now, permissions are not in a bulk anymore, but it still requires us to think about that. Even if Android made a huge step forward with individual permissions (that even can be assigned later, not during the app installation), iOS is doing it better. Winner: iOS 9.

Best mobile OS compatibility

Now, let's see how compatible new mobile OS are with the old devices on the market. There are a lot of people who upgraded to Android Lollipop (to be precise 25% of all Android users) only a few months ago, and all of us who are not owners of Nexus devices are still months away from the Marshmallow. Also, as it seems it is not very likely that people with a phone that is older than three years will be able to use the latest Android candy. This is not such a good news for the mobile OS compatibility score. At the same time, iOS 9 is already on 66% of all iPhones out there. Everyone who has purchased an iPhone in the past four years will be able to upgrade. Yes, even iPhone 4s owners will be able to use it. [caption id="attachment_8388" align="aligncenter" width="300"] iOS 9 compatibility chart[/caption] Winner: iOS 9. From obvious reasons.

Best mobile payments

We all already know that both platforms are building their mobile payment systems, so let's see how successful are they. Google Wallet has been renamed to Android Pay, and it now supports fingerprint scanners on Android devices. Since fingerprint scanning is now part of the Android mobile OS all phones with hardware support for this feature will be able to use Android Pay. And this can mean only one thing - more devices will be compatible with the Android Pay by default. Apple Pay is working through the Touch ID that reads fingerprints faster than ever. On top of that iOS 9 introduced support for loyalty cards and gained a significant market share in the mobile payment area. Winner: iOS 9. It is still a few steps ahead of the Android.

And the ultimate mobile OS winner is

If we calculate the score from all the rounds that we had, the winner of MobileShop mobile OS battle is iOS 9! Sorry Android, we love you too, but you are still missing a few (little) things to be the best you can. We hope to see you getting there in 2016! Image sources: Apple, TechFrog, Android Central, Computer buld