Best of Android: User Experience

So far in our weeklong Best of Android series we have been looking at aspects of the smartphone user experience that are relatively easy to quantify and measure. You can measure the brightness of a phone screen. You can time how long it takes for an app to open up. You can have a – more or less – objective comparison of images of the same scene shot on multiple devices. Battery life and charging times are straightforward concepts.

But we all know that even features that can be put under the microscope, analyzed, and measured are wide open to personal interpretation. One man’s abysmal battery life is good enough for many. You may hate the “inaccurate” colors of AMOLED displays, where the next guy may absolutely love them. The list goes on and on.

If these simple, measurable aspects of the smartphone experience are up to debate, what can you do about the stuff that can’t be quantified? How do you rank how phones feel in everyday use? The only valid answer is “you don’t.” You can’t put a universally accepted score on things like design or the way a user interface makes you feel. That’s why even the most well thought-out review scores will be criticized by some people, and rightfully so.

That is why, for the sixth and last post in our Best of Android 2015 series, we won’t try to rank phones. Instead, in Best of Android: User Experience we will run through the key unique features of each device, across hardware and software. It is then up to you to decide the features and immaterial aspects of the user experience that matter the most.

Build quality and hardware

We’ve come a long way when looking at the design and build quality of Android flagships. Just a few years ago it was much harder to find a well-built Android phone that also inspired admiration for its looks. Today, we’re spoiled with refined designs, premium materials and durable constructions across the board.

Moto X Force

Key features:

• Shatterproof screen
• microSD card
• Fast charging
• Wireless charging
• Customizable design

The Moto X Force (known as the Turbo 2 on Verizon) stands out through its so-called “Shatterproof” display, which uses a plastic overlay to protect the device from bumps that would be fatal to other phones. A crack-proof display has long been a dream of the industry, and while Motorola’s solution isn’t perfect, it’s the closest we’ve got to a solution to the biggest weakness of modern smartphones.

Note 5

Key features:

• S Pen
• Fast charging
• Multiple standard wireless charging
• Samsung Pay
• Fingerprint sensor

The Galaxy Note 5’s most distinctive feature is, of course, its stylus. Years after Samsung launched this popular concept, competitors have yet to offer a product that can match the Note’s S Pen. The S Pen adds a new level of interaction to the standard smartphone formula, making the Note 5 an obvious recommendation for anyone who’s looking to do some serious work on their phone.

Xperia Z5 Premium

Key features:

• 4K screen
• Fingerprint sensor
• Water and dust resistance
• microSD
• Fast charging

The Xperia Z5 Premium is the world’s first 4K smartphone, with a catch. The 4K resolution is really only used when playing back 4K videos – the rest of the time, you get the standard Quad HD, and that’s not really a bad thing, given the limited benefits of 4K on a phone screen and the power and performance issues it creates. While the usefulness of a 4K screen is debatable, no one can argue with water resistance. Sony’s flagship is still one of the few high-end phones to offer this feature.

BlackBerry Priv

Key features:

• Sliding mechanical keyboard
• microSD
• Fast charging

The Priv is the first device from BlackBerry to run Android, but for the purpose of this comparison, it’s the unique design and the sliding keyboard that really matter. Years after we’ve seen the last Android slider, BlackBerry Priv brought the physical keyboard back into the spotlight. If you miss your keys and buttons, the Priv is the phone to pick, though not everything is old-school: the keyboard supports swiping and gestures and tidily disappears behind a large touchscreen when you want it out of the way.

Nexus 6P

Key features:

• USB 3.1 Type C port
• Fingerprint sensor with Nexus Imprint
• Fast charging

Without question, the Nexus 6P is the best Nexus smartphone to date, inside and out. Finally, Google came up with a phone that doesn’t require the user to make any compromises for the sake of a good price or the pure Android experience. The Nexus 6P is not just a match for OEM flagships, it’s leading the way in some areas. USB 3.1 Type C is present on this device, and we expect to see the new standard on most high-end phones a year from now. Likewise, the fast fingerprint sensor will probably become one of those default features that we tend to glance over on spec sheets.

LG V10

Key features:

• Shock resistant (MIL-STD-810G standard)
• microSD
• Dual front camera
• Secondary ticker display
• Fast charging
• Fingerprint sensor

Finally, the LG V10. If Motorola has an unbreakable display (that sacrifices image quality to some extent), LG tried to ensure that the entire V10 is as sturdy as possible, without using a rugged design or a plastic covered screen. The V10’s resistance to drops and bumps is owed to its stainless steel frame and sturdy plastic back cover. Other unique features of the V10 are its secondary display that can act as a ticker for quick notification access, and its dual front cameras that make it possible to take super wide selfies.

User interface, added features, and updates

Hardware can be top-notch, but it’s everything that lives on top of it that makes the magic happen. While all our contenders are part of the great Android family, the software differences between them can be stark, and the differences extend to the value-added features and the update policy that each device offers.

Moto X Force

Key features:

• Moto Display
• Moto Voice
• Always on voice control
• Gestures
• Restrained customization of Android
• Fast updates

Motorola has made a good name for itself with its minimal, yet useful additions to the stock Android recipe, and that continues on the X Force. You can make gestures with your phone to launch the camera or the flashlight, and the Moto Display remains a valuable feature, especially given that it’s combined with an AMOLED panel that draws a modicum of power. You get Android 5.1 out of the box, but an update to Marshmallow is already underway.

Galaxy Note 5

Key features:

• Ultimate note taking phone
• S Pen features
• Multi-window multitasking
• Feature rich camera app
• Themes

Samsung, more than any other OEM, is known for customizing and expanding Android to great lengths. In time, that resulted in a reputation of bloat and sluggishness, but since the Galaxy S6, Samsung has been taking steps to reverse this perception. As such, TouchWiz on the Galaxy Note 5 is lighter than on previous generations, but it still incorporates a number of features you don’t get on any other device. The Air Command menu that shows up when you pull out the S Pen is home to features like note-taking and a smart screenshot tool. You can event take notes without waking up the phone. Further adding to the productive potential of the device is multi-window, probably the best implementation of multitasking on any Android device.

Xperia Z5 Premium

Key features:

• Small apps
• Themes
• Camera features

Sony has been known for a long time for its distinctive take on UI design, though unfortunately, high levels of bloatware have marred the experience on some of its devices. The Xperia Z5 Premium doesn’t bring a departure from this trend, combining the Lollipop UI framework with the classic Sony aesthetic. The Small Apps suite is probably the most notable Sony feature, allowing you to open a set of apps in their own windows. These are useful, though not as powerful as Samsung’s take on the concept. You also get a number of Sony media apps, and the camera app on the Z5 Premium comes with a handful of special modes and VR overlays.

BlackBerry Priv

Key features:

• BlackBerry Hub
• DTEK security
• Security hardening
• BB tweaks to the Android UI
• On-screen and physical keyboard

BlackBerry knows its customers, the few it may still have. So, while the Priv is Android through and through, it’s also permeated by features that used to be exclusive to BB’s OS. Chief among them, the Hub invites you to access all your communication channels in one place, though in practice we found that it needs some polish. The DTEK security suite gives users control over what they want to lock down on the Priv, but the entire firmware has been modified for added security. And of course, there’s the ability to use the physical keyboard or the rather excellent on-screen equivalent.

Nexus 6P

Key features:

• The fastest updates around
• Guaranteed 2-yr major update period
• Encryption and regular security patches
• Fast and optimized Android experience
• Nexus Imprint
• Full Google apps integration

The Nexus 6P may appear rather bare compared to the other phones on this list. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have things that stand out. For one, you have Google specific apps front and center and tightly integrated into the OS. You get the fingerprint sensor that lets you access your device, log into Play Store, and make payments with a touch. But the biggest draw is the promise of fast updates and the knowledge that you’re experiencing Android the way it was meant to be experienced. Granted, that may not matter to a majority of users, but chances are you’re one of them.

LG V10

Key features:

• Customizable second screen
• A bevy of LG features
• Many customization options
• Great camera app

The LG V10 delivers all the power of Android and then some, though certain additions feel a little superfluous. The absolutely unique feature of this phone is the secondary display that can act like a ticker for notifications or as a status bar or a place for quick shortcuts. This AMOLED strip means that you can keep track of your notifications without waking up the phone, potentially extending battery life by a margin. In addition, the V10 keeps most of the software features that LG developed for their other smartphones.

Wrap up

As we explained above, we can’t make a decision for you when it comes to this section of Best of Android. There are simply too many differences to account for and too many features that you may or may not find useful, depending on your needs and expectations.

We will say that if you prefer a fine-tuned user experience, you could opt for the Nexus 6P or the Moto X Force. If you’re looking for a ton of features, at the expense of a slightly clunkier experience, the Note 5 and the V10 certainly deliver. The Xperia Z5 Premium comes somewhere in the middle, while the Priv stands out through its unique security focus and BB apps.

User experience is heavily influenced by the other aspects of smartphones that we already went through this week. For instance, the finest software will leave you wanting if performance is subpar. That’s why we highly recommend that you give our other comparisons a look. Links are available below.

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Best of Android 2015

Don’t miss:

Best of Android: Display

Best of Android: Audio

Best of Android: Performance

Best of Android: Battery

Best of Android: Camera

Tomorrow we will be wrapping out Best of Android 2015 and see which device comes on top. Come back on December 14 at 10AM EST for Best of Android 2015: Wrap up!

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Credits

Post by Bogdan Petrovan Video by: Lanh Nguyen
Series Contributors: Rob Triggs, Gary Sims, Lanh Nguyen, Joe Hindy, Krystal Lora
Series Editors: Nirave Gondhia, Bogdan Petrovan, Andrew Grush

Best of Android 2015: Camera

The next section in our Best of Android 2015 series, where we put the latest and greatest Android phones through a series of tough tests, is our camera shootout. For a recap, we have the Blackberry Priv, LG V10, Galaxy Note 5, Moto X Force (Droid Turbo 2), Nexus 6P and the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium at hand, and we took them out for a spin around London’s Southbank to put the handsets through a selection of lighting environments and shooting scenarios.

Photography results can be pretty subjective, so we sent the pictures around the office for everyone to vote on their favorites. There are some split opinions on some and consensus on others, but in the end we have been left with a clear winner.

A quick note on the pictures before we jump in. Each of the phones was left on their default settings, but we made sure to set each phone to Auto HDR, with the exception of the Z5 Premium which has Auto HDR always on. We also shot each of the pictures in a 4:3 aspect ratio because for some reason a 16:9 option was missing on the BlackBerry Priv until a recent update, which didn’t come in until after our tests. Manual modes were not used, this is an “out of the box” test.

Daylight Shots

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the pictures. Starting from top left, we have Z5 Premium, and moving right, we have Nexus 6P, Moto X Force, then on the bottom left we have LG V10, then right we have Note 5, then finally on bottom right we have the BlackBerry Priv.

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We’ll start off with some daytime shots on a typically English overcast day, which offers a tough challenge for our phones to balance the bright skies with darker details on the ground. Right off the bat there’s a notable blue tint to the LG V10, Nexus 6P and Z5 Premium’s images, while the Priv, Moto X Force, and Note 5 have a warmer tone. There’s certainly no lack of detail in any of the pictures, but the Note 5 and X Force seem to produce the brightest results from this scene.

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Moving on to a different picture in similar lighting conditions, we can see some softening on the images produced by the Moto X Force and Xperia Z5 Premium, although the Premium’s colors really do pop in this picture. A closer look at the Note 5 reveals some sharpening on the building details that is considerably stronger than on other phones.

The best looking results come from the LG V10, Priv and Nexus 6P, but each seems to have judged the picture worthy of slightly different exposures. The V10 loses some detail in the brighter clouds, while the Priv is perhaps a little too dark and is slightly off with the color temperature. The Nexus 6P produces a good all-round result, with details and exposure holding up well in the clouds, the foreground and background, without any distracting noise or sharpening.

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With a close up focal point, we picked the “International Brigade” plaque, and we can again see each phone exposing the pictures quite differently and overexposure in the background is a key thing to look out for here.

The Z5 Premium is the standout phone in this regard, managing to retain detail and color in the clouds and background trees. However, the subject is lacking some detail. The Moto X Force performs reasonably well, but the image is very soft, verging on blurry as soon as we look beyond the plaque.

The Note 5 seems to have again over sharpened the image to try and bring out foreground detail, but this worsens the look of the background and both it and the Nexus 6P struggle with the bright sky. The LG V10 produces a lot more detail on the statue than these phones without the sharpening problems. The Priv also offers excellent detail, albeit with a very different color tone to the picture, but the Priv’s results are quite impressive.

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For our fourth daylight shot we are trying to capture the distant detail of Big Ben across the river. The Priv really isn’t as clear this time around, there’s a distinct lack of focus when we crop down the image for a closer look. The Moto X Force is sharp and contains some additional detail over the LG V10. The foreground and sky color is lovely with the Xperia Z5 Premium, but Big Ben, our focal point, just seems a tad less detailed than with the Moto X Force. You can see this more clearly in the cropped images below.

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The Note 5’s sharpening is better in this picture, although perhaps it’s still a little heavy, and there’s still a notable warm color shift. The Nexus 6P offers up some finer detail thanks to its sharpening, and has a better color balance and nice exposure.

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A modern camera shootout wouldn’t be complete without a selfie and we aren’t surprised to see that these front facing sensors can’t keep up with the main rear cameras.

The Moto X Force is incredibly blurry, while the Priv and the Premium have this fuzzy noisy look about them and highly overexposed backgrounds. Here the 6P is better, but also suffers from an overly bright background.

This leaves us with the V10 and the Note 5, which are far better exposed. However, the Note 5 seems to have added some bizarre skin softening “make-up” effect which just looks weird, leaving the V10 as the winner, despite not quite offering optimal detail.

Lowlight Shots

Low light is where small smartphone camera sensors have historically struggled. We’ll be keeping a keen eye out for decent exposure and low noise in the next series of tests.

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Our first low light test reveals a considerably darker picture with the BlackBerry Priv than all the others, followed by the Z5 Premium. The Moto X Force and Note 5 look ok, although don’t quite offer up the full color and details we can see in some of the other pictures, with the latter looking oddly foggy compared with the rest. The LG V10 and Nexus 6P are the best performers in this shot, with excellent colors, but the detail and depth on the wooden floor captured by the 6P really is a cut above the field.

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The next set of shots are quite tricky as there are several light sources, lots of color and the sky in the background to try to balance correctly. We took this shot twice, first with the darker background bush as the focal point and then again by selecting the four foreground lights.

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Beginning with the lights as the focal point, we can see that the Xperia Z5 struggles with the exposure, resulting in too much bloom from the lights. The Moto X Force suffers from the same problem, although not quite to the same extent, and we see some slight blurring on closer inspection. The Galaxy Note 5 performs better, but again we see a warm color tint and some very distracting sharpening on the leaves behind the lights, which really ruins the depth of the picture. The Priv handles the lighting much better but the picture is too dark, washing out much of the color. The crops below provide a closer look.

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Again the LG V10 and the Nexus 6P are the top two performers in this low light shot, with the V10 providing excellent detail, colors and just the right amount of sharpening. However, the Nexus 6P offers up an even better exposure, which may be a little darker but still retains an incredible amount of detail and contrast.

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Taking the picture with the focal point on the dark spot behind the lights sees many of the cameras correctly adjust their exposures. However, the Z5 Premium and the Moto X Force produce much the same result as when focusing directly on the light source.

The results here are much closer, but there are similar trends as before. The Priv looks a little washed out, while the Z5 Premium again seems to struggle to hit the right exposure. Here the V10 could use a bit more contrast, while the Moto X Force’s picture is perhaps a little too dark. The Nexus 6P again shows the best detail and contrast out of the bunch.

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We have another tough test for our handsets with this very dark night shot of a carousel. The movement of the carousel is a real test of our camera’s ability to quickly capture light in these night shots and again it’s the Nexus 6P which comes out ahead, this time by quite a way, with the Note 5 probably coming the closest to matching it.

The Z5 Premium and Moto X Force produce much softer results with this moving shot, while the LG V10 seems to suffer from some major flare from the lights. The Priv really isn’t bad, but has overexposed the main light source a little.

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It was starting to get a little chilly by this point, so we had a sit down by a fire and decided to see how well each phone could capture color and movement. There’s quite a difference in how the phones have lit the picture, with the Priv a little on the dark side and the Note 5 really washing out the colors. It’s tough to call due to the motion in the image, but the Nexus 6P seems to offer up the most detail without too much exposure and blurring of the flames.

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Here’s another picture with plenty of different light sources, so keep an eye out for flare and focus. This time around, the Nexus 6P is not the best performer, as its lack of image stabilization leads to some notable blurring across the light sources and even in the foreground. The Moto X Force produces a similarly softened result in the lower half of the picture, while the Note 5’s orange tint crops up yet again and there’s notable flare on the right too.

The Xperia Z5 Premium and BlackBerry Priv do an excellent job of taming all those light sources. Both produce some nice colors in the sky, but are perhaps a little too dark and there is some very noticeable noise in the Priv’s sky. The LG V10 produces a warmer, brighter picture and there is the least amount of noise present across the image and plenty of detail in the lower half.

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A longer distance lowlight shot shows off what the Xperia Z5 Premium and BlackBerry Priv are capable of, given the right conditions. The sky, colors and lights stand out on both these phones and the Z5 Premium boasts some excellent contrast and sharpness. The tree in the Moto X Force and Nexus 6P shots is less well defined, while the Note 5 sharpening filter has completely taken over in this one. The V10 just looks washed out by comparison.

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Moving on to some closer shots we are looking to see how clearly the wording comes out from this sign. The BlackBerry Priv comes through very clearly, as does the Galaxy Note 5. The only notably poor performer here is the V10, which doesn’t seem to have quite focused the image properly, despite boasting laser autofocus technology.

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With even less light it’s the Note 5 that manages to bring out the most detail, while the BlackBerry’s image becomes much darker. The Nexus 6P also made the most of this very dim environment, but there’s some notable lens flare, which also appears with the Z5 Premium, the Moto X Force and especially the LG V10.

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To wrap up our extensive selection of lowlight pictures, here are some longer distance building shots. The trends that we’ve spotted in previous picture remain the theme here, with the Moto X Force really struggling to focus with the distant light sources. The Nexus 6P and Z5 Premium are the noisiest of the remaining phones, but it’s between the 6P and Note 5 for the best detail in the distance.

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Interestingly, the Nexus 6P and LG V10 both produced darker pictures when focusing on this bright light source in the distance. However, this does allow the two, the 6P in particular, to actually pick out the minute details inside the store. An impressive feat given the distance and lighting environment. The Note 5 sits somewhere in between the two exposure extremes.

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We haven’t neglected the front facing cameras in our low light test. We have another adorable set of selfies for you, which sees a number of the front facing cameras really struggle in this scenario. The Priv is just awful with very little detail and the V10, Z5 and Note 5 all offer up smudged looking images.

The Moto X Force does better in this test, although there is some noticeable noise in the darks. The Nexus 6P knocks this one out of the park, with superior detail, no blur and all round good lighting.

Panorama Mode

If you’re into your landscapes, then you’ll probably be interested in Panorama mode performance too. We a shot across the Thames in both daylight and lowlight environments, with the rippling water and moving boats providing a real test for the software’s stitching algorithms.

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In daylight, the 6P offers a good balance of color and exposure, although you can spot a slight stitching error on the railing on the bottom right. The V10 also performs well, although the image is a little darker and there’s a seam on the water too. The Galaxy Note 5 offers up some nice warm colors and distant detail, and is definitely the most well balanced picture.

The Xperia Z5 Premium’s Panorama Mode is very blurry, likely down to the movement of the camera. The Priv has a different problem, as the image appears warped and bent, and there’s a misalignment on the right hand bridge. The Moto X Force has the most obvious software issues though, as there’s a strange series of lines streaking down the picture and the resolution is very poor.

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In the lowlight pictures, the Moto X Force is an even worse performer, with notable blurring across the image. But it’s the Z5 Premium that completely falls apart here, producing major smearing that is quite ridiculous. This wasn’t a one off fluke either. The Priv is much better, but also shows some smudging on the left and is far too dark.

The Note 5, V10 and 6P are the best performers. Image quality holds up reasonably well across all three and they even handle the distant lights quite well. The Nexus 6P is definitely the brightest and clearest image, but this comes at the expense of some heavy noise in the clouds.

Wrap up

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the Android Authority staff tally awards the best camera to the Nexus 6P. It offers a very competitive daylight performance, but it really shines in low light pictures thanks to its HDR+ capabilities. The software does an excellent job at piecing multiple exposures together and adds just the right touch of post processing to bring out some superb detail.

The Galaxy Note 5 came in second place, followed very closely by the LG V10. Both of these handsets put in consistently good performances across the majority of our tests, but just couldn’t keep up with the 6P’s low light results. That said, any of these three smartphones are a sure to see you capturing some great looking snaps.

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Best of Android 2015

Don’t miss:

Best of Android: Display

Best of Android: Audio

Best of Android: Performance

Best of Android: Battery

Tomorrow we will be taking a look at the user experience offered by our six contenders. Come back on December 13 at 10AM EST for Best of Android 2015: UX!

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Credits

Post by Rob Triggs Video by: Krystal Lora
Series Contributors: Rob Triggs, Gary Sims, Lanh Nguyen, Joe Hindy, Krystal Lora
Series Editors: Nirave Gondhia, Bogdan Petrovan, Andrew Grush