Droid doesn't. Have touchscreen accuracy, that is...

Now there's a nicely-documented fact that you can throw back in the face of that annoying friend of yours who got a Verizon Droid and who keeps saying "It's just like an iPhone!"

According to a report cited on AppleInsider this morning, the touchscreen accuracy of the iPhone is much better than that of three Android phones: the Motorola Droid pushed by Verizon, the HTC Droid Eris, and the new Google Nexus One. Why is that important? Well, when you're trying to tap a link on a website, for example, chances are very good that you're going to be successful on the iPhone and not on the Android phones.

The tests, performed by MOTO Development Group (no relation to Motorola), measured touchscreen accuracy with a simple test. On each device, a drawing app was launched and a tester drew straight diagonal lines in both directions across the screens with a finger. iPhones showed straight lines in situations with both light and medium finger pressure, while the Android phones showed zig-zag wavy lines across the screen. MOTO stated:

"On inferior touchscreens, it's basically impossible to draw straight lines. Instead, the lines look jagged or zig-zag, no matter how slowly you go, because the sensor size is too big, the touch-sampling rate is too low, and/or the algorithms that convert gestures into images are too non-linear to faithfully represent user inputs. This is important because quick keyboard use and light flicks on the screen really push the limits of the touch panel's ability to sense."

Several user comments on the MOTO site validate the findings. Have any TUAW readers been able to compare touchscreen accuracy on an iPhone and an Android device? Leave a comment below.

[via AppleInsider]

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Source: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01/11/touchscreen_an…

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Now there's a nicely-documented fact that you can throw back in the face of that annoying friend of yours who got a Verizon Droid and who...

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ben

This Article is not right I've used the droid and iphone touch screen,and to me theirs no difference its just apple bieng biased and not accepting that they they competetion finally and yes the droid islike a iphone in terms of what it can do

February 20 2010 at 8:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

teledyn

I just tried this 'simple test' on my Android LG and I get smooth parallel gesture lines drawing the pattern in the picture. Using a stylus and a ruler I can get a perfect grid. Is there some part of this experiment that I'm missing?

January 16 2010 at 10:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Andrea Hill

Good to know it's not just me: I've had trouble accessing links on my new Nexus One. However, since there is no "pinch" feature anyway, I haven't identified any great need to draw diagonal lines on the screen. I just aim a bit up and to the right of where I actually want to click.

January 13 2010 at 1:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Stevan

Talk about touchscreen INaccuracy, the LG Xenon sucks! I broke the screen of my Shine and AT&T had to send me a Xenon to replace it: touchscreen with slide out keyboard. I wish I had my Shine at the expense of all of Xenon's bells and whistles.
Xenon's lack of screen real estate compared to my iPod Touch doesn't help. Makes it quite obvious that Apple invests a lot more in the testing stage of product development than other phone developers/manufacturers do.

January 12 2010 at 12:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Zack Green

You cropped the photo to misleadingly inflate the iPhone's advantage. Here's the full one, for the benefit of anyone reading this: http://labs.moto.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/diytouchscreenanalysis3.jpg

True, the iPhone is the best, and yes, the Droid isn't great, but the Droid Eris and Nexus One just require you to press a bit harder. It's not that big a deal.

January 12 2010 at 12:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Takeru

Funny, my Eris was free (after $100 mail-in rebate) and came in second in their test. Glad I didn't chunk down the $200 for the MotoDroid. And a slightly inaccurate screen is more usable than a lackluster, and honestly pathetic, carrier like AT&T to me. Which is why I left them four years ago.

As to follow Suneohair, I'm only here because i was looking for information. TUAW's slanted bias (more than I would consider a normal Apple user's bias, that is) has already led me to removing them from my RSS feed several days ago.

January 11 2010 at 11:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steven Sande

Hey, Droid fanboyz!

Just a few comments to you folks who are attacking TUAW for this:

1) We didn't do the tests. MOTO Labs did.
2) We're reporting their results.
3) Are you also nailing the other sites that reported this same information?

Steve

January 11 2010 at 8:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

4 replies to Steven Sande's comment

Barrett

Just tried this on my Nexus One, and this post is complete BS. The lines are perfectly straight. Exactly how my finger drew them.

January 11 2010 at 8:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mechageo

TUAW being fair and balanced?

It never even occurred to me that I should expect 'The Unofficial Apple Weblog' to do anything but promote Apple products, and that's how it should be.

I don't go to wow.com to hear about Champions Online and I don't come to TUAW to hear about how good Droid phones are.

This article's fine.

January 11 2010 at 6:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

PJ Warren

Droid does what iPhone doesn't.

iPhone doesn't suck.

Droid does.

January 11 2010 at 4:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply