Android vs iPhone for chess

Looking at stepping into the 21st century and wondering which offers better chess apps?  I guess I will probably end up using Shredder, Chess.com app, and something to record my games to PGN (after play, not as an electronic scoresheet) and send them to me via email or something.

Any recommendations?  I am looking at other non-chess criteria, and it's pretty much a toss-up.  The iPhone 5S has a better camera and image processing applications whereas the Galaxy S4 is just better hardware ... also I prefer open source, linux, and Java and am not into Mac stuff at all.  So I am leaning towards the Galaxy S4 unless there is a killer chess app for iPhone.

I could give you a hole list of GREAT apps for Android. But not apple :-(

It'd be pretty simple to compare the hardware-capabilities.

There's Stockfish 4 available for both. So you can compare the hardware by comparing the kNodes.

Don't forget that you have to manually configure the cores for SF 4!

My S3 mini does only like 200 kN but I've seen 660 kN on the more modern and expensive Quad-Core-Android-phones.

So if someone can provide this kind of data for the iPhones, then we have a good base for comparison.

It used to be that the apple App Store had a lot more chess app than android but now I believe they are slowly catching up.

IMHO I would chose an iPhone but I am biased because I had the iPhone 3 and now the iPhone 4 and have love using them both for chess apps. I have read that for an app to be in the apple store it has to be tested and approved by apple before it is released, I have read that the android apps do not have to go through as much testing if any at all (this could have changed in the past year ).

Here is a short list of my favorite apple chess apps ( there are many more than that). Some app have lite versions which are free which are stripped down versions that are nice to try out for no money.

Here's a list:

Shredder

Shredder lite

Chess.com

Stockfish

Learn chess! ( Maurice Ashley rules, puzzles lessons, etc)

Chessimo ( chess lessons)

Tactics Trainer

BC Take (chess puzzles like Knights tour by Maurice Ashley)

Openings

Pure Chess (nice looking 3D chess)

SmartChess! (Interactive book with board and movable pieces)

E+Chess (Interactive book with board and movable pieces)

Forward Chess (Interactive book with board and movable pieces)

Chess Opener

ChessU

Chess

Mate in 123

Chess camp ( puzzles and tactics based on the books with the same name)

iChess (puzzles)

Dino Chess (great app for teaching chess to kids)

Thanks,

I think I am going to get the Samsung on account of it's easier (for me, since I am a Java developer) to write my own apps for it.   I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be missing out on anything.

The Forward Chess reader is now available for both iPhone/iPad and Android.

I'm an Apple user and interested in Apple chess apps. So I'm speaking from an Apple-fans point of view. Apple definitely have better software than Android. Ask yourself, which app is good for a serious chess player for Android? Probably only Droidfish. However, Droidfish lacks in apperance.

In contrast, Apple has the Stockfish iOS app. The Stockfish engine is also available from the SmallFish iOS app. So you have two selections from iOS but only one from Android.

Serious chess players need multi-pv. What Android apps support it? None! While on iOS, we have Chess Pro and SmallChess. SmallChess actually does a better job in the multi-pv, look at yourself.

I faced this decision a year ago and decided to go with an iPhone. Very happy I did. My friends have countless problems with their droids and I have never had problems with my iphone. 

But, if you plan on using your phone heavily for chess, I think you will be disappointed. The technology just isn't there yet. I would get a laptop instead. 

I guess it depends on what kind of chess you are looking for too. I don't care for Online Chess much. If that is your thing, perhaps the Chess.com app would work and you could just set up positions on a board from there. 

But if you are like me and prefer live chess, there are three 'good' options (ICC, Chess.com, and FICS). ICC has a pretty good app and you can pay 4.99 a month for mobile access. That is what I use. I gave the Chess.com app many tries but it just wasn't my thing. FICS has no official app and the best one I found was Handy Chess, which wasn't as good as the other two. 

Other than that I just have Stockfish. I don't really use it unless I am tired, want to play a game, but don't want to lose rating points to a human. 

I've tried various other chess apps and don't really find phones practical for database, analysis, or teaching functions. Again, I would suggest a laptop. 

Do you live in a parallel universe?

I have yet to find a convincing reason to choose iPhone over an Android device.

Android has much worse apps in terms of quality. It's more like for people who can't afford a better phone, while the iPhone is more stable, robus, consistent and faster. iPhone 5s is a faster device than Samsung S4. Android is losing both in software and hardware. It's like saying I don't like Louis Vuitton because I don't need it, but it's more like I can't afford it!

Iphone is best for chess. I have tried both, and personally have found the iphone apps for chess to be far superior than anything that Android has to offer. If you willing to pay for apps, Hiarcs iphone is my favourite choice.

I won't argue about android vs apple apps, however, let me correct you about the following:

1. Android is an OPERATING SYSTEM. That means, it is SOFTWARE, not hardware.
2. While the iPhone 5s has a 4 months later release date, it loses hardware wise to the Samsung galaxy 4. Just to name a few (you can find many more on the internet):

• S4 quad core 1.6 GHz vs iPhone 5s duo core 1.3 GHz
• S4 441 ppi vs iPhone 5s 326 ppi
• S4 2600 mAh battery vs iPhone 5s 1570 mAh battery (yes, S4 has a 50% better battery uptime).
• And my personal favourite, any smartphone but iPhones have a micro SD slot. Which means you can effectively increase your smartphone's memory by 64GB for around $40 market price (on top of the 16/32/64 GB you have on your phone!). Meanwhile Apple charges you $200 more if you want an 64 GB iPhone 5s instead of 16 GB one (while the manufacturing price difference is $20). Yes, Samsung might do the same, however, at least you have the option to upgrade your memory with a simple Micro SD, unlike iPhone users.

Sure, there might be software related differences, but don't claim that x is better than y without evidence.

And on a side note: nearly every sane man knows that Apple vastly loses in hardware specifications when you compare two products of the same price.

Are you kidding me? Please take a look of yourself:

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-iphone-5s-is-the-fastest-smartphone-2013-9

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/167040-iphone-5-vs-galaxy-s4-apple-phones-trounce-android-in-touchscreen-responsiveness

iphone 5s has faster response time and better CPU and GPU than Glaaxy S4 by a wide margin. So Apple is losing in hardware? Nobody thinks so. Also, the iPhone 5s supports 64 bits while Samsung has done nothing about it. There is no 64 bits Android device. 64 bits give a significant boost to chess because we need 64 bits to store a chess board which also has 64 squares on it. Therefore, all Android devices including Samsung are inferior to Apple iPhone other than pricing. The logic is this, if you can afford it get yourself an iPhone otherwise just grab an Android device. It's like if you can afford the first-class, pay for it otherwise buy an economy ticket.

S4 has a larger screen so it also takes more power than iPhone. Overall, iPhone last longer. It's like a truck can store more petrol than a small car, but it also consume more.

Recently Samsung has publcity acknowledged defeats in hardware to iPhone 5s.They confirmed they would work harder and push out a faster 64 bits CPU next year to catch up with Apple.

Speaking about the micro SD slot, it's all come down to whether you have extra cash to spend on it.

Apps still need to be adopted for 64-bit. Until then a 64-bit processor is worthless for apps.

Responsive time is most likely related to software, not hardware. Objective-C is faster than Java.

Basing your opinion purely on benchmarks is bad. I've shown your hardware specifications, and objective arguments.

If you want to stick to your iPhone forever, that't fine, but implying that iPhone is better than any Android device is bad. Also stop that "People who buy an Android device cannot buy an iPhone" crap. People have their preferences, and people like you are classified as "macfags" by making such statements.

You can also spend extra cash to have an Android device with more memory and still have a micro SD slot.

I think the bottom line is they are phones not pcs. Also there seems to be an overwhelming amount of chess apps for an iPhone / iOS compared to an android running bubblegum or ice cream sandwich or what ever operating system a "non iPhone " phone has

IMHO tChess Pro is absolutely the best chess software for iPhone and unfortunately I coudn't find anything comparable for Android. On my Asus tablet I use Chess PGN Master and DroidFish. They are both OK but actually I have no idea how they feel on smaller phone screen.

I really hope that tChess Pro will be ported to Android one day.

For the iPhone, I like tChessPro, Chess.com's app, Shredder, Hiarcs, Tactic Trainer, DinoChess and more. I've written more than a dozen detailed reviews of iOS chess apps that you can find at http://chessskill.blogspot.com/search/label/iOS%2FiPhone%2FiPad.

Sorry that I haven't reviewed Android apps, but once you start drinking kool-aid it's like playing the Dutch Defense: you know that you shouldn't but it's hard to stop. 

+1

Great reviews Ziryab

Thanks

Steve Jobs is dead, and so is the iPhone platform... ;)

Apple fans don't really want to admit that their flagship has gone off into the fog...but deep down they know.