[Nexus One General] Jack_R1:
Not really anti-Apple, but anti-Apple-marketing.

Went and checked some of your points.

1) Returns are a bit irrelevant when dealing with iSomething product, since it matters only for those new to it - which isn't true for majority of iPhone4 buyers, coming from 3GS you don't have any other choices, and after 3GS is IS an improvement. Build quality is unknown, since the tolerances aren't published. It can be probably determined by the number of devices failing QC, but this number isn't published either, and it would be dependent on the QC. Moot point, I can't prove or disprove anything here.

2) Please read the detailed report. I'm glad they've noted I4 display as the best mobile display, but in fact, in their smartphone shootout which determined the outcome, Droid display had better characteristics in exactly the same areas you've named, and it received "best picture display" award for that. So, HW superiority claim?

3) It just so happens that Nexus is able to hold to calls and data at measured -115dBm as well. And it so happens that the average attenuation in Nexus is less all across the board, measured in the same article - so the actual signal strength at which this reception happens is even worse. And again, we're left with SNR without ways to compare it and subjective data with 0 meaning. Comparing to iPhone3G, known for extremely crappy reception, they've improved, compared to other devices? Not clear at all.

4) I'll explain it thoroughly, since you don't seem to understand what I mean.

The battery by itself seems to be standard 1500 mAh battery (Nexus' 1400mAh is rated 5.18Whr), so nothing to say about this one - the size is unknown, and I believe they didn't invent anything in that department - so the battery BY ITSELF isn't superior to anything else.

Now, you're probably talking about battery life, which is by no means HW - it's a mix of HW and SW, and can't be measured without taking into account 2 things: device productivity over measured time, and relation between battery capacity and power requirements of the power-hungry elements (AKA screen).

Even though it doesn't have anything (or almost anything) to do with HW, I'll take one more step.

To compare only HW aspect of battery life, you need to take everything you can out of equation, and assume that SW does a good job governing power controls. Let's assume that, and to measure - we need to run equal amount of diverse CPU/GPU/chipset/screen test cases, adjust the results for the difference in screen size, and there you have it - HW (well, almost HW) efficiency. I'm not aware of any such test being done, maybe you are? If not, you can strike this supposed advantage as well.

Evo is not a good contender, having low power efficiency due to power-hungry screen and additional 4G capabilities implemented off-chip, without covering all that by additional battery capacity.

5) Given, didn't know about them picking the camera sensor that well. Real advantage it is.

6) I would argue that sales of iPhone 4 don't have much to do with its styling choices, but with marketing of those choices. But again, it's subjective.

7) Given that more expensive technology for creating materials doesn't equal better materials (plastic vs glass debate?), the superiority is again, subjective. Crafting a diamond shell for the phone would be even more expensive, would it be considered "superiority" if the price tag reflected it?

I've answered your original post, because of the quote - "iPhone is clearly superior hardware". It isn't. In most departments, it either equals or doesn't equal the best spec-ed devices on the market. In some, it advances - adding camera to that list.

On the other hand, with this point:

I agree. There are several top line Android phones, some of them outclass iPhone4 in some categories, most of them outclass it in raw CPU power, but none of them outclasses it enough to claim superiority, and they lose some important points that bring them down. I was mostly arguing that the same is also true in the opposite direction, with different points.