Thanks for stating this without an example. Totally credible.
Easily, the Samsung Galaxy S i9000.
Not better on the hardware, but is on what the software can do.
So to elaborate why I said earlier "iPhones are years behind". Here is what it is possible to do on Android that iPhones cannot as far as I know:
- I can select a default browser, it shows when you open a hyperlink from another application like Reddit or Gmail. On iOS, Safari opens all the time.
-- Same goes for any application (default mp3 player, video player, text editor)
- On a browser, you can select the text and open a Maps application like Google Maps or Waze.
- You can share anything to any other application if is installed on your phone.
- You can install apps from the Google Play Store web page. (side loading)
- The UI standard for apps on Android has started to define itself since ICS. iOS apps seems not to : The back button is never at the same place.
- No real multi-tasking. (If it slows down your phone, it's your fault you know)
- You can see all your files with a file explorer. See Solid Explorer, which offers a split screen where you have 2 file explorers... great for copying or moving.
- You can drag and drop your music or whatever file you want in your phone.
- You can easily assign a new ringtone.
- Apps you buy on an Android phone means it is available to download for tablets.
-- On iOS, it's 2 separate apps. See Angry Birds Space.
- You can play emulators with a bluetooth controller.
- Anti-theft apps : Cerberus offers a powerful dashboard that lets you do ANYTHING to your phone if stolen.
-- Plus, if your phone is rooted, you can install Cerberus as a system app, meaning it will not go away if the thief factory resets the phone.
- You can install the keyboard you want. Get features like swipe typing and improved word prediction
-- Swift Key can support two languages at once. Works great for Frenglish here in Quebec.
- Wireless charging
- Notifications in Android are great to use. On iOS, they disappear.
-- Plus, some phones has a notification light. You can change the color, pulse rate, speed of a light notification depending of the app. See the app LightFlow.
- Contacts application on Android is way more richer than iOS's. No social integration at all.
- You can manage your phone from a computer with Air Droid. You can send SMS from your PC.
- You can share anything with NFC by touching phones. NFC is not new, it was available in 2.3.
- Photosphere (Take Google Street View like photos).
- On several occurences, iOS apps offer less features than the Android version (see Dropbox, Yelp).
-- Dropbox : You cannot edit text files on iOS. You cannot upload any type of files.
- iOS cannot download attachments of certain type of files (mp3, zip).
- If you ever feel doing a factory reset, you can backup your apps (plus their data) before. See Helium Backup.
-- You can also backup the whole phone if you want. (Requires root)
- You can see what permissions applications use on their page on the Google Play Store
-- You can manually allow or deny permissions to apps. See LBE Privacy Guard.
- When an application crashes, you get a message. On iOS, it brings you back to the home screen.
- When the keyboard is in lower case, the letters displayed are still in upper case.
- You can create profile that triggers by an event, and run tasks with it. See the app "Tasker"
-- This app can be one topic itself, because of the possibilities...
-- Exemple of profiles :
--- When connected to home wi-fi : disables the lockscreen, sets ringtone volume to loud, reduces brightness.
--- When leaving home : enables bluetooth
--- When connected to car bluetooth : auto-start playing music for audio streaming
--- When opening Google Maps, turn on GPS
--- When at work, mute the phone and set it to vibrate
iOS is a very strict operating system, it doesn't let you do much and doesn't tell you much what's happening (like an app crashes, you don't know why).
The more restrictions, the less secure it is.
Here are examples of past security issues :
On iOS 5.1 :
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/22/2894135/apple-safari-url-spoof-exploit-ios
On iOS 6.1.3 :
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/20/4129084/another-iphone-lock-screen-exploit-discovered-ios-6-1-3
To make your phone more secure on Android, root it and use a permission manager app like SuperUser.