Which OS is best?

[Joshua]

I guess I'll kick off the LinusTechTips 'Mobile Gaming' category with a debate,

Which mobile OS Is best for general 'Gaming'. I put quotations on Gaming because I don't really consider using a mobile phone or tablet on a train to play angry birds Gaming.

[Guest]

I don't know about Android as I haven't used it but playing Fruit Ninja (or a similar) on an iPad with Multi-Touch is incredibly annoying. I can't be bothered going through and turing the setting off for one game however I don't know if this is a developer flaw or Apple locking a coded toggle of this function being put into an app.

Other than that I can't really find much wrong with 'gaming' on iOS. Heat also is quite annoying on the iPad 3 - might go fry some bacon....

[Charlie]

Im not really a big fan of mobile gaming but I did play temple run and angry birds on my Android and also on my ipad if you ask me my vote is with Android. I have noticed in iPad there are different apps of same game for iPad and iPhone and most of them are for iPhone only and they dont fit properly on the iPad screen while on Android its the same app for the tablet and the phone and it runs full screen with proper scaling, of course that is for tablets and phones running Ice Cream Sandwich.

So i cant really say which OS is the BEST because both of them have disadvantages and their own advantage.

PS: if you made a poll it would have been better :D

[MicroApple911]

I'll stick with PC for gaming, but i'd say iOS and Android are about the same.. even though I think Android is a better mobile os.

[RH00D]

I don't really believe there is a "best" anything because it's all about preferences and what your wants/needs are but if you're a Xbox Live user then Windows Phone is great with it's Xbox Live integration. I haven't actually owned a iOS or Android device but gaming on my Lumia 800 (Windows Phone 7.5) is pretty good, although I don't have anything to compare it with. They have a wide selection of games and although I haven't tried very many, the ones I did were all really high-quality.

[AvoK95]

There's no 'Best'

Every OS has it's good and bad side and one does one thing better or worse than the other one.

I personally prefer Android for being open source and so playable. You can change the whole OS top to bottom for crying out loud.

iOS has it's sides of being very simple fast and smooth and having nice features for someone who simply wants a smartphone

Windows has its own users who just love Microsoft products and like the experience.

[ha1o2surfer]

I agree with the poster above, there is no "best" platform. Look at the console platform for instance.. More people have Xboxes and PS3 (combined) then people with proper gaming rigs yet we think the PC platform is the best. iOS is really tight and polished and works as a gaming platform that suites a lot of people who are casually playing Angry Birds or fruit ninja because it just works. Andriod has come a long way too in terms of making the software run a large number of games on more hardware. iOS makes it look easy because they control the software AND hardware so a lot of people see that as a reason to call it a good mobile gaming platform, and it's true.

[jarreddean]

I feel that windows will soon be a very strong contender in the phone / tablet gaming world I have a wp8 phone alot of very good games have come out in the past month and with the expected release of the Xbox tablet I think big things are coming

[WayToWenzhou]

For gaming, aye? I only have a iPhone so my expertise is really limited, but I'll give it a shot.

The apple appstore has the most apps, so I suppose the game library is the biggest on iOS, but I have noticed there is also a cr@p load of shitty bullsh!t games out there, so I don't think that really counts and almost every paid game has got a 'lite' version that is free. I have noticed that iDevices also get more accessories for things like gaming etc., e.g. the iCade. But I don't think that is really important in determining if it's the best OS for gaming, minding the fact that those accessories are mostly limited to one app or so.

Conclusion: Numbers don't say sh!t. Screw statistics.

*Excuse me for my language, guys. But I can't really describe what I mean with my English vocabulary as it is at the moment.

[fardawg]

For gaming i would have to say iOS and Android have generally the same games, however with the range of devices on Android and the different hardware specs there's plenty of top notch phones that have excellent graphics and very fast cpu's. I would have to say android wins hands down because when it comes down to it do i wanna play on a 3.7, 4 inch smartphone screen or a smartphone with a screen thats up to 5.5 inches (samsung note 2). If you was talking tablets then i believe it shifts to iOS but the nexus 10 is a strong competitor.

[gamer tom]

iOS games usually get released before their Android counterparts and sometimes games don't scale well on Android. There are a lot of quality iOS titles like Letterpress, Infinity Blade, etc. that are not available on Android. I would say iOS is the superior platform for gaming.

[Jay123]

I love my iPhone so I would say iOS but I really don't have a preference.

[zephiK]

Not a big fan of gaming on mobile devices, but I'd probably have to go with Android and the amount of customization you can do in terms of bluetooth controllers and so forth.

Six Axis is a really nice app that can be used for gaming (controller) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dancingpixelstudios.sixaxiscontroller&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5kYW5jaW5ncGl4ZWxzdHVkaW9zLnNpeGF4aXNjb250cm9sbGVyIl0.

[xWacko]

There is no best as it is personal preference. I have in my house many IOS devices (not mine) and many android devices (most are mine) and for me i love the android experience and how google do there things.

I also like that not all the devices look the same i love the look of my nexus 4 it looks stunning. Also 4.2.1 i think now is so much better than IOS but thats just my opinion.

[wing2k5]

I think it depends on how hardcore you are when it comes to gaming.

I don't game on my mobile devices (I have an Android phone and an iPad), just because I like games with alot of depth in gameplay and mobile games just do not give me that. It is for the casual people; people who just want to kill a few minutes of their time.

If you are someone who casually plays games and don't want to spend alot, then maybe iOS is the platform for you. Personally, I think Android and iOS are about the same on the mobile gaming front, although, you generally can get more free games on Android from my experience.

[Jeff]

The android certainly has more potential as devices aren't locked down to specific hardware components. I love my Nexus 7. It does the job!

[Nino]

It comes down to preference. If you lack prowess Android can by blasphemous, but it does have more potential in terms of customization and gaming. (Desktop and console android doesn't seem too bad an idea) But apple's IOS is so simple it's hard to not admire apple for what they have created. Overall Android is my favorite, but it does come down to preference.

EDIT: Tegra 4; google wins :P

[infek]

I personally like Android more, it doesn't feel as restricted as iOS

[TechBlitZ]

A good gaming phone is like a good gaming Pc right? A good gaming PC can pretty much do everything else good as well.

My GF has an iphone 4S, and I have an S3, although they both play the same games great, the S3 is much more fun to play on with the bigger screen

[Steelguy21]

As an owner of both an Android and iOS device the only reasons one would be better over the other would be availability of apps. The Google Play Store is usually really slow with their app releases and can sometimes be weeks behind Apple's App Store. The Google Play Store feels like it has a lot more content but a lot more of it is shovel ware compared to the App Store. I have also seen that Google Play never really has sales but the apps are cheaper on release, It is the complete opposite for the App Store.

For me personally I prefer the Android OS because of the freedom you get for example if I wanted to get a GBA or N64 emulator on my iPhone or iPad I would have to jail break device, with Android you just need to grab the app and have the correct roms.

[Rhizo]

Rooted android is truly free, don't really like ios. Especially with their utter poor excuses for a screen, I mean, kmon, you have to squint to watch a video, it's horrible.

[Riom4]

Rooted android is truly free' date=' don't really like ios. Especially with their utter poor excuses for a screen, I mean, kmon, you have to squint to watch a video, it's horrible.[/quote']

Like he said if you want to be the crazy power user like most people on this forum I would recommend android but with that i would highly recommend rooting your device, reason being is you can overclock your device to get the most performance and then flash custom roms for the most control you can have.

Regards, Riom4

[ObeseWalrus]

I would say Android, because of all those Indie titles and Humble bundles for Android.

[pewpewmerica]

iOS since there are so many games out for it

[Eyal]

I'm waiting for Nvidia Shield...