iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
News Category: iPhone

After its initial, human-based touchscreen stress testing saw the iPhone besting three rival Android handsets—the HTC Droid Eris, the Motorola Droid, and the HTC-built Google Nexus One—the MOTO Development Group has performed another set of tests using a laboratory robot to remove any inconsistencies caused by human error. The new tests again found that the iPhone bests its rivals in both “medium” and “very light” touch tests, using 7mm and 4mm test fingers, respectively. Notably, this new round of testing included the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm 2 in addition to the four phones that were included in the original test; the Pre was “second to iPhone in linearity in [the] ‘medium’ test,” while both the Droid Eris and Nexus One offered “solid performance” with “some waviness.” Additionally, the Droid, Pre, and Storm 2 all showed significant signal loss during the “very light” test; the Droid exhibited signal loss in the “medium” test as well. MOTO notes that “what matters most isn’t the performance of the touchscreen itself, but how well a touchscreen performs in combination with its operating system and user-interface,” but says it’s useful to look at touchscreen performance in isolation, because “it is a central ingredient in the mix and a good indicator of how satisfying a touchscreen experience is likely to be.”