Motorola and Apple flaunt stunning displays and powerful performance

With smartphones and tablets all the rage and becoming increasingly popular, the demand for better mobile and online applications has meant that major companies have had to largely extend their boundaries in the past decade or so. This inevitably leads to a dissertation of the latest technological devices in the light of their abilities to let these applications shine by way of premium performance, positive user experience and attractive displays. Henceforth, shall be a comparison of the Motorola Nexus 6 and the Apple iPad Air 2, as pertaining to various different applications and the ability of these devices to make applications come to life.

Nexus 6 vs iPad Air 2

Application wise, The Nexus 6 Smartphone is a good choice for its vivid display and for being built on the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop Operating system version from Google - which also makes for stellar and steady performance of applications. Android Lollipop's new interface also goes by the name of Material Design, and can be described as ‘fluid purposeful motion.’ This design interface with its new aesthetic serves a delightfully fluid, playful and colorful experience when using applications, and shapes are marvelously textured. For the purposes of enhancing user experience, this certainly makes for more tangible interaction with content that responds to touch in an instinctual manner.

The Nexus 6’s screen is the largest screen version for an Android device yet, and satisfactorily sized at 5.96 inches, which enables application lovers more room to view and explore. Its phablet-sized 6-inch Quad HD display undoubtedly means stunningly vivid clarity in everything from reading e-books and getting work done with documents, to watching movies and playing poker. With a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and a ultra-crisp screen, applications look and feel especially appealing and engaging.

As for the Apple iPad Air 2, running on Apple’s infamous and totally unique operating iOS 8 system, it similarly and in succession of its predecessors boasts with powerful performance as well as a stunning display. The relentless desire to make the design more simplistic and intrinsically thinner has resulted in a stunningly new and improved screen too. What makes this screen so special is that according to Apple, the layers that make up the backlight, touchscreen digitizer and LCD screen are so close that there is virtually zero air in between them. The result of this is, evidently, a considerably less reflective display that makes applications look brighter, more vibrant and supremely colorful.

With hundreds of thousands of iPad apps to choose from in the Apple store, it undoubtedly makes one feel like a kid in a candy store. These applications are especially designed to use every stunning inch of the iPad’s Retina display as combined with the power of the new A8X chip. From using productivity applications that let you create presentations, build spreadsheets, manage your finances, and write and edit documents; to managing your photography; keeping fit and playing games - everything you do looks great on the iPad Air 2.

Work & Play

For an alternative one-stop entertainment application shop, of course, users need not look further than Google Play on the Nexus 6 to find the latest applications, games and media. In conjunction with Lollipop, the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core 2.7GHz processor of the Nexus 6 provides for effective multi-tasking in the light of application usage. The Adreno 420 GPU similarly delivers brilliant graphics as to be enjoyed for applications on the larger screen. With a Memory of 32 GB or 64 GB plus 3 GB Storage in conjunction with an entirely new Android runtime, this makes for an overall smoother, more responsive and powerful computing experience.

With the added option of enabling the condensation of background applications and services on the Nexus 6, this means users can get more stuff done by running multiple applications simultaneously. Whether the aim is work or play, Apple and Motorola both give one absolute freedom to enjoy some of the very best and top rated applications available today.

Workwise, Microsoft Word as an essential application for creating documents for iPad, and has kept the familiar Office look and feel along with an intuitive touch experience. The Nexus 6 on the other hand similarly offers Microsoft Word in all of its splendor and shares a likeness in authenticity, yet has a slightly revised look and feel to it.

To take a leap from work to play isn’t hard to do at all with either of these devices, and you can seamlessly jump from being a professional businessman to a gamer on-the-go with any one of these devices. Due to various major gaming companies’ successful conversion from mouse and gamepad controls to the touchscreen, games such as the Game of Thrones game app, for instance, is now arguably best experienced on touchscreen devices such as the Nexus 6 and iPad Air 2. With the crystal clear and vibrantly vivid display offered by the Nexus 6, the text and menu items of the Game of Thrones app are easy to read and select, also with an intelligent layout that is showcased well. Control-wise with the Nexus 6, one is actually able to control the characters with ease during the brief action segments of the game.

As for the game’s vividly graphical textures, these undoubtedly come to life marvelously on the iPad’s somewhat larger screen and similarly smooth gameplay. Yet another bonus when playing the latest games with the Nexus 6 is that when switching over to a bigger screen such as NVIDIA, you will find that interfaces switch seamlessly between touchscreen and physical controls.

On par with Game of Thrones, also adapted from the PC screen and onto the screens of both the Nexus 6 and iPad Air 2, is the PokerStars mobile app. As for any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and all other smartphone Android devices, The Nexus 6 and iPad Air 2 offer poker players on the go a most enjoyable experience. The user interface of the newly added features in the PokerStars casino are also a joy to interact with on the iPad Air 2. With features that look splendidly beautiful and gameplay that works seamlessly, the whole experience of playing blackjack or poker on the iPad Air 2 feels authentic.

Notwithstanding this, the Nexus 6 with its powerful performance and stunning graphics similarly illuminates all of the prominent features of the games in a way that is worth mentioning. Generally, game applications such as Game of Thrones and PokerStars for Android devices such as the Nexus 6 perform well and their more specified features are said to outstrip much of the competition. However, this does not at all deem the iPad Air 2 as inferior choice when it comes to the overall functionality and enjoy-ability of any game or application.

iOS vs Android

Generally, the Nexus 6 is liked for different reasons and the same goes for the iPad Air 2 with its exclusive Apple apps that are optimized for 64-bit architecture. Applications run smoothly and seamlessly on both these devices and this makes users capable of just about anything. Between iOS 8 and Lollipop 5, users are spoilt with choice and luxury in terms of a power-packed punch combination of exceptional graphics and excellent performance. Android being Linux-based and partially open-source supports a more PC-like feel than compared to iOS, especially insofar as its interface and basic features are generally more customizable. On the flipside, uniform design elements as encapsulated by iOS are sometimes perceived as being more user-friendly.

Apple iStore vs Google Play

Contentions are that Android is the world’s most commonly used smartphone platform and is used by many different phone manufacturers, whereas iOS is only used on Apple devices. Choosing your smartphone and tablet systems carefully is thus important, as switching from Android to iOS or vice versa would require you to re-buy applications in the Google Play or Apple App Store.

The bottom line when comparing Google and Apple's app stores is that most popular applications are available for both platforms, as we’ve seen above. Notwithstanding this, there are more applications designed specifically for the iPad while Android tablet applications are often scaled up versions of Android smartphone apps. This also involves the reason why developers often focus on one platform when they first launch their smartphone application - as they cannot serve multiple from onset. For example, the popular Instagram application was initially launched with iOS, and the Android application came about at a later stage.

Wi-Fi

As a final thought and something additional to consider besides the quality of experience and user-friendliness of mobile applications, is your internet connection. Although most mobile applications will not be too heavy on your data plan, once you’re relying on mobile broadband services, you cannot be but weary of hitting a dead zone when in the middle of doing something important or when playing a game. Smooth sailing and playing is of course always ensured if you have a consistent flow of a decent Wi-Fi or mobile connection - regardless of which device you are using. Remember that once you disconnect while playing through your iPad or Nexus 6, you might lose out on some valuable data or some very good poker hands, for that matter!

In conclusion we might also consider the notion that since iOS is only available on Apple devices such as the iPad Air 2, these tend to turn out to be more expensive than equivalent hardware such as Android. But however it may stand and whatever your choice of device between these two equivalent technological giants, it is strongly recommended to use a Wi-Fi connection whenever possible.