Which mobile OS is best ?

Which mobile operating system is best? Android vs iOS vs Windows 10 Mobile

Android vs iOS vs Windows 10 Mobile: Which OS is best?

More important than any hardware concerns when shopping for a new smartphone is establishing which OS is right for you.

Are you a die-hard Apple fanboy? Does Android send you all Googley eyed? Or is Windows more your thing? Maybe it's time you stepped outside your comfort zone and tried something new. You never know, you might just like it.

We've thoroughly tested out each of the big three (or big two-and-a-half as the case may be at present) to see how they stack up - iOS 9, Android Marshmallow, and Windows 10 Mobile. From notifications to apps, quick settings to custom skins - we've tried it all.

This is the ultimate smartphone operating system battle. Now, get ready…

ANDROID VS IOS VS WINDOWS 10 MOBILE: DESIGN AND INTERFACE

In the many years since Android, iOS and Windows for Mobile (as it used to be called) have been powering devices everywhere, the way they each look and function has changed significantly.

Actually, let us rephrase that. Android and Windows Mobile have both gone through numerous makeovers, yet Apple has kept iOS looking fairly similar since its 2007 launch.

Android got its biggest design upgrade in 2014, with the introduction of Lollipop 5.0. This brought a whole new 'Material Design' look and feel that cranked up the number of animations and altered almost every part to give it that extra bit of gloss.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the newest version, continues with the basic look of Lollipop. Most of its changes relate to the back end.

The basics of Android are the same as they've been for years, though. You've got a lock screen that displays notifications, then, once unlocked, you've got an app-centric home screen. And there's an app drawer for storing everything else you've downloaded.

iOS follows this blueprint too, though Apple ditches the app drawer, instead giving you just the app icon-filled home screens. It's the simplest of the three, and it's difficult to argue with its usability - unless you have loads of apps, in which case a provision like Android's and Windows 10's app tray would be useful.

Windows 10 Mobile takes a completely different design path from the competition. Its homescreen is a tiled interface, with resizable tiles flipping over to display more information about that app. You can swipe to the left to get to all your apps and just like iOS and Android, you can group apps together in folders.

Live Tiles give you little nuggets of information without forcing you to open an app - the BBC Sport app, for example, gives you a scrolling view of breaking news throughout the day. This glanceable style can also be applied to Android, where optional widgets can be added to the homescreens. Widgets have been a mainstay on Android since the very first version.

Apple took until iOS 8 (it's currently on iOS 9.2) to add something similar, though it's not as well integrated as on the other platforms. They're called Extensions, and rather than sitting on the homescreen they're found in the drop-down Notification Centre, but they work pretty much the same as Live Tiles or widgets.

We'd like to see Apple give us a bit more freedom over where these handy information gatherers could sit, but the Cupertino company's reluctance to switch up the overall look of the homescreen makes us think that will likely never happen.

All three also have a couple of neat design tricks up their respective sleeves when it comes to getting more from the home screens. A quick swipe down from the top of each brings up a notification shade, grouping together all your emails, messages and calls, while both Android and Windows give you quick settings here too. These let you easily turn off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and the like.

Apple added a similar settings shortcut feature in iOS 7 with Control Centre. This time you swipe up from the bottom of screen to get direct access to a torch, a brightness slider, media controls, Wi-Fi, and so on. We're big fans of Apple's approach here - it's become one of our most commonly used functions in iOS.

Now, there's one big thing that separates Android from Windows 10 Mobile and iOS and that's skinning. We'll talk more about this later, but it basically gives OEMs (Samsung, HTC, LG etc.) free reign to turn Android into whatever they want. What Google says is how Android should look in the Nexus 6P is not necessarily what you'll get if you pick up a Samsung Galaxy S6 or HTC One M9.

Windows 10 Mobile has come a long way since the Windows for Mobile days and it's rather good looking - we think anyway. It's actually very similar to Windows Phone 8.1 before it. But it still falls behind the other two. Android is our favourite design-wise, especially when it's presented the way Google intended.

ANDROID VS IOS VS WINDOWS 10 MOBILE: APPS - STOCK AND DOWNLOADABLE

How the operating systems looks and handles is important, but it arguably pales in comparison to the real difference maker between all these three: the apps.

Apps and app stores can make or break an operating system. You can have a gorgeous look, slick feel and, as Microsoft has found with successive Windows mobile platforms, still fail if your app situation is not up to par.

iOS, Android and Windows 10 Mobile each have their own storefront - iOS has the App Store, Android has Google Play and Windows 10 Mobile has the Windows Store.

A few years ago, Apple dominated the app space. It had the best apps, both in terms of functionality and design. It also had the 'triple-A' games, and overall developer support was top notch. If a new app or app update was coming, it would most likely hit iOS first.

The story has changed somewhat in recent years, but not entirely. Android now has pretty much all of the big-name apps, and new ones are typically launched more or less simultaneously with iOS (or not long after). Some even make their debut on Android, owing to Google's more relaxed approval process.

Many triple-A games are also seeing an equal release footing between iOS and Android, though iOS still has more of an advantage here than with regular apps. That can largely be put down to the persistent issue of Android hardware and software fragmentation, which poses more of a challenge for game developers due to the added performance demands.

There's still definitely an iOS bias here. Spotify and Instagram, for example, both tend to trial new features with their iOS apps before bringing them to Android later.

And then there's Windows 10 Mobile. Ah, Windows 10 Mobile. It's certainly safe to say that in the app landscape, Microsoft's baby currently lags a distant third. Make no mistake, there are plenty of apps on Windows 10 Mobile and the number of big players offering something for the platform is growing. Spotify, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Instagram are all present and correct, and that covers a lot of the apps people use on a daily basis. But such apps frequently lag behind the top two 

platforms when it comes to receiving updates, and they often lack fairly fundamental features. Developers seem to release an app, mention it now supports Windows 10 Mobile and then turn their attention back to iOS and Android.

Windows 10 Mobile offers hope in that it's built on the same core as Windows 10 itself. The main advantage of this is that it's possible to create universal apps that works in both the desktop and mobile environments. The company also put some work into making it easier to port apps from Android and iOS to Windows 10 Mobile, but the main initiative is those Universal Apps.

That's the idea, anyway. In practice, the Windows 10 app ecosystem has gotten off to a slightly shaky start. Developers have been slow on the uptake (perhaps burned by previous Windows and Windows Phone systems), and those Windows 10 Universal Apps that have been made haven't always been of the best quality.

But it's still early days for Windows 10, and Microsoft seems determined to stay the course. This is supposed to be "the last version of Windows", after all. From now on, Windows will be a service that's constantly and incrementally improved, and there's a clear path to ensuring a well-supported mobile ecosystem within that.

All we need now is a few more decent apps and some compelling Windows 10 Mobile hardware (a Surface Phone, maybe?), and iOS and Android might have to think about glancing back for a second.

Built-in apps also make a big difference to how the operating system functions. Many Android OEMs bake in their own apps, but Google's suite of core apps - Gmail, Calendar, Photos, Maps - are all fantastic. They're well integrated, slick looking and work every time. You can also grab them all, apart from Photos, if you're running iOS.

Apple's default apps for iOS are spartan in design terms, but they're a good choice if you're heavily tied into Apple's ecosystem. Notes will sync back to your Mac, you can beam Map directions to your phone and tap out an iMessage (free messaging

between iOS and OS X devices) on your desktop. Unlike on Android, you can't set which apps are your default, which also means you're stuck with the Apple-provided phone and messages apps for handling calls and SMS messages.