Motorola vs. iPhone Ad: Is Voice Actions Really Faster Than Siri?

As much as I love it when one company viciously pummels another company's product in a slickly-made advertising spot, I had to pause when I saw Motorola's attack ad on Siri the other day. In case you missed it, Motorola has now unleashed four of these flame-throwing videos, all of which show Android's Voice Actions on a Motorola phone sprinting past Siri on an iPhone 4S as they race to see who can complete four basic voice-activated tasks the fastest.

The Motorola phone, and Android Voice Actions, won each time, their victories met with the sustained cheers of a canned applause track that was, at best, lukewarm about the results (By the way: Seriously, Motorola? You just defeated the top-selling iPhone 4S in a head-to-head competition against its most prized feature! Can't you find a fainting lady sound effect, screaming cheerleaders, an Andrew W.K. guitar riff -- something to get the blood pumping a little bit??).

Anyway, because of all the disclaimers, fine print, and rampant accusations of video doctoring in the comments sections of tech blogs across the Internet, I decided to try replicating the Motorola vs. Siri ad word-for-word on my own Motorola and Apple phones.

The video below is the result. It was filmed in one take, and on the first take. Please excuse the slight rattling sound toward the middle of the test; I blew most of my production budget on hair and makeup.

One final disclaimer: I was unable to track down an Atrix 4G, so I was forced to use my Motorola Droid X instead. Please insert complaints about how this invalidates the test in the comments section below.

Also, for those who haven't seen the original advertisement, you can check it out below.

And now, away we go. Which is really faster: Android Voice Actions on the Motorola Droid X or Siri on the iPhone 4S?

My take:

Motorola's take:

I think the video, and the results therein, speak for themselves. Android's Voice Actions is simply much faster at processing, transcribing and enacting voice commands. The draw of Siri, of course, is that it attempts to understand natural language and can act on a wider variety of prompts than Voice Actions. For example, if you want to tell your Android phone to call Dorothy, you have to specifically say the words "Call Dorothy Foster." With Siri, you can say "Call Dorothy Foster" or "Can you call Dorothy Foster for me?" or "I need to talk to Dorothy Foster," and the iPhone will dial Dorothy's number for you.

I also did speed tests on the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and the HTC Evo 4G, and all three easily outpaced the iPhone 4S. At this point, then, the choice between Siri and Android's Voice Actions seems like a trade-off between speed and functionality: Either memorize the commands and go really fast, or speak naturally and prepare to wait a little bit.

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Comments

[dacapm01]

11:45 PM on 03/04/2012

the googles is the bestest

[sheoples]

07:21 PM on 03/03/2012

HA HA! siri is slow

[mairs]

05:38 PM on 03/04/2012

Voice Actions needs specific commands.

Tastes better? Or less filling?

[max pain]

01:12 PM on 03/03/2012

the patent system is a joke, and everyone needs to chill with the lawsuits.

[Daigham]

05:48 PM on 03/02/2012

Not that I like the idea of doing less or rather not possessing the knowledge to do what you are asking your app to yourself, I am a big supporter of Google products and usually lean more towards what the have to offer than Apple. With that said the results do not surprise me in the slightest and while I could provide a slew of technical reasons for why this is the case I'm not going to because the proof is in the pudding as you can run your own case studies or watch the videos and make your own conclusions.

[Post31]

03:36 PM on 03/02/2012

Do you use your machine or does it use you?

[clearthinker2008]

11:55 AM on 03/02/2012

It doesn't matter for Apple fans, Apple just has that certain...Je ne sais quoi. Must be nice to be Apple co.

[gdatomic]

03:59 PM on 03/02/2012

Apple delivers excellent functionality that reliably "just works". Some people want something different and that's great. But don't give me this BS that it's a je ne sais quoi. Apple succeeds because they deliver critical value.

But heck, keep mis-leading yourself and the rest of the world as much as you want. That will just keep Apple as the single company who can demand the tremendous profit advantage reaped from products that deliver like theirs do.

OR, you could try to identify the value the deliver, then find better ways to deliver that value and you'd get that profit. (And I think we could use some companies who effectively compete with Apple.)

[Xenite]

06:03 PM on 03/02/2012

Apple succeeds at one thing....marketing.

Absolutely nothing Apple makes cannot be found elsewhere, just as reliable and for cheaper. But feel free to keep misleading yourself that you are getting a good deal.

[KeepNIt2Real]

10:25 AM on 03/02/2012

I was never interesting in an iPhone...I'm happy with my Droid phone, always have been and won't switch.

[Housing Is Cratering]

09:10 AM on 03/02/2012

Side by side, my Motorola Xoom beats our IPad, hands down. Google's Android will crush Apple.

[frank day]

08:08 AM on 03/02/2012

But Apple is way cooler.

[MichaelAKD]

11:31 PM on 03/02/2012

"Way cooler" that is precisely the market segment apple goes for, make it so simple a child can use it and make it look fashionable as well. Don't get me wrong the $2500 i invested in apple back in 2000 paid for the home i bought my mother recently but that said apple has never been overly concerned with technically savvy end users.

[John Crane]

06:48 AM on 03/02/2012

I expected to be surprised by the result, but I wasn't. What's deceptive are the Apple Siri commercials.

[nishioka]

11:31 PM on 03/02/2012

> What's deceptive are the Apple Siri commercials.

Really? Take the one where the couple goes to Santa Cruz. I repeated every question in that ad word for word to my own iPhone, and Siri returned accurate (and valid) results to every one of them.

The product works exactly as advertised. So how is the advertisement deceptive?

[Eyeful]

01:55 AM on 03/02/2012

Siri sure sounds a lot better than the real person your trying to talk to on the AT&T network. All this fantastic technology, yet often I find myself yelling "hello? HELLO!!?" as if it were an early 20th century telephone.

[VoiceOfReason2U]

01:12 AM on 03/02/2012

For Christmas I got my sons and myself the new Droid Razr because I didn't want to sighn a new contract with ATT for an iphone 4s upgrade and had seen the voice recognition comparisons and thought the Razr was going to be better than Siri on the iphone 4s. Thankfully Verizon has a 14 day opt out policy and today, my sons and I are using the iphone 4s on ATT. ATT's network is faster with iphone 4s than Verizon, so take the HP test with a grain of salt. Siri is WAY better in real life than Droid voice recognition.

[Doc Wattson]

12:57 AM on 03/03/2012

I think it matters where you live. I live in NYC and Verizon is SOOOO much better than AT&T it isn't even close. Also Verizon's 4G network is faster at least 4 times faster than AT&T's 3G network (to state the obvious). People are ditching AT&T here in NYC for Verizion, even if they are deciding to stick with iPhones. I got a Rarz Maxx on Verzion and recommend it highly.

[VoiceOfReason2U]

09:47 AM on 03/03/2012

Because of the type of 3G network ATT uses, it's a lot faster then Sprint and Verizon, but it's only the iphone 4s that's effected.
http://gizmodo.com/5846655/att-iphone-4s-will-be-faster-than-verizon-and-sprints

[sabrina D]

12:28 AM on 03/02/2012

i use android mobiles and am favourite of it

[Brit6109]

12:24 AM on 03/02/2012

I had never had an "I" anything before and was prepared to be impressed. I like the speed of transition and loading apps on the I Phone but I have to say that Siri seriously needs some work. It understands about half of what I say when I try to use it as voice to text. The advertisements say that Siri learns but I have not seen that at all. I do not have a strong dialect and as a teacher, I have worked on clear speech. I like the phone but Siri is useless.

[anthonytaurus]

11:09 PM on 03/01/2012

Screw Siri! I want that Galaxy Note just for the pen. That's everything! I used to get a lot done on my PocketPC back in the day with that pen. Started papers in college while on the train. Wrote emails and sent them thru the infrared port thru my Ericsson phone (only one to have infrared ports at the time). And, that will answer the complex problem of needing to take off your gloves during winter just to use your phone.

However, I hate these huge screens. iPhone sux and I'd never spend my money on one but the size is ideal for a PHONE. A lot of people, realizing they don't do much with their PCs at home, are picking up these phones because of the extra stuff it can do. I'm glad they brought that pen back. Utility and versatility will always be a game changer.

[DIgnified]

04:52 AM on 03/02/2012

Galaxy 10.1 rooted with overclocking is a little slice of heaven. You want to know why apple is really fighting the galaxy? Use one. The ease is beautiful, but the speed is astounding.