I am choosing Android based on I get better bang for buck, get bigger storage (microSD), and have access to its internal storage (like Windows).
Perhaps my primary reason of the above is Price. I can't afford Apple pricing.
What is your primary reason?
Edit: interesting result. I thought the highest vote would be on Price or Value.
Good question. I manage my privacy fairly well so that is not is a huge issue for me. Most of my smartphone experience is via apps which is same across both the platforms. My S8 is on a pretty good plan cost me $45 pm over 2 years with Optus on a special = 1080 for phone + plan. I use widgets to display share prices, trello cards, whatsapp chat - it gives me dashboard control. Accessories are more cost effective - I use Gear 3.
To be honest my next upgrade may be to be OnePlus, Huawei but Privacy is a real concern there so I may stay with Samsung/HTC.
I have not considered retained value as my phone as it is passed on to a family. Hope that helps.
I thought two $1000 phones from each brand in the same condition would worth the same after the same number of years?
Not at all, the iPhone will be double if not triple the value of any Android phone after few years use.
Use the phone until it dies then resale value doesn't matter.
In my experience both iphones and higher end android phones die in about same time.
But a four year old Android will have 3 and a half year old OS, while a four year old iPhone will still be receiving OS updates.
@ThithLord: And what new features do you get with updates these days?
There doesn't seem to be much innovation in either side other than battery performance.
@ThithLord: LG Nexus 5 owner here. Purchased 2014. Running Android Nougat nice and smoothly, about to upgrade it to Oreo.
Meanwhile the Apple iPad mini that work bought me new in 2015 is stuck at iOS 9 (3 versions old) and is noticeably sluggish.
YMMV
iTunes…
What about it? I've been using it for years and never had a problem.
No drag and drop and the need for file conversion sucks.
And if nothings changed from earlier, you have to connect the iphone to the same computer you've got itunes installed on to get content into the device. That's bad for travelling if I'm not carrying my own laptop.
Can't believe this doesn't have more hits. ITunes was the last nail in the coffin for me amongst other Apple related annoyances. 🤕 🔫
There’s this app called Waltr that fixes all of these issues and a fair bit more, but certainly having access to the file system would be a hell of a lot easier
Well file conversion isn't an issue if you know what you're doing; it's not Apple's problem you sourced your media from alternate locations…
it's not Apple's problem you sourced your media from alternate locations
You're right that it's not Apple's problem - hence the reason I choose an Android device that allows me to easily watch/listen to whatever media format I like.
Using it IS the problem. Can't just go to a friend's house and plug in my phone to share bootlegs.
Same. I never bought anything apple after my first experience with iTunes. My car only had a MP3 CD player. It was a nightmare trying to copy my iTunes songs to a CD. I realised early that being locked into their ecosystem and hardware is not worth it.
iTunes made me drop Apple.
I had no problem spending $$ for the latest and greatest, but when a new phone can't do something that a 10 year old PDA can it is … annoying
Now all my paid apps are android so I'm stuck with them.
I have an iPhone. Used iTunes once to back up…. didn’t bother again, just use iCloud to backup….
Have no use for iTunes but still get all the usability I need in a phone
Hasn’t been needed for years.
I often hear this from many Android users. Apple needs to get the word out that iTunes is not needed at all for iPhone or iPad.
1) Backups are done automatically, reliably via iCloud
2) Music can be obtained through the device directly (Apple Music), or just use Spotify, or any other 3rd party app.
3) Use VLC’s app, which hosts a webpage on your device, which allows you to effortlessly upload videos to your device. These videos can be any format, and can be obtained from anywhere.
iCloud costs money. On Android you can back up things like SMS etc with third party apps for free.
Extra storage costs money, you get 5gb free. 50gb is a measly $1.49 per month.
iTunes is not needed at all for iPhone or iPad.
I could be wrong, but I recall a thread here not long ago where someone's kid locked their ipad and the only way they could unlock it was using to plug it into itunes on their laptop.. that they didn't bring on their travels. So they were pretty much left with a brick for the rest of the trip.
iTunes was such a horrendous pile of garbage, and time and time again I'd do an update to my phone and find I had no storage space left and it would say that my phone had 70% of undeleteable "Other".
That experience was enough to make me swear off it.
You can just drag and drop files. You don't need to use a proprietory software. With any laptops/computers…
Oh and you can put MKV files, and it will play fine, instead of being forced to downgrade to mp4, using said proprietory software.
adguard which works on ALL apps, not just the browser.
The fact you once your warranty is finished, AND you don't get anymore official updates, you can still root AND get more updates.
Firefox and it's addons, you can even bypass paywall…
apkmirror…
Usb-c >lightning
Buying an iphone, may mean you're stuck in the apple ecosystem. which means you are spending MORE money on other apple branded things.
So many options for different builds of android phones out there, that would suit anyone's tastes.
Bendable phone coming to android next year. Coming to apple in 4 years at 5* the price, but through some weird logic, it'll be them coming out first.
Instead of spending money on the brand, you get all these awesome goodies. Each to their own.
You don't need to use a proprietory software.
iTunes on Windows is still an absolute mess of a program. Utterly useless. It's almost impressive how long they've kept the program this useless.
Part of the plan. Everyone who has an iPhone already has a Mac pc too
False. Never used a Mac. Love my iPhone.
Used iTunes to back up phone once. Haven’t bothered again cos iCloud does it.
I have absolutely zero use for itunes
@erbasaki: Doesn't iCloud have a subscription cost? My wife has an iPhone and I'm sure she said she had to pay to get her 64GB phone backed up.
I thought adguard only works on Yandex and Samsung Browser as per their description in the app?
the proper adguard app. You can't get it on the play store (as it stops ads…). It's on their website.
It can also work with orbot(tor) as proxy. Best piece of app I've ever found.
Will check it out. Thanks
For me personally, after making the move to the Pixel 2 XL, it was hard to look back. A combination of the Telstra $59 F&F Deal ($49 with the port in discount), in my opinion the more progressive OS, the overwhelmingly better battery life, and the camera… oh that camera… it's goodbye to a consistent use of iPhones since the 3GS in 2010. I bought my unit late enough that I never saw the blue shift screen problem, and what some might describe as a subpar OLED panel, I find the muted colours more pleasing than the oversaturated.
I'll never argue for anyone removing the headphone jack, it's obviously a cash grab if Samsung can still integrate them in their flagships, but the benefits are good enough for me to adjust accordingly.
So many reasons:
- Way cooler and customisable UI (AppleOS is made for toddlers)
- Lot better HW for the price
- Don't have to be part of Apple's closed ecosystem
- Full control over my files without having to use 3rd party software (Eg. iTunes)
- Avoid stigma of being an Apple user (tech luddites)
- Microphone jack
- SD card slot
- Removable betteries
- Lots more handset options from different manufacturers
Nice Microphone jack.
Not many more phones with removable batteries.
Just a better OS, flexible.
Hate anything Apple its purposely difficult and geared towards old people and children.
Android always is ahead of Apple - I choose alphabetically.
Nice one.
It's a hard one, I used to be a die hard Android fan, and I still have a soft spot for it. I started with a HTC as my first Android smartphone. Went to a Samsung S3, then a Note 4, then switched to an iPhone 5, iPhone 6S Plus, Note 8 and now an iPhone XS Max. I got rid of the Note 8 due to extremely poor battery life and I haven't looked back yet, the battery life experience has been day and night in comparison. I use both devices in very similar ways, the Note 8 was at 70% by the time I got in to work off the train (streaming music, watch youtube videos with bluetooth headphones in, screen on for 30+ minutes). I do the same with my new iPhone and I'm at 90-94%.
I find it easy to switch between ecosystems as I do my best not to lock myself in, I use iCloud and Google Photos to backup photos and I don't keep anything too important stored locally on the devices.
My experience has been that iOS just works, it's seamless and the user experience is very easy. Android has come a long way and Samsung has done a much better job recently with Samsung Experience, but the Android OS' lack of efficiency is annoying. I may have been able to get better battery life from my Note 8, but most likely would have to customise a ton of options and settings to get it ticking along nicely, I haven't had to do that with iOS and frankly, I shouldn't have to tweak every god known option or setting to get the device operating to a satisfactory standard.
The biggest thing I've thought about recently, Apple have a very strong mandate around customer privacy and not selling user data, which is the complete opposite for the likes of Google. Android OS records a ton of stuff and uses that to make money off you, hence why they can ship it out to any phone manufacturer for free. With Google, you're the product whereas I see Apple selling you the product, hence the heftier price tag.
There is one thing I really struggle to use in iOS: The apps won't run in the background.
So if I need Google Photos to backup my photos, I need it to be open on the foreground.
I can't browse the net, I can't turn it off, I have to keep it on and unlocked, and preferably charged.
That's strange, I backup photos from my iPhone 6 using OneDrive app, works just fine in the background and I rarely open the app. Might be a Google app limitation?
Same thing with OneDrive.
Also can't get iCloud to backup all my photos.
Things is I only start backing up after I almost reach my storage limit. Maybe that's why.
From my experience it does backup, but at an extremely slower rate. When I opened Google Photos for the first time on my new iPhone it told me it would be faster while the app was open. I use iCloud primarily as it's well integrated. But open Google Photos intermittently to backup so I have a clone there.
@sghetti: I also had to open the Google photos app randomly to make it consistently backup.
Apparently if you allow the locations to be turned on, it will backup by itself more often.
But i had the same issue with the 6s and 7
This is quite simply incorrect. Apps run in the background without issue at all, my man. Must'a been something up with your phone or how you use it. User error.
I'm talking about Android OS in general, it doesn't even compare to iOS for efficiency. Android OS' pings your device for all sorts of analytics, a lot of it not for your benefit.
I actually loved the interface on Samsung Experience 8.5 and Android Oreo. Things seemed a lot cleaner and faster. It's come a long way from the first couple of iterations of the S model.
Thanks for the downvote whoever it was. I work in technology in mobile security, app design and deployment and it's just how it is. Apple is easier to develop for, and much easier to support. A handful of versions of iOS and device models to support, compared to 15,000 plus combinations of Android OS versions (severely fragmented due to carriers controlling OS updates), devices and manufacturers butchering Android OS for their own purposes. With easier and more streamlined UX, comes restrictions in what the end user can do. There are compromises made and for some, that is a deal-breaker.
In my personal situation, I'm busy and don't have a lot of time to spend tweaking my phone to work perfectly, I just want to be able to get in to apps and use my device. I tried to do that with my Note 8, but it failed me in needing to be near a charger most of the day, so iOS just seems to work for me nowadays. I've used both for a long period of time and loved both for their own reasons.
Android is extremely powerful and has apps that will most likely never be seen on Apple devices. But the reasons above are why a lot of standard consumer apps hit Apple products before Android. There are certainly some apps that don't follow this trend, but it's a minority. Apple review all apps that are submitted and ensure apps meet certain requirements regarding design and security, I've seen them first-hand reject apps and request re-work on certain features. Ensuring most apps behave in very similar ways.
I think most people in this thread havent used iOS enough to know what theyre talking about.
Im dyed in the wool android, but the Apple security and privacy settings is by far and away better than android.
There’s plenty of good reasons in this thread to hate on Apple. The proprietary ports and accessories are ludicrous and downright price gouging. But they aren’t a 1T company for nothing, they have the money and power to hire the brightest minds in the business to design devices and UX for them.
Picked up some AirPods for my new iPhone and bloody hell, although you can get away with standard Bluetooth, the convenience of how well the AirPods work with the iPhone is amazing. I’ve never been able to get a similar experience from an Android device.
Battery, dont apple's last 10% battery vanish into void?
For a minute you have 11% left, next you are on 1%.
Happens with any mobile device with a battery. Not an iPhone issue specifically.
Not going to be the case with everyone, but my personal experience has been significantly better battery life on iPhones. I’ve had a Note 4 and a Note 8 and the iPhone 6S Plus and iPhone XS Max have blown them out of the water in battery life.
You can’t even compare Android resource management to iOS.
I have been using iPhones for about 5 years - never had this issue. I think this could happen with any phone where the battery is old or unstable.
I hate iTunes.
I hated how I had to 'import' my downloaded MP3's rather than just see the folder and drag in.
I hear this argument alot. But how do you keep all your music organised when all you have is a folder full of .mp3's?
@ipodisclassic I organise my mp3 collection in folders too. I organise into folders of music genre then list alphabetically. Band name - album name (year). I've been doing this since 2000. It just works easily and is intuitive for me.
Most music players can sort via folder structure. You have a music folder - artists - albums. Exactly the same as my desktop. Just drag and drop the whole folder and any new songs will add in.
Also a iTunes hater here because if you have anything other than English all the song names and id tags become jibberish
I have iTunes and non English song names are fine. Japan is Apple crazy and don’t have any issues. I assume you’re running latest version of OS + iTunes?
Symbian FTW
"acting"
Value, but its been a long time since i owned an apple device which even then was a ipad so idk if i'd even enjoy the apple OS as ive been android for mobile phones since The Samsung Galaxy S release (the first Galaxy S mobile).
Same with me. I switched from iPhone 3G
Freedom. Customisation. Superiority. These are things I value. I'm the kind of guy who sets the options menu to advanced in a program/app.
I'm a big android fan but apple security and privacy is starting to look enticing.
Go with a phone that has Android one
Value + I like to use custom ROMs + Xposed/Magisk modules.
While iOS can be jail broken, it seems to be way more locked down, whereas Android you can get a new phone on the newest OS, flash TWRP, and go nuts.
Same here.
I want to be able to mod my phone how I see fit. Easier done on Android than iOS.
The problem with android is that there are just SO many "android" phones and 90% of them are budget, low spec hardware with 0 support for updating the OS after its manufacturered. This leaves a bad taste for Android in people's mind and makes people think android phones are cheap, slow and crap.
I've been buying flagship androids since HTC was a thing. Absolutely loved the value for money, the widgets, the productivity and hardware apps.
I moved over to google built phones from the Galaxy Nexus and have stuck with the cleanliness and longevity of pure google OS ever since.
Now with Android One giving pure android experience on cheaper phones, I have been hooked in with the camera specs. Even as a photography hobbyist with a decent mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, I'm blown away with the low light and hdr of the Pixel camera.
Nowadays, I know the majority of the cost of a Pixel phone is due to marketing, just like Apple. But the camera, the widgets, the amount of hardware apps and apps to access things like Usenet and Torrents remotely that just aren't accessible on iOS is what keeps me with android. Plus SIMPLE things like using the phones storage space as a hard drive or playing MP3s, mkvs, accessing a network storage etc is still limited on iOS??!!
Plus, I find the iOS interface frustrating personally. The layout looks exactly like it did in iOS 4 (I have a 3gs the kids use and it looks the same as iOS 12 to me). The settings layout is designed for idiots and is annoying to find anything. And the lack of widgets and poor excuse of OS widgets is pathetic. IMO they designed iOS to be used by kids and old people, and have kept it familiar so that oldies don't complain they can't find anything.
You can't customise the widgets, you are still stuck with a home screen with ALL your apps making a mess of it. 0 ability to change the launcher or customise anything. In 2018, that's insane.
People say iPhones just work. But I have friends with iPhones that freeze, brick, crash or have hardware faults.
But if someone who's used an iPhone for years asks what to buy, I just tell them to stick with it if they like it. Trying to explain the benefits to someone who hasn't felt the need for them is futile.
That said, they are good phones and the OS has subtle things that are really nice. A lot of effort goes into design of the phone and OS. And because it's all one, controlled ecosystem, there uniformity to it all. Definitely positives and negatives to be had for both. It comes down to personal taste now.
Back when I had an iPhone 3GS I had to send it away under warranty because I had more than 50 dead pixels.
My friends iPhone 5C had to be taken to the Apple store because it broke and she couldn't get back into her phone, they had to replace it.
This week it was announced that the new Apple XS has a fault too, you can't charge them unless your screen is awake. How stupid is that?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2018/10/05/apple-new…
That stability people brag about with Apple, they don't realise how many hardware variants Android and Windows have to support, I find it quite impressive really that with the huge amounts of varying hardware they support most of the time it works great.
I have been an Android fan since the beginning.
- Endless customisation esp with custom ROMs - I was able to "revive" an old Galaxy S2 simply by adding in NeatROM and that extended the life of the phone by another 2 years. I then gave it to my mom after re-imaging it and she was able to use it for another 1.5 years.
- Some of the apps on Android are free while the similar feature may be paid on Apple. For example, apps to access my shared drive on the LAN and play media files was free with the apps available on Google Play but not the case with Apple Store.
- Ability to search through Amazon Appstore not only Google Play. I was able to get the Neocal Advanced Calculator on Amazon Appstore for free when the Google Play store had it for $10 - this was over two years ago. Still works ever so perfectly even now.
- Directly install apk files (assuming you trust the source).
- Some of the apps are just too good that I could not find an equivalent on the iPhone. For example ES File Explorer Pro allows me to access the local drive, my LAN drive, my memory card and my Google Drive all in one app.
- Simply drag and drop files across the different "devices" using the ES File Explorer Pro app. One feature I use a lot.
Having said all that, I do respect the Apple iPhone too. It is one of the well-built phones I have used and the UI is so easy that kids can use it too. So while I am a "tinkerer", I accept that people like my partner just wants a phone that works. I have tried to convince them but I accept that they like their iPhone and that's it. But for me, it's Android all the way.
This summarises it perfectly. Android is for when you want to get more out of your phone than what it was made for. iOS is great for the rest.
Apple lost the race years ago. IPhone is old tech and very overpriced with no quality or tech improvement over Samsung for example.
Apple has been playing catch up for a very long time now and is slow to adopt commonplace tech.
Oh god this is the most ignorant comment I've read on this thread. You literally have zero idea of what you are talking about. Zero.
The fact that Androids generally dont die in the arse after 24 months..
The fact that iPhones generally dont die in the arse after 24 months..
FTFY
My iPhone 4 is still going strong yet my partner's android phone dies 5 minutes after taking it off the charger and if you answer a call and take it off the charger it dies instantly. It also crashes on loading of most apps. It is 14 months old.
lol don't bother - this dude is obviously delirious if he thinks Android phones last longer than iPhones.
They don't die, they just getting sllooowwww when growing old. Make sense right?
In the past this was true, although iOS 12 has improved performance on older devices. Fingers crossed Apple continues to do this (or at least not slow down devices) going forward.
It really annoys me how they choose to use their own propriety ports over the common industry standard (i.e. Lightning vs USB-C or micro). Apple is about locking people in to their ecosystem and charging for that privilege. I choose not to be a pawn in their game.
Anyway, as their market share slips and slips (for the reasons detailed by others on this post), this "locking people in" strategy becomes less profitable in the long term. I for one look forward to a future where the focus with mobile phones is on technology empowering consumers rather than overpricing for a brand name.
You enjoyed using the variants of micro and mini usb?
Those were the options before finally usb C has provided a decent connector.
Apple developed a propriateray connector out of necessity as they do in a lot of different areas.
Mini usb was never a standard for phones, it's only ever been micro usb and now usb c. Both of which have a better functional design than the lightning connector.
USB C was co developed with Apple. Notice how they have it on their latest laptops? Notice how it has some similarities to the lightning connector?
Do you seriously want to tell me that Micro USB had better functional design? Please do explain…
@Karfaffel: Co-developed with many companies. What similarities does it have with the lightning connector, aside from being reversible?
Micro-usb - only moving part is on the cable. When this breaks, buy a new $5 cable. Clips break in a lightning plug, buy a new phone.
@hellbound: Ok, it seems there is no point in getting into any arguments with the die hard android fans on this forum. They will just blindly deny everything to suit their arguments. Must be a lot of insecurities about their personal choices.
Mainly value and also flexibility of Android.
I use anything besides apple, for same main reasons.
It is not that "I can't afford apple" as suggested by OP poll. Rather that value for money is important to me. And apple certainly is not good value for firstly; what you get, secondly; that you never really have full control over your apple device. It is like they always have power and influence over what you can and cannot do on the phone you paid for. Eg. Someone brought out a torrent sharing app on ios, apple banned it. Now one must jailbreak a device just to simply use torrent file sharing.
Worst example of apple's forever control, over the device we paid for, is my friend and I had exactly the same phone (iphone 4) exactly same network (optus) , he could hotspot his phone to laptop etc, when I bought the same phone expecting to be able to do the same, the option was blocked out by apple. Apparently apple talked to optus, optus told apple to block hotpotting for me (unless I pay more money) then apple sent through something to block the function on my phone . Comes up with message "contact optus" who would then ask me to pay more to hotspot on the plan im on.
I found I could put same sim into any phone besides an apple, and no issues at all.
Apple should give up control over devices after we purchase them outright. Essentially you can never own an apple device outright. They will forever enforce their control and not allow flexibility.
Apple devices will never suit people who want to manage and play their pirated content on their devices. This seems to be a major reason listed on this thread to prefer Android devices. The "fenced garden" comes with security benefits that are never mentioned on this thread. Then there's privacy. I'd be more concerned about companies controlling my data. The control over the ecosystem that Apple exerts is there for good reasons, not to make your life harder. One of those reasons is the protection of intellectual copyright. Of course this doesn't suit those that think they should have everything for free once they have purchased a hardware device.
Torrents can be used for other things besides piracy.
Apple has all this control over your device (well, apple's device, that you happen to have possession of). You don't have freedom, but that is fine for some.
I can root, install busybox and drop into a shell and basically have a capable portable linux machine at my fingertips.
I know you can do that with iphones after jailbreak but eh …
But do you find having a portable Linux machine helpful.
Most things you can get apps for anyways. Running PC software on phone is not great imo without mouse/keyboard
Its a good thing that android has good support for BT keyboards/mice as well as OTG for wired devices d:
Got over apple after having iphone 3gs til a 6, not much changed besides the usual stuff.
I vote: really bad poll where every option is loaded with a garbage opinion.
Android is easy to transfer my files.
Curious how you perceive value for money? The initial outlay is slightly less but the retained value of an Apple device will be much higher than a Samsung one after a year or two of use. Also their strong stance on privacy and not farming/selling your data has a value for some people. What's your perspective?