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I'm mostly an Android user and now I have an iPhone 6s, received as a gift - this is actually the third iPhone I'm receiving as a gift, the first one was a 3GS.

I'm mostly an Android user and now I have an iPhone 6s, received as a gift - this is actually the third iPhone I'm receiving as a gift, the first one was a 3GS. I like the hardware, the phone, its size. I like how polished it feels. I really like the photos it takes. But I consider Android's software to be superior. Others might disagree, but I have many reasons for why I prefer Android and I think iOS is falling further and further behind.

wvenable 11y ago
I use an iPhone and I (continue) to have an Android tablet -- I've been operating this way over a few generations. I don't think either platform is 100% superior over the other. For every advantage Android has over iOS there is different advantage iOS has over it. I was seriously considering going for an Android phone this time around but the 6s is really some amazing hardware. It isn't even as hyped up as it should be.
- BuckRogers 11y ago
  While I did use Android phones for 5 years, since I switched to iOS I've used to do your config of iOS phone + Android tablet for a long time now as well. Since I've linked up my wife's 4S with my 5S and using app sharing, I think I see enough value in finally ditching the Android tablet. I always felt Android was a better tablet OS due to the customization. With ad blockers on iOS9, app sharing, more streamlined interface, security updates, better support, the general convenience of free iMessages, Facetime and Apple stores for same-day repairs, I'm probably going all Apple if I even continue to use a tablet at all. The new Amazon Fire tablet is nice for $50, but I think I'd probably put that money into a 6S Plus and use it for the same purposes and more. For us I think our phones and laptops may be all we need. Completely agree that the 6S is underhyped, which is amazing because it's basically the new iPhone4.
  - wvenable 11y ago
    After playing around with my Nexus 7 for a long time and performing all kinds of experiments (like running Linux alongside Android) I found I used my tablet almost exclusively for web and media consumption. So my latest tablet is a Samsung Tab S 8.4 and it's perfect for those needs in a way where an iPad would be sub par. Media management is way more straight forward on Android and I can have 64gb SD card. But I did root the tablet and uninstall 70% of the bloatware running on it on the first day. It came with 4-5 pages of (useless) applications and I'm now down to 2. Apple products also come with useless uninstallable applications (Stocks, Watch, etc) but it no where near what this Samsung device had running. My wife has an iPad and I really could not recommend, for her, an Android tablet.
  - bad_user 11y ago
    On Android me and my wife have a shared Google account with purchases that we share. It's a little painful that Google Play doesn't do sharing the way Apple does, but the setup is doable. On the other hand I really, really hate any interactions with iTunes Store, with Google Play being a complete joy to interact with by comparisson. Apple made the choice to separate users in stores linked to their geography, so I have to "switch store" in order to see actual reviews. Who ever thought that's a good idea was an idiot, as I have to search on Google to find good apps and reviews for iOS. Mobile Safari is very polished. I like how reliable the reader mode is. I like that it now does ad-blocking. On the other hand the web apps feel more integrated in Android. For example Chrome on Android does notifications now, so for example I could just use Facebook on the web and get push notifications. Also Android does alternative browsers, so Android has Firefox and Firefox has real extensions, including ad-blockers. Mobile Safari is really good though. In terms of UI, Androids notifications are much better, as in they are reliable, they get grouped, you get shortcuts to act on them or you can dismiss them easily. On iOS the notifications are broken and the "unread" indicators are completely annoying. On iOS I also miss the Back button. They added sort of a hack lately for Safari, so you can return to the previous app from Safari. Along with double-tab on home, a pattern emerges ... they keep adding hacks as a substitute for the lack of a Back button. As a consequence of this, one of the things I hate on iOS is how every app opens its own web view. I mean, don't you just hate that? Skype on my iOS is broken. It simply doesn't ring if the app is inactive. This is probably a bug, but it's also a bigger problem related to iOS. iOS is killing inactive apps, so it has special hooks for apps that need to be awoken by messages. This leads to weird effects - like Dropbox is unable to backup my photos in the background, because it cannot stay alive long enough to do it. And I've lost some photos that way, as I've reset my phone thinking that Dropbox managed to back me up. It's also weird to pause and then resume my music or my audiobooks. As resume doesn't necessarily work remote-controlled through your headsets as you have to wake your phone up first. Actually the behavior is inconsistent. It really depends on whether iOS managed to put your app to sleep or not. The upside of that is that the iPhone's idle mode is very efficient, but given my usage patterns, I haven't seen an overall improvement in battery life. On the apps ecosystem, I feel Android has better apps. This may sound like heresy, but it's true, with Android having the benefit of a stronger open-source ecosystem. They finally unified the design under the material design guidelines. And with Marshmallow they finally fixed the permissions system, though iOS has the benefit of not having such a broken permissions model for such a long time. So for instance on iOS I felt comfortable installing Waze, but not on Android - thankfully that changes with Marshmallow. iOS does better at out-of-the box standards being supported. It supports CalDAV and CardDAV for example. For Android you need special adapters that need to be bought for CalDAV / CardDAV and Google should be ashamed of themselves. On the other hand on Android just about anything is extensible, so support for CalDAV / CardDAV synching can be added by buying some available apps. To sync my iPhone with my desktop I need to use iTunes. I hate iTunes with a passion, I really do. With Android I can just plug it in to my computer and just copy/paste some files in a folder. Related to UX in general, iOS apps are good, except when they are not. For example RunKeeper on Android is more usable than RunKeeper on iOS, because on iOS you have to tap on things that don't seem tap-able. And for iBooks to not do bookmarks for audiobooks is a total screwup for a company like Apple. On my iPhone I do like that I get SMS messages on my MacBook through iMessages and phone calls through FaceTime. That's pretty sweet. On Android I've used PushBullet but it's not the same. On the other hand I don't like feeling locked in Apple's ecosystem or in anybody's ecosystem for that matter. So I'm enjoying my iMessages and my FaceTime, but I try not to like it so much :-) I think I can go on :-)
mixmastamyk 11y ago
> this is actually the third iPhone I'm receiving as a gift Must be nice? > I have many reasons for why I prefer Android Do tell...
shostack 11y ago
Totally agree. Tried an iPhone 6 and switched back to my Nexus 4 after a week because the notifications were driving me nuts compared to Android. I have three different email accounts, and unless I used the native Mail app (which I hate), the Gmail app would show all of the individual email notifications on a separate row combined across all accounts. My notifications quickly became useless. On Android, they are rolled up into an accordion grouped by account, so I have three separate mail notifications, and I can long hold on them to see the top few email subject lines at a glance. SO much better. There also didn't seem to be a way to have more visibility into the notifications on the lock screen the way you do on Android. Lastly, lack of widgets. I guess I'm one of the rare power users who cares more about the OS and the interface than the apps. Oddly enough, I have an iPad 2 that I use as a browsing/media/reading/gaming device around the house and I love it for that. I almost NEVER check email on it because I usually have my phone in my pocket and that is just easier. --EDIT-- Not sure why I got downvoted for stating my opinion for why I prefer Android. iOS does some things really well, and I happen to like the Android way for other things. Different strokes for different folks. But apparently saying anything negative about iOS is not acceptable...
- oldmanjay 11y ago
  I'm not sure how much this plays in, but to my eye, your comment adds nothing to the discussion. Your personal preference isn't interesting in context. To be fair, I can't imagine a context where I would find your preferences to be interesting (on HN, that is) so I could be wrong. I didn't vote on your comment in any case.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
mahouse 11y ago
"Others might disagree, but I have many reasons for why I prefer Android but I'm not going to say what they are because I like to maintain a halo of mistery"
- bad_user 11y ago
  Oh, I have lots of opinions to share if I'm getting started, but here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10503425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10503425
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

wvenable 11y ago

I use an iPhone and I (continue) to have an Android tablet -- I've been operating this way over a few generations. I don't think either platform is 100% superior over the other. For every advantage Android has over iOS there is different advantage iOS has over it. I was seriously considering going for an Android phone this time around but the 6s is really some amazing hardware. It isn't even as hyped up as it should be.

BuckRogers 11y ago
While I did use Android phones for 5 years, since I switched to iOS I've used to do your config of iOS phone + Android tablet for a long time now as well. Since I've linked up my wife's 4S with my 5S and using app sharing, I think I see enough value in finally ditching the Android tablet. I always felt Android was a better tablet OS due to the customization. With ad blockers on iOS9, app sharing, more streamlined interface, security updates, better support, the general convenience of free iMessages, Facetime and Apple stores for same-day repairs, I'm probably going all Apple if I even continue to use a tablet at all. The new Amazon Fire tablet is nice for $50, but I think I'd probably put that money into a 6S Plus and use it for the same purposes and more. For us I think our phones and laptops may be all we need. Completely agree that the 6S is underhyped, which is amazing because it's basically the new iPhone4.
- wvenable 11y ago
  After playing around with my Nexus 7 for a long time and performing all kinds of experiments (like running Linux alongside Android) I found I used my tablet almost exclusively for web and media consumption. So my latest tablet is a Samsung Tab S 8.4 and it's perfect for those needs in a way where an iPad would be sub par. Media management is way more straight forward on Android and I can have 64gb SD card. But I did root the tablet and uninstall 70% of the bloatware running on it on the first day. It came with 4-5 pages of (useless) applications and I'm now down to 2. Apple products also come with useless uninstallable applications (Stocks, Watch, etc) but it no where near what this Samsung device had running. My wife has an iPad and I really could not recommend, for her, an Android tablet.
- bad_user 11y ago
  On Android me and my wife have a shared Google account with purchases that we share. It's a little painful that Google Play doesn't do sharing the way Apple does, but the setup is doable. On the other hand I really, really hate any interactions with iTunes Store, with Google Play being a complete joy to interact with by comparisson. Apple made the choice to separate users in stores linked to their geography, so I have to "switch store" in order to see actual reviews. Who ever thought that's a good idea was an idiot, as I have to search on Google to find good apps and reviews for iOS. Mobile Safari is very polished. I like how reliable the reader mode is. I like that it now does ad-blocking. On the other hand the web apps feel more integrated in Android. For example Chrome on Android does notifications now, so for example I could just use Facebook on the web and get push notifications. Also Android does alternative browsers, so Android has Firefox and Firefox has real extensions, including ad-blockers. Mobile Safari is really good though. In terms of UI, Androids notifications are much better, as in they are reliable, they get grouped, you get shortcuts to act on them or you can dismiss them easily. On iOS the notifications are broken and the "unread" indicators are completely annoying. On iOS I also miss the Back button. They added sort of a hack lately for Safari, so you can return to the previous app from Safari. Along with double-tab on home, a pattern emerges ... they keep adding hacks as a substitute for the lack of a Back button. As a consequence of this, one of the things I hate on iOS is how every app opens its own web view. I mean, don't you just hate that? Skype on my iOS is broken. It simply doesn't ring if the app is inactive. This is probably a bug, but it's also a bigger problem related to iOS. iOS is killing inactive apps, so it has special hooks for apps that need to be awoken by messages. This leads to weird effects - like Dropbox is unable to backup my photos in the background, because it cannot stay alive long enough to do it. And I've lost some photos that way, as I've reset my phone thinking that Dropbox managed to back me up. It's also weird to pause and then resume my music or my audiobooks. As resume doesn't necessarily work remote-controlled through your headsets as you have to wake your phone up first. Actually the behavior is inconsistent. It really depends on whether iOS managed to put your app to sleep or not. The upside of that is that the iPhone's idle mode is very efficient, but given my usage patterns, I haven't seen an overall improvement in battery life. On the apps ecosystem, I feel Android has better apps. This may sound like heresy, but it's true, with Android having the benefit of a stronger open-source ecosystem. They finally unified the design under the material design guidelines. And with Marshmallow they finally fixed the permissions system, though iOS has the benefit of not having such a broken permissions model for such a long time. So for instance on iOS I felt comfortable installing Waze, but not on Android - thankfully that changes with Marshmallow. iOS does better at out-of-the box standards being supported. It supports CalDAV and CardDAV for example. For Android you need special adapters that need to be bought for CalDAV / CardDAV and Google should be ashamed of themselves. On the other hand on Android just about anything is extensible, so support for CalDAV / CardDAV synching can be added by buying some available apps. To sync my iPhone with my desktop I need to use iTunes. I hate iTunes with a passion, I really do. With Android I can just plug it in to my computer and just copy/paste some files in a folder. Related to UX in general, iOS apps are good, except when they are not. For example RunKeeper on Android is more usable than RunKeeper on iOS, because on iOS you have to tap on things that don't seem tap-able. And for iBooks to not do bookmarks for audiobooks is a total screwup for a company like Apple. On my iPhone I do like that I get SMS messages on my MacBook through iMessages and phone calls through FaceTime. That's pretty sweet. On Android I've used PushBullet but it's not the same. On the other hand I don't like feeling locked in Apple's ecosystem or in anybody's ecosystem for that matter. So I'm enjoying my iMessages and my FaceTime, but I try not to like it so much :-) I think I can go on :-)

mixmastamyk 11y ago

> this is actually the third iPhone I'm receiving as a gift Must be nice? > I have many reasons for why I prefer Android Do tell...

shostack 11y ago

Totally agree. Tried an iPhone 6 and switched back to my Nexus 4 after a week because the notifications were driving me nuts compared to Android. I have three different email accounts, and unless I used the native Mail app (which I hate), the Gmail app would show all of the individual email notifications on a separate row combined across all accounts. My notifications quickly became useless. On Android, they are rolled up into an accordion grouped by account, so I have three separate mail notifications, and I can long hold on them to see the top few email subject lines at a glance. SO much better. There also didn't seem to be a way to have more visibility into the notifications on the lock screen the way you do on Android. Lastly, lack of widgets. I guess I'm one of the rare power users who cares more about the OS and the interface than the apps. Oddly enough, I have an iPad 2 that I use as a browsing/media/reading/gaming device around the house and I love it for that. I almost NEVER check email on it because I usually have my phone in my pocket and that is just easier. --EDIT-- Not sure why I got downvoted for stating my opinion for why I prefer Android. iOS does some things really well, and I happen to like the Android way for other things. Different strokes for different folks. But apparently saying anything negative about iOS is not acceptable...

oldmanjay 11y ago
I'm not sure how much this plays in, but to my eye, your comment adds nothing to the discussion. Your personal preference isn't interesting in context. To be fair, I can't imagine a context where I would find your preferences to be interesting (on HN, that is) so I could be wrong. I didn't vote on your comment in any case.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

mahouse 11y ago

"Others might disagree, but I have many reasons for why I prefer Android but I'm not going to say what they are because I like to maintain a halo of mistery"

bad_user 11y ago
Oh, I have lots of opinions to share if I'm getting started, but here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10503425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10503425

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]