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I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

• dagenix 8y ago
  Welcome to the dark side, we have candy (and coffee).
• ScottBurson 8y ago
  Interesting to read this since I'm considering getting an iPhone; so far I've only used Android. Does anyone have comments who has done the switch in that direction?
  • kotapi 8y ago
    Stick to Android, man.
  • wanderr 8y ago
    I switched to iPhone for a few months after being on Android since the Motorola Droid. All of Android's little annoyances and failed promises to fix problems for years finally annoyed me into trying out an iPhone (6s). Apple's build quality and UX were a welcome improvement, but after a while I found some different issues that were equally annoying. I think iOS is still better overall, but not better enough to justify the cost for me. Both have their drawbacks and both are good enough. The 6s's crappy camera made me decide it was time to upgrade to something with a good camera, and I was able to get a Pixel 2 for way less than an iPhone 8 so that's the route I took. If the cost was around the same I would have stuck with iPhone for the wireless charging.
  • jcims 8y ago
    Just got a iPhone 8 at the beginning of the year after probably 7 years of Android, mostly Samsung devices. Can’t wait to go back to be honest. Part of the problem was that iOS 11 was super buggy at the beginning. That really soured me to start and I haven’t found anything particularly worth changing my mind over since.
    • ScottBurson 8y ago
      Yes, I've been quite happy with my Galaxy Note 4, now so old that I can't even remember when I bought it — must be 4 years or so. I haven't even replaced the battery, though I like having the option to do so ... oh well, I guess nobody lets you do that anymore.
  • rcheu 8y ago
    I switched to iOS this past year after using Android since the G1, and working as an Android developer for the past 5 or so years. Pretty happy with the iPhone X, less happy with iOS 11, I think previous iterations were better. Things I like: * typing feels much nicer, no lag in character input * phone runs much cooler, does not make hand sweaty to hold * far fewer random freezes or lag * password management much better by default, every app with important information has faceid which is quite nice * I prefer the photos taken by the iPhone camera * I find tethering on iPhone works more consistently Things I don’t like: * no back button * some Google apps for iOS don’t seem as good as their android counterparts. YouTube app keeps getting buggy updates, Inbox still doesn’t support full iPhone X screen. * Prefer Android’s notification system * A bunch of apps have video playback issues, I suspect there’s an OS level bug
    • fasj82 8y ago
      >* some Google apps for iOS don’t seem as good as their android counterparts. YouTube app keeps getting buggy updates, Inbox still doesn’t support full iPhone X screen. Google is simply sabotaging iOS with all of that. There's no way Google can't afford to pay developers to fix that. They just want to annoy people. My solution was to quit as many Google services as I could.
      • saagarjha 8y ago
        Oddly enough, many Android apps are actually inferior to their counterparts on iOS, or lacking in features. Hangouts, for example.
    • Improvotter 8y ago
      > * typing feels much nicer, no lag in character input This is huge for me. I feel like every Android phone has some kind of lag when typing and scrolling. It's really annoying me to the point of sticking with iOS even thought I'd love to switch to Android.
  • oldcynic 8y ago
    I did it a little over a year ago. Many frustrations with Android, switched to the iPhone SE (mainly due to size). Most of the time on android I was running native on Nexus. Apps are more consistent, and generally better designed. Wider range of apps, far less crap. Restrictions on background tasks and what apps are allowed to do mean a couple of things I had on Android can't be duplicated on iOS (eg a WiFi signal strength thing - no huge loss) Apple focus on privacy, along with granular app notification and data restrictions are marvellous, as is the way apps request permissions, and it just works. Apps make less of a land grab as a result. Android was still fundamentally broken in that area when I left. iOS feels slicker than any version of Android despite clearly having some feature-itis and clumsiness (e.g. timestamps on SMS and iMessage are hidden off screen). Android isn't free of this, but never feels (across multiple versions of Android) like they put much thought into joining it all up apart from joining up data harvesting of course. Trivia: iTunes is a mess, but it does what you need. iOS still lacks a dark mode that I would really prefer. SE keeps a headphone socket so all is well with the world. :) No intention of going back to Android.
    • alimbada 8y ago
      > Apple focus on privacy, along with granular app notification and data restrictions are marvellous, as is the way apps request permissions, and it just works. This is one of the reasons I also ditched Android for an iPhone. And here's something that should make people go "WTF?!" that I read recently here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16871340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16871340 I had an HTC Hero, an HTC Desire and a Galaxy Nexus before I jumped to the iPhone. I forked out more than I normally would have for a phone when I bought my Galaxy Nexus under the assumption that it would receive regular OS updates being a Nexus device. Nope; stuck on Android 4.3 and was eventually forced to install a glitchy 4.4 custom ROM. There were never any decent ROMs for later Android versions so I gave up on the whole platform.
  • rauhl 8y ago
    I haven’t switched, but I often use my fiancée’s iPhone (which isn’t at all the same thing, I know). The way that I put it is that the iPhone is a better smart phone; Android is a better pocket computer. If you want something which is basically a small communications device, which does one thing at a time & gets out of your way, then you probably want an iPhone. If you want a flexible, capable device which does many different things and respects your choices, then you want Android. Things I like about iOS: on brand-new hardware, it feels snappier than Android on similarly brand-new hardware; the experience within a single app is less distracting. Things I like about Android: real Firefox; headphone jacks; ability to sideload apps; open source apps; back button; task switching; less lock-in (iCloud, I’m looking at you); doesn’t make me want to chuck the phone at a wall after using it for three minutes. I trust Apple more than Google, but I trust me even more than Apple, and with Android I can have a mostly Google-free existence, while with an iPhone I cannot have an Apple-free existence. For me, the choice is easy.
  • ssully 8y ago
    I made the switch from Android (always used Samsung or Nexus devices) to iOS two years ago. My two issues with iOS: - Siri is absolute trash. I've given up on using it for text messages. Even when just using it for timers it fucks up. It's basically a 50/50 chance it will interpret things like "3 and a half minutes" as "3 to a half minutes". Whenever it does this it then says something like "I don't understand what time you want". I literally never had Google mess up a timer. - Apple insistence on making you use their apps has gotten better, but it's still annoying. I still run into cases where it tries to open links in Safari (my default browser is chrome) or open directions in Maps ( I use Google maps). Outside of those things I really love iOS. My biggest reasons for switching was horrid privacy controls on Android(which have improved since I left) and device degrading rates. Every Android phone or tablet I owned would slow down terribly and have a noticeable dip in battery quality within 1 1/2 years. It was like clockwork. Luckily this hasn't been the case for me on iOS. I will hit the two year mark with this phone in the summer and it's still running and holding a charge like the day I got it. I used to get a new phone every two year religiously but this is the first time I am going wait it out.
• narrator 8y ago
  The author asked for a replacement for Ominfocus. One of the best Android only apps I've seen is a taak/project/to do list app: DJT GTD. It has a lot of features and requires reading the tutorial to get the most out of it, but it is really impressive and fast once you get the hang of it.
• chrischen 8y ago
  I had the same experience when first switching to Android after a lifetime on iPhone. But after a year of really getting to use Android features it eventually became apparent Android has its own problems, and I ended up switching back to iOS. It'll seem great at first since it does things differently and improves on many aspects of where iOS fails at while it's fresh in your mind, but you'll need to spend much more time using it day to day to get a real sense of the pros and cons.
  • askafriend 8y ago
    What were some of the things that made you switch back?
    • chrischen 8y ago
      The #1 reason is Apple's focus on user privacy and the device's purpose to serve the user through of specific set of features (note I do not mean they give us control of the features, just that they designed it for specific purposes). Apple's business model does not rely on monetizing user data and it shows in its products. At the time I switched (Nexus 5) there were abundant issues with the Android OS from a memory leak issue that required rebooting the phone periodically to design flaws such as Android's UI rendering de-prioritization. Much lower quality of apps in general. Much worse customer service experience (you can't just walk into an Apple store and get an issue fixed). Much worse hardware quality (part of the reason I switched back was because the Nexus 5 charging port stopped working and started emitting smoke. For a while i was charging purely through the Qi charger. I've never had an iPhone break on me, and any other issues were always resolved for free at the Apple store) Not sure if these are fixed, but I cannot switch back as it's basically impossible to use Android without Google services and consolidating all my data with Google. If google wants me to give me data they're going to have to pay me more.
      • dingaling 8y ago
        > you can't just walk into an Apple store and get an issue fixed The vast majority of people can't do that anyhow due to the rarity of Apple stores. For example there are two on the island of Ireland, for a population of seven million. Most people have to get the i-devices fixed by a third-party just like they do with Android.
• elcapitan 8y ago
  Most of what the article describes in terms of user experience is that of stock Android, not just the Pixel 2 - For those interested in a clean Android but who don't want the Pixel I can recommend the Android One line, those are devices by other manufacturers that basically have the same stock Android as the Pixel devices, with similar quick updates etc. I just exchanged an older Samsung Galaxy S-line phone with a new Nokia with Android One, and it's the best Android experience I ever had.
  • MichaelGG 8y ago
    Yep. I'd recommend the Mi A1. If you can find one, they're pretty cheap, $200 I paid at a retail store. Great specs, very little trash (Moto X4 is Android One, but ships with Moto specific stuff that is annoying.)
  • fulafel 8y ago
    The new Nokias¹ with Android One get updates directly from Google, so a good alternative there. ¹ really HMD
• hellofunk 8y ago
  > Much more transparency about what the phone is doing This is a curious point, especially considering the recent FB Android app revelations about lots and lots of things the phone was doing that nobody realised, things that cannot happen on iOS due to stricter privacy enforcement. I suppose no month is complete without an iOS/Android flame war, but hopefully that won't happen here. For what it's worth, smart phones are all pretty darn awesome and if there is one key distinguishing factor that seems to persist across generations of devices, it's privacy and security, of which Apple is far different. If that doesn't matter to you, pick a year, any year, and you will find one or the other platform to offer features that the other lacks.
  • techsupporter 8y ago
    This is the crux of the issue for me: > it's privacy and security, of which Apple is far different I simply don't trust Google to act in my interests when it comes to use of very private data by them or how their operating system permits use of that data. Frankly, I think Android is great. I love myriad things about it: - Set a default e-mail app - Set a default browser that isn't Safari (my kingdom to use Firefox Mobile with all of its attendant add-ins on my iPhone) - Put icons wherever I want, like the author mentions - A WILDLY better--in my opinion--notification system, again like the author mentions - Themes, widgets, and other customizations - Automation with things like Tasker - Background tasks I'm gonna stop here because I could keep going for much longer. But the point remains that my iPhone and iPad do 90% of what I want on a day-to-day basis and I'm used to the quirks and, more importantly, Apple has shown a propensity to keep what it knows about me primarily on my own devices or, when actually transmitted to Apple, under much more restrictive policies than Google has. I'd love it of Apple could do both, the astounding customization of Android with the privacy and security features of iOS. But maybe you don't get one with the other for some inherent reason. I'm not sure, so I stick with the one in which I'm more confident.
    • fasj82 8y ago
      >- Background tasks That's bad
• zspitzer 8y ago
  the Pixel 2 swipe down on the fingerprint sensor gesture to open the notifications panel trick is pretty cool
  • dogweather 8y ago
    RU trollin? Couldn't get that to work.
    • zspitzer 8y ago
      System - > Gestures -> Swipe fingerprint for notifications
      • rcarmo 8y ago
        Works on the Galaxy S8 too.
• acchow 8y ago
  Android was a breath of fresh air after using the original iPhone and every generation all the way up to the 4S..... for the first 2 months. Then it just got progressively slower with crappier battery life. Switched to a different Android phone (from a Galaxy to an Xperia, and then a newer generation Galaxy). Back to iPhone now. Will probably never get Android again.
• ArmandGrillet 8y ago
  I've switched for a month while traveling and I agree with the author, some additional points: - The phone is too smart. E.g. it transforms your voice messages into text messages which is magic but also pings you after you visit something "Hey, wanna rate the store you just visited?" "Hey, you took pictures of this place today, wanna share them?". - The pictures are outstanding, particularly in low light. The portrait mode works much better than on the iPhone X. - Third-party apps are not as polished, e.g. Instagram Stories do not work well. - The design is good but placement of the buttons is awful. After a month I was still shutting down my phone while taking a picture because you can press on the volume button to shoot which is right next to the power button. - Project Fi is perfect (the price is the only downside I've found and it is a subjective argument) and should have an Apple counterpart, not only Apple SIM on the iPad. All in all I liked it and it was great to go back to Android for a month, but I went back to the iPhone. I have an Apple ecosystem and the iPhone is just too well integrated to leave it. It feels like the Pixel is one of the few Google hardware devices that is not an experiment but Apple offers me an entire ecosystem that is coherent and enjoyable for my daily life.
  • dogweather 8y ago
    > The placement of the buttons is awful, after a month I was still shutting down my phone . . . Lol, yeah, that's taken some getting used to. I bet they did that so that the phone would work smoothly in the VR headset. It is supported on the left side edge, and doesn't work the other way around because the buttons get pressed.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  • ratzinho87 8y ago
    The smart notifications you are mentioning are from Google Maps. You can disable them individually by going to Settings -> Apps -> Maps-> Notifications and then unchecking everything under "Your contributions". But I agree they are anoying.
    • sowbug 8y ago
• saagarjha 8y ago
  > Universal back function: It’s great having a global “affordance” for the super-common thing that people want to do. It works well, too: its meaning subtly changing in the right way, depending what you’re going back from. Funny, I always hated this. I could never figure out just where the back button would take me.
  • andrewla 8y ago
    Agreed -- I use an iPhone, but I have a couple of Android tablets at home, and I find this super annoying. It appears not just to be dependent on the app state, but also the path to get there; sometimes navigating into an app through the task switcher means that back will take you to the app you were just using, sometimes it means that you will tell the current app to go back. There are too many contexts where "back" doesn't make sense or have a single meaning to make including it as a hard button rather than in the app chrome a good decision.
• bdamm 8y ago
  After 7 years Android user across three phones, I decided to try iPhone. Now 2 years in, on my 2nd, and never going back. Android tends to slowly slide into glitch land and demands you throw away your phone far more aggressively than iPhones do. The 911-crash on Android was the last straw. That's when you call 911, and the phone crashes instead of, you know, calling for help. iPhone might not be latest and greatest. But the overall package is better. Definitely not perfect - I've experienced a disabled Phone app on iPhone where I would not have been able to call 911 had I needed it - but all my i-devices have been glitch resistant in a way none of my Android devices ever were.
  • ssijak 8y ago
    My experience exactly. I always said bad things about iPhone. Hay it is closed, it has fewer options, worse hardware than top Android phones, etc.. It was the time during which I fiddled with the phone much, installed Ubuntu on Android phone, etc.. But then my last Nexus started to glitch like any other Android top phone after 1 year of use. I was so irritated by it that I said well I will try iPhone now. It was about 6 month ago and I could not be more happy. I have phone that just works, never glitched, not once in 6 months, never sttutered with animation or anything. Yes, it is less extensible, has less options, but actually I like that now better. I wan`t it to work good, work well and be reliable. One major additional benefit is that I use iPhone less than Android phone, and it spams and pings me less. At first iPhone, notifications felt overly simplistic, but now I love them. There are no permanent notifications/icons that some android app can put there, and I can just scroll from the lock screen and see without clicking/opening everything that happened. Also, I can disable every notification/spam per app, disabled all bubbles (red circle numbers over app icons) except for messaging apps. This way I feel that I don`t expect dopamine dose from my phone, and I use it only when I really need something.
    • syshum 8y ago
      >>Also, I can disable every notification/spam per app You can do this on Android as well >> Nexus started to glitch like any other Android top phone after 1 year of use ... 6 month ago and I could not be more happy. I have phone that just works, never glitched hmmm, Anyone else see a issue with these 2 statements?
• zspitzer 8y ago
  I have a Pixel 2 XL, alas the USB-C headphone adaptor died. There's a request a support call button in settings, I pressed it and 2 mins later a native english speaker called me back, 12 minutes later (which included getting my address details), Google was express shipping a replacement from part which arrived 42 hours later (HK - Melbourne, Australia).
  • lifeisstillgood 8y ago
    Holy mother cow That's awesome on so many levels. Just having "call me i need your help" on the phone is so obvious and yet unexpected. And then actually having strong customer support is ... ungoogle-like wow
    • herbst 8y ago
      Googles business customer service never actually was bad. Guess that is why the price tag of the pixel isn't to bad because it allows them to serve quality service.
    • CydeWeys 8y ago
      There's this meme that Google has terrible customer support that is years out of date. When you have a problem with a Google product that you actually paid for (like one of their hardware devices), experiences are generally good. I had a replacement Nexus 5X shipped with no problem, for instance.
      • e40 8y ago
        Google only gives support for paid things. I was a Nexus user for years and always got good service. I'm in Project Fi now and the service there is excellent. Just try getting support for a Gmail bug, if you're not paying Google money for your phone.
        • CydeWeys 8y ago
          And to be fair ... why would one expect customer service on a free product? Free Gmail is possible because, as a software product, it scales effectively infinitely with no marginal cost beyond increased data center utilization. But customer service requires real humans, with marginal costs too high for a free service. Customer service only scales by adding more reps, which has linearly increasing costs. I think a reasonable expectation is that if you want customer service, you should actually be a paying customer (one way or the other). Whenever someone complains about bad customer service, my response from now on is going to be "And how much are you paying for the product?"
• setquk 8y ago
  I was an an android user for many years but switched to an iPhone about 10 months ago. I have three complaints with android which will stop me going back again: 1. It demands my attention too much. Updates, problems, weirdness, random crashes. 2. I don’t trust any android handset vendor to look after me. I’ve had a handset abandoned by the vendor before I’d even bought it despite assurances otherwise. A promise is worth nothing now. 3. Poor control of data collection and privacy. I feel like I am being milked constantly for my whereabouts and information. No thanks.
  • Siemer 8y ago
    1. Buy a flagship phone. My S7 hasn't crashed once since I got it over a year ago. 2. Buy a flagship phone (or get better laws? Pretty sure EU has laws against that sort of behavior). 3. Disable the 2 or 3 settings in Google Maps that make your phone ask those nosy questions [a]. [a] https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/161704/turn-off-notifications-of-google-maps-requests-for-information https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/161704/turn-off-...
    • setquk 8y ago
      1. I had a flagship from Samsung. It’s google’s Estate that is buggy as hell. 2. I’m in the UK. Forget it. We have good laws. Law should be a last resort but would have to be first call to get anything useful out. 3. And the 9,000,000 other places it does the same thing. Honestly the last straw was when I was sitting down having a shit and it asked me to rate the public toilet and suggested taking a photo. So I did and for 6 months there was a picture of my excrement and a review on the Internet.
      • brianmcc 8y ago
        And now I'm wiping coffee off my monitor :-D
    • herbst 8y ago
      Except the update issue I always tell people the opposite, never ever buy a flagship. Usually they have bad screens (in terms of you always only see flagships breaking on a 1m fall) the added software usually is a mess compared to original Android software, should it break or decrease in efficiency you don't throw away something that was 800$. There are a few good flagships I've seen. (namely most of Huawei) but there are also bad examples like all of Samsung. If you ever had or know someone who had a J series you can easily tell those are less prown to issues and breaking compared to the S series.
• mrarjen 8y ago
  I too have used iPhone for the entire smartphone trend so far, and I have been considering getting the Pixel 2 as well, mainly since I keep getting locked out of apple accounts, having weird issues on my device with every new iOS update and the fact I'm basically 99% Google eco system now also with Google photo's, things just seem to work far better and with less friction on Google. I was afraid of the bad quality devices from the past android days, but so far from what I have seen the Pixel seems to hold up.
  • dogweather 8y ago
    Yep, exactly the spot I was in. There's definitely been some passing phases of anxiety over whether I've made a huge mistake. :-) But my digital world hasn't collapsed yet, and things are looking good.
  • larntz 8y ago
    I was in this situation also. I had an iPhone6s (and 3 iphones previously) and after the iOS11 updates it started breaking badly. I had to restart it regularly, the experience of playing music/podcasts in my car became almost unusable and I have a long commute. At that point I started considering Android. I prefer google maps and google play music over apple music. iTunes on the PC is one of the absolute worst things I've ever used. I just wanted to use my phone without it being annoying and being able to choose default apps was something I'd always envied about Android. I bought a Pixel2 XL a few months ago. So far it has been great. I don't use facebook on my phone so the possible privacy issues with that weren't a deal breaker. The notification system is amazing compared to iOS and I get to decide which apps are defaults. Those two things are my favorite things about it. So far the phone has stayed out of my way and I'm happy. This is my first Android phone. We'll see how it goes long term, but I'm happy I switched today. I'm not against going back, but if my current experience continues I won't. Apple has great hardware and a (I think) better privacy policy, but the software experience eventually pushed me away. The one exception here is the podcast app on iPhone. I miss it, but haven't taken the time to look for 3rd party podcast apps on the Android (I'm using Google Play Music).
• donttrack 8y ago
  I used to make Android phones and I stopped using our own product after having been a hardcore Android user from the beginning. Had the first Android device that came out, rooted and rooted and rooted after that and built lots of apps for various companies until I got into building the actual OS. The reason I stopped using our Android product at that time was because of the spyware. I even built a nice backend to host, browse and manage the so called telemetry we collected. Now I dont use Android because Google and I simply don't trust any Android vendor. I miss an alternative to iPhone...
  • rhn_mk1 8y ago
    There are some alternatives already. They may not be 100% painless, but they generally don't have the spyware problem. From the top of my head: - Jolla https://jolla.com/ https://jolla.com/ only shares the drivers with Android - Replicant https://www.replicant.us/ https://www.replicant.us/ only shares AOSP with Android, making this community project reputable in my eyes - Librem 5 https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ will share nothing with Android when it comes The two issues with those is lesser hardware and app selection, but this is what happens to the third contender in the current situation.
• Wildgoose 8y ago
  I have an iPhone SE because it has a headphone jack. But if the SE 2 doesn't have a headphone jack then this will be my last iPhone. My son wants to replace his iPhone, he's just waiting to see if the SE 2 has a headphone jack as well, or he will be switching to Android. Some of us like being able to charge our phone and use it to listen to music in our cars using the AUX input of our car stereos. Plus have a wider choice of headphones that don't require constant charging. And No, a dongle to get lost or broken is not an acceptable compromise.
  • andreif 8y ago
    I own iPhone 5, which is not getting iOS updates anymore. Still works ok though, but the main issue I have with that design is it gets dust on the camera lenses inside the phone case (I don't use extra case). I have replaced it twice in the Apple Store because of the dust, but the last time my 3-month warranty expired before I got sufficient amount of it. Then I bought a repair kit to clean it but managed to crack the glass opening the case, not much but annoying. And in a few weeks there was dust on the lenses again. So I decided to switch to SE and went to Apple Store to have a look on it and guess what, there was dust on the SE lenses right in the store! Well, it's time to switch anyway, so maybe putting some plugs on headphone and lightning jacks would help. Buying Apple Care warranty is actually a good idea for this case, because you can get a new phone every 3-4 months so you don't need to worry about your battery health.
  • eksemplar 8y ago
    You know the pixel 2 doesn’t have a headphone jack either, right? Apple may have been first movers, but everyone is following.
    • dogweather 8y ago
      The iPhones have a lightning connector, but the Pixel 2's have USB-C. They look similar from a distance, so I hadn't thought about it. It was a pleasant surprise to see on the new phone.
    • dragonwriter 8y ago
• teekert 8y ago
  I'm thinking of going from android to iPhone for privacy reasons. But, whenever I hold an iPhone that list of notification puts me off, in android they are grouped, meaning 3 new exchange mails is 1 notification, I can pull on the notification to expand the 3 and then even more for every email. Short replies can be done inline in the notification even. I use that constantly. You can also swipe away a notification group. In iOS apparently everything is one notification, that really increases the amount of work handling them significantly. I did try google-less Lineage [0], but it's pain. Installing and keeping apps up to date is more work and some apps don't have notifications. So for now I'm on lineage with the nano Gapps package. I am curious though, with android I can easily ssh into my server, and make tunnels (use it as proxy), use vnc etc. Can you also do that with iOS? [0] https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/
  • atl4s 8y ago
    I use an app called Blink (http://www.blink.sh/ http://www.blink.sh/) on iOS to manage servers on the move, has mosh support as well for areas with spotty cell service.
    • 8fingerlouie 8y ago
      I have yet to try Blink. I find it somewhat expensive. Panic makes a cheaper (SSH only) app : https://panic.com/prompt/ https://panic.com/prompt/
      • darrenf 8y ago
        Termius is free and has mosh support: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/termius/id549039908?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/termius/id549039908?mt=8 It offers in-app purchases for some subscription feature (https://www.termius.com/pricing https://www.termius.com/pricing ) but I've never needed or wanted them.
      • amdavidson 8y ago
        You can compile Blink yourself and sideload it in Xcode. https://github.com/blinksh/blink https://github.com/blinksh/blink
• audunw 8y ago
  I feel like the pros and cons of iPhone vs Android phones are pretty well known and stable now. I feel like we've had this discussion with the same comments a dozen times before. It all comes down to their business model and design philosophies. I think the most important thing is not be too locked into one device. If possible, try others for a couple of months at least. On a side note, I really wish Jolla were more successful. We really need a third option.
• NicoJuicy 8y ago
  I'm not sure, but the #1 feature for not going to iOS I'd sharing through apps, or is iOS capable of that?
• NicoJuicy 8y ago
  I'm wondering for the people that say Android is buggy, how many used stock Android
  • saagarjha 8y ago
    I've used stock Android, and yes, I'd call it buggier than iOS. It's much less fluid and apps often just stop responding completely. It's not terrible, but in my experience it's just been worse than iOS overall.
    • dogweather 8y ago
      What version Android was that?
      • saagarjha 8y ago
        7.1, I believe? I guess you can't call it stock, since it was LineageOS 14.1, but it's close enough. If you're being picky I've used actual "stock" Android Marshmallow and it's had the same issues.
• dvirsky 8y ago
  I've managed to destroy my Pixel 2 a few days ago, and for the time being switched to an iPhone 6. Some of the difficulties I'm having are due to habits or not knowing how to do stuff in iOS, but all in all, the Pixel 2 and latest Android are so good, iOS really feels like a step backwards. It used to be more polished than Android, but that's not true anymore as well. It just feels clunky and primitive compared to the Pixel.
• harshaw 8y ago
  As a long time Android user and current pixel owner I wonder about how well Android does with degraded hardware. My Pixel has not only gotten slower and slower but the battery life is horrible. Yes, I use the phone all the time but it's really bad. Aside - I wonder if the crappy boxer email app required by work is a source of pain. I don't see iPhone user's charge their phones as much as I do, or carry around an external battery pack like I do.
  • dogweather 8y ago
    My GF always has a battery pack with her for her iPhone 7. She also has Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp up 24/7.
• timrichard 8y ago
  I develop on Macs, and really like using iOS devices. The iPad is my tablet of choice.... But I've always stuck with Android phones, since the G1 (and a lot of jokes at the time). I think it's because the app interoperability was designed in from the start, something that only appeared gradually in iOS. I find a lot of value in workflow companion apps. So when I get a text message, it gets archived to Gmail with a label so it's searchable. And every incoming/outgoing/missed call puts an entry with the details and timestamp in my calendar, so I can look back for reference.
  • saagarjha 8y ago
    > So when I get a text message, it gets archived to Gmail with a label so it's searchable. And every incoming/outgoing/missed call puts an entry with the details and timestamp in my calendar, so I can look back for reference. With iOS, these all get synced across your devices through Continuity. They're not really searchable because Apple hasn't figured out a way to do search right, but they're there.
    • herbst 8y ago
      Obviously the data is there, yet one allows you to do whatever you want in a comfortable way while the other doesn't.
      • saagarjha 8y ago
        This is an often-complained about issue, though, so here's to hoping that Apple fixes it at some point…
    • RandallBrown 8y ago
      You can search text messages through spotlight. The results aren't perfect, but usually serviceable.
  • dogweather 8y ago
    > every incoming/outgoing/missed call puts an entry with the details and timestamp in my calendar, so I can look back for reference Now that's a cool trick. How exactly do you do that?
• mrsuprawsm 8y ago
  One of the author's frustrations is actually already present in iOS: > There’s a super-easy clear all link which is fantastic and hits at my #1 pet peeve w/ iOS’s design: the iOS notifications give me more work to do, not less If you force touch on the topmost (x) in the iOS notification dropdown, you get an option to clear all notifications. However, I only recently discovered this myself, after using each iOS since beta 1, so it's not exactly a discoverable feature.
  • CydeWeys 8y ago
    Apple has always done this, and it's frustrating. Another good example is how they've always only had one mouse button on desktop, because they claimed that having two or more was too complicated for users. Well ... the problem is that having more than one button is actually useful, and when the buttons are hardware buttons at least they are discoverable. Instead, there's lots of functionality hidden behind Control-clicking and Option-clicking and maybe more that is very hard to discover on your own (and this goes back to the pre-OS X days even). Force touch is similar in that the overall discoverable interface is too simple, and then the added functionality on top of that is way too hidden.
  • georgebarnett 8y ago
    I’ve had iPhones since the 3G and have used force touch for years and I’m still learning about obscure but incredibly useful features. It’s a good idea but it’s discoverability is terrible. This is a perfect example of that.
  • nickthegreek 8y ago
    Thank you kind sir! The force touch (x) is a god send and I never knew about it. I was just grumbling to myself yesterday about having to hit all these X's. My biggest issue with the iPhone is all the hidden force touch controls that are never taught. I've had 3 different android phones and always come back to iphone.
  • SomeHacker44 8y ago
    I got an iPhone X after having a 6+ (and several others back to the second-gen iPhone, the 3G). I immediately turned off Force Touch. I find the cognitive load of having three unknown things happen at any time (touch, long touch, force touch, plus who knows whatever else kind of touch they may have) way, way too high, and the value non-existent. It was also nearly impossible for me to know what did what, or how to get a long-touch separated from a force-touch. I would be 100% content if Force Touch entirely disappeared. I don't see the problem it addresses and experienced first hand problems it causes. Example: I could hardly figure out how to move apps around in springboard (or whatever the home screen is called these days) or cancel apps in the task switcher with it on. Maybe I'm a luddite, but I would really have preferred an iPhone 6+ "v2" with the same CPU and camera as the iPhone X - but none of the other stuff it brought (like color-changing OLED screen, nigh unusable Face ID, lack of a 3.5mm audio port). But, when your boss generously gives you an iPhone X it would be disrespectful not to use it.
• no1youknowz 8y ago
  I know a lot of this is anecdotal... My Mom who is 77, has had a few Androids. Always calling her Sons to help fix her phone. She bought cheap phones for a couple of hundred dollars, but always limited the Ram, but had plenty of storage. WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook would constantly fill it up and many times you'd have to clear out all the apps, clear the storage on the phone, etc, etc. Then I would have to explain to her that whilst she had a 64GB Sim, none of the Apps could be installed on there, etc, etc. She's not technical enough to understand what Google does on each update. She just wants a working phone. Now before I get replies. My time is mission critical, I can't spend 1 hour debugging a phone and talking to someone who just wants to use a device as non-technical as possible as anything complicated with be forgotten. I made her get an iPhone 6. Installed all her favoriate apps and waited. Never heard from her again. She's 77, calls all over the world, has all her friends on messager and whatsApp, she uses grammerly and surfs the web and even navigates via GPS using google maps. The Phone. Just works. I. Being the technical one in the family. Gets left alone LOL. In the family, 3 of Us have an iPhone. 2, Dad and 1 brother have an Android. All they have is problems, but they are too stubborn to get an iPhone. Oh well...
  • canuckintime 8y ago
    My aunt bought a 'cheap' iPhone (SE, 16GB, $450) and ran out of storage the first month...
    • votepaunchy 8y ago
      Exceedingly difficult these days now that movies, music, photos and videos, and even unused apps can be offloaded to iCloud.
    • Joeri 8y ago
      My wife once bought an 8 GB iPhone 4, and regretted it pretty much immediately. That was a horrible experience, and I was stunned that apple would sell such a thing. So far I've learned it pans out this way for iOS devices: - 16 GB: the bare minimum for any sort of user. Don't expect to be taking a lot of pictures or use a lot of apps without a lot of storage twiddling. - 32 GB: fine for regular app use, avoid if you want to take a lot of pictures. I find this to be the sweet spot for coffee table iPads. - 64 GB: the baseline for people who take a lot of pictures and videos. Anything less and there's too much storage management involved.
• onewhonknocks 8y ago
  You are comparing a 2014 phone (iPhone 6+) to a 2017 phone (Pixel 2), and are surprised that one seems 'better.' It's obviously not even close to an apples-to-apples comparison though.
  • dogweather 8y ago
    For that reason, I didn't give attention to the device's speed. 95% of my comparison is the current iOS (which the 6s+ runs) vs. the current Android.
    • onewhonknocks 8y ago
      But is it your contention that the experience of the current iOS on a 2014 device would be the same (or very close) as that of the current iOS on, say, an iPhone X? Because I'd push back on that.
      • sowbug 8y ago
        Dude, back off. This isn't a speeds and feeds product review. Someone had one phone for a while and then bought another phone. This is a post about the experience.
        • onewhonknocks 8y ago
          It is my opinion that it is a highly flawed comparison. Am I not allowed to simply communicate that in the comments section? Also, I'm not sure why you feel like you're in a position to tell me how to conduct myself.
          • sowbug 8y ago
            I'm just answering the question you seem to want to shove down the author's throat. It wasn't meant to be a comparison in the sense of whether you should buy this specific model or that specific model. It's whether someone shopping for a phone could validly make a choice to switch ecosystems. The actual author replied to your point in this thread, and rather than advancing the conversation you only repeated your original point, but more stridently. And now you're turning the conversation into some kind of free speech issue. You've made your single point many times. Do you have anything interesting to say?
• jvannistelrooy 8y ago
  For my job as an app Product Manager, I use several different devices on a daily basis. I also switch between an iPhone and Android phone as my personal device every half year or so, to stay up-to-date with both platforms. I think articles like these are interesting to read, but not relevant anymore. iPhones and high-end Android devices both offer a mature user experience, and you can't objectively say that one is better than the other. The choice of one OS over another depends entirely on your personal use cases, and of course personal taste. This is also reflected by all the valid, but personal reasons people list in this thread to choose a specific OS.
  • cdubzzz 8y ago
    How have you found support between the platforms? I tend to agree with your thoughts here, and this article seems like nothing more than very minor personal taste notes, but I have only used iPhones for the past six years or so. What I have done is support both iPhones and Android devices at work. When someone’s iPhone would break or have issues, I would take it to an Apple store and usually get the issue resolved or a replacement phone the same day. On the other hand, dealing with any sort of support issue for Samsung Galaxy devices was a damn nightmare. Those had to be shipped to some processing plant in TX and Samsung had a painfully bad website for tracking the repair. I had one instance where there just sent the phone back a few weeks later with no updates or information on the web. It took numerous phone calls and wasted time to find out they wouldn’t repair its screen issue because it had a third-party battery. Perhaps (and hopefully) Google is better about this than Samsung, but those support experiences are what led me to prefer Apple’s ecosystem for personal use.
    • jvannistelrooy 8y ago
      I don't think I have the same level of experience with support as you do, but in general my experience with Apple and Samsung is the same as yours. I never needed Google's support, so I can't tell you if that's better.
    • gvurrdon 8y ago
      I recall trying to get support for an odd issue on the Galaxy Nexus - it seems some devices would be unable to connect to 5GHz wifi after a few days or weeks of use, and mine was affected. Probably a hardware fault. Not only did Samsung's staff appear unable to understand the issue, their response was only to reinstall the OS (which took them over a week), which had no effect whatsoever. They claimed that they wouldn't replace it until the OS reinstall had been tried by them three times without success. Before it got to this point I returned it to the supplier for a refund, after wasting a bit of time on "not our problem, for faults contact the manufacturer" and "not our problem, for refunds or replacements contact the vendor". Whether or not this was typical I cannot say, but it did rather put me off.
• YouKnowBetter 8y ago
  My whole family (parents, sister & her kids, wife & our kids) have switched to iPhones (and macos devices) years ago. Result: 1. no "technical" issues anymore. As the go to IT guy in the family this alone is worth the supposed premium price one pays for the Apple logo. 2. Everything is updated, at all times. 3. "Facebook logs my sms" are a none issues 4. All devices die of old age (even the devices that have since long not recieved updates "just work") 5. Nothing beats the quality of Facetime (we live all over the globe and use it extensively to celebrate and share together). I still buy a couple of Androids per year. Cheapish phones for experiments with wardriving, imsi catcher catchers and other fun projects. So I totally get the "Android is outselling iPhones", thing is that we spend x moneys in the iTunes shop, and not a dime in the Google store. We've also moved out contact data out to google (since gmail is just absolutly the only email one ever needs and having synced contacts is wonderfull) together with the google photo app (since it is free and does a great job while migrating between devices). Now if only there was a way to painlessly move from one iPhone to the next, we would be exchanging them far more often. But no matter what I've tried: one always looses certain passwords / content / settings from different apps.
  • aeontech 8y ago
    FWIW, I move my family between iPhones every year and haven’t noticed any data loss. One exception to date is WeChat, for some godforsaken reason they only back up the most recent dozen conversations or so, so if you want your entire history, you have to jump through hoops to initialize a device-to-device transfer over WiFi, which can take an entire night in worst case. Would be curious to hear what kind of data loss you have seen though?
    • ttflee 8y ago
      Be cautious using WeChat. If the Chinese authority could retrieve something from the device, the U.S. authority must be able, too. https://www.androidheadlines.com/2018/04/confirmed-deleted-wechat-messages-can-be-retrieved-by-chinese-authorities.html https://www.androidheadlines.com/2018/04/confirmed-deleted-w...
• aheppy 8y ago
  I was a long time iOS user from the 3G to the 5S. At that point I decided to try the Pixel 1 and I really preferred the Android experience. It's clear that the quality of the UX is subjective and it takes a little time to get used to the nuances of a new OS but 18 months on I'm still very happy with the move to Android. The main concern I have is for device lifetime. It's hard to know anything more than an anecdote until a particular model is too out of date for the information to be useful but my Pixel broke within a year. I was given a free replacement under warranty but I don't have that same feeling of long-term hardware lifetime I got from Apple.
• pmontra 8y ago
  A question for the author about the blog page: why did you set body {visibility: hidden} and prompt some people with a blank page? I don't know which one of the privacy extensions I'm using probably prevented some JavaScript to turn it into visibility: visible, but why shouldn't it start as visible since the beginning?
  • rauhl 8y ago
    Yeah, but if you leave JavaScript disabled how can the trackers fire? I assume that's the real reason for all these pages which would work just fine without JavaScript requiring it.
    • Anderkent 8y ago
      Yes, I'm sure that's it and not the fact that no one builds for the 0.1% of users with javascript disabled.
    • pmontra 8y ago
      Fair assumption. However one can do some tracking using visible and invisible images from third party servers. They get the referral and their cookies even if maybe not as many as they used to, browsers start blocking 3rd party cookies now. The worst thing I saw was a post loaded into a JavaScript as a JS object. The script would insert it into the DOM after the onload event fired.
• ericd 8y ago
  The only thing keeping me definitively locked into an Android phone is Google's excellent Fi cell service.
  • fa17 8y ago
    I use Fi from my iPhone. its not officially supported, but works without issues.
    • ericd 8y ago
      Oh, awesome, thanks very much! I'll have to look into that. I wonder if it has any issues with network switching, or if it's just the wifi switchover stuff (which never seems to work anyway).
• Saaster 8y ago
  I wish I could switch to the iPhone, and I've tried several times. The hardware is excellent. But these are my deal-breakers that keep me on Android (I've only ever had Google Nexus / Pixel phones): - Lastpass or any other password manager on iPhone is a joke, requiring multiple convoluted steps and using the "share" menu in the browser because of the Apple lock-down. Lastpass on Android? Click the password field in any app or the browser, authenticate with your finger. Done. - All the Google apps on the iPhone are of a much lower quality and behind design and feature wise. The reason I switched last time from the iPhone to Android was because I realized I don't use any of the Apple apps any longer (mail, maps, notes, music, etc.) and I use the Google apps and services exclusively because they're just so much better. And they're way better still on Android! - Google Photos is amazing. It's hard to overstate just how good it is. And you can still plug in your phone and get your photos of the device, if you like. A recent experience of trying to backup my wife's photos from her iPhone 7 was an incredibly frustrating experience in contrast. The Apple photos desktop app is a piece of crap, somehow even slower and beachball-prone than the Apple Store app, and the backup is very confusing. Using iCloud is not a backup solution, because deleting a photo on any device still deletes it everywhere.
  • kossae 8y ago
    Wow. As an iPhone user I actually wasn't aware of how easy LastPass is on Android. I, too, hate all of the steps (leave browser to open the app, search for your site, copy password, go back to the browser, paste password). Hopefully I'm missing something? Re: Google. Their apps are certainly subpar as opposed to Android, which is to be expected. They are getting better, though. And Google Photos is a must for me as an iOS user. I've certainly had issues before as well with iCloud backups of image libraries.
    • have_faith 8y ago
      I believe there is a newer flow that I've caught occasionally. I use 1Password and some apps seems to have a shortcut on password fields for 1password to help fill in the password without going through the manual process.
    • 8y ago
• fortythirteen 8y ago
  > Much more transparency about what the phone is doing: how it’s charging, what it’s downloading, etc. Except all the things Google is syphoning in the background without telling you.
• grepthisab 8y ago
  I use both, got a free Pixel XL and my work phone is the iPhone 8 or something, not the X for sure. I have owned both Google and Apple phones in my personal life for years each, and now carry both side-by-side daily. I'll say I generally prefer the Pixel to the iPhone. Many things are easier, I can use my yubikey with the Pixel, the less locked down nature means I have more control (and I'm no heavy customizer by any means), and it's generally smoother. I do really like the notifications on the Pixel vs the iPhone as well. However, a handful of third-party apps seem more polished on the iPhone (the delta isn't what it used to be though), and I like the iPhone wallpapers better. OTOH the Google apps are better on the Pixel, and Apple keeps trying to shove Apple Maps down my throat when I navigate, annoying. Mostly though, the Pixel is better. Upside is also when you upgrade to a new Nexus-type device (Pixel, Nexus, etc.), you can install CopperheadOS on the old one and have a privacy-focused secondary phone. I have Copperhead on my old Nexus 5X.
  • mrep 8y ago
    > Apple keeps trying to shove Apple Maps down my throat when I navigate, annoying. I hate this so much. I just want to use Google maps with Apple auto but it won't let you. This is alone is making me consider the switch.
• jacksmith21006 8y ago
  Carry both an iPhone and now also an Android phone. My first Android phone was a S7E and it was very laggy. I had the US version which heard was worse. I now have a Pixel 2 XL and could not be happier. Buttery smooth. I now prefer Android over iOS but can not deal with lag.
• heyheyhouhou 8y ago
  I used to work in 2 major companies that make Android devices... I used to have Android myself and recommend to everybody until I saw within one of the companies some stats on how much porn users got in their phones... As someone said before, Android is designed to milk users. Apps milk users data because is something that Google does already, so somehow is OK to do it...
• dudul 8y ago
  Speaking of Google Phones, anyone here ha experience with Project Fi and want to share a little?
• Froyoh 8y ago
  After reading your comments I can say that the reasons for getting iPhone over an Android are the same as the reasons for getting an Android over iPhone: inconclusive.
• laredo312 8y ago
  I've had a pixel 2 xl since release. Couple things I'm not seeing mentioned: - My Pixel 2 xl speaker is awful when compared to an iPhone. Many users report the same: https://www.google.com/search?q=pixel+2+speaker+rattle https://www.google.com/search?q=pixel+2+speaker+rattle - My Pixel 2 xl proximity sensor will occasionally malfunction, causing the screen to go black when making a call. Also, well documented: https://www.google.com/search?q=pixel+2+proximity+sensor https://www.google.com/search?q=pixel+2+proximity+sensor The Google support callback feature is great, and getting an RMA was relatively easy -- however, my RMA unit was worse than my original -- the screen would periodically flicker off/on. Ended up keeping my original. Seems like the RMA is outsourced to some random company, can't even remember the name. Coming from iPhone, I like Android better, and the Google Assistant is vastly superior to Siri, but the hardware is still second-rate.
  • wilsonnb 8y ago
    The Pixel 2 XL has had a lot of issues since it launched (I preordered one and ended up returning it). However, I would say that the Pixel, Pixel XL, and Pixel 2 are equal to the iPhone in hardware quality.
  • kaskavalci 8y ago
    It has been a week since I've got my Pixel 2 XL and I can't agree with you more. Both mine and wife's phone flicker when screen is locked and it is getting really annoying. Considering the price of the phone, this is not acceptable.
• patja 8y ago
  The iPhone walled garden is what gets my goat, particularly when it comes to the impact it's had on my children. Combined with an observation that there is a distinct subset of people who buy iPhones who seem uninterested in how technology works or engaging deeply in solving technology interop problems when things go wrong. I get that's part of the feedback loop -- you buy an iPhone because "ack, technology! I just want things to work" and Apple has done an excellent job of capturing this market, extracting a price premium for it, and delivering on this hope. Regarding the children, what I see in my community is many of the iPhone-using parents upgrade phones immediately when a new model comes out, and the old phone goes to the kids. You get a bunch of 10 to 14 years olds packing iPhones, many without a SIM, all "texting" with one another. Except mostly they aren't really texting in the SMS sense, they are iMessaging. And they have no clue or interest in figuring out why iMessage doesn't always work very well across the iPhone <--> Android border. This is exacerbated by the fact that kids get new phone numbers, some of which are still registered to the former owner's iMessage account (have fun explaining all that). It creates cliques and exclusionary behavior ensues, and boy let me tell you when you are not in the cool kids' group text because your dad won't pay the Apple tax and bought you an Android phone, it can make for some sadness and frustration. All this probably says as much about the school culture my kids are immersed in as it does about the technology.
  • ktpsns 8y ago
    Full ACK. However, I'm optimistic, kids can be educated and evventually some of them will be interested in understanding how tech works, digging deeper and deeper and getting used to the hacker culture. These families where luxurious old IPhones are available plentifully are probably a bit odd, but for the purpose of hacking, IPhones are not too bad. They can be rooted, they have good hardware on board and batteries which last a decade. When I was young, I only had old lame personal computers from the household trash. I whish I had portable devices to play with! :-)
  • xevb3k 8y ago
    The iMessage thing sucks, I can see similar issues happening in other contexts however (like people getting bullied into using Facebook for example). To be honest, I mostly see Android users trying to defining people by which phone they use. Talking about walled gardens and gullible people willing to pay the “Apple tax”. Particularly in the tech community there seems to be a subset of people that think using an iPhone is “stupid”. To me Android and iOS both seem to have issues. Which you use is up to you. We’re in a sucky situation where you either get a phone designed by an advertising company or a phone that is entirely closed source (and limited to a single vendor).
• dep_b 8y ago
  > Makes sense: normally, these apps (and other “bloatware”) are pre-installed on phones when you buy them from a carrier. However the iOS one "just works". Disclaimer: I hate voice mail with a passion. Not using it unless I really think it might be something important. > There’s a super-easy clear all link which is fantastic Force touch the first close icon to close all on iOS. Which is absolutely terrible in terms of UX. > Universal back function: It’s great having a global “affordance” for the super-common thing that people want to do. It works well, too: its meaning subtly changing in the right way, depending what you’re going back from. However you're guessing what you're actually going back to since there's no visual indicator. The location is super perfect at the bottom row. Missed opportunity for the iPhone X which has screen real-estate on the bottom.
• olegious 8y ago
  I was a devout Android user, ever since the first Android phone came out, but after back to back horrible experiences (the first OnePlus and the Nexus 6), I ditched Android for the iPhone and haven't looked back. Much better hardware quality and the ecosystem works extremely well.
  • Shikadi 8y ago
    This probably is some sort of Fallacy that has a name... People should be looking for the best product at the time for them, not the best brand forever. There are anecdotes of people switching from one platform to the other and never looking back all over the place. Technology evolves so quickly that when you switch from one platform to another, it's almost always a step up provided you purchase in the same tier or better of devices. Imagine someone driving a 10 year old car from one brand, who decides to try a new brand of car. It has 10 years of new technology in it and blows the old car out of the water. Does that mean that they should switch brands forever and never look back? Phones and computers move much faster than cars. That being said, your opinion is completely valid and hopefully I don't come off as if I'm telling you your opinion is wrong or anything like that
• ibdf 8y ago
  It's clear from reading the threads in here that user experience on either side is not consistent. That's fine, get what works for you. If you have an android and it's not working for you, then switch to an iphone, and vice versa. Try a flip phone if you need simplicity. What I don't get it... is this fanboyism, this loyalty to a company that knows you as close as a number on a spreadsheet and a dollar amount on their bank account. Companies are not loyal to you, they will do whatever they want and push whatever product they build on you as long as you keep your devotion ($).
  • lotsofpulp 8y ago
    Sample size of this thread is too small. Based on the fact that almost all the profits in the phone market go to Apple, obviously they are providing something people want that others can't. In other words, Apple consistently provides a user experience that more people prefer compared to Androids.
    • majani 8y ago
      Not really. The luxury market is less about fulfilling basic needs and more about telling a good story and differentiating the owners of luxury from normal people
      • lotsofpulp 8y ago
        The iPhone is not that expensive so as to confer luxury status, at least not for the upper quintiles. If it was, then you wouldn't see it used so normally, that would defeat the goal of exclusivity. The difference is people with disposable income are choosing to go with Apple, hence they have a better user experience comparable to other high end phones on the market, with the main differentiating factor being one is iOS and one is Android.
    • mediocrejoker 8y ago
      Profits go to Apple but I think unit sales sway heavily towards Android, don't they? Apple has much higher margins, so maybe you could say that people who prefer Apple prefer it more heavily than those who slightly prefer Android. My preference is Apple currently but I think Android is probably better value for the money in most cases.
• tobyhinloopen 8y ago
  iPhone and Google Pixel 2: glued shut expensive phone from Apple or Google. Pick your poison.
• jonbarker 8y ago
  I'm not going to leave iOS because of bugs in macOS apps. That being said, I wish Apple would focus more on macOS, or finally unveil the plan for 'unification.'
• banku_brougham 8y ago
  >Much of the iOS experience is knowing which things to shut off, and which things to work around. Sadly, this sums up myy mode of behavior when configuring an iOS device.
• 120bits 8y ago
  I switched to iPhone for many reasons, but the main reason was SERVICE. I owned a HTC and then Samsung. I had issues with both the phones at some point in time. Yes things can go bad. I can't take my android phone to a local store to get it fixed. I need to send the phone to them, get a backup phone, port all my contacts to the other phone. But if I have a issue with my iPhone all I need to do is book an appointment at Genius bar, and they take care of the rest. At least I know I can talk to a real person face to face to fix the issue with my phone.
  • hocuspocus 8y ago
    With a Nexus or Pixel, all you'd have to do is contact the customer service and wait for your replacement device. I never really understood the love for booking appointments and going in person to crowded Apple stores.
    • 120bits 8y ago
      Some people like it. I dropped my iPhone and took an hour to replace the screen(went around the mall for a walk), not sure I can do the same with Pixel/HTC/Samsung.
• alexozer 8y ago
  I recently installed an Arch Linux chroot on my Android phone, full access to the filesystem and all. There's absolutely no way you could do anything like that on iPhone without some serious jailbreaking.
• jpeeler 8y ago
  Lots of comments here about being upset over the trend of headphone jack removal in both camps. I know advertising is... just that, but I'm still disappointed in Google's ad for the first Pixel phone (started at 43s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rykmwn0SMWU&start=43&version=3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rykmwn0SMWU&start=43&version... This was right after Apple removed the headphone jack on the iPhone 7. And after poking fun at Apple, the next generation Pixel 2 of course also had the headphone jack removed as well.
• dhab 8y ago
  Used iphone for 4-5 years, and switched to Pixel 1. Initially, thought it was crap and regretted it. 6 months later - it beats a lot of my experiences with the iPhone. Only a few things are well done on iPhone than on Android, and I am not going back to iPhone for sure.
• 10065 8y ago
  And when Android ditches the headphone jack? What then? It’s going to happen. iPhone 6+. Flawless. Works perfect. Zero issues.
• funwie 8y ago
  I think we turn to compare wrong product categories. a > $700 premium iPhone to a < $200 android phone. a > $2000 premium mac to a < $500 PC. Get premium devices equivalent to the prices of apple products, use and share your experiences.
• pombrand 8y ago
  Android has system wide ad blocking not requiring root through the DNS66 app, this alone makes me prefer Android.
• pw201 8y ago
  Unfortunately, Google got careless with the regular updates to the Pixel phones. On the Pixel 2 and XL, back in February, they introduced an interop problem with the wifi access points on a variety of home broadband routers, including those from some of the biggest ISPs here in the UK. The problem causes data stalls even though the status icon for wifi shows it connected with good signal strength. The only remedy seems to be to toggle wifi off and on, which makes it work for a while until it stalls again. It’s been months (with their further monthly updates) and this still isn’t fixed. See https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/73336431 https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/73336431 for lots of people with the issue. Regular updates are great until they break something fundamental like this. The fact that they are issuing the updates with breakages suggest their testing is inadequate. Google’s support on that ticket is non-existent, alas.