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I feel the same way when someone hands me an iPhone. In 2020, the operating systems are equally capable and refined, it's just a question of what you're used to
by camelNotation 6y ago
I feel the same way when someone hands me an iPhone. In 2020, the operating systems are equally capable and refined, it's just a question of what you're used to. If you had a great Android phone for a few months, you'd probably be just as comfortable with it as you are an iPhone.
When someone asks me what phone to buy, my answer is always "what phone do you have now?" because frankly, there is no reason to switch from one to the other. It's just a waste of time and energy to go through that.
- kortilla 6y agoUnless you care about privacy, in which case the answer seems to be iPhone. I haven’t found a good Android experience that doesn’t involve funneling everything to Google.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- searchableguy 6y agoYou can atleast remove the googleware to a great degree, you can't do the same for iPhones easily. Huge difference. You have fdroid, apk slicer and alternative stores without google gate-keeping. You can reflash your phone with ungoogled android or open source alternative gapps package. Use microG to sandbox google stuff. There are ton of ways to contain googleware.
- xtian 6y agoWhich of those do you think are accessible to the average user?
- sudosysgen 6y agoAll of them if someone else does the initial set up, from first hand experience.
- xtian 6y agoWhat about updates or when something goes wrong?
- searchableguy 6y agoDoes google provide you support when something otherwise go wrong? No. Unless of course it's a pixel. And I have a custom rom which gets update every month. Ungoogled. :)
- tracker1 6y agoNot too different from MS not being first line support for your Thinkpad, but offering more for surface laptops. I'm still under update coverage for my Pixel 2XL, haven't felt compelled to upgrade at all. i do wish more handsets supported using Lineage or another open variant/option for after coverage expires at least.
- square_usual 6y agoThe comparison you should be making isn't with Google, but Apple. My experience with custom ROMs was unfortunately a lot worse than yours. I had the original Galaxy Note, and picking a custom ROM for that was a "Updated, has features, doesn't kill your battery - pick 2" kind of deal.
- sudosysgen 6y agoFor updates, you hit the update button. When something goes wrong, same as others.
- michaelmrose 6y agoYou can still use the google play store and switch email, maps, and browser and give almost no data to google and anyone can install apps in google play.
- michaelmrose 6y agoYou can have access to the google play store and browse with firefox, use fastmail for email, use maps.me for maps, and text messaging + a million and one different messaging apps. Then google knows what? That you installed fastmail, firefox, and maps.me?
- solarkraft 6y agoIf you have Google Play Services embedded into your system and you use Google Play: Yes. You have a good chance of avoiding that by downloading through Aurora, though.
- solarkraft 6y agoI use LineageOS without the google play (/media) services, which is the first huge step, then I also use as much from F-Droid as possible. Google is very strong in the data heavy areas. GMail, Calendar and especially GBoard and are extremely hard to replace, as are YouTube and Translate.
- andrepd 6y agoI must say I never understood why Apple is supposed to be any guarantee of privacy? If you are technically minded, you can easily flash LineageOS + microg on your phone a use a virtually surveillance-free phone (as far as you can, ignoring stuff like cell tower tracking and opaque baseband, etc).
- camelNotation 6y agoYour privacy has much more to do with the apps you use than the phone itself. Apple doesn't collect user data like Google, but the difference between them is 1 company. If you have an iPhone and you use Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Microsoft Office, Google Photos/Docs, Spotify, the Dominos Pizza app, etc etc there are half a dozen companies holding your private information either way. If you want to go total lockdown, get an iPhone with a VPN and never use any social media or cloud apps, but don't pretend like having an iPhone alone is some huge change to your privacy problems.
- geoffbp 6y agoI used to think this, however now I think for a lot of users iPhone is easier. Fwiw I use android..
- spurgu 6y agoI used to think this as an Android user, however then I spent 1.5 years on iOS and now being back on Android feels like bliss. Apple has the security advantage though if you disregard the information apps leak but then again on both OS's you can use Pi-Hole, or better yet NextDNS, to shut up some of the chatter.
- 72deluxe 6y agoUntil you leave your house and use your mobile phone as a mobile phone, and then all access is granted to the data-sucking fiends. And I say this as someone who runs Pi-Hole. But I feel like it is a battle I am using.
- magicalhippo 6y agoMy mom (~75) got an S8+ last year. She had some prior smartphone experience with an old iPhone 4S but not as her primary phone. First day she got the S8 I set it up for her and showed her how to make calls and send text messages. Next day I got an MMS with a picture from the garden, she'd figured that out on her own. Mainly I think things are just different, some things are easier on Android, some on iOS and vice versa.
- giovannibonetti 6y agoAlso, typing on the iPhone is a pain because of the horrible auto corrector. Remember all the jokes from people on iPhones cursing on each other because of it? I guess Apple is miles away from Google when it comes to AI for these kind of stuff. Android's keyboard is so good because of it that I often write words pressing all the wrong keys and it somehow figures out correctly what I want to say.
- bambataa 6y agoI’ve had to turn off the iOS auto correct because it became so poor. It’s literally easier to type them out and correct the many mistakes than fight the auto correct.
- electroqueen 6y agois this something you noticed in the past couple of years? i dont remember autocrrect feeling so terrible...its like im being trolled every time i use it now. it suggests the completely wrong words and the wrong tense until i type out more than half the word.
- bambataa 6y agoYes, it's got noticeably worse. It used to be pretty good.
- rangibaby 6y ago“Ducking”
- tracker1 6y agoI just add all the variations of curse words to my dictionary which tends to take care of that issue. I favor the gesture input, and it's surprising how many words have similar swype patterns for the keys.
- 6y ago
- philsnow 6y agoSetting aside the question of whether the OSes are equally capable and refined, the simple fact of the matter is that most android hardware (both by unique SKUs and by total deployed devices) is hot garbage. I have to remember to slow way down and wait for the UI elements to react to my input whenever I handle anybody's android phone.
- safog 6y agoDepends how old the phone is and how limited the h/w is though - Android is designed to work in some ridiculously under powered devices. I highly doubt a top of the line phone like the Galaxy or the Pixel would have issues with input lag. If anything, I get annoyed by how long animations on iOS take compared to Android. Everything feels like it's running in slow motion.
- cptaj 6y agoApple software is pretty nice with their user experience. But I feel like 90% of this complaint stems from people comparing a $200 Android phone with $1000 iPhone. Happens in laptops too. Its just silly. Go in the same price range and then make a judgement.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- eanzenberg 6y agoThis is a funny comment given the post is a out the cheap SE, starting at $500.
- xnyan 6y agoI have the exact opposite opinion. Don’t take my word for it, grab any Apple phone made in 2017 (worth about 99 bucka today) vs any entry to low mid ($100-400ish) android and the iphone will kick ass in most regards. I long for the freedom of android and use iPhones reluctantly only because i really think they are a good value at almost any price point.
- FabHK 6y ago> In 2020, the operating systems are equally capable and refined, it's just a question of what you're used to. I don’t think that’s true if you work with sensitive data or are just generally privacy conscious. iOS is then recommended over the OS from the advertising company (eg by tptacek and other experts here, if I’m not mistaken).
- camelNotation 6y agoAnd I don't think it's true if you want a system that integrates Google Assistant and the G-Cam software. Being privacy-conscious is not universal, it's an individual priority. For you, get an iPhone. My statement was, weighing advantages and disadvantages against one another, the math comes out pretty close. On a Pixel, I can use Google Assistant like a secretary. It screens the calls, forces the caller to answer questions, then relays the answers to me to see if I want to talk to them. That's pretty damn awesome. But again, it's not everyone's priority.