My guess is hardware differences are probably part of the polish. Apple processors tend to be much more performant than their competition. But they also tend to

My guess is hardware differences are probably part of the polish. Apple processors tend to be much more performant than their competition. But they also tend to have a lot less memory on board. I came at it as a value consumer, and I still contend that used SE iPhones are the best value across the board. But also, I don't really use apps (or my phone in general) much, so OS support and responsiveness are my only two real concerns. YMMV.