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I think that Android has burned too many users in weird ways. For example, I recently convinced my father to switch to iPhone after 4 years of Android. Why? Th

I think that Android has burned too many users in weird ways. For example, I recently convinced my father to switch to iPhone after 4 years of Android. Why? The first phone he got was a Galaxy S7 (Snapdragon). After just a year it was extremely slow, crashing all the time, overheating... which turned out to actually be a very, very common problem with the processor (Snapdragon 820). It was Qualcomm's first stab at a 64-bit processor and it showed. Well... try, try again. Galaxy Note 9. After a year, super slow at everything, even though all he does is browse internet and check emails. Even the Microsoft Outlook app would crash loading Inbox 25% of the time with no other apps open. Battery replacement and factory reset didn't help at all. A few months after that, it started dropping Verizon phone calls at random. Turns out that was another flaw widely reported on their forums, specifically on Verizon, with a botched software update installation for the modem, that if you were unfortunate enough to install, could not be removed or repaired or factory reset. And, of course, Samsung wasn't pushing any updates to fix it. Kind of a really big deal when you are a small business owner. So iPhone 13 he went. A year and a half later and it doesn't drop calls.

celsoazevedo 3y ago
> (Snapdragon 820). It was Qualcomm's first stab at a 64-bit processor and it showed. The 820 was the second gen of 64-bit SoCs. The one with heating and efficiency issues was the Snapdragon 810 (and the slower 808). I moved from a OnePlus 2 with the 810 to the OnePlus 3 with the 820 and it was a day/night difference.
rib3ye 3y ago
The last part is the big one - the manufacture fragmentation delivers an incoherent user experience. Every year Apple delivers a major iOS release that makes it "feel" like a new phone (I won't even debate that the improvements are now incremental), but the product marketing is most pleasing! When you buy an Android product, you just feel used and abused. New cool Android version came out? Fuck you, buy a new phone.
- celsoazevedo 3y ago
  > When you buy an Android product, you just feel used and abused. New cool Android version came out? Fuck you, buy a new phone. A new Samsung flagship gives you 4 years of new Android versions and an extra year of security updates. A Google Pixel is 3 major updates + 2 of security updates.
  - sixdrum 3y ago
    The iPhone 8, released in 2017, runs the latest of iOS (16).
    - celsoazevedo 3y ago
      Right. My point is that you no longer have to buy a new phone every year just to get the latest Android version. The latest, similarly priced Samsung equivalent receives 4 major updates. Long term support is still not as good as iPhones, but it's no longer the old (to quote the comment above) "Fuck you, buy a new phone", not to mention that on Android some of the new iOS features are actually delivered as normal app updates (gallery app, maps, the equivalent to webkit, etc) or backported via Google services to 4-5+ year old Android versions (eg: file sharing, earthquake warnings, covid tracking support, etc).
      - kyriakos 3y ago
        And even after those 5 years the phone is not a waste because most things on android are apps that update independently without an OS upgrade unlike ios where to get a new browser engine you need to upgrade the OS. Firefox supports android 5,which was released in 2014, that means a phone released in 2012 can still run the latest browser engine.
rixthefox 3y ago
This was kind of my experience as well. I switched from my Pixel 4 to an iPhone 14 and as much as I was distraught to even have been considering an iPhone (for reference my last iDevice was the iPod Touch 4th Gen iOS 6.1.2) I felt like I couldn't deal with getting yet another phone that wasn't going to do what I needed it to do. The final straw for me was when I was sitting at home one night and a family member calls me exasperated saying "I've been trying to call you all day". I had no missed call notification and no voicemail notice. Sure enough I log into my voicemail and there is 20+ messages waiting. If Google can't even get basic functionality like CALLING to work I had no intention of sticking around waiting for a future update that would magically fix it. I made the realization that I need a phone that works and will continue to receive updates for at least 7 years. The Pixel 4 was released on October 2019 and received it's last update from Google in February of this year. The iPhone 6S was released in September of 2015 and it's only JUST reaching EOL after 7 years of continuous support by Apple. If Google wants to stop the bleeding they are going to need to fix the basics. They are also going to need to pledge to support the phones longer. The fact that I can purchase a $1,000 iPhone and it will last me 7 years vs buying a $1,000 Pixel that will only last me 3-4 years, I don't need to be a mathematician to see which is the better option.
timbit42 3y ago
Samsung has been crap for years now. No wonder. Buy a better quality Android device.

celsoazevedo 3y ago

> (Snapdragon 820). It was Qualcomm's first stab at a 64-bit processor and it showed. The 820 was the second gen of 64-bit SoCs. The one with heating and efficiency issues was the Snapdragon 810 (and the slower 808). I moved from a OnePlus 2 with the 810 to the OnePlus 3 with the 820 and it was a day/night difference.

rib3ye 3y ago

The last part is the big one - the manufacture fragmentation delivers an incoherent user experience. Every year Apple delivers a major iOS release that makes it "feel" like a new phone (I won't even debate that the improvements are now incremental), but the product marketing is most pleasing! When you buy an Android product, you just feel used and abused. New cool Android version came out? Fuck you, buy a new phone.

celsoazevedo 3y ago
> When you buy an Android product, you just feel used and abused. New cool Android version came out? Fuck you, buy a new phone. A new Samsung flagship gives you 4 years of new Android versions and an extra year of security updates. A Google Pixel is 3 major updates + 2 of security updates.
- sixdrum 3y ago
  The iPhone 8, released in 2017, runs the latest of iOS (16).
  - celsoazevedo 3y ago
    Right. My point is that you no longer have to buy a new phone every year just to get the latest Android version. The latest, similarly priced Samsung equivalent receives 4 major updates. Long term support is still not as good as iPhones, but it's no longer the old (to quote the comment above) "Fuck you, buy a new phone", not to mention that on Android some of the new iOS features are actually delivered as normal app updates (gallery app, maps, the equivalent to webkit, etc) or backported via Google services to 4-5+ year old Android versions (eg: file sharing, earthquake warnings, covid tracking support, etc).
    - kyriakos 3y ago
      And even after those 5 years the phone is not a waste because most things on android are apps that update independently without an OS upgrade unlike ios where to get a new browser engine you need to upgrade the OS. Firefox supports android 5,which was released in 2014, that means a phone released in 2012 can still run the latest browser engine.

rixthefox 3y ago

This was kind of my experience as well. I switched from my Pixel 4 to an iPhone 14 and as much as I was distraught to even have been considering an iPhone (for reference my last iDevice was the iPod Touch 4th Gen iOS 6.1.2) I felt like I couldn't deal with getting yet another phone that wasn't going to do what I needed it to do. The final straw for me was when I was sitting at home one night and a family member calls me exasperated saying "I've been trying to call you all day". I had no missed call notification and no voicemail notice. Sure enough I log into my voicemail and there is 20+ messages waiting. If Google can't even get basic functionality like CALLING to work I had no intention of sticking around waiting for a future update that would magically fix it. I made the realization that I need a phone that works and will continue to receive updates for at least 7 years. The Pixel 4 was released on October 2019 and received it's last update from Google in February of this year. The iPhone 6S was released in September of 2015 and it's only JUST reaching EOL after 7 years of continuous support by Apple. If Google wants to stop the bleeding they are going to need to fix the basics. They are also going to need to pledge to support the phones longer. The fact that I can purchase a $1,000 iPhone and it will last me 7 years vs buying a $1,000 Pixel that will only last me 3-4 years, I don't need to be a mathematician to see which is the better option.

timbit42 3y ago

Samsung has been crap for years now. No wonder. Buy a better quality Android device.