Android

ITT: people who haven’t used anything later than an iPhone 6 /s

Seriously though, I am curious if anyone has spent more than a month with a 13 Pro or later; it sounds like most of the gripes are about shittier/older iPhones/iOS versions.

Lots of good points here (like the universal back button/gesture 🤤) and it’ll be interesting to see how things change after the 15 gets USB-C and maybe some sideloading at some point over the next couple of years 🤞

Personally, after being on Android since the first Motorola droid and switching to iPhone a few years ago with the 12, I wouldn’t move back to Android at all.

I had Motorola for a while, then the LG g series for a bit, then galaxies until the s8, and then a pixel 4xl.

Google pissed me off with their warranty and support. My pixel had the internal battery cable fuck off and they wouldn’t repair it even though they acknowledged it was design fault. Because I was one week out of warranty.

I hated Samsungs bloatware, Lg was gone, Motorola was pretty nonexistent, and I didn’t want a Chinese owned brands like one+, oppo, or Huawei.

So Apple was pretty much it. I got a regular iPhone 12, and everything I wanted to do was easier than Android. Apple had a built in app for it without me having to fuck around with side loading or installing third party apps.

Android is undoubted better for customization and if you love having extremely fine grained control over your phone. Plus the benefit of being able to side load completely different loads of Android. You have MUCH more control over your environment than an iPhone.

Personally, I don’t give a shit about that. I do that shit at work 60 hours a week. For my personal devices I just want the shit to work. I also want Google in my life as little as possible.

Overpriced. It maybe used to be worth it, but these days all phones look and work the same anyway.

I used to be an iPhone person, bought a new one every two years from the iPhone 4 in 2010 until my iPhone SE broke in 2018. That was when iPhones jumped to being like $1000, so I thought fuck it and bought a $150 Android.

I was ready for a really rough transition but it turns out these days all apps are cross platform React Native with data stored in the cloud. Once you're logged in literally everything is exactly the same.

Sideloading:

1. I'd be restricted to the apps on the app store that have to restrict themselves to the app store policies.

2. I wouldn't have an alternative way to download an app if it gets banned from the app store for any reason. I remember hearing about Fortnite getting banned from both app store and play store but android users can still play it.

3. I couldn't use modified apps like revanced.

4. I think you'd be restricted to region locks in app store which you can circumvent on play store by running a vpn, force stopping play store and then clearing data on it.

5. Being restricted to app store only means some extraordinary apps wouldn't be developed like the cool apps on android that aren't on play store.

6. Sometimes developers make different versions of the same apps. One is a bit restricted and is for play store. It's restricted because it has to follow play store policies. The other version ends up having more features. I don't see this happening on iOS. I heard about EU asking them to make a way to sideload, but I also heard that that might be restricted to EU only which means it wouldn't pick up as much as it could.

Aesthetics:

Nothing much to say except I don't like the iOS ui. I even fine it ugly. I much prefer the material you thing android is doing.

Lack of your own choice:

1. Apple decides for its users. They removed headphone jacks and then the sim card thing in US for no reason. Since they only have flagships, that's all the users are restricted to.

Android flagships sadly seem to follow their example soon enough

2. All the browsers on iOS are just reskinned safari.

General bias:

I don't like apple handles their things and many of their users. That affects my decision so I think I should put it here as a reason. I don't think I have to mention what apple does but for their users, I live in Asia and a lot of people see iphones as a status thing which I find annoying. Feels like a matter of shoving cash in your face to flex. There's also the bubble thing I hear in US which I find ridiculous.

Other points:

1. No back button

2. No revanced.

3. Ecosystem locked.

4. Only expensive phones.

IPhones are irrepairable, good looking, feature packed, reliable, android mocking, mostly great phones with intentional design flaws, from whose platform you can't easily switch away, created by an unethical company trying to squeeze every penny out of you

I would desperately miss customization, and I'm hoping to increasingly move to open source options, so iOS wouldn't really be a good fit for my needs

I think that Apple makes a quality product, but I can't stand the company and their mindset towards consumers. I don't like that they tell me what my user experience will be and demand that I enjoy it. Their products remind me of America Online (AOL), where they put the internet into a can and fenced off the user experience. It's great for the most basic of users, but frustrating if you want to have control and do things your way.

I'm forced to use iphones for work, so I'm not unfamiliar with ios, but I prefer my S23 much more.

I'm considering moving to Apple just for a "mini" phone, and i know it would be supported for a good few years yet. Android has no comparable phone.

But I prefer pretty much everything else about Android. Not just prefer, actually I really dislike iOS, the way it's organised, the way it handles "Back" gesture, etc.

I haven't liked iPhones in over a decade. The locked down OS, iTunes, no MicroSD, etc just make them a non-starter for me. Android is far from perfect but I cannot stand to use an iPhone. My wife loves hers and so do some of my in-laws but I won't be getting one.

Really expensive over here, so people only buy them for status basically. Having an iPhone signifies that you're well off enough to not worry about price.

I had a friend who said exactly this. She was just buying it to show off basically. She didn't even believe me when I said the back was glass for some reason lol. And when she got it, she had to get used to counter-intuitive behaviour like the power button cutting a WhatsApp call. She did this multiple times on a call with me, it was pretty funny!

Another friend kinda regrets buying it now because he feels locked in to the Apple ecosystem.

Personally, I don't think I'll ever switch because F-Droid is a huge part of my phone experience. When my Pixel runs out of support, I'll probably just root it.

It's a great phone. Solid hardware, good software. Just not for me.

It has been so long so I couldn't remember the details. But when I got an Iphone 4 back in the day (1st ever iPhone, after many Androids). It got me so frustrated doing anything on it.

One of my biggest frustration was: There's no "bulk selection" AT ALL! Want to delete pictures? One by one. Delete phone history? One by one. Delete Contacts? ONE! BY! ONE!.

I thought to myself "How could ANYONE use this thing?"

Get rid of it after 4 months and never looked back.

I worked at AT&T when iphones first were a thing. Everything was proprietary (still is) with them, and employees weren't allowed to own phones for the first few years on employee accounts for some unknown reason. When I became a case manager for the executive response team, I finally got to have an iPhone. And... It was boring. I couldn't customize it (granted this was the iPhone 3G in 2008) and it just really didn't excite me. Then I got an Android phone on a whim, and fell in love. All the options!! The things you can do or choose not to do! Amazing! And still to this day whenever I play with an iPhone... It bores me to death.

besides the price being outrageous, dealbreakers for me are forbidden sideloading and no usb-c cable support. when the eu law requiring both kicks in i think iphones could be fine.

I made a post about this on c/technology a while back about my iPhone to Android journey and it had pretty good engagement. It might provide you guys more insight.

https://lemm.ee/post/2428648

Why I use Android:

Sideloading

• As far as I know, hosting apps on the Play Store (and App Store) costs money. This means that many apps have to be downloaded via other means. Sideloading facilitates this.
• Piracy isn't possible without the ability to sideload apps.
• Modifying apps isn't either. This means apps like Revanced can't exist on iOS.

Rooting

• I use Viper4Android, an amazing equalizer app that only works on rooted devices. Wavelet is a non-root alternative by the same developer, but it lacks many features and has some technical limitations.
• I take care of my phone's battery by limiting how full it charges overnight. This is only possible on a rooted device (or on Samsung, but 85% is the only option).
• I want the ability to uninstall system apps. They consume resources in the background and take up unnecessary space. I imagine people with more powerful (expensive) phones don't necessarily desire this ability.
• I want to be able to customize the UI. I don't want an alarm clock icon, a vibrate icon, two signal bars, a 4G or wifi icon and the battery icon taking up half the status bar.

Custom ROMs

• With an open-source custom ROM, I can be sure that my device doesn't have any spyware as part of the operating system.
• Custom ROMs often allow more customizations and use less memory because they aren't cluttered with useless OEM stuff.

iOS is too restrictive for me. Not being able to access the file system, no sideloading, no background apps, limited app access to the hardware, etc. Apple has the best mobile SoCs, but then you can't even run an app like Syncthing to keep some folders in sync (it can't even access those folders) or use some app to re-encode a video in the background.

I like the UI consistency between apps and OS (Android is a bit more "messy") but overall it's a bit like ChromeOS. Good for basic stuff and sometimes the best for specific tasks, but try to do anything more advanced and you'll quickly find a wall.

On my phone I have apps like Syncthing running in the background. Sometimes I run an app that gives me detailed info about battery usage, track/map the signal of mobile networks, contribute to Mozilla Location Service, can see to which bands my phone is connected to (and if rooted, even control which are used). If an app needs to use bluetooth to send a file or NFC, it can. On the other hand, Android still struggles to do fast file transfer well (at least it never works as well as Airdrop for me)... there are trade-offs.

Again, it's a bit like ChromeOS/Chromebook vs Linux/Windows/macOS. Perfect for my parents, but not enough for me.

The hardware is fine. Things like the display (Samsung), modem (Qualcomm), cameras (Sony) can be found on Android devices (or at least similar hardware). Their SoC is the best there is, but then is restricted by software... a bit like buying a Ferrari to drive it in a city. Imagine a "gaming phone" with the latest A16?

Regarding software updates, Google and Samsung (at least on the more expensive devices) now have 5 years of software updates. Not as good, but not a problem for those buying a new phone today. Some brands are still bad though.

Android is great for customization, price and choice. Android sucks because some vendors stop os updates only after a couple of years. Granted you can manually install a costum rom from a stranger.

Apple good hardware, should performance. Regular updates. Boring?

Ha ha 🤣 I don't know. You mostly get what you pay for.

Excellent hardware, mediocre software, too expensive. To elaborate on the software, long software update is good. And the iPhone is certainly smooth. However it requires too many workarounds for/straight up can't do what I would consider basic features on Android. And it certainly isn't bug free. For the average user though, I don't think they care about any of that, they only care about the brand, which is why the iPhone still sells so well.

I think that iPhones are unacceptably locked down. But I also think that stock Android is unacceptably privacy-invasive (as in, illegally so, here in the EU).

So, I actually recommend iPhones to non-techies, while running an Android Custom ROM myself. Not particularly happy with that solution either, though. Might see, if I can help push along the Linux phone ecosystem...

I like them, but I like Android more, I was an iPhone user since the 4 model up to 6s, my girlfriend still is, she currently has an iPhone 13 and I am amazed of how well iOS feels and behaves, we also share an iPad it’s so good to use and with Apple you get a shit ton of versions support as well.

The iOS apps also have its charm, I think many of them are better crafted on iOS than Android…

I like Android for everything that has been discussed here already, but who knows if I go back someday to iOS, still need to improve, for now I think it is that good that jailbreak does not feels like a necessity like back in the days…

As a developer, the experience is so much better on Android for me. And I oppose the walled garden on a ideological level.

But I have to admit some of the features are compelling. Some of them aren't even really Apple's doing, such as Genshin Impact supporting wireless controllers on IOS14+, but not Android at all. Others are built in, such as the lidar scanning.

They haven't yet tempted me over, though, because phones are incredibly expensive and even if I weren't opposed to the walled garden, I'm pretty invested in the Android ecosystem now.

At some point I plan to borrow someone's iPhone and try Genshin on it, and if that works well... Well, I might just switch anyhow. Or maybe I get sick of that game before that. ;)

I prefer Android, but use iPhone 12 Mini instead. The thing is, more than two years ago I was looking for a new phone to replace my aging Oneplus 6, I wanted something more compact. One that really caught my attention was Pixel 4A (Zenfone 8 wasn't released yet, neither was Pixel 5A and I wasn't really looking for Galaxy A or S series full of bloat either).

Out of nowhere a friend of mine offered me barely used iPhone 12 Mini for 400€ so I got that one instead and it serves me well. I still don't like the iOS (apart from the fact that it just works), but other than that the phone itself is still very relevant, camera is good enough, it's got plenty of power for what I need from it, only the battery will need to be replaced in a couple of months. I don't really plan on getting something else yet, this pocket rocket ticks most of the boxes for me, even tough I can't really tinker with OS itself and I'm fairly limited in regard to what apps do I get to use.

Im using a motorola that's ~3 years old and not top of the line. It has a headphone jack, and a stylus.

My opinion on the iPhone is that it is the industry leading phone. But it's taking the industry in directions I just have no interest in.

So nowadays, I'm looking forward to more counter-culture designs. I'm definitely looking for a phone with a physicaly keyboard or a way to attach a small bluetooth keyboard physically to the phone. But I digress.

My work phone is an iPhone. It's fine. 🤷🏼‍♀️ The camera is great, even compared to my pixel. The thing that drives me nutty is all of the ads. I love having ReVanced and xManager on my personal phone.

I admit I didn't read many replies due to time. But to add to them, the more I deal with my mother who is becoming more technologically challenged in her years, I constantly get to hear about how confusing her Android is sometimes, I sort of wish she'd switch to Apple for it's simplicity! I used to have an iMac and was gladly part of the eco-system for a while and enjoyed how intuitive it was. With that said, when the time came for me to join the Smartphone world in '10 or so - I went Android and haven't looked back.

We've looked at them in the past and while they make solid quality phones and easy to use phones, from what I understand, the battery life is somewhat to be desired? (as of a few years ago). The formula they use to make everything stay within their Eco-system seems to be working for them. After all, if you have an iPhone, then it seamlessly works with your Mac, or other Apple Devices. There's more control over it.

For the best flexibility with our family, we use Android and will for the time being. Not to say though that the newer Linux based phones (PinePhone,Librephone etc) aren't catching my attention because they are and I'm a die hard Linux user! :)

My first contact with iOS was with an ipod touch 4. I was very excited to finally try it as I had never used one nor any smartphone before and I used to follow a lot of tech folks who constantly praised iOS and mocked android left and right.

My first reaction was disappointment. I couldn't believe that was the OS that I had read so many positive reviews of. It felt like it did nothing. Even just browsing the web on it felt so much worse than even the hacked Nintendo DS I had put a browser on. Apple claimed it could multitask, but their idea of multitask was to hibernate an app so you could launch another, then hibernate the second to go back to the first. Apps couldn't process anything unless they were in the foreground. I soon gave up on trying to use multiple apps at the same time.

I later got my first smartphone and I decided to try android, even though I had read so many bad things about it. The experience was the complete opposite. I expected nothing and received an OS filled with every sort of thing I could imagine. It was slow and sometimes it would crash or have other problems, but at least it could do stuff. I loved it.

As the years went by I eventually had to work with multiple apple devices, including iPhones and iPads. Everytime I did, I continued to have the same impression I had back then: "other than it's main basic purpose, I can't think of anything to use this device for".

I had a few android tablets over the years that I always used to write notes (with a pen), browse Twitter side by side with some streaming service, access my computer remotely to load some file I might have forgotten, use as a remote control for playing music on other devices and a lot of shit like that. The iPad I was being paid to create an app for could do none of those things.

Now it's been over a decade since I last tried any Apple product , so I don't really know what the current experience is, but I've dealt with apple in other ways and it only feels like they are always doubling down in being that way.

BTW I also used to have a windows phone device and at the time it felt like the combination of all the good things about android and iOS without their bad things. I'm still sad it didn't survive long.

If apple allowed you to open up the software and increased ease of hardware repair they'd be my choice. The products are high quality but you have no choice in anything. I enjoy being able to install custom roms on my android. That being said Samsung is getting just as bad as apple. Can't even put a custom roms on my zfold cause unlocking the bootloader disables the cameras. Google is also pushing more and more to make android less open and more like apple and Samsung is really trying to do the same thing. I'd like to see another OS enter the market. Linux for Android is looking promising but I'm afraid there will never be a market ready model. Pine phones are close and libre is nearly there but phosh is disgusting and not a viable replacement.

It always just seemed like I'm fighting against the system.

I have never used an iPhone and unlikely will, but this was my exact feeling what I unfortunately had to use a Mac for work for a few months.

I actually use an iPhone as my main phone. I prefer it over android for normal daily tasks 9/10 times. It’s those 1/10 things/abnormal tasks that makes me also carry a secondary android phone. But that’s more just me being weird.

After shitting on apple for years I was eventually “forced” to use an iPhone for a short period of time and never looked back.

Back in the day when mobile data was multiple euros per megabyte, I had an ipod 4G as my first 'smartphone'. The UI was unbelievably smooth for the time but I found the OS very limited, so I jailbroke it and tinkered a lot with it. After the release of the iphone 6, apple shipped an update to my ipod that made it super slow. Most games that would run perfectly before became unplayable over night.

That day I made a decision to not buy or recommend any apple devices. Android was great back then, so I never looked back.

A couple of months ago, my dad got an iphone for work and after playing around with it for 20 minutes, I wondered how anyone uses this. The UI is very slow and glitchy compared to my oneplus 8 (which is a 3 year old phone at this point) even when I switch my phone to 60hz to make it fair.

It always just seemed like I'm fighting against the system. Never did I have that "it just works" moment, until I've got my first Android, and realize I have the freedom to do whatever I want with it, and I can install what I want, and if there's a problem, I can look things up and fix it myself.

I very much agree with that statement and find myself in the exact same position with windows, so I've switched to linux. It's genuinely incredible how much better it is after gaining a few dozen hours of experience with it.

I'm so used to Android that when I try to use a friend's iPhone it just doesn't seem intuitive to me. But to be fair the same happens with heavily modified versions of Android, like MIUI.

I think iPhones are mostly ok, but I can't stand the fact that something so expensive feels so laggy because of the 60Hz refresh rates.

They have pretty damn good face recognition though, but at the price of a gigantic pill/notch on the screen.

I use both devices and to me I prefer the iPhone for its simplicity in UX of things such as audio handoff between devices with airpods, the ease of using their “Find My” network. And being able to use iMessage/FaceTime seamlessly with other apple users without them needing another account to use Wi-Fi calling/messaging. The camera/photos/iCloud integration is much better too.

Android is much better for various little apps. They are more permissive on the App Store and even if they weren’t you can easily side load. Things like emulators are way more convenient as well as various other self hostable projects that can extend the life of the device even when it’s no longer adequate for communications.

Personally I prefer the ubiquitousness and of the apple ecosystem and I prefer the smaller form factor for phones and so the iPhone 13 mini is my preferred device. If there isn’t another small form factor phone from apple when it’s time for me to upgrade then I’ll probably try to look into whatever the latest fairphone at the time is (if it’s still supported in the US)

If the manufacturers would stay out of Google’s way and let there be a unified android experience without manufacturer bloat then it’d probably be the best as pixels are fantastic phones with good support, they are just a bit too big for my liking

I thought they were neat when they were the first smart phone I handled. But when I got to try out some 'droids at the store when buying my first device, I liked the interface better and knowing they were more open and customizable, not to mention way fucking cheaper, it was no contest. The only Apple product I ever really thought had no equal was the first couple generations of iPod.