At least be accurate.
The “Pro” model iPhone has a lot of the features you are calling out the non-pro one for not having. Also no non-proprietary lossless audio streaming would be more accurate.
How is the first point not accurate? Iphone 16 is still a phone that’s gonna release in 2024.
Edit: Well I am wrong the sony phone is much costlier than the non pro version. I apologize.
Ah, but for only $200 more you can get USB 3.2, which is (…checks notes…) seven year old technology 😂 😭
You mean like, with a cable? Eewwwww gross!
This but unironically. Can’t remember one time when I needed or even thought about using a cable in my iPhone tenure.
Product elitism is dumb.
And yet every time Apple announce a new product or feature, Android fans are here with their ‘welcome to the past’ memes.
This isnt elitism, this is trying to show apple users they are being scammed. Sure, most of them are happy that way, but maybe some of us should have higher standards for ourselves
So you dislike Apple, then? All they do is product elitism.
Yeah.
It was fun before… like 20 years ago. Now it’s just… eh. Apple users don’t care about any of that. They want a device that “just works” and has their ecosystem. They’re trapped in it, but eh, what’s the point. They aren’t going to convert, and after converting some people you learn you just become tech support for them.
Seriously, does anyone think Apple users care about unlocked bootloaders and LDAC codecs? They want whatever the new iOS features are and their AirPods to work seamlessly.
I have an Android phone and an iPhone, and they both do pretty much the same thing. I can do some things with Android that iOS can’t, but it’s nothing an average user couldn’t do without, or even know they’re missing.
I think even the average users are becomming aware because of how inferior iOS is. For example, all these things I’m going to mention below are doable on any Android (no root or bootloader required) since 2015 or even older versions while iPhone cant do shit:
iPhone cant temporarily disable apps, can’t prevent apps from using networks, cant disable system apps, cant open multi apps in mutli windows, cant location spoof, cant disable any system app or feature, cant customize themes or control anything in comparison.
You can uninstall a lot of Apple’s apps that come preinstalled on an iPhone. Not all of them, but a surprising amount.
Yes but 99.9% of users don’t care about any of that, that’s what others were saying in this conversation.
Just to bring my personal pov: I’m a tech guy and I couldn’t care less about any of those features. My phone is an appliance like my dishwasher, i only need it to do well the few things it does for me and the iPhone does them incredibly well. Productivity work and fun is done on real computers. I don’t care if android phones can purr or do somersaults.
If you like to do complicated stuff on your phone then those things matter to you and you will deem iOS inferior, and that’s fine. But realise you are planets away from the average user.
I’m using both iPhones and Android phones (vanilla and rooted), the only valid point you make is about using themes. I belong to to the 99,9% of users who don’t bother.
You forgot could some important feature that Android phones have: They don’t pester you too much about privacy: they allow per default to use the GPS, message you, etc. Also they come with a lot of unneeded apps preinstalled, some of these being impossible to deinstall
To be fair i do care quite a bit about that. Phones just make bad computers to me. Small screen and half is used by a keyboard.
They seem designed to frustrate me so “it just works (most times)” is the only way i can stomach owning one.
I have a dream where apple is forced to make ios fully open source and where screen/input devices can freely stream any system/OS from a dedicated server.
Iphones are so “cleverly” dumb it makes them usable.
where screen/input devices can freely stream any system/OS from a dedicated server.
I experimented with that, you can kinda do it with Android and an Android emulator. It was decent on the local network, ok with good cellular signal, and terrible when cellular wasn’t the greatest
I dunno, I had iPhone in my hand for app development, and I wanted to shoot it out of the cannon into the sun.
You have to understand the thinking process behind the UI, and it’s not ‘intuitive’ to everyone.
And I just couldn’t use it, it drove me crazy.
Switching OS is a pain. And when you aren’t using it as your daily driver, it just makes it worse. It took me a couple of weeks of exclusively using iOS for it to become comfortable. If I were using Android at the same time I doubt it would’ve ever stuck and I’d still be annoyed rather than quite comfortable and agile now.
They’re also all made by heartless megacorps anyway. None of the companies are really ‘good’ just different forms of terrible.
I’m gonna sound like an Apple fanboy but, I would say Apple is the least worst of them all. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still terrible and all the shit they do but, they at least seem like an okayish company. But I still hate the whole closed ecosystem, and the stupid non-repairability but, almost every phone is now like that sadly.
They want a device that “just works” and has their ecosystem.
i have friends that struggle to pay rent and they’re forced to pay apple’s extortion-esque prices when something goes wrong or when purchasing their phones and equipment.
witnessing them suffer like this hits close to home for me because i grew up poor enough to ration out the government cheese & powdered milk along with asking extended family and begging neighbors for food so that we could stay alive until next payday and also because i’m tech savvy enough to understand how unscrupulously apple has behaved at creating this well designed trap of an ecosystem that’s actively easy to fall into and passively difficult to leave; locking my friends into a seeming perpetually repeating cycle of new iphones and government cheese.
i think that the icing on this shit-cake is that they’re all atleast vaguely aware that apple is screwing them over; but they still accept it because either either “just works” or it’s “all they know” and that blows my mind because 5-year-old-me HATED government powdered milk in my cereal enough to switch to oatmeal for breakfast if it were an option.
Weirdly, a lot of them seem to care a whole lot about the color of their speech bubbles in their sms app
Except when the shitty ecosystem fucks with everyone else. Eg. when trying to get files from an iOS device to another phone. You need to use 3rd party software, which is almost exclusively shit on iOS and (at least in my school) no iPad kiddie managed to use local file sharing websites. The real kicker? Sharing stuff from the teachers iPad to the students does not work reliably either. Never. 20 students, and Apple can’t manage to transport shit. We resorted to uploading it to Teams - so much for Apple’s nice ecosystem for easily sharing files, which ends up taking 15+ Minutes.
They’re trapped in it
Oh my god, you really believe that.
Well I’m trapped in it (purchased software, connected devices). The fence is knee-high at most though.
They are as trapped as people are requiring Adobe products even though they fuck them as hard, or even harder, as apple.
I‘ve used Android and iPhones for multiple years. Now I am using an iPhone and I am very happy. Main reasons are build quality and software. It just works. And the main advantage is primarily if you use multiple Apple devices. And since Android phones are expensive as fuck, too, I don’t care about the price anymore
Not to be an unfunny nitpicker (I don’t know why I’m denying this, that kinda the whole point), but all iphones do have lossless audio streaming via AirPlay. I’m assuming that you specifically meant Bluetooth streaming, but then you should’ve said so. Furthermore, normal aptx isn’t high resolution, only aptx HD and aptx adaptive are. The phone does support aptx HD as well, but once again, you could’ve said so from the start (though 3 characters more or less might make a significant difference to most memes, this one certainly wouldn’t have had that problem)
Funnily enough, I’ve got a few friends who are long time iPhone users, who actually point this stuff out themselves:
“OMG! Have you seen the eye watering price of the new one?”
“Yay, I finally get stuff you’ve had for years.”Neither party would ever consider anything else, and they both buy the new model every year. 🤷
At this point I admit that my reasons for choosing Android all those years ago no longer exist or matter, but I can’t imagine changing ecosystem either.
As a human being intrinsically tied to the fate of the Earth, you are legally required to mercilessly harass these friends for buying a new phone each year.
How the fuck can anyone justify this behavior?
This is bait
You have not even touched how limited iOS is compared to Android. I can list over 50 things any 2015 Android can do which iPhone 16 can’t. You basically have no control over anything in iPhone while in any Android even without rooting you control what every app access and how it’s allowed to work or at all. I was not even referring to customized OSes like graphene or calyos which give higher level of control.
But you still sadly have google services everywhere, popping up here and there, reminding you that they have control over apps
No, I don’t want to login with google or rate the app
Dont get up from Google only to jump on Apple’s balls.
Also your point is not valid because degoogling is possible with androids, but you can’t deapple an iphone. And btw many custom OSes dont require anything google no appstore or nothing. So what you’re complaining about has been solved and already out there
And how many of those 50 things actually matter? They’re things you want to do, not things the average user needs to do.
Simplicity is the main feature and has been a staple of Apple products for 35 years I’ve been using them. It means we don’t have to spend ages tweaking settings, we can get on with more productive stuff.
mAh is a stupid way to measure batteries. Wh is more relevant.
It also tells nothing about the efficiency of the device. You can add a 50kWh battery to a device but it doesn’t matter if it uses 2kWh at idle
Yes. I really wish all batteries used watt-hours. All it’d take would be for someone to design a phone that runs at a different voltage and their battery numbers would stop being comparable.
I guess it comes down to whether we want to primarily communicate battery size in terms of charge (Coulombs = Amps * Time) or energy (Joules = Watts * Time).
The first metric you multiply by your operating voltage to get the second metric, whereas the second metric you have to divide by your voltage to get the first. Depends on what comes easier to most people.
With the increasing abundance of electric vehicles people are getting used to (k)Wh as the unit for battery size. It would make sense to use the same unit for smaller electronics as well, IMO.
A 4Ah battery at 5V would be a 20Wh battery, drop the kilo. Electronics draw power at idle, not energy. 2kWh is meaningless without an idle duration. What are you saying?
Wh may be better for determining total energy storage across differing cell chemistry. mAh is standard for electronics and makes more sense at the design level as the battery voltage is chemistry dependent and known to the designer.
i don’t think any manufacturer publishes the voltage their devices run at, could be anywhere from 3.3 to 5V. so i don’t know how an end-user is supposed to compare battery sizes between devices.
They would also have to give current draw which isn’t really possible since each end user has different apps and behavior. So you more often get standby time or video playback time which are based on an “ideal” (probably non-bloated) clean OS. That’s more useful to an end user but also subject to marketing fudging the figures.
You can often look up the battery chemistry or use an app to access sensors btw.
At the end of the day battery capacity is only one factor of many in battery/charge life and is generally just marketing in the context of phones.
What? They draw power, not energy?
Energy is just the product of power and time. And just like amperage, the power draw of a device varies.
And this should be obvious, but what makes more sense to an electronics engineer doesn’t matter one bit to the end user. And the end user doesn’t know anything about milli-amperes or volts (except maybe their wall outlet voltage).
Yes power is a rate. As you said energy is the time integral of power. So it’s meaningless to state an “energy draw” without a duration implied or explicit. E.g. what does drawing 2kWh at idle even mean?
I agree about end user sentiment. I was trying to suggest as well. The only way to know which battery/phone is going to have a better battery life is to identify reviews with similar usage to your own or cross-compare metrics across devices you’re familiar with. In general, phone A with a 4000mAh battery won’t necessarily outlast phone B with a 4500mAh batt.
Well you don’t say it draws 2 kWh at idle. You say it draws 2 kW at idle. While that is incredibly inefficient, it means that for every hour the device is idle, it draws 2 kWh of energy.
Oh yeah battery size isn’t sufficient to fully gauge battery life. You need to know power draw to calculate that. And it’s good to get battery life ratings from reviews. Great. It helps a lot.
But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get good, comparable physical specs.
Kinda like processors. Gigahertz and core counts are far from telling you everything, but it doesn’t mean it should be abstracted into some weird unit.
Per the kW vs kWh, see top level reply.
Yeah a metric would be nice but it would need a standard test. That’s why idle time and video playback time makes a good amount of sense. But it’s not entirely clear how that would translate into usage for example in back country (where cell network drains power harder) or travel. So it’s not perfect. But it is probably the best measure guven hardware and usage vatiation. In any case it’s subject to marketing dudging the numbers in various ways.
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I believe it actually has to do more with historical conventions in electronics or math. (This is just what I remember from heresay when I was in university as an electronics engineer), but there is also a mathematical reason.
history hearsay theory
The easiest way to measure power draw is by measuring current draw (voltage across a sense resistor) way back before there were affordable, quality ICs to measure voltage and current and pretty much joule count.
To add to this, current sensors are much easier and cheaper than test machines that do the calculations for you.
When lithium batteries and NiCAD batteries became standard compared to the earlier lead-acid (which are measured in Wh), they had an extremely flat voltage curve compared to lead acid. They could be considered to be at a constant voltage.
Now cheaper electronics were being made and if a designer wanted to know how long a battery would last, they could take the nominal battery voltage that the battery would be at a vast majority of the time, and they could just measure the current draw over a short time of the circuit, 10s of calculations, and you have your approximate battery life. There is a joke that engineers approximate π to 3.
Math units
Ah is a measure of electrical charge.
Wh is a measure of energy
Batteries and capacitors hold charge so are measured in Ah, generators that power the grid generate energy and use of that energy is measured in Wh (it also isn’t a “constant” voltage source like batteries as it is AC)
The thing is, it does not matter how much charge the battery holds, it does matter how much energy it holds. Without knowing the Voltage the Ah is useless.
Sorry, but you are simply wrong. Simple math says that you are wrong.
You can buck or boost convert nearly any voltage to any other voltage.
Then measure the current output of the battery, boom you have battery life.
Also electrical charge can be used in many, many very valuable calculations without involving voltage at all.
Let’s take an arbitrary example with an arbitrary battery powered device. Let’s say the battery is somewhere between 1V and 10000000V. You can’t measure it because you might blow up your multimeter.
You know that the battery is 5000mAh. You can safely measure that all of the circuitry is draining 1000mA because sense resistors or contactless magnetic current measurements don’t have anywhere near dangerous voltages. You know that the battery will last about 5 hours. What is the voltage? Doesn’t matter.
Yes, charge and the flow of charge is not the entire story, but to say it is useless or does not matter is just a straight lie. It is fine if you don’t understand electronics, but then don’t spit out misinformation.
Yes Watt-hours would give a more complete picture to slightly tech-inclined consumers (makes 0 difference for 99% of consumers), but then it returns to not mattering because you can do the 5s calculation yourself because single cell lithium batteries are overwhelmingly 1 nominal voltage.
Literally 90% of calculations related to efficiency are JUST as valid using mA as W.
Your device uses 12mA at idle with a 5000mAh battery has the same relevance as your 18.5Wh battery using 45mW at idle.
I am ONLY speaking from a consumer position and for those Wh is more useful.
The consumer looks on device a and on device b and then determines how often he can recharge its device. With Ah you cannot do this unless you know the Voltage, with Wh you can make this decision without any further knowledge.
Yes this does not include battery life or conversion of efficiency. But a cunsumer measures nothing he looks at the lable.
It is fine if you don’t understand electronics, but then don’t spit out misinformation.
Btw. no need to insult me. I have never put out misinformation, I may have not stated enough that I am viewing this as a consumer.
Please explain to me what the difference is between battery life if you have a 5000mAh battery and an 18Wh battery.
Please state the calculation that you would use to “determine how often you have to recharge” that is valid for Wh and not for Ah. I am all for it. If you can cite a single source where the manufacturer gives a specification that would give battery life in Wh, and not in Ah, I will concede the entire argument and say that you were right the whole time in every comment make a note that you were right. Please show your calculation work.
The thing is, it does not matter how much charge the battery holds, it does matter how much energy it holds. Without knowing the Voltage the Ah is useless.
This is patently, objectively misinformation and completely false. That is a direct quote of your words, today. That was your last comment. I have already laid out multiple examples of how Ah is a useful measurement and what you can do with it. Therefore, it is misinformation. It is not disinformation, but stating untrue things as fact is misinformation, even if you have no idea you are wrong.
If you can cite a single source where the manufacturer gives a specification that would give battery life in Wh, and not in Ah, I will concede the entire argument and say that you were right the whole time in every comment make a note that you were right.
Basically every Laptop manufacturer.
Primary Battery
3-cell, 54 Wh, ExpressCharge™ Capable, ExpressCharge™ Boost Capable
Lol, you literally quoted me, didn’t actually read what you quoted, and then did something completely different.
Do you know that battery life ≠ battery capacity? That is not the same measurement as I have already tried to teach you 3 times.
Please state the calculation that you would use to “determine how often you have to recharge” that is valid for Wh and not for Ah.
What is its idle power draw? What is its power draw under load? Playing video? Sleep mode? That source gives nothing which determines battery life. All it gives is a nearly useless capacity number, just like all other manufacturers. So not valid at all. You still have exactly 0 more information about battery life.
If I am wrong, please state your calculations of what the battery life is with that 54Wh battery.
Your entire argument was “Ah is useless and Wh gives consumers the information to determine battery life” So go ahead, determine the battery life.
How is this any different at all if they said that it is a 5.8Ah battery? They don’t give any current or power draw.
As an exercise:
can you tell me the battery life difference between an arbitrary Laptop A with a 54Wh battery and Laptop B with a 27Wh battery?
you can optimize your android device battery in ways iphones cant. For example you cant disable or remove any system app consuming your battery in iPhones, but that is instantly doable in Androids
Try disabling google play services.
Settings, apps, Google play services, disable. Very easy. Nobody is saying “you can disable any app you want on android and your phone will magically just keep running perfectly as though it’s not dependent on it” just that it is possible to do so. Yes, I understand disabling Google play services will cripple many features. It is however possible, and you’ll still have a functional phone afterwards. The same cannot be said about iPhones.
To be fair, you can do pretty much anything on a rooted Android.
But I wouldn’t say “instantly” since you’d have to root it first.
You can take background permissions from system apps on iOS
I’d argue Wh is a complete waste. Just use J, which is the much more established unit.
I disagree. Joules are really hard to understand to laypeople. Watt-hours directly relate to the power of a device without conversion, and can even be really translated in terms of power bill.
3.6 megajoules? Eh, I guess that’s maybe a lot? Or not?
1000 watt-hours? Oh, like running a microwave for a whole hour? Dang that’s a LOT!
I don’t really care about any of these things and I’m also fine being any number of years behind the current tech trends.
Obviously. Who would want to pay less money for a better phone? That’s absolutely ridiculous. In fact, why even get a new phone? We should all just be making yearly donations to apple for the privilege of keeping our old iPhones. God damn am I lucky to lick, suck, and deepthroat the boot. Feels so good.
Wow, to see an Xperia phone being used as an example instead of a bloody Samsung.
Good day to be an Xperia user.
If they had used a Samsung, half the android’s features would be missing.
Xperia is in my opinion the only phone left worth buying. It has all the bells and whistles you expect from a flagship phone + a headphone jack, SD card slot and very good camera.
I love being able to manually do what ever I want in the camera app and having the camera button is just nice.
Had the Xperia Z3 back in the day after my beloved Sony Ericson Xperia Play died. Loved both phones. Switched to Samsung for a few years and are now back to Sony (Xperia 1 IV) since 2023. Words can’t describe how happy I am being back. :D
Dunno about other Androids, but just hitting the “power” (or wake or whatever it is) button 3 times on the Pixel pulls up the camera app. Even if the phone is currently locked. I think you can set it up so one of the physical buttons takes a photo as well but not 100% sure.
Yeah, the Sony phones do that as well. The special part of the camera button is that it acts like one on a proper camera. If you half press it (you can feel a slight change in resistance when you hit the spot) it engages the focus and then you can press it fully to take the picture.
I was able to program the Bixby button on my Samsung S10+ to take pictures as well, but it lacks the half press feature.
I love Z3. I still mourn the loss of it to this day.
However, I must admit that Xperia quality hasn’t been the greatest in the recent years, with the light lines issue plaguing the 5 series from mk II onwards, and now the 1 VI has similar issues too.
What do you mean with “light lines issue”? I haven’t had any major problems with my Xperia so far. Sometimes it reboots after being on for a few months, but that’s about it.
This one. My 5 mk II is completely unusable due to this. It’s a well documented issue on the Xperia sub on reddit.
Do they offer that in Vader?
If you consider pink close enough to red.
Oh wow that sucks. :( Haven’t seen that yet, but damn shame that it is common issue.
Does it appear after some time, or mostly DOA? Does Sony replace the broken devices?
It appears after some time. And no, Sony doesn’t acknowledge this issue, so you have to pay out of pocket if your warranty is over to replace the phone.
Oh wow that’s really shitty.
Thanks for the info! :)
I miss my Xepria Z from 2013 :( one of the first waterproof phones in the US and I loved the novelty of taking it into the shower LMAO
No one cares. Just use whatever phone you like. This post is extremely cringey.
use whatever phone you like
wrong. Use a fairphone
Buy a phone and keep it for as long as you can, and in general, just buy less phones. Don’t upgrade each year, that’s extremely stupid.
I will never understand if some people are rich or simply stupid to buy a new phone every year, especially iphones since there is almost to nothing in terms of upgrades to the hardware.
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agree 100%. One way to buy less phones is to buy a repairable phone.
Repairability is definitely a factor, but don’t forget considering how long a company will support software updates for the device, how the device meets your needs no only today but 5-6-7 years from now, and your options for repurposing the device once it reaches EoL.
That won’t solve the software side. My previous phone was still working, but then Google fucked up the software. The first because it required some new ssl standard for all connections that the phone didn’t support. The other one because google added a whole lot of local Infos, pictures and features to the map that could not be disabled, therefore rendering my Navi to a unresponsive, slow and battery draining app I could no longer use. And then there where some apps that would not run because my os was to old.
True! fairphones are at least okay-ish there too. They actively cooperate with devs that make open source android OSs. But yeah Google still has way too much power in the entire android ecosystem. Many banking apps don’t work without Google Wallet, which doesn’t run on degoogled OSs.
My iPhone is repairable and supported until 2028. And because Apple is refusing to make more mid-size phones, I will be using this one until 2028 at minimum.
You seem to imply that to use a fairphone means using a phone you don’t like
cringe
would be nice if they shipped outside of europe…
do they not? That is disappointing
Yes, good recommendation for a phone with a chip that was underpowered at release. Good luck for the next 7 years (amount of time you’ll get software updates on a flagship phone which costs as much as the fairphone and very rarely fails)
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The OP cares very much, for some reason.
not only OP, look at how many replies this has
i hope i don’t end up with the -4000 mAh battery if i buy the phone
If you had one you could sell it for millions to some thermodynamics denyers.
I’m about to drop a really dumb question in here:
Why do so many people dislike Apple? I have listed some of my problems with Apple (listed in no particular order):
- Keyboard layout
- I fundamentally disagree with FaceID and would prefer a fingerprint sensor
- Lack of customisation (you can’t even hide the finder on MacOS)
- Apple makes it really difficult for people to leave their ecosystem
However, I really don’t understand why people, ordinary people, dislike Apple, other than due to being overpriced. I mean I really think physical SIM cards are a thing of the past and less secure than eSIMs since you can’t just take a physical SIM out using a pin. Although I heavily dislike the provisioning of USB 2.0 in 2024, the reality is that most of my files, even on my Android device, are transferred via networks. And yes, for the point about battery, I don’t particularly care about the battery size as much as I do the battery life. Even then, I always have a charger in my bag. It also helps that I barely use my phone.
Once again, keep in mind this is from someone whose only Apple product is a Macbook.
I can understand hating on Apple as a company, I was furious at how long they took to throw USB-C on things, however, often times people provide arguments that are baseless, as are several “points” listed in this image.
Who cares about a physical capture button? Any professional required to use a camera for a living will not be using an iPhone. Who cares about physical SIM vs eSIM. Hell, I’m an advocate for eSIMs. Who cares about the unlockable bootloader? And really, with modern consumerism, who on earth is listening to hi-res wireless audio and not a song off of Spotify, YouTube, etc?
I agree with the 120 Hz point, there is no reason a flagship phone at a a flagship price should not provide a smooth refresh rate. I partially agree with the storage point, however, the vast majority of people do not take advantage of their phone’s storage, so why would Apple be competitive here? They try to optimise for profit. I definitely agree with the point about the lack of modern USB. The lack of the 3.5mm headphone jack kinda sucks for everyone who owns devices that cannot be used with phones without this jack.
I’m opening to listening to other people’s takes and discussing this with them.
Pretty simple: Pretending to deliver the latest tech for a premium price. But the non-pro models simply don’t have the latest tech, but they do have the premium price. And Apple practices upselling like no other (I mean, look at those storage upgrade prices).
who on earth is listening to hi-res wireless audio and not a song off of Spotify, YouTube, etc?
The decision not to include hi-res audio support out of the box is more baffling when you learn that Apple Music in its basic package offers high-quality lossless audio for streaming. Why have this, and make your users jump through extra hoops to take advantage of it?
To answer your overall question, I am one of the Apple dislikers and with me it comes down to openness and customizability (I like to tinker with my electronics and computing devices, and I can do that much better with an Android device), and not wanting most of my money that I spend for the product I’m buying to go to marketing.
Sorry for the late reply.
I understand now why the decision not to include hi-res audio support out of the box is baffling. However, in your second comment you present customisability as a negative when in reality, it’s more of a trade-off. The more options you present to a user the more complex the system you have to deal with.
Sure, I respect and agree with your opinion regarding openness, and agree with the fact that Apple’s ecosystem is closed af. However, the point about customisability is a trade-off and imho a preference.
I’ve worked as a back-end developer (C++), so it’s not that I don’t know how to use technology or am afraid of learning or something along those lines. That said, there is a certain amount of elegance to simplicity and consistency, which I value.
And yes, I do currently use an Android device, which does have some custom gestures setup, custom icon packs, some applications which are not available via the Google Play Store. However, I really do believe that the point about customisation is a trade-off, and in my view “more customisation better” does not scale well; allow me to provide you with a simple example.
Suppose we could control every little detail regarding our device’s software (non-malicious), almost as if we had the source code, I believe people would struggle to access generally easily-accessible settings (such as accessibility settings). Furthermore, these settings likely (but not necessarily) would not apply consistently, and the lack of implication from settings (but greater control), might mean that someone might need to reconfigure each application for accessibility features, or have to accept the idea that they cannot fine-tune different applications for their accessibility requirements.
Lastly, to your point about marketing, you have presented a very logical and reasonable point, yet one I consider almost invalid, since we should be observing this through the lens of a consumer. They could choose to sell their phones at a loss despite spending a lot on marketing. I’m not saying it’s viable, but I’m saying it’s possible. However, the point I’m trying to make is that this isn’t relevant. We observe through the lens of a consumer. And so we look at the price we have to pay and judge the device’s “features” or whatever you’d like to call them, objectively or relatively, based on this price.
In summary:
- Agreed with hi-res point
- Agreed with openness point
- Disagreed with customisability point
- Disagreed upon the $$$ on marketing, not my job to judge what they’re spending on, I’m judging the end-product as a consumer
By the way, thought I’d clarify my stance on this, since I’m not an Apple fanboy, is that I prefer Apple to other tech giants (Google is an obvious choice for an example).
There are more reasons than I have time to type out, but I am a long time mac and iDevice user. What’s got me raging lately is how, out of spite over a (justified, imo) EU ruling, apple is refusing to let EU customers access the newest toys in the playground. I’m in the process of transferring over to Android right now, I just havent found the right phone for me, yet.
no you got a point. i think your listed problems are the main problems you can have. with the hefty price and the “elite” vibe they sell in ads and so on, its really easy to hate. hateing apple feels like punching up.
and (most) android users dont realise that instead of beeing in apples eco system they are “trapped” in googles. I apprechiate apple for them not just blatently selling personal data, recorded from my phone. I also think in terms of polish there is no competiton. whoever used both, iphone and android phone, cant deny that ios is just far more polished. everything just works.
I personally dont like the apple proprietary ecosystem, but with no really good open source phone os, they are the best alternative on the marked atm. i dont know about laptops.
How are we trapped in Google? It’s a burden to move if I wanted to, but I can interface with everyone except apple just fine.
I think their point is that nearly every other phone is in the Android ecosystem, isn’t it?
Oh. In that sense yeah. But most of us are also trapped on earth under that logic. I do think we need some more competition in the operating system market but I’m not sure who could pull it off. Even Microsoft bounced off of it. There is Graphene but it’s a tiny sliver of the market.
i am unsure what you mean about not interfaceing with apple? I heard in america imessage is a big thing that prevents that, but the rest of the world doesnt really use it. and besides there are many messangers that let you interface.
also i mean the burden to move. the burdon to leave the alphabet system is just as hard as the apple system imo. its just annoying both dont make it easy for any cross useage.
Edit: just wanna make clear i am not an apple apologist. i heavily prefer open source alternatives and use them whereever i can. i just dont get how people act as if andeoid/google/ect. are better or even good alternatives.
I agree it’s hard to leave any ecosystem. But while Apple maintains you don’t need any cross connection; Android, Microsoft, and (to an extent) Linux all play nice with each other.
#4 is the reason I never bought into apple. Also, the users are a little cultish.
For me it was the pure ridiculousness of trying to pass documents back and forth with one person in the group using a Mac. Maybe Apple is better about universal document file types these days but that was it for me. I was never going to contribute to an ecosystem that created that level of disruption.
They frequently didn’t allow me to use copy/paste around 10-15 years ago and I never forgave them for robbing me of such a basic feature. I switched to Android as soon as my iPhone died.
There are a few video on YT from reputable creators highlighting malpratices Apple does on a yearly basis to rip you off in every way imaginable. Louis Rossmann and Hugh Jeffreys have done some “compilation” videos on that topic. To point you to a quick one, search for “Astonishing Anti Repair Pratcices by Apple in the last 15 years” by Hugh. If you value yourself, don’t buy Apple products.
who on earth is listening to hi-res wireless audio and not a song off of Spotify, YouTube, etc?
I generally agree with you but as someone who can’t hear the compression in a good quality mp3 I can definitely hear when Bluetooth is using an older audio encoding protocol because it compresses the music to hell and back
for me the point about being locked into an ecosystem is reason enough.
Some more on that:
- Apple has actively resisted efforts by the EU to standardize
- iPhone doesn’t allow you to install apps they haven’t approved.
- Apple devices often refuse to interface with non-apple devices despite being physically capable.
- You cannot easily install other OSes on Apple hardware.
- Apple software is almost entirely closed source, and they likely have backdoors everywhere.
I just want to own my phone man
And let’s not forget their anticompetitive practices
I have both, and the iOS integration of basic features is what matters. Consider examples like… passwords; I’ll get a verification code in a text message or an email and it’ll auto populate and then delete the message. There are so many features like that, which make your phone a seamless part of the “ecosystem,” like wirelessly extending a screen to an iPad (with zero setup), or having your phone automatically act as a webcam — weirdly easy. Android is the opposite. You need an app to do anything and it will require setup and it won’t work every time. Convenience is what matters. Bootloaders and codecs are not as important as whether my earbuds connect instantly and 100% of the time. A phone should make my life simpler. Etc.
Yeah, it’s easies and will make your life simpler as long as you want to do something the producer contemplated. As soon as you need a feature that is a little bit more peculiar, good luck with that.
And with this i don’t mean that Android is perfect, just that an even more closed ecosystem isn’t exactely the best choice.
You’re not wrong. I just think phones do too much as it is. I have like 5 computers, and I don’t need my phone to do everything. But what it does it has to do perfectly.
whether my earbuds connect instantly and 100% of the time
My airpods connect flawlessly with my android device and so do all my other Bluetooth devices
