How does everyone feel about iPhones?

Surprise.

Bet you didn’t see this one coming.

This week’s post has been pretty late. I’m a bit troubled by yesterday’s thread on Apple. So, a foreword: It’s OK to prefer something over another, it’s not OK to say people who like different phones than you are somehow more childish or less intelligent than you. Again, we are going for casual, yet intensely helpful here, so please don’t call people names over petty reasons, we have rules here.

Previously on Lemmy:

Past Discussions:

In this post, it’s not about saying how bad iPhones are, but I’d just like to hear the perspective on iPhones from Android users. I, for one, had an old iPhone 4 for a long time (call it nostalgia, or laziness, or just being cheap), and it was my general frustration with the device that ultimately led to my preference for Androids, (It was quite a while back though).

  • It was absolutely painful to transfer files from the phone to my computer (Ugh, iTunes).
  • I got it pre-jailbroken and didn’t realize you can’t just update the system casually, so it was really fun trying to find ways to downgrade the system until I realized that I can’t and have to pray for the next jailbreak to get half my things working again.
  • The 40-pin cable wears out so fast, and always in the same spot on the strain relief. I swear I’ve gone through 3 of these cables in one year just from normal use.
  • All the browsers are somehow flavors of Safari. To do anything, I will have the choice of ad-filled websites, or ad-filled apps.

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.

(Having a back button is also a game changer.)

Of course, there is a lot that Android manufacturers can learn from Apple as well, one of the most obvious one is the time for software support: I think my old iPhone has gone through like 3 version updates over the years, whereas currently I’m lucky to get 2 out of any Android manufacturer.

But it seems that Android manufacturers are more content on copying things that works for iOS, but doesn’t work for Android, like removing the headphone jack. Or big notches. (It makes no sense to do that because of Android’s notification system uses the full length of the bar.) It’s gotten to the point that I don’t think people who makes Android phones actually uses Android but are content to copy superficial features from Apple without understanding why Apple do them.

Like a bunch of lemmings. (Heh)

Again, these are my personal preferences, I have nothing against people who prefers iPhones, nor do I think they are lesser for it, but it’s just not for me.

I’d use a one as a work phone/for iMessages though.

Aux,

I don’t care.

smileyhead,

Design: best Advertisment: best User experience: best Reliability: best Privacy from propietary crap in app store: best Privacy from Apple: non existing User freedom: worst

Engywuck,

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.

Phen,

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.

Moonwalk,
@Moonwalk@lemm.ee avatar

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.

thedeadwalking4242,

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.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

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.

nottheengineer,

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.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

I use Arch btw.🥰

nottheengineer,

Same, the wiki and forum are just too good to use anything else.

cyberwolfie,

Over the course of 14 years, I had five different iPhones: 3GS in 2009, iPhone 4S in 2011, iPhone 6 in 2014, an iPhone XS in 2018 and now a work-only phone owned by my company which I don’t know the model of - I barely use it. I also had a brief Android-spell from mid-2010 until the release of the 4S with an HTC Legend which was a truly awful experience, and turned me off from Android for a long time until I bought a Fairphone 4 for personal use end of last year and installed CalyxOS on it. No regrets making the switch.

But yeah, I liked iPhones for a while. My prejudice against Android was unfortunate, but HTC Legend was a truly awful phone that lost support for updates quickly after I got it, and was also not prioritized by the modding community. I was going to get an HTC Desire, but they were sold out at the time, and I was about to go into the military, so waiting was not an option. If I got the Desire, I think the experience would’ve been better, but instead I sat with the impression that you could not count on long-term support for Android-devices, and that the hardware was rubbish.

I adopted iPhones at the same time as I departed from my teenage more tech-oriented years in favor of more social stuff at high school and university, so avoiding spending time on customization through the whole “you get what exactly we want you to get”-vibe of Apple worked fine for me then. It is the same shit that eventually drove me mad and made me ditch both iOS and macOS last year in favor of Android and Linux.

The hardware itself is quite good. They lasted increasingly longer for my use, but battery performance was shit towards the end and I was not going to spend a fortune changing the battery. My new phone has an easily changeable battery. Other than repairability, new features of smartphones have not excited me for many years.

The Apple ecosystem never really worked for me. I had iCloud only because the price point was much better than Dropbox for my use when I made the change. Other than that I really didn’t use much of their stuff, which made the transition a lot easier than it could’ve been. Exporting iCloud-stuff from a non-Apple device was a chore though… But since I also did not use much of the ecosystem, that was also a big “why bother”-point. But my main grievance is the lack of openness and control over your own device. I also have an old iPad now that sits with no use cases, because I can’t get a recent enough iOS-version installed, and I can’t install another operating system as far as I know. It’s so wasteful.

Texas_Hangover,

Apple products are for the technologically feeble.

GyozaPower, (edited )

I’ve had both iPhones and Androids at several points in my life (just recently switched from and iPhone 11 to an S23 Ultra).

For the most part, I find Android devices to be plain better. More features, more freedom… you know, the usual. The only thing I find to be better on the iPhones is that, as a frontend developer and someone who loves seeing nice UX on apps, I feel like 3rd party native apps are usually much better and much more frequent on Apple devices than on Android ones. When I participate in macOS development communities, it also feels like devs enjoy much more developing for macOS/iOS/iPadOS than the alternatives.

But as said, as a device, I much rather prefer Android phones.

rarely,

I love not having features!

knobbysideup,

I would never own one. I don’t like closed systems that try to lock my data away. Also, the inflexible UI sucks.

I didn’t really care much about other people’s preferences until this past weekend at my Aunt’s celebration of life gathering. My cousin insisted on sending photos taken there via iMessages (translation: group mms) instead of posting somewhere or using email. Blurry is an understatement. Those photos are useless.

MargotRobbie, (edited )
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Ask them to set an iCloud album and share the link. Those work on Android too.

knobbysideup,

Thanks, I’ll try that!

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

You can tell I have a lot of friends with iPhones.

knobbysideup,

Me too, but worse all of my whitewater and mountain bike buddies only coordinate through Facebook, so I’m stuck using that too.

GingeyBook,

I’ve luckily been able to convince all my family members to use Google Photos

Makes picture sharing way better

echodot,

I would consider getting an iPhone if they went back to making cheap plastic phones again like the 5C.

Otherwise they’re just too fragile and expensive. That’s the real problem I have with iPhones, you either pay a lot of money for a fragile phone or you don’t have an iPhone. They don’t provide another option anymore.

With Android you can run the gambit from a plastic phone that is $50, it’ll be slow but it will run apps, right up to $5,000 phones with folding screens. Admittedly most of them are made by Samsung.

rambos,

I got 3GS when it was new, after 1 month it was more at the service then in my pocket. I guess I was unlucky, but they replaced for a new device which died after connecting it to a cheap power bank. They said I spilled the water on it, but I didnt. Looking at USB cable it was at the end of the life after short time. Im sure I was unlucky and I believe many things changed in meantime, but Ill never buy iphone again. Never had bad experience with smartphones, before or after iphone, even with low end cheap models

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