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.

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

BlazingFlames6073,
@BlazingFlames6073@lemdro.id avatar

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

  1. 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.
lividhen,
@lividhen@kbin.social avatar

I have some nostalgia for when they introduced the appstore. Aaaand that's where the nice things I have to say end.

jacktherippah, (edited )

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.

Shurimal,

Excellent hardware

More like excellent industrial design, good chip design and good software support*. The hardware itself is nothing special; having a badly engineered aspect has been the "standard feature" for many Apple devices (butterfly keyboard, soldered SSD-s, phone chassis prone to bending are some examples that come to mind).

For comparison, I had a Huawei P7 phone (back when Huawei was still in good graces everywhere) that was thinner, and had better screen than the contemporary iPhone while also having a strong, beautifully machined aluminium chassis. It proved a very durable and dependable tool, and cost ⅓ of the price of an iPhone. The weak point was update support—it was shipped with Android 4.4.2, updated to 4.4.4, and that was that. Android 5 was supposedly released, but never arrived via OTA and when I updated manually after spending some time searching for the new firmware, it proved to be buggy and half-baked.

*Caveat: when I tried to download KDE Connect for an older iPhone, I couldn't because the OS is no longer supported and Apple store doesn't offer older versions of the apps. On Android I can still dig up an old version from Github or some other source and install what I need—I was still able to install Kodi on my old 4.4.4 phone to use as a DLNA music streamer. On an old Apple device, you're shit outta luck.

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

kowcop, (edited )

I used Android exclusively for about 3-4 years, I was even developing ROMs, then switched to iPhone for work. I wouldn’t go back to Android. Most of the problems with iPhone don’t exist anymore… the walls have mostly come down due to cloud based services and apps being able to use wifi to drag/drop files

IMO, iPhone is easy to use, great quality apps, great battery life, secure and best value for money. They have great resale for those people who upgrade every year, and long support for people who buy a phone every 5 years.

They just work

The Android system just seems so disjointed and the App Store is full of junk apps.

Sootie,

Still running and iPhone XS, battery still lasts all day, still as fast as when I got it. Definitely some annoying things with it but much longer lives than any Android I owned in the past

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve only ever had two iPhones, my 5S, and the 13 I got from work.

All of the issues surrounding the phone are still present, and with no loss of quality in any way on Android I don’t see why I’d ever choose to spend the money on something that I’m mostly paying for the name on.

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.

JangoF76,

I’ve been an android user since I’ve been using smartphones. Out of curiosity I tried an iPhone 13 pro recently for about 3 days. I couldn’t believe how ugly and unpolished a lot of the 3rd party and Google apps are on IOS. After hearing for years about how refined iOS UI is, I was shocked. I guess aesthetics aren’t that important to iPhone users? It was enough to make me gratefully return to my S22.

BigTrout75,

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.

glassware,

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.

glibg10b,

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.
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.

pineapplelover,

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.

lemm.ee/post/2428648

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

We on LW is defederated from Beehaw, so I guess many of us here have not seen it…

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