Apple

The UI, hardware, and app quality. Less intrusive advertisements. Most importantly no preinstalled Google shit.

Lately I'm thinking about getting an iPhone but I'm someone who pirates a lot. Not necessarily on mobile but I download various movies, TV Shows, books, apps like YouTube Vanced and other things like that on my PC and then transfer it to mobile. Would an iPhone be a decent choice for me? Or is it better that I stick with Android?

Is not about the features. Is about the UI. The UI is a lot more comfortable to use and more polished in my opinion. Many features also sound great on paper but I don’t use

Android doesn’t have more features, it has more gimmicks that mostly don’t work. -former Android user

(To most people) Everything is more polished. Animations, interface; the whole user experience is a step up because of the thought that goes into even the smallest of details.

My only complaint with iOS is how it handles high refresh rates. In this aspect, it’s ass and Android is far better. Imagine putting a 120Hz panel on a phone and locking it to 90 for most of the time, like wth.

ios is more classy and looks high quality . and in a lot of countries outside us and Europe it determines your worth

This is not a scientific result, but when I’ve seen friends / family with modern-looking android devices, the UI seems laggy or unresponsive compared to my experience on iOS. They often have to try 2 or 3 times to get the swipe / tap they were after. I find iOS pretty much always does what I’m expecting, and even when it doesn’t, I can put it down to me missing the edge of the screen / icon.

I’m curious what ‘features’ I’m missing by sticking with iOS though?

the advantage is the sliding finger across the screen to go back 🤩

I guess even the longer support isn’t exactly the deciding factor considering that Samsung has been offering 4 full so updates and google just announced 7.

iOS vs Android is a fool’s debate imo, it’s about more about preferences than about absolute features, even when the features are same, their implementation and convenience can make a difference. Someone may prefer the same thing is done on android and the someone else will prefer the way it’s done on iOS.

Why must people need to feel superior based on their phone and its OS? Everybody uses what they like best depending on their budget and to start comparing them is useless.

It's a hardware thing not IOS but Face ID is miles ahead of any Android alternative. Like it's so much better there is no comparison.

Source: made the switch to iPhone this fall, after 13 years of Androids.

That "longer support" is actually good to have. Especially knowing that iPhones and other apple devices only have one OS which is iOS; unlike Android which have different OS resulting on some apps not being optimized. The battery management is also better (which also related on apps being more optimized because they have single OS across all devices), they have lower mAh capacity compared to Android, yet they have the same or better longevity when compared.

Oh, they also have better resale value. You're buying a discounted future model of iPhone (and even flagship android phone) when you buy an iPhone.

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Anyway, I'm an android user for more than a decade (with no iPhone yet). I'm considering buying one when their prices drop next year.

I’ve just switched from Android to iPhone a month ago and apart from inferior keyboard, cumbersome USB tethering, lack of possibility to place icons where you want, everything else I like more on iPhone. FaceId as someone already mentioned is amazing - this is a game changer, car play works also much faster and reliable than android auto in my car. Great camera app (coming from Samsung S21), amazing health app included.

It is overpriced, but IMO there is no Android phone that has less issues than iPhone, super solid all around.

It’s about the reliability that matters to me tbh

Like I absolutely love android I only recently switched to an iPhone 14 and I have no complaints except for customisation obviously and the crappy IOS keyboard

It’s just that the camera on the iPhone is so reliable that I don’t have to take multiple photos and pick a good one I can just take one or two and know it’s gonna be good… video is top tier on iPhones too

Also the battery life is amazing … easy 9 hours of SOT per day

I guess photos matter to me a lot because I do travel a lot and take a lot of pictures so that’s what stood out to me the most in IOS…

The way iOS performs is just more consistent and predictable.

Limitation of choices. Android has many choices and 90% are going to give shitty experience and hence bad impression.

I really don't like the iPhone, but I got tired of my Android sending telemetry to a hostile country. I also can't choose what photos an app can access. If I need to grant access to a photo, I'm forced to grant access to all photos, whereas in iOS I can restrict it to specific photos only.

Sure, Apple also sends telemetry, but they're pretty upfront about it, and I can turn it off.

I regret switching to ios. I switched from old midrange samsung phone and at forst i was surprised how good was iphone, but then i realised there isn't many advantages. It is just different.

It's up to owners convenient.

iOS may support longer but older versions of iOS stop supporting a lot of apps while many apps on android work for like android 7 and above or something like that. And to use the ecosystem you need to fill Apple’s pockets with cash and buy more of their products. They have premium hardware but honestly most people use a case so that doesn’t offer many advantages. And yeah no advantage over android is the answer. You can say iMessage but RCS exists on android and also most people just use WhatsApp or telegram or some other messaging platform.

And for the love of god green bubbles exist on iPhones not androids. Tried talking to my friend after buying my first iPhone on iMessage. It had green bubbles. He told me to activate iMessage from settings. Then the bubbles became blue. Made me realise apple is just brainwashing people into thinking that android has limitations lmao.

Apple loses as soon as they step out of their own turf while android can work with basically anything.

Most apps run better & has less updates on iOS than on Android.

And even when apps on iOS does updates, it updates three apps at a time if you have more than three apps needed to be updated, where as on Android, it only updates one app at a time.

The simplicity and smooth operation in IOS combined with robust hardware is the main difference. It may be trying an used iPhone for a short while to experience it.

• Face ID is superior than on any other android. When I switched to iPhone I was concerned how will I manage without fingerprint sensor, but this thing turned out to be waaaay better.
• Although many people hate notification center, I actually really like it. You can read ALL messages someone sent to you without opening them, while on Android it shows just like the last 2-3. It helps a lot if you ask me.
• Apps auto-update. You don’t get those boring notifications “Reddit and 20+ apps are ready to update” like on Android.
• Everything is just a bit more fluent. You don’t have extra steps and questions for everything like on Android (eg. Do you want to open document with: Word, Google Docs, Google Drive…). iPhone just opens it straight away, and that’s what is important.
• GPS and location services just work better than on my previous Galaxy S20.
• On 15 you have noise cancellation for calls.
• It’s better optimized, hence battery lasts longer.
• Screen rotate sensor is WAAAAY better on iPhone. I never had a problem that screen randomly turned horizontally like on Samsung. It turns when it really needs to.

Shortcuts and Automation

Apple Logo is all I need ☺️

The OS is just seems to be more smoother and more cohesive.

Something I noticed when I made the switch was when I was playing a fullscreen youtube video and swiped to go home on my Samsung, it would take me to a janky landscape version of my home screen, then glitch for a second and rotate back to portrait.

On iPhone it just goes back to the home screen without issues

Better garbage collection implementation in a better language. Every advantage ios has over android is due to decisions made at the start of these projects. iOS is smoother, more reliable, quicker, efficient. This software will always take less energy and be really really reliable because the developers put the hard work of using automatic reference counts.

you attract more b#tches that's one

So the eco system. It's pretty much just that. Not talking about the phone just the os.

I am lazy, call comes to phone and I can pick up with my iPad. That’s neat feature

At this point it's basically only personal preference.

There were times when iPhones were objectively better than most androids. That was rather in the earlier days.

IMO since 2017/2018 Androids which are in the same price range as iPhones offer the same or more features while also being of good build quality and software quality.

Regarding features; Androids tend to offer more features, but in 99% these are rather experimental and are often not even transferred to the successor.

The only consistent feature I can think of is personalization, and googles AI progress with their current Pixels.

One could argue that Androids are a tad more interesting, since you can do so much stuff through 3rd party apps or by default, or you have crazy camera setups and SPens and whatnot, but in the end it's not an advantage if you won't use those features or if they are messy.

So yeah, if you want an S-Pen or a crazy 200mp 10x space zoom Setup you obviously won't go for iPhone.

I personally prefer the simplicity and mature design language of iPhones.

But If a future Android offers a feature I deperately want I'd switch again. And also switch back. I don't lock myself to a brand.

The thing is, when you say "longer support" and "apple ecosystem" you are already talking about a ton of features equivalent to the amount Android provides. Except the ones on iOS are all built-in.

The coherency of software and hardware is a world of it's own. There are specific features of every device and every new release which blow people's minds (Vision Pro reference). Some say Apple didn't invent these "features", and some of these claims are correct. But innovation is not the thing special about Apple products, it's consistency. Shit works beyond expectations, and Apple designs them in a way far better than any competitor. For example, Face-ID as one of the replies said.

The simple and minimalist design of the OS, which is worth opening a paragraph for. Honestly, compared to Apple OSes, the design mentality of Windows and Android feels like they were quickly glued with things during a rainy night of 1980 and left like that. Sure you can change those on Windows and Android, but then it's bloat, which is an unacceptable term for Apple devices.

Also system specific things such as absence of garbage collection and using ARC instead (which is one of the reasons why iPhones come with half the ram compared to Android devices yet provide the same performance), the power management and processor efficiency, the unmatched security for both the device and ecosystem. Also neither iOS nor MacOS come with built-in adware compared to Windows and some versions of Android. Nor nothing on Apple OSes can use trackers without your consent.

As for the ecosystem itself, for me, Airdrop and Handoff are one of the best things. If you own a Windows pc and Android device, you'd normally need to setup a bluetooth file sharing server to send a jpeg from one device to another and god knows if it'd work. But if you own a Mac bundled with an iPhone, forget sharing whatever file type you want to whatever application; you can just "copy" anything on one device and instantly "paste" it to the other device, at crazy speeds independent of your bluetooth or wifi tx rate thanks to the built-in Airdrop Receiver which uses P2P tech. (Unlike a FTP server, you don't even need a router as a middleman to use Airdrop).

Oh also, there's this another topic about what can you accomplish with a jailbroken iPhone, but I won't write it here.

TL;DR: iOS be screaming "QUALITYYYY" all over.

Having jumped to iOS this year (15 pro). There's only a few things that I see making a difference.

- Ecosytem (macbook stuff is nice but, at least for me, nothing extraordinary)
- You can tell apps are developed with iOS in mind first
- Resale value?
- Besides that, experience has been basically the same and I haven't had that "wow amazing" moment so far

You can back up your iPhone completely to a computer and restore it on a new iPhone. Android has nothing like that.

Day one updates. No waiting. Only the Pixel is like this.

Accessory ecosystem is really good. The iPhone is the default for most things in design and due to the limited number of models, most things fit around an iPhone better.

If you have a Mac or iPad, iMessage on those is nice and various cross device features are also nice.

Apple isn’t an advertising company, so they at least pretend to care about keeping your data secure. And more recently they’ve enabled features where if you don’t safeguard your passphrase, you will not get back into your account.

iOS just works for me, and most of my colleagues are also iOS users so sharing docs is easier.

I do have an android tho, I used to like customizing but nowadays I just slap on the Niagara launcher and call it a day.

For me it’s a few things:

The hardware. I find it more polished. The camera is fast and consistent. The processors are far beyond anything in an android phone. The ecosystem around accessories is just way more built out.

Software fit and finish. Any time I use android the apps and experience just seem a little more janky. iOS is where the money is for dev, and you can tell they put more care into it. Also, I think it is a more predictable platform for developers, so it’s easier to spend time polishing an app. I enjoy photography. The iPhone has a huge ecosystem of great photo apps that interact directly with the built in system photo library. Developers tend to support Apples features and APIs very quick. For example. Apple has Shortcuts, which can be very useful for automating tasks. Android fans will be quick to point out Tasker is similar. The difference is that app developers have embraced Shortcuts and added tons of hook for it. So while Tasker may be technically more capable, in use I haven’t found it to be so.

Apples ecosystem of devices just work together so well. If you use a Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, iPad, AppleTV, and HomePods you get a very nice (not perfect) integrated system.

At the end of the day both are perfectly serviceable. So pick the one that fits your style better. I’ve used both extensively and always find myself coming back to Apple.

The big one for me is the ecosystem and tight integration. If you’re in Apple’s ecosystem, then everything works together without having to jump through hoops. Factor in your friends and family in the same ecosystem, and it gets even better for sharing.

Cost of ownership for the item’s life cycle. Apple can cost a bit more upfront, but their products are supported longer, and they hold their value. Sure, other companies are starting to claim similar support, but until that support is realized, they’re just claims; see Pixel Pass.

This is a perk for me, but first-party apps aren’t prone to disappearing. We all joke around that Google comes out with a new app and kills it a few years later, but those choices have a real impact on the people who use them. Yeah, Apple is slow to update, and some of their apps are just bad Podcasts, but the chances of them going away are small. As someone who’s AuDHD, I don’t particularly appreciate reworking a workflow I’ve worked so hard to create because Google decided to take another crack at something by launching a new app with fewer features.

for me is the apple watch mostly. in second place the integration with orher apple devices. I know samsung and google have equivalents but none is as polished, reliable, seamless as apple. And in the smartwatch world, wear os is no match at all. When android will have a proper smartwatch and integration, i will happily switch to Android because i pretty much prefer it for my personal phone.

The lack of a proper backup system and device interoperability is enough for me to never go back to Android. iOS is just completely untouched in this regard.