I’m planning on switching platforms and I’m just curious of the opinions of people here. I think that Android can have advantages in areas of privacy and external app installation, but most of the benefits come with a lot of tinkering out of the box.
I’m a very capable person at modifying my phone and I don’t generally mind doing that. I can make the interface work however I want. But I find myself caring less and less about how I interact with things in the light of what Apple is doing.
I’m looking at Android and it seems to be pretty far behind iOS at the moment. The messaging service is a huge sticking point and progress isn’t being made to unify iMessage with RCS apps. It seems to me like Samsung is making more progress with the platform than Google itself is. Like they’re the ones carrying it right now.
Keep in mind, I’m not a shill here. I haven’t used iOS in years. I still think they’re overpriced phones and Apple isn’t a great company. And I wish USB-C was a thing. This isn’t an ad. I’m just frustrated with the android platform and Apple seems to be leaving it behind.
Example features: FaceID, iMessage, home screen UX, battery life, and extended software support.
So can anyone tell me if they feel the same or help me in my decision? Not trying to start a tech war btw
I appreciate the thorough response, thanks! And I hear most of this but I’d give some pushback on a few things. Most of this comes from experience with Samsung devices so keep that in mind.
I recognize that the RCS thing is an apple problem that they’re making. But my issue is that even if they solved RCS, I think that iMessage is still somewhat running away with messaging and I can’t convince anyone to use signal. I like the security, but signal isn’t very feature rich. And I’m kind of done waiting for a better android alternative to exist unfortunately. If it did, I might come back.
FaceID: I too love the fingerprint reader. My Note 10 isn’t great with having it under the screen and I’d prefer face unlock personally. I can’t imagine FaceID to be any less convenient than having a wet finger and being unable to scan it. So I’d call that neutral for me personally.
iMessage: I know I’m rewarding them, I hate it, wish I could live without it but it’s stopping me from getting video messages from people.
Home Screen UX: it’s less about customization (not being able to place apps in certain places bugs me) but more about the design language itself. I guess less about the home screen specifically and I mean more about the general UI layout, drawers, and control panel. All those are mature on android and I just fine the Apple stuff easier to visually control. Especially comparing the Apple stuff to OneUI or material you. I know I can fix some of what I’m talking about, but I don’t necessarily want to fiddle with it.
And Battery: isn’t usually a problem for me with a note device, but I’ve had issues before. Like a weird bug used to drain battery for no reason (Linus of LTT noted this a few times on his Note device). But in general, Apple seems to be making advances in efficiency that aren’t present in android devices yet. Hence the larger (and heavier) batteries in many devices.
Again not trying to start a war, don’t feel obligated to respond. Just hope that explains my thoughts here.
On battery: Samsung seems to have a battery quality issue for many years now.
On longevity: I think every Samsung flagship I’ve had felt very noticeable slower after just like 3-6 months of use.
Ive sworn off of Samsung for the foreseeable future.
Same experience with a flagship Samsung tablet. Within 6 months it was lagging noticeably and after a year it was borderline unusable. I thought it was an Android issue but what you’re saying makes more sense. My current phone is a Oneplus. They have their own set of issues, but after 20 months my 9Pro is as snappy as it was when I bought it.
That’s fair enough. Maybe my problem was that I was buying Samsung phones then. Thanks for pointing all this out, definitely helped me in this decision process.