Android users - am I crazy?

[JohnnyCanuck]

As part of my perq package through my employer I get a new phone every year (the phone belongs to me but they buy it and pick up the airtime/data package).

Currently sporting an S8+ and have generally preferred Android (although I admit to having been a fan of Windows Phone 8/8.1). However, I am just worn down with the lack of compatibility with our cars and the fact that they don't play nice with Android. Plus, I don't see a compelling Android phone this year ... and our main bank doesn't support Google Pay (they support Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, and even f*ing Fitbit Pay) so I don't one to give up Samsung Pay for my banks cludgy proprietary payments system. Which leaves my with the S9/9+ or Note 9.

So, I never thought I would seriously consider an iOS device, but the latest X phones and iOS12 have me seriously contemplating going with an iDevice. Most everything I use is in the MS, not Google, ecosystem (OneDrive, Outlook.com, Office) so the integration is, from what I understand, marginally better on Apple devices in any event. And, the phones look pretty cool (debating between the Xs and the Xr ... the Max is too big for my taste as is the Note 9).

Any thoughts? Not really interested in hearing from Apple fanatics who don't understand the appeal of Android or other phone OS's but rather from those who are either thinking the same or have experience with both platforms.

[Red Bread]

You are clearly an idiot, sheeple and those guys never innovate.

Just speculating on what the Android crew will say. I'm an iPhone X user, come on over, you'll be fine.

[IllSic_Design]

I have both, use Android personally(S7edge) but have an iphone work phone. I hate apple with a passion, the ios is very annoying and I hate how everything is setup. I hate not having a back button on the bottom and everything seems more complicated than android. I hate having to use itunes to add music to the phone or to do any updates(really, i have to use Wifi to update, I don't have wifi at my house....). Hate not being able to customize my phone to my liking, etc... This is all my opinion, but I will NEVER go to apple. Had a macbook before also, pain in the ass and much prefer a pc also.

[eatsleepboost]

I personally hate apple. Lifelong Android user here except the 1 time I bought an iPhone years ago due to most of my family having iPhones and wanting me to have factime, imessage etc. I cannot stand how once you have one apple product you are stuck as far as comparability so you wind up with a whole house full of apple electronics.

Also if you buy an apple have fun when you have an issue with your phone or laptop and have to schedule and appointment for them to look at it often times more than a week out, cause you know that you don't need to use it at all within that time frame....

[TXSTYLE]

I have owned Top Tier Android devices for years and I've handled plenty of iPhones too. Android is smoother in every aspect. Every update gets better and better. My G7 is lightning fast. Using Bluetooth pairs up effortlessly with multiple devices regularly for me. It just works... Well.

[JohnnyCanuck]

This is why I come here. Bland opinions.

I've traditionally avoided Apple like the plague for many of the reasons you've mentioned so thanks for reminding me. Not worried about using Apple devices... firmly in the MS camp (Windows 10 PCs, Surface Book 2, picking up a Surface Go, Xbox One, and for our streaming needs a Shield TV). No Macs, MacBook, AppleTV, etc... ever. This is only a phone discussion.

[Unknown_Car]

Android wins by far. I had few apple phones and they are crap.

[xQx]

Lack of compatibility? You know xHP and MHD are android-only apps?

I'm a die-hard Android convert who works in Telco. Here's my 2c: Get the iPhone.

A phone's a phone - these days Android and IOS are 90% the same, 10% different. One's better in some ways, the other is better in others.

A change is as good as a holiday. In a year's time you'll know which one you prefer.

[lsturbointeg]

just upgraded from a Note3 to the new Note9...LOVE IT! my son who is a die hard IPhone lover who seems to upgrade his phone to the newest and greatest has the new XS? anyways, he finally admits that after using my phone for a day that the Note9 compared to his new XS seems to be better in all aspects. I've seen quite a few YouTube videos with the IPhone fanboys jumping ship to the new Note9's

[Hawkeye]

Everyone saying that one sucks and the other one doesn't is either an idiot or a liar.

They both work, just a little differently. I have an iPhone, have had Android in the past, thinking about a Google phone for my next one. The iPhone ecosystem is nice IMO. All of my "Apple only" products like Bose, BMW, GMC, XBox, LG TV, Logitech, etc. were well worth the sacrifice for not having super open configuration of Android.

I just got a few duds in a row, my Android experience was sub-par., although I hear good things about a lot of the newer phones. The iPhone just lasts a lot longer if you don't like upgrading at normal intervals, which is good for me because I usually upgrade every 2 years and then my wife uses my old phone for an additional 2 years... with no issues.

btw - I played around with the Note 9, and prefer my X over it.

[lsturbointeg]

I still rock my IPOD shuffle at the gym! lol so I still have apple products. but i'm not a Fanboy of either one even tho I love my Note9. I think i'm just happy cause I have a new phone and not a phone that's falling apart and is slower than chit!

[King Rudi]

I came from the cell phone industry carrying a palm treo as my first smartphone...I mean hey, I had to have some way of working on excel spreadsheets from the golf course. I eventually made my way to BlackBerry and loved my RIM devices. Once the iPhone was first introduced I carried one for a while but instantly noticed the fuckery involved with carrying an apple device. I went back to BlackBerry until 2009 and tried an Android as my next device, I was amazed at how well everything worked. A few years later I started working for a company that supplied their employees with phones/plans and stayed with Android. After being there a few years they bought everyone iPhones. I absolutely hated it. My position required me to take lots of photos/videos of machine automation and emailing them to our suppliers and manufacturers. Not only could I no longer simply drag and drop the video from my phone to my desktop, everything had to be done with iTunes...bullshit! Then I had to install Quicktime to play the video, then everyone I did business with had to install Quicktime to watch what I sent them. In short it was nothing but a hassle and pain in the ass.

I've used Apple products, Windows Mobile and Android devices. In my opinion Android works better for me. I've never had a single issue with an Android device. Again, this is only my opinion but it seems like Apple cornered the market on simplifying smartphone technology for the masses, this is where they became so popular. Smartphones back in the day especially the Windows Mobile devices were not for people who were not great with computers. Ask a typical iPhone user how to clock or remap a device and watch their facial expression.

Apple is popular because of the "Everyone else has one" scenario. This also gets into the Playstation versus Xbox argument type consumers. At the end of the day, it all depends on what works best for you, they all do the same thing regardless.

Personally I am swayed from any Apple product because of this. https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...device-extract

I refuse to spend my money with a company that values their success and profitability over life and the work conditions of the employees that manufacture their product.

[UncleWede]

It seemed far easier to synch iOS with our Exchange box.

I can drag/drop pics/videos by just connecting my 6 via lightning cable to PC. No special software or drivers required (maybe Micro$oft just loads them up)

But outside of that, Bimmerpost and pron, I don't do anything else with my phone.

[kyoo]

doesn't matter, but since you're already in the google/samsung ecosystem, there's more benefit to staying there, vs switching everything you do to apple's version of it or vice versa.

[Alfisti]

I feel Apple does the phone better than Android but I cannot cop Apple's "my way or the highway' approach. i don't use cloud for anything so managing your data is a fucking nightmare with Apple unless you have every device apple and let them manage it for you.

No thanks.

[JohnnyCanuck]

Not_Judy, the FoxConn thing is a real issue and bothers me. The problem is that Apple seems to get stuck with blame for FoxConn when many other device manufacturers (inlcuding Google, Motorola, and HMD for mobile, but also Amazon, Cisco, HP, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and others) also use FoxConn to manufacture.

If I was to decide by labour standards alone, there is no phone that meets my critieria. LG and Samsung have similar issues in their Chinese and Brazilian factories. Sony, Google, Motorola (Lenovo). BlackBerry (TCL) may be better (information about TCL/Alcatel is hard to find), but a flagship phone without wireless charging is a dealbreaker for me.

Further, if one looks at KnowTheChain's benchmarks, Apple actually fares pretty well. For 2018, it's benchmarks rate Apple third best noting significant improvement in labour standards and practices.

However, to me, the corporate values consideration goes well beyond labour standards and involves a general assessment of ethics, privacy rights, corporate citizenship, aspirational qualities of leadership, etc. I despised Steve Jobs. IMO, he was a parasite with contemptible values. He was one reason I would not ever contemplate an Apple product. I have far less issue with Tim Cook. I think he's a significant improvement in all those qualities. I think both Apple and Microsoft are far more privacy sensitive and reasonable than Google. On top of the labour standards issues, I am leery about another Samsung device given the criminal corruption in their E-Suite.

In the end, the values lens no longer rules out Apple for me as it did for many years.

[The0pportunist]

[JohnnyCanuck]

On the phone question itself, there's no question that as an OS, I think Android is superior to iOS with a pretty important caveat. It's only that way to me once I tweak it and tune to what I like. I hate TouchWiz (I hate all proprietary launchers) so I have to decide if I'm going to make it an Action Launcher phone or a Nova phone. Then I have to tweak the launcher to my needs/wants, etc. I've done that for every Android phone I've owned (SII, Xperia S, G3, Priv, MotoZ, S8+). There is something to be said for a phone that takes 10 minutes to set up (one of the things I loved about Windows Phone) instead of a couple of hours.

But all that's kind of secondary to what's got me thinking about the XS or XR. It would just be nice to have a decent podcast app and Spotify play nice with my car. I might never buy another car without Android Auto, but I'm several years (and a few phones) away from the next vehicle purchase. I am also a bit intrigued by iOS12 on the X line because of all the things that Apple over the past few years has cribbed from Windows Phone and BB OS 10 (both of which were superior operating systems to either iOS or Android).

All that said, I've not decided because I suspect I will miss the customization ability of Android ... and maybe the problem is that I can't decide on an Android phone that meets my needs and I find compelling. Suggestions (other than a Note 9)?

[LaGSa]

I'm an old iphone user from day one due to my work but I never bought the apple ecosystem. It doesn't work for me. Because of that, I always have trouble with the iphone.
Out of the list of problems I've always had and still have with the iphone, there's one thing that apple is very good at: the ios support for their phones.
My experience with other android phone is that too soon they will drop out from os updates, making the phone vulnerable and obsolete.

Would I buy an iphone if that's the only apple product to own? Definitely not.
But, if you already have other products and you like the ecosystem you should get one.

My two cents.

[Banana Hammock]

I would hold off on the newest XS models for now because of the whole charge gate situation where the phone won't charge when you plug it in when it's asleep or it'll suddenly stop charging. The XR is just garbage so ignore that. The only compelling device Apple offers right now is the iPhone 8 or X (non S).

[JohnnyCanuck]

Originally Posted by Hurricane Beefaroni

I would hold off on the newest XS models for now because of the whole charge gate situation where the phone won't charge when you plug it in when it's asleep or it'll suddenly stop charging. The XR is just garbage so ignore that. The only compelling device Apple offers right now is the iPhone 8 or X (non S).

Not interested in an 8 at all ... why would I go backwards? I'm assuiming Apple will get the charge gate issue fixed pretty quickly. However, what's your take on the XR and why do you think it's garbage?

[Banana Hammock]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCanuck

Not interested in an 8 at all ... why would I go backwards? I'm assuiming Apple will get the charge gate issue fixed pretty quickly. However, what's your take on the XR and why do you think it's garbage?

It's the same reason why you're not interested in the 8. It's a step backwards. 720p LCD screen on a modern smartphone for $750.

Being able to fix the issue depends on whether or not it's a hardware issue. If it's an issue like antenna gate, you're probably going to be SOL but if it's an issue like the recent Macbook Pro with the i9 processors overheating and throttling performance, then odds are good.