I bought OnePlus 6 in 2018 and am still using it. It's still receiving updates.
I've seen some apps crash/hang occasionally, some always, some never. I believe the cause of crashing is in those apps rather than Android itself.
If getting a new phone, I will choose OnePlus or Pixel. I don't see what iPhone is better at, Apple ecosystem aside.
Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
131–140 of 247 posts
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I switched from Android to iPhone. I was tired of my Android phones (Samsung Galaxy’s) only receiving updates for ~2 years. On top of that, I found that there was a lot of “jank” when using some apps. They would crash, fail to load, slow down etc… I attribute that mostly due to the Java based code. I also hated having both Google and Samsung trying to bait me into their “ecosystems”. They also have both the device OE…
To be fair Samsung is pushing the worst possible android experience consistently since they make phones. Their android flavor is nothing like stock android, buggy and gets barely updated. The phones to expensive for the actual build quality. Samsung is just the most ugly side of Android. A pixel or even a Xiaomi that ship with stock and allow removing unwanted apps without hacks is not even compareable.
Hijack my own thread for curiosity. Can Americans get Xiaomi or similar Chinese brands? I've always been curious to try one because I feel like I could hack my way around stuff but life/family keeping busy stuff...
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I switched a few months ago and I can't believe the lack of difference. They are very similar. If I want to see the weather, I tap the square with a cloud on it. If I want to start Spotify, I tap that icon. I turn it on and off with a button on the side and turn the volume up and down with the other buttons. The camera takes pictures and I can use the map to navigate in my car. Maybe the Apple camera is better this y…
I don't know if this is supposed to be a serious comment. Everyone I know who uses an Android is frustrated with it all the time. I'm sure the people who make Android also think it's fine. You just tap the button and then an app opens. Who cares if it's janky and freezes half the time? Certainly Android developers don't seem to care.
Not really my Android experience. Any bad Android vibes come two things. Apps that go from good UX to terrible UX or apps that intentionally behave badly (looking at you MS Outlook & your Bing Search poison)
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#134Are there any "real" (come on, techy people, you know what I mean) reasons for going Apple besides I suppose the genuine convenience of fully interoperable phone/messaging across devices (which I fully concede is probably a big one for a good number of people?) The price differences between Android and Apple still strike me as absurd. On the other side, I went from "picking an Android very carefully for rooting" grad…
Price difference? iPhone SE is $429, iPhone 11 is $499, iPhone 12 $599, iPhone 13 $699. I feel like people who still are stuck at Apple pricing, have really no idea about Apple pricing. Sure, if you want the maxed out best iPhone, it'll be around 1 thousand USD, but so will be maxed out best Android.
But you're talking old phones in the 499 range. You can get new phones in that range in the android ecosystem.
Many people inherently don't want last years model, or the model from 3 years ago.
Apple just isn't as competitive for new devices.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I switched a few months ago and I can't believe the lack of difference. They are very similar. If I want to see the weather, I tap the square with a cloud on it. If I want to start Spotify, I tap that icon. I turn it on and off with a button on the side and turn the volume up and down with the other buttons. The camera takes pictures and I can use the map to navigate in my car. Maybe the Apple camera is better this y…
I don't know if this is supposed to be a serious comment. Everyone I know who uses an Android is frustrated with it all the time. I'm sure the people who make Android also think it's fine. You just tap the button and then an app opens. Who cares if it's janky and freezes half the time? Certainly Android developers don't seem to care.
100% serious. I switched to iPhone fairly recently. My last phone was a Pixel and it worked well enough but the battery was shot and the camera was a generation or two old.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#136Are there any "real" (come on, techy people, you know what I mean) reasons for going Apple besides I suppose the genuine convenience of fully interoperable phone/messaging across devices (which I fully concede is probably a big one for a good number of people?) The price differences between Android and Apple still strike me as absurd. On the other side, I went from "picking an Android very carefully for rooting" grad…
For general consumers, the Apple ecosystem beyond just messaging is a legitimate reason. It’s not just messaging, it’s handoff of your browser from your phone to your tablet to your laptop so you can easily keep reading a website even if you swap devices. It’s Apple Pay. It’s Apple Music. Sure, there are Android apps for all of those things, but you have to spend time picking each app and setting it up. Starting a ne…
For sure. That's exactly what I was trying to get across with my first comment; but I suppose I was wondering for folks (especially perhaps us techy folks) who may not much require that kind of cross platform connectedness -- are there any other advantages?
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#137Are there any "real" (come on, techy people, you know what I mean) reasons for going Apple besides I suppose the genuine convenience of fully interoperable phone/messaging across devices (which I fully concede is probably a big one for a good number of people?) The price differences between Android and Apple still strike me as absurd. On the other side, I went from "picking an Android very carefully for rooting" grad…
In my opinion the UX on Android is inferior. It’s not about as good, it’s worse. There are just a million kinda shitty decisions embedded in the interface that aren’t quite right. For me Android is like an off-brand cola. It gets the job done. It’s sugar water, just like coke. But there are a million little decisions that make Coke a better product.
For me iPhone UX is confusing and inconvenient. There are a million shitty decisions embedded in the interface.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
The EU mandate that all large messaging platforms be interoperable by mid 2023 ought to widen this gap too. I wouldn't want to be part of the team having a deadline of March to develop and implement a way for every big messaging app to interoperate, with different user models, privacy concerns (e2e?), data storage models, data durability models, etc. Yet if it launches late, you have that 10% of revenue fine hanging…
Did they actually mandate that? I thought what the EU mandated was mostly about payment services.
No. Some very large companies have to offer interop for their messageing platforms, smaller ones don't. So if Threema wants interop with Signal, Signal can say yes, no or they can discuss it. If either Threema or Signal want to interop with Whatsapp, Facebook has to offer that, because Facebook meets one of the two size criteria.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair Samsung is pushing the worst possible android experience consistently since they make phones. Their android flavor is nothing like stock android, buggy and gets barely updated. The phones to expensive for the actual build quality. Samsung is just the most ugly side of Android. A pixel or even a Xiaomi that ship with stock and allow removing unwanted apps without hacks is not even compareable.
Hijack my own thread for curiosity. Can Americans get Xiaomi or similar Chinese brands? I've always been curious to try one because I feel like I could hack my way around stuff but life/family keeping busy stuff...
No American but you can just order them from China directly they sell EU and US versions on AliExpress.
I can only recommend Xiaomi, cheap, very good build quality and you don't need to hack or root anything and still have full control over your phone. I've had a cheap Oppo before and it drowned, fell and more and still goes strong 8+ years later.
Re: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US
#140Are there any "real" (come on, techy people, you know what I mean) reasons for going Apple besides I suppose the genuine convenience of fully interoperable phone/messaging across devices (which I fully concede is probably a big one for a good number of people?) The price differences between Android and Apple still strike me as absurd. On the other side, I went from "picking an Android very carefully for rooting" grad…
I do not want to spend my free, leisure time tweaking personal devices beyond a few configuration options. I'm happy to pay for convenience. I write code and setup cloud infrastructure for a living.
Fair, but I, on Android don't do that either? Like I said, I used to play around with rooting and stuff, but in the past 5+ years or so (especially with work AND kids et al) it's been "Pop into Best Buy, watcha got for 150, login with Google, done."