Just to contribute some to that always-on conversation about Apple vs. Android. I've had multiple examples/versions of both systems. I started with a Motorola Droid 2 and moved to an HTC Incredible 2...both had Android 2.x...Froyo I think. Then I moved to an iPhone 4s, starting with iOS 6, then to iOS 7, then to iOS 8. And now I've recently switched to a Motorola Droid Mini, with Android 4.4.4 KitKat. We also have an Acer tablet in the house, with Android 4.0.3 Honeycomb, an iPad 4 in the house, with iOS 8, and my wife's iPhone 5s, also with iOS 8.
These are my thoughts on where Apple excels and where Android excels, because both do, at least in my opinion, in certain situations. Obviously, these points are subjective because they're from my personal perspective.
Where Apple wins...
- Small detail, but I love the small silence switch on the side of the phone, above the volume rocker. You can feel, in an instant, whether your phone is silenced or not. This switch is smaller on the 6, but still tactile. It's nice and big on the 4 and 5. This was a nice feature to have.
- Polished interface. They've always had a very refined look and feel to their user interface. I think this advantage is shrinking, especially with Google's new Android 5.0, but Apple still has a very nice-looking product.
- Closed ecosystem. With the very tight controls Apple has on its hardware and software, it's pretty difficult to find a lousy app on the App Store...lousy meaning something that will have memory leaks or other things that would crash the phone. There's certainly a downside to the closed nature, as well, but few acknowledge the upside of it.
Where Android wins...
- Versatility. I really missed widgets in iOS. I love having a full screen view of my calendar. I like setting up my icons the way I want, instead of being forced into a left-to-right, top-to-bottom orientation. I like being able to pick the apps that I want the OS to use, whether that's from Google, Microsoft, Disney, or anyone else. iOS doesn't let me do any of that.
- Latest hardware. I don't need most of the latest zoomy tech, like the bump thing where Samsung users can bump phones to share stuff. But I'll tell you what I do like: inductive charging. My Droid Mini supports that right out of the box. It's pretty cool to just set your phone down on a pad and have the battery topped off. Apple just recently put NFC in the iPhone 6, but they left out inductive charging.
- Interoperability. Apple stuff works with Apple stuff. Android stuff tends to work with more. For instance, I can do screen mirroring with our Roku in the living room. Better than AirPlay (where you have to use an AirPlay compatible app) and better than Chromecast (where you have to use an app compatible with that), the Wireless Display feature completely mirrors my screen to our television. So if I want to share pictures or a quick Google Maps route or anything else on the TV, it's a simple press of a button. And Google is, for the most part, completely agnostic to hardware. I'm sync'd to my stuff whether I'm using my phone, my Windows computer, a Mac computer, a Linux computer, my Chromebox, etc. Apple syncs to Apple. Which is fine if you own all Apple. If you own anything else, it's more difficult to achieve that seamless integration.
- Open ecosystem. The danger (though it's lessening, with improved sandboxing in the OS) is an app that can crash your system. In general, though, most apps these days are high quality apps. I like being able to access all of my files on the phone with a file explorer/desktop computer. I can see my Downloads folder, and I drag and drop files other than just pictures. That's often pretty handy.
Where it's about a draw...
- Phone connectors...even though I generally don't like non-standard stuff, Apple's 30-pin and newer Lightning connector are nice. I'm particularly impressed with the Lightning connector. It's versatile and also rather durable. The microUSB connector, while ubiquitous, also may be less durable after years' of use. That said, the microUSB connector IS so popular, I can find charging cords anywhere.
- Reliability was pretty poor in my experience with earlier versions of Android. Our Motorola Droid 2 phones were lousy...both of them. That may have been the hardware as much as the software. I have found the recent Droid lineup to be very good; they were engineered when Google owned Motorola, so there is a very nice integration between the hardware and the software. I was, honestly, less impressed with the number of bugs in the Apple OS beginning with iOS 7. Some of the bugs continue unfixed. The screen rotation while in Messages is a continuing one. When that happens, I have to close the app by swiping it out of the task list and re-opening it again. iOS 7 pretty much buried my 4s, but my wife's continued to run fine, which is the phone I used and even updated to iOS 8. So I'd say that neither has a 100% reliability record for me, and I'd call this a draw.
- Memory management/hardware requirements and quality. Both OSes manage open apps in a similar way...you use them in the foreground, then they go to the background when you open something else. They stay resident in memory until that memory is needed. iOS seems to run on lower-spec hardware better than Android, but phone cost isn't dependent on the number of processor cores, so this is sort of a moot point to me. My Droid Mini experiences excellent battery life and weighs about the same as my iPhone 4s. iPhones have long been famous for excellent build quality in a sea of plastic phones, but I feel that that gap has closed considerably. My Droid Mini, for example, has a Kevlar chassis that feels incredibly rigid. So here again, I don't feel there is a big difference with either choice.
- Ecosystem integration. Apple has long been famous for this, but I think Google has come at least to their level, and possibly beyond it when considering cloud services. Everything, including Gmail, Maps, Drive (cloud), Photos (cloud), Contacts, Calendar, etc. is completely integrated and synchronized where ever you go. I've said before that I thought the iCloud's strategy of not offering drag-and-drop functionality was a strategic mistake. Apple, in my opinion, has always been a step behind in their services. Their hardware integration, however, has always been very good.
In the end, I don't feel that one is better than the other...only better for certain people than the other choice might be. I appreciate the advantages that both systems bring to the table.
These are my thoughts on where Apple excels and where Android excels, because both do, at least in my opinion, in certain situations. Obviously, these points are subjective because they're from my personal perspective.
Where Apple wins...
- Small detail, but I love the small silence switch on the side of the phone, above the volume rocker. You can feel, in an instant, whether your phone is silenced or not. This switch is smaller on the 6, but still tactile. It's nice and big on the 4 and 5. This was a nice feature to have.
- Polished interface. They've always had a very refined look and feel to their user interface. I think this advantage is shrinking, especially with Google's new Android 5.0, but Apple still has a very nice-looking product.
- Closed ecosystem. With the very tight controls Apple has on its hardware and software, it's pretty difficult to find a lousy app on the App Store...lousy meaning something that will have memory leaks or other things that would crash the phone. There's certainly a downside to the closed nature, as well, but few acknowledge the upside of it.
Where Android wins...
- Versatility. I really missed widgets in iOS. I love having a full screen view of my calendar. I like setting up my icons the way I want, instead of being forced into a left-to-right, top-to-bottom orientation. I like being able to pick the apps that I want the OS to use, whether that's from Google, Microsoft, Disney, or anyone else. iOS doesn't let me do any of that.
- Latest hardware. I don't need most of the latest zoomy tech, like the bump thing where Samsung users can bump phones to share stuff. But I'll tell you what I do like: inductive charging. My Droid Mini supports that right out of the box. It's pretty cool to just set your phone down on a pad and have the battery topped off. Apple just recently put NFC in the iPhone 6, but they left out inductive charging.
- Interoperability. Apple stuff works with Apple stuff. Android stuff tends to work with more. For instance, I can do screen mirroring with our Roku in the living room. Better than AirPlay (where you have to use an AirPlay compatible app) and better than Chromecast (where you have to use an app compatible with that), the Wireless Display feature completely mirrors my screen to our television. So if I want to share pictures or a quick Google Maps route or anything else on the TV, it's a simple press of a button. And Google is, for the most part, completely agnostic to hardware. I'm sync'd to my stuff whether I'm using my phone, my Windows computer, a Mac computer, a Linux computer, my Chromebox, etc. Apple syncs to Apple. Which is fine if you own all Apple. If you own anything else, it's more difficult to achieve that seamless integration.
- Open ecosystem. The danger (though it's lessening, with improved sandboxing in the OS) is an app that can crash your system. In general, though, most apps these days are high quality apps. I like being able to access all of my files on the phone with a file explorer/desktop computer. I can see my Downloads folder, and I drag and drop files other than just pictures. That's often pretty handy.
Where it's about a draw...
- Phone connectors...even though I generally don't like non-standard stuff, Apple's 30-pin and newer Lightning connector are nice. I'm particularly impressed with the Lightning connector. It's versatile and also rather durable. The microUSB connector, while ubiquitous, also may be less durable after years' of use. That said, the microUSB connector IS so popular, I can find charging cords anywhere.
- Reliability was pretty poor in my experience with earlier versions of Android. Our Motorola Droid 2 phones were lousy...both of them. That may have been the hardware as much as the software. I have found the recent Droid lineup to be very good; they were engineered when Google owned Motorola, so there is a very nice integration between the hardware and the software. I was, honestly, less impressed with the number of bugs in the Apple OS beginning with iOS 7. Some of the bugs continue unfixed. The screen rotation while in Messages is a continuing one. When that happens, I have to close the app by swiping it out of the task list and re-opening it again. iOS 7 pretty much buried my 4s, but my wife's continued to run fine, which is the phone I used and even updated to iOS 8. So I'd say that neither has a 100% reliability record for me, and I'd call this a draw.
- Memory management/hardware requirements and quality. Both OSes manage open apps in a similar way...you use them in the foreground, then they go to the background when you open something else. They stay resident in memory until that memory is needed. iOS seems to run on lower-spec hardware better than Android, but phone cost isn't dependent on the number of processor cores, so this is sort of a moot point to me. My Droid Mini experiences excellent battery life and weighs about the same as my iPhone 4s. iPhones have long been famous for excellent build quality in a sea of plastic phones, but I feel that that gap has closed considerably. My Droid Mini, for example, has a Kevlar chassis that feels incredibly rigid. So here again, I don't feel there is a big difference with either choice.
- Ecosystem integration. Apple has long been famous for this, but I think Google has come at least to their level, and possibly beyond it when considering cloud services. Everything, including Gmail, Maps, Drive (cloud), Photos (cloud), Contacts, Calendar, etc. is completely integrated and synchronized where ever you go. I've said before that I thought the iCloud's strategy of not offering drag-and-drop functionality was a strategic mistake. Apple, in my opinion, has always been a step behind in their services. Their hardware integration, however, has always been very good.
In the end, I don't feel that one is better than the other...only better for certain people than the other choice might be. I appreciate the advantages that both systems bring to the table.
