I cant seem to use the TouchID when my hand is wet (from sweat) and the iPhone screen is quite dark when I am out and about in sunny day. I have been using iPhone for a few years already (also own nexus 7 2013) but personally screen size does matter, 4" seem to be inconvenienced in some scenarios.
This article seems to reflect much of the iPhone experience that I perceive myself. That is, until we hit the "Final Words". Reading the user experiences here would indicate a tedious, frustrating experience with an iPhone. That's exactly the impression Apple has left me with. However, for some strange reason, the author can't seem to condemn the iPhone. Polish is just not a word I would use to describe the iPhone. Exasperation would seem to be a better adjective.
"However, for some strange reason, the author can't seem to condemn the iPhone."
Anandtech has become very iCentric over the years. I recall the day the iPhone 5 came out they did 14 articles on it. So we are clear, that is not a typo - 14 articles. Any other phone gets 0 to 2 articles at the most.
I agree with the article here though "iOS is designed with average users in mind. As a result, there’s a strong emphasis on making things “just work” and hiding information that would simply confuse and frustrate people that don’t care about the underlying hardware and software. Android at its core is targeted at those that want to have the full PC experience on their phone, and as a result there’s much more information and low level functionality for those that want it. "
I have always put it this way, Android is for people who wanted a PC with Phone function added, iPhone users would wanted a Phone with some Computer function added.
Personally I think the Anandtech articles are pretty much well balanced. But if you want purely iOS bashing site then may be you should look else where.
I think I know what you are trying to say, but I think those words are not the right ones to express it. I look at that and find myself vaguely insulted. I am a standard nerd, I sit here some nights hacking integrated chipsets and video card firmware for entertainment. I have a Mac laptop and custom built PC desktop. Maybe I'm not the traditional market for the iPhone.
I want a computer, not a phone. I never use the phone app willingly. However, I want a computer I don't have to worry about. I don't have to disable GPS on the iPhone whenever I am not using it, I don't have to turn off wifi when I leave the house, nor do I have to be sure background apps are quit lest they eat my battery when I'm not looking. I put the iPhone in my pocket and every time I pull it out everything is as expected. Then I put it back in my pocket again.
Perhaps a better way of saying this is... people who enjoy fiddling with technology like Android. People who would rather not fiddle with that particular thing like iOS.
Here's a better way of saying your last line: People who enjoy fiddling with technology and want to fiddle with their phone like Android. People who would rather not fiddle WITH THEIR PHONE like iOS, whether they fiddle with technology or not.
I know a great many developers and engineers who, when they leave their job at the end of the day, are done fiddling with technology. Work/life balance is one reason, the other is that sometimes it is more important to be able to communicate effectively than it is to play with animated widgets on the home screen or hack some native functionality into the OS that can usually just be done with an app anyway. In my view, fiddling with my phone is a complete waste of time, and really puts that whole "the iPhone is a toy" nonsense in a different perspective.
It's like the debate between people who like to build their own gaming desktops and those who buy pre-made gaming desktops from boutique shops. Some people like the ability to customize their system with the specific components they want, while others just want a system that works and don't want to worry about what motherboard to buy or the difference between SATA and IDE.
After nearly 40 years in IT (and building countless business and game machines - as well as fixing their quirks an order of magnitude more than that), I went with the iPhone because it works when I need it to. The referenced "stutter" in use is why I dislike my Android tablet and the phone before that.
You do realize that you do not need to disable GPS, turn off WiFi, or quit background apps on Android, either, right? Maybe you're describing an experience with a very early version of Android, or a severely broken phone, but the "need" to "fiddle" with things in Android went away a long time ago. The option is there if you want to fiddle or make huge customizations, but if you want the option of "just works", it's there right out of the box.
I have heard people say this before, but it is not supported by the evidence at my disposal. Every Android device I've ever seen is being micro-managed. When I ask why, the answer is always some variant of "if I don't micro-manage this, something I don't want happens". It eats all their data, eats their battery, makes their phone warm, or something else.
This is the case for both novice users and experienced tech-heads I know. It is the experience across all Android devices and versions I've seen. All the way from the old 2.x versions to today's v4.4. I've nearly never seen an Android device without the quick-access widget to control cellular, wifi, bluetooth, NFC, and GPS front and center because it is actively used.
Maybe I'm living in some parallel universe and this isn't normal. I just know what I've experienced across three countries and many years of owning, borrowing, and observing Android devices.
It's quite possible that you're seeing that, but it's not in any way required. There has been a long-running myth that you need a task killer. You don't. Android does a great job of controlling memory and processor usage, and regularly killing apps will actually reduce your battery life (because it now has to reload it when you go to open that app again). I haven't had a reason to disable any of the radios other than the rare times I've had issues with a particular wifi connection and wanted to quickly figure out if it was my phone or the wifi.
There's no need to do the things you've described, and people who do that are misinformed. If the options existed on iOS in the same way as Android, you can bet people would do it there, too. It's just like the folks who think you need to change a bunch of settings in Windows 7+ when you use an SSD instead of an HDD. You don't - the OS already takes care of the couple of changes needed, and doing anything else will make your overall experience less efficient. Once upon a time it was necessary, but that tribal knowledge needs to go away, as it's not accurate anymore.
> Android does a great job of controlling memory and processor usage, and regularly killing apps will actually reduce your battery life (because it now has to reload it when you go to open that app again).
Well, now that is out of the way: How much battery life do you get out of your Android phone? A full day? Bad news: That's because Android *is* terrible at managing battery usage, but don't fret: Windows Phone is too. The only system that gets it somewhat right out-of-the-box is iOS. On any other system you'll have to shutdown background applications/operations as much as possible, disable WLAN, disable location services, limit data to 3G or turn it off altogether (, activate Battery Saver on WP) and then you might end up with 5 days instead. The only thing that doesn't seem to have much effect (although WP likes to suggest otherwise) is BT.
And yes (DOH!) it doesn't make much sense to shut down a battery sucker like WhatsApp which is in constant use but to keep it running -- it doesn't matter anyway.
I have a N5. I don't micromanage it at all. The only app that give me problems is Slacker, I do have to force close that occasionally.
Otherwise, everything gets left on all the time. I never use bluetooth, though so it stays off. I do toggle airplane mode thanks to t-mobile, and have to manually turn wifi back on.
As long as I have regular reception I get more than a full day no problem. No task killers.
N5=different animal. Bone stock Android while incredibly nice (no bloat from Sammy or AT&T), it's also incredibly 'boring' IMHO. Nice you don't have to dick with the settings or micromanagement at all on a Nexus or Play Store purchase but buying a Sammy at AT&T or an HTC from Verizon and take notice of how many AT&T and Samsung applications are not just installed, but running in the background, can't be taken out (without 'rooting') and are of no help at all to the vast majority of folks buying smartphones today
Ummduh, you're correct as I've still got the Xoom and it works just fine. As does my original iPad to date. That's pretty amazing for the first round of tablets. Four years ago. I'm saving as relics but occasionally pull the iPad or Xoom out for updates, browsing or watching a movie. Basic tasks that don't tax the system, run the battery down to about 20/40% and then tip it off ...so far, so good!
I've got the Note 3 and yes, it's essential you're not 'syncing' all day (one of I believe 16-20 choices of my 'top 8‘ single pulldown control panel (can be changed and tailored to what you use or don't like S-Beam, NFC, Sync, orientation lock or 'sound?' Never got that one. But it's there if you don't feel like turning the phone down or muting it ...as well, pending your location to wireless routers if you're leaving wifi on or even silly overlooks ...I somehow enabled, unintentionally, developer mode when I originally got the Note 3. Everytime I'd charge her, she'd top off and the display wouldn't shut off. Two weeks after I bought it, took back to AT&T. They were clueless and as well convinced it was just broken, handed me a new one and off I went. It was only by digging again deep into development I was able to find the display sleep functionality and sure as can be, the culprit to my original. Sometimes they're a PITA. Most Android users for a length of time are familiar though with it's settings. There's only so much time you can fart around with the settings and widgets though ...at some point you've got to get work done!
It's correct, a task killer isn't necessary, yet a half dozen live in the 'top 100' free and paid apps available in the PStore. Even the top ten, half are 'tools' for monitoring, rooting and/or just tinkering with the internals and programming of your phone. Kinda silly as it's an easy way for someone 'new' to a smartphone or Android can very easily screw their phone up! Jail breaking has always been there for iOS and Cydia, a trustworthy store with excellent customization options. That said, enough of those functions have now been built into iOS as the hardware became more and more capable and exceed their counterparts on Cydia's stores performance wise in almost any measurable and objective situation. I think many believe Apple to be stealing ideas, copying software, etc ....but when it comes down to it, my Note 3 uses almost 2GB RAM in stasis. While in standby and without apps running (using a couple of these 'tools'). Load up a decent game, bam! 2.8GB RAM being used. In contrast the same game plays more smoothly, without stutter or lag on the same generation iPhone with half the cores, half the clock speed and a third the memory. Not sure who's better at memory management ...but subjectively and as an owner, IMHO hands down iOS is the killer. As they've done with Mavericks, memory compression works well. You're able to listen to Spotify while writing a letter quickly four finger swiping left or right to your research page online for reference. Again, IMHO iOS has multitasking for a phone down 'better' than Android! Apps are allowed to stay 'on' in the background pending permissions, Audiobus support has been a God send and who's using the split screen functionality on their S5? Note 3? I own one, the latter and have for almost a year. I've tried it twice to show friends that I can type and email while watching YouTube.
That seems to be the key to all the comments about leaving everything on. It would appear that few of those proponents travel to remote locations where WiFi or Cell reception is marginal (or non-existent). Those who do understand the nature of these "radios" and how they cast an increasingly-strong "ping" in an attempt to get connected. Failing to disable these radios will greatly reduce your battery life... regardless of manufacturer.
I have a cheap Chinese Android phone with a low capacity battery, and I still get 3 days if I mostly do nothing with it (which is normal, I talk just a little and hardly do anything "smart" with it). That's with WiFi on and 3G and WhatsApp installed (but rarely getting messages). Bluetooth eats battery on this phone though, and talking drains the battery quickly.
So obviously what you say is not really correct. I think it's very much an issue of use. If you have a lot of apps running in the background, then I agree that Android doesn't manage them that well. I felt the need to kill games on my Nexus 7 (2012) because it looked like they were draining the battery even in the background.
You are just flat out wrong. We have four iPhones (all iPhone 5), one android phone (nexus 5 with a rather anemic battery) and a windows phone (HTC 8x) plus I have a blackberry z10 for work. The blackberry is far and away the best in terms of battery but ignoring that since it pushes many less pixels, the Android phone and the windows phone are about the same (last around a day) and the iPhone lags behind terribly. None of the four iPhones lasts more than past late afternoon without a charge and sometimes they need to be charged by lunch! It's ridiculous. Clearly it's not because a particular person misuses bc it is four different people with four styles of using their phones. My stepfather is a computer expert who is very careful about battery and he's even had to resort to a mophie. I owned an iPhone 5 a few years ago that died the very first night I owned it. Apparently it went from 90% to dead in the span of eight hours bc it was pushing email every half hour. Well, guess what, my nexus 5 pushes my email every 15 minutes with no issues.
So yeah there may be many things that you can viably argue the iPhone excels at but battery life is not one of them.
Androids may be micro-managed, but not for the reasons you say. They are micro-managed because they CAN BE, not because they need to be. Work gave me an apple phone after Blackberry started declining (Verizon salespeople are fabulous for this!). I was given an Iphone 4, it was NOWHERE near as capable for email as my blackberry was. Now, if I could have micro-managed it and put a different email client on the device, maybe that would be different. The experience was horrible. I was being forced to use the email client. What a joke. Getting on average of 700 emails a day, and getting to delete 5 at a time was a joke. Also, looking at the log files of the iphone showed the thing crashed several times a day. I admit it recovered nicely from the crashes. After complaining about this phone to my company (this took months, though I wasn't alone in complaining), I got a Galaxy Note II. I 'micro-managed' the crap out of it. Don't like the stock email? No worries, just download a different one (there are AT LEAST 2 dozen other clients out there). I currently use K-@ mail. Its simply wonderful! Don't like the stock browser? No worries, just download another (and its not just an overlay to the stock browser either). I'm using Next browser. Its no frills and fast. Don't like the icons or the launcher? No worries, just change it! Best yet, click on a sound file from file manager (oh thats right, file manager, yet another micro-managed thing) and click 'set as ringtone'. Try that elsewhere. As it is now, I ftp flac and mp3 files from my home network to my note and can play them in the music player of choice. I am using Media Monkey, and it also controls Media Monkey on my home system. Micro-managed my ass. Its called customization.
yada yada yada... got a galaxy note 3 because i thought getting a new iphone too expensive & too small... guess what, after trying a dozen (imho crappy) launchers, roms, hundreds of apps (caldendars, dialers, mail, ...) i gave in and bought an iphone5s... despite hating apple. *customize my ass*
just one thing: even right out of the box the note 3 has worse battery life than the iphone4s. it gets mesurably better when you toggle bt/wlan/gps/... manually off. but not much.
You're a liar. The end. My Galaxy Note 3 gets ~36 hours of battery typically if I don't screw with it, and that translates to about 8-9 hours of screen on time. This is with BT on(yay Ford car), Wifi on, LTE on. The iPhone 4 I had previously would make it through a day, usually. More than that? No. The 5s I had briefly before returning it and getting the Note 3 didn't really make it through the day at all.
Yeah at least the trolls could pick android phones for which lame battery life is a possibility instead of picking the notes which have awesome battery life (easily more than a day) while the beloved iPhone can't make it 24+ hours without a charge *rolls eyes*
That's amazing because I regularly get two full days with everything on out of my iPhone 5s. I admit that's my average light usage, but even on heavy use days I've never been able to kill the phone before 10pm. There are bad batteries in faulty iPhones, and those cases are the ones you hear about (people who don't have problems usually are never heard from). Also, background app refresh causes more battery drain, something which is also micromanaged by most people by app on Android (I've owned a few and don't want weather updating every 15 minutes of course).
With a 'day 1" iPhone 5 (not an S), I was recently seeing shorter durations between charges. A 2 year phone? Surprise? NAY NAY! Free battery swap via Apple. I thought it was doing fine before but now it's 2+ days between charges.
Oh, nonsense. I have a Galaxy Note 3, and I leave everything on, and never have any trouble getting through a full day, including 8+ hours of listening to music, push email for both Gmail and Exchange, web surfing on WiFi and 4G, GPS navigation, etc.
There is absolutely no compelling reason one needs to customize a smartphone. They were all designed to work as-is. You don't need to add anything else to make the experience better. You just need to "hold it right".
If you have to customize your phone, that means you're using it wrong.
Use it the way the manufacturer intended for it to be used, and you'll be happy.
Customizing a phone is the equivalent to customizing a refrigerator. Just don't do it. Be happy with it as is.
Don't do stupid things like listen to FLAC files (seriously? people care about lossless? Are you a bat?) Don't do stupid things like FTP or change icons, or any of the other pointless things people do with their phones. Don't have 700 emails a day. Unsubscribe from all your email lists. Have your email server set up filters.
Do things like go to a bar and have drinks, or play sports, or go outside.
Don't do things like browse files on your smartphone.
Maybe I don't want every single useless, permanently installed app on my homescreen? You're delusional if you think no one wants their smartphone to be more efficient.
People have needs beyond angry birds and Facebook, and putting tinkerers down is just retarded. Your phone is your multitool, and if you don't want it to be as efficient as possible you're frankly a bit dull.
.FLAC is for audiophiles, people that own -not shitty- audio equipment. Real headphones instead of that fruity beats shit.
I don't want useless OEM shit clogging up my home screens and I definitely don't want ugly looking folders everywhere.
You can't change your main browser, you can't use gmail by default, you can't use a different gallery by default. You can't transfer MP3's without iTunes watching over you, you can't auto-backup photos, you can't type the way you want, and you can't even have a notepad on your home screen.
Don't change anything, don't personalize, don't change shit that you don't like. Don't make things the way you want them to be, Tim Cook knows best.
There is no such thing as an audiophile. That is just a misnomer for people with manic OCD.
Nobody has actually ever enjoyed FLAC over 256kb MP3. You don't even notice it. That's why you don't need an FLAC player, which is why you don't need to customize your device because you don't need a FLAC player.
FLAC is basically for people with psychological defects.
And i'm talking as a guy with 20/5 hearing with a full SACD sound system in a custom acoustically engineered recording studio, as expensive as it gets.
I don't consider myself an audiophile either, because I'm self-aware enough to know that I can enjoy music on crappy headphones in the subway just as well as in my studio.
Again, there is absolutely no need to personalize or customize a smartphone. It is better to fix your own psychological problems first before you waste time on your phone.
Admitting you use FLAC is like admitting your psychological problems publicly.
Yep! People who enjoy music, and even people who make music, buy a nice system and enjoy it. "Audiophiles" are endlessly searching for the perfect system, and sadly, they know very little about electronics or audio. They fall for snake oil claims, like $600 AC power cords, and other nonsense. And to add insult to injury, they listen to vinyl!! That's the least accurate playback medium ever made. Even cassette tapes are more accurate!
The key is, buy a device, like a smart phone. Learn how to use THAT phone without trying to turn it into something different. Personalize it as much as you need, but if you feel it's never good enough without personalization, it probably never will be.
But some people feel a compulsive need to tinker.
And as far as the article; why on earth do I need to see the filing system on my iPhone? I really don't.
But I have installed an app that shows how much memory each app is using, and how much storage space, and CPU, etc. People have to look a little harder.
Again, this is just dumb. You're insulting yourself with these. An audiophile is simply someone who enjoys their music at the best of quality. You're not a human, you're a robot. You do what you're programmed to do, you don't question why, you believe you're the perfect example of a living creature and you insult others who don't agree with you. You're the lowest of scum, the bottom of the barrel, the worst of the lot.
And there's exactly where you have it wrong - creative types are not trying to create a new phone UI, they're actually using their phone as a tool to create actual useful things
Your comment doesn't make much sense. Are you saying an iOS user can't use GMail? Because I use GMail through the iOS mail app. I could use Google's client app instead or web client, but I prefer the native client.
With 1.2 million apps on iOS, there's plenty of tinkering room. Jailbreaking would give you more.
Seems like people have to create a fictional story of the platform they didn't choose in order to justify their decision. The simple truth is that both platforms offer tremendous power and usability with somewhat differing design philosophies.
Android melts on hot days. iPhones are only for seven-year-olds who like pink. Samsung's phones explode when used for gaming.
Ummm, Balderdash! In the Mail app in iOS 7, I have gmail, and three pop accounts. What do you mean you can't use gmail by default? You mean the gmail app? Who cares? I have it and never use it. The Apple Mail app works fine.
I have a very nice audio system, and very expensive Sennheiser head phones. Do I want FLAC files on my iPhone? Are you nuts? It's a phone. I have a 160 GB iPod with 21,848 songs on it. I DO have some music on my 64GB iPhone, but I don't want to clog that up with FLAC files. I won't hear the difference while walking down the street.
Now if you REALLY want to use lossless compression on an iPhone, or iPod, use Apple Lossless. FLAC is no better. But honestly, what's the point? You won't hear the difference between a non compressed file and a 320kbps AAC file. I'm a musician, and record my own music, so I can do direct comparisons. Plus it's a phone, even though it has very good audio quality.
iTunes "watching over you"? How is it "watching over you"? You put music (or video, or books) in iTunes and tell it what to transfer to you phone. The end. It doesn't watch over you. The files can come from anywhere. I have music I bought on iTunes, Amazon, my CDs, and from Pirate bay. No one was watching over me. But I guess having an efficient music management app makes no sense?
No notepad on your home screen? Are you nuts? What is the Notes app then? Surprise! It's a notepad. I also use MS OneNote. And they both sync with my iMac at home. And I also have OneDrive, iCloud, GoogleDrive, and DropBox. And check out the very cool free app DeskConnect. I can send text, the clipboard, photos, and URLs, between my iPhone and Mac.
Can't type the way you want? Just learn to type on the freakin' keyboard! Just like you do on a desktop computer. Do you move all the keys around there? Quit yer whining! I type very quickly with just my right thumb, thank you very much.
As far as the phone being your "multitool", I use my iPhone 5 all day long. I use it for email, for the internet (I mostly use Safari, since it works the best, but I have Chrome too), use it as a GPS, both with Apple Maps and Google, I use it to do multitrack recording with Garageband. I edit photos in Adobe Photoshop Express, and several other image editing programs. I use it as a guitar tuner. I record voice memos. I use Dropbox, and not sure why the author of the article said you can't back up your images and movies with it, because that's what I do with it, or share them. I use the timer for a bunch of things. I listen to podcasts and music, I take photos, both with the built in camera app, and a few others. I play some games, and so does my 9 year old daughter. I use it for Paypal, and my bank, and I can even take credit card payments with it, with the free card reader from PayPal. I use it for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. I FaceTime with my daughter. I Skype with friends. I see what the weather is going to be like. I have my CVS and Starbucks cards on it. I put concert tickets on it, using TicketMaster and the Passbook app. I read magazines and newspapers. I use the calendar, and that connects to my Apple, Google, and Hotmail calendars, and I even use the calculator. I add shows to Netflix, and even watch them on the phone. I control my Roku and Plex, and can watch videos in Plex on my Mac on my iPhone. I have the Apple remote for iTunes. And a remote transport control for Cubase. And for more obscure tasks, I have a resistor color code calculator.
Any "OEM shit" that I don't want, like Stocks, I put on the last page. But most of the Apple apps it comes with are very good, and even my carrier, T-Moble, added nothing at all, not even their own app, which I added myself. That's only some of the 142 apps I have on the phone.
So what were you saying? Yep, Apple is for creative types. And we learn how to use a tool without having to endlessly modify it.
"Useless OEM shit?" Samsung's got that one down cold. So what if you can't use Gmail or Chrome as defaults? Press the damn icon. Your complaints are completely baseless. I've always "customized" my iPhones.
"Customizing a phone is the equivalent to customizing a refrigerator. Just don't do it. Be happy with it as is."
You're just being ridiculous. Does your anti-customization stance pertain everything or just smart phones? Curious what your definition of customization is then.
BTW, I did customize my refrigerator, I've added an ice maker and rehung the doors so they open from the left. Should I have just left them the way they came from the manufacturer because that's how the designer intended?
Wow, all of the points I made and you harp on .flac files? For crying out loud, lighten up a little. No customization? You must be the most boring person on the planet, and I pity your spouse. I guess you have all white linen for your bed, because heaven forbid we may customize the colors to SOMETHING WE LIKE! Your car is white and you didn't get any options when you bought it, because again, heaven forbid we want to customize it. With arguments like that, there is no point even continuing this. Have a nice day.
And by the way, its pretty easy to hear the difference between flac and 256k mp3, so don't even go there.
Do you realize that some people work at jobs where they get thousands of emails a day? The guy said it was a work phone and I understand... My firm offered an iPhone 5s but I knew it would be miserable as a work phone. When a deal is in its final few weeks I receive thousands of emails, none of which can be dealt with by unsubscribing. Deleting only five at a time is a joke and honestly should put the iPhone out of the corporate context regardless of the other features that make it ill suited (small screen, poor multitasking, terrible keyboard with no swipe, poor battery life, no multi window or near equivalent, impossible to use remote desktop, etc). What are you, a student?
Seriously, man? Go get yourself Nokia 3310... No need to customize there...
What's the point of having smartphone if it is not supposed to do anything the way you like it and when you like it?
Is that some kind of ingenuity surge, comparing smartphones to refrigerator?
And why do you care how other people use their phones?
Although I agree that changing the stock ROM and applications can be dangerous - that does not mean it will 100% brick your phone. And, yes, tweaking work both ways - if you don't know what are you doing, you can actually compromise performance of the device. But it doesn't mean you must not do it.
There is - and always will be - people that have more advanced knowledge about some technology then common user. No matter if it's the car engine, space flight, or... just a smartphone. That kind of people will always look to expand possibilities with current technology. They will never settle with manufacturer-provided model of usage. And I am grateful that that kind of people exists. If the people throughout history followed your "vision" of existence I would use a stone tablet and the hammer to write this comment - instead of my dirty, old, keyboard. If those would exist... Ever.
That was the dumbest comment I've ever read. You're telling people to do things the way the manufacturer intended want them to instead of actually using their own brains and doing what they want? You want mindless brainwashed zombies instead of humans? Are you even remotely aware how useless your comment is?
Umm, I have seen plenty of iPhone related forum topics on various issues where they too recommend some micromanagement or plain old reset. The holier than thou of Apple users is what caused people to become jrritated with them. Unfortunately now we do have an Android version of that with one OEM
This has its uses though, and just because there is a button there does not mean it is not being turned off by software until specifically asked for. For instance if I'm in a location where I have mobile data' but no access to GPS and want to use maps, a frequent scenario, it makes more sense just to have a single button to turn off GPS so its not just sat there searching for something I know it won't find, as opposed to going through lots of settings. That's just one use case where those buttons are useful, but do not necessarily mean that GPS us being used in the background anyway. Keeping GPS on on my old old android phone would eat battery, but from my use it makes absolutely no difference with my 4.4 device.
On either platform, disabling bluetooth, NFC and GPS when not in use will save battery life. Its a fact. Just because iPhone users don't disable it, doesn't mean it wouldn't be helpful to do so.
I've owned a G1, Droid 2, Droid 4, and Galaxy Note 3. The G1 definitely needed to be micromanaged to get decent battery life. (I ended up getting a larger aftermarket battery.) The Droid 2 could use tweaking to get a full day. The Droid 4 managed a full day of moderate use without tweaking. The Note 3 can easily do a full day with heavy use (hours of music, web surfing, push email, etc.) with everything turned on.
In contrast, my girlfriend owns an iPhone and is constantly needing to plug in, and my best friend also owns an iPhone and needed to get a battery case to get a full day out of it.
Comparing a Note 3 and and IPhone is comparing apples and watermelons. The Note 3 is a behemoth of a phablet and a huge battery because of it's size. One thing that other people neglect is that perhaps IPhones are actually used a lot more often than some other phones rather than simple surfing or checking mail.
Not that this is conclusive evidence, but I have 3 tech-challenged people in my family who all switched from iPhones to S5s, I'm not going to lie and say I know for a fact the phones are handling battery management/data management etc better, but none of these 3 people ever turn off ANYTHING, sync is on 24/7, mobile data is, power saving mode is not enabled, and neither one of the 3 people ever have to charge their phones any more than they did with their iPhones, and data usage is not a problem.
I bought a RAZR MAXX HD so I didn't have to screw around toggling things to get better battery life. More phones need giant fuck-off batteries like this. I have no idea why 3000+ mAh batteries on ~4.7" phones aren't more common. It absolutely rules.
I disagree Spoony. On the HTC One (Viper rom), Galaxy S5 and now my Xperia Z2 I have never micromanaged the OS. No need.
On my Xperia Z2 with Stamina Mode I get up to 3 days with what I'd say is "regular usage on an iPhone iOS5 enough to kill the battery in less than a day".
Sony's implementation of Android actually tells you about apps that have either been open for longer than they should've or apps that you've not used in a while so it takes care of it all for you.
micromanaging apps like those "battery" and "task cleaning" apps on Android are a total joke. I believe they should be taken off the play store as they only further promote paranoia... if you start with a clean phone, and only install the key apps you want then there shouldn't be an issue.
Also rooted roms I find i.e. ViperOne on the HTC ONE M7 or MIUI give extremely good battery life.
Something iOS is yet to ever achieve, although they do charge superfast...
Typically you're right, but I've noticed that with certain apps (uber/lyft) that when you're done with the app the gps remains ACTIVE, forcing a manual gps toggle. This seems to be app specific, though. HOWEVER, it is worrying that the apps, even when not active, are able to keep the gps active...
While I vastly prefer Android over iOS for the tinker factor (and the fact Google seemingly owns me), you can tell the BT and Wifi on my N4 that they don't need to be turned off. Ever since they switched BT stacks (kitkat I think), I cannot have both on. Eventually, BT will fail if it's left on. And if BT seems to be very unstable while active and wifi picks up.
I would say that android's user friendliness has come a long way (after all, "most" people use them) but almost everyone I've met who's used both android and ios have stated that ios is easier and/or preferable to use.
Developer settings is your friend if you don't want non-system apps running in background. Activate the dev settings (that 7 tap sequence on the build number in phone info), and one more click to actually turn off background apps. Definitely harder than ios, but you have a, relatively, easy way of making the phone act like ios. That's not to mention things like greenify which go further, and, once setup, no more fiddling:)
That's not really true. I don't want to fiddle with my phone. But when I had iphone I had to jailbreak it to get features I wanted. From the moment I was able to get into my iphone 1, all my iphones have had multitasking and the notification drawer. When these features became availabe in Android without any hacking of the device, Android became my plaform of choice. iOS added those features later, but they never felt as natural as on Android. For instance opening a link in email and then going back to the email is a weird task switch on ios, and a simple Back action on Android.
"But if you want purely iOS bashing site then may be you should look else where."
A well balanced article with good criticisms but overall praise is seen as "pure fanboy" to some of these people. Nothing less then total bashing will make them happy.
Completely wrong of course. There is ample proof of this as it is a well known fact and there is much data to support it that iPhone users browse the web and use internet enabled apps of all sorts at a much higher rate than Android users. Dramatically higher in fact.
I have been in the Android game from 1.6 donut with my Dell Streak (back when it was looked upon badly to have a 5" phone... funny that...) and had Apple iPhone's for work for the first part...
I tried to use a 5S and after 3 weeks had to give it to the wife as at work (in IT) I got myself a Galaxy S5 for testing (which I didn't like much ... due to key placements mainly....) and have gone over to a Sony Xperia Z2 which for me is personally by far the best phone to date without rooting that I've used.
What annoys me with Apple's iOS is just how backward their navigation system is... it's very application centric so when you're several levels deep within settings, you can go "back..." "back..." a couple of times.... then to get to the home screen you have to physically press a button... you can't just go back once more and get out of the app... or 5 finger pinch on iPads.
You can see why they've done this because Android's UI has the navigation bar, or physical keys so it's consistent. In Apple they can't afford to have a navigation bar... because that'd eat too much of their UI's realestate of which they don't have much.
Unfortunately for you, based on commenters, every single tech website is "ios centric". There were 14 articles about the iphone 5 is because that is the only time they get to analyze a ios device. Since they get to review 5+ android devices over the year, they do not need to concentrate on a single phone to analyze.
Actually its probably a lot more than five. Just looking at the Motorola phones a we had the moto-x, the Moto-G and the Moto-E. Throw in all the other brands and some times it seems there is a new Android phone to review every couple of weeks. So its not too surprising the iPhone gets so much press the once a year one comes out.
The iPhone is not just the best-selling smartphone, it's a whole platform. They only get to review a single model per year yet iOS is almost as popular as Android in the US. If there was only a single Android phone released per year, don't you think its review would also get significantly more page views, even by users of competing platforms?
I could choose to regroup Anandtech articles by platform and similarly go "They are waaaay more Android articles than iOS articles compared to their respective market share, Anandtech have gotten anti-Apple over years...".
Also worth noting that not all those iPhone 5 articles were about the phone itself. Some were about its SoC, so if you want to be fair, you'd have to include all those articles about new Qualcomm/Nvidia/Samsung SoCs that end up in Android phones as well to do a comparison.
Well, Android is clearly the best-selling OS, so it depends on whether you're talking about hardware (like Macs) or software (like Windows).
Personally, I think Anandtech is pretty balanced and objective when it comes to iOS vs. Android. And I say that as someone who chooses the freedom and power you have with Android over the refinement and polish that you get with iOS.
"Anandtech has become very iCentric over the years. I recall the day the iPhone 5 came out they did 14 articles on it. So we are clear, that is not a typo - 14 articles. Any other phone gets 0 to 2 articles at the most."
I created an account just to say I think you're behind a tad paranoid here. 14 articles on the one major flagship Apple releases doesn't seem out of the ordinary when you consider they do dozens upon dozens of Android phone articles. I'm 100% sure if Samsung released only one phone a year you would see just as many articles about it as well. As it stands, they release many Galaxy phones a year...so 2 to 3 articles per device seems appropriate (especially since they share so many features).
They haven't reviewed the new iMac (or any iMac for that matter) built in the USA, an Apple product that interests me, or any recent Mac Mini's, or an Apple TV....you get the point. Calling a site iCentric that reviews a quarter of a companies portfolio of devices is downright ridiculous. Engadget on the other hand, I'd consider an iCentric site.
Just as he said (to paraphrase): there are no other idevices worth reviewing. And honestly? He's right. I mean its not like they are reviewing Galaxy Ace phones (for very similar reasons) either.
It is clear that Anand himself likes Apple, but other than that they do an ok job of covering all the phones out there. To the guy below, it's easier to write 13 articles on a phone (which I doubt happened) when a phone gets a lot of hype and only gets refreshed every other year. It's not like samsung and their 2 Galaxies a year plan.
How many people are really enjoying those low-level fiddling on Windows and Android? First developers, and then maybe some tech enthusiasts. Most people (I could confidently say well more than 90 percent) are users (not just average users, but pros in professions other than software developers) that utilize the functions, instead of wasting their time figuring out what every system file means.
you mean to say that some of the best selling apps (icons, launchers and themes) in android app store actually don't exist and never get used?
Because for a lot of people (I'd bet for most) this is what customisation entails. Changing the launcher, the lockscreen and some icons and stuff.
And honestly? You're wrong about 90% its more like 99.9%. And yet the said 99.9% STILL get to customise their phones without having to learn what every system file does :)
The day you can change the launcher in ios (to something like that for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpjGAhXplmI ) without having to jailbreak or do anything more than download an app from the app store will be the day when ios would become a good o/s for me. :)
"Anandtech has become very iCentric over the years. I recall the day the iPhone 5 came out they did 14 articles on it. So we are clear, that is not a typo - 14 articles. Any other phone gets 0 to 2 articles at the most."
The reverse is more accurate. This site is completely dominated by Android coverage. Click on the "SmartPhones" tag and you'll see many times more stories on Android than iOS. Lots of stories on this site about phones I will likely never see and can't even buy. How many variants of the S5 got a full review in spite of the fact that they were essentially feature tweaks on the base?
iOS and the iPhone account for fewer than 1/10th the volume of smartphone articles on Anandtech even though they have much greater than 10% share in the regions where this site is commonly read.
Low level functionality? I own em both. Have since day one in '07. Don't forget Android's 'new' UI wasn't available for almost a full year later. iPhone 1,1 flopped the industry on it's head. Regardless of your opinions, 14 articles on the biggest, fastest, most adopted technology in the world doing a 180° turnaround, eventually bankrupting or elimating the top echelon in a flail swoop, seemingly belongs on an electronic-centric site, wouldn't you agree? Maybe Anand's crew saw the sea change before many of us? I own the Note 3 for my business. 5s for personal handset. I love them both but when it comes to 'apps' and the selections of software available between the two it's iOS that's leaps and bounds ahead of Android. It's unfortunate because I love my N3. But playing Asphalt 8 on both or using sketchbook pro, the obvious shortcomings in software optimization becomes apparent. With half the cores, clocked at almost 50% & ⅓ the RAM, my iPhone and iPads play games quicker, allow for significant flexibility with media; stills, motion, artwork or simple things like the continuity with my iPads and now OSx with 10.10
As an obvious fan of both, I'd love to see Google gain some vertical/horizontal direction with the new APIs. I'm not sure a Chromebook is by most folks standards today a 'computer'. Without ubiquitous broadband or WiFi, LTE or a connect 'portal', it's worthless. Windows and OSx on the other hand, this ...at least in the short term IMHO is the direction we're facing. Just as we heard at WWDC, the vision to aggregate and integrate the iOS and OSx 'systems' to your toolbox, each knowing what the other is up to! Continuity. Handoff. Swift and Metal GPU 'low level programming, speaking of ...eliminating the overhead bulk of Open GL is big. And when I get to my laptop to finish manipulation in Lightroom, finish a .doc, or finalize/render my movie, I can as easily switch from iPhone or iPad to my desk/laptop for the horsepower and time/energy savings.
I love the Note 3. I concur with just about every point the author makes. That said a month with either iOS or android is a tough period of time to adjust. I've had both since 07/09 respectively. Enjoy and respect each for capabilities but low level, SoC, ROMs or Roots ...@ 43 married,with kids and a family owners business going on three decades I don't have A) the time to play around in the depths of programming my phone and B) I HAVE to have consistency, reliability and efficiency. Each had on the iOS and OSx side of our tool box. My Windows 7 "& 8.1 systems, while they 'work' with Android as a 'disc' I've found the compatibility within Apple's Eco system to be heads and shoulders above Androids. Not Google's fault! Releasing open source code for a phone and tablet 'first' makes the 'back end' task look like a pair of Mt Everests stacked atop each other.
This is also where I see Window's mobile OS becoming less metro and note functional with it's mothership, the full 64bit Win '9' or whatever it's going to be called. As a developer now for five years as well, we've released four iOS apps and the same four were attempted to port over to Android. Three worked. Two well enough. The third is still being worked ground up as we don't have the corporate EA credit card or back catalog of gaming rights, we don't play cover songs :-). Each of our apps is unique. That said if those on either side have been there for any length of time, investment in the software and apps becomes more obvious over time and with usage. Unfortunately the software for Android isn't there yet. Nor are the 'development dollars' unfortunately as I do want them to both succeed
I suppose last I'd add the display size mantra. My N3 for media, writing, watching, drawing, even playing games is better than the iPhone because I'm 43 and can't read a damn thing anymore without my cheaters. Next level though, my new iPad mini destroys both for any of the above. For a front pocket, non obtrusive 'carry everywhere' phone, 5.7" is a bitch to pocket unless I'm in cargo shorts or pants. iPhone fits anywhere and everywhere. I like the 4.7" compromise but will hold til I see what Apple's new Phad...I mean Phablet's design looks like. With my clientele, the stylus is invaluable for sketching our rigging points, sign docs and credit cards, as well as handle the two duties in one. Both as a computer and phone. iPhone is a bit tougher but again, as the author mentions subtleties like the camera, workmanship and cosmetics, fluency of UI and it's 'lack of size or bulk' is and will continue to be many folks' choices moving forward.
I also agree it's a cool time to be experiencing technologies fruits. To be blinded by iOS as an Android fan or vice versa one's missing the forest through the trees. A true 'geek' is excited by both. Just. Not. Low. Level. Programming! XDA is an incredible tool to have in your arsenal, but it's a bit more convenient if you don't like TouchWiz, re skin with NOVA, GO, or any pleothra of options to adjust the phone to your style. Looks like Apple is opening up a bit as well if you delve into the Xcode update :-)
I believe this would be because Apple has a much larger adoption for the one device than any other device globally. Plus it attracts more viewers, hence more revenue from advertising etc.. These are just "touching" the tip on the iceberg of just how much more there is to it than what you see.
If it comes across as iCentric to you... i dont see that at all...
He pretty much laid out what he felt were quirks... pros and cons...
The iPhone 5 does not need 14 articles... that is for sure...
The Android world is filled with so many different OEMs... why would you be surprised that they only get 2 articles... that is EXCEPT for Galaxys...
If anything... why is the world of Android so fixated on Samsung... when at times other phones are superior depending on the feature being highlighted... LG, HTC, SONY, etc...
Without reading too much into this, I believe this:
"Iphones are smartphones for dumb people, whereas Androids are dumbphones for smart people".
What I mean is that with ios, even smart people don't need to think too much about using the device (or prefer not to) and can use the phone relatively easily for a limited range of uses.
Android, by comparison doesn't really allow for ease of use and needs more thought our effort to get any particularly specific user-experience out of it. Users, perhaps, need to be "smarter" in order to get the most out of it (often using this party solutions to overcome problems).
Another analogy is ios is to Disneyland, what Google is to Woodstock.
In other words, Ios is restricted, expensive to get into, with long lines to get in (especially on release day), but everything that is featured there usually works well, with plenty of staff on hand to guide even small kids around.
Android, by contrast, is open, fairly cheap and can potentially host amazing, world changing features, but the toilets don't work, the organisers are nowhere to be seen, the staff are all smoking pot somewhere, and most of the stalls and infrastructure are unfinished, with anything that does work usually being due to a third party vendor or artist taking it up themselves.
I've gotta strongly disagree with the writer's software conclusions and agree with what others have said here. But before I continue, two points: 1. I used to solely love Android from the Froyo days on and mock the iPhone. 2. I still use all the OSes because I work with them in my job. That said...the writer spoke about a true PC experience. If he was referring to hacking your computer and puttering around with files and settings to see what you can do, then yes, that's a computer experience. (And I do it on Android.) If, however, he wanted to accomplish actual work other than fiddling, Google apps, and social media, good luck! I use smartphones to accomplish more work on the go than anyone else I know, and the reason I stopped mocking iPhone is because they offer the only real computer experience on the market today. I've even produced gorgeous documents and spreadsheets with Numbers and Pages, software which doesn't have a rival on the Play Store. (And I use Dropbox all the time.) Never mind the host of quality, beautiful, well-made apps available over the clunky, occasionally-useful apps which tend to plague the Play Store.
As for GPS controls, it's as simple as turning wifi on/off to "fine tune" it, and there are apps available to show satellites, but that's minor. Real fine tuning is being able to tell a specific app, "No, you may NOT use my location." To get that kind of fine tuning on Android you have to install a custom ROM – and there you will find countless hours of fiddling, er, using a PC. (According to the writer.) That's speaking from personal experience.
I don't understand how you got that impression. He praised touchid and the other differences are quite minor besides from the app sharing. He mentioned many downsides of the android method in addition to the downsides of the ios version. And I question your need to see other people "condemn" the os.
I have a friend which is essentially a power user but with a 100% non-technical background. I have always helped him with his various PCs, tablets, phones technical issues. Last autumn his HTC One M7 was stolen and he received an iPhone 5s from work. Although he now appreciates the ease of use and the polish (hardware and software) of it, some frustration still remains. Exasperation was his exact word for the first 3 months... :-)
He seems overall happy now with the iPhone, but I have asked him and he still says that if given the opportunity (i.e. for free) he would exchange it for an M8 One any time.
He doesn't need to condemn the iPhone. The 5S is a very good phone. I have had it since the end of May and have very little, if anything to complain about. Before that, I had the 4S and it too, was a great phone, just not as good as the 5S. I find iOS cleaner than Android. True, my last venture was on Gingerbread, with a phone that never received an update to Android. I found Android stable but just too much in the long run. Why do I need file system access on a phone? Do I really need to type word documents and excel spreadsheets on my phone? I have my computers for that. Android is confusing for most people, until you really dive in and learn every nook and cranny. This is coming from someone who very much so, knows their way around a computer, knows how to use bash and can build computers and the like. People that bash iPhones are mostly just fanboys or want way too much from a phone. When you want too much, you get what that GPS picture shows. That looks horrendous on Android.
I replaced my Galaxy S III with a 4S after about a year with the Galsxy (my third Android phone since 2009) and I just got tired of Android's quirks. The simplicity of IOS and the fact it just works as a phone is what makes it great, even for tech-oriented people.
My favorite phone of all time is the Palm\HP Veer, though.
Are you kidding me? You've either never used the iPhone for a discernible amount of time, or you're just talking out of your ass. User-friendliness is the hallmark of iOS, and suits the vast majoritiy of smartphone users out there. Sure, there are numerous customizations available for Android, but who really needs all that shit? On a smartphone? If I want to tinker, I'll tweak my custom-built Windows gaming PC (don't use Macs and never will). I just want my smartphone to be quick and easy to use, whether it be for email, texting, watching ripped movies, listening to music, or even (gasp) making phone calls!
The Samsung S4 that I owned for a few months (yes, I actually did try out Android for a while) was absolutely horrid for movie playback because of stutter, and not quite as easy to use for playing music. Also, games were not as fluid on the S4 as they were on even the older iPhone 4S! Okay, there are a lot more pixels to push on the S4, but the experience suffered greatly because of this. Perhaps these issues disappeared with the S5 and Note 3 because horsepower was bumped up, but I will never know.
Bottom line is that iOS is and probably always will be, the gold standard when it comes to multimedia in a smartphone.
I'm still at a loss for why they never fully reviewed the 1020. I guess a 41MP sensor in a phone wasn't noteworthy enough.
I have an iPhone for work. What amazes me most is just how poor the battery life is, and I only use it for calls and texts. Apple tunes their signal bars to make you think you have better signal than you really do (less than 4 bars = no data). The screen is tiny, but the camera is pretty good. I would never own an iPhone by choice. I thought it was cool at first launch, but it has since been eclipsed by many other devices.
Haha wow I was just about to post the complete opposite! What model iPhone do you have? I have a 5S for work and the one remarkable thing I've found about it is the amazing battery life for light usage scenarios. Checking texts and emails, snapping pictures, 2-3 calls a day. I even run Pandora on my iPhone over my GS4 because it handles battery life while running apps when the screen is off better. I can often go 2-3 days before I have to charge my iPhone 5S....my GS4 needs to be charged daily without fail, and on heavy usage days, I need to whip out the microUSB adapter and pull some juice from my laptop.
Not having email accounts to sync is pointless. What matters is the power it needs to have a cell signal. If you have "no data" then your device is working much harder to try to get you a connection than other devices in a decent area.
This was my thought too. If I have poor signal my battery life is quite bad, if I have strong signal its much better. I think it has to use higher power to send the data back and forth when there is poor signal. Also I have noticed that I can surf on my phone via wifi for many hours and have plenty of battery, but talking on the phone at work (where I often have 1-2 bars) drains my battery very fast. A 1 hour phone call could take 30% of my battery life. I have AT&T and work in the basement of a cinderblock building, so its basically a worst case scenario. Still I can count on one hand how many times I didn't make it the whole day on one charge and about half of those are because I forgot to plug my phone in over night.
My 1020 sits beside my 4S, both with similar signal quality (3 bars). The 4S has dropped 10% in the last 4 hours. My Lumia hasn't lost a % since I unplugged it 5 hours ago.
That's a start in the right direction but it's not nearly enough information to make an informed decision. What the are the age differences of the devices, or rather what the current health of the battery. The 4S came out in 2011 (even though yours could be years newer). Isn't the Lumia 1020 less than a year old? Have you ruled out a faulty battery (note: Apple just issued a replacement program for certain iPhone 5 batteries)? Did you use the 4S at all during that time? Did any calls come in for the 4S, even if it went to voicemail? Was the 4S placed somewhere that would impede it's signal compared to the 1020? Are there different types of services that could be using power that aren't present on the 1020? Was the 1020 connected to WiFi whilst the 4s wasn't? Doesn't the 4S have a 1432 mAh battery while the 1020 has a 2000 mAh battery? There are just so many variables to consider which is why we see simple breakdowns of battery life on sites like AnandTech during their thorough reviews.
Both are connected to WiFi, both doing nothing. If I had to guess, I'd say they are evenly aged. I got the 4S about 9 months ago, and the 1020 I think is from late 2013 (I bought it used from eBay). Both phones sit next to each other. Still, I've always felt the 4S has had poor battery life from the start.
I'm not trying to make a grand conclusion, but I've had several iPhones through the years, and, while I admire the build quality, my experience is as described above. An iPhone with a 4.5-5" screen and better battery life would be a big win for me.
My 1020 works hard most days (music, podcasts, Pandora, photos, calls, texts, browsing, email, and most days I'm at 65% when I get home, and 50% by days end.
Which one(s) did you buy used from eBay? If the iPhone then it's not 9 months old simply because you bought it 9 months ago. Regardless, I have no doubt your telling the truth, but it doesn't say why it's not performing as it's rated. This is why cycle count and battery health are important factors. It's definitely not normal to drop 10% in a few hours without you using it at all. That's indicative of an issue somewhere.
Have you read AnandTech's review of the 4S? The battery life was excellent then, and only until the Samsung Galaxy S5 have we seen smartphones bests Apple on the important tests. (Unimportant tests would be the excessive talk-time durations which is simply because they've added such a large display which has a large battery, which doesn't need the display when using it for maintaining a phone call)
I put myself through a similar testing scenario last month with an iPad, coming from an android background (and a macbook from a windows background). My thoughts were similar. The hardware is first class, and is limited by software. Subjectively, after a month of consistent use of work, playing around and research, I felt I couldn't do as much as easily on iOS as with android. For me personally, comparing kitkat with iOS 7 android is the better OS.
I think you get used to whatever you use. I find android completely unusable. I'm a big tech geek, but have never really found android easy to use. I have no tolerance for a few weeks of learning curve to get used to my phone, I want it to "just work". For other things, sure I'll fiddle with it, but not a phone. Despite iOS being much easier to use, there is still a learning curve between OSes, and there are definitely limitations caused by Apple's way of doing things. If you get used to not having that limitation it would be much harder to switch, just like I've gotten used to how incredibly simple and easy to use iOS is.
if you want something to "just work", then you are not a "geek". Geeks are people who want to know how things works so "they can fix problems themselves without having to go to Crapple store and pay per fix"
with all the glitches in IOS , syncing to anything else, IOS sucks big time when ANYTHING go wrong.
I just want to note, that several more of your software issues are "resolved" in iOS 8. Specifically, Apple exposes additional camera control to 3rd party apps who wish to use them (but don't use anything but exposure in their own app), battery stats per application are exposed, and the "all" and "missed" are just "notifications" now.
IOS is something I'm looking forward to seeing. It borrows a lot of good ideas and extends a few more past android (from the look of things so far). There will undoubtedly be cries of copying but....meh...there always are, and it will give android something new to aim towards next time....when there will again be cries of copying.
The "issues" go a lot deeper than adding a few camera features. It's the overall attitude towards users: "This is our phone, take it or leave it". With an android device, if you don't like the keyboard the OEM provided - use a different one. Launchers, cameras, you name it - use the one you like or even mix and match.
Example: Last Thursday my Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 came in at work. Of course it came with TouchWiz...which lasted about two hours only because I wanted to give it a shot before trashing it. After than it was over to Apex Launcher. I liked Samsung's keyboard though so I kept that. I have my own Exchange Client for work email and a different third party app I like for personal mail.
Basically through the easy customization I'm never stuck with what the OEM decided to provide. Moreover, I'm able to make my Droid Maxx Phone, Asus personal tablet and Samsung work tablet all look and feel much the same - and that's all without any need to root, unlock ect. I can easily switch between the three and they all work the same.
All that said, and Android user really doesn't have to do any customization if they don't want to. My wife uses her Droid Mini pretty much as it came out of the box other than putting a couple of widgets on her screen. She really doesn't need to know and doesn't want to know any more than that and it works great for her.
One other thing. For the reasons mentioned above, when shopping for an Android device I can buy without worrying too much about what software does or doesn't come with it and regardless of weather or not I like the software choices the OEM made. With Apple, if you like it as is, you are golden. But If there is anything you don't like about it you are often stuck with it.
> With Apple, if you like it as is, you are golden. But If there is anything you don't like about it you are stuck with it. So true. While today that is mostly limited to how the OS works (any app except clock/phone/texts/browser is replaceable) it pains me. Yet for all of androids customizability & diversity i could not find a launcher that works the way i want & has the polish i expect... be it apex, action, nova, miui, touchwiz, sony, google, aokp, cyanogen... they all have cool things yet none is well balanced.
Since I already have an iPad, I see no reason to getting an iPhone, at times they're slightly less convenient than an Android phone. I'll be sticking to my Moto X for a while, but i have pondered the thought of upgrading to an iPhone 5S someday but rumors is Apple is releasing yet another phone this September.
On the contrary, Windows always supported newer hardware and technologies (High DPI in some ways was there in the XP days).
Look at the support for SSD (Trim), OpenCL, etc...
You are right that usually Windows' first implementation is rough around the edges while OS X's bring support only when the technology is mature enough and polished.
Yes, slow adoption of certain technologies is usually not the fault of Microsoft/Windows. A good example is Thuderbolt - which for all the hype is actually an Intel technology, not Apple (which this crowd I'm sure already knows). Its the fact that computer OEM's and motherboard makers have been slow to offer PC motherboards with the technology that's the issue.
Another example is USB 3.0 where it was Intel standing in the way. For example my Z68 based Motherboard for my i72600K has a third party USB 3.0 controller because Intel did not include support for it in the Z68 Chipset. Windows of course had no problem with it - it just needs a driver from the third party chip maker.
Of course that's the issue with the Windows platform as a whole: A lot of things from multiple companies have to come together to make the technology available where as if Apple wants to implement a new tech, they can just do it. Its the price we pay for diversity, choice, and competition.
I would conjecture that in some ways this is true of all of Apple's platforms. Apple hardware is top notch, so long as your goal is not gaming or some other specific performance usages. It has a few rough edges (MBA screen, iMac HDDs, MBP GPUs). I get frustrated often with the software. OS X has so many stupid problems (The Finder, the file system, weird panic bugs, stupid interface design). OS X could be solving problems for us in much better ways, Apple just doesn't seem to care about really pushing hard at what is possible. Not to say Windows and Linux don't also have annoying problems...
Regarding the iPhone. I used to favour iOS because of the software and hardware. These days I feel like you can get very high quality hardware from LG and HTC (perhaps others, not Samsung). Quality to me counting fit and finish, materials, design, and specs. The latest versions of Android are also very usable.
Today I find myself still favouring iOS because of the nice selection of extremely high quality apps available. By and large they all cost money, but they are also all well supported and well designed. I cannot replace these apps on Android. The equivalents are poorly designed, clunky, slow, or just don't do what I want. If Android offered a great top-quality replacement for most apps I depend on with iOS, I would heavily consider spending the money to invest in a new ecosystem.
I am forced to suffer an iPad on my work. There are many things I despise about iOS. The iPad in itself is almost great. The lack of expandable memory is a kick in the nuts (although Anandtech will never lower themselves to agree with the plebeians). But it is mostly fine. But iOS. God. So annoying.
There are already many comments, but one thing I haven't seen is the lack of a "back" button/icon. I know that in Android it is somewhat erratic, but at least it is there. I hate it so much when I touch an itunes/safari icon while inside an app (to login to Facebook, or whatever) and for whatever reason the focus does not come back to the app, and there is no back button. So I need to go to the desktop to launch the app again or launch the multitask feature. I really hate it.
Actually, you just double click the home button and the app will be the second image at the bottom. It shows an icon and screenshot of all apps opened in the order in which they were last used. It takes about 0.25s when you get used to it.
As a long-time, fairly savvy Windows user who never liked Apple's "walled garden" ecosystem, I surprised myself by buying an iPhone. I started with the 5 and now have the 5S. At the time I bought it, it was by far the most elegant hardware design available. The size is perfect for me to carry it around in my shirt pocket. My biggest gripe is the email app, which is crippled and can't be replaced with a third-party app. Why the hell can't I select everything in my Inbox and delete it? Why can't I attach a file to a reply message? Absurd. All of the other shortcomings I've found, though (except for the keyboard) I've been able to solve with very capable apps that cost no more than $3 or were free. I can play MKV format movies with hardware acceleration using HDPlayer, and there are several apps that play my FLAC music files (I settled on Equalizer Pro because I can use it to compensate for the bass-heavy iOS audio). The lack of access to the file system used to drive me nuts, but the Dropbox app has solved most of my document problems. Battery life is very good if I control the display brightness. I'll look at Android again the next time I'm in the market for a phone, since the hardware and software have come a long way in the past two years, but for now I'm quite content with this lovely bit of hardware in my pocket.
I would expect to still be able to remember and maybe type the url or at least search keyword for what I wanted to explore on the browser, when I'm 53.
I have a reverse experience. I've always been an iphone user from original iphone to iphone 3gs to iphone 4s. the original iphone was my first smartphone. And then for financial reasons, had to go android. so i got a no contract android phone, an LG Optimus L9 (LG-P769). It's running Android 4.1.2.
I've turned off/disabled every bloatware that I can with his phone. But, the experience is just jittery, stuttery, waitery (is that even a word?), jerkier, not seamless at all compared to my iphone experience. This experience that I am talking about are basic experience of opening a browser and switching to the 2-4 apps that I use most often. No big apps. Nothing complicated and the phone will just slow down. It's just an inferior experience.
And, the "pc" like tinkering ability of android vs. ios, I don't think has ever made me more "productive" other than discovering that android is a bit more flexible with file management and/or a different approach than ios. and, the only reason why i think most ppl would even "tinker" with android's file management is b/c one would like to move folders or files to an external sd card to free up space to the internal sdcard, which one needs to do quite often with android since it's flawed. by flawed, i mean, there is no way, for me, to use the external sdcard to install apps and/or can't make apps installed on the internal sdcard to store files/photos on the external sdcard, such as instagram, for example. so, once in a while, my phone would not be able to update apps b/c the internal sdcard is filled up. and this is when i dive into the file storage app and move thins around. one can't do this with an iphone. but, i don't think that is a minus. get it android?
also, 2007 is when iphone came out and it's 7 yrs later and android is still behind. phone quality wise and more so in the software dep't. but my experience is with 4.1.2. so it might be a bit different for others with later android version.
smartphone tech/software is either slow or apple is just fast and that "advance." what do you guys at anand think? you guys know this stuff more than me. slow android? slow industry? or is apple just that much better than the rest?
There is very little "productive" about tweaking in Android. What's productive is something with good software that does the job. Fiddling with customizations, especially cosmetic ones, is a waste of time.
well, i think the optimus l9 is equivalent to an iphone 3gs in terms of cpu. but, the L9 has 1GB of RAM. I think the iphone 3GS only had 256Mb of RAM. that's 3/4 less RAM. yet, if i remember correctly (it's been a while since I used the 3GS)--the experience was less stuttery, less jerky than my experience now with the Optimus L9 and Android 4.1.2.... in comparison, Android 4.1.2 should be mature enough to compete with whatever IOS version i was running the iphone 3GS on, which might have been IOS 5 or 6....
Speaking of add, also would like to add that chrome on my phone will crash or refuse to load webpages needing to reload quite often, which never happened once (i think) when i was on my iphone 3gs or the other 2 iphones i had owned (original iphone & iphone 4s). So, this was usage experience of iphone from 2007 to 2013.
Please some one clear my doubt, they mentioned the price of iPhone 5s as $199 but in India the price is rs 48000($800) and also they mentioned 2years contract what does it mean please reply to me.
When you buy a smartphone in the US or similar markets like Japan the full price (~ $650 - $900) is subsidized by the carrier to a final price of $200 or more. In return you sign a contract to pay for cell service for two years. Within those two years the carrier recoups (and more) the cost of the phone subsidy with higher data and voice charges.
In my life I haven't seen anyone with iPhone who was not a technoretard. I exclude from this assessment people in the management, like your boss, and females, they fall under different guidelines
A year ago I would have said the same, before someone gave me an iphone, ok, I still can't use itunes , and I have only 16Gb of storage, but IMO iphone is an experience everybody should try, somebody talks about limitations it have, but I only recall how much time I lost with useless android custom Roms, or Apk, if ios has only one keyboard, stick to it, it's better..I remember using a lot automatic dial in android, I cant in ios, but still I don't care the front screen stays perfect..
It's funny that people spent 600€ for a piece of plastic crap with a crazy contrast screen, from my experience reviews should be made between android devices, because iphone is still in another league..
"iphone is still in another league" Indeed. It's in another league but it's a lower league/ Plastic or aluminum does no affect phone performance at all (not to mention that there are plenty aluminum Android phones). What you cant find is iPhone with decent screen resolution or more than 1GB of RAM or memory card support or NFC or camera with optical image stabilization. Sure iPhone is a solid mid-range phone but that's about it.
You don't know who I am and what I have seen and still jumping into conclusions. From which follows not very rozy conclusion about you and what is even worse that you can not undo it.
The reviewer is being silly. He complains about the aliasing he can see by holding the iPhone 5s at 4-6 inches away. And so he argues for 500 dpi screens. What idiot holds their iPhone at that distance?!
While I'm not necessarily sold on the value of 500+DPI displays, I have to acknowledge that they have some value when reading text under close examination. This happens all the time for me as reading in bed can bring the display much closer than usual.
I was a long time Windows user, but I got curious and bought a Mac laptop, I hated that many things are done differently, I had a million curses for Apple and OS X. But when you get familiar with it, only then can you appreciate the Pros, and find a workaround for the Cons.
I like that the article point out some things that are not familiar to an Android user, but also explain that because it's done differently, you simply need to get familiar.
I have two mobile devices, and I use both OSes equally.
Some Cons are personal, I didn't mean to say you can do everything you can do on one OS with the other one, but sometimes you find the Pros outweigh the Cons.
Personally I found the workaround for the Cons I have: carry both devices, but if I were to pick one, it would be iOS, it's personal, because on the same situation someone else could as easily have chosen to pick Android.
"...Apple is ready to announce a new iPhone within the coming months..."
Apple will "announce" the iPhone 6 in two weeks (16 days to be exact) from the date that this article was published. It seems a bit ridiculous to review the iPhone 5S and iOS 7 just days before they are replaced with the next generation. Hopefully you won't wait 11+ months to review the iPhone 6.
That doesn't change the point of the bad timing. Anandtech will have access to an iPhone 6 with iOS 8 in less than three weeks. Delaying this article until then would have made a lot more sense.
Android L is at least 2-3 months from release so probably not. However, I likewise would not expect a comparison to be released 20 days before Android L releases. That being said, the hardware improvements with the iPhone 6 are going to be much more important than the software improvements anyway. Apple will pull further ahead with the long overdue 4.7" display, A8 chip, upgraded camera, 2nd gen Touch ID and etc.
Pull further ahead? That's a n interesting way o put it. It implies that iPhone is ahead right now. It is not. It is behind and by a wide margin. It has 1/3 of Samsung Galaxy Note 3 RAM, it has 1/3 of the display resolution for most of Android high end phones. Its camera is OK but nothing special: low resolution and no OIS (some Android phones do have it). It does not have NFC. It's rumored that it is going to get one in iPhone 6 but i would not call it "pulling ahead". iPhone still can't do simultaneous voice and LTE data on Verizon and Sprint. iPhone has mediocre battery life. The list of iPhone shortcomings is very long. Sure it's a solid mid range phone but that's about it.
with the release of iOS 8, so this is more of a temporary issue than a permanent one.
?? iFanboy this is i think the first review i read in anandtech that is written by an ifanboy. he makes up excuses for everything and seems to accept everything from apple.
The review is happening TODAY from a phone released a year ago, so, the keyboard IT IS a problem... but instead he gives us a fanboy answer as "it will be corrected in ios 8" come on,...
I've used both iphone and android and i can tell you: iphone is for people that knows nothing about gadgets, like my mom/dad and grandfather... typing in the iphone keyboard is a pain after you have used swiftkey.. for example try typing: " i thin8k Tha-@t My i9p4h-0ne" on both iphone and swiftkey and you'll take at least twice the time doing that in the iphone, not to mention the frustration...
anyway dear Anandtech, please dont become and Ifan, or Droidfan, we readers that have come to your page have ALWAYS admire your complete neutrality and objetivity on everything you review. it's not happening with apple stuff lately...
Forgive all my typos, english is not my main languaje.
"The home button is the one exception here, which has a noticeably longer travel and less distinctive actuation/mushier feel but I suspect that TouchID is the reason for this difference."
It's no better without touchid. The button has always been a sore point for me, too many single clicks getting detected as a double, too many doubles as a single.
Agree with this too. The home button has always been a little worse than I wanted it to be. I'm also not convinced that always going home is what I want to do. I would like a toggle so that single click would hop to the app switcher. Double tapping is annoying, and the desktop is at the end of the switcher anyways.
And here come the Android fans telling their author how to use his phone. If you value customization over quality of hardware and apps, and don't mind all the crapware, go with an Android phone. If you value a polished experience and expect you phone to "just work", go with the iPhone. I've never met anyone who actually enjoy running Android. No, they just tolerate it while hating on Apple.
I'm a convert to iPhone and iPad. I'm still carrying a Droid Incredible (4.5 years old) for my personal phone, but already traded in my Android work phone for a 5s.
My reason for swapping was simple... Touch ID actually worked quite well. I no longer have to type in the 8 character passcode that my employer requires on my mobile device(except for when I reboot it). Also for riding on the motorcycle you can't beat the touch ID. I mount it up high within reach. One finger on phone for a second gives me Siri and I can use the bluetooth in my helmet to ask her where the nearest gas station is and navigate to it. *Or call someone - all via voice.
I wish the battery life was better.
Screen size is perfect... I don't want a 5.5 inch screen which was another reason I went with the 5s... All the Androids were gigantic, and the small droids had already been out two years.
Lastly, the ease at which you can share apple IDs and have a joint family address book and calendar is awesome.
I'm trading in my old Incredible for the new Apple phone that is coming out, or I might just stay droid on that one. Apple by far has been the better experience and I've been typically anti apple in the past.
It's nice to read at least a few non-rabid comments like this one.
Re the article, I would argue that there's actually very few users of the android system that are actually interested in tinkering with the system but that our perception is skewed into thinking that there are many more because they're all extremely vocal (and _rabid_) on the internet. 90% of people with an android phone bought it because it was in their price range. They don't care about the extra polish that comes with the extra bucks for an iphone.
One other thing that helped. The availability of a multitude of waterproof cases for the 5s (and iPhones in General) also helped the purchase decision. There just doesn't seem to be the same quality options that are carried long term for Androids as Androids have a shorter sales/marketing shelf life compared to iPhone.
ITT some top-tier bait from both sides of the iPhone/Android mobile wars, and Windows/BB still screaming "would someone PLEASE pay attention to me?"
Personally I'm getting older and my sight's getting worse, but I'm trying to balance between that and having a giant slab of phone in my pocket. The 4.5"/4.7" screen seems to be the sweet spot, but a 5" with really tiny bezels would also probably work.
If that rumored 4.7" iPhone 6 is a thing, that might just be the ticket to trying out Cupertino's wares again.
I used the iPhone 5s as my sole phone for 2 weeks while I was in between the LG G2 and LG G3. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be "Frustrating". The phone itself is too small for me. But it was really the OS that got on my nerves. The user experience is so limiting, no amount of polish is going to fix it. And I no longer feel that the iPhone is more polished than Android running Holo.
There is one thing I agree with the author. Touch Id is truly excellent. It's just as fast as knock on, on the G2/G3. But where it really shone for me was the ability to use it for authentication on the App Store. With Touch Id, I can set a really strong password and use Touch Id for fast access. I didn't see any other app use it, and given that this is Apple, I wouldn't be surprised to find that no 3rd party app can use it. But I'd love to see this being an integral part of Android and use it for the PlayStore, KeePass, Alarm.com etc. and not just to unlock the phone.
re: uploading screenshots. I believe most sync/backup apps like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive (I've used all three and settled on OneDrive), but I have OneDrive automatically uploading photos (including screenshots) taken on my iPhone sync up to the Camera Roll folder on my OneDrive account. This automatically gets sync across all of the devices that I hook up to OneDrive and pull down and use wherever I need to use it.
The thing I first ran into when handling an iPhone, was the lack of a back button. I was constantly tapping to the right of the home button, wondering why nothing was happening.
I handle them every day at my work, but I'm still not used to it.
I've had android and ios phones interchangeably ever since both have been available. Android started to win me over when it introduced navigation. It got better with Galaxy Note class of devices. Now when I look at my wife's iphone, I just get frustrated because the screen is tiny, it has no universal back button, and the settings and impossible to find (I know where they are but still).
I have had several generations of iphones. Right now we have 4 in our family. When the new Iphone 6 comes out I will check it out but I will also check out some android phones as well. I am tired of not being able to add memory and Itunes. My Iphone and Ipad are the only Apple products that I have.
iPhone user here. I 100% agree with this. The keyboard in general is wonky. I don't want to install a custom keyboard, I just want a good stock keyboard. However, I am now looking forward to custom keyboards because the stock one is so average.
As shallow as it sounds, the reason I don't like iPhones is because they are too small. As someone who is into watching shows, reading, doing work on the go, and all sorts of other things, a 4 inch device is a childs toy. That and the fact that I cannot enjoy my FLAC music with my phone's superior DAC. I feel like android phones are for work (ie: satisfying someone who spends a lot of time using their phone, and expects their phone to be flexible), and iPhones are for Facebook, Flappy Bird, and texting/calling stuff PERIOD.
5 inch maybe the maximum size for you but many people have very large hands. they can easily operate a 5.5 or even a 6 inch phone with one hand. I thought the same as well but you simply get used to the size. Going back to a smaller screen afterwards seems like going backwards. The iPhone 5s seems so miniscule and dainty now. And no widgets on iPhone
I have plenty of experience with phablets and I like them quite a bit, but they have their place. One-handed use is not one of them, although I'm sure there are others that can use phablets with one hand. I suspect that the distribution of hand sizes is such that most will find a 4.7" phone to be about right.
I have average-sized hands and I can do things like check notifications and read email one-handed on my Note 3, but anything more than that requires two hands. However, it's definitely worth it to get the big screen.
iPhones look incredibly tiny to me now, but to each their own. Choice is good.
Now I am using voice-enabled LTE tablet as my phone. I just cannot figure out any reason to use small, low-resolution, non-expandable and expensive device that requires heavy connection software (iTunes) at all. Oh and it is almost twice as expensive too.
Wrong, Nerd1. iTunes hasn't been required for years.
Your other point about the iPhone being more expensive may or may not be true depending on where you live. In the US, it has lately been possible to get the 5S for free on contract. Tough to complain about free.
I dabbled with an iPhone 5s for a week before returning it and getting a Galaxy Note 2 instead, whereas my girlfriend went from a Galaxy Note 1 to an iPhone 5c.
In both cases, we were able to see the pros and cons of both devices (which were similar to this review).
For me, I like to find my own solutions to problems or to suit my needs, so I prefer Android as I can download content from online and then move, edit and utilise files via file browsers and related media/office apps. In fact, it's this feature that has stopped me from upgrading to 4.2/new phones due to the perceived lack of support for for browsers and openess to move and edit files between apps in Android. In still worried that third party apps haven't cracked/fixed this problem yet.
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demol3 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I cant seem to use the TouchID when my hand is wet (from sweat) and the iPhone screen is quite dark when I am out and about in sunny day. I have been using iPhone for a few years already (also own nexus 7 2013) but personally screen size does matter, 4" seem to be inconvenienced in some scenarios.stucktrader - Monday, September 1, 2014 - link
The screen space is pretty much one of two main reasons(other being price) why many left the iPhone to begin with...craighamilton - Saturday, December 6, 2014 - link
One reason why I choose Android phones over iPhones and there's a lot to choose from (see http://www.topreport.org/phones/ for example...)distinctively - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
This article seems to reflect much of the iPhone experience that I perceive myself. That is, until we hit the "Final Words". Reading the user experiences here would indicate a tedious, frustrating experience with an iPhone. That's exactly the impression Apple has left me with. However, for some strange reason, the author can't seem to condemn the iPhone. Polish is just not a word I would use to describe the iPhone. Exasperation would seem to be a better adjective.retrospooty - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
"However, for some strange reason, the author can't seem to condemn the iPhone."Anandtech has become very iCentric over the years. I recall the day the iPhone 5 came out they did 14 articles on it. So we are clear, that is not a typo - 14 articles. Any other phone gets 0 to 2 articles at the most.
I agree with the article here though "iOS is designed with average users in mind. As a result, there’s a strong emphasis on making things “just work” and hiding information that would simply confuse and frustrate people that don’t care about the underlying hardware and software. Android at its core is targeted at those that want to have the full PC experience on their phone, and as a result there’s much more information and low level functionality for those that want it. "
iwod - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I have always put it this way, Android is for people who wanted a PC with Phone function added, iPhone users would wanted a Phone with some Computer function added.Personally I think the Anandtech articles are pretty much well balanced. But if you want purely iOS bashing site then may be you should look else where.
Spoony - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I think I know what you are trying to say, but I think those words are not the right ones to express it. I look at that and find myself vaguely insulted. I am a standard nerd, I sit here some nights hacking integrated chipsets and video card firmware for entertainment. I have a Mac laptop and custom built PC desktop. Maybe I'm not the traditional market for the iPhone.I want a computer, not a phone. I never use the phone app willingly. However, I want a computer I don't have to worry about. I don't have to disable GPS on the iPhone whenever I am not using it, I don't have to turn off wifi when I leave the house, nor do I have to be sure background apps are quit lest they eat my battery when I'm not looking. I put the iPhone in my pocket and every time I pull it out everything is as expected. Then I put it back in my pocket again.
Perhaps a better way of saying this is... people who enjoy fiddling with technology like Android. People who would rather not fiddle with that particular thing like iOS.
Iconoclysm - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Here's a better way of saying your last line: People who enjoy fiddling with technology and want to fiddle with their phone like Android. People who would rather not fiddle WITH THEIR PHONE like iOS, whether they fiddle with technology or not.I know a great many developers and engineers who, when they leave their job at the end of the day, are done fiddling with technology. Work/life balance is one reason, the other is that sometimes it is more important to be able to communicate effectively than it is to play with animated widgets on the home screen or hack some native functionality into the OS that can usually just be done with an app anyway. In my view, fiddling with my phone is a complete waste of time, and really puts that whole "the iPhone is a toy" nonsense in a different perspective.
Spoony - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Agree with your correction. By "that particular thing" I meant phone... but that was hideously unclear on my part.RoninX - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
It's like the debate between people who like to build their own gaming desktops and those who buy pre-made gaming desktops from boutique shops. Some people like the ability to customize their system with the specific components they want, while others just want a system that works and don't want to worry about what motherboard to buy or the difference between SATA and IDE.Bownce - Tuesday, September 16, 2014 - link
After nearly 40 years in IT (and building countless business and game machines - as well as fixing their quirks an order of magnitude more than that), I went with the iPhone because it works when I need it to. The referenced "stutter" in use is why I dislike my Android tablet and the phone before that.mcturkey - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
You do realize that you do not need to disable GPS, turn off WiFi, or quit background apps on Android, either, right? Maybe you're describing an experience with a very early version of Android, or a severely broken phone, but the "need" to "fiddle" with things in Android went away a long time ago. The option is there if you want to fiddle or make huge customizations, but if you want the option of "just works", it's there right out of the box.Spoony - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I have heard people say this before, but it is not supported by the evidence at my disposal. Every Android device I've ever seen is being micro-managed. When I ask why, the answer is always some variant of "if I don't micro-manage this, something I don't want happens". It eats all their data, eats their battery, makes their phone warm, or something else.This is the case for both novice users and experienced tech-heads I know. It is the experience across all Android devices and versions I've seen. All the way from the old 2.x versions to today's v4.4. I've nearly never seen an Android device without the quick-access widget to control cellular, wifi, bluetooth, NFC, and GPS front and center because it is actively used.
Maybe I'm living in some parallel universe and this isn't normal. I just know what I've experienced across three countries and many years of owning, borrowing, and observing Android devices.
mcturkey - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
It's quite possible that you're seeing that, but it's not in any way required. There has been a long-running myth that you need a task killer. You don't. Android does a great job of controlling memory and processor usage, and regularly killing apps will actually reduce your battery life (because it now has to reload it when you go to open that app again). I haven't had a reason to disable any of the radios other than the rare times I've had issues with a particular wifi connection and wanted to quickly figure out if it was my phone or the wifi.There's no need to do the things you've described, and people who do that are misinformed. If the options existed on iOS in the same way as Android, you can bet people would do it there, too. It's just like the folks who think you need to change a bunch of settings in Windows 7+ when you use an SSD instead of an HDD. You don't - the OS already takes care of the couple of changes needed, and doing anything else will make your overall experience less efficient. Once upon a time it was necessary, but that tribal knowledge needs to go away, as it's not accurate anymore.
Daniel Egger - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
> Android does a great job of controlling memory and processor usage, and regularly killing apps will actually reduce your battery life (because it now has to reload it when you go to open that app again).Well, now that is out of the way: How much battery life do you get out of your Android phone? A full day? Bad news: That's because Android *is* terrible at managing battery usage, but don't fret: Windows Phone is too. The only system that gets it somewhat right out-of-the-box is iOS. On any other system you'll have to shutdown background applications/operations as much as possible, disable WLAN, disable location services, limit data to 3G or turn it off altogether (, activate Battery Saver on WP) and then you might end up with 5 days instead. The only thing that doesn't seem to have much effect (although WP likes to suggest otherwise) is BT.
And yes (DOH!) it doesn't make much sense to shut down a battery sucker like WhatsApp which is in constant use but to keep it running -- it doesn't matter anyway.
ummduh - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
I have a N5. I don't micromanage it at all. The only app that give me problems is Slacker, I do have to force close that occasionally.Otherwise, everything gets left on all the time. I never use bluetooth, though so it stays off. I do toggle airplane mode thanks to t-mobile, and have to manually turn wifi back on.
As long as I have regular reception I get more than a full day no problem. No task killers.
akdj - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
N5=different animal. Bone stock Android while incredibly nice (no bloat from Sammy or AT&T), it's also incredibly 'boring' IMHO. Nice you don't have to dick with the settings or micromanagement at all on a Nexus or Play Store purchase but buying a Sammy at AT&T or an HTC from Verizon and take notice of how many AT&T and Samsung applications are not just installed, but running in the background, can't be taken out (without 'rooting') and are of no help at all to the vast majority of folks buying smartphones todayUmmduh, you're correct as I've still got the Xoom and it works just fine. As does my original iPad to date. That's pretty amazing for the first round of tablets. Four years ago. I'm saving as relics but occasionally pull the iPad or Xoom out for updates, browsing or watching a movie. Basic tasks that don't tax the system, run the battery down to about 20/40% and then tip it off ...so far, so good!
I've got the Note 3 and yes, it's essential you're not 'syncing' all day (one of I believe 16-20 choices of my 'top 8‘ single pulldown control panel (can be changed and tailored to what you use or don't like S-Beam, NFC, Sync, orientation lock or 'sound?' Never got that one. But it's there if you don't feel like turning the phone down or muting it ...as well, pending your location to wireless routers if you're leaving wifi on or even silly overlooks ...I somehow enabled, unintentionally, developer mode when I originally got the Note 3. Everytime I'd charge her, she'd top off and the display wouldn't shut off. Two weeks after I bought it, took back to AT&T. They were clueless and as well convinced it was just broken, handed me a new one and off I went. It was only by digging again deep into development I was able to find the display sleep functionality and sure as can be, the culprit to my original. Sometimes they're a PITA. Most Android users for a length of time are familiar though with it's settings. There's only so much time you can fart around with the settings and widgets though ...at some point you've got to get work done!
It's correct, a task killer isn't necessary, yet a half dozen live in the 'top 100' free and paid apps available in the PStore. Even the top ten, half are 'tools' for monitoring, rooting and/or just tinkering with the internals and programming of your phone. Kinda silly as it's an easy way for someone 'new' to a smartphone or Android can very easily screw their phone up! Jail breaking has always been there for iOS and Cydia, a trustworthy store with excellent customization options. That said, enough of those functions have now been built into iOS as the hardware became more and more capable and exceed their counterparts on Cydia's stores performance wise in almost any measurable and objective situation. I think many believe Apple to be stealing ideas, copying software, etc ....but when it comes down to it, my Note 3 uses almost 2GB RAM in stasis. While in standby and without apps running (using a couple of these 'tools'). Load up a decent game, bam! 2.8GB RAM being used. In contrast the same game plays more smoothly, without stutter or lag on the same generation iPhone with half the cores, half the clock speed and a third the memory. Not sure who's better at memory management ...but subjectively and as an owner, IMHO hands down iOS is the killer. As they've done with Mavericks, memory compression works well. You're able to listen to Spotify while writing a letter quickly four finger swiping left or right to your research page online for reference. Again, IMHO iOS has multitasking for a phone down 'better' than Android! Apps are allowed to stay 'on' in the background pending permissions, Audiobus support has been a God send and who's using the split screen functionality on their S5? Note 3? I own one, the latter and have for almost a year. I've tried it twice to show friends that I can type and email while watching YouTube.
Bownce - Tuesday, September 16, 2014 - link
"As long as I have regular reception..."That seems to be the key to all the comments about leaving everything on. It would appear that few of those proponents travel to remote locations where WiFi or Cell reception is marginal (or non-existent). Those who do understand the nature of these "radios" and how they cast an increasingly-strong "ping" in an attempt to get connected. Failing to disable these radios will greatly reduce your battery life... regardless of manufacturer.
ET - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
I have a cheap Chinese Android phone with a low capacity battery, and I still get 3 days if I mostly do nothing with it (which is normal, I talk just a little and hardly do anything "smart" with it). That's with WiFi on and 3G and WhatsApp installed (but rarely getting messages). Bluetooth eats battery on this phone though, and talking drains the battery quickly.So obviously what you say is not really correct. I think it's very much an issue of use. If you have a lot of apps running in the background, then I agree that Android doesn't manage them that well. I felt the need to kill games on my Nexus 7 (2012) because it looked like they were draining the battery even in the background.
ESC2000 - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
You are just flat out wrong. We have four iPhones (all iPhone 5), one android phone (nexus 5 with a rather anemic battery) and a windows phone (HTC 8x) plus I have a blackberry z10 for work. The blackberry is far and away the best in terms of battery but ignoring that since it pushes many less pixels, the Android phone and the windows phone are about the same (last around a day) and the iPhone lags behind terribly. None of the four iPhones lasts more than past late afternoon without a charge and sometimes they need to be charged by lunch! It's ridiculous. Clearly it's not because a particular person misuses bc it is four different people with four styles of using their phones. My stepfather is a computer expert who is very careful about battery and he's even had to resort to a mophie. I owned an iPhone 5 a few years ago that died the very first night I owned it. Apparently it went from 90% to dead in the span of eight hours bc it was pushing email every half hour. Well, guess what, my nexus 5 pushes my email every 15 minutes with no issues.So yeah there may be many things that you can viably argue the iPhone excels at but battery life is not one of them.
OldTechLover - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Androids may be micro-managed, but not for the reasons you say. They are micro-managed because they CAN BE, not because they need to be. Work gave me an apple phone after Blackberry started declining (Verizon salespeople are fabulous for this!). I was given an Iphone 4, it was NOWHERE near as capable for email as my blackberry was. Now, if I could have micro-managed it and put a different email client on the device, maybe that would be different. The experience was horrible. I was being forced to use the email client. What a joke. Getting on average of 700 emails a day, and getting to delete 5 at a time was a joke. Also, looking at the log files of the iphone showed the thing crashed several times a day. I admit it recovered nicely from the crashes.After complaining about this phone to my company (this took months, though I wasn't alone in complaining), I got a Galaxy Note II. I 'micro-managed' the crap out of it. Don't like the stock email? No worries, just download a different one (there are AT LEAST 2 dozen other clients out there). I currently use K-@ mail. Its simply wonderful!
Don't like the stock browser? No worries, just download another (and its not just an overlay to the stock browser either). I'm using Next browser. Its no frills and fast.
Don't like the icons or the launcher? No worries, just change it!
Best yet, click on a sound file from file manager (oh thats right, file manager, yet another micro-managed thing) and click 'set as ringtone'. Try that elsewhere.
As it is now, I ftp flac and mp3 files from my home network to my note and can play them in the music player of choice. I am using Media Monkey, and it also controls Media Monkey on my home system.
Micro-managed my ass. Its called customization.
bernstein - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
yada yada yada... got a galaxy note 3 because i thought getting a new iphone too expensive & too small... guess what, after trying a dozen (imho crappy) launchers, roms, hundreds of apps (caldendars, dialers, mail, ...) i gave in and bought an iphone5s... despite hating apple. *customize my ass*just one thing: even right out of the box the note 3 has worse battery life than the iphone4s. it gets mesurably better when you toggle bt/wlan/gps/... manually off. but not much.
cupholder - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
You're a liar. The end. My Galaxy Note 3 gets ~36 hours of battery typically if I don't screw with it, and that translates to about 8-9 hours of screen on time. This is with BT on(yay Ford car), Wifi on, LTE on. The iPhone 4 I had previously would make it through a day, usually. More than that? No. The 5s I had briefly before returning it and getting the Note 3 didn't really make it through the day at all.ESC2000 - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Yeah at least the trolls could pick android phones for which lame battery life is a possibility instead of picking the notes which have awesome battery life (easily more than a day) while the beloved iPhone can't make it 24+ hours without a charge *rolls eyes*JRX16 - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - link
That's amazing because I regularly get two full days with everything on out of my iPhone 5s. I admit that's my average light usage, but even on heavy use days I've never been able to kill the phone before 10pm. There are bad batteries in faulty iPhones, and those cases are the ones you hear about (people who don't have problems usually are never heard from). Also, background app refresh causes more battery drain, something which is also micromanaged by most people by app on Android (I've owned a few and don't want weather updating every 15 minutes of course).Bownce - Tuesday, September 16, 2014 - link
With a 'day 1" iPhone 5 (not an S), I was recently seeing shorter durations between charges. A 2 year phone? Surprise? NAY NAY! Free battery swap via Apple. I thought it was doing fine before but now it's 2+ days between charges.RoninX - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Oh, nonsense. I have a Galaxy Note 3, and I leave everything on, and never have any trouble getting through a full day, including 8+ hours of listening to music, push email for both Gmail and Exchange, web surfing on WiFi and 4G, GPS navigation, etc.vFunct - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
You know what's better than customization?NOT customization.
There is absolutely no compelling reason one needs to customize a smartphone. They were all designed to work as-is. You don't need to add anything else to make the experience better. You just need to "hold it right".
If you have to customize your phone, that means you're using it wrong.
Use it the way the manufacturer intended for it to be used, and you'll be happy.
Customizing a phone is the equivalent to customizing a refrigerator. Just don't do it. Be happy with it as is.
Don't do stupid things like listen to FLAC files (seriously? people care about lossless? Are you a bat?) Don't do stupid things like FTP or change icons, or any of the other pointless things people do with their phones. Don't have 700 emails a day. Unsubscribe from all your email lists. Have your email server set up filters.
Do things like go to a bar and have drinks, or play sports, or go outside.
Don't do things like browse files on your smartphone.
No one ever needs to customize their phone.
Ever.
MobiusOne - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Maybe I don't want every single useless, permanently installed app on my homescreen? You're delusional if you think no one wants their smartphone to be more efficient.People have needs beyond angry birds and Facebook, and putting tinkerers down is just retarded. Your phone is your multitool, and if you don't want it to be as efficient as possible you're frankly a bit dull.
.FLAC is for audiophiles, people that own -not shitty- audio equipment. Real headphones instead of that fruity beats shit.
I don't want useless OEM shit clogging up my home screens and I definitely don't want ugly looking folders everywhere.
You can't change your main browser, you can't use gmail by default, you can't use a different gallery by default. You can't transfer MP3's without iTunes watching over you, you can't auto-backup photos, you can't type the way you want, and you can't even have a notepad on your home screen.
Don't change anything, don't personalize, don't change shit that you don't like. Don't make things the way you want them to be, Tim Cook knows best.
So much for Apple being for 'Creative' types.
vFunct - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
There is no such thing as an audiophile. That is just a misnomer for people with manic OCD.Nobody has actually ever enjoyed FLAC over 256kb MP3. You don't even notice it. That's why you don't need an FLAC player, which is why you don't need to customize your device because you don't need a FLAC player.
FLAC is basically for people with psychological defects.
And i'm talking as a guy with 20/5 hearing with a full SACD sound system in a custom acoustically engineered recording studio, as expensive as it gets.
I don't consider myself an audiophile either, because I'm self-aware enough to know that I can enjoy music on crappy headphones in the subway just as well as in my studio.
Again, there is absolutely no need to personalize or customize a smartphone. It is better to fix your own psychological problems first before you waste time on your phone.
Admitting you use FLAC is like admitting your psychological problems publicly.
ummduh - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Oh, wait.. Nope, your first comment still takes the cake. This one is more insulting than flat out ignorance.Ancillas - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
#satireRavenMoon - Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - link
Yep! People who enjoy music, and even people who make music, buy a nice system and enjoy it. "Audiophiles" are endlessly searching for the perfect system, and sadly, they know very little about electronics or audio. They fall for snake oil claims, like $600 AC power cords, and other nonsense. And to add insult to injury, they listen to vinyl!! That's the least accurate playback medium ever made. Even cassette tapes are more accurate!The key is, buy a device, like a smart phone. Learn how to use THAT phone without trying to turn it into something different. Personalize it as much as you need, but if you feel it's never good enough without personalization, it probably never will be.
But some people feel a compulsive need to tinker.
And as far as the article; why on earth do I need to see the filing system on my iPhone? I really don't.
But I have installed an app that shows how much memory each app is using, and how much storage space, and CPU, etc. People have to look a little harder.
Airyl - Saturday, September 6, 2014 - link
Again, this is just dumb. You're insulting yourself with these. An audiophile is simply someone who enjoys their music at the best of quality. You're not a human, you're a robot. You do what you're programmed to do, you don't question why, you believe you're the perfect example of a living creature and you insult others who don't agree with you. You're the lowest of scum, the bottom of the barrel, the worst of the lot.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiophile
Iconoclysm - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
And there's exactly where you have it wrong - creative types are not trying to create a new phone UI, they're actually using their phone as a tool to create actual useful thingsidris - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Well said! ...simply awesome & spot on!ex2bot - Sunday, August 31, 2014 - link
Your comment doesn't make much sense. Are you saying an iOS user can't use GMail? Because I use GMail through the iOS mail app. I could use Google's client app instead or web client, but I prefer the native client.With 1.2 million apps on iOS, there's plenty of tinkering room. Jailbreaking would give you more.
Seems like people have to create a fictional story of the platform they didn't choose in order to justify their decision. The simple truth is that both platforms offer tremendous power and usability with somewhat differing design philosophies.
Android melts on hot days. iPhones are only for seven-year-olds who like pink. Samsung's phones explode when used for gaming.
Silliness.
RavenMoon - Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - link
Ummm, Balderdash! In the Mail app in iOS 7, I have gmail, and three pop accounts. What do you mean you can't use gmail by default? You mean the gmail app? Who cares? I have it and never use it. The Apple Mail app works fine.I have a very nice audio system, and very expensive Sennheiser head phones. Do I want FLAC files on my iPhone? Are you nuts? It's a phone. I have a 160 GB iPod with 21,848 songs on it. I DO have some music on my 64GB iPhone, but I don't want to clog that up with FLAC files. I won't hear the difference while walking down the street.
Now if you REALLY want to use lossless compression on an iPhone, or iPod, use Apple Lossless. FLAC is no better. But honestly, what's the point? You won't hear the difference between a non compressed file and a 320kbps AAC file. I'm a musician, and record my own music, so I can do direct comparisons. Plus it's a phone, even though it has very good audio quality.
iTunes "watching over you"? How is it "watching over you"? You put music (or video, or books) in iTunes and tell it what to transfer to you phone. The end. It doesn't watch over you. The files can come from anywhere. I have music I bought on iTunes, Amazon, my CDs, and from Pirate bay. No one was watching over me. But I guess having an efficient music management app makes no sense?
No notepad on your home screen? Are you nuts? What is the Notes app then? Surprise! It's a notepad. I also use MS OneNote. And they both sync with my iMac at home. And I also have OneDrive, iCloud, GoogleDrive, and DropBox. And check out the very cool free app DeskConnect. I can send text, the clipboard, photos, and URLs, between my iPhone and Mac.
Can't type the way you want? Just learn to type on the freakin' keyboard! Just like you do on a desktop computer. Do you move all the keys around there? Quit yer whining! I type very quickly with just my right thumb, thank you very much.
As far as the phone being your "multitool", I use my iPhone 5 all day long. I use it for email, for the internet (I mostly use Safari, since it works the best, but I have Chrome too), use it as a GPS, both with Apple Maps and Google, I use it to do multitrack recording with Garageband. I edit photos in Adobe Photoshop Express, and several other image editing programs. I use it as a guitar tuner. I record voice memos. I use Dropbox, and not sure why the author of the article said you can't back up your images and movies with it, because that's what I do with it, or share them. I use the timer for a bunch of things. I listen to podcasts and music, I take photos, both with the built in camera app, and a few others. I play some games, and so does my 9 year old daughter. I use it for Paypal, and my bank, and I can even take credit card payments with it, with the free card reader from PayPal. I use it for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. I FaceTime with my daughter. I Skype with friends. I see what the weather is going to be like. I have my CVS and Starbucks cards on it. I put concert tickets on it, using TicketMaster and the Passbook app. I read magazines and newspapers. I use the calendar, and that connects to my Apple, Google, and Hotmail calendars, and I even use the calculator. I add shows to Netflix, and even watch them on the phone. I control my Roku and Plex, and can watch videos in Plex on my Mac on my iPhone. I have the Apple remote for iTunes. And a remote transport control for Cubase. And for more obscure tasks, I have a resistor color code calculator.
Any "OEM shit" that I don't want, like Stocks, I put on the last page. But most of the Apple apps it comes with are very good, and even my carrier, T-Moble, added nothing at all, not even their own app, which I added myself. That's only some of the 142 apps I have on the phone.
So what were you saying? Yep, Apple is for creative types. And we learn how to use a tool without having to endlessly modify it.
milesmutt - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
"Useless OEM shit?" Samsung's got that one down cold. So what if you can't use Gmail or Chrome as defaults? Press the damn icon. Your complaints are completely baseless. I've always "customized" my iPhones.PrimarchLion - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
But I like being able to browse files on my smartphone =(ex2bot - Sunday, August 31, 2014 - link
iCloud Drive in iOS 8. Or jailbreak since 2007. Or pick another platform. Not hardIconoclysm - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Funny, I have lossless audio files and can FTP from my iPhone.been.jammin - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
"Customizing a phone is the equivalent to customizing a refrigerator. Just don't do it. Be happy with it as is."You're just being ridiculous. Does your anti-customization stance pertain everything or just smart phones? Curious what your definition of customization is then.
BTW, I did customize my refrigerator, I've added an ice maker and rehung the doors so they open from the left. Should I have just left them the way they came from the manufacturer because that's how the designer intended?
Ancillas - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
#satireOldTechLover - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Wow, all of the points I made and you harp on .flac files? For crying out loud, lighten up a little.No customization? You must be the most boring person on the planet, and I pity your spouse.
I guess you have all white linen for your bed, because heaven forbid we may customize the colors to SOMETHING WE LIKE!
Your car is white and you didn't get any options when you bought it, because again, heaven forbid we want to customize it.
With arguments like that, there is no point even continuing this.
Have a nice day.
And by the way, its pretty easy to hear the difference between flac and 256k mp3, so don't even go there.
ummduh - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Are.... Are you serious? This, no joking, is the single most ignorant comment on the internet.ESC2000 - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Do you realize that some people work at jobs where they get thousands of emails a day? The guy said it was a work phone and I understand... My firm offered an iPhone 5s but I knew it would be miserable as a work phone. When a deal is in its final few weeks I receive thousands of emails, none of which can be dealt with by unsubscribing. Deleting only five at a time is a joke and honestly should put the iPhone out of the corporate context regardless of the other features that make it ill suited (small screen, poor multitasking, terrible keyboard with no swipe, poor battery life, no multi window or near equivalent, impossible to use remote desktop, etc). What are you, a student?ex2bot - Sunday, August 31, 2014 - link
You couldn't figure out how to install apps on it?Ancillas - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Well done.bytetracer - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Seriously, man? Go get yourself Nokia 3310... No need to customize there...What's the point of having smartphone if it is not supposed to do anything the way you like it and when you like it?
Is that some kind of ingenuity surge, comparing smartphones to refrigerator?
And why do you care how other people use their phones?
Although I agree that changing the stock ROM and applications can be dangerous - that does not mean it will 100% brick your phone. And, yes, tweaking work both ways - if you don't know what are you doing, you can actually compromise performance of the device. But it doesn't mean you must not do it.
There is - and always will be - people that have more advanced knowledge about some technology then common user. No matter if it's the car engine, space flight, or... just a smartphone. That kind of people will always look to expand possibilities with current technology. They will never settle with manufacturer-provided model of usage. And I am grateful that that kind of people exists. If the people throughout history followed your "vision" of existence I would use a stone tablet and the hammer to write this comment - instead of my dirty, old, keyboard.
If those would exist... Ever.
Airyl - Saturday, September 6, 2014 - link
That was the dumbest comment I've ever read. You're telling people to do things the way the manufacturer intended want them to instead of actually using their own brains and doing what they want? You want mindless brainwashed zombies instead of humans? Are you even remotely aware how useless your comment is?Dug - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
You know you can choose your own email app and browser in iOS.ex2bot - Sunday, August 31, 2014 - link
Are you saying that there aren't alternate mail clients for iOS? Because that would be wrong. There's lots of them.Omega215D - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Umm, I have seen plenty of iPhone related forum topics on various issues where they too recommend some micromanagement or plain old reset. The holier than thou of Apple users is what caused people to become jrritated with them. Unfortunately now we do have an Android version of that with one OEMhughlle - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
This has its uses though, and just because there is a button there does not mean it is not being turned off by software until specifically asked for. For instance if I'm in a location where I have mobile data' but no access to GPS and want to use maps, a frequent scenario, it makes more sense just to have a single button to turn off GPS so its not just sat there searching for something I know it won't find, as opposed to going through lots of settings. That's just one use case where those buttons are useful, but do not necessarily mean that GPS us being used in the background anyway. Keeping GPS on on my old old android phone would eat battery, but from my use it makes absolutely no difference with my 4.4 device.cloakster - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
On either platform, disabling bluetooth, NFC and GPS when not in use will save battery life. Its a fact. Just because iPhone users don't disable it, doesn't mean it wouldn't be helpful to do so.bytetracer - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
Exactly.RoninX - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
I've owned a G1, Droid 2, Droid 4, and Galaxy Note 3. The G1 definitely needed to be micromanaged to get decent battery life. (I ended up getting a larger aftermarket battery.) The Droid 2 could use tweaking to get a full day. The Droid 4 managed a full day of moderate use without tweaking. The Note 3 can easily do a full day with heavy use (hours of music, web surfing, push email, etc.) with everything turned on.In contrast, my girlfriend owns an iPhone and is constantly needing to plug in, and my best friend also owns an iPhone and needed to get a battery case to get a full day out of it.
Dexion - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
Comparing a Note 3 and and IPhone is comparing apples and watermelons. The Note 3 is a behemoth of a phablet and a huge battery because of it's size. One thing that other people neglect is that perhaps IPhones are actually used a lot more often than some other phones rather than simple surfing or checking mail.bumbleshrimp - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Not that this is conclusive evidence, but I have 3 tech-challenged people in my family who all switched from iPhones to S5s, I'm not going to lie and say I know for a fact the phones are handling battery management/data management etc better, but none of these 3 people ever turn off ANYTHING, sync is on 24/7, mobile data is, power saving mode is not enabled, and neither one of the 3 people ever have to charge their phones any more than they did with their iPhones, and data usage is not a problem.piroroadkill - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
I bought a RAZR MAXX HD so I didn't have to screw around toggling things to get better battery life. More phones need giant fuck-off batteries like this. I have no idea why 3000+ mAh batteries on ~4.7" phones aren't more common. It absolutely rules.vasboz - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
I disagree Spoony. On the HTC One (Viper rom), Galaxy S5 and now my Xperia Z2 I have never micromanaged the OS. No need.On my Xperia Z2 with Stamina Mode I get up to 3 days with what I'd say is "regular usage on an iPhone iOS5 enough to kill the battery in less than a day".
Sony's implementation of Android actually tells you about apps that have either been open for longer than they should've or apps that you've not used in a while so it takes care of it all for you.
micromanaging apps like those "battery" and "task cleaning" apps on Android are a total joke. I believe they should be taken off the play store as they only further promote paranoia... if you start with a clean phone, and only install the key apps you want then there shouldn't be an issue.
Also rooted roms I find i.e. ViperOne on the HTC ONE M7 or MIUI give extremely good battery life.
Something iOS is yet to ever achieve, although they do charge superfast...
tuxRoller - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Typically you're right, but I've noticed that with certain apps (uber/lyft) that when you're done with the app the gps remains ACTIVE, forcing a manual gps toggle.This seems to be app specific, though. HOWEVER, it is worrying that the apps, even when not active, are able to keep the gps active...
randomlinh - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
While I vastly prefer Android over iOS for the tinker factor (and the fact Google seemingly owns me), you can tell the BT and Wifi on my N4 that they don't need to be turned off. Ever since they switched BT stacks (kitkat I think), I cannot have both on. Eventually, BT will fail if it's left on. And if BT seems to be very unstable while active and wifi picks up.primalxconvoy - Sunday, September 7, 2014 - link
Really? I thought that we should disable gps whenever we're not using, say Maps, because gps burns through the battery like billy-o?primalxconvoy - Sunday, September 7, 2014 - link
I would say that android's user friendliness has come a long way (after all, "most" people use them) but almost everyone I've met who's used both android and ios have stated that ios is easier and/or preferable to use.tuxRoller - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Developer settings is your friend if you don't want non-system apps running in background. Activate the dev settings (that 7 tap sequence on the build number in phone info), and one more click to actually turn off background apps.Definitely harder than ios, but you have a, relatively, easy way of making the phone act like ios. That's not to mention things like greenify which go further, and, once setup, no more fiddling:)
pavster - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
That's not really true. I don't want to fiddle with my phone. But when I had iphone I had to jailbreak it to get features I wanted. From the moment I was able to get into my iphone 1, all my iphones have had multitasking and the notification drawer. When these features became availabe in Android without any hacking of the device, Android became my plaform of choice. iOS added those features later, but they never felt as natural as on Android. For instance opening a link in email and then going back to the email is a weird task switch on ios, and a simple Back action on Android.Monocats - Sunday, August 31, 2014 - link
"That's because Android *is* terrible at managing battery usage"My LG G2 runs circles around an iPhone in terms of battery life.
I have an iPhone 5 as a company phone, and from my experience, it's battery life is nothing short of abysmal.
Ofaring - Tuesday, September 16, 2014 - link
I love technology. And I choose iOS. (See my novel above.)KoolAidMan1 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
"But if you want purely iOS bashing site then may be you should look else where."A well balanced article with good criticisms but overall praise is seen as "pure fanboy" to some of these people. Nothing less then total bashing will make them happy.
darwinosx - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Completely wrong of course. There is ample proof of this as it is a well known fact and there is much data to support it that iPhone users browse the web and use internet enabled apps of all sorts at a much higher rate than Android users. Dramatically higher in fact.KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Easy there.Just imply that Android is a platform dominated by low-end hardware and doesn't get used for internet and apps as much as iOS, fanboys go NUTS.
Dexion - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
The sheer amount of grade A apps available on iOS as opposed to Android is proof already.vasboz - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
I agree with iwod.I have been in the Android game from 1.6 donut with my Dell Streak (back when it was looked upon badly to have a 5" phone... funny that...) and had Apple iPhone's for work for the first part...
I tried to use a 5S and after 3 weeks had to give it to the wife as at work (in IT) I got myself a Galaxy S5 for testing (which I didn't like much ... due to key placements mainly....) and have gone over to a Sony Xperia Z2 which for me is personally by far the best phone to date without rooting that I've used.
What annoys me with Apple's iOS is just how backward their navigation system is... it's very application centric so when you're several levels deep within settings, you can go "back..." "back..." a couple of times.... then to get to the home screen you have to physically press a button... you can't just go back once more and get out of the app... or 5 finger pinch on iPads.
You can see why they've done this because Android's UI has the navigation bar, or physical keys so it's consistent. In Apple they can't afford to have a navigation bar... because that'd eat too much of their UI's realestate of which they don't have much.
invinciblegod - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Unfortunately for you, based on commenters, every single tech website is "ios centric". There were 14 articles about the iphone 5 is because that is the only time they get to analyze a ios device. Since they get to review 5+ android devices over the year, they do not need to concentrate on a single phone to analyze.Ratman6161 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Actually its probably a lot more than five. Just looking at the Motorola phones a we had the moto-x, the Moto-G and the Moto-E. Throw in all the other brands and some times it seems there is a new Android phone to review every couple of weeks. So its not too surprising the iPhone gets so much press the once a year one comes out.p_giguere1 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Anandtech is not particularly iPhone-centric.The iPhone is not just the best-selling smartphone, it's a whole platform. They only get to review a single model per year yet iOS is almost as popular as Android in the US. If there was only a single Android phone released per year, don't you think its review would also get significantly more page views, even by users of competing platforms?
I could choose to regroup Anandtech articles by platform and similarly go "They are waaaay more Android articles than iOS articles compared to their respective market share, Anandtech have gotten anti-Apple over years...".
Also worth noting that not all those iPhone 5 articles were about the phone itself. Some were about its SoC, so if you want to be fair, you'd have to include all those articles about new Qualcomm/Nvidia/Samsung SoCs that end up in Android phones as well to do a comparison.
tuxRoller - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Do you mean the best selling individual smartphone model?I couldn't find a reference supporting that other than some data for just feburary.
joelypolly - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
How else would you classify best selling other than by model?RoninX - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Well, Android is clearly the best-selling OS, so it depends on whether you're talking about hardware (like Macs) or software (like Windows).Personally, I think Anandtech is pretty balanced and objective when it comes to iOS vs. Android. And I say that as someone who chooses the freedom and power you have with Android over the refinement and polish that you get with iOS.
MrX8503 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
There's only 1 iPhone they review per year. There's hundreds of android devices throughout the year.NaeemTHM - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
"Anandtech has become very iCentric over the years. I recall the day the iPhone 5 came out they did 14 articles on it. So we are clear, that is not a typo - 14 articles. Any other phone gets 0 to 2 articles at the most."I created an account just to say I think you're behind a tad paranoid here. 14 articles on the one major flagship Apple releases doesn't seem out of the ordinary when you consider they do dozens upon dozens of Android phone articles. I'm 100% sure if Samsung released only one phone a year you would see just as many articles about it as well. As it stands, they release many Galaxy phones a year...so 2 to 3 articles per device seems appropriate (especially since they share so many features).
NaeemTHM - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
being* a tadSamus - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Anandtech iCentric? LOL. Exactly what Apple devices do they review other than the iPhone and occasionally the iPad?krutou - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Because there are clearly more iDevices worth reviewing beyond the iPhone, iPad, and Macbooks they currently review every model of?Samus - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
They haven't reviewed the new iMac (or any iMac for that matter) built in the USA, an Apple product that interests me, or any recent Mac Mini's, or an Apple TV....you get the point. Calling a site iCentric that reviews a quarter of a companies portfolio of devices is downright ridiculous. Engadget on the other hand, I'd consider an iCentric site.Alexey291 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
Just as he said (to paraphrase): there are no other idevices worth reviewing. And honestly? He's right. I mean its not like they are reviewing Galaxy Ace phones (for very similar reasons) either.hpglow - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
It is clear that Anand himself likes Apple, but other than that they do an ok job of covering all the phones out there. To the guy below, it's easier to write 13 articles on a phone (which I doubt happened) when a phone gets a lot of hype and only gets refreshed every other year. It's not like samsung and their 2 Galaxies a year plan.Alexey291 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
They did do a LOT of articles on the iphone last time. It was almost amusing to watch. Seeing how most of them kinda reiterated themselves...batongxue - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
How many people are really enjoying those low-level fiddling on Windows and Android?First developers, and then maybe some tech enthusiasts.
Most people (I could confidently say well more than 90 percent) are users (not just average users, but pros in professions other than software developers) that utilize the functions, instead of wasting their time figuring out what every system file means.
flamencoguy - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Some people like to customize cars and some people customize phones. Personalization is great. We don't all want to look the same and dress alike.Alexey291 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
you mean to say that some of the best selling apps (icons, launchers and themes) in android app store actually don't exist and never get used?Because for a lot of people (I'd bet for most) this is what customisation entails. Changing the launcher, the lockscreen and some icons and stuff.
And honestly? You're wrong about 90% its more like 99.9%. And yet the said 99.9% STILL get to customise their phones without having to learn what every system file does :)
The day you can change the launcher in ios (to something like that for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpjGAhXplmI ) without having to jailbreak or do anything more than download an app from the app store will be the day when ios would become a good o/s for me. :)
mtbogre - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
"Anandtech has become very iCentric over the years. I recall the day the iPhone 5 came out they did 14 articles on it. So we are clear, that is not a typo - 14 articles. Any other phone gets 0 to 2 articles at the most."The reverse is more accurate. This site is completely dominated by Android coverage. Click on the "SmartPhones" tag and you'll see many times more stories on Android than iOS. Lots of stories on this site about phones I will likely never see and can't even buy. How many variants of the S5 got a full review in spite of the fact that they were essentially feature tweaks on the base?
iOS and the iPhone account for fewer than 1/10th the volume of smartphone articles on Anandtech even though they have much greater than 10% share in the regions where this site is commonly read.
akdj - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Low level functionality? I own em both. Have since day one in '07. Don't forget Android's 'new' UI wasn't available for almost a full year later. iPhone 1,1 flopped the industry on it's head. Regardless of your opinions, 14 articles on the biggest, fastest, most adopted technology in the world doing a 180° turnaround, eventually bankrupting or elimating the top echelon in a flail swoop, seemingly belongs on an electronic-centric site, wouldn't you agree? Maybe Anand's crew saw the sea change before many of us? I own the Note 3 for my business. 5s for personal handset. I love them both but when it comes to 'apps' and the selections of software available between the two it's iOS that's leaps and bounds ahead of Android. It's unfortunate because I love my N3. But playing Asphalt 8 on both or using sketchbook pro, the obvious shortcomings in software optimization becomes apparent. With half the cores, clocked at almost 50% & ⅓ the RAM, my iPhone and iPads play games quicker, allow for significant flexibility with media; stills, motion, artwork or simple things like the continuity with my iPads and now OSx with 10.10As an obvious fan of both, I'd love to see Google gain some vertical/horizontal direction with the new APIs. I'm not sure a Chromebook is by most folks standards today a 'computer'. Without ubiquitous broadband or WiFi, LTE or a connect 'portal', it's worthless. Windows and OSx on the other hand, this ...at least in the short term IMHO is the direction we're facing. Just as we heard at WWDC, the vision to aggregate and integrate the iOS and OSx 'systems' to your toolbox, each knowing what the other is up to! Continuity. Handoff. Swift and Metal GPU 'low level programming, speaking of ...eliminating the overhead bulk of Open GL is big. And when I get to my laptop to finish manipulation in Lightroom, finish a .doc, or finalize/render my movie, I can as easily switch from iPhone or iPad to my desk/laptop for the horsepower and time/energy savings.
I love the Note 3. I concur with just about every point the author makes. That said a month with either iOS or android is a tough period of time to adjust. I've had both since 07/09 respectively. Enjoy and respect each for capabilities but low level, SoC, ROMs or Roots ...@ 43 married,with kids and a family owners business going on three decades I don't have A) the time to play around in the depths of programming my phone and B) I HAVE to have consistency, reliability and efficiency. Each had on the iOS and OSx side of our tool box. My Windows 7 "& 8.1 systems, while they 'work' with Android as a 'disc' I've found the compatibility within Apple's Eco system to be heads and shoulders above Androids. Not Google's fault! Releasing open source code for a phone and tablet 'first' makes the 'back end' task look like a pair of Mt Everests stacked atop each other.
This is also where I see Window's mobile OS becoming less metro and note functional with it's mothership, the full 64bit Win '9' or whatever it's going to be called. As a developer now for five years as well, we've released four iOS apps and the same four were attempted to port over to Android. Three worked. Two well enough. The third is still being worked ground up as we don't have the corporate EA credit card or back catalog of gaming rights, we don't play cover songs :-). Each of our apps is unique. That said if those on either side have been there for any length of time, investment in the software and apps becomes more obvious over time and with usage. Unfortunately the software for Android isn't there yet. Nor are the 'development dollars' unfortunately as I do want them to both succeed
I suppose last I'd add the display size mantra. My N3 for media, writing, watching, drawing, even playing games is better than the iPhone because I'm 43 and can't read a damn thing anymore without my cheaters. Next level though, my new iPad mini destroys both for any of the above. For a front pocket, non obtrusive 'carry everywhere' phone, 5.7" is a bitch to pocket unless I'm in cargo shorts or pants. iPhone fits anywhere and everywhere. I like the 4.7" compromise but will hold til I see what Apple's new Phad...I mean Phablet's design looks like. With my clientele, the stylus is invaluable for sketching our rigging points, sign docs and credit cards, as well as handle the two duties in one. Both as a computer and phone. iPhone is a bit tougher but again, as the author mentions subtleties like the camera, workmanship and cosmetics, fluency of UI and it's 'lack of size or bulk' is and will continue to be many folks' choices moving forward.
I also agree it's a cool time to be experiencing technologies fruits. To be blinded by iOS as an Android fan or vice versa one's missing the forest through the trees. A true 'geek' is excited by both. Just. Not. Low. Level. Programming! XDA is an incredible tool to have in your arsenal, but it's a bit more convenient if you don't like TouchWiz, re skin with NOVA, GO, or any pleothra of options to adjust the phone to your style. Looks like Apple is opening up a bit as well if you delve into the Xcode update :-)
dj christian - Wednesday, September 3, 2014 - link
The quality of iOS apps higher than Android. You'r kidding right? Most have been shittier compared to Android.vasboz - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
I believe this would be because Apple has a much larger adoption for the one device than any other device globally. Plus it attracts more viewers, hence more revenue from advertising etc.. These are just "touching" the tip on the iceberg of just how much more there is to it than what you see.stucktrader - Monday, September 1, 2014 - link
If it comes across as iCentric to you... i dont see that at all...He pretty much laid out what he felt were quirks... pros and cons...
The iPhone 5 does not need 14 articles... that is for sure...
The Android world is filled with so many different OEMs... why would you be surprised that they only get 2 articles... that is EXCEPT for Galaxys...
If anything... why is the world of Android so fixated on Samsung... when at times other phones are superior depending on the feature being highlighted... LG, HTC, SONY, etc...
jahblade - Monday, September 1, 2014 - link
In reference to ios vs android users. When I am asked which one is better I don't have an answer for that, I just simply echo in general your comment.primalxconvoy - Sunday, September 7, 2014 - link
Without reading too much into this, I believe this:"Iphones are smartphones for dumb people, whereas Androids are dumbphones for smart people".
What I mean is that with ios, even smart people don't need to think too much about using the device (or prefer not to) and can use the phone relatively easily for a limited range of uses.
Android, by comparison doesn't really allow for ease of use and needs more thought our effort to get any particularly specific user-experience out of it. Users, perhaps, need to be "smarter" in order to get the most out of it (often using this party solutions to overcome problems).
Another analogy is ios is to Disneyland, what Google is to Woodstock.
In other words, Ios is restricted, expensive to get into, with long lines to get in (especially on release day), but everything that is featured there usually works well, with plenty of staff on hand to guide even small kids around.
Android, by contrast, is open, fairly cheap and can potentially host amazing, world changing features, but the toilets don't work, the organisers are nowhere to be seen, the staff are all smoking pot somewhere, and most of the stalls and infrastructure are unfinished, with anything that does work usually being due to a third party vendor or artist taking it up themselves.
Ofaring - Tuesday, September 16, 2014 - link
I've gotta strongly disagree with the writer's software conclusions and agree with what others have said here. But before I continue, two points: 1. I used to solely love Android from the Froyo days on and mock the iPhone. 2. I still use all the OSes because I work with them in my job. That said...the writer spoke about a true PC experience. If he was referring to hacking your computer and puttering around with files and settings to see what you can do, then yes, that's a computer experience. (And I do it on Android.) If, however, he wanted to accomplish actual work other than fiddling, Google apps, and social media, good luck! I use smartphones to accomplish more work on the go than anyone else I know, and the reason I stopped mocking iPhone is because they offer the only real computer experience on the market today. I've even produced gorgeous documents and spreadsheets with Numbers and Pages, software which doesn't have a rival on the Play Store. (And I use Dropbox all the time.) Never mind the host of quality, beautiful, well-made apps available over the clunky, occasionally-useful apps which tend to plague the Play Store.As for GPS controls, it's as simple as turning wifi on/off to "fine tune" it, and there are apps available to show satellites, but that's minor. Real fine tuning is being able to tell a specific app, "No, you may NOT use my location." To get that kind of fine tuning on Android you have to install a custom ROM – and there you will find countless hours of fiddling, er, using a PC. (According to the writer.) That's speaking from personal experience.
It's all perspective, right?
invinciblegod - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I don't understand how you got that impression. He praised touchid and the other differences are quite minor besides from the app sharing. He mentioned many downsides of the android method in addition to the downsides of the ios version. And I question your need to see other people "condemn" the os.Mugur - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
I have a friend which is essentially a power user but with a 100% non-technical background. I have always helped him with his various PCs, tablets, phones technical issues. Last autumn his HTC One M7 was stolen and he received an iPhone 5s from work. Although he now appreciates the ease of use and the polish (hardware and software) of it, some frustration still remains. Exasperation was his exact word for the first 3 months... :-)He seems overall happy now with the iPhone, but I have asked him and he still says that if given the opportunity (i.e. for free) he would exchange it for an M8 One any time.
CaptSkunk - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
He doesn't need to condemn the iPhone. The 5S is a very good phone. I have had it since the end of May and have very little, if anything to complain about. Before that, I had the 4S and it too, was a great phone, just not as good as the 5S.I find iOS cleaner than Android. True, my last venture was on Gingerbread, with a phone that never received an update to Android. I found Android stable but just too much in the long run. Why do I need file system access on a phone? Do I really need to type word documents and excel spreadsheets on my phone? I have my computers for that.
Android is confusing for most people, until you really dive in and learn every nook and cranny. This is coming from someone who very much so, knows their way around a computer, knows how to use bash and can build computers and the like.
People that bash iPhones are mostly just fanboys or want way too much from a phone. When you want too much, you get what that GPS picture shows. That looks horrendous on Android.
Samus - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
I replaced my Galaxy S III with a 4S after about a year with the Galsxy (my third Android phone since 2009) and I just got tired of Android's quirks. The simplicity of IOS and the fact it just works as a phone is what makes it great, even for tech-oriented people.My favorite phone of all time is the Palm\HP Veer, though.
milesmutt - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
Are you kidding me? You've either never used the iPhone for a discernible amount of time, or you're just talking out of your ass. User-friendliness is the hallmark of iOS, and suits the vast majoritiy of smartphone users out there. Sure, there are numerous customizations available for Android, but who really needs all that shit? On a smartphone? If I want to tinker, I'll tweak my custom-built Windows gaming PC (don't use Macs and never will). I just want my smartphone to be quick and easy to use, whether it be for email, texting, watching ripped movies, listening to music, or even (gasp) making phone calls!The Samsung S4 that I owned for a few months (yes, I actually did try out Android for a while) was absolutely horrid for movie playback because of stutter, and not quite as easy to use for playing music. Also, games were not as fluid on the S4 as they were on even the older iPhone 4S! Okay, there are a lot more pixels to push on the S4, but the experience suffered greatly because of this. Perhaps these issues disappeared with the S5 and Note 3 because horsepower was bumped up, but I will never know.
Bottom line is that iOS is and probably always will be, the gold standard when it comes to multimedia in a smartphone.
jonodw - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I would be interested to see you do this one month test with a Lumia 930.MonkeyPaw - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I'm still at a loss for why they never fully reviewed the 1020. I guess a 41MP sensor in a phone wasn't noteworthy enough.I have an iPhone for work. What amazes me most is just how poor the battery life is, and I only use it for calls and texts. Apple tunes their signal bars to make you think you have better signal than you really do (less than 4 bars = no data). The screen is tiny, but the camera is pretty good. I would never own an iPhone by choice. I thought it was cool at first launch, but it has since been eclipsed by many other devices.
chizow - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Haha wow I was just about to post the complete opposite! What model iPhone do you have? I have a 5S for work and the one remarkable thing I've found about it is the amazing battery life for light usage scenarios. Checking texts and emails, snapping pictures, 2-3 calls a day. I even run Pandora on my iPhone over my GS4 because it handles battery life while running apps when the screen is off better. I can often go 2-3 days before I have to charge my iPhone 5S....my GS4 needs to be charged daily without fail, and on heavy usage days, I need to whip out the microUSB adapter and pull some juice from my laptop.MonkeyPaw - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
4S. Even just idling this weekend with no email accounts to sync, it's almost dead. Granted, my cheap employer probably bought a refurbished model.solipsism - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Not having email accounts to sync is pointless. What matters is the power it needs to have a cell signal. If you have "no data" then your device is working much harder to try to get you a connection than other devices in a decent area.rkcth - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
This was my thought too. If I have poor signal my battery life is quite bad, if I have strong signal its much better. I think it has to use higher power to send the data back and forth when there is poor signal. Also I have noticed that I can surf on my phone via wifi for many hours and have plenty of battery, but talking on the phone at work (where I often have 1-2 bars) drains my battery very fast. A 1 hour phone call could take 30% of my battery life. I have AT&T and work in the basement of a cinderblock building, so its basically a worst case scenario. Still I can count on one hand how many times I didn't make it the whole day on one charge and about half of those are because I forgot to plug my phone in over night.MonkeyPaw - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
My 1020 sits beside my 4S, both with similar signal quality (3 bars). The 4S has dropped 10% in the last 4 hours. My Lumia hasn't lost a % since I unplugged it 5 hours ago.solipsism - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
That's a start in the right direction but it's not nearly enough information to make an informed decision. What the are the age differences of the devices, or rather what the current health of the battery. The 4S came out in 2011 (even though yours could be years newer). Isn't the Lumia 1020 less than a year old? Have you ruled out a faulty battery (note: Apple just issued a replacement program for certain iPhone 5 batteries)? Did you use the 4S at all during that time? Did any calls come in for the 4S, even if it went to voicemail? Was the 4S placed somewhere that would impede it's signal compared to the 1020? Are there different types of services that could be using power that aren't present on the 1020? Was the 1020 connected to WiFi whilst the 4s wasn't? Doesn't the 4S have a 1432 mAh battery while the 1020 has a 2000 mAh battery? There are just so many variables to consider which is why we see simple breakdowns of battery life on sites like AnandTech during their thorough reviews.MonkeyPaw - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Both are connected to WiFi, both doing nothing. If I had to guess, I'd say they are evenly aged. I got the 4S about 9 months ago, and the 1020 I think is from late 2013 (I bought it used from eBay). Both phones sit next to each other. Still, I've always felt the 4S has had poor battery life from the start.I'm not trying to make a grand conclusion, but I've had several iPhones through the years, and, while I admire the build quality, my experience is as described above. An iPhone with a 4.5-5" screen and better battery life would be a big win for me.
My 1020 works hard most days (music, podcasts, Pandora, photos, calls, texts, browsing, email, and most days I'm at 65% when I get home, and 50% by days end.
solipsism - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
@ MonkeyPaw,Which one(s) did you buy used from eBay? If the iPhone then it's not 9 months old simply because you bought it 9 months ago. Regardless, I have no doubt your telling the truth, but it doesn't say why it's not performing as it's rated. This is why cycle count and battery health are important factors. It's definitely not normal to drop 10% in a few hours without you using it at all. That's indicative of an issue somewhere.
Have you read AnandTech's review of the 4S? The battery life was excellent then, and only until the Samsung Galaxy S5 have we seen smartphones bests Apple on the important tests. (Unimportant tests would be the excessive talk-time durations which is simply because they've added such a large display which has a large battery, which doesn't need the display when using it for maintaining a phone call)
V-600 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I put myself through a similar testing scenario last month with an iPad, coming from an android background (and a macbook from a windows background). My thoughts were similar. The hardware is first class, and is limited by software. Subjectively, after a month of consistent use of work, playing around and research, I felt I couldn't do as much as easily on iOS as with android. For me personally, comparing kitkat with iOS 7 android is the better OS.rkcth - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I think you get used to whatever you use. I find android completely unusable. I'm a big tech geek, but have never really found android easy to use. I have no tolerance for a few weeks of learning curve to get used to my phone, I want it to "just work". For other things, sure I'll fiddle with it, but not a phone. Despite iOS being much easier to use, there is still a learning curve between OSes, and there are definitely limitations caused by Apple's way of doing things. If you get used to not having that limitation it would be much harder to switch, just like I've gotten used to how incredibly simple and easy to use iOS is.franzeal - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
You might be confusing geek with idiot in your case if it takes you more than 5 minutes to acclimate to any of these phone environments.beggerking@yahoo.com - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
if you want something to "just work", then you are not a "geek". Geeks are people who want to know how things works so "they can fix problems themselves without having to go to Crapple store and pay per fix"with all the glitches in IOS , syncing to anything else, IOS sucks big time when ANYTHING go wrong.
joelypolly - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Really depends on if Apps is your main thing or not. Android simply doesn't have enough well built tablet appsjoeljfischer - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I just want to note, that several more of your software issues are "resolved" in iOS 8. Specifically, Apple exposes additional camera control to 3rd party apps who wish to use them (but don't use anything but exposure in their own app), battery stats per application are exposed, and the "all" and "missed" are just "notifications" now.V-600 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
IOS is something I'm looking forward to seeing. It borrows a lot of good ideas and extends a few more past android (from the look of things so far). There will undoubtedly be cries of copying but....meh...there always are, and it will give android something new to aim towards next time....when there will again be cries of copying.AceMcLoud - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
"cries of copying"Many of the features Apple is allegedly "copying" have been in Mac OS for years if not decades ;-)
Ratman6161 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
The "issues" go a lot deeper than adding a few camera features. It's the overall attitude towards users: "This is our phone, take it or leave it". With an android device, if you don't like the keyboard the OEM provided - use a different one. Launchers, cameras, you name it - use the one you like or even mix and match.Example: Last Thursday my Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 came in at work. Of course it came with TouchWiz...which lasted about two hours only because I wanted to give it a shot before trashing it. After than it was over to Apex Launcher. I liked Samsung's keyboard though so I kept that. I have my own Exchange Client for work email and a different third party app I like for personal mail.
Basically through the easy customization I'm never stuck with what the OEM decided to provide. Moreover, I'm able to make my Droid Maxx Phone, Asus personal tablet and Samsung work tablet all look and feel much the same - and that's all without any need to root, unlock ect. I can easily switch between the three and they all work the same.
All that said, and Android user really doesn't have to do any customization if they don't want to. My wife uses her Droid Mini pretty much as it came out of the box other than putting a couple of widgets on her screen. She really doesn't need to know and doesn't want to know any more than that and it works great for her.
Ratman6161 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
One other thing. For the reasons mentioned above, when shopping for an Android device I can buy without worrying too much about what software does or doesn't come with it and regardless of weather or not I like the software choices the OEM made. With Apple, if you like it as is, you are golden. But If there is anything you don't like about it you are often stuck with it.bernstein - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
> With Apple, if you like it as is, you are golden. But If there is anything you don't like about it you are stuck with it.So true. While today that is mostly limited to how the OS works (any app except clock/phone/texts/browser is replaceable) it pains me. Yet for all of androids customizability & diversity i could not find a launcher that works the way i want & has the polish i expect... be it apex, action, nova, miui, touchwiz, sony, google, aokp, cyanogen... they all have cool things yet none is well balanced.
Teknobug - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Since I already have an iPad, I see no reason to getting an iPhone, at times they're slightly less convenient than an Android phone. I'll be sticking to my Moto X for a while, but i have pondered the thought of upgrading to an iPhone 5S someday but rumors is Apple is releasing yet another phone this September.Drazick - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
On the contrary, Windows always supported newer hardware and technologies (High DPI in some ways was there in the XP days).Look at the support for SSD (Trim), OpenCL, etc...
You are right that usually Windows' first implementation is rough around the edges while OS X's bring support only when the technology is mature enough and polished.
Ratman6161 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Yes, slow adoption of certain technologies is usually not the fault of Microsoft/Windows. A good example is Thuderbolt - which for all the hype is actually an Intel technology, not Apple (which this crowd I'm sure already knows). Its the fact that computer OEM's and motherboard makers have been slow to offer PC motherboards with the technology that's the issue.Another example is USB 3.0 where it was Intel standing in the way. For example my Z68 based Motherboard for my i72600K has a third party USB 3.0 controller because Intel did not include support for it in the Z68 Chipset. Windows of course had no problem with it - it just needs a driver from the third party chip maker.
Of course that's the issue with the Windows platform as a whole: A lot of things from multiple companies have to come together to make the technology available where as if Apple wants to implement a new tech, they can just do it. Its the price we pay for diversity, choice, and competition.
Spoony - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I would conjecture that in some ways this is true of all of Apple's platforms. Apple hardware is top notch, so long as your goal is not gaming or some other specific performance usages. It has a few rough edges (MBA screen, iMac HDDs, MBP GPUs). I get frustrated often with the software. OS X has so many stupid problems (The Finder, the file system, weird panic bugs, stupid interface design). OS X could be solving problems for us in much better ways, Apple just doesn't seem to care about really pushing hard at what is possible. Not to say Windows and Linux don't also have annoying problems...Regarding the iPhone. I used to favour iOS because of the software and hardware. These days I feel like you can get very high quality hardware from LG and HTC (perhaps others, not Samsung). Quality to me counting fit and finish, materials, design, and specs. The latest versions of Android are also very usable.
Today I find myself still favouring iOS because of the nice selection of extremely high quality apps available. By and large they all cost money, but they are also all well supported and well designed. I cannot replace these apps on Android. The equivalents are poorly designed, clunky, slow, or just don't do what I want. If Android offered a great top-quality replacement for most apps I depend on with iOS, I would heavily consider spending the money to invest in a new ecosystem.
apertotes - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I am forced to suffer an iPad on my work. There are many things I despise about iOS. The iPad in itself is almost great. The lack of expandable memory is a kick in the nuts (although Anandtech will never lower themselves to agree with the plebeians). But it is mostly fine. But iOS. God. So annoying.There are already many comments, but one thing I haven't seen is the lack of a "back" button/icon. I know that in Android it is somewhat erratic, but at least it is there. I hate it so much when I touch an itunes/safari icon while inside an app (to login to Facebook, or whatever) and for whatever reason the focus does not come back to the app, and there is no back button. So I need to go to the desktop to launch the app again or launch the multitask feature. I really hate it.
rkcth - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Actually, you just double click the home button and the app will be the second image at the bottom. It shows an icon and screenshot of all apps opened in the order in which they were last used. It takes about 0.25s when you get used to it.steven75 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
4 finger swipe. Problem solved!jkauff - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
As a long-time, fairly savvy Windows user who never liked Apple's "walled garden" ecosystem, I surprised myself by buying an iPhone. I started with the 5 and now have the 5S. At the time I bought it, it was by far the most elegant hardware design available. The size is perfect for me to carry it around in my shirt pocket. My biggest gripe is the email app, which is crippled and can't be replaced with a third-party app. Why the hell can't I select everything in my Inbox and delete it? Why can't I attach a file to a reply message? Absurd. All of the other shortcomings I've found, though (except for the keyboard) I've been able to solve with very capable apps that cost no more than $3 or were free. I can play MKV format movies with hardware acceleration using HDPlayer, and there are several apps that play my FLAC music files (I settled on Equalizer Pro because I can use it to compensate for the bass-heavy iOS audio). The lack of access to the file system used to drive me nuts, but the Dropbox app has solved most of my document problems. Battery life is very good if I control the display brightness. I'll look at Android again the next time I'm in the market for a phone, since the hardware and software have come a long way in the past two years, but for now I'm quite content with this lovely bit of hardware in my pocket.kevith - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Apple won´t allow me, a 53 year old guy, to see a pair of tits, not even in a photo of a Rubens painting. I´l never even consider anything "i"steven75 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Apple doesn't filter your internet connection. Safari will show you as many noods as you want, even has a "private browsing" mode.Malih - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I would expect to still be able to remember and maybe type the url or at least search keyword for what I wanted to explore on the browser, when I'm 53.It seems I could be wrong.
wurizen - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Hey, seems like the android-ios was positive.I have a reverse experience. I've always been an iphone user from original iphone to iphone 3gs to iphone 4s. the original iphone was my first smartphone. And then for financial reasons, had to go android. so i got a no contract android phone, an LG Optimus L9 (LG-P769). It's running Android 4.1.2.
I've turned off/disabled every bloatware that I can with his phone. But, the experience is just jittery, stuttery, waitery (is that even a word?), jerkier, not seamless at all compared to my iphone experience. This experience that I am talking about are basic experience of opening a browser and switching to the 2-4 apps that I use most often. No big apps. Nothing complicated and the phone will just slow down. It's just an inferior experience.
And, the "pc" like tinkering ability of android vs. ios, I don't think has ever made me more "productive" other than discovering that android is a bit more flexible with file management and/or a different approach than ios. and, the only reason why i think most ppl would even "tinker" with android's file management is b/c one would like to move folders or files to an external sd card to free up space to the internal sdcard, which one needs to do quite often with android since it's flawed. by flawed, i mean, there is no way, for me, to use the external sdcard to install apps and/or can't make apps installed on the internal sdcard to store files/photos on the external sdcard, such as instagram, for example. so, once in a while, my phone would not be able to update apps b/c the internal sdcard is filled up. and this is when i dive into the file storage app and move thins around. one can't do this with an iphone. but, i don't think that is a minus. get it android?
also, 2007 is when iphone came out and it's 7 yrs later and android is still behind. phone quality wise and more so in the software dep't. but my experience is with 4.1.2. so it might be a bit different for others with later android version.
smartphone tech/software is either slow or apple is just fast and that "advance." what do you guys at anand think? you guys know this stuff more than me. slow android? slow industry? or is apple just that much better than the rest?
KoolAidMan1 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
There is very little "productive" about tweaking in Android. What's productive is something with good software that does the job. Fiddling with customizations, especially cosmetic ones, is a waste of time.mjh483 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
You can't compare a LG Optimus L9 to an iPhone. It's supposed to be slower.wurizen - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
well, i think the optimus l9 is equivalent to an iphone 3gs in terms of cpu. but, the L9 has 1GB of RAM. I think the iphone 3GS only had 256Mb of RAM. that's 3/4 less RAM. yet, if i remember correctly (it's been a while since I used the 3GS)--the experience was less stuttery, less jerky than my experience now with the Optimus L9 and Android 4.1.2.... in comparison, Android 4.1.2 should be mature enough to compete with whatever IOS version i was running the iphone 3GS on, which might have been IOS 5 or 6....Just saying.....
wurizen - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Speaking of add, also would like to add that chrome on my phone will crash or refuse to load webpages needing to reload quite often, which never happened once (i think) when i was on my iphone 3gs or the other 2 iphones i had owned (original iphone & iphone 4s). So, this was usage experience of iphone from 2007 to 2013.Again just adding and saying....
Kranthi Kumar - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Please some one clear my doubt, they mentioned the price of iPhone 5s as $199 but in India the price is rs 48000($800) and also they mentioned 2years contract what does it mean please reply to me.theCuriousTask - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
When you buy a smartphone in the US or similar markets like Japan the full price (~ $650 - $900) is subsidized by the carrier to a final price of $200 or more. In return you sign a contract to pay for cell service for two years. Within those two years the carrier recoups (and more) the cost of the phone subsidy with higher data and voice charges.SanX - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
In my life I haven't seen anyone with iPhone who was not a technoretard. I exclude from this assessment people in the management, like your boss, and females, they fall under different guidelineskokono - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
A year ago I would have said the same, before someone gave me an iphone,ok, I still can't use itunes , and I have only 16Gb of storage, but
IMO iphone is an experience everybody should try,
somebody talks about limitations it have, but I only recall how much time I lost with useless android custom Roms, or Apk,
if ios has only one keyboard, stick to it, it's better..I remember using a lot automatic dial in android, I cant in ios, but still I don't care the front screen stays perfect..
It's funny that people spent 600€ for a piece of plastic crap with a crazy contrast screen,
from my experience reviews should be made between android devices, because iphone is still in another league..
lilo777 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
"iphone is still in another league" Indeed. It's in another league but it's a lower league/ Plastic or aluminum does no affect phone performance at all (not to mention that there are plenty aluminum Android phones). What you cant find is iPhone with decent screen resolution or more than 1GB of RAM or memory card support or NFC or camera with optical image stabilization. Sure iPhone is a solid mid-range phone but that's about it.sonci - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Why do I need more ram, or processor, when my phone is fast, lag free, don't feel cheap etc,ASEdouardD - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
You fall under the : I'm extremely immature and have not seen the world background.SanX - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
You don't know who I am and what I have seen and still jumping into conclusions. From which follows not very rozy conclusion about you and what is even worse that you can not undo it.jameskatt - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
The reviewer is being silly. He complains about the aliasing he can see by holding the iPhone 5s at 4-6 inches away. And so he argues for 500 dpi screens. What idiot holds their iPhone at that distance?!JoshHo - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
While I'm not necessarily sold on the value of 500+DPI displays, I have to acknowledge that they have some value when reading text under close examination. This happens all the time for me as reading in bed can bring the display much closer than usual.Malih - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I was a long time Windows user, but I got curious and bought a Mac laptop, I hated that many things are done differently, I had a million curses for Apple and OS X. But when you get familiar with it, only then can you appreciate the Pros, and find a workaround for the Cons.I like that the article point out some things that are not familiar to an Android user, but also explain that because it's done differently, you simply need to get familiar.
I have two mobile devices, and I use both OSes equally.
lilo777 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I think you are trying to gloss over quite a few iOS cons. There are plenty of things in Android that you can't do in iOS even if you try hard.Malih - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Some Cons are personal, I didn't mean to say you can do everything you can do on one OS with the other one, but sometimes you find the Pros outweigh the Cons.Personally I found the workaround for the Cons I have: carry both devices,
but if I were to pick one, it would be iOS, it's personal, because on the same situation someone else could as easily have chosen to pick Android.
lucas1024 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
You missed the most important thing - how well does it work as a phone?!FlemingP - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
"...Apple is ready to announce a new iPhone within the coming months..."Apple will "announce" the iPhone 6 in two weeks (16 days to be exact) from the date that this article was published. It seems a bit ridiculous to review the iPhone 5S and iOS 7 just days before they are replaced with the next generation. Hopefully you won't wait 11+ months to review the iPhone 6.
sonci - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
This was not an iphone review, but the experience of moving from android to ios, the idea was very good..FlemingP - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
That doesn't change the point of the bad timing. Anandtech will have access to an iPhone 6 with iOS 8 in less than three weeks. Delaying this article until then would have made a lot more sense.lilo777 - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Do you think then that Anandtech should have waited until the release of Android L? It's also very close.FlemingP - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
Android L is at least 2-3 months from release so probably not. However, I likewise would not expect a comparison to be released 20 days before Android L releases. That being said, the hardware improvements with the iPhone 6 are going to be much more important than the software improvements anyway. Apple will pull further ahead with the long overdue 4.7" display, A8 chip, upgraded camera, 2nd gen Touch ID and etc.lilo777 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Pull further ahead? That's a n interesting way o put it. It implies that iPhone is ahead right now. It is not. It is behind and by a wide margin. It has 1/3 of Samsung Galaxy Note 3 RAM, it has 1/3 of the display resolution for most of Android high end phones. Its camera is OK but nothing special: low resolution and no OIS (some Android phones do have it). It does not have NFC. It's rumored that it is going to get one in iPhone 6 but i would not call it "pulling ahead". iPhone still can't do simultaneous voice and LTE data on Verizon and Sprint. iPhone has mediocre battery life. The list of iPhone shortcomings is very long. Sure it's a solid mid range phone but that's about it.callmesissi - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
with the release of iOS 8, so this is more of a temporary issue than a permanent one.?? iFanboy
this is i think the first review i read in anandtech that is written by an ifanboy. he makes up excuses for everything and seems to accept everything from apple.
The review is happening TODAY from a phone released a year ago, so, the keyboard IT IS a problem... but instead he gives us a fanboy answer as "it will be corrected in ios 8" come on,...
I've used both iphone and android and i can tell you: iphone is for people that knows nothing about gadgets, like my mom/dad and grandfather... typing in the iphone keyboard is a pain after you have used swiftkey.. for example try typing: " i thin8k Tha-@t My i9p4h-0ne" on both iphone and swiftkey and you'll take at least twice the time doing that in the iphone, not to mention the frustration...
anyway dear Anandtech, please dont become and Ifan, or Droidfan, we readers that have come to your page have ALWAYS admire your complete neutrality and objetivity on everything you review. it's not happening with apple stuff lately...
Forgive all my typos, english is not my main languaje.
ASEdouardD - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Wow.tipoo - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
"The home button is the one exception here, which has a noticeably longer travel and less distinctive actuation/mushier feel but I suspect that TouchID is the reason for this difference."It's no better without touchid. The button has always been a sore point for me, too many single clicks getting detected as a double, too many doubles as a single.
Spoony - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Agree with this too. The home button has always been a little worse than I wanted it to be. I'm also not convinced that always going home is what I want to do. I would like a toggle so that single click would hop to the app switcher. Double tapping is annoying, and the desktop is at the end of the switcher anyways.brettnordquist - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
And here come the Android fans telling their author how to use his phone. If you value customization over quality of hardware and apps, and don't mind all the crapware, go with an Android phone. If you value a polished experience and expect you phone to "just work", go with the iPhone. I've never met anyone who actually enjoy running Android. No, they just tolerate it while hating on Apple.Anonymous Blowhard - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
> crapwareNo, it's Apple that requires iTunes, not Android.
WackyDan - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
I'm a convert to iPhone and iPad. I'm still carrying a Droid Incredible (4.5 years old) for my personal phone, but already traded in my Android work phone for a 5s.My reason for swapping was simple... Touch ID actually worked quite well. I no longer have to type in the 8 character passcode that my employer requires on my mobile device(except for when I reboot it). Also for riding on the motorcycle you can't beat the touch ID. I mount it up high within reach. One finger on phone for a second gives me Siri and I can use the bluetooth in my helmet to ask her where the nearest gas station is and navigate to it. *Or call someone - all via voice.
I wish the battery life was better.
Screen size is perfect... I don't want a 5.5 inch screen which was another reason I went with the 5s... All the Androids were gigantic, and the small droids had already been out two years.
Lastly, the ease at which you can share apple IDs and have a joint family address book and calendar is awesome.
I'm trading in my old Incredible for the new Apple phone that is coming out, or I might just stay droid on that one. Apple by far has been the better experience and I've been typically anti apple in the past.
barry spock - Sunday, August 24, 2014 - link
It's nice to read at least a few non-rabid comments like this one.Re the article, I would argue that there's actually very few users of the android system that are actually interested in tinkering with the system but that our perception is skewed into thinking that there are many more because they're all extremely vocal (and _rabid_) on the internet.
90% of people with an android phone bought it because it was in their price range. They don't care about the extra polish that comes with the extra bucks for an iphone.
WackyDan - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
One other thing that helped. The availability of a multitude of waterproof cases for the 5s (and iPhones in General) also helped the purchase decision. There just doesn't seem to be the same quality options that are carried long term for Androids as Androids have a shorter sales/marketing shelf life compared to iPhone.mjh483 - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Can you provide some details about the battery life? Can you use it for a whole day with LTE turned on without worrying about battery life?CzarAlex - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
A lot of the software functionality mentioned that is missing from iOS 7 is coming in iOS 8 (e.g. app to app sharing, 3rd party keyboards).Anonymous Blowhard - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
ITT some top-tier bait from both sides of the iPhone/Android mobile wars, and Windows/BB still screaming "would someone PLEASE pay attention to me?"Personally I'm getting older and my sight's getting worse, but I'm trying to balance between that and having a giant slab of phone in my pocket. The 4.5"/4.7" screen seems to be the sweet spot, but a 5" with really tiny bezels would also probably work.
If that rumored 4.7" iPhone 6 is a thing, that might just be the ticket to trying out Cupertino's wares again.
Milind - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
I used the iPhone 5s as my sole phone for 2 weeks while I was in between the LG G2 and LG G3. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be "Frustrating". The phone itself is too small for me. But it was really the OS that got on my nerves. The user experience is so limiting, no amount of polish is going to fix it. And I no longer feel that the iPhone is more polished than Android running Holo.There is one thing I agree with the author. Touch Id is truly excellent. It's just as fast as knock on, on the G2/G3. But where it really shone for me was the ability to use it for authentication on the App Store. With Touch Id, I can set a really strong password and use Touch Id for fast access. I didn't see any other app use it, and given that this is Apple, I wouldn't be surprised to find that no 3rd party app can use it. But I'd love to see this being an integral part of Android and use it for the PlayStore, KeePass, Alarm.com etc. and not just to unlock the phone.
questionlp - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
re: uploading screenshots. I believe most sync/backup apps like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive (I've used all three and settled on OneDrive), but I have OneDrive automatically uploading photos (including screenshots) taken on my iPhone sync up to the Camera Roll folder on my OneDrive account. This automatically gets sync across all of the devices that I hook up to OneDrive and pull down and use wherever I need to use it.Aikouka - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
FYI, iOS 8 will also introduce per-app battery statistics:http://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/02/ios-8-tidbits/
beggerking@yahoo.com - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Android has had that for years...squirrelboy - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
The thing I first ran into when handling an iPhone, was the lack of a back button. I was constantly tapping to the right of the home button, wondering why nothing was happening.I handle them every day at my work, but I'm still not used to it.
pavster - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
I've had android and ios phones interchangeably ever since both have been available. Android started to win me over when it introduced navigation. It got better with Galaxy Note class of devices. Now when I look at my wife's iphone, I just get frustrated because the screen is tiny, it has no universal back button, and the settings and impossible to find (I know where they are but still).gplracer - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
I have had several generations of iphones. Right now we have 4 in our family. When the new Iphone 6 comes out I will check it out but I will also check out some android phones as well. I am tired of not being able to add memory and Itunes. My Iphone and Ipad are the only Apple products that I have.AnnonymousCoward - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Those article images can look a lot better if you simply use an Auto color/contrast/levels option of any image editor.ummduh - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
You know my biggest gripe about ios? That keyboard. It always depicts capital lettering. It drives me nuts.Spoony - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
iPhone user here. I 100% agree with this. The keyboard in general is wonky. I don't want to install a custom keyboard, I just want a good stock keyboard. However, I am now looking forward to custom keyboards because the stock one is so average.darth415 - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
As shallow as it sounds, the reason I don't like iPhones is because they are too small. As someone who is into watching shows, reading, doing work on the go, and all sorts of other things, a 4 inch device is a childs toy. That and the fact that I cannot enjoy my FLAC music with my phone's superior DAC. I feel like android phones are for work (ie: satisfying someone who spends a lot of time using their phone, and expects their phone to be flexible), and iPhones are for Facebook, Flappy Bird, and texting/calling stuff PERIOD.wurizen - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Wow. That (.)Dave321 - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
I find it hard to believe that an Android user would not make a single comment on losing widgets when switching to iOS.KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
Widgets are useless gimmicks, that's why. I was on Android for years and still don't understand why that's such a major talking point for fans.flamencoguy - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link
5 inch maybe the maximum size for you but many people have very large hands. they can easily operate a 5.5 or even a 6 inch phone with one hand. I thought the same as well but you simply get used to the size. Going back to a smaller screen afterwards seems like going backwards. The iPhone 5s seems so miniscule and dainty now. And no widgets on iPhoneJoshHo - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
I have plenty of experience with phablets and I like them quite a bit, but they have their place. One-handed use is not one of them, although I'm sure there are others that can use phablets with one hand. I suspect that the distribution of hand sizes is such that most will find a 4.7" phone to be about right.RoninX - Thursday, August 28, 2014 - link
I have average-sized hands and I can do things like check notifications and read email one-handed on my Note 3, but anything more than that requires two hands. However, it's definitely worth it to get the big screen.iPhones look incredibly tiny to me now, but to each their own. Choice is good.
nerd1 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
Now I am using voice-enabled LTE tablet as my phone. I just cannot figure out any reason to use small, low-resolution, non-expandable and expensive device that requires heavy connection software (iTunes) at all. Oh and it is almost twice as expensive too.ex2bot - Sunday, August 31, 2014 - link
Nerd1 "heavy connection software (iTunes)"Wrong, Nerd1. iTunes hasn't been required for years.
Your other point about the iPhone being more expensive may or may not be true depending on where you live. In the US, it has lately been possible to get the 5S for free on contract. Tough to complain about free.
Ancillas - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link
I think the next version of iOS will have battery life broken out by application.http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/ios-8-features/
mpokwsths - Friday, August 29, 2014 - link
When comparing with Android, a pure Android device should be used for comparison, not the encumbered Samsung devices. Nexus 5 in our case...primalxconvoy - Sunday, September 7, 2014 - link
I dabbled with an iPhone 5s for a week before returning it and getting a Galaxy Note 2 instead, whereas my girlfriend went from a Galaxy Note 1 to an iPhone 5c.In both cases, we were able to see the pros and cons of both devices (which were similar to this review).
For me, I like to find my own solutions to problems or to suit my needs, so I prefer Android as I can download content from online and then move, edit and utilise files via file browsers and related media/office apps. In fact, it's this feature that has stopped me from upgrading to 4.2/new phones due to the perceived lack of support for for browsers and openess to move and edit files between apps in Android. In still worried that third party apps haven't cracked/fixed this problem yet.