I’m a die-hard Android fan. Here’s what happened when I tried the iPhone 6

With thanks to EE for the handset

I’m one of those intensely crappy people who have a passionate alliance to one side of a tech war. In fact, I have several. I’m firmly PC over Mac (though I’ll probably go Chrome OS when it’s more developed), digital media over physical, and Android over iOS. I have ranted about my distaste for Apple, Macs, iPods, iPads and iPhones at length. Everyone I know is sick of hearing about it.

So giving me an iPhone is probably the meanest thing you can do. Not only does it force me to engage with a whole new ecosystem (previously, it was a point of pride that I didn’t even have an iTunes account), but it puts me in a lose-lose situation. Why? Because there’s no good outcome for me.

Outcome 1: I love the iPhone, never want to be without it, and never hear the end of it from my smug friends.

Outcome 2: I don’t like the iPhone and everyone says I was biased and never gave it a chance.

Yay, guaranteed failure!

Nonetheless, I agreed to ditch my beloved OnePlus One for a month and go full Apple native. I’ve used BlackBerry and Windows Phones and got on fine, how bad could this be?

First impressions

OK, first off, the box for this thing is ridiculous. It looks like a printing error. There’s no image, just a raised profile of an iPhone 6. And I just about gave myself tennis elbow trying to prise the lid off – I know there’s some apocryphal story about the time it takes to open an iPhone box being carefully designed by Steve Jobs to raise anticipation, but I don’t appreciate having my time wasted by arrogant packaging.

iPhone 6 box

I’m willing to admit, though, that at this point I regarded the iPhone with anxious suspicion, like a child who turns up on your doorstep and says you’re its mum. I don’t want it, I don’t want to like it, and I kind of wish it had never arrived.

iphone orphan

Unboxing the incredibly shiny handset, I found that my review model came minus a charging cable. This is an accident, probably caused by the previous reviewer hanging onto it (Apple cables cost more than black market kidneys), but it caused me a problem I wouldn’t have had on any other phone: I couldn’t charge the blessed thing, because unlike every other phone and device ever, it doesn’t use micro-USB. Oh noooo. It’s a special snowflake and has its own proprietary cable. So I had to wait ’til a replacement arrived to even turn it on.

First impressions, then? I want to send it back to the orphanage.

Getting set up – and reluctantly entering Apple World

Normally when I’m setting up a new phone (and I do this a lot), I put in my Google account details and everything falls nicely into place. Even setting up a Windows Phone handset was pretty easy because I have a Microsoft account left over from my MSN Messenger days (RIP). But with the iPhone, I had to set up an Apple account, which is where I ran into my first issue with iOS. The keyboard. When I switch between upper and lower case on my Android phone, the letters on the keyboard change:

upper Screenshot_2014-11-28-12-42-19~3

On an iPhone, however, you get one tiny indication of which case you’re using. Can you tell which one is which?

Photo Nov 28, 2 03 31 PM  Photo Nov 28, 2 03 43 PM

If you said yes, it’s because you’re an Apple user. Not because it’s intuitive. And that’s the first major realisation I had about iOS: after years and years of everyone telling me “it’s soooo intuitive!”, it turns out that only applies if you’ve been using their products for years. Which means, you know, not actually intuitive. Just familiar. (The dark grey shift button means upper case. I think. I still can’t remember).

After faffing about for a while getting my upper-and-lower-case password put in correctly, I started downloading my usual suite of apps. I found the progress indicator – a tiny circle – a bit useless compared to the Android progress bar with filesize information, but it’s not terrible. It’s just an indication of a general trend I saw with iOS vs Android: Apple assumes you don’t want to be bothered with details. There’s a lot less info and customisation across the phone compared to what I’m used to, which will suit you perfectly if you’re not really a “tech person”. Android fans tend to be geekier, the tinkerers of the phone world, whereas Apple fans are more design-orientated – and you can see the difference between the two OSes. Apple’s is prettier and simpler, Android’s is techier and more changeable. Neither is wrong, they’re just different strokes for different folks. Still, I know which one I prefer.

OK, how the heck do you do anything on this phone?

When I needed to put my phone on silent, I did what I always do – held the ‘volume down’ button until it hit zero. This has worked on every phone I’ve ever used. Two minutes later, the iPhone made a noise. Wait, what? Oh, it turns out there’s a separate physical switch for no reason at all that puts your phone on vibrate. If you want to put it on silent WITHOUT vibration – well, even iPhone users couldn’t tell me how to do that. Again, intuitive? Hardly. Also, the lowest volume should clearly be silence, as with every volume knob on every audio device ever, but the iPhone volume buttons don’t let you do that. Instead, they’ve built a whole new switch, yet haven’t found space or money for a dedicated camera button. Baffling decisions abound on this phone.

switch

Speaking of the camera, there’s a little icon in the bottom right of the lock screen. I tapped it and it sort of bounced. What? Oh, apparently you have to pull up from the bottom to get the camera. How obvious…! Also, why does it make a camera noise when I turn the screen off? For a second I thought I’d accidentally taken a screenshot – which is ironic, because when I actually tried to take a screenshot, I couldn’t.

I worked out that the Power + Home buttons were the magical combination, but held them down for so long that the phone turned off. Unlike Android, the iPhone doesn’t want you to hold the buttons ’til it takes a photo: it takes it as soon as you release the power button. Not bad, just different.

What IS bad, though, is that I can’t then upload the screenshot from my photo album to Dropbox. I can select it, I can tap Share, but Dropbox is not an option despite having the app installed. Instead, I have to go into Dropbox and select ‘upload files’. A workaround. Annoying.

I feel like I’ve lost a limb

Apple likes simplicity, and the single button at the bottom of the iPhone is testament to that. I’m used to soft keys rather than a proper push-in button, but I got used to that quickly. What did bother me, though, was the lack of Back button. There is no Back button at all. How do people live without it?! Argh. Instead, every app has its own way of going back, and this is one thing I never got used to in all the time I used the phone.

No way back
No way back

…But I’ve gained a lot, too

One thing I was really looking forward to as a member of the iPhone Tribe was having access to all the apps. As an Android user, you often feel like the second-class citizen of the smartphone world: everything comes out on iOS first, and you’re lucky if you get the New Big Thing six months after it was cool. The same goes for features – new functions for Instagram, Vine and co often roll out to iOS first. I completely get why this is (#fragmentation) and if I were a developer, I’d do the same. But that doesn’t stop me ranting about always being late to the party (with apologies to BlackBerry and Windows Phone users, whose apps arrive just in time for the post-party cleanup. If at all).

As luck would have it, of course, when I got the iPhone 6 there weren’t actually any apps I couldn’t get on Android that I wanted. But I happened to be trialling Sleepphones at the same time, and the official app was iOS-only. It was so strange – and so brilliant – to think “I can actually get that” for the first time ever. If something exists, it’s available for iPhone. The same goes for cases and accessories: there is an enormous range of amazing cases for iPhones, and nowhere near as much for any other phone. Only the Samsung Galaxy S5 even comes close, and it’s still a very distant second.

iPhone privilege is definitely a thing, and – I can’t lie – I enjoyed having it.

The one feature I’m really going to miss

My entire family have iPhones. It turns out they’ve all had a group iMessage chat going on for years without me, and the first day I used my review iPhone, I was added to it. People laugh when I say it’s like a secret society, but it actually feels that way.

Almost immediately, my family members started FaceTiming me instead of calling. Video calling is hardly new, but none of them use Skype, and expecting them to change their habits just for me is pretty unrealistic. Before long, I’d got used to my little sister seeing me with wet hair, no makeup, and even still in bed on a Sunday morning. She wasn’t calling at different times – it’s just that now she could see me. And it made all the difference to our conversations.

Calls between us have doubled since I got an iPhone. Being able to see each other means I can tell when my little bro is earwigging in the background, I can see my sister laughing at my lame attempts at jokes, and she can see me being mock-offended when she says I’m too old for cool things. It’s so much richer than a voice call. Apple didn’t invent or pioneer video calls, they just did what they always do – take a feature that was only popular with techy people and make it simple, accessible, and mainstream. They’ve done the same for MP3 players, smartphones, tablets, even phablets. You can’t fault them for it – it’s been really good for tech. And humanity. And Apple.

One month later: am I converted?

In a word, no. I dislike pretty much everything about the iPhone: it’s unintuitive, information-poor, and nigh-on impossible to customise beyond the superficial. It’s not for me.

But.

Having access to the full range of apps for the first time ever, using FaceTime, and (I hate to say this) being part of the crowd was good. I liked it. And I’m going to miss it.

I’ll never swap my Android for an iPhone, but you might see me with an iPad before long. And that’s a pretty major change for me.

You win this round, Apple.

Fancy an iPhone 6 of your own? Get it from EE now.

Holly Brockwell

81 comments

  • Like Holly, My entire family is a part of the Apple crowd. My wife has an iPhone 5S, iPad, iPad Mini…you get the point. I own a new Moto X, I’m android. I love the options it offers me. Heck, I love the experience my Moto X is giving me. Here’s my rub: like the author I’ve used the iPad and even the iPhone for short infrequent periods, and there are things that might seem intuitive on the surface, they just aren’t.
    Making a phone call come immediately to mind; I should have to drill down through a series of taps or menus just to get a number board and dial.
    Apple has a back button, but it’s not easy to recognize and everytime I try to back up using the same action in a different app, it fails to meet my expectation for function.
    Android gives me something remarkably simple: a back button, located in the same place all the time, and it always does the the same thing: send you back one action! That is simple, intuitive design. That’s not my sole gripe about iOS though.
    The inability to move those icons that matter most to you stinks. How many people really need Settings on their home screen? It’s a useful thing to access, but only when I need it. Otherwise, get it out of my way, please.
    Multitasking? Apple? I just haven’t figured it out. Totally baffles me. Android, just tap the little lower right hand soft key and cycle through your recently opened apps. Again, very simple.
    Holly, you hit it right on the head; Apple has a great ecosystem for Apple. But android is flexible, don’t like a service swap it with one you do like. Be together, Not the Same.

  • Iphones are designed for ease of use. But poor battery life and no memory expansion are hurdles which many of my iPhone owning friends have. Also form factor choice is limited. But second hand values are good.

    I still think the Samsung’s smart view cases are great as is the S Pen, both of which have no parallels on Apple world.

  • So one month in and she’s not converted: more and better app and better versions of apps and a greater ecosystem and sense of community just don’t cut it when she can’t find the mute button, or she can’t see that just simply touching the camera button instead of swiping it would lead to a lot more accidental and unintended pics being taken. Like the main screen swipe to unlock, that’s why it’s intuitive: it makes more sense. But don’t feel bad about not converting within a month, that’s how Android users are. In fact, Kit Kat came out about a year ago and 75% of Android usersstill haven’t converted to that. They’re pretty much laggards when it comes to upgrading their OS, and that’s a year later with Google’s own wonderful chocolate bar.

    Go Gingerbread!

  • I normally save the following for those that bitch/complain/whine about anything other that what they like. Those that bitch about Apple, in particular, have been “doing it wrong” for so long that the Apple ecosystem flummoxes them. It’s different. WTf did you expect? Jesus you’re insufferable.

  • I completely understand why you’d prefer Android over iOS. I respect your preference and choice. But when you say iOS is not as intuitive as everyone believes and that it’s only familiar, you’re sort of contracting yourself. You are too familiar with how everything works in Android that everything in iOS feels counterintuitive to you. I am confident that someone who has absolutely no experience of using a smartphone or even a phone of any sort will find iOS far easier to use than Android, because he or she has no expectation of how a feature ought to work. Just my 2 cents. Other than that, a great review!

    • Not true for my wife. She found IOS fustrating and inflexible. Much happier with her Sony Z2. Main issues were with iCloud and photos (those taken pre Oct 2013), lack of memory expansion and strange inability to buy Kindle books from the Kindle app.

    • The hell am I reading now?

      You’re telling me that iOS requires no experience to be learnt compared to Android? Who makes you believe such lies? With all what I learned above, reality is Android is very suited for a first experience of smart phones, more so than this iOS. Visible back button, volume down all the way to silence, a keyboard with a visible way to tell whether its uppercase or not, and you’re still telling me iOS?!! Ugh…

  • “yet haven’t found space or money for a dedicated camera button. ”

    Which modern smartphone has a dedicated camera button? Don’t most of them not have a dedicated camera button?

      • So that’s one modern smartphone so far.

        Why is the author of this article making it seem like every modern smartphone has a dedicated camera button?

          • Even her own phone doesn’t have a dedicated camera button, so why should you care about it then?

          • I believe that the Galaxy S5 does not have a dedicated camera button; there is no button solely for activating the camera/activating the shutter. You can use the volume buttons to take a picture, but you can do that on the iPhone too.

  • “If you want to put it on silent WITHOUT vibration – well, even iPhone users couldn’t tell me how to do that.”

    Settings -> Sounds -> Vibrate on Silent

    Personally, I prefer turning off the vibrate on silent, so that way, when I flip the switch on the side, the phone is completely silent.

  • I’m not sure who told you that you were a tech person…but you’re certainly not. This has to be the most ignorant biased review I have ever read. I am not an Apple or Android fanboy. I’m a technology slut. I go with who I feel has the best iteration of their OS at any given time. I’ve owned more phones than I care to admit to. I usually gravitate back to an IPhone because of stability and fluidity. Also because an iPhone stays relatively fast after months of use. That’s not to say iOS 8 doesn’t suck occasionally cause it does. It also has more bugs than any previous iOS version. Even with that in mind I still choose iOS most of the time. I think androids Google search is miles better than Siri, Apple maps sucks still and I prefer Amoled to IPS. So with that in mind why wouldn’t I stay with Android? Because of the app quality and the persistent jankiness that android can’t totally shed. If Apple continues down the path that iOS 8 is paving and Android continues improving then one day I’ll probably make the perminent switch. Until then I’ll keep testing the Android waters with a iPhone on hand just in case.

  • “I’m not a very bright person and it’s all the iPhone’s fault! And that super-complicated box it comes in!!!”

      • The funny thing is that she owns a One Plus One which uses pretty much the same mechanism to remove the phone from the box. The box itself is just a bit smaller. Really can’t find the problem here…

  • Review outline: waste time on box, tell off-topic story about charger to make dig about proprietary cable, share personal failures about volume operation, make nonsense point about a back-button (ever tried swiping?), wax a little about FaceTime and irrelevant family stories, make tired point about techie tinkerers preferring Android, something about apps, and…we’re done. Btw, my 4 year old operates the volume switches without asking for help and he didn’t even read the one page set up guide. Ouch. Thanks for nothing Zite.

  • Holly: as an apple user I was prepared to give you a hard time but your review was fair and understandable for someone that has used android for so long. I suspect getting the new iPad when it arrives will give you the best of both worlds . Good review.

  • She doesn’t blame it for someone losing the power cable. She blames Apple for refusing to us a universal power cable design, despite the level of efficiency being just as good, because that way they will sell more of their own accessories and make more money.

    I’m not saying I blame Apple for doing this, it’s a viable commercial strategy, but it’s also incredibly blatant to the point that some would call it racketeering & something Apple are famous for doing

    • Between USB, micro usb, mini usb or whatever… are we really better with USB?
      Recent example, I can’t use the same cable to charge my ps4 controller and my ps3 controller. Problem is the PS4 cable is extremely short.
      I’d rather have a cable that’s the right size like Lightning rather than one that’s cross-compatible but isn’t.
      This is a non-issue, if you buy an iPhone, you get a cable.

      • I’m sorry, but this isn’t a great argument. Your PS4 cable is too short? Buy a longer one! I have a Windows Phone, and if I go to the house of any friend owning any phone except an iPhone I can say “Hey, can I charge my phone?” and they’ll lend me their charger. Likewise if they come to my place. But when my iPhone friends come round, they’re out of luck, as am I if I go to theirs.

        It’s not an argument about which technology is better, it’s about ubiquity and compatibility. I don’t understand why the vast majority of tech companies can’t see that that the largest profits come about when they get their heads together and agree on standards (see: Blu-Ray, eventually, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.) rather than forcing people to buy into a proprietary technology that is inevitably inferior in at least some ways to the alternatives and is much more likely to become obsolete. Consumers and businesses like standards, standards are good. And yet it’s taken an EU directive to bring about the change to USB charger compatibility in phones, not any kind of altruism or epiphany on the part of phone manufacturers. I’m not sure how Apple get around it, though I heard that they argued their device was a music player and therefore exempt.

        • “Your PS4 cable is too short? Buy a longer one!”
          Same thing with the Lighning cable. You don’t have one? Buy one!

          ” they’ll lend me their charger”

          hope that it’s the same USB plug

          ” I’m not sure how Apple get around it”
          yes, I still don’t understand either.

  • I don’t see this so much as Android v iPhone, but an interesting look at the process of converting from one system to the other, something I think most of us have done at some point – or would have to consider before making the change.

    If you are the sort of person who has never changed, but choose to slag off the writer for communicating her experiences in doing so, then it is most likely you are blinkered having not gone through it yourself.

    But most importantly – who cares enough about their Operating system/hardware to make personal attacks on people?! Unless your embarrassed about what you’ve spent on your relative choices and therefore are on the constant defensive about the decision?

    Variety is the spice of life, and if the differing systems weren’t pushing each other then any singular product we were forced to use would most likely be inferior. Enjoy your choice rather than slagging off other peoples.

    • I changed to Android too, long ago.
      It was a mess at the time. Much has changed apparently, but to me it’s not important if I can change the look of the icons in my dock… I’ve got more important things to do in life and stopped playing with UIs when I was little.

  • Whenever someone complains that something isn’t intuitive I can’t help but translate that to “It doesn’t work the way I’m used to.” Apple is famous for allowing people that are otherwise uncomfortable with technology to do things they never would have before. FaceTime is a perfect example. Apple gets intuitive more than any other tech company, it’s a huge reason why it is so successful. It’s also a huge reason why Apple users, even though they are arguably less tech savvy than a lot of android users, actually use technology like video chats very frequently.

    There are a huge number of people that have android phones and iPads. You’ll love it:)

    • Apple is the farthest from intuitive. End of story.

      Tell me of another OEM who doesn’t use back buttons, lower the volume button to silence the volume, or use capital letters with only an indicator of whether the keyboard is capital or small. You can’t, and people can use these just fine. Who are you to delare this new bold approach to phones intuitive?

  • If you continue to lambast this imbecile, then she gets rewarded…she gets the attention she craves not to mention this stupidly written article gets noticed the editor would say “the writer did a great job”. I only chanced upon this garbage because I liked it on Zite. But thank goodness I can easily block articles from this horrendously constructed website

  • Exactly, the box is designed to be easy to open. Remember the box of the first Nexus 7? Go check the unboxing compilation people, Google totally failed on that one.
    Having a switch for mute is unintuitive (it’s explained on the one page explanation paper) but keeping the down volume button is?
    I’m surprised that Dropbox doesn’t use sharing extension, but then again she wouldn’t have been able to find the option to add the extension to the list…

  • I’ve had iPhone for year and switched to a galaxy s5 a couple of months ago. I will say that the Is OK but nothing compared to the iPhone. Everyone has to remember that apple started the smart phone technology and they r more advanced then everyone else. So in that note I will be going back to my iPhone again. What a big mistake switching I made.

    • Actually, hate to pop your Apple fanboy/fangirl bubble, but the IBM Simon was the first smartphone.

    • What a big mistake in choosing Apple first. Of course you’re gonna switch because you already planted yourself deep into the iTerritory. Same for any Android diehard trying to use iPhone.

  • I’m an Apple fanboy but that you prefer Android I can understand. But preferring Windows over Mac?? Ahah that’s just ridiculous, especially if we compare Yosemite to Windows 8.

    • I personally prefer Windows and Linux to Mac, but I know the inner workings of Mac better.

      • I’ll never understand how it’s possible to prefer windows to mac. I see only one logical argument for it, games.

    • Haha I agree. Unless you need apps that are only available on Windows, OS X is far superior.

      • It’s just on another planet. Both from visual and functional point of views Yosemite is just so much better. It’s more secure, looks way better, much easier to use, just as customizable and even easier to tinker with since it’s Unix. No registry or version number crap.

    • Yosemite or anything OSX don’t come anywhere near Linux, which doesn’t come anywhere near Windows 8 either. Pffft, I know Mac products are inferior yet more expensive.

      • Arguments please. Design-wise, 8 is a mess, that’s common knowledge.
        Functionally, 8 has inferior solutions for widgets, notifications, extensions. It’s also ugly, while Yosemite looks great.

        • Common knowledge among the noobs of technology you mean? Windows 8’s UI is easily explorable and used whether you’re on a touch or a mouse and keyboard system, and if you can tell how to use the iPhone, you can tell how to use Windows 8. Plus hey, let’s not call W8 ugly. Wouldn’t that award be given to Apple’s crap? Always the ugliest ducks with the most popularity. If your big issue lies within moving from the desktop to the Start screen, as if it were a too big issue, make Start use your desktop wallpaper. Problem solved.

          Notifications worked fine AFAIK, but its solution to widgets is sort of brilliant. Live tiles are brilliant. That can’t be argued. Don’t know about your extensions though. So stop rooting for your iOverMacied stuff already. Windows has a better app ecosystem, and its also much better and cheaper than the fancy but useless OS X you have.

          • “the noobs of technology you mean”
            only a Microsoft fanboy would say that. I’m surprised those still exist. Well after all fanboys never die, however shitty what they revere is.

            “Windows 8’s UI is easily explorable”
            bipbipbip false !

            “whether you’re on a touch”
            try editing the registry with touch!

            “a mouse and keyboard system”
            enjoy those touch-optimized full screen apps with your mouse rofl !

            “if you can tell how to use the iPhone, you can tell how to use Windows 8”
            that’s probably why Windows 8 is as successful as iOS… oh wait !

            “Plus hey, let’s not call W8 ugly.”
            no, let’s call it awful

            “Wouldn’t that award be given to Apple’s crap?”
            no because Yosemite looks amazing.

            “Always the ugliest ducks with the most popularity.”
            well no, or windows 8 would be popular

            “If your big issue lies within moving from the desktop to the Start screen, as if it were a too big issue”
            so there is at least an issue, thanks for clearing that up

            “make Start use your desktop wallpaper. Problem solved.”
            well no because you think that clicking the background would take you back to the desktop which it does not, which is counterintuitive. Then again, Apple does it right with Launchpad which works just like that.

            “Notifications worked fine AFAIK”
            well no, or they wouldn’t be changing it completely for Windows 10

            “but its solution to widgets is sort of brilliant. Live tiles are brilliant.”
            live tiles aren’t widgets, I can’t check a particular day on the calendar tile for example.

            “That can’t be argued.”
            It can and I did just that.

            “iOverMacied”
            what does that even mean?

            “Windows has a better app ecosystem”
            windows doesn’t even have a free app comparable to iMovie pleeease.

            “its also much better”
            We just cleared that wasn’t true.

            “cheaper”
            no obviously since OS X and its updates are free which make it infinitely cheaper than Windows.

            I hear Windows 10 is getting Exposé ten years later. Good for you!

          • “only a Microsoft fanboy would say that. I’m surprised those still exist. Well after all fanboys never die, however shitty what they revere is”
            You mean one who knows how to spend 5 minutes learning a new UI just like learning the obviously harder iPhone? Oh my.

            “bipbipbip false !”
            bipbipbip you haven’t used the system in the first place.

            “try editing the registry with touch!”
            Why would I want to mess with my registry in the first place, is beyond me.

            “enjoy those touch-optimized full screen apps with your mouse rofl !”
            I am enjoying them, luckily without issues. And with a mouse.

            “that’s probably why Windows 8 is as successful as iOS… oh wait !”
            iOS is successful?! Its far from a successful system. If anything its the bad publicity of Windows 8 that some noobs promote, such as you are, sadly.

            “no, let’s call it awful”
            No, let’s call it awful that you obviously didn’t use the system but judge it regardless.

            “no because Yosemite looks amazing.”
            You mean it looks as boring as Apple’s other products as always. I have my translator ready to translate your gibberish you know.

            “well no, or windows 8 would be popular”
            The ugliest ducks = Apple. Duh!

            “so there is at least an issue, thanks for clearing that up”

            Well, you’re too quick in thinking that this non-issue is an issue indeed.

            “well no because you think that clicking the background would take you back to the desktop which it does not, which is counterintuitive. Then again, Apple does it right with Launchpad which works just like that.”
            Meh. There are elements on the background such as your current profile, search button, power options, the “Apps” arrow and the scrollbar below. If anything, it is COUNTERINTUITIVE to make the background take you back to the desktop when it has elements on top of it. Operate your brain for a damn little and forget your crapple for a moment. Apple was never intuitive or right on anything.

            “well no, or they wouldn’t be changing it completely for Windows 10”
            You mean changing them for the better, right? Duh.

            “live tiles aren’t widgets, I can’t check a particular day on the calendar tile for example.”
            You just admitted you haven’t used the system. Again. So you want to figure out what’s the next Friday is? Turns out the Windows Store has a lot of alternative calendar apps that do what you want. Here’s one.
            http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/2ad58318-7d8a-468f-8a3e-fa736a7c21ed

            “It can and I did just that.”
            Yes. You did prove you didn’t use the system. So you argued my point that live tiles are brilliant by saying the calendar app’s live tile doesn’t work, which translates to “I didn’t use the system.”

            “what does that even mean?”
            It means what it said. Quarter a brain is required to decipher the meaning.

            “windows doesn’t even have a free app comparable to iMovie pleeease.”
            Look look look. You surely could find one. Oh, and you thought iMovie is free? Not until you pay an extra tonne for the system, fool. When it comes to price, Mac > Windows + Movie Editor.

            “We just cleared that wasn’t true.”
            You cleared it wasn’t true by saying imaginary things.

            “no obviously since OS X and its updates are free which make it infinitely cheaper than Windows.”
            Fool. The price of the Mac you bought is a lot more expensive than a computer with the equivalent specs plus a paid Windows license. Think of it for an entire day and you’ll come to a consensus.

            “I hear Windows 10 is getting Exposé ten years later. Good for you!”
            And what the hell am I supposed to react? Be sad that some weird thing I never heard about is not going to get into Windows, or be happy that I’m living without it normally?

            Use Windows 8 first. Until then, your points are instantly invalid.

          • “the obviously harder iPhone”
            suuuure

            “you haven’t used the system in the first place.”

            if that’s what it takes for you to be reassured, fine. Good boy.

            ” Its far from a successful system.”
            I think we’re done here. No sense in arguing with someone who’s clearly out of touch with reality.

          • “suuuure”
            Say that to the phone with no way to tell whether its showing uppercase letters or lowercase letters apart from a single shift button.

            “if that’s what it takes for you to be reassured, fine. Good boy.”
            I’m assured regardless of whether an Apple fanboy like you have used it or not that its a good system. Capiche?

            “I think we’re done here. No sense in arguing with someone who’s clearly out of touch with reality.”

            When Android has over 80% market share despite Apple’s millions of crusader-like campgains to bring people to iOS and convince them that Android is poverty, something is really far off a successful system, and you, Apple fanboy, won’t admit that, because you don’t want to live in the reality you’re in. Nice one! Now get the hell outta here. Looks like I made you the biggest butthurt by telling you that your system failed in its crusades.

          • Surprise though, Google is having part of the ‘more revenue’ by summoning their apps into Apple’s cheap-looking but high priced cabins, therefore Google is not only feeding off Android’s revenue but iOS’, too. Happy now?

            Android phones range from the crappy Chinese $1 phone (if that exists) to phones beating your iBrick’s price by ages (but are still overpriced), but they give you a lot more features at half the price of an iBrick and aren’t as bendy. See who’s going to fall into poverty first?

          • “not only feeding off Android’s revenue but iOS”
            No way?! Ooh, you know so much stuff! What are you going to teach me next? That Jobs died??

            ” Happy now?”
            No, simply baffled by so much fanboys and your desperate attempts using lame ‘arguments’ at moving farther and farther from my original comment.

            You said Android isn’t poverty, I clearly showed it is, and you did too :
            “Android phones range from the crappy Chinese $1”

            So, as I was saying initially, in Windows 10 you’ll enjoy Exposé, a notification center, a search button on the taskbar, and lots of other things OSX has had for years. And for free you’ll also get the viruses, the registry, and the ugly and inconsistent UI !

            Oh did you hear? Ford just dumped MS for their in-car system solution.

          • “No way?! Ooh, you know so much stuff! What are you going to teach me next? That Jobs died??”
            Tim Cook is gay.

            “No, simply baffled by so much fanboism and your desperate attempts at using lame ‘arguments’ for moving farther and farther from my original comment.”
            So am I. Baffled about your fanboyism, desperate attempts at using lame arguments to move me off the line, and then seeing a mirror instead of me so you think I’m a fanboy. So less revenue = poverty? Nice. How about less revenue = customer’s choice? My choice to get free versions of the apps on the Play Store (something Apple is not nearly known for, yet) or buy less IAPs than you Appals do. Or I can pick up an iPhone and live the life of a poor fellow who doesn’t have internet yet. Surprise.

            “You said Android isn’t poverty, I clearly showed it is, and you did too :”Android phones range from the crappy Chinese $1″”
            What you did is basically twist my words, so you think I did say that. Look, there’s a shop selling the first iPhone for $1, used, so using your logic, iPhone is poverty! Oh wait, I can pay around $850 for the iPhone 6+. High price, Chinese knockoff quality. So let’s mark that under poverty too.

            “So, as I was saying initially, in Windows 10 you’ll enjoy Exposé, a notification center, a search button on the taskbar, and lots of other things OSX has had for years. And for free you’ll also get the viruses, the registry, and the ugly and inconsistent UI !”

            -What the hell is your expose thing, for all I care is that I don’t care about it.
            -Notification center? Its already here.
            -Search from the taskbar? You meant that I cannot search from the charms bar (google that) or press the Windows key and type in my search (google that)
            -Nope, you mean getting a few features Linux had. What does your OSX have had for years? The Apple logo? I wouldn’t want that.
            -Viruses: You’re indeed a noob at using computers, you could perhaps get out.
            -UI: How ugly are you? Perhaps you’re uglier than the UI so you think the fine looking UI is ugly. It is second to Material Design in coolness. Oh, the Apple Store’s UI is not even as great as either, nor your OSX, so you could just take your leave because I’m not a bit shaked by a blatant computer noob and obvious Apple fanboy as you (oh wait, you admitted you are one).

          • – My original comment was about comparing OSX to Windows
            – You don’t know OSX (“What the hell is your expose thing”)
            > You are not in a position to compare them ; your opinion is irrelevant.

            CASE CLOSED

          • -Meh.
            -Meh that as well.
            -Meh too.

            /reopen the case

            None of these points are strong enough to be enough of a closure eh?

  • Hi, frist thought, atlast a Girl tech Android tester trying an iPhone, i Can finaly send an articel to my Android sister to male her se som good points.
    But no.

    Keyword her: knowledge

    One cant review an iPhone with out prober knowledge. A thech person knows that.
    I’m a tech iPhone user, and will help you.
    First, the dedicated silence bottom, I a COSTYMISATION that allows you separate volume and complete silence.(vibration can be turn off in setting, or change the physical bottom to a rotation lock instead.) fast way to silence or not.
    Yes there is a dedicated camera bottom. Press the + bottom and take picture.
    Backbottom, nope coz You dont need one. Simply swipe from left > right on the left side of the screen.
    Lock screen camera bottom, you swipe up so you don’t acsedently push it.

    The small big letters I agee with you.

    Now there is like a 1000 features you did not cover, so ask one who actually know the iPhone device. Hope you reply.

        • A single tap of a button is much faster than having to swipe the phone and hoping it registers. Doesn’t require quarter a brain to understand.

          • Make hole UI bottom to save minimal time. Dont Think that is true, and Make a bottom because of less Brian use! Haha that just dum!

            No it males mush more sens to interated In the software instead.
            the problem with fixed Keys are they are fixed!
            The swipe can be done where You Want it. And it is as fast i believe.

          • Oh really? Apple has one fixed key at the bottom that’s persistent regardless of the model, and that’s the HOME button. So it should make better sense to put a back button near that home button. And nope. The swipe can be laggier in games, or may happen accidently whether I’m playing Temple Run 2 or browsing a desktop site. And it is NEVER going to be as fast as just tapping the back button. NEVER. And its never as obvious as a back button. Deal with it.

  • Wow android users are dumb. I can’t believe she called herself a tech person and had so much trouble with the iPhone. First I used to HATE apple also and do use a PC however the iPhone is EASY to use both my young kids and 80 year old mom with Alzheimers have figured it out virtually immediately.

    It also amazes me that she and another person on here who likes the CONTROL of Android couldn’t figure out how to JAIL BREAK the device and then get the best of both worlds. Better phone, better OS, better camera that takes superior pics and videos, better APPS because developers make money making iPhone apps and go broke on Android AND all the customization of Android PLUS MORE with thousands of jailbreak tweaks. Also real tech people can design their OWN tweaks on jailbroken phone as well but they are the real techs.

    If this author knew anything they’d know that almost every great iPhone new feature was stolen by Apple from the jailbreaking community.

    It’s kind of silly to worry about whether the feature you want is FROM Apple or a third party, EVERY feature you could want and thousands you don’t even know exist that make using the phone more enjoyable than 100% of Androids and 88% of Apple’s non jailbroken devices.

    Every single valid complaint you have above is SOLVED by a jailbreak solution. Try jailbreaking your iPhone and throw the Android in the trash where it belongs. ROFL

    • Not starting anything BUT, u cant really use jail breaking as a valid argument here. Lets take a gs5 and an icrap 6. Jail bteak yours and ill root mine. Yours allows u do do things mine already does…. mine allows me to go far beyond that, i can flash a custom rom, overclock And even bypass carrier specific blocks and do things like have a free 4g hotspot.

      I think she hit it on the nail. Its a different class of phons in my own opinion, iphone are for the generic consumer, android is for the techy peeps out there.

      • “iphone are for the generic consumer, android is for the techy peeps out there.”

        That is very very well said. No one could have put it better.

    • Yes, she’s an expert in tech and customising but has trouble using the iPhone… makes no sense.

    • More buttons = less functions on one button, functions spread out more = as long as you have under 7 buttons or so, simpler.
      Another thing too: Android is open source, and based on the Linux kernel.
      Also, the Google Play developer license is $25, once. Apple’s is a $99, once a year reccuring payment. Some developer cruelty going on at Apple. Seriously.

      Save the developers. Switch to Android.

      Plus, Google Play has more apps than the App Store, and you can even buy devices on the Play Store. Developers also can make money off their apps. Have you even used Android?
      Seriously, get your facts straight. Plus, Cydia Substrate is on Android (It’s in development)

      And lastly, the back button is AMAZING. You should try it. Once you do, there’s no going back (or, I guess there is, if you press it *ba dum tss*).

    • Um, dude. I don’t think jailbreaking a review model is A) allowed and B) a very good way to test what iOS is actually like for the majority of users. Which was the point of the post.

      • But you said you are a tinkerer. If you want to tinker with an iPhone, you can, and Cydia was there with much stuff that came to Android later.

    • Good. So you’re telling me that to enjoy an iPhone, I need to jailbreak it. But here is one thing I can tell you, I can enjoy Android without rooting it.

      Oh, nice. iPhone is easy to use? Only for Apple users. With all the above concerns such as no silent mode, lack of a back button, inabiltiy to tell the difference between upper class and lowerclass in the keyboard, just makes this phone far from intuitive. I think that contrary to what iFans say, Android is MUCH easier to use.

  • You hit on the key point – ecosystem. Apple has done an amazing job of building a developer ecosystem for apps, a user ecosystem for iMessage, FaceTime, and more (plus those beautiful apps the developers … develop).

    Google certainly aims to create an even greater ecosystem for developers – tools, common code languages, develop for so many devices & sizes. It still amazes me that Microsoft, with a seemingly built-in ecosystem with Windows, .NET & C# development, etc., has not been able to keep up.

    But that is where the article is lost on me. Having gone from Android to iOS, the ‘intuitive’ isn’t about buttons – physical, virtual, or lack-there-of – but rather all applications act within the same context. iOS doesn’t have a back button? The apps aren’t designed to have one! Unlike Android, were sometimes the back button takes you back within the app, while other times the back button takes you back to the home page, or previous app!

    Intuitive is when my grandmother, or my 4-year-old nephew, can pick up the device, and immediately use it – and then with the SAME DEVICE, utilize a business application, or key banking apps, or anything else complex & fantastic design.

    I love Android, and it clearly serves a purpose in this world. But I think this article proves that one purpose of Android is for people who refuse to buy in to an ecosystem with clear, tangible benefits, and an OS that is overwhelmingly dominant in the developer community.

    • I don’t think it’s fair to say that Microsoft hasn’t been able to keep up in terms of the developer experience – .NET, C# and so on are well-established, robust technologies used all over the place. The problem has been Microsoft’s inability to convince developers to develop for their platform. Apple’s development tools aren’t superior, but Apple recognised how to empower developers with any budget to easily make a profit from their work, and doing so first gave them a head start. Developers flocked to get a piece of the pie and have been making amazing apps ever since. Android can’t be ignored because the user base is so large, so developers, eventually, write apps for that OS too.
      Windows Phone doesn’t suffer from a lack of apps because the development tools are no good, it suffers because the user base is so small that there is little incentive for developers to invest their time in developing for that OS, which is a shame because I think the OS is great. Sadly, it’s an invirtuous circle – low market share leads to fewer apps, leading to fewer users wanting to buy into the OS, perpetuating the lack of apps. Thankfully, due to Microsoft financially incentivising several major developers, the majority of the most popular apps are now available on Windows Phone (though often in a form inferior to the Android and iOS versions), and the ‘app gap’ isn’t as bad as it once was, but it’ll still definitely be a factor when I’m deciding what phone to purchase next.

      • @philipstratford:disqus agreed. But I think we are arguing the same point – with a development language that is so well-established, and a corporate strategy that adopts applications to be used in desktop/laptop/mobile environments, why haven’t they attracted more developers?

        Profit. Like you said, that is what is driving today’s developers.

        Another comment below suggests that Apple’s $99/year is harmful to developers. It does not seem to be interfering in iOS or the developer’s success one bit. I’d be extremely confident that a survey of students graduating with a software engineering/computer science degree have their eyes on Apple’s SWIFT language in one fashion or another. I work in a Fortune 50 technology environment, with a legacy in Windows & Linux platforms. They have recently, and strongly, adopted a Mac OS X policy, simply to compete with the demands of today’s top computer engineers, who want a choice between all three.

        I have no doubt that Apple, Google, & Microsoft will remain dominant in this space, but Apple is overwhelming dominating the US app development market.

  • Really interesting write-up. I feel exactly the same about the iPhone – it’s fine if you want it just the way it is, not so good if you want control. In fact, the same goes for most of Apple’s products, and this is the thing that’s hard to convey to non-tecchy types when they want to know why I am so much in favour of having a PC over a Mac. Then again, the people that don’t understand probably also wouldn’t care. Just make it shiny and easy to use and they’re sold.

    You’re right in what you say about the App Gap (I feel it even more keenly as a Windows Phone user, as you touched on), and it particularly irritates me how perfectly good technologies like video calling with perfectly good implementations like Skype only gain traction when Apple produce their take on them, leaving those of us who have persevered for years while the technology was nascent now being told by newcomers with no idea that it’s been around forever how good it is! And then, if you want to keep using the technology you’ve been wanting everybody to adopt for all those years, you have to switch to their version of it!

    I don’t know if my next phone will be Windows, iPhone or Android. I’ll have a think about it in the summer when my contract ends. Until fairly recently the answer would have been a resounding ‘Windows Phone’ because I like the OS (despite how far it lags behind the competition in some ways), and I’m heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, which is generally excellent. But as Microsoft becomes more of a ‘devices and services’ company, making their products available on all platforms, this is less of an issue, and switching to another phone OS shouldn’t be too difficult.

    • Very well said, I agree with you on all counts. I think Android is the best of all worlds, personally: customisation, app choice and security (I’m not sure how much of a future Windows Phone has, though it’s probably fine for a couple of years). But I also have more of a perspective now on why people choose iOS, and that understanding can only be a good thing on the battlefield of tech.

    • Tell me one product in the world which is perfect…. Why is it that android L has not yet reached any phone yet ? I also heard it is very buggy?? Do you know that after a year of release “Kitkat” is still on 32% of phones ? That is totally ridiculous – what the hell !!

      Personally I want to ditch all these smartphones and go back to having a phone like the plain old Nokia phones with an actual keyboard whose only purpose is to make calls !!

      • Fragmentation is probably Android’s biggest problem and if Google don’t do something to address it soon it could eventually be the reason the OS goes into decline.
        But comments like that about going back to the older-style ‘feature phones’ are a bit silly. You go ahead and get one of those, they’re still available, but you’ll have to prise my smartphone, whichever one I have, from my cold, dead hands. It is invaluable to me – not for checking Facebook or making inane comments on Twitter, but for listening to music, managing my diary, taking photographs, telling me when that thing in the oven is done, letting me look up words I don’t know, controlling the Sonos setup in my house, reading my Kindle on the bus and many, many other things.
        Choice is good. You should be able to choose a feature phone. I should be able to choose a smartphone. And we can!

        • Choice is also there to choose between a cigerette, cocaine or alcohol – this is a free market , right ? Yep, of course !

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