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The one MAJOR iPhone advantage over most Android smartphones
- Thread starter ChrisTX
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You can buy a ton of accessories, but you still can't buy a spare iPhone battery!
Seriously, having a spare battery is sweet. As far as other accessories, most android flagships have a plethora of accessories. Definitely, not a deciding factor .
Seriously, having a spare battery is sweet. As far as other accessories, most android flagships have a plethora of accessories. Definitely, not a deciding factor .
It is actually one of the things I liked about the iPhone. I used to have an Android phone and the only place I could find cases for it was on eBay or Amazon. Usually the cases ended up being crappy and had no reviews so I had no idea what I was getting.
The iPhone has manufacturers that make really nice cases and you can buy them anywhere. They also have a lot of reviews so you know you aren't buying crap. It is also nice to go to the store and be able to feel what the case is like.
If you get a flagship android phone, it probably isn't so bad. I am just amazed when I go to Wal-Mart and they have like an entire aisle dedicated to iPhone cases and outside of that maybe 5 cases total for various other phones.
The iPhone has manufacturers that make really nice cases and you can buy them anywhere. They also have a lot of reviews so you know you aren't buying crap. It is also nice to go to the store and be able to feel what the case is like.
If you get a flagship android phone, it probably isn't so bad. I am just amazed when I go to Wal-Mart and they have like an entire aisle dedicated to iPhone cases and outside of that maybe 5 cases total for various other phones.
Because I couldn't find anything with reviews or if there were reviews, they were bad ones. I had the Samsung Moment and then the year after, I got the Samsung Epic. It was the same situation with both phones.
I don't buy a case or a screen protector.
isn't it a little on the ironic side that the universal Micro USB has LESS accessories than the proprietary Apple Connectors, awkward...
What lightning connector based accessories don't have microusb counterparts? Just curious
The only thing I honestly miss from my iPhone is the automatic backups. However I am finding ways with Android for that (like Google+ always backing up new photos, contacts stored with my gmail, etc). Still getting used to Android but not going back to an iPhone (phones cost less plus monthly fees are way cheaper).
I think it has more to do with software than hardware. Companies make accessories with the lightning port because they know all apple hardware (with lightning connector) will behave the same way, send the same information, etc.
On the android since of the fence not all phones support all the same protocols. Also, android is only getting USB audio out officially in Android L.
The lack of auto-backups is a huge sore spot in the Android user base. No one can understand why that isn't a feature at this point.
Android L is 'rumored' to have this. The code is there, I just think the sheer amount of data storage required may be something Google has to figure out. Remember, there are hundreds of millions more Android devices than iOS devices.
Fragmentation may not be an issue if Google limits the feature to only those devices running on 'L'. If they allow all devices, then I see issues.
http://www.swivl.com/solutions/
At the time, I wanted to record myself teaching in the classroom, and swivl was compatible only with the iPhone (well, technically, any device with a camera sporting a 30-pin port).
It seems that there are quite a number of niche devices which are designed primarily for iOS devices, and which won't be compatible with Android (namely because of the lightning port).
But I agree that it likely won't affect my choice of smartphone, because I only thought of wanting to record myself long after I got my 4s. It's more of a added bonus.
I think you'd still have issues if you did that. Not all android phones will get L, especially not at the same time. So a system image backup is only for devices with L? That wouldn't sit well especially since other than nexus devices other oems don't get day 1 updates
Nexus, GPe, Silver, One and Motorola Moto series usually (or in the case of Silver and One devices) get updates within days to a couple of weeks of release. US and Canadian carriers are the ones that tend to screw over the Android releases these days for OEM phones.
This is why people say to get nexus, GPe or unlocked devices if you are concerned about getting updates to the OS.
Although I agree that backup is an omission to some extent, how often is it needed and what for? TBH, If my phone bricks (none have so far) it would be a slight pain but nothing more to reinstall apps, as far as I can see texts would be lost but that doesn't bother me, photos are kept in the cloud anyway, music and media the same and on external card, documents are on Drop Box, contacts, calendars, e mails etc, etc. are not lost Is it just the set up of the phone? What am I missing that is so important that it needs automatic backups?
I'm under the impression that it is mostly for people like us that frequent these boards that it is an issue rather than "a huge sore spot in the Android user base," real world users don't bother that much.
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Contacts, calendar, photos, data, etc don't bother me either. They all live in at least one other place and are easy to reconnect to on a new phone.
For me, the big thing that is missing is the restoring of apps, home screen shortcuts, and settings. I consider it quite a big inconvenience to have to do all this manually with a new phone.
I know play store can offer to download your old apps, but in my experience it does not keep a record of the state of specific devices (which would allow you to choose which device to restore from), it just keeps a record of all the apps you have installed in the past on any device including the apps you no longer use.
I think non-techie users are wowed by iOS (and OS X via Time Machine) restore capabilities. Maybe not those who have not yet experienced it, but once they have people seem to be hugely impressed by it and it becomes a real draw of staying on iOS and OS X.
Yes, I appreciate your answer and do agree it is a pain, (apps, shortcuts and settings) but TBH, thats it, an inconvenience at worst and then it only needs to be done on a full failure of phone or a new upgrade. I may be underplaying this because I don't have a shed load of apps that I use but I still think for those not from boards like these that it is a low priority.
The only thing that ever gets lost when transferring to a new Android phone is screen layout and app data. Everything else including texts, wallpaper, Calander, notes, Internet bookmarks and log in details, call logs, contacts, photos etc are persevered. I use a micro SD card so I can just pop that into the next phone and once my apps have re-downloaded I'm good to go.
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Use Nova Launcher and built-in backup. New phone and you got your old layout back in no time
Use Nova Launcher and built-in backup. New phone and you got your old layout back in no time
I agree, my point being though fellas is that really, the only time a backup will be needed is a catastrophic phone malfunction or when a new phone is purchased, both of which are hardly weekly events, its nice to have,
but as a feature, IMHO, overblown, TBH, I would rather have a waterproof phone.
Having a complete system backup is nice to have but......it is not hard to reinstall apps. Pictures are synced on Dropbox. Contacts and calendar are on Google......Email Google and Hotmail synced through the cloud. The only benefit of a backup of apps would be the time saving and in app data.
I switch phones a lot and re-installing apps is fairly easy. All other data is being synced through some kind of cloud services.......
I would rather have a more durable and waterproof phone as well.