Help and advice

[Deranox]

Hello guys.I'm new here.
I just want to ask a few questions.I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S II Plus but I am not happy at all with it's performance and the android OS overall because of often app crashes, phone freezing, intrusive app permissions and overall security of the OS.
I must say that I like the customization part and the fact that some core things I use on my phone are free in google play store unlike in the iOS App store which seem to cost money.Other than these 2 it's been 1 dreadful year of android experience.
I'm thinking of buying an iPhone 5 or wait for the iPhone 6 and here's me hoping that it looks exactly like the 5s but just with a bigger screen and better hardware of course.
So my questions are :
1.How is the security in iOS ?

2.Are app permissions the same problem as they are on Android ? I heard you could restrict every app on what information it gives away ( unneeded information in my opinion and a lot of it on android >.< )

3.Is the phone worth the money ? I know I might start a war with this but there are better phones in terms of camera and durability for instance but I like the iPhone a lot so let's stick to it.Not looking for other suggestions for now.

4.Is iPhone 5/iOS as smooth as they say it is ? I heard that updating to the newest iOS 7.1 on an iPhone 5 makes it slower because it's an "older" phone and I don't want that.I'm going through the same thing with my current phone and I want a phone that runs silky smooth and flawlessly.

Thanks in advance to anyone who gives me some answers.

 

[g35]

Security is good on iOS. Apple keeps the app store very clean and it's very rare that someone will be compromised through the app store, though it has happened before. iOS also has more granular permissions controls than Android. On iOS, you can individually control access to Location, Photos, Contacts, Calendars, and a couple of other things I can't remember right now. So you could let Whatsapp access your contacts but not your photos. Or let Twitter access your location but not your contacts.

Almost everyone here will say it's worth the money. It's up to each individual. It's definitely worth it IMO compared to other similarly priced Android phones. It's the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Moto G that really tip the scales in this aspect. Those phones are by far the best values for smartphones. They're very capable, nice looking, cheap phones and if I were to switch away from iPhones, that's what I'd buy.

I am obsessed with 'smoothness.' The iPhone 5 runs very very smooth on iOS 7.1 and 7.1.1. The only downside is the reduced battery life compared to iOS 6. Whoever told you the iPhone 5 is slow on 7.1 is flat-out wrong. Look at this thread.

For some reason, Apple purposely slowed down the animations in iOS 7.0-7.0.6. There was lots of complaining. This was fixed in 7.1.

Maybe on iOS 8 the iPhone 5 won't be able to handle it. But the iPhone 4S is still pretty smooth on iOS 7, so I think it will take until at least iOS 9 before the iPhone 5 is no longer smooth on iOS.

 

[Deranox]

I think iOS 8 won't be a problem on iPhone 5 because there aren't any major changes that might make it slower.Keyboards and some more settings won't do any harm I think.
Any other comments ? I won't be able to use it to it's full potential though because I live in Bulgaria which is in Europe and some functions are limited here so I wonder if the price is worth it

 

[C DM]

I think iOS 8 won't be a problem on iPhone 5 because there aren't any major changes that might make it slower.Keyboards and some more settings won't do any harm I think.
Any other comments ? I won't be able to use it to it's full potential though because I live in Bulgaria which is in Europe and some functions are limited here so I wonder if the price is worth it

What kind of functions would be limited and in what way ?