iPhone 6s buyers remorse?

[pixel_junkie]

Respectfully, I disagree. Android has come a very long way and Lollipop/Marshmallow are pretty good releases. Yes they still have some faults, but to say iOS is without any is very slanted.

iOS vs Android is a personal choice and I can't fault anyone for going one way vs. the other. For me, while I like Android, I can't stand how bloated the OS is.

It is truly incredible that a phone like the 6s has almost half the battery size, half the RAM and half the processing power of the SAMSUNG G S7, yet it has the same or better battery life which is a testament to how well the iOS is designed. On the S7, while I had it, optimizing the phone's battery life became an obsession which included at least 3 third party apps (Package Disabler Pro, Greenify and GSam) which I had to use in order to disable components running in the background or to force the phone to go into Doze mode just so I can make the phone get a decent battery life. In iOS, that functionality is built right into the OS so I can unable or disable parts of it as I find best for my needs and it works perfect.

Yes, iOS is pretty limited to augmentation but that's the price you pay to have a super smooth and reliable phone. My S7, even in it's completely stock configuration never ran as smoothly as my 6S. And the reason why I went back to an iPhone is that it would take me 5-6 hours to set up my S7 just the way I like it and at the end some setting somewhere or one extra downloaded app would break something completely unrelated to it elsewhere in the OS so I have to do a factory restore and start it all over.

And then it's the hardware - while SAMSUNG and other manufacturers are starting to get close, they are still not on the level of Apple devices. Fit, finish, craftsmanship are superb and the phones just feel premium. On the S7 for example, the buttons had a bit of a play (super minor but it was there) or the sim card compartment, the tray was a shade lighter than the rest of the phone. All small stuff for sure but still the attention to detail is not quite the same.

All that stuff adds to the overall experience. What good is a 4 GB of RAM or 3,000 mAH battery if the OS is bloated to the max and not efficient enough to run as smooth as comparable iOS phone? I still have over 30 apps downloaded and use the phone the same exact way I did on the Android side but with half the resources, yet far smoother overall experience.

 

[geoff5093]

It is truly incredible that a phone like the 6s has almost half the battery size, half the RAM and half the processing power of the SAMSUNG G S7, yet it has the same or better battery life

You just answered your own question. It's because high end Android phones have 2-4x the resolution, larger screens, more RAM, and more powerful processors. That's why they need larger batteries to get the same battery life as the iPhone. However, imagine if Apple used the same size batteries? No one could touch the iPhone for battery life

 

[Thierry ba]

You can get S7 anytime for the money you sell 6S but cannot other way.

 

[Jimmy James]

At the end of the day you're doing more or less the same think on either phone. The approach is different.

It seems so much like the old Windows vs. Apple pc debate. Windows is more open. But there's a higher susceptibility to viruses, slowdowns, conflicts. And you have to deal with more bloat ware. Maybe this is no longer the case with Android.

That being said I would love to try Android. But I'm going to be reading the same emails, surfing the same sites, calling the same people, playing the same games and watching the same videos. I don't feel that it matters much which platform I end up on.

 

[At Sea]

Not remorseful here, either. I came from an LG G3 and while I thought that phone was fine, there's just something about the 6SPlus that makes it look really pale in comparison. And I thought I would suffer separation anxiety after losing all that AT&T bloatware.

 

[pauljcarr]

I currently have both 6S Plus and S7 Edge and will sell one. I'm constantly torn between the two - both have great user experiences, albeit different. For me, the key differences are about software. When I have an Android phone, I miss iMessage and to a lesser extent FaceTime. Apple Pay is a nice little extra, although Android Pay and Samsung Pay will level that out when they come on stream here in the UK. Most of the other apps I use are present on both platforms, and are as good on one as the other.

A couple of hardware differences I notice - battery life should be better on the S7 Edge given the huge extra mAh that it has over the 6S Plus, and the iPhone has better reception than the S7. Where I can get calls on the 6S, the S7 shows no signal.

In all, for me the differences are things that users can live with, but as it is easy to buy and sell both, it makes for an ongoing dilemma, for me at least.

 

[emporiky]

You just answered your own question. It's because high end Android phones have 2-4x the resolution, larger screens, more RAM, and more powerful processors. That's why they need larger batteries to get the same battery life as the iPhone. However, imagine if Apple used the same size batteries? No one could touch the iPhone for battery life

I think that is exactly why the point pixel_junkie raises is really important - what does the fact that the Samsung needs x2 battery to sustain its x2 RAM and x2 processor, while delivering similar (arguably worse) performance tell you? For me that means that they are simply putting up more and more power without really thinking how to make the most out of what they have - it also shows their complete lack of control of the OS they are using.

Just to be clear - that is not to say Samsung are not making outstanding smartphones.

I think what also what made me end up with the iPhone is the form factor - i was using 4'' so far and to me even 4.7'' seems big. This makes the s7 edge way too big for my preference, at least for now (I have never considered the regular s7).

 

[dragontology]

At the end of the day you're doing more or less the same think on either phone. The approach is different.

It seems so much like the old Windows vs. Apple pc debate. Windows is more open. But there's a higher susceptibility to viruses, slowdowns, conflicts. And you have to deal with more bloat ware. Maybe this is no longer the case with Android.

That being said I would love to try Android. But I'm going to be reading the same emails, surfing the same sites, calling the same people, playing the same games and watching the same videos. I don't feel that it matters much which platform I end up on.

Oh no, it is still the same. Three phone upgrades to newer Android phones, still the same slowdowns. That's why I didn't upgrade to a fifth one. Though, I do think Android looks better, starting with Lollipop. They actually went to the trouble to make it look nice, but it's still a laggy mess.

Anyone can use Android, as long as you have a decent computer. Google "Nox." It puts an Android tablet in your computer. It's an app, it runs Android natively if you have the Intel virtualization stuff. No good on AMD. And it's only KitKat, but nobody's been able to get Lollipop or later on one of those (there are half a dozen similar products out there). I think it's based on the Android-x86 project, and I think they either gave up or development stalled... not really sure. But either way, KitKat's as far as they go.

But you can get into Google Opinion Rewards and get some games or IAPs for nothing, so there's that. Not to mention Amazon Underground, which has a lot of stuff that is just free (and of similar quality, haha).

 

[dalex7777]

Great comment - always interesting to hear the experience of Android users who switched to iPhone
At the end of the day the software (including its seamless update cycles), the ecosystem and the amazing apple customer service (at least in my experience) convinced me that the iPhone is the right choice for me.

Yes - the Samsung may have an advantage in the design of the edge model (although I really dislike the 'Samsung' logo on the front) and in the display and camera in low light, but the real day-to-day experience comes from using the software, which is simply better on the iPhone. Yet, its undeniable that competitors are catching up quickly and Apple really needs to up their game with the next iPhone (amazing article by Mossberg).

As someone whose first smartphone was the HTC G1, I upgraded yearly--sometimes twice a year--to whatever was the latest and greatest Android device. That continued for four years until I got my first iPhone, the 6 Plus in 2014. Despite owning an iPhone and using it as my daily driver, because of my role in testing apps, I continued to purchase from the Google Nexus line of phones up until the Nexus 6.

I say all of that to provide some context as to the experience that informs my opinion. And that is all this is: an opinion. Having said that, I cringe at the thought of returning to Android as my primary smartphone platform. And no amount of design can reconcile Samsung's persistent "wayward child" position in the Android ecosystem. So, as a former die-hard Android fan, I can't think of a set of features that would make me purchase a Samsung phone as my primary device. From both a hardware (USB-C) and software (TouchWiz or S-anything and S-everything) perspective Samsung fails or refuses to follow Google's design guidelines on how to make an optimal Android user experience.

If Samsung then is not the best of Android, then let's talk about Android vs iOS more generally. App development causes me to support a number of users and various flavors of Android. I literally have a cadre of some 6 devices or so to test any Android release. Why? Because Android. The crazy mixture of flagship QHD screens, now regressing back to 1080p for battery life, horrible firmware upgrade policies among vendors (Motorola,Samsung) radically different implementations of APIs inside the same version of Android on different hardware--it's a total mess.

And that is just Google's "own" hardware! (I'm looking at you 5X, 6P and 9). Android is a mess, and the question is it possible for it to even be able to go on in the radically disorganized state it's in?

Would I consider the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge over the iPhone 6s? Never. Would it be my third Android after either the Nexus 6P or whatever HTC/Google Nexus flagship and then the HTC 10? Possibly. But there are a lot of ducks ahead of that goose, including the Galaxy S7 itself, the Note 5 and the LG G5. If you do choose the Samsung, hopefully you are fortunate enough to have an in-store Samsung Experience in your local Best Buy where they will gladly sell you a Galaxy Gear or VR but never really fix any issues with your device. Comparing the 360 Apple experience to the 360 Samsung experience is like comparing a 1963 Corvette to a Tesla: there may not be as much chrome, but would you want the arguably better design as a daily driver?

 

[janeauburn]

Zimmy- there are threads like this one, because consumerism is about buying stuff, which doesn't necessarily always make people happier.

Excellent point.