iOS v Android

[Lee]

I bought a Motorola Droid 3-4 years ago when it came out. Loved it at first, but soon grew to hate it (extremely buggy, bad keyboard) and bought an iPhone a year later. At this point I am a huge iOS fan, having had both an iPhone and iPad for years now. Still I have been curious about how Android has progressed over the years, and I wanted a 7" tablet, so I bought a Nexus 7 tonight.

I bought the Nexus because I figured Asus/Google were the best bet. I want decent hardware and I want the OS upgrades immediately. I find the lack of timely updates for Android devices to be a major draw back for most of the products so knowing that the Nexus was Jelly Bean was a plus. Anyway I have been reading reviews for a while, and nothing seemed to be rated better than the Nexus for the price.

The Nexus is decent, I love the keyboard, and fear getting used to it and then going back to my iPad. Outside of that? Screen is marginal at best, low res, dull colors, auto brightness is horrible. While the OS seems to be speedy, too often I have to wait in apps. Apps seem years behind iOS. Even apps available for both, are better on iOS. It's jarring how bad apps are at times. True they are vastly cheaper, but I would rather pay and get quality. Battery life is not even close to an iPads it seems so far. Text interface outside of the keyboard is bad (cut and pasting much easier on iOS). What am I missing?

It's very fair to say that I need to spend more time with the Nexus, since it is one of he highest rated Android tablets, I feel like I am missing something.  I can't think that my disappointment is hardware based. So what am I missing?

[hepcat]

Objectivity?

all kidding aside, I've found over the years that the strengths a mac user believes his choice gives him are viewed as weaknesses by pc (or in this case, android) users, and vice versa.  for every argument about iOS being much more stable than its counterpart in the android world, there's a counterargument that that's because the iOS is only that way because Apple puts too many restrictions on the OS. 

Personally, I prefer the abacus.

[Lee]

Sure, I am biased, but I used an android phone long before I used an iPhone, and didn't find it anything special then either. It has come a long ways, and I do think iOS needs to evolve to give more choices, but I don't find many advantages for Android over iOS. Out of the box I find it quite awkward. Of course time will tell.

[wonderpug]

I've never sat down and spent a serious amount of time with Android, but a number of times I've had brief exposure from borrowing someone's phone, and I've never had a good impression.  

The first turnoff is the gigantor size of the Android phones I borrow.  I honestly don't know how people can bear to have devices that big jammed into their pockets.  That's admittedly the fault of the device design, not Android itself, (and I know there are smaller Android phones out there) but it does contribute to my negative impression of Android.

The second turnoff is just the overall lack of polish in navigating the interface, compared to iOS.  Something as simple as swiping to the second page of icons seems clumsy--like the framerate is too low or something.  Similar thing when I tried launching apps.  Now I have no idea if that was just because the devices I tried happened to be using inferior hardware or whatever, or if that's par for the course.  I'm clueless about that aspect.  All I can say is that the UI animations were choppy on the devices I got to try.

Third turnoff is the availability of apps.  I play a lot of games on my iPhone, and for many many games that I've really enjoyed, I see people complaining that there's no Android version.  This is the biggest dealbreaker for me.  

I'm not saying iOS is perfect, mind you.  I hate how Apple holds back obviously helpful features, says that they're counter to a good user experience, and then 3 years later the feature gets added and they make it seem like they've just invented something miraculous.  I hate how limited you are in customizing the setup of your own phone.  I hate iTunes.  For me, the cost benefit of dealing with these known evils to get me to the good parts of the iOS balances out.

[raydude]

As a brief aside, when talking about iOS do you guys say "eye oh esss" or "eye oohs"? I've always spelled out the acronym because I know when I'm talking about different OSes in conversation I say, for example, "Microsoft Oh Ess" not "Microsoft oh ssss". So it was little funny hearing the radio newscaster talk about Apple's "eye oss" devices.

[wonderpug]

EYE-oh-ESS

[leo8877]

EYE-oh-ESS

+1

[Roguetad]

So it was little funny hearing the radio newscaster talk about Apple's "eye oss" devices.

That's funny.  I'm sure many people have pointed out that mistake to that newscaster, who was probably just reading script.  That's worthy of a few days or weeks of professional ribbing.  It would be like a newscaster teasing about Windows 10, the new oss being developed by Microsoft.      

[gangeli]

I had an ipad 1 and an asus transformer, and I used the transformer a ton more than I ever used the ipad.
Mostly because all of the information I wished to consume at a glance I placed as widgets on one page, and wouldn't
even have to open any apps.  On the ipad i'd have to go through 5-6 different apps to get all that information.

My best friend has the latest gen Ipad, and it's certainly nice, feels snappy, runs everything well.  Wish I knew someone with a nexus 10 I could play with, so I could compare them.

I have an android phone and I've played with my friends iphones.  At this point in the game, for what I use them for, they're about the same.
I'm overly sick of the android vs ios debates, and tend to shy away from them.

I have a galaxy S3 these days, and it's a very nice phone.  It is bigger than I wish it was, though being winter, it hasn't bothered me much, because my winter coat has a nice big pocket perfect for a cell phone.  Come summer, and shorts, I may feel a bit differently.  Picked up a friends iphone 5 the other day, and it was so much smaller in my hand, it felt like a toy.  But in another way, it actually felt kind of good.

Really, feeling old, wishing a phone was still just a phone.  I miss my a900 flip phone!  

The thing about apple, in my eyes, that if you are going to go in...you need to go all in.  macbook, ipad, iphone.

I'm tempted...sometimes

[Canuck]

The first turnoff is the gigantor size of the Android phones I borrow.  I honestly don't know how people can bear to have devices that big jammed into their pockets.  That's admittedly the fault of the device design, not Android itself, (and I know there are smaller Android phones out there) but it does contribute to my negative impression of Android.

Odd that all these device makers keep producing large phones when clearly no one wants them. I wonder who is buying them?
The iphone5 was bigger than previous iterations and I feel pretty confident that the  next iphone will be wider. Wave of the future my friend. Small phones were great when all we did was talk and text but a phone is essentially a TV/computer now.
Lee, 4 years ago was practically the birth of Android so it's understandable that you have a bad impression. It's improved a lot since then. However you went from an old experience to a new tablet and that was probably the wrong way to go about it as the android tablets still have not caught up to iOS. However if you had checked out a new Android Jelly Bean phone I think you would be much more impressed.

[leo8877]

The first turnoff is the gigantor size of the Android phones I borrow.  I honestly don't know how people can bear to have devices that big jammed into their pockets.  That's admittedly the fault of the device design, not Android itself, (and I know there are smaller Android phones out there) but it does contribute to my negative impression of Android.

Odd that all these device makers keep producing large phones when clearly no one wants them. I wonder who is buying them?
The iphone5 was bigger than previous iterations and I feel pretty confident that the  next iphone will be wider. Wave of the future my friend. Small phones were great when all we did was talk and text but a phone is essentially a TV/computer now.
Lee, 4 years ago was practically the birth of Android so it's understandable that you have a bad impression. It's improved a lot since then. However you went from an old experience to a new tablet and that was probably the wrong way to go about it as the android tablets still have not caught up to iOS. However if you had checked out a new Android Jelly Bean phone I think you would be much more impressed.

Doesn't the Android tablet that he bought and dislikes also have Jelly Bean?

EDIT: Not sure why "Android tablet" takes you to Amazon...I didn't do that.

[wonderpug]

The iPhone 5 is bigger than I'd prefer (though the thinness is nice).  If the next iPhone is even bigger, I won't be buying it.

And as for there being people who like the gigantor Android phones, well of course. I'm not disputing that. I thought it was pretty clear I was just sharing my own personal impressions.

[Lee]

It does have jelly bean. Don't get me wrong, I like this nexus, it's a good tablet. Just don't think it compares to an iPad. I am still learning it though, it just doesn't seem very intuitive. For instance I still haven't figured out how to open up a the book marks in less than 2 clicks. Stuff like that.

Is it normal that  auto brightness fluctuate contently? I know I can turn it off, but it's a feature I like on iOS.

[Canuck]

Doesn't the Android tablet that he bought and dislikes also have Jelly Bean?

EDIT: Not sure why "Android tablet" takes you to Amazon...I didn't do that.

Lee's troubles seem to stem completely from the apps themselves. Apps have nothing to do with Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean is the OS. Compared to the the older OS's Jelly Bean is butter smooth and wonderful. However he is using a tablet and Android is decidedly behind when it comes to tablet apps.  On phones the gulf is not nearly so great. That's why I think if he tried a new phone rather than a new tablet he would be a lot more impressed with the Android OS.
I'm loving Google Now. Whenever I go to take a train I no longer have to check the train schedule. Google Now knows when I'm getting close to the train station and automatically gives me a card with the information about what trains I need to take in order to get to work.  Before I would have had to bring up my train schedule app and input all the information by myself.

[Lee]

Slowly getting used to this thing. Google Now seems like it would be pretty awesome for a phone. This is one of the many things Apple could learn from.

I have to admit I am appreciating this thing more and more as I use it. Not that it would ever replace my iPad, but when i want something small and light weight it has its uses.