Over the weekend, people with review units of the Pixel 2 XL began noticing a problem. No, not the already-known issues of muddy color and grainy textures when viewed in low-light, but one that’s potentially more worrisome: screen burn-in. First reported on Twitter by Android Central’s Alex Dobie, multiple people have noticed that when you look at the screen with a gray background, you can see faint outlines of the phone’s navigation buttons on the bottom.
You can see it below, and I can confirm I’m seeing something similar on my own review unit.
The display problems of the Pixel 2 XL – due to its LG-made panel – are baffling. Google claims it’s getting serious about hardware, but putting a panel in your flagship phone that isn’t only sub-par when it’s working, but is also showing burn-in after mere days of use, is wholly and utterly inexcusable. This is not a budget, €150 phone – this is a flagship phone with a flagship price, and consumers deserve better than this clearly garbage display.
Another year, another round of flagships, another year of the iPhone simply being the best all-round option for most, normal people. For most average, normal people, the iPhone will give them an easy-to-use, secure, and updated phone with a decent resale value two to three years down the line. Additionally, Apple Stores or official Apple retailers are widespread, so you often have easy access to in-person customer service.
Samsung/HTC/LG phones don’t get updates – or only six months after the fact – but carry the same flagship price, often leaving their users with insecure and out of date software. The Nexus program no longer exists, and Google’s Pixel phones are only available in like 2 countries, and on top of that, its flagship model has a display worse than my Palm T|X. The Android market is in a terrible state right now.
Anybody who doesn’t care about software and hardware the way most of us do is, years and years in, still best served by an iPhone. Depending on budget, get an iPhone 6S, 7, or 8 (forget the ridiculously overpriced iPhone X); the Android world simply doesn’t have a phone that can compete with any of those three – and that’s a sad state of affairs. Google has been wholly unable to address the biggest problems Android suffers from – most notably, updates – and we’re way past the point where this can be excused without really scraping the bottom of the barrel of excuses.
Suggesting non-nerdy, regular people get an Android phone at this point in time is simply irresponsible.
I used to own Windows Phones way back when. They were the HTC ones that were amazing at the time. I even had custom ROMs.
I eventually switched to Android because it became difficult to get a true “flagship” phone running a Microsoft OS.
But, here’s the event that switched me to iPhone for now and for the foreseeable future.
I had a problem with my HTC Android. I took it to Best Buy because that’s where I bought it and I had their extended warranty or insurance plan or whatever they called it.
They told me that they couldn’t replace it, and that they’d have to send it to HTC for repair/replacement, and that it would take two weeks. In the meantime they gave me this absolutely awful piece of crap Samsung device. It ended up only taking less than a week to get my phone back, but the experience still turned me off Android phones.
If you have a problem with your iPhone, you go to the Apple store, and you walk out with a new (refurb) or fixed phone. Period. They never tell you that it will be two weeks and give you some crappy 3 generations behind phone.
Yes, you pay extra for that convenience, but it’s worth it.
That is the same situation as with Pixel phone – Apple stores maybe exists but not in my country. On the contrary Samsung has a service center in my city, but nearest Apple store is hundreds km away.
Edited 2017-10-23 11:52 UTC
I live in the United States, but even for me, the Apple Store is too far away. The nearest one is about 125 miles (200km) away. So I’d be waiting for a replacement iPhone just the same as a Pixel or other Android.
This myth has to stop. You only get that if you have Apple Care, it isn’t the default and it isn’t what happens most of the time anyway because “the Genius’s genuinely care about you”. If this would be the norm, why does Apple care exist?
You pay extra because Apple sells a good product without major weaknesses for an extremely high price that benefits the bottomline of Apple. If you think their price/benefit ratio is good, buy the product and enjoy it!
Wrong : my girlfriend had a problem with its iPhone that was randomly rebooting. We went to the Apple Store and the genius couldn’t reproduce the issue but he exchanged the phone anyway and we didn’t have Apple Care.
Edited 2017-10-23 14:15 UTC
To pay for this stuff. It partially funds the genius experience I am guessing.
So you are saying that you don’t need to have Apple Care to receive Apple Care service, but that Apple Care exists to pay for Apple Care service. So basically there are people paying for the same thing that you apparently get for free if you are polite….no, that doesn’t make sense
No. I’m saying that good will and politeness never hurts. The cost comes out of Apple’s pocket. If you have Applecare you are guaranteed to be covered by those terms. If you walk in to a store with the same issue and no Applecare, you might be covered still – but it is a the discretion of the Genius. More often than not, the common issues get fixed. I think this will work out cheaper for Apple, because what else is there? Class action (or similar)? You don’t have to be a “genius” to know that quietly fixing a product that is faulty outside of the Warranty makes sense (and as you asserted – quite common anyway.) All we are trying to establish here is – it is not a “myth”.
Recap:
Getting most common issues fixed is normal for every seller and every product.
Getting better service for newer and more expensive products is normal.
Buying extra warranty (like Apple Care) and getting your product fixed free of charge is normal.
Walking into an Apple Store with a broken product and walking out with a perfectly working product free of charge every time is a myth
Edited 2017-10-24 10:20 UTC
I have been an iPhone user only twice (iPhone 1 and 2), and then I moved to Android.
I have used G1, Dream, Magic, Motorola, HTC, then Nexus 4, 5, 5x, 6p, and now a Google Pixel that I bought second hand.
I bought the Pixel from an user with more than 700 qualification at Ebay. I charged the Pixel, and was able to use it without any complains from Google whatsoever.
Then, after about 6 months of use, it died after an OTA. I called Google and I was told that the phone was still associated to the old owner, and that it was nothing they could do unless the old owner approved.
I understand trying to protect phones, but, why implement it like this? If I find an iPhone, and try to use it, I intermediately get asked the user/pass of the old user. Not in this case. I was able to use it for 6 months, and only when calling google for support I was told about this.
How can it be that while the phone worked, there was no problem of me using the phone, but as soon as they had to invest money to repair it, I am no longer good? By the way, the mother f*ker seller never again reponded.
This is my last Google phone, and probably my last android.
Edited 2017-10-23 14:59 UTC
Wow, i think that’s one of the weakest rage-quit stories i’ve ever read!
I love how you used a ton of android devices, and then only decided it was terrible when you bought a used phone that the previous owner didn’t properly “release” and got angry. Cool story bro!
On the other hand, I’ve purchased 5 different pre-owned android phones (4 of which were Nexus models), and never had the issue you described.
Because I don’t need a lot of bad experiences to have a change of mind.
My point is that it is plain bad user service. I now have a 500 dollars paperweight.
not really a paperweight if you know how to root and flash a rom and such.
just sayin
Mines probably weaker
I got a HTC One M7 on contract. Lovely android phone, beautiful hardware design, but the thing kept shoving adverts in my face. Thing got sold within 2 weeks of owning it, and i went back to my old iPhone 4. Never touched android again.
Edited 2017-10-25 08:08 UTC
That’s exactly it: The premium you pay for an iPhone or a Mac isn’t just because Apple is greedy, you actually get first-rate customer service.
I kind of agree, and I while I do enjoy leaving in a country that gives me the access to iPhone without thinking too much about it, the majority of the world doesn’t live in such wealthy conditions.
So getting an iPhone vs Android device is mostly a first world problem, non existing in countries where getting any kind of mobile phone is already a social achievement.
As citizen of the world, these are the people that fill my thoughts, not what kind of device I can afford myself.
And these people sadly won’t see any difference, even with Project Treble, because they need to buy a device with Android O to start with, with Google leaving the actual update process to OEMs even on Treble certified devices, as always.
http://androidbackstage.blogspot.de/2017/08/episode-75-project-treb…
http://connect.linaro.org/resource/sfo17/sfo17-400k1/
So expect zero reaction from OEMs to provide updates even with Treble, and telling people to buy a device that costs between 2 to 4 times their monthly salary won’t fix this.
Hm, and what ever happened to Android One?
That was something for “normal, average people” in a way no Pixel or iPhone are.
But I do have to agree. There’s no way you can be objective on this subject and not agree on this, sadly.
But of course, “most” people buy flagships, right? Right?
My next phone will be most likely a Xiaomi or Meizu, heck even an Oukitel K10000 seems interesting. But I’m not “most people” so I won’t buy an overpriced flagship…
I’m pinning my hopes on Nokia. Waiting to see when the Nokia 8 gets the Oreo update before buying though. The main reason I’m considering Nokia is their promise of updates, and of course nostalgia.
Samsung manufactures the best hardware, and after sales service is reasonable here in India, but their software support cycle is crap even for the flagship devices. Xiaomi, Huawei et al also have good hardware but with a ton of bloatware on top. Motorola used to be great with software updates till Lenovo came along.
That leaves OnePlus and Nokia. So far they both seem to have done a good job, with hardware quality and clean bloat-free up-to-date software. Aggressive pricing is the icing on the cake. Nostalgia for Nokia tips the scale in their favour for me.
Please don’t let me down, Nokia/HMD Global.
Another important thing to remember is that because
* Apple supports their devices for quite a long time
* Apple’s A-series CPUs are really good
* iOS performance vs Android performance
for most users, an iPhone SE/6S performs as well as the latest Android flagships AND will probably receive updates for a longer period of time inspite of being 3 years old already. Because of this, you can’t even use the price argument against Apple anymore.
Though Apple also pushes old phones to consumers much longer than other manufacturers, so it would be perhaps more apt to note for how long they support their phones counting from the end of sales.
So “depending on budget” this means I have to spend at least € 529 for a smartphone? (source: https://www.apple.com/nl/shop/buy-iphone/iphone6s) and then I get a phone with 32 GB and a “720p” 4.7 inch screen.
(Basically the specs from my Nokia Lumia 1020 from 4 years ago that was roughly that price 4 years ago)
It isn’t just the iPhone X that is ridiculously overpriced, it is all of these phones. That also includes the Pixel prices btw!
Why is it that websites never talk about the phones most people actually use which would be the low-to-midrange models that are in the 200-400 range and seem to work just fine for everyone that is using their phones for communicating instead of running geekbench over and over again?
What about the secondhand market?
I buy from that. Either Pawn Shops or SEcondhand shops.
Then there are the refurb phones from Apple themselves.
You don’t have to pay’new’prices.
Once the iPhone X has been out for a few months there will even be plenty of iPhone 8’s available.
Let the ‘must have the latest shiny-shiny’ people waste their money.
Thom is not talking about that and comparing prices from the secondhand market is really difficult because of the quality differences.
I personally buy my phones from secondhand markets or auctions as well (80 Euro for a Lumia 1520 in perfect state with a perfect battery as well).
https://www.apple.com/nl/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-se
That has the same guts of the 6s, but at a lower cost.
Also, true cost should be measured as cost per year of ownership.
If I buy a cheap phone for 200 Euros that lasts one year, a midrange for 400 that lasts 2 years, or a flagship that costs 600 and lasts 3 years, they effectively have the same cost of 200 Euros per year.
I’d submit that an iphone 8 at 800 euros might also last five years while still getting updates and support, which might be better than any of the others on the list.
Of course I’d actually recommend that person instead buy a gently used iphone 7 for around 400 Euros instead, but if we are only talking new phones it makes sense.
Correct, that is why I bought several Lumia 1520 that I expect to last for about 5 years and cost me less than 100 Euro per year while still feeling highend and getting updates and support.
But it seems that the people that buy the highend phones that should last the longest are also the people that replace it with another highend phone the next year.
This is essentially the same as the iPhone 4[s] in size. I had to lol at your fat fingers. I’m over 2 metres tall, and obviously have therefore big hands and pretty fat fingers. I used an iPhone 3G, 3Gs and 4 through full lifetime of those devices. The keyboard is fine. I genuinely think the iPhone keyboard is one of thebetter on screen keyboards. The legacy Android one was pretty good (before they removed the key divisions – though I used to turn them back on.) Windows Phone was the worst – abysmal, though it might just be the digitizer being pretty crappy on the phone I own.
(We are getting way off topic, talking about typing on a 4″ phone in 2017)
My fingers aren’t fat, but there is no denying that typing on a 4″ screen is much more errorprone to typing on a 6″ screen.
The original Windows Phone 8 keyboard on my 4.7″ 1020 was just good enough for typing very short messages.
With the introduction of the Swiping keyboard I suddenly started to respond to email with full sentences and send proper whatsapp’s and edit shopping lists directly on the phone. With my 6.0″ 1520 I can comfortably type rather long pieces of text.
The iPhones keyboard on my iPad 2 was one of the worst for many reasons not even related to size but on/off capitals, lack of swiping, etc.
Virtual keyboards have come a long way in the last few years and I am happy that the one in Windows 10 1709 now finally supports swiping as well.
….but there is no way I am going to use a 4″ phone!
Not sure what the security updates looks like for Windows Devices. Anyone know?
I am aware of the promise of Apple like os updates are not the case as only some devices made it to windows 8 from windows 7, and only some of them were upgraded from 8 to 10 and a smaller amount were updated from 10 to 10 creators update. I’d hope they’d all get security updates though.
The phones that were left behind on 8 continued to get security updates until a few months ago. I could force my 1020 to 10 and I think it would still be on a ring that would receive monthly patches but I am not sure. I will actually grab it from the box, see how it goes, and update this post later.
Hu sorry ? Who introduced multitouch ? high dpi display ? 64-bit CPU ? modern fingerprint scanning ? Haptic feedback ? Force Touch… most of these features were introduced on iPhone and were then adopted on Android phones so no this is completely wrong : Android didn’t do all the pioneering, far from it in fact.
You are right that I went too far with that statement. Clearly Apple introduced/pioneered several of the things you mentioned before Android had them.
I wouldn’t actually know anymore which of the ones you mentioned were pioneered by iOS and which by Android. High DPI Display sounds like something that Android had before iOS and haptic feedback sounds like something that all devices had from the very start.
I would actually be interested to read when these features got introduced in general, when in iOS and when in Android
Can we agree that Apple used to be copied by Samsung (and others), but that it is now mostly the other way around? (queue the ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’)
High dpi display was introduced in 2010 by Apple with the iPhone 4 and its 326dpi screen. At the same time Samsung had a 233 dpi Galaxy S (less if you take into account pentile)
64bit was introduced with the iPhone 5s in 2013 same for Touch ID.
3DTouch and Taptic engine (that’s what I was talking about when talking abour haptic, it is clearly a lot more advanced than the traditional vibration motor used in most phones before) are more gimmicky but were introduced in 2015 with the iPhone 6s.
Samsung pioneered OLED display, phablet and bezel less phones (not taking into account chinese or confidential phone makers that I don’t know).
I completely agree that both are copying the best features of each other and in the end it is a win for the consumer, but I don’t agree that one is copying more than the other.
Another thing to consider is that Apple can’t introduce some features due to the high demand for the iPhone. It is easier to introduce new features on a phone that will sell 5 to 10 million in a year vs 50 to 100 million for an iPhone. This is the reason why Apple must delay some features until its suppliers can meet the huge demand. Apple had OLED display for quite a while in its Watch so it is not a question a not being able to do it from a technology standpoint, it’s just a question of scale.
What I don’t get is why I can’t get a high end small phone from an Android manufacturer ? Android is theoretically all about choice : but the only modern phone with an 4″ screen is the iPhone SE and even finding a phone with a screen that is less than 5″ is near impossible (Xperia XZ1 compact ?). I’m sure there is a market for small phones, I’m not the only one disliking huge phones: I have it constantly in my pocket, I’m not carrying a bag.
I don’t have time to check or compare everything here, but it is obvious that you are looking at everything too much from the iOS side.
* 326 dpi is high dpi, but 233 isn’t? Because Retina?
* Haptic feedback needing to be Taptic engine?
* iPhone SE is a modern phone?
From your examples (all old) I still get the impression that Android used to copy iOS while the opposite is now the norm.
I don’t see much (anything) that the S8 copied from Apple, but faceID, wireless charging, oled screen, bezelless design are all things that got copied the other way.
Your explanation about supply-volume needing to catch up makes a lot of sense, but it still doesn’t explain why people should choose an iPhone.
Apple only used to have 1 phone per year, that became 2, now 3 and actually even more because they keep selling older phones for a much longer time. They need to do this to compete with all the choice that is available on the Android side but it isn’t working as well anymore. Mid-level phones are now good enough for most people and Apples high-end is playing catch-up in features while asking exorbitant prices at every level.
Suggestion list for Apple to do next year:
* splitscreen and picture in picture (supported in iOS on iPad but not iPhone)
* pc-mode with mouse-support so there is finally a reason for all that CPU power
* making their pen work on the phone as well
* lower prices
* separate user accounts on iPad
* making their accessories work better on other platforms (look at what is happening with Microsoft now that they aren’t limiting all their other products to their cashcow)
best performance
Very good camera
Great customer support
OS updates for several year
Great support from third party apps
Great first party apps (imessage…)
There are quite a number of reasons
I was doubting if I should respond again because you are indeed seeing everything purely from the Apple side. Sometimes you argue that 100ppi more is irrelevant, other times you argue that it is needed to be high dpi. Obviously you believe that 300 dpi is some magical number (because Retina) but then why would
You also keep hammering that phones need to be fast (with iPhone SE being extremely fast, but an S8 not being fast enough) while nobody seems to have any performance issues with their phones anymore.
The iPhone SE is not a modern phone because it has a small screen in a big body. There are Android phones that have a 5″ screen in the same body size and that is clearly what people want nowadays: Big screens for a reasonable price.
You complained when I said that the screen in the iPhone X will not be as good as the one in the S8 (proven by reviews) but you just say that Apples face recognition will be in another league without any evidence.
If Android wouldn’t have had bezelless phones coming on the market Apple wouldn’t have made the iPhone X. The iPhone X is already on another release cycle compared to the 8 and 8+ so the later introduction of a bezelless design is not a result of that release cycle, they just cannot produce what Android manufacturers can.
I will grant you that Apple is the king of OS updates in the mobile space but all your other arguments aren’t relevant.
There are plenty of Android phones out there with
* great performance
* great camera
* great customer support
* great support from third party apps
* great first party apps
* choice of interesting new features
* decent pricing
* earlier availability
But Apple sells more premium phones than all of them… So the vast majority of the smartphone buyers don’t agree with you. And I wonder which first party apps you’re referring to. Basically all phone makers apps are junk and every Android users out there wants the pure Android experience so this is funny to see you using this argument.
In the end I think we can agree to disagree, this discussion won’t lead us anywhere.
The topic was high dpi, which you conflate to Retina. We don’t disagree about Apple pioneering Retina or the idea that “around 300 dpi the law of diminishing returns start to apply”. High dpi has to do with scaling though and for a long time iOS couldn’t scale except for just doubling or trippling the resolution.
That is why I keep saying that you look at everything from the Apple point of view too much.
For you high dpi means Retina
For you haptic feedback means Taptic Engine
For you fingerprint readers have to be like the iPhone Homebutton
For you facial recognition has to be like FaceID
For you fast means A11, but A9 is also fast enough
You think Apple is the richest company in the world
People aren’t upgrading their phones every 2 years like they used to because phones have gotten good enough to last longer. Of course there are still people upgrading their phones because they like more storage, more screen, a new cool toy, or in the US because “their plan basically forces them too” but the general trends are that people keep their phones longer, are more satisfied with them and buy more and more Androids and less and less iPhones.
Bezelless phones have been in the making for a while indeed. The Xiaomi Mi Mix was probably the first real one last year so talking about development cycles is not an excuse. This year Apple still released their main phones without any redesign and huge bezzels while only releasing their “future phone” as bezzelless with a huge price-increase. So Apple is simply behind the curve here.
Apple does sell more premium phones than any other OEM, but it doesn’t sell more premium phones than Android in total and most other people are apparently not willing to spend money for a premium phone or satisfied with their non-premium phone so the vast majority of smartphone buyers does agree with me.
You even seem to think that first party apps are phone makers apps. First party apps are Android apps like Google Maps and Google Assistant. Not all phone makers apps (2nd party) are junk at all. Samsung has included picture-in-picture/multi-window and for example a much better camera apps. The ability to write on the display with a stylus on a Note8 isn’t junk either.
The one special thing about the iPhone is that it runs iOS. If anyone else would have released the iPhone 8 or X for these pricepoints at that time they would have been reviewed as “meh”.
There is nothing wrong with buying an iPhone, but there is also nothing wrong with buying an Android.
I personally think that Android offers a lot more value-for-money and doesn’t lack anything that iOS does except for a good update mechanism.
P.S. Just a reminder, I use a Windows Phone but of course I am looking around me to see what is out there and I test a lot of apps and websites on many devices for my work.
P.S. 2: “embedding a depth camera inside a phone is no small feat and wasn’t done before.” You obviously haven’t heard about Google’s Tango: “Tango is an advanced type of next-generation camera tech for phones. It’s basically an array of cameras that enables depth sensing in 3D.”
Edited 2017-10-27 09:10 UTC
Indeed I’ve completely forgotten about Tango since I’ve first heard about it 7 years ago just like everybody else I guess, two phones were released this year and were pretty underwhelming and I bet we won’t see another one in the future. Just like I’ve forgotten Project Ara and all the other initiative that Google takes and then gives up. But indeed you have a point, my bad.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/216459/global-market-share-of-ap…
https://9to5mac.com/2017/05/23/iphone-market-share-gartner-q1-2017/
https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/os
You can see everywhere that year-over-year the trend is downwards for Apple and upwards for Android. The yearly peak from Apple is getting lower and while the entire market is growing that is happening mostly at the bottom to midrange where Apple doesn’t sell products so Apple is dropping in market share (sales are flat in a growing market)
Next time you mention “facts that do not back up claims” you should provide some facts to back up your claims!
My point isn’t that Apple isn’t improving, it is that Android is improving quicker and that the market has made a huge swing to the Android direction that doesn’t look like it is reversible.
Apple has by far the biggest margins on their products and that means they basically have unlimited R&D resources. However they have chosen to only release a very limited amount of products to a relatively limited target audience. This makes sense from a companies point of view that is optimizing for profit and the results for Apple have been amazing. More and more people are realizing that the high price isn’t realistic anymore because the competition has caught up and sometimes surpassed them for a much lower price
My point is that Android phone makers were engaged in a race to the bottom on prices while Apple is racking the vast majority of the profits. This is not a sustainable business for Android phone makers. Competing on price alone won’t be viable in the long term, this is exactly what happened to the PC business at the end of the 90s : selling anonymous beige boxes at an always lower price. And it crashed : IBM exited the business and even Dell and HP had to diversify.
And that’s what will happen in the smartphone industry as well if things continue. HTC already gave up by selling most of its smartphone division to Google, LG is in bad shape, Sony is also losing money on its smartphone division. That leaves Samsung and Apple capturing 95% of the smartphone business profits, the rest fight for the crumbs. Until now everyone was obsessed by the shear volume and the growth of the market hiding the misery of the situation but now the growth is slowing, margins are always lower. That’s the reason why smartphone makers are now trying to address the high end market where all the profits are made.
So of course Android wins on volume that’s an evidence I won’t dispute this but speaking about volumes alone doesn’t say much about the state of the market.
You are correct that Apple is selling more units in 2017 compared to 2016 but only by 2% so far (q1 was a huge exception with +5%) while the whole market in 2017 is growing by 9% in 2017.
How about in 2016?
So it was indeed selling less and less, and that was in a market that was growing by 2%. So every year Apple is underperforming to the entire market and thus losing marketshare.
We agree that Apple is racking in the vast majority of the profits. For some reason you think this is good for you as a consumer. So far Apple hasn’t done much with all this money that benefited consumers, mostly they are just hiding it in tax havens. Apple could easily lower their prices but they don’t. That is why many people consider them greedy. I personally think you should charge whatever your customers are willing to pay, but then those customers should realize they are overpaying.
You are saying the pc business crashed at the end of the 90’s because of the race to the bottom, however I am now using a much cheaper machine with incredible improvements from (basically) all the same players as before. Apparently it is okay to have high volume, low margin for almost everyone for decades.
Apple now has a marketshare of about 15%. As long as they can keep it above 10% they will not loose any developer, but if they start dropping below that (3 years on the current trajectory) they might feel the effect of “the network effect”. Things like iMessage aren’t as useful if only 1 out of your 10 friends has it as well. If < 10% of your personnel has an iPhone you might not test your website or emailserver with that OS. Of course that 10% is a number that I made up but it is a psychological border. Just imagine a headline “iOS marketshare dips into single digits, Android close to a monopoly”
Cute how you ignored the much more important stage of capacitive touchscreen phone in the shape of currently seen smartphones, and that was LG Prada, almost a year before iPhone…
“Modern” fingerprint scanning was arguably introduced by Huawey, where you don’t have to align the finger the way you did on the first scan / works with partial scans.
Cute how you’re playing with the release dates : LG Prada was released in May 2007 and the iPhone in June 2007 yeah « almost a year » indeed more like a month… And it wasnt multi touch, its UX paradigm was just buttons that you happened to touch with your finger instead of a stylus but not gestures like what we’re accustomed to with modern smartphones. Its browser was also a joke reminiscent of what was available on old smartphone not a « desktop like » experience.
Nice try but resorting to such a long forgotten phone that did not left a single trace to imply that it was the first modern smartphone sounds like a desparate attempt at rewriting history.
The Prada was unveiled the year before, received industry design awards in September of the previous year, so it definately was noticed and had an impact on the industry – you writing that “long forgotten phone that did not left a single trace” just shows how much you’re drinking the Apple kool-aid / history.
I suppose that’s also the reason why you can’t seem to read with full understanding – I specifically wrote that Prada was a touchscreen phone, not smartphone. So yes, it didn’t have full browser – that part of the DNA of modern smartphone came from Symbian S60, which had it in the 2004/2005 timeframe. But iPhone was also not a smartphone, it didn’t even have apps (something the Prada did have. like virtually any contemporary phone; heck, my old Sony Ericsson A200 platform phone is arguably still more of a smartphone than iPhones, it has full multitasking of apps). Also, “buttons that you happen to touch with you finge” is the UX paradigm of modern smartphone, gestures are secondary to that…
Very happy with my Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra thank you very much. I have no interest in overpriced Apple hardware.
Your latest security update is most likely August, possibly earlier. You are running insecure software. In addition, you are running Android Nougat – 7.0, I’m guessing, but it might be 7.1 – which is also outdated, insecure software.
Thom: You still don’t seem to understand how Android security updates work. They are mostly separated from the OS and coming through the playstore. That doesn’t mean that his phone is secure, but neither is an iPhone: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/10/16/krack-wifi-vulnerabilities-patc…
^^Note that it says the vulnerability is patched “in betas that are currently available to developers and will be rolling out to consumers soon. ”
There is no doubt that the Android situation about updates is far worse than that from Apple but that doesn’t seem like something that most people care about (much).
(P.S. I am neither an Android or iPhone user. I use a 4 year old Nokia Lumia 1520 with that “dead” OS that actually got patched before Android and iOS. Just let me gloat about that anomaly while I cry about losing my banking app okay?)
No, that’s objectively not true. The kernel or firmware of your android does not get updated even as close as the ones in Apple’s devices. This means low level functions and core operating system functions are exposed, regardless of how patched your apps are.
(source https://developers.google.com/android/guides/overview)
No, kernel and firmware vulnerabilities are the most serious vulnerabilities, since they’re available to all apps.
They’re also way too many and very rarely patched in most phones.
http://androidvulnerabilities.org/by/category/kernel
Interesting link, but either they stopped collecting kernel bugs or the last one was really 2.5 years ago.
With only 17 of such bugs in the last 7 years it seems trivial for Google to scan apps that get put into the store for abuse of any of these bugs and protect users that way.
No, there’s much much more, that one was just readable. Google can’t just blacklist the ones that are affected by those vulnerabilities, that would make them a security vulnerability company, or hiring one, and that’s not their focus and it is verifiable that they do not, it’s a very open store with little oversight.
https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-1224/product…
They offer rewards to researchers, but there’s no way they can automate vulnerability testing on that scale quickly. Not even the best security companies can do that, even with custom built tools and implement them on the Play Store.
https://www.google.com/about/appsecurity/play-rewards/
But how many out of date Android devices are remotely exploited in real life? Apple marketing would be all over such a story if it happened. Where are all the news reports of Android users being harmed because vendors are not patching their handsets? Millions of at risk users. Thousands of bad actors working night and day to exploit them. Are Google suppressing all the news reports?
More than you obviously believe, though they typically come from infested apps rather than direct remote exploitation. You can’t even stick to Google Play to avoid those, given how many times Google has had to remove a whole batch of apps after the fact. Now, if Google had the sense to implement mandatory sandboxing…
The shittiness of the App Story is actually a bigger problem to the average person than security updates (or lack thereof) to the device. The sheer amount of malware (and obvious copyright infringements) is staggering.
While I do like Android the store is clusterfuck disaster.
You mean some “devs” sell ~cracked apps of other developers? :/
Good point, probably more like trademark infringement.
Ah, I see. Hm, probably comes with the territory of being popular in so-called “3rd world” countries – I remember reading once an article by somebody doing volunteer work in some African country, and one day they discussed ~entrepeneurship …and an example idea of students was to “make Nike shoes” – they just ignored that it’s somebody’s trademark.
Yeah, lots of smoke but no fire yet.
Still, I don’t want to stay in the house until I actually see the flames.
> You are running insecure software.
Sure.
But builtin calculator can do addition correctly at the same speed the user enter it.
Not true for iOS one.
Security is great, but it’s not what non-nerdy, regular people are after *at first*.
They’re after a good quality/price smartphone they can afford. And what they can afford, on average, don’t increase that much anymore since years.
Don’t troll. It’s impolite. There are legitimate criticisms of iOS and you feel you have to make one up. Sheesh.
I don’t make it up.
Check it by yourself:
https://twitter.com/dangerdave/status/921790333905641472
So, the Calulator is in your opinion the Number 1 app on IOS?
{shakes head in amazement}
Nope. Where did I made such claim!?
What I claimed is that functions are number 1.
Security is not a standalone function.
So you hate Android and love iOS. Keep your bias to yourself.
You don’t know what percentage of the purchase price of an iPhone goes towards the hardware. Every iPhone includes AppleCare tech support, access to carry-in service at Apple stores all over the world, immediate access to new iOS versions, and access to the curated iOS app store.
Apple products cost more, and retain their value better, because they include superior after-sale services and support.
You live in a bubble. Most of the Android world doesn’t care about carrier restrictions because they own their phone outright, bought independently of a carrier (and are on prepaid)
Also, we have some pretty good estimates (from ifixit or the like) of the price of iPhone hardware, in light of them iPhones are definately overpriced…
BTW, how’s that “curated iOS app store” working out? Oh right: http://www.osnews.com/comments/29863
And yet you focused on carrier updates, as if you didn’t know it’s irrelevant for most phone users… So, was that trolling or what?
It’s quite easy, for ~insiders, to estimate the price of hardware …just by looking at what’s included (and they’re probably a bit cautious / conservative, Apple is quite possibly getting better prices…) The sheer profits tell us enough if they’re overpriced.
Cute how you put blanks on the main issue in that article I linked, of succesfull / top earning malware (lets call it what it is) happily existing in “curated” Apple store… wonder if such are even counted in infection rates / update situation is completelly irrelevant to this vector.
No, Samsung/HTC/LG phones don’t carry the same flagship price. A Galaxy S8 costs under 600 Euro (64 GB version) while you cannot even buy an iPhone X yet but it is priced at 1150 Euro (basically double). iPhone 8 would be about 800 Euro, 35% extra, and doesn’t seem like a comparable phone to me (5.8″ amoled screen with 4 times the pixels of the ancient 4.7″ screen with 720p resolution)
Other flagship phones like Huawei or OnePlus are even cheaper
Galaxy S8 is fairly “old” at that point so why comparing it with the iPhone X ? Compare it with the Galaxy Note 8 if you want to make an accurate comparison and Samsung sells it for 1000€ in my country. And the Galaxy S8 is 800€, if you use official Apple prices you should use official Samsung prices too.
Edited 2017-10-23 14:21 UTC
I am comparing the S8 with the 8 (not a fair comparison) and with the X (fair comparison) because those are the ones that should be compared featurewise and sizewise. I am not comparing to the S8+ or Note 8 because those are much larger screens or have features that the iPhone X simply doesn’t have so they shouldn’t be compared.
And the S8 being “old” is not something that should be taken into account. It is on the market longer than the 8 and X but is simply comparable with the newest of them. I am also comparing the normal prices of them, not the official prices. We all know that Apple doesn’t go down much in price during the year but the Galaxies do.
Well you’re comparing whatever you want, I’m just pointing out that it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
You can’t just base your assertion on screen size/screen resolution or else you can even bring a more absurd comparison why not use a Galaxy S7 while you’re at it. Galaxy S8 is not Samsung flagship anymore, Note 8 is their flagship and it cost more than 1000€. iPhone X is Apple’s flagship and if we use retail prices for both phones they’re not that far off : that was Thom’s point. And your argument of features not supported by the iphone is dubious : iPhone X also has features that Samsung phones doesn’t have, so what ? And using heavily discounted prices for Samsung’s offering is biased, moreover the best price I can find in my country for an S8 is more than 700€ without resorting to grey market.
Edited 2017-10-23 21:10 UTC
You are so full of it.
Yes, there is no direct comparison but the reason to compare the Note8 with the iPhone X instead of the S8 would be the pencil and Apple has nothing like that. So for this Note8 is in a league of its own. Note8 also has the bigger screen, similar to the S8+ that iPhone X doesn’t have, so iPhoneX should be compared to the S8 not S8+ or Note8
Once again for you more modern seems to be only related to the screen but this is not the case, if I want to troll I will just say this : why not use CPU performance instead?
https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/847572056807948288
Apple is far ahead of Android flagships on this point because they have to rely on Qualcomm to deliver their CPU while Apple is doing its design in house. Samsung is far ahead of everyone on the OLED technology because they’re the main producer of OLED screens : both phones have their strong point.
The difference in price between Galaxy S and iPhone is just because their launch are not aligned, the S8 was released just between the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 8. When it was released it was priced the same than the iPhone 7. Now, the iPhone 8 is more expensive but the iPhone 7 is less expensive. You’re pointing that Samsung prices fall through the year unlike Apple but you also have to take into account that thanks to that, iPhone have better resale values when you want to switch to a new phone.
And how can you compare the S8 screen to the iPhone X while it is not available ! You’re just doing a spec sheet comparison, wait for a serious review like one from displaymate and we’ll see which phone have the best screen.
Mainly because CPU performance is, and has been a complete non issue for a while now. Is it fast enough to run Skype? Can it play angry birds? Is it fast enough to open my email? Is it fast enough to run the UI without lag? That’s all anyone needs. Anything else is just bragging about artificial benchmarks and only serves to inflate egos like yours rather than serve any kind of useful purpose. Enjoy your benchmarks, fanboi.
While having a 570 dpi is not a completely artificial advantage ?
And the rest of your post is completely clueless so I will let you enjoy your own ignorance and call people you don’t agree with “fanboy”
How narrow horizons you have… (I suppose there’s only place for Apple-approved ideas)
“Too high” DPI screens are a way to get to proper holographic displays (they will feel kinda like a mirror or window), which need pixel density comparable to the wavelenght of light – we’ll get there eventually, probably on the backs of Android…
Quite a few reviews have been out already and the general idea is that both are great although the Samsung screen gets brighter. I have no doubt that the iPhone X will have closed the screen-gap with the Samsung S8 and that they are now in the same ballpark with only reviewers/comparisons showing any difference but normal people will just be happy with either screen.
Again, the problem is that the iPhone X will be twice the price of the S8, not that the iPhone X or S8 is better than the other.
S8/8+ and Note 8 are their flagships for the year 2017
Holy hyperbole.
…doesn’t mean its right for everyone else…
personally I find a phone thats 5 generations out of date wipe the OS and replace it without bothering with various vendor apps (which makes the phone faster and battery life much better)
this approach is best for me – but not for the rest of the world, one size fits all is a terrible solution…
…Android devices with proper updates (at least security updates) like Moto G and Moto X (Play), but many vendors just do not care. Personally I care more about LineageOS support than vendors upgrading.
On the other hand the Android market is so fragmented that very few security bugs can be exploited on many phones in exact the same way.
Motorola is terrible. They really only support devices that sell well. So, basically as a consumer, you should wait until its apparent that a phone is selling well before buying it. And even then, their promises aren’t worth the electrons used to display them. See the Moto X pure.
It depends on what you call “terrible”. Their devices are fine, my whole family is using Moto E/Gs, without complaints.
Yeah, because those sold. Those are actually really good value phones.
The Moto x pure edition, which was advertised as being a thin skin over android, very infrequently received security updates, with the last one being in May… It was supposed to also get an upgrade to Android 7.
Like I said, only buy the popular motos.
This whole rant doesn’t make any sense if you get to the gust of it. It is all about flagship phones, but the market share described as “most, normal people” or “non-nerdy, regular people” is simply not the flagship market. Quite to the contrary.
The question which platform has a better security record is more complicated than by just looking at update numbers. See e.g. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3213388/mobile-wireless/androi… for a more thorough discussion of this topic.
Sure in general I agree that the Android platform currently looks worse in this regard. That said, there was a time, roughly 1995 to 2005, where you could have written “Suggesting non-nerdy, regular people get a Windows PC at this point in time is simply irresponsible.” Did you do it?
The thing is, not everybody can afford an iPhone, or wants to pay the Apple premium, or wants to take part in the Apple vendor lock-in. Me, personally, I would not churn out €350+ for an outdated (hardware-wise) phone that dictates me which applications I am allowed to install, and I would certainly not advise my non-nerdy, regular friends to do so when all they need is a €200 device.
It’s simply “Linux is more secure than Windows” all over again. Only this time in smartphone world.
Or, as some people had put it already some years ago, “Android is the Windows of smartphones”.
Basically its windows before windows update and patch tuesday.
At the moment I am using BlackBerry Bold 9900 as my main (and only) phone. Got it in perfect condition for 50€, battery lasts 4 days.
For those rare cases when I need to use GPS, maps or Uber-like services, I have powered off Nomu S10 Android smartphone deep in my backpack. It’s rugged, waterproof, has 5000mAh battery.
Now, from my perspective, your contemplation about iPhone and Android issues seem hilariously cliched “firs world problems”.
I’m surprised that BlackBerry services are still working for your 9900. I physically had one in my hands last week and was reminded of the great build quality of the RIM BlackBerry devices.
I would like to see a final BB10 update where they remove the antiquated Android runtime and give us an updated browser engine. That would still be useful on the Classic and Passport for many years to come.
Well, I also have a BlackBerry Q10 that is running the latest BB10, and it does have an updated browser with proper HTML5 support. Had no problems browsing on it. Android runtime is still there, but you don’t have to use it. Also, BB10 no longer requires BlackBerry Services at all, so you can use e-mail, browser, messengers and all other services just over regular cellular data (or WiFi).
And yet, I still like my Bold 9900 better than my Q10.
> Suggesting non-nerdy, regular people get an Android
> phone at this point in time is simply irresponsible.
And yet a huge part of smartphones owners does it, and so far without much bad consequence to Android marketshare.
Maybe it’s time to see that non-nerdy, regular people don’t buy flagship smartphones, simply. Not because they’re non-nerdy or “regular”, but because they find good enough models for their needs for a far better matching price.
Plus, the main issue at point here is hardware quality.
I fail to see how it can paint the whole Android plateform at once. It’s not like the iPhone or iOS plateform have not it’s own software and/or hardware issues too, even with higher prices.
What matter is quality price ratio. Pixel 2 XL seems bad, true. Doesn’t mean that’s the same for every smartphone running under Android.
“Suggesting non-nerdy, regular people get an Android phone at this point in time is simply irresponsible.”
I assume this was for inflammatory purpose only. There is billions of Android users that are doing just fine with an Android phone. Because regular people don’t buy the latest Pixel or whatever we (nerds) talk about. I have no problem recommending an Android phone, I just don’t tell them buy $1000 phone.
PS:My phone is a $400 Honor 8 and I love it.
I’d mod you up but since this is still not a forum for adults, and I already posted, I’m not allowed to.
Yeah, there’s two REALLY STUPID restrictions on voting here that chap my hide: you can’t vote after posting; you can only vote on a user’s posts twice within several days. I can understand limiting the total number of votes – that’s fine. But the two I mention are asinine. Suppose someone makes a really great post – I’m sorry, you can’t upvote him because you already upvoted him elsewhere a few days back. X( Half the time, I don’t even remember who, what, where, or when I voted someone that the site tells me I can’t vote on because I already voted them.
No, you can vote on someone’s posts more than twice after 4 additional votes on other people.
First read & vote, then post.
With my Nokia 6021 I can only laugh at such problems.
But this reminds me that I need a new battery for it.
The current one is now down to 1 week between charges.
Unacceptable!
Another wise person who understands what it’s all about. No phone should cost more than 100€. Unless it also makes you coffee, does your laundry and washes the floor.
Unfortunately, current “phones” crossed over to “fashion item” and “Facebook machine” area long ago. And it’s not insane to pay ridiculous prices for a fashion item, apparently.
Leave the great Palm T|X alone! That device was pretty great 😀
I still use my lifedrive on a daily basis. (The lifedrive is basicly a faster cpu and ram, more rugged aluminium version of the TX with larger storage and upgradeable to 64gb microdrive+128gb SD card.)
I just love GarnetOS.
I power up my T|X every now and then to continue a game of Bejeweled that has been ongoing for the last 10 years. Loved the keyboard that I got for it back then, folded up very nicely.
And over here ground beef has become more expensive than entrecote due to the law of supply and demand.
For your average person ther iphone is rpobably the best choice. Even older ones are somewhat supported for people on a budget (they can put up with the slowing of the updates bring!).
Not for me though. I was happiest win WM5/6, truly open and finally I did not have to carry around a PDA as well (which obviously ran WM/PPC 3-6 whatever you wanna call it varient of the OS, sorry palm needed a filing system for my needs, I went WM after a couple of palms, one palm then a clie which was nice, but it was time for a real OS)
Then we got iOS. Sorry a step back in my opinion. Walled garden and hidden filing system. Not for me.
So I sold my soul to google as there was no other credible alternative. I am now in too deep to switch. At least I have a file system and can load my own things.
Smashed my 6P in spain, though it was coming to the end of it’s life anyway, but I did not know what I wanted. Samsung sucks big time. No I don’t want another assistant and apps forced on me. I want the google ones.
Went for the Wileyfox Swift 2 X. Could not be happier! Yes the cpu is not flagship quality. But then again it does not get uncomfortably hot and I can last 2/3 days on a charge easily. It is also fast enough for everything I do. Do miss android 8, for the week I had to play with it on the 6P! But it’s not a deal breaker, and they have promised it’s coming. That’s Android 6/7/8 that they will have provided on the phone then. Better than most offering.
In fact am so happy with it I got the OH one too! And given the price, I can now go to a sim only contract and just get a new device when I need one. I hope they continue making such devices. Yes there are many equal sort of devices from china at even chepaer but. There is no quality control and no os updates (don’t care about more spying, everyone does it!), I got the OH a better specced cheaper china device where the reviews said the screen was great. It was not, but I suspect it was just that device. I convinced her the drop the 5.2 inches from 5.5 was worth it for the better phone.
What do I envy from iOS? Quality apps. Things like iRig/Amplitube would be great. However upon reading the android app is a poor cousin to the iOS one and as I suspected they have gone to a charge for any decent fx as an add on method, I know packs are available, but if the app sucks that broke the deal. So back to real Boss MultiFX for me (used to use amplitube around version 2/3 on a pc/mac before the pay for each fx model!).
What keeps me away from iOS? iTunes. Lack of a file system. The over curated garden store.
“Suggesting non-nerdy, regular people get an Android phone at this point in time is simply irresponsible.”
Are you insane?
Edited 2017-10-23 18:28 UTC
I’ve always loved what you write Thom, but this is just unacceptable:
> Anybody who doesn’t care about software and hardware the way most of us do is, years and years in, still best served by an iPhone. Depending on budget, get an iPhone 6S, 7, or 8 (forget the ridiculously overpriced iPhone X); the Android world simply doesn’t have a phone that can compete with any of those three – and that’s a sad state of affairs. Google has been wholly unable to address the biggest problems Android suffers from – most notably, updates – and we’re way past the point where this can be excused without really scraping the bottom of the barrel of excuses.
> Suggesting non-nerdy, regular people get an Android phone at this point in time is simply irresponsible.
Firstly, Google Pixel 1, Pixel 1 XL and Pixel 2 don’t suffer from display problems and they are excellent phones.
Secondly, there’s Xiaomi Mi A1 (with pure Android) – an affordable phone with three years guaranteed updates.
Thirdly, I’m glad you enjoy your salary but there are many countries of the world where iPhone costs as much as your half a year income. My monthly salary is enough to buy only 1/3 of iPhone X. Yeah.
Fourthly, iOS totally sucks in comparison to Android. It simply sucks and there’s no way around it.
Edited 2017-10-23 19:44 UTC
While we’re at it, commenting at OSNews under Firfox is broken: buttons (bold/italic/quote/preview) don’t work, characters counter doesn’t work.
Works for me, something on your end must be broken…
I don’t care what kind of iPhone Apple puts out I won’t ever buy one. They’re way overpriced and I don’t like how Apple acts like it owns your device and you merely use it at their discretion. I do agree, however; that the quality of Google’s phones has gone way down. I had exclusively owned Google phones since the Nexus One debuted, upgrading to the latest every two years. My last phone which was a Nexus 6P had terrible battery life and refused to connect to the Bluetooth in my car among other problems. Not to mention these phablet sized phones are overrated and don’t work well in a man’s pockets! When an update to Android made the earpiece gltichy leaving a fifty-fifty chance whether or not I’d have to make or take calls on speakerphone I had enough. I currently use a Samsung Galaxy S8 and absolutely love it. It is literally the perfect phone for me. In my opinion, Samsung currently produces the best smart phones available.
Edited 2017-10-23 21:29 UTC
OLED screens are crap, there I said it.
They have weird colors, bad viewing angles, they burn-in, they flicker, they drain the battery.
The only thing they are good at is looking good when set to max brightness at the store, but you will probably turn the brightness down when you get them home, if not to protect yourself from eye strain, so that the battery can make the day.
LG’s P-OLED just happens to be worse.
I will stick with LCDs exclusively, even if I have to buy only HTC and Sony devices from now on, thank you.
Edited 2017-10-23 23:41 UTC
I don’t know what kind od OLEDs you’ve been using, but my experience is completely opposite.
Let the dummies have their small victory, let all the iSheep think theirs is better when Google is clearly winning head and shoulders above ANYTHING Apple is putting out these days. I’ll take a half baked screen with everything it offers over an iToy any day
Others have mentioned it, but I think the major caveat is price: Many ~$100 Android phones are actually great.
And that’s a pretty big price difference. (I’m amazed they can make these still-incredible pieces of technology several times cheaper than the expensive ones.)
To me, the hype over flagship phones seems a little silly, especially in phone reviews. It all looks like hot air to me.
(Granted, some cheap phones really are shit, and I guess that’s a real advantage for iPhones, especially for an average consumer – you know they’re going to be good.)
That’s literally the only thing keeping me every year with an iPhone. I’ve gotten close to 4 years of software updates with my last two iPhones, and great physical and software security. If they can just keep that up I’m not switching anytime soon.
It’s disturbing that Apple is the only company getting those right, while openness is sacrificed in the process because other companies can’t get those right.
I get that people who care about those are a niche (a lot of people get new phones regularly), but I just like keeping a phone for as long as possible, it makes it a more sound investment.
“Depending on budget” a cheap Android phone is what’s “best” for most people, especially outside of Western Europe. Spending your entire monthly salary or more on a phone is not a financially healthy option.
Yeah, Thom seems to have a peculiar understanding of “normal, average people” – basically, in the top 5% of earners…
Received my new Pixel XL 2 (am posting from it now) about a week ago and I can’t reproduce the problem after following the steps in the linked article…
In all other senses, this phone is pretty fantastic. The bezels aren’t quite as tiny as the Samsung or the iPhone X, but it’s extremely fast (including Google Assistant responses), great battery, etc.
The migration process was painless, setup was very smooth. I’m sorry for people outside the USA, but the combination of Project Fi’s fixed cost roaming and this Pixel is perfect for my use. I had the previous Pixel and two Nexii before it – iPhones are nice, but the available cell services here are either horribly expensive (Verizon) or patchy.
“Nexii”? Nexuses!
Beside the fact that Apple customer care absolutely sucks balls and I hate them with a passion. I couldn’t disagree with you more about Android phones. Apple has it’s fair share of hardware and software issues with each new phone and OS upgrade to iron out. The key is to wait a bit before buying a brand new phone to let them catch and fix the few bugs that may exist. I am laughing at you and shaking my head as I enjoy my Galaxy S8 comfortable in the knowledge that I will never have an apple product on me or in my house.
I am an Android user and my wife is an iphone user. I prefer a world where both Android and Apple exist as it’s all about choice. If one OS disappear then the other becomes a monopoly that is no good for everyone.
I don’t want a phone that looks like everyone else’s phone I want to customise it and use any headphone or lead on it so I use Android. My wife, on the other hand, wants a phone that works and couldn’t care what it looks like so she uses an older iphone.
So I don’t think the iPhone is the best choice for everyone but nor do I think everyone should use an Android phone. So in conclusion this is a flawed argument.
More and more I think I would rather just have a FLIP PHONE.
One that is:
a) a flip phone, small, sturdy, rugged, and fits in a pocket
b) does not need a big add-on case to survive its first drop
c) Has a good keyboard like Blackberries had
d) has a screen just big enough to check email, send texts, and view a small map when needed, or quick webpage once in a while
I don’t want to play games, I don’t want to watch movies, and I don’t want to snap-face-insta-tweet my selfies and what food I am eating.
Basically I just want a functional flip phone, that is about as capable as blackberry’s were, and just takes advantage of today’s faster CPU’s and more memory.
Edited 2017-10-24 15:40 UTC
i have an iPhone 5S and a Nexus 4. The iPhone 5S is still receiving updates form Apple. The Nexus 4 is not getting squat from Google. The only way I’ve been able to kee that Nexus 4 current is to use a 3rd party, Lineage to actually get my phone to the same level as support as my iPhone 5S. Sure, they are both old, but they ain’t broke. Google needs to get this software line is check if it wants to keep playing.
I’m considering either an iPhone SE (or wait for SE2 1Q2018) or a Huawei 6X for my next phone. Both inexpensive, but those updates sure are nice from Apple.
We have come to a point where phones need to be mediocre to win, welcome to the apple utopia!
.Apps and OS are mediocre rolling releases, nothing is set, nothing is finished, nothing is polished, nothing is final. Hardware is now the same thing now, iphone is just a rolling release, or you didnt understand that from the lack of 3g or mms in the beggining. Its the same case for all other phones, (lg) g, v, flex, (samsung) a, j, galaxy, note, (htc) U, (motorola) g, x, z, e, (google) nexus 1-6, pixel 1-2, (nokia) 3, 6, 8, blah, blah, bland!!! Whats even the point of finding problems in this years model. The new one is going to come next year, they are going to wait a year to fix it.
We are never going to get a truly innovative product like a a Priv again. Hardware keyboard, wireles charging, nfc, 18mp camera with good software, 5.43″, curved, amoled, 1440p, (somewhat) flagship processor, 3gb ram!, 32gb storage, sd card slot, stock android, monthly security, big battery. Wait did I mention it ran adroid, ohh darn! it lags!! windows or ios would have been a better option.
Edited 2017-10-25 01:57 UTC
I’ll stick with my Galaxy S8+ any day!
Apple is only the number 2 worlwide as market share with only 14%. Every year Apple’s marketshare worlwide is shrinking. Next year Huawei will be number 2 and Apple will be number 3. iPhone is a luxurious product for a niche market. Google has won the war!
iOS has a good presence in rich countries, it has a perfectly viable size in many of them, but it is non-existent in India, Africa etc. Google’s Android won this war. Always the small guy (that is Apple) dies when has such a small market share! The TRUTH is, that Apple can NEVER be a viable smartphone OS for a global reach. That is CERTAIN. They have LOST the platform war.
iOS is DESTINED to become a NICHE like Mac OS became. For niche audiences only. A very LARGE niche yes, if they have 10% of global handsets say year 2025 but still only a niche. Most developers can safely ignore iOS by then.
App developers will see the users and reach and money and follow it, and soon the moment comes, when app developers don’t BOTHER TO RELEASE iPhone versions !!! This is INEVITABLE. 12% is FAR TOO SMALL to bother with your first edition games if the alternative is 88%. And no matter how much some apple fanatics will yell ‘but our users are richer’ the app developer says – I need USERS. I need REACH. I will go with Android. That is the NEXT STAGE that WILL INEVITABLY COME.
BTW Google is being smart about this. They KNOW they have won. They don’t WANT Apple to go away into its corner and sulk. They WANT to pretend there is still a battle between these two, because Google know they have ALREADY WON the WAR. The longer Apple puts its efforts into marketing the rival app platform – the better it is for Google.
That does NOT mean that Apple dies. Apple will live on happily ever after but their iOS ecosystem will only serve the dwindling flock of iSheep who will continue to pay the iTax.
Apple will be a healthy company with fiercely loyal customers but it has zero chance of maintaining the current illusion of a global reach digital platform. As that image crumbles, part of Apple’s glory, youth loyalty, and ability to turn obscene profits will disappear.
Apple is not dead, Apple is definitely the winner. Android had managed to hold on to the tail coats of apple. They are the result of Apple. While I don’t believe Apple has ever improved any technology, they sure know how to market.
IOS is the clear winner here, Android is now a clone of iOS. IOS is a clone of Android, they have assimilated. We are the losers. Don’t believe it? Every single thing Apple does, here comes Google. Everything Google does, here come Apple.
“iPhone simply being the best all-round option for most, normal people”
WOW! I had to login just to comment on this… Thanks for putting a majority of people (who do not buy phones over 200-300e) into not-normal/crazy/whatever category, where they belong by simply not bying an iPhone. You should do commercials for them…
“iPhone simply being the best all-round option for most, normal people”
Thom, you are trolling right now! iPhone is a luxurious product for rich countries. iOs has a worldwide market of ~12% while Android has ~88%. iPhone is for rich people in rich countries and it is not for normal people from rich countries.
Also, iPhone does not have the best camera, iPhone does not have wireless charging, iPhone does not have standard charging port, iPhone battery’s sucks.
this is what the sentence should be: “iPhone simply being NOT the best all-round option for most, normal people”.
You could just about justify the cost of the iPhone SE (I’m actually surprised Apple have kept this alive for so long, because I suspect it’s got the lowest markup of any of the phones they sell), but anything above that is frankly massively overpriced.
Where Android scores heavily over the iPhone is the vast choice of price and hardware specs (along with almost always better value for money). The reason Android dominates is that Apple have never had a budget (sub-$300) phone and, like it or not, that’s about the price limit for most people, especially those in developing countries.
As time has worn on, we’re now seeing some decently spec’ed phones at around the $200 price point (almost always made in China and then sold in the West – Blu have done a reasonable job of this for example). Yes, you won’t get Android updated as often as iOS, but there’s often custom ROMs available if you’re looking for monthly (or sometimes better!) updates.
We’ve got a Galaxy S4 at work that really needs to be binned if we kept its ageing Android 5.0.1 stock ROM on it. Having LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2) available for a 4.5 year old phone probably even exceeds Apple’s iOS support lifetime and will probably get more updates than iOS too. There’s even a chance LineageOS 15 might come out for it before its 5th birthday.
Android is great simply because of choice and bang for buck and I think it’s been a better mobile OS than iOS since around KitKat or so – Apple has been desperately adding Android features ever since then. So, sorry Thom, I really disagree with you on this one!
Suggesting non-nerdy, regular people get an Android phone at this point in time is simply irresponsible.
So Thom thinks everybody should be using an iPhone and a macbook