I’ve used Android phones most of my smartphone life. I started with Google’s G1, then came Google Nexus 5, Google Nexus 5X, Samsung Galaxy, LG G6. I’m very familiar with the Android ecosystem. I’ve dabbled with plenty of ROMs, like CyanogenMod, Cataclysm, etc. Along with my regular smartphone usage, I’ve developed apps for both Android and iOS. My only exposure to iOS has been an iPod Touch before smartphone days and my development experience with the emulators
Recently, I was given the opportunity to use an iOS device, iPhone SE, since MetroPCS offered free ones on no-contract signup. I figured I should give it a shot for a few months. I want to detail some pros and cons for both ecosystems.
Android:
- + More customizable: the home screen, widgets, launcher, unknown source apps, etc.
- + Better notifications system. Ability to dismiss things easily enough compared to iOS. Notification groupings! Reply within notifications. Etc!
- + Awesome integrations with lots of password managers. Personally I prefer LastPass to keep them synchronized with all my devices.
- + Change default apps for anything.
- + Consolidated Google Now to keep up with appointments, shipments, NBA/NFL scores, news. Automatically pieced together from my emails.
- + Google Assistant able to pick up any accent you can throw at it. My family has thick Punjabi/Indian accents.
- – Slow and inconsistent apps. Seem like second citizens compared to iOS apps from the same brands/app-makers.
iOS
- + Faster apps loads with better graphics
- + Smooth camera operation
- – Annoying notifications seem to never go away. Tough to dismiss all of them.
- – No integration with password managers like LastPass. Each app has to subscribe to specific password managers. In other words, no app ever happens.
- – Limited browsers. Every browser runs the Webkit backend, so if a website is broken in your browser, you’re out of luck.
- – Default iOS keyboard has no swiping. And it will keep coming up for apps that don’t want to use custom keyboards (i.e. Contacts, almost all the iOS apps, any financial app, logins/passwords). Inconsistent and NO thanks!!!
TLDR: I can’t wait to go back to my “slow yet complete” smartphone that is Android.