Apple vs Android
The reason I got a problem with videos where..
it’s kinda Apple iPhone vs Android (Samsung, Google, Xiaomi, etc), is that they generate
this animosity between people, based on a silly thing like owning a certain device.
Even kids these days are being told that they don’t look cool, or are not cool because
they don’t own a device of a particular brand (Apple iPhone)
You might be considering an Apple device like the iPhone 14 Pro Max here or maybe an Android
device like the Samsung Galaxy S22 ultra.. or maybe the Galaxy Z Fold 4…
But one of the things that may be on the back of your mind is…
The Apple ecosystem vs the Android ecosystem.
Not just from your own perspective…
But how your choice impacts the people you care about… like your family, friends and
co-workers.
You know I don’t get Apple, Google or Samsung to send me free stuff so I get to freely try
all of these and give you an unbiased view.
And one of the questions I get a lot in my videos is can you mix the Android and Apple
ecosystems?
Does anything break when you do that?
Let’s have a chat.
I am Alex and I do down to earth tech videos
There was a video released earlier this year by some of the biggest tech channels out there
(I won’t mention names) there’s no need for me to do that.
But I thought it was slightly irresponsible because for me, it felt VERY biased.
Towards Apple.
It was basically saying that iPhones… are “better” than Android phones.
And that is the main problem I have with these sort of videos!
In my opinion THERE ISN’T a… “best OS”.
Because we all use these devices in our own way.
So Android may suit YOU… better than it suits someone else.
And it just feels a bit silly and divisive to say one is better than the other.
Apple products are more popular and generate more views.. let’s face it.
I am in the same game..
But THIS video is not sponsored by anyone so I can give you my view without any strings
attached..
.WHATSOEVER
To give you an idea those guys were talking about performance, benchmarks and they even
covered how “green” a company is in their comparison…
And they gave to Apple.
The same company that is still shipping a cable standard that no one else uses.
Right…
Sure there are great things that make the Apple ecosystem really powerful, and I am
in it.
But in some cases you could be missing out on some really cool devices out there.
I am not trying to sell you any of this stuff right.
But my eyes were opened to Android a few years ago.
And I think it’s awesome to be open to trying different devices.
Granted I haven’t used every Android device out there.. but I can tell you the user experience
on the Fold 4 here for example beats any iPhone right now for me.
But let’s not take away from the fact that Apple iPhones offer great build quality and
will basically last forever!
The recent iPhones would be a great option for lots of people…
But to a long term Apple customer, these are starting to feel quite boring.
Even iOS itself is starting to lose its charm.
Not to mention Android 13 which you can get on the Pixel 6 Pro for example… and it’s
fantastic.
Actually, the Pixel 6 Pro is probably the first phone that I’ve used as TRUE ASSISTANT.
I covered this in a lot of my reviews but my point is…
sometimes the trade-off of sticking with the Apple ecosystem, means you might be missing
out on some proper innovation out there.
There’s a question of long term support and software updates and customer service
that we shouldn’t ignore….
But those things DO come at a cost.
MESSAGING (iMessage vs Android Message) Let’s go into some of the arguments that
people might make for going one way or another.
Messaging for example.
Apple iMessage is awesome.
And the easiest way to use it is to buy an Apple iPhone.
Done.
Right?
Well, if you really want to… you can route messages via a Mac or iPad to your Android
devices so technically…you don’t HAVE to buy an iPhone… but you DO need an Apple
device.
And I know I am down playing this because… to me iMessage, the whole…
blue bubble vs green bubble is really NOT that important…
but I do appreciate that THIS IS WHERE a lot of the ecosystem debate comes from.
And in a lot of cases…
this is what may drive your decision to buy an iPhone or an Android device at the end
of the day.
To me the simplest solution is to avoid using proprietary app in the first place.
So WhatsApp and Telegram for example completely get rid of the issue and frankly, offer a
lot of useful functionality…
Even stuff that I don’t see on iMessage or Android message apps.
I love Telegram as an example, been using it for many years.
They are constantly updating it and the fact I can use it on my Android devices in the
same way that I can on the iPhone is awesome.
But you might say…
OO, what about FaceTime?
Well, when it comes to FaceTime..
You can now, you may not know this but recently Apple introduced the ability to send an Android
user a link to join you via FaceTime.
Just like a Zoom meeting.
So again if you are worried about getting an Android phone because you’re not gonna
get FaceTime with your family…
This may change how you approach it.
Airdrop vs Nearby share Now, there is one thing that…
I really can’t argue with which Airdrop.
Sure there are multiple ways with Android of sharing photos/videos/documents or whatever…
And when you do this on Android, between…
non-Apple devices, it works the same way as AirDrop.
The problem happens when… and I have this problem myself…
when you try to share anything from an Android phone to a MacBook for example or an Ipad.
There are workarounds.
But nothing is even close to Airdrop.
I use a multitude of apps to do this, but there’s always an extra step or two.
The protocol they use is not as fast as Airdrop.
Some require you to scan a QR code…
Airdrop is select… send.
Done.
It does crash sometimes, especially on the Mac but 99 times out of a hundred is flawless.
So in this case, if you rely a lot on AirDrop… and you use it several times a day.
This could be a dealbreaker and going to Android is pretty much a non-starter for you.
Which is really annoying actually because I think we should be able to move stuff around
regardless of the brand.
To me AirDrop should be like a universal standard.
But that would mean selling less iPhones so…
Yeah that’s not gonna work.
Talking about annoying things…
The other thing that really annoys me is how… you can’t use the Apple Watch without an
iPhone.
I fully understand that this is naive to think that Apple would ever allow it…
But if you really really want an Apple Watch…
And you don’t want to spend a lot of money on the latest iPhone, the solution is to buy
a burner iPhone…
like anything older than an iPhone 8 will be compatible.
HANDOFF BETWEEN DEVICES Another argument that you might hear.. is
how nice the ecosystem works and handing off things like music and phone calls…
between Apple devices.
I gotta tell you…Because those big YouTubers are not gonna do that are they?
Handoff between the iPhone and the HomePod, AirPods Max and AirPods Pro is not as…
SMOOTH as some people may portray it to you.
And it’s not very intelligent either.
Sometimes I am editing videos, wearing the AirPods Max… but trying to listen to music
or watch some content on the iPad at the same time.
Edge case I know…
But that’s what I want to do.
It’s so random….
It doesn’t matter how many times I physically click on the audio output in the Mac, and
select the AirPods Max…
It will still randomly start picking up on the iPad audio and play that through the headphones
and then my MacBook speakers start going.
It drives me nuts.
The only way around this… is to turn off bluetooth on the iPad.
I mean…
what sort of user experience is that?
The experience on the AirPods Pro 2 seems a little better in that aspect but is far
from perfect.
And when you bring in the voice assistant aspect…
By the way, before I forget….YouTube can be quite tricky for a small channel like this
one… so if you are enjoying this video, a thumbs up will go a long way.
It REALLY helps YouTube recommend the channel to other people.
And if you like my stuff, a sub to the channel would be amazing, I really appreciate that.
The benefit to you is that I will be here, at least once a week with a new, down to earth
tech video for you.
I have loads of new content coming up, including more videos on the Apple Watch Ultra, the
Galaxy Zee Fold 4…
iPhone 14 Pro Max, 14 Plus is coming, the Apple Watch Ultra….
So if you like your tech gadgets, you’re in good company here!
Going back to the Voice Assistant aspect...
between Apple and Android…
I mean, I don’t want to go on too much here and sound like I am just hating on Apple but….
SIRI SUCKS!
And so does Bixby to be fair.
And as I mentioned earlier, the Pixel for me has the best assistant …. Out of the
box.
The speech to text recognition is just out of this world for me too.
And even when I put it against Apple’s latest…
top of the pile iPhone 14 Pro Max…It smokes it.
When you’re talking to it, it feels like one is a 3 year old child, barely able to
make any sense of anything.
And the other is a professor at Oxford or something.
It’s just night and day.
iPhone cameras vs Android cameras The cameras on these devices are ALL amazing.
The iPhone 14 has some really cool new features now and for video…
it does produce superb quality.
4K videos that… really great.
But for the majority of use cases, like sharing stuff on social media…
the level of quality you get on these other devices are all top notch.
No pun intended.
One thing I would say though is that the camera apps on Android is still…
miles ahead in terms of how FUN it is to use.
Apple added Action mode which brings it a little closer in my view…
And you can obviously add lots of camera apps… that will be fun to use.
But the options you get on Android out of the box, just on the default camera app…
are just more fun to use for me.
So if you are on Android and you wanted to try the iPhone, the camera aspect shouldn’t
really stop you as those fun features are “nice to haves” and don’t make it a
deal breaker because you have lots of cool iOS apps.
Again, as you probably picked up by now, one is not necessarily better than the other.
And if you are only interested in camera specs, then the Sony Experia should be the one you
go for, or maybe the S22 Ultra.
The iPhone cameras are amazing, but it would be foolish for me to say that it’s better
than Android…
And going the other way, if you’ve been toying with the idea of getting something
like the Tab s8 Ultra which is an absolute beauty of a tablet… or one of the foldable
phones that bring a little bit more of innovation to the party…
I hope this video gives you a bit of a flavour into other options…
And a bit of food for thought on the fact that the Apple ecosystem….
may be getting a LOT MORE CREDIT than it deserves.
For the next video in this series, I’d like to answer some of your questions and ideas
so let me know those down in the comments.
YouTube thinks you’re gonna like this video over here and I’ve create this playlist
here with lots more videos that you might like.
Hope to see you there!