Android Vs Iphone

- All right, welcome to

the definitive iPhone

versus Android video.

It's the impossible debate, right?

In a lot of ways, people just get

so entrenched on one side

that they never wanna

flip to the other side.

To each their own.

You hear that all the time,

but I have a solution.

So here's how we're gonna do this.

So I'm gonna break this down into

seven actually meaningful categories,

so it's an odd number, so there

has to be a winner, no tie,

but since we're not

psychos and we know that

one winner doesn't automatically apply

to every human on earth,

I'm actually gonna give you a system,

a rubric to help figure out

the real winner for yourself.

You'll see what I mean. Let's get into it.

So, all right.

Category number one. Customization.

Basically, if you see this

icon and you get excited,

then you probably love customization too.

So, digging into the settings

and messing around with the

home screen and the lock screen

and tweaking things and behaviors

to make the device

absolutely perfect for you,

I mean, it's a hobby all on its own.

Now, at first in 2023, it

might actually seem like

iOS 17 and Android 14

are pretty close, right?

I mean, let's be real.

iOS just added a bunch

of really good features

that are very well done.

The new lock screen update

gives you the ability

to change all these clock fonts and colors

and put various super useful

widgets on your lock screen

and then save a bunch of

different lock screen setups

for different situations

and different focus modes,

and then widgets were also

added to the home screen

less than two years ago as well,

so that unlocked a ton of customization

of home screen setups displaying

glanceable information,

but the more you look into it,

the more you realize it's

not actually that close,

and a lot of this really just

comes down to the fact that

Apple, they do keep adding

all these abilities,

but you're always restricted to

doing it the Apple way, the correct way,

and so that's why a lot of iPhone setups

still just kind of look the same.

Like, even if you just

take stock Android 14

from the Google Pixel,

which isn't even the most

customizable version of Android,

there's still way more

that you can change,

from the colors of the theme of the OS

matching the color of your

wallpaper thanks to Material You

to icon packs, custom widget sizes.

I mean, Android will just kind of

let you do whatever you want.

On the iPhone,

you can't expand a widget

to any size you want.

You can't put an app

just on the right side of your

home screen for reachability.

You literally can't even place an app

wherever you want on the home screen.

It must be the next up in

the grid of Apple's choosing.

You can't change the grid's size.

You can't change the icon sizes.

I mean, it just takes a

whole bunch of extra work

and a Siri Shortcuts hack

just to use a custom icon.

Just basic stuff.

Now, I think the other

side of that coin is

you can make a truly ugly,

horrible Android setup,

where you can't really mess up

an iPhone home screen that much.

So, while you can definitely argue that

iOS does it prettier,

the winner for most customization,

that would be Android.

So, then category number

two, features, all right?

Just straight up which

one can do more stuff.

This has been one of the hottest debates

at the forefront of iOS versus Android

conversations you always hear,

mostly because both

platforms, at some level,

launched missing features,

but especially the iPhone.

Like, you'd always hear,

"Wow, can you believe the iPhone

can't even set wallpapers?"

And then it was, "Can

you believe the iPhone

is just now getting copy

and paste, seriously?"

And then it's, "Wow, it's crazy that iOS

is just getting widgets

now a decade later."

But, hey, now, it's 2023 and

they're both very complete,

and even in the ways that they're not,

they're copying each other all the time.

You always see a new keynote

with new stuff on Android,

and you're like, that came from iOS,

and then you'll see stuff

from the iPhone keynote

and be like, that came from Android,

but there's even some new stuff now

that the iPhone has that Android doesn't.

A pretty good one recently is focus modes,

which gives you super high

control over notifications

in various different situations

with your apps and your contacts.

There are also a lot of privacy features,

things like Hide My Email with iCloud Plus

and iCloud Private Relay.

You could even argue that

Dynamic Island on the Pro iPhone

is a feature if you want to,

but, I mean, I just couldn't

because only a small

handful of apps support it,

but it's something pretty cool and unique,

which is more and more rare than ever

in the smartphone world.

At this point, though,

neither OS is really missing

any gigantic features anymore.

They've both matured up to this level

where they're their own character.

They both do a lot of stuff,

but I still am gonna have to give the edge

to Android in this one

just because there are

so many little, like,

tweaky, like little OS-level features,

just little things that you

can tweak and change on Android

that still just are not on the iPhone.

So I'm talking like

battery management features

to customized charging speeds

or set manual charge limits

to preserve battery life.

There's also an actual

file management system

so you can drag and drop things

onto your phone into certain

folders if you want to.

There's gaming-specific

features like game modes,

the ability to dial up and down

your screen's refresh

rate whenever you want to.

Independent volume controls

for phone calls and ringtones and alarms.

Also, reverse wireless

charging comes up a lot

for charging wireless earbuds

without breaking out a separate cable.

Really, just, it comes down

to the benefit of Android

is having so much feature choice.

That's kind of the point,

and this also bleeds into hardware too.

So, even if the feature you want

is a huge camera with no notch,

then you have to get an

Android phone, right?

So, if the feature is a super

fast charging or a 10x camera

or USB Type-C,

as of right now, it's

gotta be an Android phone.

So, even though they both

offer all of the basic features

and they appear to copy

each other all the time

on little added stuff,

the winner here, again,

is definitely Android.

Now, number three is ease of use.

Now, ease of use is very

valuable to a lot of people,

like a lot of people, and the

thing about ease of use is

it often basically has

an inverse relationship

with customization and a ton of features,

'cause there's this delicate balancing act

you have to do of having flexibility,

giving flexibility to the user,

but not overwhelming them

with a ton of buttons and settings,

and this is really where the iPhone excels

and has excelled for years

as a high priority for sure,

even in the most fundamental ways.

The home screen on the iPhone

has had up to four icons in the dock

on every iPhone since the beginning,

and the phone icon has always been green

and always been on the left

every single time for 17 years.

The iPhone's camera app,

we've all seen that stay

fundamentally the same

with the viewfinder and the sliding modes.

It's been like that for years,

and that kind of tucks

away a lot of the settings

into a separate settings app

and it can feel like

it's missing features,

but, honestly, it's still the easiest

and most straightforward

for most people to use.

It's like they hate changing

things for no good reason.

The calculator has basically

been unchanged for years.

Now, there's also downsides to that,

like Siri has basically been ignored

since it was introduced, but, still, like,

Apple moves the call end

button by like 200 pixels

to the middle of the screen

and people freak out about it.

Sometimes, it feels like

Android versions will

just move stuff around

just kind of to try it and for

the sake of changing things,

and sometimes it works,

sometimes it doesn't.

They'll move it back,

and that's interesting

and exciting sometimes,

but that does hurt just user

continuity and ease of use.

Maybe not for you watching this video,

but just think for the average person,

like for your five closest friends.

Think about how they use their phone.

Yeah, then throw on top of that,

there's basically never any bloatware

loaded onto the iPhone ever,

and then customer service is

basically always better for an iPhone

because Apple stores are everywhere

and Apple controls that entire experience,

for better or for worse,

so they get to do great

work with customers.

So it's just for people

who are not enthusiasts

who just wanna get the thing

and not think about it anymore,

they pretty much always

go with the iPhone.

So ease of use is a

checkbox for the iPhone.

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All right, so we gotta talk about updates.

So number four is support.

So this is something that I would classify

as kind of underrated,

just because I don't think enough people

buy their new phone that

they plan on having for years

with this in mind.

I think having the latest

and greatest updates,

software, and security

patches as quick as possible

and as long as possible

should be a priority,

but it usually isn't for people.

Either way, it's kind of a

mixed bag across the board.

In Android world, some

companies make no promises

or they kind of break their promises.

Some have short promises and

some will actually extend out

to promising three to four

years of software updates.

Weirdly, Samsung right now

is the undisputed king of

Android software updates,

with some rumors of maybe

Google catching back up,

but Samsung announced in 2019

that all devices in 2019 or later

will get four years of security updates

and some flagships will even get five,

but none of them really

come close to the iPhone.

When iOS 17 comes out this fall,

every iPhone back to

the iPhone 10R from 2018

is officially supported and

gonna get the latest version.

That's five major

software version updates.

I don't think there are any

Android phones from 2018

that are gonna get the

latest version of Android 14

when it comes out.

So this one easily goes

to the vertically-integrated Apple phone

with the Apple software all day.

So, now, my number five category is apps.

This one is actually kind of fascinating.

So, obviously, we have our standard,

like our apps that we

all use every single day

on our phones that we're used to,

but then sometimes it's fun

just sort of popping around

in the respective app stores,

discovering new things, finding fun apps,

and, at this point, they

are both flourishing.

There's millions of apps now.

There's over three and a half million apps

in the Google Play Store,

and over a million and a

half in Apple's App Store,

which if you just stop there,

looks like a win for Android,

but quality over quantity, my friends.

Quality over quantity.

Basically, every major app is

available for both platforms,

which means there are many

more, you know, niche apps

or relatively unknown

possible diamonds in the rough

on the Google Play Store,

sure, but the difference is

when you actually talk to these developers

and observe the cycle of, like,

how they get made and how

these apps get updated,

the truth is so many of

them are prioritizing iOS,

and, really, it's purely for efficiency.

Think about it.

If you just have to update

one version of your app

and it works with all the

newest iPhones instantly

and works perfectly for millions of people

who all have basically

the same aspect ratio,

of course you'd do it, flip that switch,

but, with Android,

there are naturally

many more complexities.

There are a bunch of different devices

that all have different aspect ratios

and different pixel densities

and different feature

support and even foldables,

and it's like it's a lot more work

to get all of those users up to date

with the same level of optimization.

It's a lot of different switches to flip,

so a lot of 'em just don't

go through all of that

or they take way longer to.

So the number of titles is one thing,

but is it the same Instagram

app on both iPhone and Android?

Is it the same Threads app on each one?

As someone who's been

carrying and using both phones

and often using the

same app on both phones,

I have a firsthand experience

of knowing that, often,

even with some of Google's own apps,

the updates are prioritized on the iPhone.

They come first to the iPhone

before they come to Android.

I wish that wasn't true.

I wish they were just as

easy to do one or the other,

but that's just the truth of it.

So the slight app advantage is

gonna go to the iPhone here,

and interestingly enough,

this also applies

generally to accessories.

Again, same reason, same efficiency,

but that's a win for the iPhone.

So then, category number six,

I'm gonna go a little more

subjective with this one,

but I still think it

matters, which is excitement.

Which one is more interesting or exciting

in the moment to you?

Now, honestly, I get pretty excited

for a lot of different

new tech these days,

and, actually, because there's only

like one or two new

iPhone drops every year,

it's actually very easy

to get hype built up for the new iPhone,

but it's definitely a

different type of excitement

with the massive variety of

new innovations and things

that come to Android phones all the time.

Like, if you just are

interested in folding phones,

well, there's more Android

releases than ever for that.

Want a gaming phone? There's

gonna be an Android for that.

Do you want a headphone jack?

Do you want a compact phone?

Do you want the world's fastest charging?

Do you want some interesting

new unique designs

or materials or textures

or experimental features?

Like, that is the world of Android,

and if you think about it,

seriously think about this,

most of the interesting excitement

around every new iPhone

launch, the question really is,

is this new iPhone going

to get a new feature

that's been in Android phones for years?

Like, are we finally gonna

get USB-C on an iPhone?

Are we finally gonna get

fast charging on an iPhone?

Are we finally gonna get a 5x camera?

And so just for that novelty reason alone,

the excitement category,

that's definitely gotta go to Android.

So that brings us to my last category,

number seven, ecosystem.

We've heard this word before, ecosystem.

So, okay, say what you want,

but there are a lot of people

who will not buy a phone

if it doesn't have iMessage

or FaceTime, whatever it is,

and Apple has weaponized this

and built walls around this

and closed it off as much as possible.

Technically, you can join a

FaceTime from an Android phone,

but you can't start one.

So I made an entire video

just about Apple's ecosystem.

Hate it or love it, it is

important to some people.

Now, the thing is

Apple is not the only

one with an ecosystem.

Like, look at Samsung for example.

Apple happens to build bigger walls

around keeping people

into their ecosystem,

but Samsung has a lot of

equivalents to all the same pieces.

Like, you could get a

Samsung Galaxy S flagship

and you could quickly and easily

connect your Galaxy

Buds just like AirPods.

You put on your Galaxy watch

with a lot of the same

features as the Apple watch.

You tether to a Samsung Tab

just for entertainment purposes,

like an iPad, but then

you get a Galaxy Book Pro

with cellular internet sharing

and wireless Quick Share,

just like a MacBook Pro with AirDrop.

You see where I'm going? It

just keeps going and going.

I'm sure Samsung is

eventually gonna come out

with their smart speaker

to match the home pod.

It's totally, totally

coming, but on paper,

the idea is they are

surprisingly congruent.

So, the way I see it, at

the time of this recording,

'cause this could change very

soon in the next couple weeks,

but the main advantages

of Samsung's ecosystem

would be things like one USB-C

across literally everything,

so you can use one charging

cable for all of your stuff.

Two, they make more

different versions of devices

that fit into the ecosystem.

Like, there are a ton of different phones

and a bunch of different watches

and different headphones

and laptops, et cetera,

so there's more flexibility

and hardware choice.

Classic Android, plus Samsung

also makes other stuff

that connects, like

dishwashers and refrigerators,

but then the advantages

of Apple's ecosystem,

not just in the US, but especially here,

are, first of all, ease

of use and seamlessness.

Like, it is genuinely crazy how good

some of the continuity stuff

is in Apple's ecosystem.

Like, something like Continuity Camera

is so sick every time.

You just push one button

to use a super high quality

iPhone camera as your webcam.

It works very, very well,

but then the popularity

factor, especially in the US,

makes things like FaceTime and iMessage

and the Find My Network super strong.

So I can make a whole video on this.

I could put up the

strengths and weaknesses

and put up just these two

ecosystems up against each other,

but, as of right now,

they're both very strong,

and I'm gonna give the

slight edge to Apple's,

just because, one, I'm in the US

and that advantage is strong,

but, two, just because of the seamlessness

and how well things are integrated

and the continuity features are unreal.

So, if we tally these all up here,

you can see that the objective winner,

in four out of the seven

categories that I made up,

is the iPhone, but put

your pitchforks down.

Guess what?

As you've probably picked up

from the beginning of this video,

there is no objective winner

to a decision as personal as this one

and when the options are this close.

You probably already know,

if you've been watching my videos,

you know I main an Android phone

most of the time alongside an iPhone,

but my main phone and my

main customized setups

are on the Android phone, so what gives?

Like, picking one de facto

winner kind of suggests that

the one winner is best for everyone,

but we already know that there's

some people who literally

don't care about some features

that some others would say

they can't live without.

So I've devised a very basic system

to help you pick your winner for yourself,

and it's really quite simple.

All you have to do

is put these seven categories

in order of importance to you

and then rate each one of them

let's say on a scale from one to five.

So give them a one to five point rating

based on how much you care about it.

So, here, for me, I care the most about

customization and features.

Then I care a lot about apps,

and excitement and updates

are decently important,

but then in my daily driver,

ease of use and ecosystem

aren't that big of a deal.

I've got a mixed bag.

So then I just give the

amount of points earned

to each winner of that category.

So the winner for me is clearly Android,

but, hey, for you,

maybe you care a lot about

ecosystem and maybe nothing else.

I'm sure you know someone like this.

Then the iPhone will clearly

be calling your name,

or if you're the type who wants

all the features and

excitement in the world,

well, then Android probably

is what's in your pocket.

You might even have your own

category you could add in

that's heavily weighted.

I kind of see it like buying a car.

Like maybe Cool Factor

is in there. Have at it.

It turns out buying a phone

is one of the most personal

decisions you make.

I've said this before, but, like,

it's the thing you spent your money on

and you carry everywhere you go,

and so that's why people

get so worked up about

this side versus that side,

but, at the end of the day,

the winner, not to be cheesy, is us,

because they're competing

against each other to get better

to hopefully win you over, and

that's the way it should be.

Thanks for watching.

Catch you in the next one.

Peace.

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