What You Don’t Know Sucks About Your iPhone/Android If You’ve Only Used One of Them

IPhone_5s

My Nexus 5 recently took a terrible fall (all my fault) and now has a cracked screen and I am back to using my iPhone 5. As a new version of the iPhone and Nexus are due out soon, I am holding off on paying to fix the screen and am going to invest in the next version of one of the 2 phones.

I got a Nexus 5 months ago after having owned an iPhone 1, 2, 3, 3g, 4, and 5. I was pleasantly surprised by the Nexus 5 and aggravated with some things. Switching back to my iPhone has made me realize again the strengths and weaknesses of each platform that you can only really see if you've used both extensively. If you've only used one of them, you may not realize what you are missing out on, or what you take for granted.

What Sucks About Your Nexus (and other Android phones)

No Good Backups!!!

This is the cardinal sin of phones. Phones break. You don't want to have to set one up for (almost) scratch every time something happens. How did Google let this happen? They are one of the kings of the cloud. This is a killer problem. I do use one of the leading Android backup programs in Helium, but how iOS handles this is extraordinarily better. This is close to a deal breaker for this ecosystem.  SERIOUSLY GOOGLE! WTF! They are one of the best cloud company's and they have chosen not to solve this problem. Just terrible.

The Default Setup is Really Lacking

When you first turn on the Nexus it does a great job of connecting you to your content if you are using Google Play. Everything just shows up. But getting notifications, tones, app layout can be a pain. What app to use for your lockscreen? (Locker Pro is great by a way.) How do you get good ring tones? What is the crazy screen setup….. These things are much easier out of the gate on the iPhone.

And this wouldn't be so bad if you had a good backup. Then if you break your screen (like someone I know) it would be easy to get back to where you had it setup before. Instead, the setup process takes alot of work… again!

Some Apps Don't Exist, Some Aren't as Stable

I didn't find this problem to be that big a deal, but if there's one app that you love and its only on iOS, then it will be a huge problem. Some apps are also not  as stable as they are on iOS. Oveall, depending on what apps you use, this can range from an annoyance to not being able to stay on this OS. Just terrible.

Lack of Direction for the Products

Rumors are that Google is going to kill their Nexus line of products. WHAT?!?!? No matter what Android phone you use, you have no confidence that the product is going to keep evolving. When you spend as much time as many of us do with our phones, it really, really sucks that it may be gone soon. This is not true of other ecosystems and is a HUGE problem. 

No Quick Repairs

There's no Genius bar to run to if something goes wrong. If your phone stops working, you are not going to have one for a couple of days at least. That's a huge problem. 

 

What Sucks About Your iPhone

The Screen!!!

Having to switch back to the tiny iPhone 5 screen from my Nexus 5 is one of the most aggravating gadget issues I've ever faced. SERIOUSLY APPLE, how can you be 2 years behind everyone else? Every time I pick up the iPhone 5 I think it is must be either a kids play phone or something that was left behind from the 1950's. Apple knows this and has larger phones coming, but it does not bode well for their future that they are this far behind in such an obvious, and relatively easy, area. 

The Keyboard

If the screen feels like it is out of the 1950's, then the keyboard is out of the 1800's. No swipe, you have to switch keyboard views every time you want to type a number, and tiny keys. This is another area that you wonder what they they have be thinking. Again, the technology passed them by in this area 2 years ago.

Sharing

You can only share to the services Apple allows you to. If you use any other service, you are pretty much screwed. With Android, when you install an app, sharing for that service is activated. So you, not Apple, determines what you can share with. I use Delicious and 500px and this is a huge deal for me. They are invisible to an iPhone. Also, even when the service you want to use is available on the iPhone, it is not easy to get to all the time. Something like email… how do you add a photo to an email if you've already started writing it? Not so easy. This is a great example of a them that comes up time and again on the iPhone, its Apple's phone and they will tell you what you can do, you are just along for the ride. 

Battery Management

There's no way to tell what is eating up your battery. With others OS's you can easily see how much of your battery each app is using up. Right now I have a problem where my iPhone battery is lasting no where near a day and I have no idea why. It is RIDICULOUS that Apple doesn't help us manage this better. 

iTunes

This is another area where Apple is far behind the curve. The idea that you need a desktop app to organize/buy/download stuff for you phone is from the 2000's. Other platforms are much easier to use for getting what you need. 

 

The 3 Most Important Things About My Phone

Switching around has made me realize the 3 things that most impact my user experience. They are, in order of importance:

1. Backups – Not having a good backup is a huge problem. It can be underestimated if you don't have to deal with it.

2. Screen size – With so many factors that are about the same, this has arguably the most important differentiator of the user experience. The new normal size is close to 5". Anthing under 4.5" is tiny now. When I got my Nexus 5 my tablet use dropped significantly. Now that I'm back on the smaller iPhone 5 I'm using my tablet much more again. 

3. Keyboard – Probably the 2nd most important piece of the user experience. A bad keyboard will cut down on how much you want to interact with your phone.

 A close 4th is battery life, but most models I've used have close to the same experience there. 

 

The Future

When you look at the problems each platform is facing, they look easily solveable. Google is a master of the cloud, can't they build a good cloud back up for people using Google Drive? A bigger screen is coming from Apple, can't they also update the keyboard and allow more sharing options? 
 

The bottom line is that as every year goes by there is less and less to differentiate these 2 platforms. My best advice to folks is to stay away from proprietary purchases as much as you can and stop using software that ties you to one platform or the other. In the long run to get the best devices you are going to have the option of choosing either. The only real losers will be the people tied to one platform or the other. They will likely end up being behind the times in key areas for time spans up to a cuople of years.  

 

My Next Purchase

RIght now I'm not sure if I will get a Nexus 6 or an iPhone 6. If Google fixes its backup situation, the Nexus 6 would likely be my pick. If Apple fixes the screen, keyboard, and sharing issues, I will likely get the iPhone 6. It is up to them. These problems are significant, and fairly obvious. I hope at least one of them steps up to the plate.