Why The iPhone Still Reigns Supreme
The iPhone is still the king of smartphones. It’s been nearly ten years since the introduction of the original iPhone and yet companies like Samsung and LG still haven’t come all that close to creating a phone that can truly compete with Apple’s device.
Before you jump to the conclusion that I’m some type of Apple fanboy let me disclose that my very first smart phone was actually a Samsung. I liked it quite a bit, but at the time there was a roughness to Android that made me feel like it wasn’t quite polished enough for primetime yet. I returned it after a few weeks and got myself an iPhone 4, which at the time was crazy to most people. All of my friends were still using BlackBerrys and sending BBMs and I was that annoying guy that wasn’t on BlackBerry Messenger. Since then I’ve had several HTC phones, the Galaxy S4, S5, and S6, the Note 4 and 5, the LG G4, and the Nexus 4 but I always found myself coming back to whatever the latest iPhone was at the time. It got me to thinking, why is that?
iMessage — While iMessage isn’t perfect, it’s by far the best messaging platform on the market right now. It’s so dead simple and works so flawlessly 99.9% of the time for me that that I’ve never had a good reason to use one of the other messaging platforms like Hangouts or GroupMe. The ability to seamlessly continue a conversation whether I’m on my iPhone, my MacBook, or my iPad is also an incredibly useful feature. The biggest thing for me though is that there’s virtually no setup required to get iMessage working. My parents aren’t the most tech savvy people, but even they have no problems setting up group chats or sending emojis and gifs. When it comes to something as simple as sending text messages I want something that just works and iMessage does just that.
Battery Life — I know a lot of people complain about the iPhone’s battery life, but you don’t really know what bad battery life is until you’ve used an Android phone. I consider myself a power user; in a regular day I’m sending hundreds of texts, checking email constantly, listening to music and podcasts, making several phone calls and checking my fantasy teams obsessively. In short my phone gets used pretty heavily from 8:00am to about 7:00pm on most days. Despite the iPhone 7 having a relatively diminutive 1,960 mAh battery capacity it still manages to get me through more than half of my day without a charge which is pretty impressive. All of the Samsung Galaxy phones I’ve owned had considerably larger battery capacities and could barely get me four hours of screen on time. The iPhone’s standby battery life is even more impressive. On nights where I fall asleep before plugging my phone in to charge I’ll wake up and find I’ve only lost two or three percent over night. Google has made Android a lot more efficient on the back end in recent versions of the software, but they still can’t touch iOS.
Service — Apple products are generally very well made, but things happen and they do break. If you need to get your iPhone fixed it’s a pretty simple process, you make an appointment at the closest Apple Store and you bring it in. Whether it’s a cracked screen or some type of software issue they can generally diagnose it and get you back up and running in no time. I can’t promise it’ll be cheap especially if you decline AppleCare when you buy your phone, but there are few things that the Apple Store can’t fix. When I had problems with my Note 4 it was unbelievably difficult to get it serviced since I had to go through my carrier. Their technical service department was absolutely useless and at the end of the day they couldn’t even fix the problem I was having. I ended up returning the phone and going back to an iPhone. This isn’t just an issue Samsung has, none of the other big Android players like LG and HTC have retail locations either, so if you have a problem with your device your troubleshooting will happen over the phone and if service is needed you’re sending it into a repair facility.
App Support — Android was actually the first mobile OS with an app marketplace, but Apple mastered the concept. Even if you use Google web services like Docs, Drive, or Gmail you’re covered with iOS so you can really get the best of both worlds. Since there are fewer iPhone models for developers to account for they’re also able to do some things that aren’t as feasible on Android. For instance take the very popular Snapchat app. Ever wonder why the photos taken from an Android phone look so grainy? It’s because the app is taking a screenshot of the live video feed from the camera, it’s not actually tapping into the camera and controlling it. With iOS the developers didn’t have to code the app for hundreds of different devices, so it was much easier for them to do it the right way and actually tap into the iPhone’s camera resulting in a far more clear picture. Android phones often have superior hardware when compared to iPhones, but because there’s just so many different types of devices to develop for some sacrifices in quality have to be made.
Accessories — Last, but certainly not least is the accessories. It may sound a bit odd to stick with a platform because of accessories, but hear me out. It’s been about five years since Apple switched to the lightning connector and since then I’ve accumulated quite a few lightning cables and accessories. I have a charger in my work bag, one by my bed, one at my desk, one for the car, and it goes on and on. Switching to Android means giving up all of my accessories with the lightning port since it’s proprietary and I’d have to invest at least $75 to $100 to replace all of my charging cables, bricks, and docks. In the grand scheme of things that’s not a ton of money, but if I can avoid spending money I will. I also have an Apple Watch, an iPad, a MacBook and an Apple TV that all work perfectly (and were quite expensive), so it’s hard for me to justify switching toAndroid if that means that I’ll lose the seamless integration I currently enjoy with those products.
It may sound like I’m an Apple fan boy and I suppose a part of me is, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate Android and Android devices. The new Samsung Galaxy S8 is one of the most drool worthy phones I’ve seen in a long time and it absolutely embarrasses the iPhone in terms of design. I would kill for more customization options and the ability to choose default apps, but Apple likes to keep things locked down so that’s a no go. What keeps me coming back to the iPhone though is that it nails the simple things and sometimes the simple things are what matter the most.