Google Pixel — it’s like an iPhone!

I love Android phones. They’re all so unique, so customizable, so adventurous; they come in all sorts of sizes, materials, UIs, capabilities, price-points, the options are almost endless. The manufacturers have stepped up their hardware game over the last few years. Gone are the crappy plastic Android phone of 5 years ago, most of these phones are straight up slick. They’ve also scaled way back on the oppressive skins we once bemoaned, now offering interfaces that are much cleaner, even sometimes useful. The specs inside these phones are on par with many of the laptops we’re using, the performance tests are off the charts. I’m getting excited just thinking about it. I love Android phones, but here’s the thing, I still use an iPhone.

Despite all of the great things about Android phones they suffer from a fatal flaw, the people who make the phones do not make the software. It’s not only a weakness, the fact that Android is so versatile means that we can have multiple manufacturers making high quality devices using the same basic platform. Choice, competition, diversity, those are all good things. However, when it comes to every day user experience over time, Android phones inevitably don’t measure up to iPhones. Apple controls the processor, the hardware, and the software all together and it gives them a real advantage on the user experience side of things.