6 LEADING MYTHS AND THE FACTS ABOUT ANDROID
Did you ever find out that everything you thought was just a myth? Myths are especially harmful because they can wrongly form our thoughts into a negative view of something.
Unfortunately, Android is the subject of several misconceptions that have existed for years. Let’s split the most popular ones down and see what simply isn’t real.
1. Android is not as fluid as iOS or Windows:
Android devices are as quick as alternatives that compete. The days of Android Eclair and Kitkat, fraught with somewhat recurring stutters and lag, are long gone. Jellybean came with Android 4.1 Project Butter, and Google moved to ART (Android RunTime) from Dalvik with Android 5.0 Lollipop. The Android OS has gone through numerous evolutionary changes since then, and chipsets have become more powerful in multiple ways. Together, all these developments have taken the results on par with the market.
In terms of true speed, devices such as Google Pixel and OnePlus 3 in 2016 gave the iPhone 6S/7 a run for its money. In 2017, in terms of performance and device responsivity, almost all big Android flagships are on par with current-gen iPhones.
2. Android devices don’t age too well over time and get slower:
It’s tricky. Pure Android, with its fully customizable underpinnings intact, is very lean. But, to stand out from the crowd, those OEMs add their skins to Android. The argument is that these skins and the absence of optimization on the part of OEMs are two of the key reasons why certain devices stutter more often than others.
Thanks to their close-to-stock ROM and under-the-hood enhancements, the Google Pixel and OnePlus 3 from last year to this day work almost as well as they did on Day 1. And older devices (to an extent) from the Nexus line, Motorola, and Sony have been admired over the years for aging on par with standards.
Honestly, to place a lion’s share of the blame on Samsung for this Android myth wouldn’t take me a moment. Samsung devices are feature-packed to the brim, but over time, they are most frequently plagued by slow-downs. With the Galaxy S9, with a cleaner non-Touchwiz Android ROM now branded as Samsung Experience UI, Samsung seems to have improved on this front. We’re going to have to wait and watch. However, in a perfect world, with an almost stock, slender Android GUI, we would be able to pocket a top-notch smartphone from any of the Android OEMs.
3. Android is not a user-friendly OS. It’s for the Geeks:
The humble origins of Android are profoundly embedded in its customization ability. Although customization has remained at the heart of the Android experience, for the baby of Google, fluidity is no longer an Achilles’ heel. In reality, recent OnePlus smartphones, Moto flagships, and the software line of Google Pixel offer shining examples of efforts made in this regard by Google and OEMs.
For example, for competing for mobile operating systems, only the evolution of the Notification Panel and Settings menu from Android 6.0 Marshmallow to Android 8.0 Oreo is exemplary. The minute controls and simple segregation of features in Android have been praised by reviewers and tech aficionados across the board.
4. Apps for Android are not as configured as their counterparts for iOS:
Android operates on several devices including many settings for chipsets. Android mobile price points range from sub-$200 entry-level devices to true flagship rivals reaching the $1000 mark. Targeting all these devices and screen DPIs is a challenge for Android app developers. But Google, for its part, has taken immense strides to make the job simpler for developers with improvements under the hood and the introduction of adjustable screen resolution for applications. App crashes and hang-ups on iOS are as common, if not worse, as on Android. So yes, this is one of those theories about Android that are born of assumptions about fundamental fundamentals.
But yeah, as they do on flagship phones, you can simply not expect apps to work the same way on an entry-level device. From top-notch devices, the top-notch output should be predicted, don’t you agree?
5. Android is an insecure operating system:
This was true for Android’s initial iterations. But Google has introduced several initiatives on its part to make Android better. Only two of Google’s moves in this regard are the introduction of monthly Android security updates and the integrated Play Store App check.
The unrivaled scope of Android across the globe has served as an opportunity for spammers and hackers to develop malware for the platform. However, if you are on the new Android monthly safety patch, there is hardly any cause for concern. Just be watchful of your browsing conduct, avoid unverified sources of software, and that’s it!
6. Lack of attention to detail for Android devices:
Samsung Galaxy S8, Note 8, LG V30, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, Critical PH1, HTC U11-were these devices still hands-on? The pinnacle of elegance and industrial design elements is seen by many latest-generation flagship Android devices.
Yeah, Apple was the market leader before, possibly, the Apple iPhone 5S, in terms of design aesthetics and attention to hardware consistency. This misconception about Android itself is rooted in the same reality because for a while Apple seemed to have a substantial lead with its hardware construction.
It appears that the Apple iPhone X is a great step towards the rebirth of Apple’s name. I’m just going to refrain from talking about the strange eyebrow of the Statusbar and the aesthetically impaired back column. My bad, I did.
This misconception about Android devices, long story short, should have been swept under the carpet a long time ago.
Conclusion:
For simple use, Android is no more frustrating than iOS. It is easy to install and launch applications and the interface of most popular apps is consistent. It only poses a problem for someone unfamiliar with technology or embedded in another operating system, which is a platform issue.
