“Anyone who knows me personally or has read my articles and tweets knows that I’m not exactly an Apple fan. I’ve been vocal about my preference for Android’s endless customization over iOS’s controlling, restricting ways,” Ben Sin writes for Forbes. “Not only am I not an Apple fan, actual Apple fans would probably consider me a hater.”
“Whatever. I may be very opinionated, but I believe I’m a fair dude. I’m critical of iOS being limiting because it is,” Sin writes. “Why can’t I arrange apps on the homescreen the way I want, Apple? This isn’t even a completely superficial, aesthetic-driven complaint. Living in a crowded, on-the-go city like Hong Kong, I frequently have to use my phone one-handed while standing in trains or walking up and down stairs, so on Android I place my key apps at the bottom of the screen, where they’re easily accessible. I also like minimalism, so I keep the rest of the homescreen app free. On iPhones, I can’t do that. If I want just a few apps on the first home page, they must sit all the way at the top, out of reach. If I want them lower on the screen, I must fill the rest of the entire homescreen with apps.”
MacDailyNews Take: Settings > General > Accessibility > Reachability. Turn it on. Sheesh, Android settlers are so typical. They know it all, but really know nothing. Hence their poor choices. Knockoffs never exceed the real thing, dummies. But, we’ll lay off Ben now for he’s about to have his epiphany. Finally. iPhone X was Ben’s red pill.
“But even having said all that, after testing the iPhone X for a week and half, I’ve decided to make it my daily driver. This means the X is currently home to my main sim card, and is the phone I bring out and about every single day,” Sin writes. “So just what about the iPhone X impressed me enough to have me abandon Android? The bezel-less display? Nah, the LG V30 offers very similar immersive experience. The X’s dual rear cameras? Nope, in my testing I found the X’s main shooters isn’t necessarily better than the Galaxy Note 8’s or Huawei Mate 10 Pro’s dual-cameras. The build quality? The X feels nice in my hand, but so does my Xiaomi Mi Mix 2.”
MacDailyNews Take: One brief pause here to quote our very own selves, from yesterday:
What’s really telling is that in order to even attempt to compete with Apple’s iPhone X, the Android proponent is forced to proffer a collection of Android phones (one with a good camera, another one with a decent display, another one with good battery life, another with a “mesmerizing” finish, etcetera).
Nobody in their right mind would cart around a basketful of fake iPhones in order to poorly approximate everything an iPhone X can do. Of course, anyone who settles for DOG-SLOW, IP-infringing knockoffs of Apple’s revolutionary product that’ve been cobbled together by South Korean dishwasher makers (or worse) is certainly not in their right mind.
“I’m using the iPhone X as my daily driver because… I thought using facial recognition to unlock the phone (which Apple calls Face ID) was going to be a pain, but after using the iPhone X for well over a week I’m completely sold,” Sin writes. “Face ID doesn’t just help me get past my lockscreen, but also help me verify purchases in the App Store or via Apple Pay, and even help me keep prying eyes from reading my lockscreen notifications. Here’s how it works: when a WhatsApp/WeChat/whatever message comes through, the lockscreen will light up with a notification stating there is a message, but it will only show the content of the message for me when I look at the phone. Any other face will just see a blank message. The TrueDepth system also allows the iPhone X to shoot selfies in bokeh mode (which I don’t really care about), create animated emojis that mirrors my facial expressions (which I want to say I don’t care about but I do…), and take some very good, atmospheric selfies. The latter is due to this new feature called Portrait Studio Lighting, which simulates the lighting effects of a studio portrait. The results are quite stunning.”
“The iPhone X also has a higher-than-usual touch input refresh rate of 120Hz, and it makes scrolling on the X a tiny, tiny bit more ‘natural’ than scrolling on most Android devices,” Sin writes. “Apple gets the little things right.”
MacDailyNews Take: Alright, we lied. We can’t hold our tongues.
Sin still won’t admit it, but scrolling and all other UI interactions are much more than a “tiny, tiny bit more natural” (fluid and fast) on iPhone X running iOS vs. any Android phone. In fact any iPhone’s UI interactions are much faster and more fluid than any Android phone. Apple does get the little things right, Ben, but UI interactions with your device belong in the class of very big things – things you do all day long – and Apple gets the big things very, very right, too. Would you settle for a slow, inaccurate, jerky mouse on your personal computer? No. But, that’s exactly what Android settlers have to endure all day long. Android feels like cheap, laggy junk compared to any iOS device.
“Under the hood is Apple’s A11 chipset, and performance is excellent as expected. Because Apple designs its hardware, software and chipset in unison, there’s just a level of performance efficiency that Android phones can’t match,” Sin writes. “Again, it’s the little things.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, those are big things, Mr. Minimizing Apologist. Android sucks. You can come out and admit it now, Ben. It’ll be quite alright.
Sin writes, “With that said, I do wish Apple would implement a better one-hand mode than the awkwardly named ‘Reachability.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Threw that in later, after your stumbled across it, but were either too lazy to rewrite your lead paragraphs or were intentionally trying to obfuscate (make iOS seem too rigid to use during your one-handed commute when it’s actually not)? Which is it?
“So one of the things many have complained about has been the notch,” Sin writes. “For the most part, it doesn’t bother me. Using the phone in landscape mode I’m able to forget about it as long as apps have been optimized for the iPhone X’s screen. But when using the phone in landscape mode, such as watching videos, this is when problems arise.”
MacDailyNews Take: Agreed. The notch is an inelegant kludge. Nobody’s perfect, not even Apple. We’d take four notches all around before we ever settled for a crappy Android phone.
“Throughout my use, the phone lasted me an entire day every single day but one,” Sin writes.” Apple has refined the software and hardware efficiency so much that its smaller battery size handedly outperforms Android phones with larger batteries.”
“Ten years ago, Apple changed the entire mobile industry with the first iPhone. And while the iPhone X isn’t nearly as revolutionary a device, it is arguably just as refined as the original iPhone,” Sin writes. “The iPhone X is ultimately such a polished product, with so many little things done right, that I’ve been won over.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Welcome, Ben!
Now spend some time learning about your iPhone, iOS, and revising your ideas of what’s really important vs. what isn’t. (Hint: icon layouts on your home screen are not more important than processors that can outperform most laptops, fluid UI interactions, security, privacy, display quality, power efficiency, software and hardware harmony, etc., etc., etc. Your priorities are way out of whack and it makes you sound stupid.
By now it should be obvious that “devout Android users” are that way because they don’t know any better.
SEE ALSO:
Android Central reviews Apple’s iPhone X – November 13, 2017
ZDNet reviews Apple’s iPhone X: The best smartphone – November 13, 2017
ZDNet’s Miller: After 10 days with Apple’s iPhone X, it’s clear its the best smartphone. Period. – November 13, 2017
Michael Gartenberg: iPhone X is the best smartphone you can buy today, and likely tomorrow; Apple is now a full generation ahead of their competitors – November 10, 2017
T3 reviews Apple’s iPhone X: Brilliant, five stars, 2017’s best smartphone – November 8, 2017
DisplayMate: Apple’s iPhone X has the most color accurate display we’ve ever measured; it is visually indistinguishable from perfect – November 8, 2017
Ars Technica reviews iPhone X: Easy to recommend if you want a glimpse at the future – November 3, 2017
iMore reviews iPhone X: The best damn product Apple has ever made – November 2, 2017
TechCrunch reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘Like using the future of smartphones, today’ – November 1, 2017
Tim Bajarin’s first impression of Apple’s iPhone X: Face ID worked flawlessly – November 1, 2017
The Verge reviews Apple’s iPhone X: Clearly the best iPhone ever made, despite being marred by its ugly notch – November 1, 2017
Above Avalon’s first impressions of Apple’s iPhone X: ‘An entirely new iPhone experience’ – October 31, 2017
The Independent reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘This feels like the future’ – October 31, 2017
David Pogue reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘The best thing is its size’ – October 31, 2017
Forbes reviews Apple’s iPhone X: Opulent, gorgeous, classy; the best iPhone yet – October 31, 2017
CNBC reviews Apple’s iPhone X: ‘The best smartphone on the market’ – October 31, 2017
iPhone 8’s Apple A11 Bionic chip so destroys Android phones that Geekbench creator can’t even believe it – September 30, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic chip is by far the highest-performing system on the market; totally destroys Android phones – September 19, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic chip in iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X leaves Android phones choking in the dust – September 18, 2017
The inside story of Apple’s amazing A11 Bionic chip – September 18, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic obliterates top chips from Qualcomm, Samsung and Huawei – September 18, 2017
Apple accelerates mobile processor dominance with A11 Bionic; benchmarks faster than 13-inch MacBook Pro – September 15, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic chip in iPhone X and iPhone 8/Plus on par with 2017 MacBook Pro – September 14, 2017
I’m not a devout user of anyone, and I can assure you the X won’t convert me…
Your cynicism both defines and limits you.
You may have a point, at least it limits me to outside the walls, where the world is larger.
“I can assure you the X won’t convert me”
“assure” – not “probably not” or “I think”.
Interesting that someone is SO wedded to their knee-jerk negativity that they can make such a statement without ever using one.
No, it’s the ecosystem. I don’t need to see the X to know. I do have 2 ipad Pros so I know the drill okay. Oh, and a Mac Pro 2013 hexacore, oh, and a Mac Mini.
Nope. Your ownership of these other Apple items does not address the point. You could still, IN THEORY, be “converted” to the X as your phone. So the point remains… you are just engaging in empty, knee-jerk negativity… as usual.
No sir, I reject the hub of the ecosystem, which is the phone. Get it?
Yes – my point, exactly. You are doubling down on rejecting the phone, never having examined one — least not with any kind of open or interested mind, I presume, since you never display such an attitude here.
So you don’t get it…
Now… if Apple were to play nicer with other’s and with me, my negativity might be less…
Your tiresome, ongoing negativity is not Apple’s responsibility.
You could just choose to not express it – over and over and over and over.
At the very least, cut way back. It’s not a competition between you and Pastry. You don’t ALWAYS have to post something negative.
You know what s even more tiresome than a cynic ‘s pessimism?
Your fanboy insistence to reply multiple times. Stop already.
I second that, I get the feeling most people are pretty sick of applecynic cluttering up comment threads.
As an anti-Trumpy you’re too valuable for me to get into a pissing contest over some company…
Let me get Botty…
And just why do you presume anyone here cares ?
I’m pretty sure no-one cares whether the X will convert you or Kolache.
The author does… He titled it.
It says, “devout Android user”, not, “sold my soul to Samdung Troll”. Trolls prostitute for money. There is no other option left for them, such as being converted.
And, of course, the other type of troll — those with “Incessant Negativity Disorder” … those who would still complain if presented with a warp-capable spaceship.
A warp capable spaceship is my desktop, followed by my laptop. I don’t take to rules over my property anyway, I’ll fly my spaceship to any planet I like, not any planet I’m “allowed”.
So go buy a nice “open” Android phone, so you can customize it however you want. Then do us all a big favor and stop complaining about something that is never going to change in the ways you want.
Nah… and leave the fallacious narrative to you? Not a chance.
BS MUST be countered because it has a tendency of becoming perceived truth.
“MUST” be countered? Why? Especially since probably just about no-one cares about your opinion. And they are certainly not going to be influenced by your posts.
Now if you presented a more balanced viewpoint, then the criticisms might have more impact. As in, “I like this and here’s why” and then, “I don’t like this and here’s why.”
Another part of the trouble is you usually don’t make CONCRETE points… you just complain.
No sir, you, probably a majority, not no one. I don’t have much patience, or tolerance for sugarcoating the truth when it comes to a censor.
I always, where applicable, counter with facts, my feelings aside. Here we have an article titled “Forbes reviews Apple’s iPhone X: So refined, it will convert the most devout Android user”. I’m not even a devout Android user and I can assure you it will not convert me.
You may not like what I said, but it’s on point, factual, and honest and counters and highlights the author’s BS. Concrete enough?
PS-I already told you why. WHy would you think the answer would be different, the circumstances are the same.
“The truth”!? Yeh, right.
Your opinion doesn’t matter, because it is incessantly negative.
If you give me a negative review about every movie I ask you about, then I automatically discount EVERY review you give. My presumtion is that not every movie simply can be so bad, Since I can’t distinguish between invalid reviews and valid ones, your opinions are, therefore, worthless.
If you actually want to influence people, then I’d suggest you need to come a long way off your pose of “applecynic”.
If you want to stay incessantly negative, then you are just pissing on these pages and I’d suggest the majority who doesn’t want you to do that is the VERY great majority.
Popularity is not my objective, and i say to you that my exuberant negativity as you say pales in light of the exuberant support of the likes of you and others.
There seem to be two possible objectives in your writing:
– To influence people
– To be a pissy little jerk
I didn’t say anything about popularity. I gave you what I think is a very valid suggestion IF you actually wanted to have any influence.
Your reply confirms that your whole purpose is simply to be a pissy little jerk… nothing constructive… just a troll.
“Must”? Yeh… I’d call that “delusions of grandeur” added on to the “incessant negativity disorder”.
Delusions of grandeur…what a compliment. Here’s another thing for you to consider…
Point/Counterpoint and readers make their own decisions?
What a concept right?
For all the crap I give MDN (sometimes praise) I gotta say, they are not censorious. Can’t say the same for Apple.
Do you go through all your life with such incessant negativity?
If not, what do you tell yourself that makes it okay to dump it here all the time?
But, bottom line, I think there is something seriously wrong with you.
Similar to what I’ve said to Belligerent Asswipe, I’d love you try this at your job, or, if you have your own business, with your major clients. Then let us know how it goes.
Android user’s have no loyalty…. I’m one of them, I even have a Windows Phone….
Actually, I agree with Sin- why CAN’T we have “holes” of apps on the home page? Ever try rearranging apps? It’s SUCH a pain because they keep jumping all over the place. If I had the 4 middle spots empty, it would be SO much easier to rearrange apps on a page. Also, the holes create natural divisions. And I’d love a huge (read: size of 4 apps) analog clock on my home screen (my eyes aren’t what they used to be). Why is this such a sin?
The iPhone X’s double down-swipe for Reachability is nice, but it doesn’t entirely alleviate the problem: Too many apps on one page creates clutter- it’s hard to find what I’m looking for. If I could have 8 in the top 2 rows and 2 in the next 2 rows and 4 in the last 2 rows where the middle 4 of the last 2 rows were empty, I could have a better overview. Things wouldn’t get so lost in the clutter.
Oh well. I still LOVE my iPhone and wouldn’t trade it for ANYTHING. But there’s always room for improvement (even if it does come from that other, vastly inferior OS).
Forbes is 2nd place to Bloomberg as an Apple boo-hoo’r. This is quite a change of attitude.
Check this out…
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/05/26/create-empty-spaces-between-apps-home-screen-without-jailbreak/
Cool hack. Just make sure the to read the Caveats section to see if you don’t mind the cons the solution presents.
I wouldn’t mind some flexibility with the home screen myself. I can’t see a reason why the layout of app icons should HAVE TO adhere to a grid arrangement with no gaps. No biggie though, the pros of the iPhone far outweigh the cons. I’ve used the derivative wannabe that is Android – wouldn’t wanna make that mistake again.
BTW – It’s be nice if MDN would find another ad server who doesn’t regularly allow through hacky ads that hijack clicks or even load a new, unasked for page while trying to read an article. It happens on my Mac in Safari, on my iPhone and iPad using both Safari and the standalone apps. I know ya can’t always sniff out the jerks who put up these ads but it happens a LOT more on this site than any other site I visit. For example – on this very article, while clicking into the fields to post this comment each click opens a new window which takes cursor focus away from this window. Yeah we can tab through the text fields but….really?
Yeah but, no but, does the iPhone EX do custom skins? well there you go Android is best then and what about custom Roms? what no custom Roms, you losers, no headphone jack need I say more? Ok so the iPhone EX has a superior fit and finish, a processor that’s at least twice as fast as anything Android, a best in class camera, built in Augmented reality, 3D face scanning, the best and most up to date Apps. There’s no way I’d move over to the dark side and buy an iPhone EX, I’d be losing my freedom, my flexibility and yes my custom skins. Android till I die!
You must be dead then.
Hi MDN,
Since I’m using a different language, I can’t directly find:
Settings > General > Accessibility > Reachability
I assume you mean the switch for enabling double tapping the home button. If true, then your hint is pretty pointless because double tapping is a stupid extra action. Like the Forbes writer, I want my apps to fill any screen starting at the bottom (preferrably bottom right), so I can reach all apps without double tapping first. Am I missing something? Help would be welcome, thanks!
iPhone X has no Home button. There’s your first mistake.
I don’t need a home button in order NOT to double tap it. There’s your complete failure.
I agree, for me it is IOS users lack of understanding of how Android works, the opposite of what MSN says. I like the top of my screen to hold info that I need fast without having to launch an app and in the bottom my most used apps and widgets that let me take an action with one tap, like calling a frequent contact. IOS’s reachability was never great and is worse in IOS 11. Samsungs implementation is so much better and stays put not like in IOS 11.
I don’t care how Android or Samsung stuff works.
I want my iOS apps closer to the bottom so I can reach them more easily directly, that’s all.