“After a long stint as an iPhone user, I decided I wanted something with a bigger screen. Apple failed to oblige last year, instead merely tacking letters onto the iPhone 5, so I made a move: I adopted a Motorola Moto X from Republic Wireless,” Rick Broida writes for CNET. “That was two months ago. Next week, I’m going back to iPhone.”
“My first few weeks with the Moto X were all about learning Android. That can be tough for someone weaned on iOS, which prompted me to explore ways to ease the transition. It’s not that Android is difficult to use, though I find it maddeningly unintuitive in places (the Dialer and Play Music apps are a mess) and overly intrusive in others (make the endless notifications stop!). It’s all the tweaking that’s required to make it behave the way you want. The Android faithful see this as a benefit; I find it irksome,” Broida writes. “To be fair, it wasn’t just Android that I found frustrating in the beginning. I’d heard lots of great things about the Moto X, but ultimately I just didn’t like it. It’s light, yes, and the bigger screen is nice, but it feels like plastic (because it is) and doesn’t look particularly appealing.”
“I missed my iPhone’s mute switch and quick-access camera and flashlight. I missed being able to plop it onto a speaker dock for charging and listening, and I missed having a physical Home button I could find in the dark. I especially missed the battery life: Even if I left my iPhone untouched for several days, it would keep a charge. The Moto X typically went dead overnight, even if it showed 40 percent battery remaining when I set it down. (I know there are endless ways to improve Android battery life, and I fiddled with lots of them, but I’m annoyed by its inability to idle efficiently. The OS has always sucked at power management, and any iPhone user will find it wanting),” Broida writes. “Some of you will no doubt take all this as an indictment of Android, and I suppose it is — though only a personal one. Basically, I’ve tried both, and I’ve decided I prefer iOS (and, by extension, iPhone). To me, Android looks and feels clunky, like something that was engineered, not designed. I like the consistency (and security) of iOS and the apps that run on it, and I even like Apple’s unified ecosystem, warts and all. To me it all feels cohesive, while Android feels like a conglomeration of disparate Google chunks.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
Related articles:
Why I’m dumping Android and Nexus 7 and buying an Apple iPad – August 28, 2013
Why I’m not switching from Apple’s iPhone to an Android phone – July 22, 2013
Phil Schiller: Samsung, other Android phones are inferior to Apple’s iOS-powered iPhone – March 13, 2013
I after using an iPhone for 3 years changed last year, I got the htc one and android and think it is brilliant I haven’t looked back .suppose it all comes down to choice and what you like ,I love the bigger screen and the battery life is good .
Why do you read MDN? Just askin’?
a leach! you know a mole! spreader of miss info!
I read mdn news because I have an ipad and I think they make the best tablet. If apple bring out a larger screen iPhone this year I will probably go back to apple if I like the new iPhone 6 .
I use my iPhone for so much more than making phone calls, such as watching movies that reside on my Mac’s hard drive while I am traveling, playing music through my network when I am at home, and syncing all my passwords with my Mac. I can’t imagine trying to slip an Android phone into that system. Maybe you don’t do all those things, or maybe you’ve been able to shoehorn your phone into the Apple ecosystem. But honestly, for most of what I do, my iPhone “just works.”
Like I said depends on choice and what you like. I’m not an android fan or an apple fan I just buy what I like and I like the ipad and a bigger screen on my phone .i buy what I want not what other people want.
Way to go, john. You come across as level-headed and I wish that were more common
@john
If you have an iPad and you don’t miss your iPhone, then it’s pretty clear that you haven’t been taking proper advantage of Apple’s ecosystem and cloud integration.
Once you get your Apple devices syncing and working together through iCloud, there is no way you could switch a device to Android and not experience major pain of separation.
You are right it is difficult to switch. I did use the Apple ecosystem fully, but got so frustrated with my iphone had to change. However, after the initial pain of losing the benefits and learning a new operating system, I learnt that although not a perfect situation, you can manage and there were pleasant advantages too
I don’t watch films at home on a phone to small a screen got my ipad for that .and if I want music got my ipad for that. I drive to work so can’t watch movies on a phone while driving .at work if I want to play music it’s easy just play through my htc one speakers pre loaded albums or I can listen to any radio station.if I want to set an alarm or reminder it’s just as easy on my htc one .
He must have his reasons.
In my case, my wife and daughters have iPhones, I am typing this on my ipad, and our computers are Macs.
However, my phone is an Android. Simply because I am grandfathered into Verizon’s unlimited 4G data plan, and I would rather root an Android to use it as a wifi hotspot than risk jailbreaking a perfectly good iphone.
I am well aware of the limitations, 99% of the time the iOS devices are easier to use! but the android has advantages in having a real file system, removable memory card, and I sometimes make use of the phablet size screen.
my new larger screen smart phone (won’t mention company) really does suck and I don’t wake up to info at times and that sucks – I can’t wait for the larger iPhone 6 (such a better design quality) – I did love the way my iPhone 4 worked – I just needed a larger screen due to my eye sight being so bad.
I wondered how the trolls would react to this. Funny isn’t it how despite all the evidence to the contrary that fan droids keep trying to insist how good the battery life is, coincidental no doubt to the fact that would be a major obstacle to anyone contemplating changing thus a lie that must be perpetuated.
What evidence to the contrary? If you want evidence try using an iphone 5 and a Note 3 or 4s and a Note 2 at the same time for the same tasks, you would be surprised!
The evidence as I have experienced it and through the experience of every other person who has used an iphone, is the battery life is bad, often very bad and certainly worse than most popular larger screened Android phones. The ipad has a great battery life as does a Mac Air, but the iphone does not … why? The author of the article simply stated after not using the iphone for two days she still had 40% battery life, what if she had used it? I would turn my phone off if i was not going to use it for two days and would have 100% after 2 days. I just hope Apple at last bring out a much larger iphone with a battery life that can match or beat those already out there.
Congratulations, john! You bought a “conglomeration of disparate Google chunks.”
HTC one has one of the worse battery lives of any android phone.
As bad as the nexus 5.
If you like big fat ghetto phone on the side of your head and endless tweaking and adjusting. Android POS is for you. Bonus is bad battery life and bend over open wide virus haven.
I am looking forward to my new Apple 6hetto. That will be the best of all worlds for me … until iPhone 7 presumably.
Which brings up a branding/counting question: Is Apple going to announce iPhone 27’s in 2024? Or will they just start calling them the “New iPhone Air” at some point? (I assume by then they won’t actually have any weight by then.)
I’m expecting lots of these stories once the big screen iPhone 6 arrives. Soon many people will be coming back home.
You can almost hear Android fan’s heads popping off on that CNET page.
Pop! 😉
Yep the iHaters are out in force on that sight on that article.
“After a long stint as an iPhone user, I decided I wanted something with a bigger screen. Apple failed to oblige last year, instead merely tacking letters onto the iPhone 5”
This guy works for CNET and he didn’t know that Apple only upgrades the form factor every 2 years? Wow. What a moron.
a least he was smart enough to realize iPhone Quality!
He is really showing his ignorance with that statement at the get go. 64 bit is a huge deal long term, as well as Touch ID. Not just tacking letters….
“feels like a conglomeration of disparate Google chunks.” Sounds like something I’d hose off a sidewalk than put up to my ear.
WWHS – (what would hannahjs say?)
I have the new HTC ONE M8. Just upgraded from the original HTC ONE (M7). Just like the predecessor, it is an outstandingly well made device. Often critics of the phone complain “It’s like something Apple would build” to let you know. It’s got a nice metal feel all the way around to the smooth rounded metal back.
My biggest issue is the mediocrity of the camera. It’s no iPhone camera.
I don’t care for all the crapware from AT&T and HTC and would prefer that the phone be pure Android, but I can live with it. People take the “free of crapware” world of the iPhone for granted. AT&T writes lots of horrible apps and you can’t delete them. You have to ghetto them into a folder.
Android really is no harder to use then iOS. Since iOS 7, I definitely prefer the look of Android. It looks like it was built from a darker more masculine perspective. iOS 7 is very pretty, if you like that sort of thing.
There’s much less waste of time on animation also. So the HTC ONE (old and new) seems much faster. Just answering the phone, and opening up an app to answer a question the other day, a friend who was watching noted it seemed much faster.
The author of this article clearly never bothered to learn to use her phone. Almost everything he/she mentions is right there, and things are so customizable you can recreate much of your iOS “where things are” experience.
This is something I’ve noticed about many Android users. They are clueless as to how to use their phones. I believe that iOS makes it easier to use the smartphone more powerfully than Android. iPhone people find their way to almost everything they need effortlessly, whereas with Android, I just kind “know” there has to be a way to display running processes and go looking for it. Unless you’re tech minded, Android conceals itself from you.
But finding the mute, flashlight, and quick access camera, you kinda have to be a complete moron to miss those.
The screen is absolutely gorgeous, and I can’t wait for the large screen iPhone.
And the speakers are an absolute joy. Front facing and equalized they are the best I’ve heard on such a small device.
The reason I stay with Apple and iOS?
1. The Mac. If the Mac and OS X went away, I have no anchor to the Apple ecosystem.
2. Brand Loyalty
But mostly 1.
Sadly you sound like many Android geek replies.
“Shame on you, just “geek” this and “geek” that and learn this and that and there you go. ” And while this is very true, many of us do not want to go that far.
I am an Aerospace Engineer working for NASA and yet my network knowledge sucks, and I do not want to “geek” anything on my phone………. Ok, the occasional app, maybe but that is about it.
I do love the airplay set up. I have an AppleTV and you cannot beat it for video and music at home.
Any way, just saying that I appreciate the article, understood the authors points and got a HUGE laugh at the Android comments posted on that article.
Fair enough. I disagree about the look (and UX) of iOS 7, though. It took some getting used to. Very white. Very, very white, in fact. The advantage is you can reverse screen colors to get black screens for night. iOS 7 also works much better. Siri’s much better. Control Panel exists. Mail search actually works. On top of that it works well. The button symbols are so much better-designed it’s not even funny. There’s more, but …
My iPhone 4 has a new lease on life, and my iPad (3rd) is better as well.
Bot
“…disparate Google chunks.” Nicely phrased. Reminds of a long-ago Letterman Top Ten List: Euphemisms for Kentucky Fried Chicken. One of the items was “lifeless bird lumps.”
Did I mention the SD card slot? Comes in handy.
With a 97% malware attack rate you’ll need extra storage.
Android Security: eWeek wrote up an article earlier this week:
Android Security Remains a Glaring Problem: 10 Reasons Why
It’s one of those silly slide show articles, (so 20th century!). But it points out again the exponentially rising amount of malware for Android.
According to the latest data from security firm F-Secure, 97 percent of all mobile malware targeted Android devices in 2013.
And I thought it was only 90%. Oops.
…Those statistics, coupled with the ongoing concern among enterprise customers that no single security solution even comes close to solving the mobile world’s troubles, should make just about anyone worry about Android security. Read on to find out why:
…
There’s no doubt that Android security issues will only increase in the coming years. As shown by F-Secure’s data between 2012 and 2013, new threats are nearly quadrupling year-over-year. Whether that rate of growth will keep up over time remains to be seen, but it’s entirely possible that the growth will continue over the long term. Simply put, if you think things are bad now, get ready—they’re only going to get worse.
No FUD required.
Yeah, security is an issue. Android is a target. iOS is much more secure, ( you only have to read Apple’s recent iOS security document to see why. They’ve done spectacular work in securing iOS ). You also can’t use the obscurity argument either. There’s nothing obscure about iOS… AND… iOS users are more likely to have financial data store on their phones, being more engaged and all. So iOS would (imho) be the more attractive target. Yet Android is getting all of the mobile malware attention.
I believe it is because:
a) Android users are typically less sophisticated
b) Some Android users are far more likely to circumvent security measures by downloading pirated software from less reputable sources. Android users are extremely hung up on not paying .99 for an application.
c) Android is like Windows in its need to support multiple hardware platforms, it’s far more difficult for Google to control what developers and service providers do. Apple controls their stuff down to the “quantum level.” Which is why I’m surprised about the government giving Android so much attention.
All that being said, a great deal of your security is up to you. I still say turn off everything you don’t need from NFC to Bluetooth. Your phone shouldn’t be offering to communicate with anyone when you aren’t in control of it.
Agreed. It’s possible to be careful and wise enough to keep the malware away. Plenty of folks here have pointed that out.
Meanwhile, there are the newbies and grannies. I just urgently wrote my mom, whom I consider a prototypical granny, about a new phishing scam aimed at Apple users. I could see her falling for it. The same would be the case for a lot of the Android malware they slips under what little radar Google provides.
http://thehackernews.com/2014/03/android-malware-found-on-google-play.html
Android Malware found on Google Play Store mines Cryptocurrencies
So far, Google has pulled one of the applications, named ‘Prized‘. Apparently we’re still waiting for them to pull the other, called ‘Songs‘. Dan Goodin has been keeping track of the situation:
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/03/apps-with-millions-of-google-play-downloads-covertly-mine-cryptocurrency/
Obviously, it’s a bit silly to have a smartphone’s CPU run through Bitcoin mining calculations. But at least these apps only calculate while the smartphone is connected to a power supply. All in all, considering the current difficulty in mining Bitcoins, this is very silly malware. But I suppose, with enough PWNed devices, the bot wranglers may make a Bitcoin or two with time.
But, Thor, a poll taken of MDN readership not long ago showed a majority desiring a larger screen iPhone. It stands to reason that many of those same voters express that sentiment in their comments here, often boiling over into vituperation, and all that isn’t likely to go away until Apple gives them a lollipop.