The walls on the Walled Garden of Apple is getting so high that getting in is even a problem! lol Seriously though, the best tool for the job is what I encourage. If at this point in your life, the iPhone fits better in your use case, then go for it. I generally find iOS has its set of quirks and you're generally fixed on a given track and not stray from that to control the user experience and from things going wrong. That works most of the time, but not always. My last iPhone was the 6+ and I had a terrible time with both the phone and iOS. Quality was very lacking for the hardware and software was sloppy. My Bluetooth chip decided to kill itself one day and I had flaky and unreliable Bluetooth which I could not figure out until the Genius at the Apple Store used their special app to see that my Bluetooth chip as died. No wonder Bluetooth has been unreliable -- and iOS had no way of telling me that was the case. Thank goodness it still had a headphone jack. If this is the wireless future where my Bluetooth (or equivalent) chip would suddenly die, I have no other audio options other than the phone speakers. No thanks.
The other thing I found with iPhones and iOS is that you better pray that everything works 100%, otherwise, there is next to nothing you can do to diagnose and fix the problem with the hood welded shut. Furthermore, the auto landscape bug was never fixed on my 6+ even though I reported that to them. I would press the home key to exit any app for the phone to randomly freeze for 2 seconds, flash and then the home screen would turn itself in landscape view -- when my phone is in portrait view the whole time. They also haven't solved the film roll/picture gallery slowdown bug either where if you have a lot of pictures stored on your phone, it would drag your performance into the mud.
Battery life and battery anxiety has always been a concern for me as an iPhone user especially with that tiny charge brick. Their batteries are tiny even for a Plus phone. I've had instances where I would arrive home with a dead phone that will not turn on even though the battery was full. I had to plug my phone to get it to come back to life (and it showed the battery was dead as door nail). Furthermore, it doesn't matter that they're the mobile CPU king in the market if their batteries are tiny. It's the equivalent of strapping a V6 engine (or a turbcoharged engine) to lawn mower gas tank. You can go fast, but you won't get very far. Furthermore, fast charge is still a premium feature that's locked away until you pony up for a fast charger (more money in Apple's pocket).
Even though iOS updates are great and they do update for 4 to 5 years on the phone, there's always the worry about mystery battery drain. I had to check the reviews and forums to make sure that the newest update didn't mysteriously drain the battery prematurely before daring to update. It's always the struggle between security versus potential irreversible adverse effects. How many years has iOS been on the market and they haven't figured out how to prevent mystery battery drain? And this is a $2 trillion company?! So much for optimization... I found myself becoming Apple's unwitting beta tester more and more as each successive update got worse. I've never had to worry about such problems on Android -- at least on my Pixel 2 XL so far. I'm so sad, because iOS used to be the most put-together and smooth mobile OS ever in comparison to Android which was a fragmented, disjointed mess with promised updates that never came.
Right now, you're pretty much forced to accessorize in order to get full use of the product that you bought (which is expensive to start with). That means more money in Apple's pocket. All these hidden costs and nickel and diming has turned me off Apple. They've stopped innovating for me to really buy in, and instead relying on cheap tricks and creating problems while charging me for the solution. As an investor and owner, it's a brilliant business strategy with many people willing to pay top dollar for a fragile device that's expensive to fix (and made somewhat affordable to repair only if you bought AppleCare) alongside your iPhone purchase. Let me decide how to spend my money instead of dictating my purchase decisions, Apple.
As an investor and owner, Apple has a brilliant business plan to make money hand over fist. As a consumer, not so much. :-(
I initially bought into Apple, because they were so much better than the other guys in terms of long term support and innovation at a fair price. Now, I'm just paying more to get less. I left Apple, not because the other guys are so good, but because Apple has gotten so bad.
Apologies for the long, rambling rant, but that was my experience with Apple. I haven't sworn off Apple, but they seriously need to innovate and give others a run for their money. The competition has now caught up and have surpassed Apple in some ways. You can get a lot for your money some times with other manufacturers. If you're looking for a predictable (relatively speaking) experience, and the "guided tour" type of experience, since Apple maintains an iron grip on everything then iPhone is the way to go.
The other thing I found with iPhones and iOS is that you better pray that everything works 100%, otherwise, there is next to nothing you can do to diagnose and fix the problem with the hood welded shut. Furthermore, the auto landscape bug was never fixed on my 6+ even though I reported that to them. I would press the home key to exit any app for the phone to randomly freeze for 2 seconds, flash and then the home screen would turn itself in landscape view -- when my phone is in portrait view the whole time. They also haven't solved the film roll/picture gallery slowdown bug either where if you have a lot of pictures stored on your phone, it would drag your performance into the mud.
Battery life and battery anxiety has always been a concern for me as an iPhone user especially with that tiny charge brick. Their batteries are tiny even for a Plus phone. I've had instances where I would arrive home with a dead phone that will not turn on even though the battery was full. I had to plug my phone to get it to come back to life (and it showed the battery was dead as door nail). Furthermore, it doesn't matter that they're the mobile CPU king in the market if their batteries are tiny. It's the equivalent of strapping a V6 engine (or a turbcoharged engine) to lawn mower gas tank. You can go fast, but you won't get very far. Furthermore, fast charge is still a premium feature that's locked away until you pony up for a fast charger (more money in Apple's pocket).
Even though iOS updates are great and they do update for 4 to 5 years on the phone, there's always the worry about mystery battery drain. I had to check the reviews and forums to make sure that the newest update didn't mysteriously drain the battery prematurely before daring to update. It's always the struggle between security versus potential irreversible adverse effects. How many years has iOS been on the market and they haven't figured out how to prevent mystery battery drain? And this is a $2 trillion company?! So much for optimization... I found myself becoming Apple's unwitting beta tester more and more as each successive update got worse. I've never had to worry about such problems on Android -- at least on my Pixel 2 XL so far. I'm so sad, because iOS used to be the most put-together and smooth mobile OS ever in comparison to Android which was a fragmented, disjointed mess with promised updates that never came.
Right now, you're pretty much forced to accessorize in order to get full use of the product that you bought (which is expensive to start with). That means more money in Apple's pocket. All these hidden costs and nickel and diming has turned me off Apple. They've stopped innovating for me to really buy in, and instead relying on cheap tricks and creating problems while charging me for the solution. As an investor and owner, it's a brilliant business strategy with many people willing to pay top dollar for a fragile device that's expensive to fix (and made somewhat affordable to repair only if you bought AppleCare) alongside your iPhone purchase. Let me decide how to spend my money instead of dictating my purchase decisions, Apple.
As an investor and owner, Apple has a brilliant business plan to make money hand over fist. As a consumer, not so much. :-(
I initially bought into Apple, because they were so much better than the other guys in terms of long term support and innovation at a fair price. Now, I'm just paying more to get less. I left Apple, not because the other guys are so good, but because Apple has gotten so bad.
Apologies for the long, rambling rant, but that was my experience with Apple. I haven't sworn off Apple, but they seriously need to innovate and give others a run for their money. The competition has now caught up and have surpassed Apple in some ways. You can get a lot for your money some times with other manufacturers. If you're looking for a predictable (relatively speaking) experience, and the "guided tour" type of experience, since Apple maintains an iron grip on everything then iPhone is the way to go.
Why settle for MSRP when you can wait and get it at a lower price? 😉