A year with the phone that every droid is compared with

Every time I come close to using a phone for a year, I get impatient to change the phone. Sometimes, it is due to lack of updates, sometimes it due to the phone having issues and lag. It has been a year since I started using the iPhone 6 and for the first time in many years, I do not have any thought of changing the phone. Here are a feq FAQs that I composed as to why I am happy with my current phone.

What made me buy an iPhone?

Frustration. Irritation. Impatience.

Frustration : I was using Android phone(s) earlier. The problem with Android is that it gets slower and slower. It gets even worse for someone who has to use multiple applications that fetch data in background (Facebook, twitter, press, Whatsapp, Telegram etc). I have seen for many phones that an update to higher version of Android often causes lot of bugs and slowness.

Irritation : The flagship phones from major brands come with lot of bloatware and services (because they are paid to include the services. Eg: Microsoft services etc). There will be two or three apps that do the same thing.

Impatience : Budget Android phones rarely get updated while the flagships roll out the updates at a snail’s pace. Android 6.0 Marshmallow was released a year ago and just 13% of phones run Marshmallow OS.

In regions like Europe and North American where phones are sold by Carriers, even more bloatware is added resulting in greater amount of lag and more update headaches. To update an Android phone that is locked to a carrier in USA and Europe, the manufacturer has to first get approval from the Carrier and the carrier often takes their own time to push the update to phones.

After all, Google Android is now in same place that Microsoft’ Windows OS is. Too many devices and OEMs and far less control. Both the ecosystems suffer from same issues (Security, malware, increasing lag, oem/carrier bloatware) and there is no solution for this.

When Apple announced the iPhone, they gave exclusivity to AT&T and Steve Jobs arm twisted the carrier(s) to make sure that the iPhone does not have any kind of carrier bloatware. Also, carriers does not have any say on when the updates are pushed. When an update is ready, it is pushed to all phones (locked/unlocked).

I decided to give the iPhone a try and see how it goes and I got an iPhone 6 in July’2015.

Why not a Nexus, if updates were important?

When I got the iPhone 6, Motorola nexus 6 was available and it came with a huge 6″ display. Then came the 6P which had a 5.7″ display. The 5X had a smaller display but had average hardware and the phone was not worth the price tag. I got to use the Nexus 6 for a month or two earlier this year and I was surprised that the phone used to lag a lot. I mean, how can a Nexus, with pure Android and powerful hardware lag? After using the Nexus 6 for a while, I understood that even a Nexus device can lag (sometimes more than a Galaxy phone).

How did I go the Apple way when I used to hate their products?

Till the 5S/iOS7, the hardware and software were too basic. Tiny display, extremely basic OS features and hefty price meant that the earlier iPhones were not worth the price (atleast for me). Also, Android was not as bloated as it is today. The quality of hardware was also great at that time.

Aren’t Android phones lot more powerful (6GB RAM, 8-core CPU etc on a phone that costs half as much as an iPhone)?

Yes, Android phones come with serious computing power. 8-core CPUs, 4GB of RAM has become normal thing these days. Apple on the other hand still uses a dual core CPU and up to 4GB of RAM (for iPad Pro). Even the iPhone 6s has a dual core Apple A9 chip with 2GB of RAM. Would you believe that the iPhone 6 that I use comes with just 1GB of RAM and has a dual core CPU and yet, there is no lag?

Android cannot run anymore on a phone with two cores and 2GB of RAM. The OS has become so much bloated that instead of fixing the bloat, the OEMs are increasing the computing power.The OEMs are supposed to fine tune the OS first, add applications that add additional functionality, fine tune the ROM and release. I do not think this is happening. In a race to bring newer devices to market first, the OEMs are dumping apps without proper optimization and without realizing that these apps offer same or less functionality than apps (Google Apps) that are already bundled with the OS. This is causing the raw OS to become bloated and slow.

Unlike Android ecosystem, iOS is entirely controlled by Apple end-to-end. Apple does not source the OS to other brands. They build the hardware, the software and they have strict control over application store. The end result is that we get optimized phones and tablets. I have used iOS 9 on my phone and now I am using iOS 10 beta. I never noticed any kind of lag on iOS 9.x. Even with iOS 10 beta, there are occassional freezes (expected as its beta) and every subsequent beta updates made the OS and apps more and more stable. This is one reason why we do not see Apple competing with Android OEMs to add more cores or cram in 6GB  of RAM.

The processor at the core of iOS devices is made by Apple. Based on ARM’s chip design, Apple heavily optimizes the CPU and GPU to work well with iOS. Samsung and Huawei (among Android OEMs) have the ability to design their own CPU/GPU. Apple does not ever advertise the number of cores and the amount of RAM in their phones nor there is an application that shows the amount of free/used RAM. Someone has to rip the phone apart and see the internals to see the amount of RAM.

How difficult was it for me to migrate from Android ?

The only issue was the lack of widgets and it took about a week or two to get used to iOS. Earlier, I was using a Xiaomi phone which comes with MIUI that is a rip off of Android so that did help me get used to iOS lot faster. You can read more about the initial transition period in this post. My 6 months experience is penned in this post.

What version of iOS do I have on my phone?

As of now, I am running iOS developer beta 3. The new version of iOS is yet to hit public release.

How different is iOS when compared to Android or WP?

These two OSes are worlds apart. Google’s motto is ‘freedom for everyone’, Apples motto is ‘we know what you need’. Android is raw and can be customized heavily while iOS is simple to use and optimized heavily. While more features are added to Android at breathtaking pace, Apple takes its own time to add new features. New features in Android feel a bit raw at first and slowly improve, new features in iOS are usually spot-on and Apple is known to nail it!

They say that app quality in iOS is much superior, is it?

Yes, it is. Developing applications for iOS is easier than that for Android. Read this article that explains this fact (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ios-apps-still-better-android-apps/). Also, Apple imposes strict control on application store. Android’s heavy fragmentation is not helping either as devs have to make sure that the application works on atleast 4 version of Android. Now that version 7 is out, devs need to make sure that the app work on 4.x,5.x,6.x and 7.x. If you look at iOS ecosystem, there is only a tiny % of phones that are stuck on iOS 8 or older. As of today, 84% of iOS devices are on iOS 9 (the latest version), 11% on iOS 8 and 5% on earlier versions. This makes the developer give priority to iOS application development and also makes it easier to optimize  as they only have to concentrate on specific number of devices (half a dozen phones and half a dozen tablets?).

Does it slow down after some time?

Not unless you bloat the phone up with too many applications and fill up all available space.

How was the quality of customer care?

They replaced my phone with a new unit when I showed the customer care that there is tiny chipping on back panel (not visible unless you look for it) so you can guess the quality of service. The in-store executives are thoroughly professional. Apple does not have a policy to fix hardware component. Even if the power key stops working, they replace the unit. The reason for this is that Apple invests a lot to maintain the quality of customer service and they hate to lose customers over things that they can control.

What do I use my phone for?

Apart from calling and messaging, mostly to stay in touch with the social networks, for

How is the battery life?

Using 4G network and watching videos on youtube will drain the battery but normal usage gives me morning to night battery life. I usually carry OnePlus bank and it gives me enough recharges for the battery that I do not have to worry about connecting my phone to wall charger during weekdays. The iPhone 6 comes with 1810 mAh battery.

Am I going to stick to Apple ecosystem now?

Yes, atleast for another year or two! I was hoping for the Windows 10 ecosystem to rise but Microsoft disappointed me big time. With Windows 10 Mobile almost dead and Andorid getting more and more bloated, I do not think that I have an alternate option.

So, do I call myself an Apple fan?

Nope. I do like the newer iPhones (iPhone 6 and higher), I like the optimization that Apple is able to do and thats about it. I do not hate Android, my hatred is towards certain OEMs that offer really bad end-to-end experience.

There are various iPhones available now, which one would I buy if I have to buy one now?

This is not the right time to buy new iPhone and if I have to buy one immediately, I would go with the 6S. 6S plus is too big and SE is too small. Next generation model will be out in September/October and so there is no point in doing impulsive purchase of iPhone at this point of time.