iPhone - am I falling out of love with mine?

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › iPhone - am I falling out of love with mine?

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#775167 5-Mar-2013 18:43

I've had an iPhone 5 that's barely been out of the box since I got it three months ago. I've got a prepay sim in it so I can learn how to use it. But I simply don't know how they can compare it to a bigger phone. I use an S3 as my daily phone. I don't play any games and have very little media on it, so I don't really kill time on it at all.

I'm hanging out for a 920, but may get an 820 shortly through work as Windows 8 seems to make a lot of sense.

KiwiTT

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#775168 5-Mar-2013 18:47

I am certainly not a bleeding-edge person like I was in my younger days where I enjoyed having my PDA to stay organised in the 1990s.

However, what 30+ years in IT has taught me is that careful consideration and planning is required to chose to implement any IT systems into what you do. And it is not simply a Features versus Features comparison that any person can, but a full assessment of the overall requirement, longevity and reliability.

It is in this light that I selected what I believe is the best 'smart-phone', all things considered. The iPhone 5 64GB

The iPhone was the very first 'smart-phone' that was a real game changer. The ones before that, like the Palm, Windows, Blackberry were essentially quirky feature phones. Then a few year later came Android. Here was an OS and Hardware system that was open and infinitely customisable. Each generation the OS got better especially after 2.3x (and now upto 4.1x).

HTC was effectively leading with their regular 'Halo' phones in the first stages of the 'Android' revolution. Samsung and Sony came along a bit later. Samsung then took the baton and raced ahead of all competitors with their Galaxy Series phones leading to their ultimate Galaxy S3 and monstrous Note/Note 2. Meanwhile Apple was effectively getting left behind as it simply evolved slowly but stayed essentially the same.

The features of the Android phones are phenomenal. Large screens, great resolutions, quad-core CPUs, expandable memory, great cameras, etc. Integration with google apps are seamless and their customisation options endless.

Nevertheless they had a flaw. Poor long-term manufacturer support. When you buy an Android phone, it is generally a few point releases behind the latest OS release. You then have to wait for the manufacturer to release a patch to upgrade to the next release. In addition, you then need to wait for the manufacturer's release to be approved and possibly tweaked by the carrier you use. This often means you can be many releases behind for security fixes if you stay on the Manufacturer/Carrier release cycle. (NOTE: You can bypass all this by patching your phone directly via the many tools available). In addition manufacturer support for the phone generally stops after aboiut 18 months of a phone being released.

Apple on the other hand, while it simply evolves, its updates are sent directly to the phone, without requiring any carrier or manufacturer steps. This means you are effectively on the latest release much faster. This is especially important as 'hackers' are now targeting 'smart-phones', directly. In addition Apple generally supports its phones for at least 3-4 years.

I intend to use my phone for at a minimum of 3-4 years and want to have the most up to date security on it at all times.

Desktop: Playtech Core i7-920 / Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
Laptop: IBM T41 Pentium-M / Windows XP 32-bit Professional
Smartphone: Apple iPhone 5 64GB / iOS 6.1.0

pctek

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#775173 5-Mar-2013 18:54

Dave Ramsey“We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.”

You should read this:

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Comp-De/Consumer-Behavior.html

tdgeek

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#775179 5-Mar-2013 19:03

Interesting thread. I use an iPhone 5 and while I don't love it, I like the ecosystem, physical and virtual.

Those that prefer Android but prefer an iPad, that makes sense. An Android phone is customisable, the iPad is the better tablet with the emphasis on a better content experience. Both use the same iOS. You can thus enjoy the phone and use the iPad. Me, The iPhone screen isn't quite big enough, and too narrow but I don't have an interest in the phone experience, customising, its just the apps. I prefer the clean UI, thats just me. Build quality.

But, yes iOS never changes. A mate says its boring. I guess it is, but I dont use iOS, I use the apps, so the clean look I prefer. But, it does need to partially catch up. Walled garden is fine, has many benefits, but many functions that are locked down is silly. With SJ gone, I am sure that iOS7 will break the mould. Or remove some of the mould. Add functions that users use, just look at JB phones. Rumoured that there is a cheaper phone and a bigger one. Release some of the archaic lockdowns, and it will remain a nice option. If I was more affected by functions I want but cannot do, I'd reconsider. I guess we all have varying tickboxes.

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Firebreaker

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#775190 5-Mar-2013 19:18

Jaxson: I'm not sure, but youtube is back on the ipad at least, no it is on the iphone too, so that was a bit out in the review saying it had all gone. Maps isn't back though right?

I got an iphone 5 at work and my thoughts are:

THERE'S NO SWYPE option at all?! The screen is tiny, like about the same width as my LG P500 phone. The iphons is taller but not wider. Swype was awesome for use on small screen phones, as you didn't have to be as precise with the small keyboard. The iPhone suffers from this problem, keys are small, but doesn't offer swype to assist with this, weird.

The iPhone and apple as a whole do the 'it just works' thing well. Fundamentally it didn't take me long to come up to speed on the basics, and from a UI point of view I think that's cool. Nothing that new about it though, they really did get this sorted many years ago.

Having used an iPad, I'm still heading more towards a basic phone (with swype) for calling/texting/reading short emails etc, and then a tablet for tablety stuff, and viewing the web etc.

Google maps and YouTube are back in the App Store.

Firebreaker

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#775191 5-Mar-2013 19:22

Apple is not bad since they are aiming for the average consumer but as geeks we expect more from our phones which is why I kept my 4th gen iPad and switched my phone from the 4S to the nexus 4

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NZtechfreak

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#775204 5-Mar-2013 19:50

Firebreaker: Apple is not bad since they are aiming for the average consumer but as geeks we expect more from our phones which is why I kept my 4th gen iPad and switched my phone from the 4S to the nexus 4

I think part of the difficulty for Apple though is that what is the 'average consumer' has shifted a fair amount since the release of the original iPhone. Whereas the 'average consumer' back then needed some hand-holding to enter into the new touchscreen world, the 'average consumer' now is for the most part quite comfy with touch screens, browsing and doing email on their smartphone and so forth. The goal posts have fundamentally shifted a bit, whereas iOS hasn't particularly. That's a difficult position for Apple, keeping things simple enough to draw in that part of the market that still needs everything to be easy and 'just work', while also meeting the growing segment of the market who no longer really that and want more. They're still doing the former very well of course, although you can't help but notice they're not doing as well there as they were before (they now release software that is in beta, or software that doesn't 'just work' at all like iOS maps), but more than they are not doing the latter very well at all. The fact that Apple isn't only losing ground in the geek segment of the market illustrates that.

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mattwnz

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#775237 5-Mar-2013 20:23

Firebreaker:

Google maps and YouTube are back in the App Store.

Maps still hasn't made it to the ipad yet

Firebreaker

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#775293 5-Mar-2013 21:29

mattwnz:
Firebreaker:

Google maps and YouTube are back in the App Store.

Maps still hasn't made it to the ipad yet

true

mattwnz

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#775339 5-Mar-2013 22:59

Personally I think the music player on the iphone is far superior, as is the sound quality over the galaxy s3. I listen to podcasts and often listen to them double speed, and this is far better an clearer on the iphone over the s3, where it is distorted. The beauty of the iphone is its simplicity and the way different apps have very similar interfaces. Where with the S3 and android, many of the apps look and behave differently. So I think the iphone is going to be come the older peoples phone, who don't like change so much and are more conservative. eg the samsung galaxy s3 ad, whith older people lining up to get one, which makes the iphone not cool. The S3 and similar devices are leading edge with some of the technologies they use, and also cheaper, making them a younger persons phone.
What I do miss on IOS devices, is not being able to swipe to type on teh keyboard. Swiping so just such a better way to type on a touch screen keyboard, when you don't have physical keys I think apple will add that ability next.

NZtechfreak

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#775357 5-Mar-2013 23:19

mattwnz: Personally I think the music player on the iphone is far superior, as is the sound quality over the galaxy s3.

I think the music player for the iPhone is fairly awful, missing a huge raft of features compared to good Android players. Not for me at all, but old people will no doubt love it :p

Agree the SQ is very nice though, a lot of the difference you hear between it and the S3 will be the result of its (significantly) increased volume output. Would agree on iPhone 4 or 4S being better than an unmodded S3 in that regard. Not sure about the iPhone 5 though, Apple seems to have placed slightly less emphasis on the importance of the SQ in that one compared to their older ones, or so the measurements suggest (and I've not had a dedicated listening session with the i5). The S3 isn't the pinnacle of Android audio on unmodded devices though, Samsung improved on it in the Note 2 - a friend and I did a volume-matched blind test between the iPhone 4 (best measurements of the iPhones for audio) and actually slightly preferred the Note 2, much to our surprise. That was using the Beyerdynamic T5p headphones and also one of the higher-end UE IEM models (can't remember which off the top of my head, they were his), so there wasn't a rate limiting step downstream of the phones in that scenario.

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lxsw20

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#775369 6-Mar-2013 00:03

IMO the iPhone music player is very well thought out, one of the few featues I really miss. I'd love to hear of these good android ones, tried a few on the store and yet to be impressed.

Tried - Samsung default, android default, doubletwist, winamp, Poweramp, tbh it's been a while since I've tried some of those, but simple features in the iOS player like in shuffle mode hit a button to show other songs on the current playing album are very handy.

dickytim

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#775390 6-Mar-2013 07:04

One thing that does keep me with Apple is how it integrates with my car audio.

Using older Alpine gear I can connect my iphone directly to that, also for that matter my alarm clock, home theatre etc.

Oh and I like(d) itunes, not so keen on the newer version where they moved everthing around on me tho!

myopinion

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#775430 6-Mar-2013 08:51

lxsw20: IMO the iPhone music player is very well thought out, one of the few featues I really miss. I'd love to hear of these good android ones, tried a few on the store and yet to be impressed.

Tried - Samsung default, android default, doubletwist, winamp, Poweramp, tbh it's been a while since I've tried some of those, but simple features in the iOS player like in shuffle mode hit a button to show other songs on the current playing album are very handy.

Have you tried the Google Play Music App?

Handsomedan

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#775448 6-Mar-2013 09:12

In reading these posts, I have to ask...is Apple (with the rumours of building a "cheap" iPhone etc) slowly becoming the Nokia of the new age?

Think about it...in the Feature-phone days, you had Sony Ericsson and others lining up to take the crown and they simply didn't quite do it...for some reason Nokia had an almost religious following and a massive fanbase - apps were made for the OS, games and browsers and accessories were all designed specifically for Nokia devices.

Flash forward to today - iDevice-spcific hardware/software and accessories. An almost religious following...sound familiar?

P.S. I was one of those Nokia-loving disciples once.

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