Favourite phone OS/brand?

[Mysterious Sue]

@furie I know you were taking the piss, but that's even worse. You wrote a big long post thinking you'd get a big angry war between Apple and Android people. That division is a load of old rubbish and everyone in here has had a nice, sensible (and actually interesting) debate. No red mist. And no need to bring things down into pettiness (joking or otherwise). I never called anyone a sheeple - you're the only one making wide assumptions ;p

I get what you say about there being a range of prices for Android devices, but that's just because of the large number of producers and product range. And that's exactly the thing that I like. You can buy cheap or you can buy expensive.

The problem with Apple is that there is no choice and once you commit, you are stuck with them. You buy into their brand and they treat their customers with utter contempt.

I once purchased an early generation iPod. It was great. Until the hard drive fell off the spindle a month later. After a bit of investigation, it seems this was a common manufacturing fault which had, in the US, been recognised and any customers reporting the fault got a free repair. Under Apple UK however, it was never covered. I got told to bugger off. So now I don't buy Apple products. In my experience, they are poorly built and the customer service is non existent.

Secondly, I used to live with an Apple Genius. Despite having to swallow my own vomit at a company being pretentious enough to call it's own staff genius, I wouldn't trust that guy to change the loo paper let along fix my phone.

Thirdly, we both know that people don't buy Apples, because they are simple, for their elderly relatives. Apple are a status symbol. It's not Apple or thier users I dislike but the cretins who line up for hours for the newest model. The only guy at work who has an Apple has a gold one (and owns a giant 4x4 with spinners in the wheels). Maybe I'm being just as shallow by judging these people. But as someone who buys second hand phones from CEX that match my exact needs so that I get both a good phone but can also afford to go on holiday...I just don't understand people who (in my mind) waste money. I'm sure they don't think it's wasted. But it's frivolous and vacuous and you know it. ;p

 

[Matt N]

@furie I know you were taking the piss, but that's even worse. You wrote a big long post thinking you'd get a big angry war between Apple and Android people. That division is a load of old rubbish and everyone in here has had a nice, sensible (and actually interesting) debate. No red mist. And no need to bring things down into pettiness (joking or otherwise). I never called anyone a sheeple - you're the only one making wide assumptions ;p

I get what you say about there being a range of prices for Android devices, but that's just because of the large number of producers and product range. And that's exactly the thing that I like. You can buy cheap or you can buy expensive.

The problem with Apple is that there is no choice and once you commit, you are stuck with them. You buy into their brand and they treat their customers with utter contempt.

I once purchased an early generation iPod. It was great. Until the hard drive fell off the spindle a month later. After a bit of investigation, it seems this was a common manufacturing fault which had, in the US, been recognised and any customers reporting the fault got a free repair. Under Apple UK however, it was never covered. I got told to bugger off. So now I don't buy Apple products. In my experience, they are poorly built and the customer service is non existent.

Thirdly, we both know that people don't buy Apples, because they are simple, for their elderly relatives. Apple are a status symbol. It's not Apple or thier users I dislike but the cretins who line up for hours for the newest model. The only guy at work who has an Apple has a gold one (and owns a giant 4x4 with spinners in the wheels). Maybe I'm being just as shallow by judging these people. But as someone who buys second hand phones from CEX that match my exact needs so that I get both a good phone but can also afford to go on holiday...I just don't understand people who (in my mind) waste money. I'm sure they don't think it's wasted. But it's frivolous and vacuous and you know it. ;p

As an Apple user and fan, the most I would probably spend on an iPhone is the £699 needed to buy an iPhone 8. I am not at all tempted by the iPhone X, and based on aesthetics alone without delving into the OS and technical data etc, I do actually think that Samsung's S8/Note 8 bezelless design looks nicer aesthetically. As much as I do not want to buy a Samsung, I will give them that their S8 and Note 8 devices look beautiful when compared with other bezelless devices on the market. The notch on the iPhone X is really off-putting for some bizarre reason. In fact, I don't really get the craze for bezelless phones at all, to tell you the truth. My iPhone and my iPad both have bezels, and I think they look nicer than the bezelless iPhone X. The way I see it is; Apple's design was perfectly fine before. They didn't realistically need to make the screen borderless. I appreciate that no bezels give you more screen within a smaller space, and in the case of the S8/Note 8, it does look quite pretty, but other than that, I don't get the obsession. For me, the phrase of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind here. The same applies to Apple switching aluminium for glass. Even though you typically put your phone in a case, I think Apple's aluminium looked much nicer than glass.

Also, with regards to the point about your month-old iPod, while I appreciate that must have been rather disheartening, I've never had any problems with Apple devices breaking other than when people in my family have physically dropped their devices. I can't speak for their recovery service, but the staff in the shop are always perfectly pleasant when you go in and buy things.

Furthermore, I'd also like to reiterate that I do not use Apple devices because they are a status symbol. I use them due to their ease of use. I personally find iOS much easier to navigate and do things on than Android, and while I admit that the £50 Lenovo A Plus is my only experience of Android, I was not a fan of the OS on that phone at all.

Finally, I'd like to apologise because I don't want this post to seem like I have a personal vendetta against you or any other Android lovers. I'm just trying to explain why I like iOS/Apple as opposed to Android. I can also totally appreciate why people would like Android.
P.S. On a curious note, have you got a Samsung Galaxy Note 8?