I was a lifelong Samsung phone user. For the last ten years, I have used various Samsung phones. I never understood why people love the iPhone until I started using one.
I always used to think that the iPhone is inferior to Samsung Android devices because Samsung flagship phones have more powerful hardware than the iPhone. But now I’m using an iPhone for some time; I came to realize the iPhone is way better than Samsung or other Android phones. That does not mean that the iPhone does not have any drawbacks.
In this article, I’m going to discuss all the important pros and cons of an iPhone from my experience.
Pros of iPhone:
These are the pros of an iPhone.
Ease of Use:
iPhone is intuitive and easy to use. Many people complain that the iPhone is not customizable, but that is the beauty of it. On the surface, iOS is simple but easy to use — anyone from young to old can use it without fear of technology. But beneath this simpleness, iOS is the most powerful mobile operating system on the earth.
Beautiful Design:
iPhone is the leader for phone design. Every phone manufacturer follows the iPhone’s design lead. Apple invented the touchscreen phone. The iPhone first brought the full bezel to bezel screen then everyone imitated it. They also first to remove the headphone jack that now everyone copies. iPhone also brought the first bidirectional port — lighting cable. Later as a response, other companies designed and implemented the USB-C port.
Camera:
Apple always provides the best quality camera in its iPhone.
High Build Quality:
From day one, every iPhone’s build quality is excellent. It’s glass, and metal design shows you how premium an iPhone is. No other phone manufacturer can match the fit and finish on an iPhone. Only recently major android phone manufacturer has started to provide a phone with better build quality.
Top Security:
iPhone’s security is superior to Android phones. It’s common to hear in the news that law enforcement agencies are having trouble to unlock an iPhone of a potential criminal. But did you ever read any report that the FBI or Police are having trouble to unlock an Android phone? The answer is no. iPhone is the most secure phone on the planet.
Excellent Performance:
No mobile operating system can beat the performance of the iOS — iPhone’s operating system. It’s regular news where an old iPhone beats or matches the performance score of a new Android flagship phone. Moreover, an iPhone performs better on performance scores with lesser hardware than a flagship android device. It’s a joy to use an iPhone. The overall responsiveness, fluidity, and minimalistic OS design is incredible in the iPhone.
Switching between apps, opening, and closing apps, scrolling, etc. is very pleasing on the iPhone. On the contrary, an Android device struggles to perform smoothly. A new Android device may do everything fluidly, but after a few months, the Android device will struggle to do everything smoothly. This is my experience. When I bought a Galaxy S7 edge, it was perfect. But after a few months, I started to notice choppiness in the Samsung Android OS. Fast forward two years, this Galaxy S7 Edge is now unusable. Opening or switching between apps takes forever; recording a video for five minutes makes the phone very hot, GPS does not work properly, apps crash regularly, and many other issues. Whereas, an old iPhone never will generate these issues.
Frequent Software Updates:
Apple continuously provides software updates to its old iPhones. Even if it is a five years old iPhone, you will get an update. Compare that to Samsung. I used many Samsung phones. Samsung stops providing software updates after only 18 to 24 months.
No App Crash:
My last phone was the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. On that phone, my Google Maps was crashing a lot. I could not fix this crash issue. Later I realized that the Facebook app on my phone is causing this problem. Facebook is using a tremendous amount of storage and RAM, which not only slows down the phone but also causes other apps to crash. In Galaxy S7 Edge the Facebook was preinstalled by Samsung. So, I could not even uninstall it.
The applications crash in Android frequently. However, the iPhone app never crashes. The memory management system on the iPhone is so good that It does not matter how many apps are open; no app will ever crash.
Malware Free:
iPhone is entirely malware-free. Apple tightly controls its app store. Apple screens each app before allowing it in the App Store. There’s no way a malware could pass this screening process. Moreover, Apple’s iOS security is very good to prevent any kind of security vulnerability posed by third-party apps.
On the contrary, the Google Play Store does not have any vetting process. Google allows any app to be published in the App Store. So, if you are not careful regarding which app you are installing in your phone, you could potentially end up installing malware.
No Bloatware:
Apple does not annoy its users with uninstallable bloatware on the iPhone. Every iPhone comes with an excellent calendar, email client, maps, and other useful apps. If you don’t like any preinstalled apps, you can easily uninstall it and free up iPhones memory.
On the other hand, Samsung and other android phones come preinstalled with duplicated apps. For example, If you buy a Samsung phone, it would come preinstalled with Google apps such as Google Email, Chrome, YouTube, Google AppStore, etc. At the same time, Samsung also preinstalls its apps such as Samsung Email, Samsung Web Browser, Samsung AppStore, SmartThings, etc. On top of this, Samsung also preinstalls other sponsored third-party apps like Flipboard, Facebook, etc. These extra apps can’t be uninstalled either.
This shows how the iPhone is superior in the No Bloatware category.
Excellent Battery Life:
iPhones have the best battery management system than any other mobile operating system on the market.
Let me give you an example of the iPhone’s battery management system. On Android devices, if I turn on the GPS and turn off the screen, the GPS will deplete the battery. Though the screen is off and I’m not using any app, the GPS still runs in the background. It is the user’s responsibility to turn off GPS if not needed. Everyone does not know this — especially older people who are not tech-savvy.
On the other hand, on the iPhone, you can’t control anything regarding GPS. The iPhone operating system does everything for you to turn on or turn off the GPS on a need basis. Moreover, you can control the GPS permission for apps on a granular level. This overall system conserves the iPhone battery charge longer.
Apple Pay:
You can pay almost anywhere with Apple Pay. No need to carry a credit card anymore. Except for the iPhone, no other phone manufacturer has a sound payment system that rivals Apple Pay. I know about Samsung Pay, but its performance is weak compared to Apple Pay.
High Resale Value:
The resale value of the iPhone is higher than comparable Android flagship phones.
EcoSystem:
The best part of owning an iPhone is Apple’s ecosystem. Macbooks, Airpods, Apple TVs, iMacs, everything work seamlessly. Apple Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Facetime, Airdrops, etc. works seamlessly between iPhones and Macs. On the other hand, data and filesharing between different android devices are not seamless.
High-Quality Apps:
The apps available for iPhone on Apple AppStore is better in quality than apps available on Google PlayStore. To develop an app for iOS devices, you need an iPhone and a Mac computer. Moreover, Apple’s app store developer fee is almost four times higher than Google’s. This high initial cost barrier prevents many low-quality app developers from writing an app for the iPhone.
Cons of iPhone:
These are the cons of an iPhone from my experience.
Expensive:
iPhones are overpriced. Even an iPhone that came two years ago is more costly than a new high-end Android flagship device. Yes, iPhone’s user experience and hardware integration with the software are better than android phones. But this does not justify the high iPhone prices.
No Headphone Jacks:
Though more OEMs are adopting this no headphone jack trend, still having a 3.5mm headphone jack makes life easier. iPhone comes with only one lighting port. I can either charge the iPhone or listen to music. I can’t do both at the same time. I know that I can use an AirPods, but that is expensive. The lowest-priced Airpod costs $160 as of writing this article. Third-party Bluetooth headphones are pricey too.
Not Customizable:
An android phone is highly customizable. Installing custom ROM and rooting an android device is very easy. Moreover, a third-party app, custom launcher, and widget installation is straightforward. On the iPhone, all these things are not possible. iPhone’s widget system is inferior. Rooting an iPhone — jailbreaking — is extremely hard. In short, the iPhone is not customizable at all.
Expensive Accessories:
There’s no doubt that iPhone accessories are costly. Airpods, phone cases, Apple pencil, lightning cable, etc. anything that is made by Apple is high-priced.
No Torrent Client:
Don’t be surprised reading this that on the iPhone, all torrent clients are banned. BitTorrent, Vuze, µTorrent, etc. all are banned. There is no easy way to download the torrent files on the iPhone.
No External Apps or AppStore:
You have to install each App from Apple Appstore. There is no legal way to download and install an App from the internet other than Apple Appstore. For example, in Android, if an app is banned from google play store — KeepVid — but you need the app, you can download the app APK from a trusted source and install it. You can also install a third-party app store, for example, Amazon AppStore, which has hundreds of thousands of apps. In the iPhone, it’s not possible.
No External Storage:
On the iPhone, you can’t use an SD card. No iPhone has an SD card slot. Even if you connect an SD card reader with your iPhone and insert an SD card, your iPhone would not allow you to transfer any documents, and media files except only photos.
Repair:
iPhone repair is expensive. A simple screen replacement on the iPhone would cost you hundreds of dollars. Take a look at the list of screen replacement costs from the Apple Website.
Conclusion:
Similar to everything, the iPhone also has its pros and cons. But the advantages of the iPhone outweigh the cons. Moreover, the iPhone gives a superior user experience that no one provides. That’s why I believe the iPhone is the best phone in the world.
