I am dissapointed in my peers. For years I have always been told to stay away from Apple devices and the company in general. However, no one who said that actually used their devices, or used them but not recently (some had like iPhone 4s in the past). Their knowledge was always based on some 3rd hand impressions or internet related peer pressure.
I am in the EU, and Apple devices aren’t as popular as in the US, mostly everyone uses an Android phone and a Windows machine. That also led me using Android and Windows in my daily activities, for the last 15 years. After many phones, starting with HTC Wildfire, i have continously been let down by my phone every 1 to 3 years after purchase.
First i was buying flagships, then mid-high, then back to non-pro flagship variants. I was also trying diffenent brands; HTC, LG, Sony, Samsung, Xiaomi, Nokia, OnePlus. When my last phone died, and i had to buy a new one, i had no idea what to get.
Everything seemed bad, i had them, they look the same, software looks the same, i was afraid of picking a “wrong” phone again. Every single one of them had some issue i couldn’t get over. Either notification problems, bad battery life, slow performance on camera, issues with sharing stuff, fingerprint annoyances, restarts…
Mind you, not everything was on a single device. One had great battery life but i wouldn’t get messages sometimes, other was great but battery life was poor, and on most of them the camera was laggy or buggy.
1 year ago, maybe a bit more, it dawned on me that the only brand i haven’t used anything from is Apple, so i got a basic iPhone 13 to “check it out”, planning on using it for a week or two just to see what the fuss is about. I was using my Android device as the main phone, and the iPhone as a second phone, I wasn’t ready for the jump.
After a week i found myself doing everything on the iPhone apart from voice calls, so then i finally took the SIM and retired my Android phone. 6 months later, my Windows laptop battery died and the repair would cost more than what the laptop is worth. So i decided to purchase a thin and portable laptop with intention to install Debian on it, as i was done with Win11 bugs and “features”.
After looking for 2-3 weeks, comparing different laptops, i was set on a HP 14inch laptop with a price tag of about €1300. Then i remembered that i am still thinking with my peers in mind. They were enraged on how i “betrayed” them by switching to iPhone.
I decided to look up Mac laptops and found out that they are actually very similary priced as the one i wanted to buy. I got out and purchased a M2 Air, basic configuration. I had no idea about the iPhone-Mac compatibility and integrations. Found out about AirDrop and other features. I was in love with this new combo that, cliche, “just works”.
My “friends” literally went 180 on me just for the dumb reason of using one brand instead of the other. None of them has actually tried to use Apple hardware. They were mocking me about being “locked in”, “fallen for their marketing”, and other stuff. “How do you like your iCloud subscription?”, things like that.
I have to tell you, i do not use any paid service from Apple. I succesfully conected my Apple devices to my home server where i keep my files, photos, calendar and all the other applications on it. I am not locked in, i feel like i have even more freedom because some services work better than on Android or Windows.
Syncing works flawlessly, something that was always janky on Android.
Sorry for the long post.
I guess what i am trying to ask is, why so much hate? Why can’t a person decide for themselves? Why is macOS/iOS looked down upon regarding connectivity with other devices and services when that’s clearly not the case?
Why do people that have no first hand experience so vocal and opposed to the brand? Shouldn’t you at least try and then be the judge?
Oh, Apple’s ecosystem is absolutely brilliant, but the problem is that it only works with Apple hardware and software with no indication of future cross platform compatibility. So you basically get suckered into buying Apple products only, if you want to keep your passwords, documents, podcasts, etc.
Like migrating into Apple’s platform is easy, but moving back out is almost impossible. The main problem lies with how irritating it can get to consume content provided by services outside their domain.
Personally I am happy with my Macbook, because I can still download and install apps without using the App Store, but I could never see myself migrating to iOS because that would mean losing my manga collection, my emulators, the ability to watch free movies on Stremio, etc.
Edit: Oh, yeah the iOS keyboard is an absolute travesty. It makes textboxes so frustrating to deal with. How can you have a virtual keyboard without a clipboard in this day and age?
My ex’s dad worked for someone that would get a new phone for each member of his family yearly and then would give his old phones to his employees. I ended up receiving year-old iPhones until 2020.
My local library had an iMac lab. I spend countless hours doing my work and hanging out there, all using iMacs. Eventually, I also bought an Apple Intel laptop with the awful butterfly keyboard, only to sell it a couple of months afterwards.
So I have tried Apple hardware. Up until 2020 it was the only smartphone hardware I ever used. It was the computer hardware I used for the vast majority of my middle and highschool years (heck, even in college there’s an iMac lab that I spent quite some time in).
I spent most of my life using Apple hardware with Apple software and when I switched to repairable hardware and libre software exclusively, my life improved.
Good for you. I switched to libre or at least alternative software which is (almost all) cross-platform compatible. I replaced almost everything apart from some niche software that only works on windows.
The day i can game on linux is the day windows goes to the VM just for that few pieces of software required for my business.
That said, mac comes with most of the every-day items preinstalled. Mail, spreadsheets and the likes. Windows on the other hand - not so much. Windows mail app can’t hold a candle to the mac app or even the ios app.
You need to pay for office for that. Same on android. I can do 99% of stuff without installing any app from the app store.
I tend to find that for every complaint there’s at least 10 more people out there using their Apple devices quite happily.
Use what you want or that works best for you at the end of the day.
I made the switch to iPhone after my nexus 5 had a system crash when I tried to toggle the WiFi off/on. Haven’t really looked back since.
Lots of comments, low votes, yeah, lemmings don’t like Apple at all 😂
I have used Apple smartphones in my teenage days, up until 2020 where I ditched my old iPhone 6s for a Poco F2 Pro, I was pretty comfortable with it, and it is my main phone even until this day. (Currently using custom ROMs, I did not even wait until the warranty to expire to get rid of stock MIUI lol).
I have always liked the freedom of my gadgets, I was always keen to jailbreak/mod whatever I can, unfortunately iOS did make this harder even until today, but at the same time it improved a lot to make some users not miss too much jailbreak (I was one of them since I used less and less my phone).
This very fact of liking freedom made me enjoy the Android side more (my other big Android device is the Nvidia Shield TV and I sideload every shit that interests me).
I legit think most lemmings don’t give the opportunity to at least test Apple devices, I know they are corporate, I know they are closed source, but I still think it is a bit of close mind to not even acknowledge them as what they are… A more than capable adversary of Android smartphones, heck, my girlfriend has an iPhone 13 and it feels so premium (even her previous 11 and 7 did), the apps are so well made, the apps barely reload in the background with its joke amount of RAM, even with its very limited customization side you can tweak a lot the home screen and the lockscreen overall to some next level shit… I’d like to have different kinds of home screens per session based (routines) on Android, and no, changing launchers does not count as they have cringe animations since A11…
In a nutshell every time I try it is a hell of a well made phone, but even having that in mind I’d not get back to it… Not in the short term at least, Android has grown on me so much that first I’d get a premium Android device (maybe Pixel because I don’t like One UI), but if iOS keeps improving who knows, maybe someday.
That’s exactly how i feel, apart from the premium androids, because even though i paid the premium price, it never felt as a good phone. Fast, maybe, well built, not really, and the apps are the same no matter what you paid so it kind of feels like you got ripped off.
I’m salty as hell because deep down i really want android phones to be great.
I see, if you are not comfortable with the software you could try a custom ROM I guess, they usually are better crafted than bloated stock ROMs.
And yeah that is what held me to buy a premium device back in the days, I’d barely use the goodies such as the camera and my device had SD 865 which is still a more than capable processor yet, with these nice specs and a good custom ROM it really feels like a Pixel software speaking.
I tried. Don’t get me wrong, but if a couple of people can make a better software than a huge company then why am i giving the company my money in the first place. Unfortunately, i don’t have much free time anymore, not as much i would like, and certainly a lot less than i used to have 5-10 years ago.
I would love if the guys who make custom roms could make a phone, but sadly, that probably won’t happen. And i hate that all the phones are locked in. I wish a phone could be like a pc, where you can install whatever OS you like.
Hardware manufacturers make that impossible. The company that makes snapdragon is responsible for all the drivers and compatibility. Samsung certainly won’t open up their chips and drivers as well. Apple is the same.
Until we get something like a linux phone, everyone will fight tooth and nail for their slice of pie.
Hell, look at linux drivers on the x64/86 (nvidia).
Look at microsoft ditching 99% of CPUs on win11 launch.
Look at apple with their “macOS is for macs only”.
Software manufacturers are to blame as well. Why no office on linux but they support macos? Why no adobe products on linux? Why not games on linux? (I know it’s better now but still, very few big players) Banking software? Windows only. Manufacturing software? Almost all windows only.
OS choice has to be on the person using the computer, not some company.
It’s time for standardized computing.
I understand that you can’t write all the software that has been written again, but you can at least make the new software compatible.
Yes. I recently switched from an iPhone pro to a Pixel pro and I greatly prefer the Pixel. I’m still learning cool new things I can do with my Pixel after months of use. The text selection is absolutely awful on the iPhone, as is the keyboard. Those two things alone were reason enough for me to switch.
