Why would you pick iPhone over the Galaxy S5?

[sunking101]

It's mostly just a debate of iOS vs Android, though if I went to Android it certainly wouldn't be a Samsung device. I'll try not to get into the OS comparison too much but in my opinion:

- Better Camera
- Better performance (faster, smoother. Touchwiz is a mess), The iPhone has been "buttery smooth" since the beginning, closest thing to that on Android is the Nexus, not Samsung and their bloat.
- The ecosystem: Messages, Photos, Safari web browsing, iTunes, all synced across my iPhone/iPad/Macbook. This is where Samsung, Microsoft, and other companies are so far behind Apple that it's ridiculous. Their products vary widely and are all over the place while Apple has created a tightly knit, integrated system across their product lines.
- Battery life. From my experience the iPhone still gives superior battery life to the Androids I've used except for the Motorola Razr series and Note. If you turn off all the settings and tweaks that are supposed to make Android so great then I suppose you could get your battery life to equal the iPhone
- Reliability/Customer Support: Apple has tons of stores all over. Even if your iPhone happens to be out of warranty you can still take it to an Apple store and they'll diagnose your problem for free and attempt to fix it for you. If it's beyond fixable then you are offered an out of warranty replacement right there on the spot without having to drop $649 for another one. Your Galaxy S5 past that one year mark? Then pull out your credit card and fork over that $600+ for a new one. Besides that, good luck even getting an Android OEM to acknowledge your problem if the device is over a year old. There are no stores either so it's a mail-in and wait type thing.
- Last of all, it sounds cliche but everything just works. New iPhone comes out, I just restore from my old backup of the previous model and everything is there again just as it was. Been doing this since the iPhone 3G. Still have messages that go back to 2008 on here. Android still lacks that type of full backup system in 2014 that Apple already had in 2008. Right out of the box the music, messages, web, photos, etc. do their job. When I used Android the out of box experience was clunky and I had to dig through and find third party apps and tweak various settings before finally getting the device to an optimal state. I don't feel like tinkering with and modding my phone, I prefer it to just work.

The S5 has a better camera than the iPhone 5S, and the battery life slays the 5S. With everything switched on too! I'm not going to contest the other things you say, but these two issues can be discounted out of hand.
Samsung phones, for all their plasticcy Touchwiz badness, have always had great cameras, great screens and that fantastic removable/user replaceable battery. The battery thing by itself makes them a strong contender if you keep your phones for longer than a year. No more worrying if it's an app, or booking a 'genius' appointment to check your battery. Just replace the thing yourself, and with a genuine Samsung battery.

 

[Dreday24]

i would rather use my nexus one, than a galaxy s5

 

[the caveman]

The S5 has a better camera than the iPhone 5S, and the battery life slays the 5S. With everything switched on too! I'm not going to contest the other things you say, but these two issues can be discounted out of hand.

Samsung phones, for all their plasticcy Touchwiz badness, have always had great cameras, great screens and that fantastic removable/user replaceable battery. The battery thing by itself makes them a strong contender if you keep your phones for longer than a year. No more worrying if it's an app, or booking a 'genius' appointment to check your battery. Just replace the thing yourself, and with a genuine Samsung battery.

While i agree with everything you've said but one thing. The screen. The amoleds are absolutely terrible, in my opinion, with over saturation, burn in, battery consumption on anything other than dark colors. If samsung would use LCD panels, it would've have been the beast of the phone.

 

[TouchMint.com]

As some others have said most people dont know/care about specs. We are the crazy ones so yea specs matter to us but I honestly think it comes down to price, screensize, cool factor and looks (nothing else really matters to the normal consumer).

 

[I7guy]

The S5 has a better camera than the iPhone 5S, and the battery life slays the 5S. With everything switched on too! I'm not going to contest the other things you say, but these two issues can be discounted out of hand.
Samsung phones, for all their plasticcy Touchwiz badness, have always had great cameras, great screens and that fantastic removable/user replaceable battery. The battery thing by itself makes them a strong contender if you keep your phones for longer than a year. No more worrying if it's an app, or booking a 'genius' appointment to check your battery. Just replace the thing yourself, and with a genuine Samsung battery.

I cannot agree about the camera based on independent reviews, and specifically on the s5 I give it a qualified not sure on the battery based on people I know who have one.

 

[iOSaddict]

Sick of Android. 2Gb of RAM and Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and apps still lag and default launcher still crashes. FTS.

 

[Dmaynard83]

The S5 has a better camera than the iPhone 5S, and the battery life slays the 5S. With everything switched on too! I'm not going to contest the other things you say, but these two issues can be discounted out of hand.
Samsung phones, for all their plasticcy Touchwiz badness, have always had great cameras, great screens and that fantastic removable/user replaceable battery. The battery thing by itself makes them a strong contender if you keep your phones for longer than a year. No more worrying if it's an app, or booking a 'genius' appointment to check your battery. Just replace the thing yourself, and with a genuine Samsung battery.

Samsung phones run on the horrific touchwiz software. It's the worst type of android phone to use. There is absolutely no comparison between the two.

 

[solaris]

Does it fit in with your refrigerator, sofa and wardrobes?

Neither does a Galaxy S5.

 

[zipa]

- The ecosystem: Messages, Photos, Safari web browsing, iTunes, all synced across my iPhone/iPad/Macbook. This is where Samsung, Microsoft, and other companies are so far behind Apple that it's ridiculous.

What? They all provide exactly the same sort of cross-device integration, except that with MS and Google you aren't tied to one specific manufacturer. To be honest, both MS and Google kick Apple square in the nuts when it comes to cloud services. iCloud is a bad joke in comparison.

 

[cynics]

What? They all provide exactly the same sort of cross-device integration, except that with MS and Google you aren't tied to one specific manufacturer. To be honest, both MS and Google kick Apple square in the nuts when it comes to cloud services. iCloud is a bad joke in comparison.

The integration between iOS and OSX is on a level that Google can't reach IMO. And that gap is about to get even bigger with the introduction of continuity and handoff in iOS 8 and Yosemite.

As far as iCloud it's a backup system at this point for all I'm concerned. Better at it then anything Google offers however iCloud isn't a file storage utility like Drive. To be honest they are currently two different services that shouldn't be compared until this fall when Apple makes it a file storage system.

 

[zipa]

The integration between iOS and OSX is on a level that Google can't reach IMO.

You wouldn't happen to have an example of that, would you?

 

[cynics]

You wouldn't happen to have an example of that, would you?

iMessage, FaceTime, etc.

It's nice to watch all my messages throughout the day populate iMessage when I get home and turn on my Mac. I can then review them and respond accordingly. Times and dates are easily and quickly sent to my calendar on all devices.

It's also nice to get a FaceTime call to my phone number and opening it on my Mac. Same with FaceTime audio.

I enjoy the contacts integration too. So say for example I'm in a group message on my Mac and there is a number I don't know. When I find out who it is I enter it in the message program, which then updates my contact program, then seeds all my iOS devices across iCloud. So I just quickly entered a contact in a program and within a couple seconds it's on all my devices and stored in the cloud.

Note and reminder app. It's easier to set a location based reminder on my Mac then just let it seed automatically to my mobile devices.

Numbers and pages. I find it convenient to be able to pull my documents and spread sheets from any computer with a browser.

I understand you can do a lot of that with Android and Google services but I've never had it work as fluently across so many devices. It just does it all automatically. All without even installing anything.

 

[sunking101]

iMessage, FaceTime, etc.

It's nice to watch all my messages throughout the day populate iMessage when I get home and turn on my Mac. I can then review them and respond accordingly. Times and dates are easily and quickly sent to my calendar on all devices.

It's also nice to get a FaceTime call to my phone number and opening it on my Mac. Same with FaceTime audio.

I enjoy the contacts integration too. So say for example I'm in a group message on my Mac and there is a number I don't know. When I find out who it is I enter it in the message program, which then updates my contact program, then seeds all my iOS devices across iCloud. So I just quickly entered a contact in a program and within a couple seconds it's on all my devices and stored in the cloud.

Note and reminder app. It's easier to set a location based reminder on my Mac then just let it seed automatically to my mobile devices.

Numbers and pages. I find it convenient to be able to pull my documents and spread sheets from any computer with a browser.

I understand you can do a lot of that with Android and Google services but I've never had it work as fluently across so many devices. It just does it all automatically. All without even installing anything.

None of that is essential though, unless you're Mr Popular and constantly doing that kind of stuff.

 

[I7guy]

None of that is essential though, unless you're Mr Popular and constantly doing that kind of stuff.

It's essential to me as face time and iMessage is the way family keeps in contact.

 

[sunking101]

It's essential to me as face time and iMessage is the way family keeps in contact.

In four years of iPhone ownership, I have never used Facetime once and over here in the UK, iMessage is a bit meh.

 

[I7guy]

In four years of iPhone ownership, I have never used Facetime once and over here in the UK, iMessage is a bit meh.

I use FaceTime at least 5 to 7 times a day and iMessages fly across the ether. FaceTime and iMessage didn't originally start out as important, but grew to be an important part of the iOS landscape for me.

 

[cynics]

None of that is essential though, unless you're Mr Popular and constantly doing that kind of stuff.

You're flattering me. However I just basically said I use a text service, video chat, notes, calendar, reminders and have contacts. Someone would have to be extremely unpopular to not do any of that stuff. I use a that stuff very often and I'm by no means popular.

 

[sunking101]

You're flattering me. However I just basically said I use a text service, video chat, notes, calendar, reminders and have contacts. Someone would have to be extremely unpopular to not do any of that stuff. I use a that stuff very often and I'm by no means popular.

Over here in the UK, I know of nobody who uses Facetime. Perhaps it's because me and my friends are over 40, or perhaps it's as i7 guy says and that once I take the plunge it will snowball...

 

[cynics]

I use FaceTime at least 5 to 7 times a day and iMessages fly across the ether. FaceTime and iMessage didn't originally start out as important, but grew to be an important part of the iOS landscape for me.

Same here. It would be very difficult for me to adjust without either.

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Over here in the UK, I know of nobody who uses Facetime. Perhaps it's because me and my friends are over 40, or perhaps it's as i7 guy says and that once I take the plunge it will snowball...

Probably the latter. I use it for work quite often or even for everyday things. For example if a coworker is trying to explain something to me he can just show me live while pointing at things and we can discuss it. Or if my girlfriend wants me to pick up something like food or some random female product I can show her what I see.

 

[I7guy]

Same here. It would be very difficult for me to adjust without either.

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Probably the latter. I use it for work quite often or even for everyday things. For example if a coworker is trying to explain something to me he can just show me live while pointing at things and we can discuss it. Or if my <spouse> wants me to pick up something like food or some random female product I can show her what I see.

This exactly and more. And I'm slightly over 40.

 

[kaylerrific]

My entire family and extended family uses iPhones and iPads. Even if I wanted to be the odd woman out, I couldn't! Too much facetiming and imessaging going on!

 

[zipa]

iMessage, FaceTime, etc.

It's nice to watch all my messages throughout the day populate iMessage when I get home and turn on my Mac.

I guess? The fact that 85-95% of mobile phone owners can't do iMessages makes it a tad useless, though.

 

[solarguy17]

I guess? The fact that 85-95% of mobile phone owners can't do iMessages makes it a tad useless, though.

Combined all non-iOS device clock in at around 60% max. WP8 doesn't have a dedicated Messaging solution. Android has Google Talk, but it isn't integrated with the regular messaging app like iMessage is with the Messages app.

The fact is iMessage is the best messaging solution available since it is integrated into the main app. The iOS 8 updates will just make it better.

I use iMessage all the time and don't realize it because it is so seamless.

 

[Kjung7]

Combined all non-iOS device clock in at around 60% max. WP8 doesn't have a dedicated Messaging solution. Android has Google Talk, but it isn't integrated with the regular messaging app like iMessage is with the Messages app.



The fact is iMessage is the best messaging solution available since it is integrated into the main app. The iOS 8 updates will just make it better.



I use iMessage all the time and don't realize it because it is so seamless.

Isn't google handouts integrated with SMS on android now?

 

[solarguy17]

Isn't google handouts integrated with SMS on android now?

You might be right I don't have an Andriod phone. So I'm not 100% sure. But that update probably isn't available to most Android phones anyway.

But again with the iOS 8 update and then the new Yosimite updates making all txt and I messages available on macs, and iPads, that really kills Hangouts regardless.