You're right, Android is much better than it used to be. Unfortunately, Samsung ruins it with TouchWiz.
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People that say this don't understand how android works. With apple you get what they give you, with Android you get what you want. If you don't like touchwiz install a launcher. I have the S5 Active with Nova Launcher installed and its awesome. No lagging (I know people love to say this) and its fully customizable to whatever setup you want. I also have a LG G3 and I don't have a launcher on that one because I like the LG launcher just fine.
That is the thing about android, you can have any style on the phone, even an iphone theme if it suits you and to say all android phones suck is ignorant because each phone has different software on them. You have to find the one that suits you best. Its that simple.
Do specs matter? Yes and no. IOS 8 will solve a huge problem for me which is swype keyboards that I can't live without. What it won't solve is not having a file system. I can use my phone as a computer basically with directories etc and have it exactly how I want. I can even have an SD card with more files. I just drop that card into my mac and move over videos and music and put it right back in the phone and its there, easily accessible and ready to use, no syncing with itunes, no need. Plus if they LG G4 sucks I can just grab another phone thats better, don't need to worry about what they come out with because Samsung or whoever might do it better next year. With apple you are at their mercy.
Do I like my S5? Love it. Take it in the pool all the time and listen to music. Mostly I use my G3 though because the Camera is so much better even though its less Megapixels. 16mpx camera in the S5 sorry to say still sucks but the 13mpx with laser focus and OIS rocks the house and the pictures look ten thousand times better than my 5s pics. So much more detail.
With android you have choices, with apple you don't. That simple. For some people that is important, some it isn't. My wife loves her iphone because she hates fiddling with stuff and just wants her phone to take pics, record her runs and make phone calls and it does that great but boy does she bitch when she has to plug it in and sit by the wall while it charges and all I have to do is swap my battery, then she is envious.