If you’re like me, you probably complain about your cell phone… a lot. After that, there’s a pretty good chance that your cell is an iPhone. Finally, if you relate to any of the following complaints, you should really check to see if we’re twins. Real quick before I get started however, I just want to point out that I’ve never personally owned an Android and so any comparison I make between Androids and iPhones is based on my knowledge of my parents phones. Now it’s time to read my frequent thoughts on Apple.
Apps
My first thought when thinking about the Apple App Store is always “I wonder if there’s a new ‘Free App of the Week’ yet!” I get so excited that something is free because so many apps and games on the App Store cost at least 99 cents. This hasn’t been a huge issue for me as I normally only need apps that are free anyways, but it would be nice to get the new Angry Birds games without spending money on them like Android users get to do (last I knew).
Space
One of the real issues for me is space. I have a 16GB iPhone. Do you know how much space that is? Not very much. I frequently sync my photos and music to my computer just so I can delete them off of my phone and even that only clears up 1GB at the most. I know some of you are probably thinking “Just get a new phone with more space!” Well, that’s easier said than done and I will talk about that in a minute.
Part of it is probably my fault. I text like crazy. I’ve basically been in constant communication with one of my high school friends since the 9th grade. If I had to take a guess, I would say that we text at least 100 messages to each other every day. I know, it’s a problem (especially when half of them are just “ooo. lol. omg.” However, I still delete my messages probably once a month and still don’t gain a lot of space.
From what I’ve seen, I believe most Androids have a slot for an SD Card which provides more space to save pictures, music, etc. I guess I don’t know the exact limitations of these storage additions (like what all can you save onto the cards?), but it would be extremely convenient if Apple added an SD Card slot.
Battery Life
If you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook (which most of the people who are reading this article are), you’ve probably seen at least one status update featuring a complaint about my phone’s battery life. It’s terrible and keeps getting worse. The reason behind this is probably that the phone is two years old - I got it on Valentine’s Day 2014; it was not a Valentine’s Day present though because I’m forever single (by choice) - and like I said about the texting, I constantly use it.
I actually don’t have a lot of prior knowledge on the battery life of Androids. My parents don’t seem to complain much about their phones so I’m assuming it’s at least a little bit better, but I could be wrong. I also know that with many Androids you can easily replace the battery. I didn’t think it was possible for iPhones, but I was told there is a way. Still, it sounded like a lot more work than replacing an Android battery.
Updates
I have a love/hate relationship with the iOS updates from Apple. I love when they make things look nicer. I love when they add new emojis (even though I still use the same five that I have since I bought my first iPhone in 9th grade). I even loved when they completely redesigned the look, although it took me a long time to get used to everything. However, I do not like when they release a minor update that has bug fixes that don’t affect me because then when I select “Update Later” I still get asked at least once a day to update. The other major issue I have with the iOS updates is the space that they take up. Like I said before, space on my phone is a real issue and so getting these huge updates takes up a large portion of what I could be using for music or apps.
Again, I’m not 100 percent sure about the Android equivalents. The last major update that I remember my mom talking about was early last year and I think it only revamped the notification system.
Cost
Here’s the big one. I hate how much iPhones cost. I mean, depending on your phone plan, it might be a little cheaper in certain ways. But the 16GB iPhone 6s (aka the cheapest, newest iPhone) is $649. That’s insane. That’s more than I paid for my laptop - and my laptop is pretty high quality. Every time Apple announces a new phone, I immediately think about how much I want it because it’s going to be so cool. Then I think about how much it’s going to cost and suddenly I’m reluctant to ever upgrade my phone again. Okay, that’s a lie. I obviously complain about my phone and want to upgrade soon, but I also want to wait to see what I can manage.
Wow. I really don’t know much about Androids. Since I don’t really want to do research on phones right now, I’m just going to base it off of what my parents have said which is “It might be cool to have an iPhone, but they’re just so expensive.” Which I’m going to assume means that (many) Androids are cheaper.
It’s been two years since I upgraded phones so it’s about time to upgrade again. However, I am reluctant because I don’t want to spend a ton of money on something and then hate it. I’ll probably wait until the end of this summer before I make a final decision on if I should upgrade and to what phone. That is, as long as this phone can last that long.
