Well as a long-time Android user I hate the data gathering shenanigans of Google. My concern has deepened so much that I have stopped using as many Google services as possible and intend buying the iPhone Xs as soon as it is available to pre-order.
All OEMs collect data. You’re free to forego features to keep your data private, though. At least as much as possible...
For example, you’re going to have trouble using Digital Assistants without giving them access to almost everything on your phone - all of them. None of them can work without sending data to a web service.
I also think people have began to lump data collection for purposes of improving services together with data collection for the purpose of advertising.
Even when I was on Android, I barely used Google Services, and had most of their apps disabled. This is one of the biggest selling points for OEM devices. They have really good stock apps and don’t keep you beholden to Google’s, like a Pixel phone does (as using third parties introduces additional risk - something iOS users have been finding out lately with AirMail 3 and the Virus scanning app, etc.).
The Google Account exists primarily for Play Store Access and Play Music Locker.
If you want to maintain a YouTube Channel, you need a Google Account.
If you’re on Facebook or Instagram, those are getting a lot more personal information about you (via directly or via proxy from your connections) regardless of what phone you use. Switching won’t save you. Quitting them is the best option (Social Media Free 3 years, yay!).
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Apple is better at security updates than Android OEMs. Certainly faster. Google is as good as Apple for Pixels. Smaller Android OEMs are better than the bigger ones - particularly those that do not sell through carriers.
Feature updates for Apple are pretty thin, and they don’t really seem to do much to expand device functionality; so I don’t really value iOS updates that highly anymore. So I co sister a lot of hardware capabilities to be wasted in the devices as a result. iOS updates tend to slow things down, which is why they’ve had to dedicate an entire release to performance (this wasn’t a new problem, or even close to new).
Devices from Samsung have enough features for the next 20 iOS updates, and then some - so feature updates there are a ton less relevant. Their users are less likely to be asking for a feature than Apple users (who begged for years for a file manager, and just got notification grouping).
Android OEMs are pretty good about security updates, these days, and that’s generally good enough for me. Android version updates don’t tend to add much - if anything - they didn’t have years ago, so are quite overrated. Those are more relevant to stock devices, which feel more like iOS for practical usage.
Multi-Window, Power Saving Modes, Camera features, etc. have been coming to stock Android 2-4 years after OEMs implement them - and often with a worse user experience.
I think the update relevance depends on how often you upgrade, as well.
If you upgrade yearly, it is completely ignorable IMO. If you keep a phone for more than 2 years, then it becomes a lot more important.
Personally going back to Samsung this year. iOS seems like the platform for the patient. Still waiting to gain back some fairly basic functionality that my Note 3 offered, and at this point the goalpost has been moved to September 2019.
I can no longer destroy my productivity over a preference. I’m exasperated with it.
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