Hi guys, guess I came back for round two. You may all know me as the Windows Phone fanboy who wrote up a review of iOS and the 5s and got hated like mad. Well, I came back after experiencing the phone for more than 48 hours and wanted to post my full thoughts on the phone. To make this a fair comparison, I've been using iOS for the past two weeks as a daily driver. It's been a huge change that's offered both pleasantries and aggravations. I've broken it down to elements that I thought were important and while I know some of you will hate that I have anything bad to say about the iPhone, I'm sure some will appreciate this for what it is.
1. Build Quality:
I'm not going to lie, the build quality on this thing is pretty fantastic. The 4s and back shattered like it was nothing and the 5 seemed just mildly top heavy but with the 5s, they actually did an excellent job of crafting a piece of hardware for the hand. The chassis actually stays pretty cool shockingly enough and the buttons feel absolutely great. Everything feels very well put together and while a little on the light side for my taste, it doesn't feel airy like some phones tend to. All this said, the aspect ratio of it is a bit strange for me, I thought I'd get used to it over the course of two weeks but it still all seems a bit narrow. Overall though, a solid device.
2. Hardware:
I'm not going to get in the ridiculous ***** measuring contest of, "My processor is bigger than yours" because we all know (except for the android fans) that well-optimized software trumps more cores any day. For the first time though, it feels like Apple is ahead of the game even in this respect. I'm truly shocked by this as they were the ones putting 600 mHz processors in everything when Android had been using 1 gig and 1.2 gig for a year. It's really cool to see them doing well in the hardware game to and the GPU is a force to be reckoned with. I can't wait til some more stuff moves from the old UI and gets replaced and some games really take advantage of this. It's a piece of art in itself. Also, I know I mentioned this already but I want to state again, I love the buttons.
3. User Interface:
I'll start by saying again, prior to iOS 7, iPhones felt like nothing but an app launcher to me offering very little interaction with the UI and overall lessening the user experience unless you're an app hound. With the introduction of iOS 7, they added a great amount of gestures that make the phone genuinely feel like an extension of yourself, they added beautiful animations and they made the phone actually look modern as opposed to the stale old iOS. I really wish other OS's would take advantage of the beauty that is gestures so well because I don't want to have to buy a Jolla phone.
4. Camera:
Honestly, I'm impressed. I mean, the picture quality doesn't match that of the Nokia Lumia 1020 that I use as my daily driver but the quality is great. Also, as much as I hate to admit it, while the overall quality is better with the 1020, as a point and shoot, the iPhone tends to work better due to the faster shutter speed and the less complex algorithms. The pictures are generally crisp enough though it was subpar at best in low light testing and the flash tended to wash things out.
5. The Keyboard:
This is the part I absolutely HATE about this phone. There is a lot to love but this is the only reason I could not even consider this thing for my daily driver. The responsiveness is certainly good enough, it's alost instantaneous and certainly not measurable by the human eye. However, the lack of a period on the main screen was my initial turn-off with the phone. I know you can double tap the space button but there are several instances in my day where I have to use a period and that's not an option be it a decimal point or an ellipses. That wasn't even the worst part though, the auto correct is absolutely horrid. When you have a phone with a keyboard at that tiny, people who text need a decent auto-correct and I'm pretty sure theirs hasn't been updated since the 3G. The lack of a wordflow type option also drastically slowed it down but the next item almost made up for it.
6. Siri:
Yes, even some iPhone owners feel it's gimmicky and won't use it. I will. I love toying with it on my phone, I do a decent amount of texting on it and overall I use it quite a bit. Great feature though I wish some apps would utilize the APIs for it a little better. That's not Apple's fault though.
7. Overall:
My opinion on Apple hasn't changed. I don't think they've ever done much in the way of innovating but they're finally taking other ideas and improving on them and in a way that's just as good. I don't think it's a smarter smartphone than my Lumia 1020 primarily because of the incomprehensibly stupid keyboard but it's certainly usable and I never thought I'd say that about an iPhone.
In conclusion, I like it. I'm not in love with it but I'd take it over a GS4 any day. I feel like Apple is on the right track to regaining some of that market share they've been leaking like mad and the iPhone, for the first time ever, feels usable. I couldn't bear to look at the previous UI.
1. Build Quality:
I'm not going to lie, the build quality on this thing is pretty fantastic. The 4s and back shattered like it was nothing and the 5 seemed just mildly top heavy but with the 5s, they actually did an excellent job of crafting a piece of hardware for the hand. The chassis actually stays pretty cool shockingly enough and the buttons feel absolutely great. Everything feels very well put together and while a little on the light side for my taste, it doesn't feel airy like some phones tend to. All this said, the aspect ratio of it is a bit strange for me, I thought I'd get used to it over the course of two weeks but it still all seems a bit narrow. Overall though, a solid device.
2. Hardware:
I'm not going to get in the ridiculous ***** measuring contest of, "My processor is bigger than yours" because we all know (except for the android fans) that well-optimized software trumps more cores any day. For the first time though, it feels like Apple is ahead of the game even in this respect. I'm truly shocked by this as they were the ones putting 600 mHz processors in everything when Android had been using 1 gig and 1.2 gig for a year. It's really cool to see them doing well in the hardware game to and the GPU is a force to be reckoned with. I can't wait til some more stuff moves from the old UI and gets replaced and some games really take advantage of this. It's a piece of art in itself. Also, I know I mentioned this already but I want to state again, I love the buttons.
3. User Interface:
I'll start by saying again, prior to iOS 7, iPhones felt like nothing but an app launcher to me offering very little interaction with the UI and overall lessening the user experience unless you're an app hound. With the introduction of iOS 7, they added a great amount of gestures that make the phone genuinely feel like an extension of yourself, they added beautiful animations and they made the phone actually look modern as opposed to the stale old iOS. I really wish other OS's would take advantage of the beauty that is gestures so well because I don't want to have to buy a Jolla phone.
4. Camera:
Honestly, I'm impressed. I mean, the picture quality doesn't match that of the Nokia Lumia 1020 that I use as my daily driver but the quality is great. Also, as much as I hate to admit it, while the overall quality is better with the 1020, as a point and shoot, the iPhone tends to work better due to the faster shutter speed and the less complex algorithms. The pictures are generally crisp enough though it was subpar at best in low light testing and the flash tended to wash things out.
5. The Keyboard:
This is the part I absolutely HATE about this phone. There is a lot to love but this is the only reason I could not even consider this thing for my daily driver. The responsiveness is certainly good enough, it's alost instantaneous and certainly not measurable by the human eye. However, the lack of a period on the main screen was my initial turn-off with the phone. I know you can double tap the space button but there are several instances in my day where I have to use a period and that's not an option be it a decimal point or an ellipses. That wasn't even the worst part though, the auto correct is absolutely horrid. When you have a phone with a keyboard at that tiny, people who text need a decent auto-correct and I'm pretty sure theirs hasn't been updated since the 3G. The lack of a wordflow type option also drastically slowed it down but the next item almost made up for it.
6. Siri:
Yes, even some iPhone owners feel it's gimmicky and won't use it. I will. I love toying with it on my phone, I do a decent amount of texting on it and overall I use it quite a bit. Great feature though I wish some apps would utilize the APIs for it a little better. That's not Apple's fault though.
7. Overall:
My opinion on Apple hasn't changed. I don't think they've ever done much in the way of innovating but they're finally taking other ideas and improving on them and in a way that's just as good. I don't think it's a smarter smartphone than my Lumia 1020 primarily because of the incomprehensibly stupid keyboard but it's certainly usable and I never thought I'd say that about an iPhone.
In conclusion, I like it. I'm not in love with it but I'd take it over a GS4 any day. I feel like Apple is on the right track to regaining some of that market share they've been leaking like mad and the iPhone, for the first time ever, feels usable. I couldn't bear to look at the previous UI.