I received my 64GB iPhone 6S Plus yesterday and retired my android HTC One M8 running Lollipop 5.01. I felt some others in the iMore forums could benefit from my experience, but if not, it's all good.
I was not always an android user. I was a Blackberry user until Verizon got the iPhone 4 and I tried an iPhone for the first time. I loved that iPhone 4-- it was beautiful, fast, and unmatched in overall craftsmanship.
However, I was curious about customizing my device, rooting it, trying out different ROMS, and also using a big screen phone. The 3.5" screen on the iPhone 4 was so tiny in comparison to the beautiful 5" inch screen on the HTC DNA that I decided to leave Apple and iOS in search of a better hardware and software experience.
I have owned the HTC Droid DNA and the HTC One M8 and several android tablets. Statistically speaking, they were always leaps and bounds ahead of iOS and iPhone hardware. Unfortunately, even with 2 more cores than the iPhone, my Droid DNA, HTC One M8, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 never seemed to be the pinnacle of good hardware and software.
Android updates were always 4-12 months behind and often were buggy updates that were never fixed. My HTC One M8 is running Lollipop 5.01, which has a large number of bugs and when I received that update, 5.1 had been released for several months already, which was designed to correct many of those bugs. However, 5 more months have gone by and I have not seen another update. It was as if someone intentionally wanted to leave a 80% functional android experience for users after an update to encourage them to get a new phone, but not make it so bad that they go to iOS. Well, I am done. I am tired of the slow updates and want a phone that has top notch hardware and software.
Further, I want a phone that has great battery life. I find it amusing that iPhone users complain about how bad the battery is on their phones. When I used to leave my iPhone 4 on my desk at the office and not touch it for hours, even with background syncing to Gmail and my Exchange email account, Facebook updating in the background, etc., I may lose 2-3% of battery life (I have a decent 3G and 4G signal at my office; iPhone 4 only supported 3G). If I leave my HTC One M8 sitting on my desk for hours and do not mess with it, the phone will lose 10-15% of its battery life. Despite having a large battery and various websites saying that the HTC One M8 had one of the longest battery lives when it came out, in real world usage, I had to be "gentle" when using the phone or I could go through the whole battery in three or four hours. Even my iPhone 4, which had a tiny battery and far lower standards back years ago would outlast my HTC One M8 with my standard activities (email, texting, Facebook, news apps, surfing web, etc. (no games)). iPhones are far more battery efficient and quite frankly, I have found they have better battery life than some of the longest lasting android phones when using them in the real world, I am not talking about BS video loop tests.
The apps on android are far less well developed versus their iOS counterparts as well-- just a casual observation.
So . . . based on the lack of timely software updates, poor battery life, lower quality apps, and general hardware compromises, I have switched back to Apple and bought an iPhone 6S Plus.
I have only been using the phone for 24 hours, so I can't say it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I can tell you that the phone works great, the camera is absolutely amazing (4MP shooter on HTC One M8 that became unusable after the Lollipop update (yes, I factory reset) doesn't even compare, iMessage is awesome as usual, and battery life appears to be stellar.
I have had 4 hours and 48 minutes of screen on time, taken at least 50 pictures, 2 slow-mo videos, Facetimed for about 30 minutes, sent probably 100 or so iMessages, dorked around on Facebook, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, and used a bunch of apps (No games)-- I have 49% of my battery left. My HTC One M8 would have died at about 3 hours of screen on time, yet statistically speaking, it should run circles around the iPhone 6S Plus.
I am glad to be back to a nice piece of hardware that has well-integrated software that is updated in a timely fashion. I am glad to be back with Apple and iOS.
I was not always an android user. I was a Blackberry user until Verizon got the iPhone 4 and I tried an iPhone for the first time. I loved that iPhone 4-- it was beautiful, fast, and unmatched in overall craftsmanship.
However, I was curious about customizing my device, rooting it, trying out different ROMS, and also using a big screen phone. The 3.5" screen on the iPhone 4 was so tiny in comparison to the beautiful 5" inch screen on the HTC DNA that I decided to leave Apple and iOS in search of a better hardware and software experience.
I have owned the HTC Droid DNA and the HTC One M8 and several android tablets. Statistically speaking, they were always leaps and bounds ahead of iOS and iPhone hardware. Unfortunately, even with 2 more cores than the iPhone, my Droid DNA, HTC One M8, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 never seemed to be the pinnacle of good hardware and software.
Android updates were always 4-12 months behind and often were buggy updates that were never fixed. My HTC One M8 is running Lollipop 5.01, which has a large number of bugs and when I received that update, 5.1 had been released for several months already, which was designed to correct many of those bugs. However, 5 more months have gone by and I have not seen another update. It was as if someone intentionally wanted to leave a 80% functional android experience for users after an update to encourage them to get a new phone, but not make it so bad that they go to iOS. Well, I am done. I am tired of the slow updates and want a phone that has top notch hardware and software.
Further, I want a phone that has great battery life. I find it amusing that iPhone users complain about how bad the battery is on their phones. When I used to leave my iPhone 4 on my desk at the office and not touch it for hours, even with background syncing to Gmail and my Exchange email account, Facebook updating in the background, etc., I may lose 2-3% of battery life (I have a decent 3G and 4G signal at my office; iPhone 4 only supported 3G). If I leave my HTC One M8 sitting on my desk for hours and do not mess with it, the phone will lose 10-15% of its battery life. Despite having a large battery and various websites saying that the HTC One M8 had one of the longest battery lives when it came out, in real world usage, I had to be "gentle" when using the phone or I could go through the whole battery in three or four hours. Even my iPhone 4, which had a tiny battery and far lower standards back years ago would outlast my HTC One M8 with my standard activities (email, texting, Facebook, news apps, surfing web, etc. (no games)). iPhones are far more battery efficient and quite frankly, I have found they have better battery life than some of the longest lasting android phones when using them in the real world, I am not talking about BS video loop tests.
The apps on android are far less well developed versus their iOS counterparts as well-- just a casual observation.
So . . . based on the lack of timely software updates, poor battery life, lower quality apps, and general hardware compromises, I have switched back to Apple and bought an iPhone 6S Plus.
I have only been using the phone for 24 hours, so I can't say it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I can tell you that the phone works great, the camera is absolutely amazing (4MP shooter on HTC One M8 that became unusable after the Lollipop update (yes, I factory reset) doesn't even compare, iMessage is awesome as usual, and battery life appears to be stellar.
I have had 4 hours and 48 minutes of screen on time, taken at least 50 pictures, 2 slow-mo videos, Facetimed for about 30 minutes, sent probably 100 or so iMessages, dorked around on Facebook, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, and used a bunch of apps (No games)-- I have 49% of my battery left. My HTC One M8 would have died at about 3 hours of screen on time, yet statistically speaking, it should run circles around the iPhone 6S Plus.
I am glad to be back to a nice piece of hardware that has well-integrated software that is updated in a timely fashion. I am glad to be back with Apple and iOS.