Android vs iPhone: What is better for you?

If you are looking to purchase a smartphone, you not only have to choose between different companies, you also have to select with an OS to go with. You have the option to select from either between Android phones or iPhones.

Android phones and iPhone both have different features that set them apart. The main difference that comes to everyone’s mind is the advantage of customizability on Android phones while iPhones offer a more polished experience.

How Android phone and iPhones are different

Customization

One of the main keys of having an Android phone is the ability to customize it. Android devices allow you to change your default launcher, select icon packs, add widgets, change themes and much more very easily.

This is an area where the iPhone is way behind Android devices. To provide a similar experience on all devices, iPhones do not offer a lot of customization options and users cannot even change the launchers or the icons to their liking.

Wide range of options for all budgets

Due to a large number of smartphone makers making Android devices, users have a lot of options to choose from in each budget category. Every smartphone maker has something to offer and this competition also helps keep prices down.

As Apple is the only company that makes iPhones, the options are limited, and you have to select from a handful of devices if you want the latest device.

Fast charging and USB Type-C support

Over the past few years, Android phone makers have made great progress in fast charging technology. Oppo recently introduced Super VOOC charge technology that charges a phone with 65W fast charge. On the other hand, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro comes with 18W charging technology.

Most Android smartphones these days are equipped with USB Type-C ports. The standardization of the port not only helps when you forget your charger at home, but also reduces waste. Apple is still using lighting ports on iPhones despite using USB Type-C ports in some MacBooks.

Updates

This is where iPhones are ahead of Android devices by a mile. Apple is able to quickly roll out updates to its devices. On the other hand, Android updates are slow and only the premium smartphones get them quickly.

Notification management system

Notification management is quite good on Android devices and it is easy to control notifications right from the notification bar. However, this is not the case for iPhones, and you have to change notification settings from the device settings.

Setting your own default apps

Android allows you to change the default apps for almost everything, including camera, browser, messaging, launcher and more. However, you are stuck with using the default apps from Apple on iPhones.

Headphone jack

If you are someone who does not like Bluetooth headphones and wants to stick with a headphone jack, Apple is not the right fit for you. While some Android makers such as Samsung and OnePlus no longer offer headphone jacks on their flagship devices, there are still many phones that are launched with headphone jacks.

App store

While the Google Play Store is ahead of the iOS app store with over 2.7 million apps compared to the 2.2 million apps on iOS, the Apple app store is still better as it is strict about the apps it allows and is able to weed out fake apps.

This is where Google is lacking as it is quite easy to get an app listed on the Play Store and that is not always good. For example, a fake version of WhatsApp was listed on the Play Store and over a million users downloaded it before it was removed.

Security

Security is another area where iPhones are way ahead of Android phones. In addition to lax rules for apps and slower updates, Google itself mines your data so that it can use the information to sell you better ads.

Apple, on the other hand, prioritizes user privacy and the user data is not stored by the smartphone maker. If privacy is one of your concerns, the iPhone is the better device for you.

See also:

App developers are growing wary of Apple's stringent store guidelines: 'Who's going to want to build the next giant innovative app on the platform?'

Samsung isn't updating one of its best phones from last year, and it proves how different its strategy is from Apple's