Benchmarks, schmenchmarks. In the real word every friend of mine has an Android phone, because I’m living in the Philippines where almost nobody, including most of the expats here, can afford an iPhone. And what I see in everyday use is that the simplest action taken on those Androids compares horribly to my iPhone 6. And what action is that? It’s something that people do many times every day. The simple action of pinching to zoom a photo. Seems like there’s something either amiss in the touch controller or somewhere deeper down, but I constantly see Androiders pinching two and three times before a picture will start to zoom, and then it suddenly zooms too far and they’re pinching back the other way. On every iPhone I’ve had it’s buttery smooth. What is it about the Android universe where this simple action can’t be nailed?
I tried the exact same scenario in my Moto G5 Plus ($230) and I don't observe such an issue. Looks like your friends are stuck in 2013/14. Because even the mid-range Android phones (for about $200) in 2016/2017 have good enough performance to do the basic tasks without any hassle. They struggle only when the load is heavy which is expected for that price.
What is it about the Android universe where this simple action can’t be nailed? - Unless your friends are using 2+ years old devices which cost about <$200 back then, I can't imagine such a basic issue still to be persisting. Any $200 Android phone bought in 2016 or 2017 should not have that issue. At least I have not seen such a basic issue persist in MANY devices in the past 2 years. More than 2 years back - Yes, I did see such performance issues. Not anymore.
I’ve only lived in the Philippines one year, during which time I’ve bought my girlfriend a new Oppo phone, a new Samsung for her father, and a close friend bought a new Oppo for his girl and a Samsung J7 Prime for himself. All four of those phones, plus several others I’ve witnessed in the hands of rather tech-conversant expat friends, have exhibited this issue. They just scoff at my iPhone when I show them how smooth it is, telling me I paid a lot more. It’s a three-year old iPhone 6.
So I have to take back my comment that this should not exist in 2017 android phones for $200, since it does exist. Thank you for the details. So the whole issue seems to boil down to heavily skinned Android phones. You specifically mentioned Oppo and Samsung, but I can easily imagine other heavily skinned phones from Xioami, Vivo, Asus (just to name few) etc to have similar teething problems. But I have not seen this in Motorola mid-range phones in a long time (last 3 years). So you may want to recommend Motorola phones (G series or X series, they do look ugly though) or Xioami Mi A1 (stock Android, directly updated by Google) to your friends, because stock Android runs very smooth without ANY performance issues for quite sometime.
PS: Since this is AI, I will not waste your or anyone else's time on this sub-topic anymore. We can close this discussion right here.
That’s good advice regarding stock Android. Here in the Philippines I’ve become sensitive to the fact few can afford the price of a new iPhone, and generally we (those here with iPhones and those here with Androids) get along just fine. I just keep unspoken Cook’s comment about Android being a smartphone training ground. The iPhone here is very much coveted by many, but I think that’s more to do with it as a status symbol than any deep evaluation of its capabilities versus Android phones. And Androids are perfectly fine smartphones that get the job done for a vast majority of their users.
I've met a few people who like using the Note because of the stylus and the ability to do the split screen Apps. (I don't think the iPhone can do that but would love to be able to do that on my 7Plus)
If you watch enough android phone reviews you will definitely see them admit that android phones get "lag" or slowdown after a while. I've read that that's partly due to inferior memory RAM. I think that's part of why they like the Pixel line and other phones that keep the skinning minimal.
As long as google seems to have some appeal due to a better Assistant and maps. Wish I would see a big jump in Siri understanding a functionality. Then I wouldn't think about upgrading one of my 3 iPhones with an android. (Fortunately all google phones this year seem to have a big flaw like the Pixel2's screen.)
Yes both devices are too powerful, and to each his own. Whatever the tests prove some people will swear by their Samsung, singing paeans of its technological innovation and some people will swear by their Apple citing performance boost benchmarks.
I feel like this is a form of trolling, like the little brother to concern trolling — wishy-washy trolling. “Oh well some people like one thing some people like another, it is what it is!”
Benchmarks are very important if the responsiveness is suffering and you have to wait longer than 0.5 sec or more for certain tasks to finish. Benchmarks are less important if the responsiveness is very fast. A user does not care if he has to wait 0.1 sec or 0.01 sec. He won't notice the difference.
That an iPhone X is faster than a Samsung Note 8 is great for Apple and its marketing department, but the time that any flagship phone was sluggish are long gone. My iPhone 6 is fast enough for any task I am using it, and I assume that the same applies for the latest Samsung phones. So basically I don't care that much about benchmarks.
This. Benchmarks are only relevant in as much as they reflect real-world performance, which is very app specific. My 6s might not be quite as 'snappy' as a new 8 or X, but it is still plenty responsive. The other part of this equation is longevity. IME, iPhones have a longer usable life than Android phones (my 6s being a case in point.) Even when they get older and the performance starts to become an issue, they tend to remain quite usable longer than android phones do.
Hell my wife and I use iPhones 5s and we have an iPhone 4 and iPad 2 that both run fine. A little slow? Sure, but definitely usable. I’d LOVE to see a functional android device of that vintage.
Benchmarks are very important if the responsiveness is suffering and you have to wait longer than 0.5 sec or more for certain tasks to finish. Benchmarks are less important if the responsiveness is very fast. A user does not care if he has to wait 0.1 sec or 0.01 sec. He won't notice the difference.
That an iPhone X is faster than a Samsung Note 8 is great for Apple and its marketing department, but the time that any flagship phone was sluggish are long gone. My iPhone 6 is fast enough for any task I am using it, and I assume that the same applies for the latest Samsung phones. So basically I don't care that much about benchmarks.
This. Benchmarks are only relevant in as much as they reflect real-world performance, which is very app specific. My 6s might not be quite as 'snappy' as a new 8 or X, but it is still plenty responsive. The other part of this equation is longevity. IME, iPhones have a longer usable life than Android phones (my 6s being a case in point.) Even when they get older and the performance starts to become an issue, they tend to remain quite usable longer than android phones do.
Hell my wife and I use iPhones 5s and we have an iPhone 4 and iPad 2 that both run fine. A little slow? Sure, but definitely usable. I’d LOVE to see a functional android device of that vintage.
My wife still refuses to consider giving up her Moto X (originally mine, handed down two years ago), purchased Sept/13. Still all day battery and still snappy for what she uses it for. There's some quality vintage phones on "the dark side". Perhaps not a lot of 'em... But a few.
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If you watch enough android phone reviews you will definitely see them admit that android phones get "lag" or slowdown after a while. I've read that that's partly due to inferior memory RAM. I think that's part of why they like the Pixel line and other phones that keep the skinning minimal.
As long as google seems to have some appeal due to a better Assistant and maps. Wish I would see a big jump in Siri understanding a functionality. Then I wouldn't think about upgrading one of my 3 iPhones with an android. (Fortunately all google phones this year seem to have a big flaw like the Pixel2's screen.)
Useless!