Now I don’t use iPhone. I gave the device to the author for an editorial assignment. There is no second Apple smartphone, very old models disappear.
Therefore, the second week I use a budget smart phone on Android. I bought it in early March as a backup device in connection with all known events.
Forced downgrade without the ability to return to a normal device turned into a massive inconvenience, and positive impressions. I want to share them here before I forget.
The model in the secret of the article does not matter, but just in case – this Poco X3 Pro, which costs 2 times cheaper than the iPhone 13 mini. The performance and technology will increase approximately like the iPhone 11, only with a frequency of 120 Hz.
1. Free operation of the NFC module
appearance with the iPhone Xs, Apple devices have an absolutely full-fledged NFC module. But its capabilities are severely limited by the presence system for no apparent reason.
Even in my budget Android smartphone, there are no restrictions on NFC. This gives a lot of opportunities that you can only dream of on an iPhone.
I can save any data to any clean “label”. In some apps, I can read credit card data with a tap instead of detecting it through the camera or entering bank numbers manually. I can top up the Troika transport card directly from my smartphone instead of going to the metro terminal.
MIR Pay works great even now, when contactless payments from a smartphone in Russia have become a rarity.
But most importantly, I have the freedom to use third party payment systems. For example, WORLD Pay Apple Pay turned out to be objectively not lower, especially in the observed situations. With it, you can even forget that there are some restrictions on the contactless purchase of smartphones in the country. Hundreds of problems with terminals in completely different stores without accepting my virtual MIR card.
To set up the smartphone in a certain way (albeit not very safe), I don’t even need to somehow activate NFC in a special way in order to write with money.
Apple’s reluctance to allow free access to NFC, as well as the lack of access to other payment systems and technologies, is dictated only by the desire for Apple Pay’s monopoly position in the iOS ecosystem. It is sad.
2. Drunken freedom to install any application from anywhere
It’s not about piracy. I do not and will not have pirated software, even if I switched to Android forever.
The thing is freedom.
Here the Google Play store is simple one from existing app installation options, not an option, as is the case with the first in the App Store on the iPhone. It doesn’t make it any worse. There is not much more frank “garbage” for Android even in the official store than utter, fierce trash in the bottomless App Store.
Your budget Android comes with several layers of antivirus protection out of the box. I reliably check what I install. I prefer programs, there is open source on GitHub and an active user base.
During these weeks, I did not have much time to indulge in downloading .APK from everywhere. Pieces 20 exactly set. But the viruses, apparently, did not catch. I’m sure they are. But they are also in abundance for iOS, which has been clearly proven over the past three years.
It is enough to use the same security principles that are relevant for any installed OS (Windows, Linux, macOS) – and then the history of terrible viruses and the leakiness of the Google operating system will remain cool.
Google Play is still a “cringe”, but who said that they have to limit themselves? Here, for example, is a great client for YouTube with the code downloaded directly from the browser.
Do not count how many for one client only YouTube I found on Android. For example, NewPipe with full code, which basically does not need a Google account. Subscriptions, support, picture-in-picture, background lighting, auto-blocking of sponsored segments inside (!!!) videos – everything works perfectly.
Even Morrowind, an ancient (and beloved) RPG for PC that you can roll onto your device and play at your own pace. With almost all mods.
Apple constantly worries the public about how it inadvertently becomes available to other stores on iOS. That, without restrictions and prohibitions, users enter the terrible world of viruses, trojans, low-quality software and unpleasant experience of using the gadget.
The irony is that all four of these things can be easily experienced on the iPhone right now, with its closed ecosystem. What then is its advantage?
3. Super fast charging
A smartphone for 25 thousand rubles with a 5000 mAh battery charges from 10% to 100% in 50 minutes. After half an hour, I have a supply of charge for the whole day.
For two weeks, I can’t stop wondering. A nearly dead battery is no longer a problem. The program for using Lightning has also disappeared, I get by with only one USB-C. To say that it is convenient and fun is an understatement!
You can argue about the endurance of the battery in charging mode for a long time, but it is impossible to cancel it once. Top iPhones take too long to load, and this should not be the case in 2022. We’re happy to find out here and a half hours, through “special” cables and charging, as it seems, this is considered “fast”. Oh well.
I hope that after the transition to USB-C, even Apple will “bend” under the changing world and introduce iPhone fans to a bizarre feeling when you just changed clothes, washed after work and went to charge, and the smartphone is already 100% on the screen.
Impressions are both positive and negative.
You can select a codec from the list – the main thing is that the headphones themselves listen to it.
I have now described in detail only three aspects that are being paid attention to. But there are actually a lot of them.
Support for any Bluetooth audio codec, from aptX to LDAC, brings my Sony WF-1000XM4 to a whole new level through Apple Music. A surprisingly good camera with its advantages, no one scolded the photos in a couple of my articles on the site and didn’t even notice the substitution. The almost limitless possibilities of customizing the OS and presented what caused the emergence of Android in exactly what I personally consider possible. And much, much more.
There are also problems. For example, the trouble with “false touches”. I have a budget device, but what about other top-end Android devices that have been reviewed by the editors in recent years, the same thing happens. The extreme points of the screen constantly mistakenly “press” when you hold the phone in your hands “incorrectly”.
Very strange interface for setting the alarm time in Google, of course.
For some reason alarm not always working. They suggested to stop using stocks and put Google Watch from the store. Only if you unload this application from multitasking, then for some reason the alarm clock does not ring at the appointed time …
Sad and unpredictable release of updates. Since I bought this smartphone, a new version of Android has been released exactly zero times. Security installation separately. Apple also installed this system in iOS 16.
I miss the Apple ecosystem to freely use an Android smartphone with a Mac. And still lacks the legendary responsiveness, predictability of the iOS interface, you can’t erase the acquisition in a couple of weeks. Obviously, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is better than this smartphone in many ways. But not in everything.
Overall, I’m surprisingly pleased. Operation Google is no longer the “freak”, its subjects were slandered ten years ago.
So many features in Android are absolutely definitely wouldn’t ruin the iPhone. Almost everything that I have listed, as well as dozens of other system differences, will only improve the lives of Apple smartphone users around the world.
I hope that the general stagnation of the electronics market and country pressure regulators will force Apple to evolve towards the best aspects of Android. The user will somehow decide for himself how much he needs to limit himself in his capabilities.
Source: Iphones RU
