S7 vs. iPhone 6s

[Debating]

There's a similar thread about this topic in iMore, although the discussion over there has gotten clouded at times due to the fanboi nature of some of Apple's loyalists. FIgured I would post this here to see what kind of feedback I might get.

I am a former, diehard, blackberry user. I still use my Blackberry Bold 9930 as my daily driver, but have also been using an S6 for 6 months or so, each and every day, to "experiment".

I do not use my phone to play games on. Zero gaming. I do not use my phone to take pictures. In the 6 months I've been using the S6, I have maybe 4 or 5 photos on it. I'm not a picture taker. I use my phone as a communications tool for business, and to browse the web. Those 2 features...communications and browsing...make up 90% of my time on the phone. The occasional youtube video, listening to spotify, Waze, and a few other apps that are available in all ecosystems. My business uses an Exchange server and windows desktops. Both my S6 and an iPad I use are tied into my Exchange server via ActiveSync. Both sync my emails/contacts/calendar just fine.

The ONLY reasons I got the S6 were these -- it has an LED notifier, which I've become attached to as a result of my years with blackberry. And, because my business involves generating sales leads over the web and forwarding those leads to sales teams across the country, I need to be able to forward emails (not texts) that come in to contact groups by entering only the group name. Blackberry offered this function the best. Of the Android devices out there, Samsung's email and contacts clients do it the second best (I've spent hours with all of them...Samsung's groups functionality is ahead of LG, HTC and wayyy ahead of the Nexus devices or anything that uses stock Android...TouchWiz, in this respect, is ahead of the competition). That's it. Group email communication and the LED notifier.

The iPhone does not have an LED notifier. Everyone I've spoken to who's made the switch says "you'll get used to it". The iPhone does offer group communications via the iCloud (enter contacts in iCloud, create groups in iCloud, sync iCloud contacts to iPhone, and that's it...you have the ability to forward email communications to your groups).

The choice of which direction to go is tough. I do like Android, but I've had to do factory resets twice now and it's an absolutely awful experience, causing me hours and hours of wasted time to get everything back the way I want it. Android as a whole seems to be very buggy and choppy. You download an app, and the next thing you know something completely unrelated on the phone is not not working properly. The software integration with the hardware just seems to be chaotic at times. I am a "tinkerer" by nature, but I prefer to tinker in order to explore...not to repair...and I find that most of my tinkering on Android has been to repair things that break down...not to explore new things. The iPhone seems to have a more stable operating environment, but there's just something about it that...I don't know...irks me. It's not that they "lock you down" into their ecosystem, or that it's not as customizeable as Android. If Android offers 100% customization potential, I probably use 5%...maybe less. I really can't put a finger on it (aside from the lack of the led notifier). For whatever reason, the iPhone just doesn't sit well w/ me.

I've read review after review about the S7. The takeaway for me is that it seems like a big improvement over the S6. Fast, feature-dense, better battery life, etc. And I've read lots of reviews about the 6s, which seems to indicate that it's also fast, and fluid and smooth and reliable.

It's easy to go back and forth. And much more difficult to figure out which way to go.

 

[rave264]

I feel you.. I can't tell you how many times within the past 2 years i've switched from android to apple and back to android now (S7). I only use phones for communication, sometimes games. Although, i have noticed that i play more games when i'm on the iphone...weird...

 

[sydneycooper1979]

I hear ya. I go back and forth A LOT. I do tend to find myself always going back to apple as like my "home base". I find myself tinkering with my android a lot more than just using it as it's intended. I do love to tinker though lol. For me personally, it does help that literally everyone in my life except for my husband has an iPhone. So I like to be able to use things like imessage and facetime with my friends and family. Also I think I'm in the minority, but I actually like iTunes. On the flip side, I use a lot of google services and android is miles ahead in that way. But on the other other side, apple has great customer service. It's tough, and I'm rambling. But I get you.

 

[Debating]

It's pretty refreshing that the conversation here doesn't immediately devolve into platform-bashing.

Just a tough call. My wife and kids all use iPhone, but that doesn't sway me either way. I dislike iMessage, but only because I hate the idea of someone seeing those 3 dots to let them know I'm typing (if i start to type, then pause, then come back to it an hour later...they can see all of that....so if I go iPhone I would use an alternative texting platform).

The tinkering is the biggest factor weighing in my mind against Android. I've read a ton of the forums here, and the Samsung forum is replete with posts about problems -- screens going black, buttons freezing, wifi problems (sometimes due to crazy things like the dunkin doughnuts app), sounds cutting out, and on and on. You just don't see those problems on the iMore forums.

BUT, I also use things like Llama on my S6 to automatically turn my wifi radio on and off. Can't do that on an iPhone. And there are obviously lots of other things you can't do on an iPhone (but like I said, I'm at the extreme low end of the customization spectrum).

Anyway, thanks for the replies. It'll come to me...at some point....I hope....

 

[pixel_junkie]

The iPhone does not have an LED notifier. Everyone I've spoken to who's made the switch says "you'll get used to it".

I went to iPhone briefly (6 months) and I never got used to that. You end up checking your phone 20x a day for no other reason than to see if you missed something. How else are you going to know when you move away from your phone for some time? Hated that!

 

[rave264]

That's interesting. To me, the LED notifier does not make a difference. I still do check my phone regardless of if there's no notifications.....

 

[pixel_junkie]

That's interesting. To me, the LED notifier does not make a difference. I still do check my phone regardless of if there's no notifications.....

Curious why. You stated earlier you only use the phone for games and communication. What would there be to check other than communication (for which you would be notified by the notification light)?

 

[Debating]

See, for me the LED is absolutely critical, and if I stay with Android it will be a decision driven overwhelmingly by the LED notification function. I hate the idea of having to click a button and turn the screen on just to see whether I have a new email or message or calendar invite. The LED is integral to how I interact with the phone -- if it's blinking, I turn the phone on....if it's not, I don't. As a result, I'm not tethered to the phone or randomly turning it on "just to check". I can be playing with my kids, glance over, and know that there's nothing there that requires my attention. I can be watching a movie, glance over, and know there's nothing that requires my attention. It's the LED notifier that actually enables me to focus on life outside of my phone.

With that, however, is the reality that it's probably the only thing that keeps me from switching to the iPhone. The more I read and the more I play with both platforms, the iPhone just has smoother software. It still boggles my mind that people just routinely default to "do a factory reset" in order to address issues that constantly pop up. The factory reset option is a real last resort disaster option for me. Like I mentioned earlier, tinkering for the sake of exploring is fun and great.....and tinkering just to fix things and get things working again is a nightmare. For me at least...

 

[pixel_junkie]

The more I read and the more I play with both platforms, the iPhone just has smoother software. I

It's smooth because it is as basic and limited as it gets. It better be at least smooth if it can't do much else.

But for basic phone operation, if that is all your need your phone for, it is a solid choice, no doubt.

2016 - you can't reject an incoming call if your phone is locked - really Apple, couldn't figure at least this one out yet?

 

[HAWK]

I like iPhone, but the last two generations of releases I am swaying more towards android. Galaxy used to be so bloated with crap it made the iPhone look nice because of how smooth ios was and still is.... but the newer versions of touch wiz I really like.
Comparing android to Apple is over done and at this point in the game they are both great just use what you like better

 

[Coney718]

I've switched back and forth a couple times over the past few years but always seem to come back to Apple. Mainly because i think iOS apps are higher quality and better functionality than their Android counterparts. Also I find iOS more polished and less "glitchy" than Android. I had the Note 4 and S6 and both times it ran well at first then a few months in it got slow, laggy, app crashes, weird things like wifi turning on by itself. Things i never had a problem with using my iPhone. Plus i love imessage and Facetime. But if LED notifications are crucial to you then it seems like there's only one way to go because iPhones does not offer than unfortunately.

 

[RadiantDuck]

Just a note, apple devices aren't immune to issues. My ipad had a bad update that required a factory reset. And various family members have had data lost or bugs. End of the day it is still technology made by mere humans! And Android has come a long way. As has been said, both systems are good now, depends whether they or the phones which run them, suit you best.

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[sunrat39]

Bb priv?

 

[Inders99]

I do like Android, but I've had to do factory resets twice now and it's an absolutely awful experience, causing me hours and hours of wasted time to get everything back the way I want it. Android as a whole seems to be very buggy and choppy. You download an app, and the next thing you know something completely unrelated on the phone is not not working properly. The software integration with the hardware just seems to be chaotic at times.

This is Android in a nutshell and what drives me crazy. I find the update process is usually full of bugs and a PITA at best. I have a G4 that is garbage after the Marshmallow update and I feel the same way you do about FDRs. I've never owned an iPhone but geez, sometimes I just want something that works smoothly. I've never been closer to jumping than I have now but I do like to customize my phones and that one aspect will keep me on Android.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

Honestly, this is a tough question to answer.

The iPhone 6s was one of my favorite phones of last year. It's blazing fast, has a pretty good camera, and I actually like using 3D Touch. The Galaxy S7 is perhaps my new favorite Galaxy device for the time being, as it's also blazing fast, and has a great camera as well, while having water-resistance (the iPhone is also water-resistant, but doesn't have an IP-rating and isn't as resistant) and some extras.

This isn't a simple case of one being superior to the other. They're both truly excellent phones running different operating systems that have different philosophies. iOS is a closed-source operating system. You can't do much with it aside from rearranging your apps and changing your wallpaper. You won't find home-screen widgets (though they exist in the notifications) or any themes here, so iOS might not be your pick if you like to tinker with your phone. The plus side is that it gets updates in a timely manner and is typically supported for a very long time. Usually 3+ years or more.

Android is open-source. That means anyone can take the base source and build their own flavor of Android on-top. Samsung's flavor is one of the many different ones out there. The con is that if it's unoptimized, it can be a bit of a mess and the sheer number of different Android devices mean that it's hard to update all of them, which is why it's not uncommon to see Android phones having slow updates or being abandoned early. However, in recent times, Samsung seems to be taking performance and updates pretty seriously. The Galaxy S7 and its midrange cousins and predecessor have received the April 2nd security patch, a mere 2 weeks after the Nexus received it. It's much better than last time, where it would take around a month or more. And the recent versions of TouchWiz have become a performance revelation, with little-to-no lag and stutter throughout the UX. And because it's a more-open platform, you can customize and theme your phone exactly to your liking and has a large and diverse feature-set. Whether you'll use them all or not is another matter.

Really, each platform has their own ups and downs. IMO, if you want a phone that's guaranteed to get updates, go with the iPhone. If you want something more open and want some customization, go with the S7.

But my personal take on this? Try both.

 

[anon(5719825)]

That's interesting. To me, the LED notifier does not make a difference. I still do check my phone regardless of if there's no notifications.....

This is the same with me. I can take the notification or leave it.

I have two S7 Edge phones (one was supposed to be canceled but T-Mobile sent it anyways so I kept it) and a Note 5. Once I got the S7 Edge, I actually out my iPhone away in a drawer thinking the S7 Edge was so good that I would never want to use the iPhone ever again. Well, that didn't last long and I've been using my 6S, 6S+ and my 6+ just as much as the Note 5 and S7 Edge (I have four T-Mobile lines).

My S7 Edge is easier to make a call one handed over the 6S and that is because the 6S dialer takes up so much room on the screen compared to the dialer on the S7 Edge/S7.

I'll still continue using both platforms in the future and will likely own the next iPhone just as I've done every year since 2007 and I'll continue buying whatever new Samsung phone comes out next year and that will likely start with the Note 6.

To me, nothing beats owning both platforms.

 

[anon(5719825)]

This is Android in a nutshell and what drives me crazy. I find the update process is usually full of bugs and a PITA at best. I have a G4 that is garbage after the Marshmallow update and I feel the same way you do about FDRs. I've never owned an iPhone but geez, sometimes I just want something that works smoothly. I've never been closer to jumping than I have now but I do like to customize my phones and that one aspect will keep me on Android.

Last year, when the Lollipop update was released for my Note 4 and Note Edge, I updated right away. Within two weeks though, I went right back to Kitkat on both phones and stayed there till January when I bought a Note 5. Once I saw how smooth the 5 ran on Lollipop, I upgraded the Note 4 and Note edge once again to Lollipop.

I did try and go go back to Kitkat again on the Note Edge but there no longer is a way to downgrade once you upgrade to the latest version of Lollipop. It seems that they are doing what Apple does and once you upgrade, you can't downgrade I think because of the boot loader.

Once Marshmallow is released for my Note 5, I do not plan on upgrading it for several months. I learned my lesson with every Android phone I have owned going back to my old Nexus 4. To this day, it is running KitKat because it ran horribly on Lollipop.

 

[Inders99]

Once Marshmallow is released for my Note 5, I do not plan on upgrading it for several months. I learned my lesson with every Android phone I have owned going back to my old Nexus 4.

How do you block an update? I was one of the few who DIDN'T want the MM upgrade and it turns out my fears were realized when it did. I tried putting it off but the notification just wore me down. My phone was smoking on Lollipop (smoking as in a good thing), I couldn't see how it was possible to make it run better. I mean it was the best phone in every aspect I ever owned. Now I've lost all enthusiasm of for it and I really don't care what happens to it. I dropped it from about 6' onto concrete the other day and didn't even flinch...was actually hoping it shattered and I'd have to look for a new phone.

 

[anon(5719825)]

How do you block an update? I was one of the few who DIDN'T want the MM upgrade and it turns out my fears were realized when it did. I tried putting it off but the notification just wore me down. My phone was smoking on Lollipop (smoking as in a good thing), I couldn't see how it was possible to make it run better. I mean it was the best phone in every aspect I ever owned. Now I've lost all enthusiasm of for it and I really don't care what happens to it. I dropped it from about 6' onto concrete the other day and didn't even flinch...was actually hoping it shattered and I'd have to look for a new phone.

All of these phones have been rooted so I was never prompted to update the phone. Also, checking for an update on a rooted phone will give a warning, something about the system has been modified and so an update can't be applied or something like that.

Ny Note 5 is rooted so I won't have to worry about getting any of those update notices until I restore my phone to stock.

 

[Chris Kilts]

The S7 is my first Android phone in over 4 years. I agonized over leaving Apple for a while before making the jump to the S7. My wife,kids, and mom all have iPhones too so that weighed in on the decision. However, the S7 seemed to have everything I wanted in a phone now, and I didn't want to wait till the iPhone 7.
Well, it's been over a month of using the S7 and it's been fantastic so far. My favorite features are the always on display, the game center, and quick charge. This phone has been smooth, and my only issues have been learning android. The camera and the screen are absolutely gorgeous. To be honest, the only thing I miss from my iPhone is Siri. Siri was great for reminders and stuff. I am getting used to Google now and it's not too bad. The other great thing is my pebble time watch is so much more useful with an android phone. I can voice reply to texts, which is nice due to my job.

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