Unhappy with the quality of the Google Pixel 6 Pro, I’ve turned to the only other pure platform play in the smartphone market: the Apple iPhone. I go into this with a clear head and an open mind, well aware of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the iPhone compared to Android. And I’m always ready to call a mulligan should Google’s December Pixel update—which I’ve still not received, somehow—do enough to right that ship. Or should the iPhone not work out.
I wrote about my decision to at least experiment with the latest iPhone a few weeks back in Pixel Imperfect, 2021 Edition (Premium). But for those not of a Premium persuasion, here’s the short version: after publishing a decidedly mixed Pixel 6 Pro review with no clear recommendations because of the even mix of pros and cons, I continued to experience issues with this flawed handset. And as those problems continued, I doubted my allegiance to technology that frustrates me regularly and delights me only sometimes more and more.
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
There is, perhaps, an interesting and more general conversation to be had around our often unhealthy relationships with technology. But for now, I’m just focusing on myself: I want to use tools that work and meet my needs. So I’m going to look around.
To be clear, there’s no endgame here where I adopt more and more Apple solutions over time. Instead, I will instead continue to use exactly the same apps and services I always use, I will just be doing them—for now—on an iPhone and not a Pixel. And I will evaluate the overall experience against that of the Pixel 6 Pro and see how they compare. I would like the iPhone to deliver much of what I like about the Pixel while solving some of the problems. And should that all work out, who knows? Maybe I go back to the iPhone after a several-year gap. We’ll see.
As for the day one experience, it’s been quite positive. The iPhone 13 Pro is, of course, a handsome and high-quality machine, and the Graphite version I ended up with is pleasant enough. I’m much less a fan of its hard, flat, and thick edges—this is the iPhone 4 look all over again—and I couldn’t care less that they’re made of shiny stainless steel instead of aluminum since I immediately covered it up with a Sequoia Green leather case anyway. Also handsome.
Apple includes a Lightning to USB-C cable in the box, but it also started the trend of not including a power adapter in the box. This results in a smaller package but also required me to make an additional purchase. I went with a $13 Anker 20-watt USB-C charger that is both cheaper and smaller than the Apple part. To be clear, the iPhone 13 Pro offers just 20-watts of charging power, a hair under that provided by the Pixel 6 Pro. But in the good news department, it charges faster, at least according to Apple and the reviews I’ve seen. I’ll verify that.
On that note, I’m not a fan of Lightning and cannot understand why Apple doesn’t use USB-C here, as it does with the iPad Air and MacBook Pro I also own. Maybe next year.
I went with the normal-sized iPhone 13 Pro—as opposed to humongous Pro Max—because I feel that that’s the right size for a smartphone (for me). It’s about the same size as the Pixel 5a, I guess, just a bit shorter and a bit wider. It’s pretty dense, but it’s so much smaller than the Pixel 6 Pro, and I really like that.
It does, of course, have that damned notch, which further reduces the usable size of the display, especially in media apps like Netflix. I watch video content at the gym for about 30 minutes most days, so we’ll see how that goes. (This might be the one area in which the Pixel 6 Pro’s larger display is preferable.)
The iPhone out-of-box experience is straightforward, and it should be reasonably quick for most people, especially those upgrading from a previous iPhone. I wasn’t doing that, however, and I opted for a slower, more manual experience in which I spent a lot of time going over various settings and then finding all the apps I usually use and arranging them roughly the same way on a single iPhone home screen, as I do on Android.
Two notes from that process. One, Apple throws a prompt about notifications the first time you run an app, which I really like. On Android, I spend the first several days getting unwanted notifications and then turning them off as they appear; with the iPhone, this is more proactive. Two, Apple has implemented its app anti-tracking technology, and while you can prevent apps from tracking you one by one, you can also flip a switch in Settings and just disable it globally. This is a great feature and one that Google will never duplicate because that’s how it really makes money on Android. (I had been using DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection to address this issue on the Pixel.)
The iPhone home screen is still less customizable than that of Android, and icons still fill in from the top left. But whatever: Thanks to the inclusion of widgets last year, I was able to layout my iPhone home screen very similarly to that of Android. And when you factor in the non-removable UI elements that Google inflicts on Pixel users—the Google search bar and At A Glance widget—it’s not really all that different. And Apple lets you configure a default web browser and mail app now, so I switched those to Chrome and Gmail, respectively.
After installing each app and positioning them wherever (or not) on the home screen, I slowly stepped through the process of signing into each as needed. This mostly went without any issues, though my Apple ID’s password stash is a bit out-of-date, so I needed to look up and add a few passwords. I’m looking at moving to a password manager in the New Year—1Password, most likely, so this may not be an issue soon. But it wasn’t a big deal.
Once that was all done, I shut down the iPhone and the Pixel, removed my Mint Mobile SIM from the latter, inserted it into the new handset, and restarted both. Mint Mobile has required some manual configuration in the past, but with the latest iPhones, at least, no configuration was required. In other words, it worked like it always should. So that was good.
Obviously, I need to actually use the thing over time, see what the notifications process is like, experience the apps and whether they’re different/better than their Android counterparts (as they often have been in the past), and so on. And I very much need to determine how well the camera system measures up; my understanding is that it should be roughly comparable to that of the Pixel, with each doing better in certain ways. We’ll see.
More soon.
dftf
<p>I really can’t stand either a notch or pinhole-camera, and at-least on <em>Android </em>there is often an option to "hide display cut-out", which then makes all pixels in that area black. Sadly though, that option being there is very manufacturer-depedent. <em>Nokia </em>and <em>Samsung </em>usually always offer it, though <em>Motorola</em>, <em>LG </em>(back when they were a thing in phones) and <em>Sony </em>don’t always. I’d imagine <em>Google </em>would, though they likely relegate it to the "Developer options" menu, and not a general area like "Display" or "Screen"</p>
dftf
<p>If you’re so concerned with your privacy, unlock the bootloader on your <em>Android </em>device and try installing one of these instead: <strong>itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-android</strong></p>
dftf
<p>drextx: "<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’m not a ‘fanboy’"</span></p><p>Also drextx: "I’m almost at the point where I feel Apple are democratizing technology"</p><p><br></p><p>Yes, such a democracy. Well, you know, expect for when they force certain apps to only offer <em>Apple Pay</em> and hide any screens in the app that say how you can sign-up outside the app. Or how you can only get apps from their App Store (unless you’re an enterprise-customer, then you can side-load). Or how they can release their own apps that undercut rivals, or price them the same (but that amounts to the same-thing, as <em>Apple </em>is clearly not going to charge <em>itself</em> a 15% or 30% fee). Or not publish specific APIs until they’ve made best-use of them first. Or not allow you to use any rendering-engine for apps on <em>iOS</em> other-than <em>WebKit</em> (whereas <em>Firefox </em>on <em>Android </em>does use its own engine, not <em>Google’s</em> <em>WebView</em>). Or ban third-party repairs, or at-least make it difficult to do. And then there are the various adverts for other <em>Apple </em>services that you can find throughout the <em>iOS</em> UI. And being the only company to persist in having to use its own cable-standards (though inconsistently, as some devices <em>do </em>use USB-C — and before anyone says, yes, <em>cheapo Android </em>devices often <em>still</em> come with <em>USB Mini</em>, but that at-least <em>was </em>a standard at one time).</p><p><br></p><p>Oh, and don’t forget it’s only been in the last, what, 2-3 years that <em>Apple </em>has allowed users to set a default browser and e-mail app (since either <em>iOS 13 or 14</em>, I think). Couldn’t you do that since, well, <em>forever </em>on <em>Android</em>? (Even <em>Microsoft</em> are now making the former hard-to-do in <em>Windows 11</em>).</p>
dftf
<p><em>"I eventually ended up with an iPhone 12 Mini"</em></p><p><br></p><p>They don’t make Android phones that-small now, sadly. The last comparable ones I can think-of are Sony’s 2017 "Xperia XZ1 Compact" and 2018’s "Xperia XZ2 Compact".</p><p><br></p><p><em>"You could make [an iPhone] a Microsoft phone by installing all their apps"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Can you? I didn’t think you can change the launcher on an <em>iOS</em> device. You can install Microsoft’s apps, but if you want your homescreen to also be <em>Microsoft</em>-based, isn’t that an <em>Android</em>-only thing? (And on a similar-note, haven’t <em>Microsoft </em>dropped all-support for <em>iOS </em>devices in the <em>Your Phone </em>app in <em>Windows 11</em> now?)</p><p><br></p><p><em>"Expensive but regularly updated. You can pick up refurbished models from a year ago at a decent price, so it doesn’t need to break the bank balance."</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>Apple </em>devices do hold value-well, and certainly for many buying a refurb or second-hand will be the way to go, given around £390 is the cheapest you can buy any new iPhone for (at-least, from Apple directly).</p><p><br></p><p>In contrast, the mid-range in <em>Android </em>is more-affordable, and specs are always getting better and will suit most-people. I took a quick-look to see what today would be comparable to my <em>Pixel 3a</em>, and the £170 <em>Motorola G31 </em>has the same storage and RAM, an OLED screen, decent PPI (more-than the usual 265-ish most mid-rangers have), a slower, but still 8-core CPU, a much-larger 5000mAh battery (<em>3a </em>is around 3000mAh) and still offers a headphone-socket. Sure, you do get slower 10W charging, only up-to 1080p30 video-recording, and the cameras are unlikely to be as-good as on the <em>3a</em>. But the <em>3a </em>launched at £399 (with the <em>XL </em>variant at £429). So given you can now get a phone that matches or exceeds parts of the <em>3a</em> spec for <em>less-than</em> <em>half the price</em> now shows why many are happy to stay in the <em>Android </em>mid-range market. (Other options would be the similar-spec <em>Samsung A22 5G</em> at £209, or the <em>Motorola Edge 20 Lite 5G</em> at £299, which offers 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, and also does 4K video-capture).</p>
dftf
<p>"Launcher no, but you can change the default email and browser to Outlook and Edge. And you can customise your home screen using Microsoft’s widgets if you wish."</p><p><br></p><p>I did realise you can get <em>Widgets </em>on <em>iOS</em> recently… but my point still-stands. You cannot replace your launcher on <em>iOS</em> whereas on <em>Android </em>you could get <em>Microsoft’s </em>own official-one, or install a third-party one to mimic the old <em>Windows Phone 10 </em>UI. So you can still make an <em>Android </em>device "more-Microsofty" than you can on <em>iOS.</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>"Microsoft does good iOS software"</em></p><p><br></p><p>I hear this argument all-the-time that software is "better on <em>iOS</em>", but is it, really? Doesn’t <em>Outlook </em>offer the same feature-set on both, and likewise for apps like <em>OneDrive, Word, Excel </em>and <em>Skype</em>? I’d be interested to see any <em>YouTube </em>videos showing comparisons as "the same apps you can get on both <em>Android </em>and <em>iOS</em> just run better on <em>iOS</em> and offer more-features" is a claim many make, but I never see any actual examples of.</p>
dftf
<p>Your shilling for <em>iPhone </em>is becoming quite tiring, given you said earlier "I’m not a ‘fanboy’". You sure do come-across that way!</p><p><br></p><p><em>"Hmm that reads like a shopping list of self-justified compromises."</em></p><p><br></p><p>Yes, what’s the issue? When I purchase a phone I compare the tech-specs of various models in my price-range, read some reviews, check some sample photos taken from the cameras and go for the best bang-for-my-buck. I appreciate there will be some compromises, but so what? I mean even on the <em>Apple </em>side-of-the-fence, there will clearly be compromises between an "iPhone SE (2020)" and an "iPhone 13 Pro Max", won’t there?</p><p><br></p><p><em>"… but it was semi-Flagship 3 years ago …"</em></p><p><br></p><p>So having semi-flagship or even flagship features make their way into the mid-range over-time you see as a bad-thing?</p><p><br></p><p><em>"… and is currently 20% less than an entry-level iPhone"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Depends which <em>iPhone </em>we’re comparing to. The cheapest is the <em>iPhone SE (2020) </em>"from £389". The <em>Android </em>mid-range typically starts at around £150-ish. The 128GB <em>Google Pixel 4a</em> is now £249 — that’s £140, or roughly 36% cheaper. (And if you’re wondering "why are you not comparing to the latest <em>Pixel 5a"</em>, that’s because I live in the UK, and it never launched over-here due to the Covid supply-shortages. It’s USA, Canada and Japan only, I think?)</p><p><br></p><p><em>"Phones are sort of ‘aspirational’. Yes, a $200 phone will do basically everything you need but people aspire to something closer to the current Flagship end of the market …"</em></p><p><br></p><p>For <em>you </em>they might be… for many-other people, they’re just a tool, or something they use, not a fashion-symbol. Of course most-people always want something better, but that’s just greed and is not exactly a great-attitude for the environment. Now sure, I’m not saying let’s always hold-onto 10-15 year-old devices either: look at cars before they moved to unleaded. Of course change is sometimes better. But for most people, current <em>Android </em>mid-rangers will do everything they need, so why bother going for a £1000 phone, like the <em>Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (</em>or <em>Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max</em>, on that-side) when something like a <em>Pixel 4a, 5a</em>, or any-one of a number of phones from the likes of <em>Samsung, Motorola </em>or <em>Nokia </em>will do just-fine (or the <em>iPhone SE (2020)</em>, on that side)?</p><p><br></p><p>I mean, I find it odd too on this-point that for cars, you say in another comment:</p><p><br></p><p><em>"… I could buy [an …] Alfa Romeo or […] Subaru […] but I need to get to work and back every day so I’ll drive a stock Toyota/Honda thank you very much. And that’s not actually sacrificing anything (other than perhaps coolness), they have models to fit most budgets / drivers)."</em></p><p><br></p><p>So, maybe if you apply your argument to phones, many people with an <em>Android </em>device are happy to sacrifice some coolness because the device fits their budget and let’s them do all the things they need to do? ;)</p><p><br></p>
dftf
<p>Some of the issues you present in this article though you could easily remedy.</p><p><br></p><p>On <strong>notifications</strong>, you say you "[…] spend the first several days getting unwanted notifications and then turning them off as they appear" on Android. Why not just install all your apps first, then go to Settings > Notifications > App Settings and from there you can turn all notifications off for particular apps in one go? (And for apps which offer categories of notifications, tap on the app in the list, make your adjustments, then tap back)? You can choose to do it in the "iOS-way" on Android if you wish to.</p><p><br></p><p>And for the Pixel Launcher, you say you don’t like non-removable UI elements, such-as "the Google search bar and At A Glance widget". While I agree I also don’t like these you can simply use a second home-screen as your main one, and that will get rid-of the <em>At A Glance</em>, at-least. But you do also have the option on Android of using <em>an entirely different launcher</em>! If both elements bother you so much, why not switch? Isn’t the whole-point of Android about choice?</p>
dftf
<p>@Paul: I think most <em>Android </em>users are primarly there for two reasons, rather-than being able to customise the UI: price and hardware.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Apple </em>remains too-expensive for most people (assuming you’re looking to buy new, not second-hand) — the cheapest model is the iPhone SE "from £389". Most people are fine with mid-range <em>Android </em>phones around the £150-200 area.</p><p><br></p><p>And <em>Android </em>phones offer much-more variance in hardware-features. Do you want a massive 13,000mAh battery? Go for it. Want a 240Hz (or greater) refresh display? Covered. Need one with 20GB of RAM? Again, covered. Likewise, if you need an ultra rugged-phone, insanely-good camera, insanely-fast wired charging or even one with a built-in projector or night-vision camera, these all exist. (Just be prepared to pay silly amounts for them, and expect massive-compromises of specs in other-areas!).</p>
dftf
<p><em>"I think that argument of ‘Do you want Feature X, or Feature Y? Android offers a phone for that’ is a little spurious. Yes, for enthusiasts, I get it. But most people are not enthusiast […]"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Yes, and for those people (myself included!) the <em>Android </em>mid-range has plenty of options for them. My point was simply that if you have a need for a very-specific niche feature, like a massive battery, then <em>Android </em>then has you covered. With iPhone, isn’t storage and RAM all that you can choose to upgrade, if you pay more for certain models?</p><p><br></p><p><em>"[…] they just want something that offers a decent threshold of features and works reliably."</em></p><p><br></p><p>Again, may I direct you towards the "<em>Android </em>mid-range". Most phones there will do what most-average people need them to do, and specs are ever-improving year-on-year. 64GB on-board storage and 4GB RAM are now the norms, along with 8-core CPUs. Only a few years back, 16GB or 32GB of on-board storage were still common to find, along with 2GB RAM, and quad-core CPUs.</p>
dftf
<p>Okay, so two main-thoughts here:</p><p><br></p><p>For <strong>Paul:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>What specifically <em>are</em> you looking-for in a phone?</p><p><br></p><p>In this article you mention how on <em>iOS</em> you were prompted to manage all app-notifications at-once. While <em>Android</em> doesn’t prompt, you can go to <em>Settings > Notifications > App Settings</em> and do the same-thing there. And you note some UI elements on the <em>Pixel Launcher</em> home-screen you don’t like. But on <em>Android</em>, you can always install a third-party launcher. So on the software / user-experience side, can you not just use third-party apps, and explore the <em>Settings </em>menu yourself, or are you only-willing to score your experiences based-solely on the stock-offerings?</p><p><br></p><p>You also say this isn’t the beginning of you "adopt[ing] more and more <em>Apple</em> solutions over time", though isn’t a main USP of "going <em>Apple</em>" doing just-that, as integration between their devices is one of the main selling-points? If you’re <em>not</em> looking to do that, why not just switch to <em>a different make/brand of Android phone </em>before leaping straight to <em>Apple</em>? (Not that I’m against you doing so.)</p><p><br></p><p>Obviously no-one can argue with your hardware-issues for the <em>Pixel 6 Pro </em>– it will obviously suck to have an unreliable fingerprint-reader, a display you don’t find appealing and for it to charge slower-than-expected. But surely these issues weren’t true of <em>every previous Pixel phone </em>you’ve had, so why not, you-know… just stick with an older <em>Pixel </em>for a while and not always have to be using the latest-one? Everything from the <em>Pixel 3a </em>and-up are still-getting monthly security-patches.</p><p><br></p><p>I don’t know, maybe I’m alone-here but I just can’t-help-but-think "why does Paul always have-to-have the very-latest <em>Pixel </em>phone, and if it doesn’t perfectly suit his needs as his primary-phone he seems unwilling to either stick with an older <em>Pixel </em>device still getting patches that does, or to consider any-other brand of <em>Android</em> phone?"</p><p><br></p><p>For <strong>all other commentators</strong>:</p><p><br></p><p>Most of you are either already an <em>iPhone</em> user, or many of you are saying that you’re considering moving to an <em>iPhone </em>in-future.</p><p><br></p><p>I currently have the <em>Google Pixel 3a</em>, and it’s still going fine. I still find it fast, it still takes great photos, even in darker rooms, the 64GB storage has not proved an issue so-far, I’ve no issue with the charge-time and it offers me a headphone-socket. I do find it a little on the large-side, though, but at-the-time I needed a new phone, the smaller <em>Pixel 4a (non-5G) </em>wasn’t born yet.</p><p><br></p><p>When the monthly-updates cease for my <em>3a </em>next-year, I’ll look for a new-phone then. I’m happy using <em>Windows</em> and have very-little interest of ever switching to <em>macOS</em>. And I don’t see a need to have all of my devices "smart" or "integrated". So assuming an <em>iPhone </em>that would be used standalone "as-is", and not part of a wider <em>Apple-</em>ecosystem, (though where I could consider some <em>Apple </em>subscription services), what points would any of you offer me as to why an <em>iPhone </em>would be a better-consideration than another future <em>Android </em>phone, of any brand? What are the significant-differences I’m missing out-on, or issues with <em>Android </em>that a third-party app can’t solve (such as a different home-screen launcher)?</p>
dftf
<p><em>"[iOS] defaults to [all app permissions] disabled and asks you by first use, if you want the notifications turned on. […] In the initial use of the app, you can set what resources it can see and use (cameras, microphone, location, file system etc.) and whether it can make notifications."</em></p><p><br></p><p>That’s how modern <em>Android</em> works too. The first-time I open an app, it will ask me if I want to allow permissions such as camera-access, location-access, storage-access, and so-on. And you can often specify "ask every time", "only this time" or "only while using the app" for some types of accesses, too. Fair-point, they <em>could</em> add notifications into that first-run experience, sure. Oh, and if you’ve not used an app for a while (I think after 60 days?) it revokes all permissions for that app also.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"Again, it is the stock, clean launcher that Paul likes, me too."</em></p><p><br></p><p>I also like it. Though <em>Google </em>don’t seem very-invested in it. If you search for "Pixel Launcher" in the <em>Play Store</em> and look under the "What’s new" heading, it says the last update was 17 April 2017.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"[…] it is the breaking of the privacy sphere that annoys me most. I have tried killing as much Google and Samsung crud from my phone for the last 2 years, but it is still not acceptable."</em></p><p><br></p><p>While I would agree <em>Apple </em>should be better here, if we’re simply comparing the stock experiences, I would remind that on <em>Android </em>you could unlock the bootloader of many devices, and flash your own OS if you wanted. If it was an OS you could see the source-code to, such as a <em>Linux-based</em> one, then that would be an even-bigger guarantee of privacy than relying on either-party.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"[…] but Paul wants the best photography experience […]"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Maybe he should go-for a standalone digital-camera then? ;)</p><p><br></p><p><em>"[…] whilst keeping to the vanilla </em>Android<em> experience and that means the latest </em>Pixels<em>."</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>Does</em> it though? Most <em>Nokia </em>phones now run a near-stock <em>Android</em>. Many of the Chinese-brand ones, like Xiaomi, tend to also. And some <em>Motorola </em>devices too. (Your easiest way is simply go for a phone which has the "Android One" branding, as they have to offer a stock-experience, along-with the 3 years of security-updates and 2-years of <em>Android OS</em> updates, to use that branding.)</p><p><br></p><p><em>"</em>Samsung <em>is good, but the UI is cluttered and the additional </em>Samsung <em>services need to be individually disabled when setting up"</em></p><p><br></p><p>It doesn’t take <em>that long</em> to go-through the first-time and "uninstall" or "disable" (depending on which option is offered) on the preinstalled apps! And you can turn-off everything on the home-screens you don’t want. So that’s actually <em>better </em>than on <em>Pixel</em>, where the "At A Glance" and "Google Search Bar" elements both cannot be. (Plus I do really like how <em>Samsung </em>lets you create folders in the app-drawer, not only on the home-screens).</p><p><br></p><p><em>"Two things, he is a tech journalist, so needs to have the latest to review it. And the camera, as above. With the 3, 4 and 5 series […] they didn’t change the camera on them."</em></p><p><br></p><p>Yes, I appreciate he needs the latest tech to <em>review</em>, given his job. But he doesn’t necessarily have to then <em>use that tech as his primary-device</em> if it doesn’t suit. And as for the cameras: are the new ones on the <em>6 </em>series significantly better?</p><p><br></p><p><em>"Apple offers more (but not perfect) privacy. […] If privacy is important to you, the iPhone makes a better starting place."</em></p><p><br></p><p>Well, that we know of. I’d say no-one here has seen the source-code for <em>iOS </em>or <em>macOS </em>(excluding the <em>UNIX </em>part of the latter), so you are only going on trust alone. And I wonder how-many of those <em>Apple </em>users then choose to install things like <em>Facebook</em>, <em>TikTok</em>, <em>Twitch</em>, or some <em>Google </em>service and then hand-over their data voluntarily anyway?</p><p><br></p><p><em>"Longevity is another. </em>Google<em> give 3, 4 years support now? </em>Apple<em> have given at least 6 years of updates in the recent past."</em></p><p><br></p><p>Yeah, no-defence for <em>Google </em>on this one. They still only offer 3 years (unless things have changed in the <em>Pixel 6 </em>series, now it’s their own chip?); it’s <em>Samsung </em>who now offer 4 years, but only for "premium", "flagship" or "enterprise" class devices. So only for their expensive models, basically.</p>
dftf
<p><em>"No phone is perfect, but at some point you have to say ‘it’s good enough’."</em></p><p><br></p><p>I’d say many <em>Android </em>phones in the mid-range are now fine for most people. As one example, the <em>Motorola Edge 20 Lite 5G</em> offers 8GB RAM, 128GB built-in storage, a 385ppi 90Hz OLED display, an 8-core CPU, video-recording up-to 4K@30fps (or 1080p@120fps), a 5000mAh battery with 30W fast-charging, NFC, USB C… and still offers a headphone-socket. All that for £299.</p><p><br></p><p><em>"[…] if you’ve got the money to throw at a new $1k phone every month then so be it, but the rest of us generally have to make do for a couple of years."</em></p><p><br></p><p>I’d imagine many of the visitors to this site likely <em>do</em> have-around $1k of disposable-income each-month they could just buy a new phone with. Which then strikes me as odd that those same-people lament <em>Google </em>for how they only offer 3 years of security-patches from-launch, whereas <em>Apple </em>are still-supporting the 6-year-and-3-months old <em>iPhone 6S</em> series. Why do they care so-much about longer update-periods, if they’re going to ditch-and-replace their phones so-regularly? Doing so creates zero-incentive for the manufacturers to ever change…</p>
dftf
<p><em>Google’s</em> "A" range of <em>Pixels </em>are great-value, yes, assuming you’re only-willing to consider <em>Western </em>brands of <em>Android </em>phones. Comparing their latest "A" phone to the likes of <em>Samsung, Nokia, Motorola </em>devices released at the same-time, then yes.</p><p><br></p><p>But similarly-priced offerings from the likes of <em>OnePlus, Xiaomi, Honor, Oppo, </em>usually blow most other devices out-of-the-water, at-least for the majority of the specs (camera may not always be as great, but for the same-price you’d usually get more RAM, more on-board storage, a faster CPU and GPU, a faster-refresh screen and faster wired-charging)</p>