{"id":1549,"date":"2022-07-01T17:09:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T23:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/?p=1549"},"modified":"2024-12-06T10:15:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:15:34","slug":"smartphone-tradeoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/smartphone-tradeoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphone Tradeoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here are some of the tradeoffs I evaluate when buying a smartphone. Emotion and momentum are valid items to factor into a decision. I&#8217;ve used both Android and iOS, and have been a mostly happy iPhone customer for several years<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Camera quality &#8212; one of the most important considerations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Friends\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If the people closest to you use Android, then go with Android, especially if you need them to help you maintain it or know how to use apps.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If you want to talk to friends with iMessage, then get an iPhone<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Airdrop to share photos (and more): This is a killer feature, and it works even in the wilderness when away from WiFi access points. It&#8217;s speedy and convenient.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>App ecosystem\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Is there a must-have app? Consider whether there are alternatives for a different smartphone OS. It can be fun to learn new things.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Integration ecosystem\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Accessories &#8212; everyone makes accessories for iPhone, but android accessories may be cheaper. (As of 2023 with Apple switching to USB-C instead of Lightning, accessories are cheaper)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Apple watch only works well with iPhone, yet the integration is stellar (from what I&#8217;ve heard)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>iMessage works seamlessly on Mac (for those who own a Mac)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Total cost of ownership\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Time to maintain. Consider buying more storage if you don&#8217;t want to spend time erasing old photos to find enough space.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Security updates: Number of years the vendor will supply security updates. Apple is stellar in this area, and as of 2023\/2024, Google has announced long-term support for its newer Pixel phones.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Durability: Will it last 3+ years? If so, it may save you money. Get a phone case and protect your investment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Resale value\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Some people say it&#8217;s dangerous to recycle phones because the sensitive data persists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Appeal\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I tend to focus more on functionality than on looks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A beautiful OLED screen is nice looking<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An always-on screen is nice<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Get a fun phone case<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Vendor lock-in\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>iCloud sharing sucks compared to Google Photos, in my opinion<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do you want to be locked-in to one vendor&#8217;s ecosystem?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Android makes it <em>far<\/em> easier to get your photos off of your phone to a Linux computer. It&#8217;s much harder with an iPhone, and that&#8217;s the beauty of Google Photos&#8230; to get photos away from Apple&#8217;s clutches.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, there are always lemons. Once, I was on the phone with Apple for five hours to get a phone activated for one of my kids, with no resolution. We ended up trading in the already-used-in-our-family phone for a brand new one. Apple gave us $100 credit or so for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some of the tradeoffs I evaluate when buying a smartphone. Emotion and momentum are valid items to factor into a decision. I&#8217;ve used both Android and iOS, and have been a mostly happy iPhone customer for several years That said, there are always lemons. Once, I was on the phone with Apple for &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/smartphone-tradeoffs\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Smartphone Tradeoffs&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1549"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1600,"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions\/1600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}