Given that my contract with Globe ends next month, I was specially excited for the latest iPhone release because there was a good chance that I’d end up buying it. Also, I’ve never bought an iPhone or any other smartphone that would cost me more than a whopping Php40,000–and let’s be honest, those are the only ones that are really worthy of being called smartphones–before.
You see, I own a 4th-gen iPod Touch. I’ve always been contented with what it can do so even if I kid with my mom about lining up for every new iPhone that got released, if she actually said yes, I would just tell her it’s a waste of our money. I was happy with my iPod and pairing it with my oh-so-precious Nokia phone, the one that had a flashlight with it, but then I lost that. So I bought this relatively cheap Samsung Galaxy whatever and what a gargantuan disappointment that was. The interface was no good and even just the iPod Touch was waaay ahead of it. Also, the horror that was Google Play Store. And even before I started dropping the device, it just turned off on its own and I don’t know why and I just want to cry at the mediocrity. UGH.
So when I found out about this gizmo that allowed me to call and text from my iPod, I was super happy. I gave the Samsung phone to my mom and even SHE’S complaining that it sucks. That’s an old person who thinks that cellphones whose sole functions are calling and texting should suffice.
But then the iPhone 4S came along with iCloud and a better camera and new apps that cause my iPod to crash without reason occassionally and Siri and Photo Stream and better syncing with your Apple devices and my maluho side that’s been pent up slowly took over. The timing of the end of my contract and the release of the iPhone 5 did nothing to tone it down.
But still, I had to be rational. If I were to spend that much money on a phone, I wanted it to be the best. So I turned to Google. I just typed in iPhone vs and waited for what Google suggested. Lol. I’ve been really out of the loop ever since Digby and my iPod came to my life hehe. I used to know every new phone that’s being released in the country but now it’s just OMG NEW OS UPDATE FOR DIGBY and OMG IS THIS THE TIME TO UPGRADE FROM THE IPOD+CHEAP PHONE TO THE IPHONE? When I have no problems with the tech I currently have, I stick with it.
After going through Google’s suggestions, I focused on iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 articles. And I found dozens of them. I mainly focused on the ones written by Android fans because I needed to hear their criticisms because while Apple fan-written articles do point out iPhone “flaws” they would inevitably find ways to still like it.
After reading the articles, most specially the comments sections, as the title suggests, I still want the iPhone 5. The articles were right, what it all comes down to is the user’s preference.
For me, the iPhone 5 wins the build and display round. I’ve tried using the S3 in one of the stores here in the Philippines and I don’t dig the wider screen. The wide phone just feels unnatural in my girl hands and even though Android fanboys boast Super AMOLED display screen whatever, even just the iPhone 4S’s display screen looks better. With further reading, I found out that it may be due to the fact the S3 uses Pentile display and not one based on true RGB matrix, unlike the 4S and the iPhone 5.
Take a second look at that iPhone’s sexiness and diamond-cut edges. Oomph.
This is no debate. The iPhone 4S has the Samsung Galaxy S3 beat when it comes to taking snaps. If we are to believe Apple in its announcement that the iPhone 5’s camera will be better than the 4S, then the winner of the category is clear. Plus, take a look at these images:
According to Apple’s website, these are actual photos taken with the iPhone 5. A part of me says that I have to see it to believe it, and then there’s also the factor that is, “It’s not about the camera, it’s about the photographer,” but these photos got me about 66% convinced.
Processor and Storage
So the S3 uses a quad-core processor while the iPhone 5 would only be using its new A6 chip. When you think of it, quad-core is awesome. But since nobody really knows about the A6 chip and its performance in comparison with the S3, I wasn’t able to decide on this aspect.
The new iPhone boasts an improved Siri. And by logic, if the Siri we currently have is the best voice recognition app there is, an improved Siri will be even better than the current best.
As for storage, I have no problems with the iPhone’s non-expandability. Sure, the S3 gives you the option of doubling its storage but I think I would do fine with the 64GB iPhone. I still prefer to watch my movies and TV series on my Mac and my second choice for that would be my Kindle Fire. 64GB of storage is fine with me.
Operating System
Even though everyone’s saying that the iOS 6 is nothing but an incremental update/iOS 5.5, I believe Apple took a great risk by building their own Maps app. It is hugely lacking when compared to Google maps, but for a version 1.0, it’s pretty amazing.
In my mom’s side of the family, we’re the only ones who are Apple fans. They all own Android devices and every single time one of my cousins tell me that, “May bago akong phone! Ice cream sandwich na ‘to. Ang galing.” (I have a new phone! It already runs on ice cream sandwich. It’s awesome.) I just nod my head in approval even if I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about. And when she suggests that I buy the same one come October, I just politely smile and make up some excuse like, “Hinihintay ko yung bagong iPhone e. Mas madali kasi siguro yung syncing kung Apple device na lang bilhin ko kasi kay Digby at Penelope.” (I’m looking out for the new iPhone. I think the syncing part would be more convenient if I just bought an Apple device since I already have Digby and Penelope.)
If you’ve been wanting to vomit at the biasness of this post, I would like to make you vomit some more. Due to my horrible Android/Samsung experience, I couldn’t afford to give a single fuck about Android operating systems. And frankly, for a multimillion dollar company, they’re very tacky. Gingerbread? Ice cream sandwich? Seriously? But, of course, I had to be rational. So I checked this
article that explained something called TouchWiz. And while I usually welcome pictures in articles whole-heartedly, how I wish they didn’t include pictures on this one. Because it kept me from reading the whole article. The unsmoothness of the interface is just immeasurably behind what iPhones have to offer.
Call it superficial or whatever, but the iPhone interface, even if most people are getting bored with it, works. It’s so intuitive that even my mom didn’t need my help navigating the iPad when we first checked it out on the Apple store, and she needs help with EVERYTHING. Suffice it to say, she immediately fell in love with it.
The Android interface, however, lacks the smoothness and overall snap of the iOS interface. Plus, it takes a bit of getting used to. And although the familiarization process, for me, would take about half an hour or two, and complete phone mastery in about a week or a month, I’m fine with what iOS has to offer.
My other complaint with Android is that even the names of their technology aren’t intuitive. TouchWiz? Where did that come from? And why would the next OS be called Jellybean? A fair share of people would agree that an ice cream sandwich would be a better treat than a jellybean. I just… I don’t get it.
However, there was one S3 feature that I did like: the Smart Stay. It’s this thing that you turn on so that even if you don’t touch the screen or anything after a few seconds, maybe because you’re reading an article or waiting for a download, the screen won’t turn off. It’s pretty neat, but it’s not enough to make me choose the S3 over the iPhone 5.
Content
The Google Play Store is just a big blah to me. Content is not the category that would win my heart over. I think we could all agree that the only company that currently rivals the one Apple has to offer is Amazon. And if I don’t like Android apps, how else would I maximize its quad-core processor when my primary need for a smartphone is gaming?
Honestly, even after reading tons of articles and Android fanboys’ comments bashing the iPhone 5 and its boringness and Apple losing its touch, I still think that the iPhone best suits the average person’s needs and maybe that’s why it’s the one that sells.
I haven’t even included the awesomeness of the earpods.
Have you ever seen any other company, whose main focus are the gadgets and not the accessories, that would spend 3 years on fcking earphones? I don’t think so.
I also don’t have a problem with the new Lightning connector. I actually think that the reversible feature is pretty neat since most of my iPod’s bottom scratches are due to me fumbling with the 30-pin connectore.
So for all of its faults, I still love the iPhone 5.
No wireless charging? That’s okay. It’s more hassle than convenient when I googled it anyway. Plus, I like using my device even while it’s charging, so, no, thanks.
No NFC? I didn’t even know about NFC until Android fans pointed out that it’s missing from the iPhone 5. And since I belong in a poor, third-world country wherein some senators think that contraception is a form of abortion, NFC would be of no use to me, anyway. NFC is still not that big of a thing, and maybe that’s why Apple isn’t so keen on jumping on that wagon just yet. They’ve always been about what the customer needs. And I think Passbook would be a good alternative, with its possiblities, to the NFC since it uses technology that’s already there and doesn’t need the “extras” that NFC requires both in the part of the consumer and the stores.
Not flexible and open-source enough? That’s okay. Widgets just look like clutter to me, anyway. And themes and whatnots may have been cool when I was 14, but now it’s just tacky. Also that Android feature that makes the app icons swivel when you switch home screens just makes me dizzy.
Before writing this post, I almost believed that iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 are just repackaged and slightly better versions of iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S. I was already buying the general consensus that it was boring and blah blah blah. I almost decided on just getting the 5th generation iTouch. But then I realized that the one thing the Android fanboys failed to mention is how significant Android phone upgrades and iOS upgrades were. When I googled “samsung galaxy s3 vs samsung galaxy s2,” the comparisons would be an insult to
boring. Boring would be more likely to wear a clown wig than the articles that came up. Well, not really *that* boring but that’s mainly due to the fact that the Galaxy S2 relatively sucked. References
one and
two. So that problem’s covered.
I’m not saying that the S3 sucks, it’s just that I don’t need the features it has that the iPhone doesn’t. And since the whole point of the research was to see what smartphones best satisfies my wants and needs, I’m gonna stick with the iPhone 5. Say what you want about it, but it’s still pretty awesome. I think
Gizmodo puts it best:
It’s easy to forget, with as much emphasis as Apple puts on its biannual show-and-tell extravaganzas, that its primary objective isn’t to entertain us. It’s to sell iPhones. Millions and millions and millions of iPhones.
The iPhone 5 will be on shelves on September 21st, which is one week before Apple’s fiscal year ends and the holiday quarter begins. How important are those three months to Apple’s bottom line? Last year during the same period, the iPhone 4S drove Apple’s fiscal first quarter smartphone sales to 37 million units, and an overall profit of $13 billion. To put that in context, that’s more money than Google made in all of 2011.
Those numbers aren’t just impressive. They’re unprecedented. The iPhone is the most valuable asset of one of the most valuable companies in history. So the question we should be asking isn’t why didn’t Apple make it more exciting. The question is—other than the standard spec and feature bumps—why would Apple change the iPhone at all? There’s a reason Coca-Cola’s used the same formula for a hundred years.
That’s why, when we say the iPhone 5 is boring, we really mean the iPhone 5 is safe. It’s familiar. It’s the same phone in slightly different packaging. And, most importantly, it’s still very recognizably the most popular smartphone in the world. If you’ve won the first two legs of the Triple Crown, you don’t suddenly trade in your thoroughbred for a one-eyed pony because it’s more interesting to look at.
Also:
The worst part? In a vacuum the iPhone 5 is actually really exciting. For whatever half-baked features it skips out on, it’s still technological marvel, and may well prove to be the best smartphone you can buy. If the worst thing about it is that it’s not different enough from a phone that tens of millions of people a month spend hundreds of dollars to buy, well, that’s fine.
Bitchez be hatin but I believe lots of people would be making the decision I made just now, and no matter how boring and technologically behind Android fans claim it is, it will still sell like pancakes. And when the actual phone comes out and the reviews that come with the actual phone don’t make me change my mind against it, I might just buy one of those pancakes.
I just don’t get why people feel the need to point out stuff like only stupid, status symbol seeking, technologically inept people would buy the iPhone 5. It could be just that we prefer its simplicity, smoothness and slickness, and the iOS experience. And when the truth of the matter is that the iPhone is still a pretty awesome phone. And who knows, the actual phone might be even more amazing since we all know that the truly magnificent stuff lies in what Apple doesn’t tell us.
You don’t have to bring down other people over their phone preference. It’s just pointless and it makes you a childish, elitist, nerdy, techy hipster. And I think that’s just the most annoying kind of person ever. The one that Max (Kat Dennings in 2 Broke Girls) would bend over backwards just to make fun of. Like Mandork without the adorableness.
How about you? Are you stupid and would buy the iPhone 5 just like me?
xx,
V
venusbytes.net 