Tag: Is my iPhone watching me through the camera?

There was 5.11 billion unique mobile users worldwide in 2019, and 2.71 billion of them used smartphones. 100 million people have started using smartphones in the past year. 52% of the world’s population are mobile internet users. With more than 20% of global smartphone sales, Samsung tops the list of smartphone companies.

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In this smartphone 101 blog, we are going to help you understand smartphone specs: pick a smartphone for you, pick an android for you, pick an iphone for you, save you money on smartphone.

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Smartphone Specs

Are smartphone specs actually a good representation of the smartphone?  Any modern smartphone has a list of required parts: a battery, CPU (central processing unit – the brains of the computer), storage (think of it as a filing cabinet or bookshelf where information is stored, just a lot smaller), RAM (random access memory – think of this as a desk where you put books/information you pull from storage to keep handy), camera, screen, and more… There’s also the software which isn’t a physical part, but can be wildly different from one phone to another. When you buy a phone, specifications must be one of the last aspects you should worry about. Every phone has enough specs to go about our daily tasks(casual browsing, Facebook, email etc) smoothly. So unless you are a heavy gamer( a person playing Candy Crush Saga or Subway Surfers 24 hrs a day isn’t one!!!) 3gb or 2gb RAM won’t matter!

The specs of any device is a mere representation of it computational and other capabilities. It might not necessarily translate into the best possible experience for the user.

There are other factors like the OS used along with the hardware. The combination of represent the device properly.

Below are the top 13  phones with the overall best specs to date (February 23 2022):

1. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra / S22 plus
2. Samsung Galaxy S20 / S20 Plus / S21
3. iPhone 13 PRO Max
4. iPhone 12 PRO Max
5. iPhone 12
6. Samsung Galaxy 20 Ultra
7. iPhone 12 Pro
8. OnePlus 8 Pro
9. iPhone SE 2020
10. Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition
11. Samsung Galaxy Note S20 Ultra
12. Google Pixel 6
13. Huawei P40 Pro
14. Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (Cheapest)
15. Samsung Galaxy S10e

Best MidRange Phone by Specs:

Best mid-range phone on a budget: OnePlus 8T,
Best performance on a budget: Samsung Galaxy S20 FE,
Best camera for cheap: Google Pixel 5,
Best for cheap 5G: Moto Edge 5G,
Best for Dual Screen: LG Velvet,
Best for Apple: iPhone SE 2,
Best screen on a budget: TCL 10 Pro,
Best for megapixels on a budget: Xiaomi Mi Note 10,

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Smartphone Batteries

Typically, a modern phone battery‘s (lithium-ion) lifespan is 2 – 3 years, which is about 300 – 500 charge cycles as rated by manufacturers. After that, the battery capacity will drop by roughly 20%.

Batteries provide power to all the different components of the phone, the biggest draws generally being the screen and the processor. Depending on the other components in the phone, they will require different amounts of power. For example, the Snapdragon 625 processor (CPU) doesn’t need much power to work, but doesn’t provide the best performance either. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 845 processor requires quite a bit more power, but it also provides a lot more performance.

Usually the standard for a flagship phone is about 4 hours screen on time, maybe 8 hours average., but today’s smartphones have gotten much more power efficient and are lasting 8–9 hours screen on time or 2 days worth of battery depending on how you use it.. but phones today should last all day on average.

With moderate use a 5000 mAh battery is expected to last typically a day and a half!

Best phone battery life at a glance (hours:minutes)

1. Moto G Power: 16:10
2. Moto G7 Power: 15:35
3. Asus ZenFone 6: 15:01
4. Samsung Galaxy A20: 13:46
5. LG V60 ThinQ 5G: 12:46
6. Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus: 12:35
7. Moto G Fast: 12:17
8. Moto G Stylus: 12:13
9. Motorola Edge: 12:12
10. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: 11:58
11. iPhone 11 Pro Max: 11:54
12. LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen: 11:46
13. Moto Z4: 11:31
14. iPhone 11: 11:16
15. OnePlus 8 Pro: 11:05

Charging
Smartphones all use rechargeable batteries that are charged by plugging your phone into a wall charger.

How to make your smartphone battery last longer

It’s best for your smartphone if you charge it before the battery runs out completely. You should also unplug it once it’s fully charged, but once every now and again it’s good for your phone to let the battery run out completely.

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Smartphone CPU

The CPU inside your phone is responsible for running all the logic and operations required by the Android operating system as well as your apps. The CPU is one of the most important things to consider when choosing a phone. If you want to get something done on a phone, it needs to go through the CPU.

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Smartphone RAM

RAM (Random Access Memory) is storage used for a place to hold data. If your mobile device or tablet has a small amount of RAM, you may find that it will start to slow down when you have opened and used lots of different applications at the same time.

RAM is basically really fast storage. Your phone pulls information from the storage (think of filing cabinets) into RAM (think of a desk). There’s only so much room in RAM (the desk) before you have to start putting things back into storage. More RAM means that you’ll have to re-load apps less (they’re already loaded in the background in a suspended state), which saves on processing power and therefore uses less battery power.

4GB has become common for most phones, with some going as high as 8 and even 10gb. 2gb has become outdated at this point.

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Smartphone Storage

If you’re someone who uses your phone primarily to talk, text, read email and browse online, 32 GB is likely enough storage, especially if your phone has a microSD card slot, which you can use to cheaply expand your storage. For more active phone users, a 64 GB phone is a good option.

 Internal memory is the manufacturer-installed storage space, usually 16, 32 or 64GB, where the operating system, pre-installed apps, and other system software is installed.

The total amount of internal storage cannot be increased or decreased by the user, so if your phone has only 16GB of internal storage and no expansion slot, this is all the storage space you will ever have. And remember, some of this will already be used up by the system software.

Storage is fairly simple: the more you have the better. 64GB is fairly standard these days, with 128GB having become the standard for higher end phones. Typically more than 128gb of storage is only found on very high end phones. If you find yourself running out of storage, there are some ways to manage (like clearing cache, uninstalling some apps, moving photos to your computer/upload them to a service like Google Photos or Facebook so you can remove them from your phone).

Micro SD cards can be found on some phones (they’re more rare now, but some are still available), and can allow you to add additional storage after you’ve already bought a phone. It’s going to be slower than the built-in storage, so movies, music, or files are best stored on SD cards (apps and especially games aren’t recommended).

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Smartphone Camera

Most smartphones have one camera on the front for taking selfies or for using apps such as FaceTime, and another on the back for taking regular photos.

When you open the camera app, you can usually swap between the cameras by tapping a face or camera icon surrounded by arrows.

The camera on the back of the phone is usually much better, so unless you’re taking a selfie, stick to the back camera. Usually tapping on the screen controls the camera, but most smartphones also allow you to use the volume button to take photos. Smartphone cameras are generally the only camera that people own these days, so they tend to be pretty important. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to directly compare them. There are benchmarks like DxOMark that try, however these aren’t always accurate and a single number can’t possibly identify all the conditions a camera can be put through (lowlight, HDR, megapixels, focal length, aperture size, pixel size, plus all the video aspects…). Generally speaking, you get what you pay for in a camera – that is more expensive phones almost always have better cameras. Don’t both looking at megapixel count – a 20MP Sony smartphone won’t take pictures as good as the 12MP Pixel 4 or iPhone 11. If you’re looking for the best of the best in terms of cameras, the modern Pixel phone is about as good as you can get.

Below are The best camera phone in 2022

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Smartphone Screen, Resolution, Weight

Smartphones all use touchscreens. You may have heard the term ‘resolution’, this refers to the amount of pixels on the screen.

A pixel is, more or less, a little light that can change colors. The more of them you have in your screen, the better quality (or higher definition) it is.

A resolution of 1080p means that there are 1920×1080 pixels, which is equal to 2,073,600 pixels. This has long been the standard for full HD televisions, but its not unusual to see this resolution (or higher) on a smartphone as well.

Screens are backlit by lights. You can turn these lights up or down to make the screen brighter or dimmer.

Size Recently, screens (aka displays) have been getting bigger. 5.5-6″ isn’t uncommon for a “regular” phone, especially the ones with small-to-no bezel. “Plus” or “XL” or “Pro” models can exceed 6″ in some cases. If you have smaller hands, generally it’s a good idea to stick with a smaller phone…however that isn’t always the case. A larger screen allows you to fit more on it than a smaller phone (obviously), and oftentimes you’ll be able to get used to a bigger screen fairly easily after using it for a few weeks. It’s also important to take into account the physical size of the phone, as some devices have bezels so large that even with smaller screen sizes, the full package will be larger than a phone with a larger screen but less bezel.

Resolution isn’t something that generally needs to be considered unless you’re looking at budget phones. 1080p is pretty standard, and is the minimum I’d suggest for almost all phone buyers (720p is generally considered to be outdated). 1440p has become standard for higher end phones, but even the jump from 1080p to 1440p isn’t really that big most of the time (unless you’re looking at a pentile pixel sub-matrix…then it’ll make a difference). If you want to use your phone for VR though (note: I firmly believe Google DayDream and Samsung Gear VR are the only phone VR holders worth buying if you want to do any more than just look at things), 1440p is a must and we’ll start seeing more 4K smartphones soon too I’d imagine. 4K will be much better for VR.

Technology (OLED vs LCD) There used to be a big debate between OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) screens (including Samsung’s AMOLED (Active Matrix OLED)), but OLED seems to be winning out. OLED panels provide superior saturation and true black levels, and the burn-in issues aren’t nearly as bad as what they used to be. LCD displays (of which IPS is a division) are cheaper to manufacture, and as such are still very commonly found in modern phones. LCD (and by inclusion IPS) displays are also immune to burn-in, although can suffer from temporary ‘ghosting’ and ‘backlight bleed’. Either way you go, generally you can’t go wrong unless you manage to find a phone with a TN panel – then you should run away quickly (although I’d be surprised if you managed to find one).

Smartphone Weight

For most people, the ideal weight of a phone is between 140g and 170g. We were surprised to see how many people commented on our poll that “lighter is better”. There’s a sort of stigma around light phones – the heavier handsets just feel more durable.

Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro Max is perhaps the heaviest phone you can buy today. Maybe ever. It weighs 7.97 ounces, or half a pound.

Smartphone Contracts

A contract is a service agreement between you and a carrier (ex. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint) that states that you will be a customer for a certain period of time, usually 1 or 2 years. During this time frame, you’ll be bound to that particular carrier unless you cancel your contract (at the cost of Early Termination Fees “ETFs”, usually several hundreds of dollars).

So why get a contract? It all comes down to price… I’ll use the iPhone as an example. The TRUE cost of an iPhone Pro is $999. When you buy an iPhone, regardless of how much YOU pay out-of-pocket, Apple is getting $999. Many people can’t just drop $999 on a pocket-sized device, so there’s an issue… unless you get a contract. If you get a 2-year contract on AT&T/Verizon/Sprint, you’d only pay $42/month, and be locked to that carrier for 2 years in exchange for the subsidy that the carrier paid (in this case, $999). The main benefit of phone contracts is the lower upfront cost.

But there are several disadvantages to contracts. I’ll run through the top three I find:

Monthly price: In order to recoup some of the phone subsidy, carriers will often charge more per-month on plans with a contract. For example, AT&T charges $15 more per month per line that you bought on-contract (versus off-contract). Furthermore, since unlocked phones can be used on a variety of carriers, competition tends to drive the price down.

Carrier exclusivity: When you buy a Sprint phone, it’s very unlikely that it’ll work easily on other carriers. Unlocked phones tend to work on all GSM carriers, though there are CDMA versions available on some phones. (Check out a description on CDMA vs. GSM for more information)

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Guide on choosing the perfect smartphone

Read Ben’s guide on choosing the perfect smartphone here.

1. Features you should be looking for in general

One of the most important things in your phone is it’s longevity, and I’m not talking about battery capacity. I think most of us want our phone to perform as good as if it were new, even if it is 2-3 years old. On iOS it is pretty simple, because there is only one version of it on every device but on Android we have many third party skins. A Google Pixel looks and feels incredibly different from a Xiaomi Mi Mix or a Samsung handset, yet they might be running the same android version deep down.

The longevity depends on multiple things. First of all, how you handle it. You don’t want to install 3 antivirus and 200 apps , because it will slow it down significantly. But let’s assume you keep things pretty clean. The next thing: Stock Android (Stock = What Google makes. An OS without many modifications.). In general, the closer you are to stock, the smoother and faster your device will be. I recently installed a custom OS on my old LG G3 and the OS size was 300 MB while an OEM OS like Samsung’s UX can take up to 3-4 GB. The bigger OS size results in more unused junk, that overall makes your phone slower overtime.

Memory: You don’t need 8 GB. If you have 3-4 gigs your device should rarely reload apps. You shouldn’t pay extra for that much memory.

Processor: The rule here is to get something from Qualcomm. MediaTek processor tend to be cheaper but they are much worse. You want to look for phones with current gen processors. The Snapdragon 660 is almost as good as a SD (SD = Snapdragon) 821, which is a 2 year old flagship processor, but it is much more efficient. Mid-range chips have come a long way and they are much much better than a few years ago.

With that said, if you want nice performance you should be looking at the new SD 400 series at least and nothing less.

Screen: This is important too. If you like a phone try to look up a review where outdoor visibility is mentioned. Trust me, a bright screen worth so much more that anything in a display. And btw 1080p is still enough.

IP rating: It doesn’t really matter what IP rating it has, it will survive a splash. Don’t base your decision on this. IP 67 is basically the same as 68 and even 58 is not far behind.

Reputable brand: If you want to save yourself from a lot of trouble, pick a phone from a reputable brand with decent customer support. If you buy some janky Chinese crap, you might not be able to get a repair or a replacement. Just to name a few brands with good customer support: Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus but the best is Sony. They repaired my brother’s phone for free, out of warranty.

Most important attributes for every budget

Now that we have seen what are the most important things, take a look at each price range, and what you could expect in them. Keep in mind, I’ll be talking about new, off-the-shelf phones. You can always get used phones for crazy low prices and I would recommend picking up a 2 year old flagship new as opposed to a brand new cheap phone. Remember, that phone used to be the top end.

Low-end (0 – 200$): You shouldn’t expect anything fancy. Try to go for the basics, a decent processor, close to stock android and sufficiently bright screen. Forget about an amazing camera. Recommended phones: Nokia phones, Xiaomi Mi A1

Mid-range (200 – 400$): You have much more flexibility here. You should still be focusing on the basics but you can go and look into some extras, like a better camera or water resistance or a nice build. Recommended phones: Still Nokia, if you can find older, but still new Sony or OnePlus phones.

Upper-mid-range (400 – 600$): This is OnePlus territory. You can get almost everything in the high-end market. Processors are reaching the SD 8XX range, which means amazing performance. These phones are the sweet spot on the price to value chart. Recommended phones: , Pixel 4

The best smartphone for under $500 in 2021

High-end and Premium (600$ + ): You get the idea. The more you pay, the more wiggle room you have for you needs. These phones have the best cameras and build and will probably last the longest.  Recommended phones:  One Plus 8, Samsung S20, iPhone 12 (bright display), iPhone 13 Pro Max

1. Some examples

Xiaomi Mi A2: Well this is a really basic phone, but it gets the job done. Has stock android and decent battery life, plus the modding community is pretty great for it. Recommend it as a really low end option or a secondary device.

Nokia 5, 5.1, 6, 6.1, 7.2: They are better in many aspects than the Mi A1 and offer a better overall experience. Would recommend to budget users as a solid option.

Nokia 7+: If the OnePlus 6 did not exist, this would be the perfect mid-range phone. Everything is just really solid about this phone. Recommended.

OnePlus: Yes, they copy the iPhones but they are also really good. The SD 845 is a beast and you get an amazing package. Best bang for the buck

Sony phones: They are underrated so much. They run close to stock and they have an amazing battery saver feature. They only charge the battery to 90% overnight and reach 100% by the time you wake up, and this preserves the heath of the battery. They are also fast and reliable and get fast Android updates.

Samsung: From my experience you should only get the high-end ones. The skin they have is so bloated that it will slow down on lower-end ones but the flagships are amazing. Their screens are magically beautiful and the build is amazing. The cameras are decent too.

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Top tier smartphones

Smartphones on a budget

• Best mid-range phone: OnePlus 8T
• Best performance: Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
• Best camera: Pixel 5
• Best for cheap 5G: Moto Edge
• Best for Dual Screen: LG Velvet
• Best for Apple: iPhone SE 2
• Best screen on a budget: TCL 10 Pro
• Best for megapixels: Xiaomi Mi Note 10

So what is a mid-range phone anyway? For us, it’s phones that are mid-priced, found neither at the premium and of the market nor in the budget ranges. Created by the sheer volume of competition between modern phone manufacturers, this appealing mid-range space offers impressive bang for your buck from established brands, with models that encompass a range of uses. Xiaomi is legendary in the budget and midrange phone space.

There’s a trend with smartphones: As models get cheaper, they generally lose features along the way. That’s not the case with the $699 iPhone 12 Mini.

The small but mighty wonder is as feature-filled as the iPhone 12. Like the iPhone 12, there’s two lenses on the back— a wide and ultrawide — with the ability to capture Night Mode and Portrait Mode shots. It’s powered by the A14 Bionic chip and lets you experience iOS 14 to the fullest. All that despite being smaller than the iPhone SE, falling somewhere between the size of the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 8.

We’ve spent the last week with the iPhone 12 Mini and, quite frankly, think it’s the answer for an affordable flagship device that’s actually full-featured.

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Smartphone and tablets Apps

A mobile application, also referred to as a mobile app or simply an app, is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Apps were originally intended for productivity assistance such as email, calendar, and contact databases, but the public demand for apps caused rapid expansion into other areas such as mobile games, factory automation, GPS and location-based services, order-tracking, and ticket purchases, so that there are now millions of apps available. Apps are generally downloaded from application distribution platforms which are operated by the owner of the mobile operating system, such as the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store. Some apps are free, and others have a price, with the profit being split between the application’s creator and the distribution platform.

Key Mobile App Statistics

• Mobile apps are expected to generate $189 billion in revenue by 2020.
• The Apple App Store has 2.2 million apps available for download.
• There are 2.8 million apps available for download on the Google Play Store.
• 21% of Millennials open an app 50+ times per day.
• 49% of people open an app 11+ times each day.
• 57% of all digital media usage comes from mobile apps.
• The average smartphone owner uses 30 apps each month.

Most popular Apps for Android:

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Smartphone symbols explained

Airplane mode

This little plane means that you have airplane mode activated.

Alarm

These icons of a clock generally indicate that an alarm has been set to go off in the future.

Battery

This shows you how much battery life you have left. When your device is charging, the battery symbol will change to show you so.

Bluetooth

This feature enables your device to communicate with other technology nearby and is often used to connect to hands-free headsets or car stereos. Whilst not in use, it will use a lot of battery, click here to find out how to turn it off.

Do not disturb

The Do not disturb setting, when switched on, won’t notify you of any alerts, which is handy if you are in a meeting or for uninterrupted sleep. However, you can still allow calls from your favourite contacts.

GPS

These icons all indicate that GPS is currently in use, if you see these icons a lot but don’t use any apps that you believe require your location, it might be worth turning GPS off.

Missed call

This phone symbol that has an arrow bouncing off it means that you have missed a call. Other variations of the phone icon may mean that a call is in progress, on hold or that call forwarding is activated.

Network use

These icons show that you are currently using internet data.

Network or signal strength

These icons show you that you are connected to a mobile network and will often appear next to the name of your carrier, the more bars or dots, the stronger your connection. When you are not connected, ‘No Service’ will typically appear in its place, meaning you will be unable to make or receive calls/texts.

Orientation lock

Your device’s digital screen is currently set to remain in portrait mode, even if the device is rotated to landscape orientation.

Personal hotspot

Your device is currently sharing its mobile data network over wifi. You can learn more about this feature here.

Syncing

Your device is currently syncing its data with another device or service, typically with your computer or the cloud.

Wifi

This symbol means you are connected to wifi, and the more bars shown, the stronger your connection.

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Smartphone PIN Locks

You can set up a screen lock to help secure your Android phone or tablet. Each time you turn on your device or wake up the screen, you’ll be asked to unlock your device, usually with a PIN, pattern, or password. On some devices, you can unlock with your fingerprint.

Smartphone Security – CyberSecurity – Privacy

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Smartphone Device Rooting

Rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control . For many new users, rooting and unlocking the bootloader seems like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be – there are many resources out there for you to find.

Pick the Best smartphone For Me:

– Best smartphone for Apple: iPhone 13 iPhone 12
– Best smartphone for Android: Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus
– Best smartphone for camera performance: Google Pixel 6 Pro
– Best smartphone for Apple on a budget: iPhone SE
– Best smartphone high-end performance on a budget: OnePlus 8
– Most powerful smartphone : Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra / iPhone 12 Pro Max

iPhone 12 mini review from The Verge: “It’s not the best iPhone for most people, but it’s going to be a favorite for many”. The iPhone 12 Mini is what all small phones should be: tiny and mighty

Google Pixel 6 Pro review

[Get your Pixel 6 Pro here]

Pros:

Gorgeous hardware design with IP68 and durable Gorilla Glass Victus all over

Excellent display with 120Hz and great sunlight legibility

Beautiful UI with fun and colorful elements; 5 years of Android updates; newly enabled Voice Typing and on-device voice to text processing are excellent

Google Tensor chip offers great all-around performance and excellent graphics performance

Pixel camera sees much needed improvements in still images and video; excellent shots from 4X periscope camera

Google Hardware finally lives up to its potential

Cons:

Battery life misses expectations

No charger included in the box

30W charging is not the quickest

HDR+ is too aggressive in still images and could use some tweaks

Color tuning inconsistent between main and ultrawide cameras

Google Tensor chip throttles under sustained peak performance

Limited availability

Pixel 6 Pro power behavior, same LFD ambient brightness crap as on the S21 Ultra, however with just utterly absurd power figures. 60Hz also uses more power than 120Hz in brighter environments – it’s a big fail. If you’re using the phone in dark environments, skip it.

[Get your Pixel 6 Pro here]

Apple iPhone 13 PRO Max Reviews

Pros

• Outstanding design – sturdy and water-proof.
• Brightest OLED screen we’ve seen, super accurate, Dolby Vision, sort of 120Hz.
• Class-leading battery life (with 60Hz caveats).
• Loud stereo speakers, excellent output.
• Unmatched performance.
• Great all-round photo and video quality across all four cameras.

Cons

• Stale looks, the notch should have been gone by now.
• An absolute unit of a phone, 240g is a lot and a case doesn’t make it smaller or lighter.
• 120Hz refresh rate barely functional at phone’s launch date.
• The chipset is prone to heavy throttling under max load.
• The fast charging isn’t very fast.
• iOS (with its limitations) remains a love it or leave it affair.
• The camera bump is so large on the Pro that my wireless charger plate in my car no longer works, as the distance between the charger and iphone is too big.
• My normal wireless charging puck still works, but is less efficient due to the gap.

Notes:

“In video playback, the iPhone 13 Pro Max was good for 24 hours of looping our test sample while offline – 9 hours more than the 12 Pro Max, and 6 on top of the S21 Ultra’s figure. Here we couldn’t be entirely certain what the refresh rate was, but it’s only natural that it wasn’t the full 120Hz, with 60Hz being a much safer bet. Again, that’s an imposing result regardless of the refresh rate it was achieved at.

On a voice call, the 13 Pro Max also showed significant improvement over its predecessor, though that’s somewhat of a low bar to clear, considering our experience with call longevity on iPhones. Having said that, the 27:26h result is, for a change, not one to be ashamed of in general, not just for an iPhone.

Dialing in all of these numbers in our formula, alongside the also surprisingly decent standby result, we’re getting an Endurance rating of 121h for the iPhone 13 Pro Max – the longest ever for an iPhone.”

I think most of this community has been saying give me a heavier/thicker phone for better battery. Apple finally does it and now it’s too heavy? There’s just no winning with some reviewers.

I used to love the max/plus phones, and the features of this one look amazing, but for some reason the square edges and weight are making it physically impossible for me to enjoy the last couple releases.

I have a 13 now, it’s mostly comfortable and I enjoy it but I’m starting to get cramps from the way I hold my phone, so I’m returning it for a mini. My 12 pro max used to leave deep indentations on my palm where the phone sits near my thumb. I’m using an 8+ now while I wait for my refund and it’s somehow way more comfortable than a smaller and lighter 13. I don’t understand if I just have short fingers that can’t find a proper grip with the squared off edges, but my hands cannot reach around the phones to grip it properly. I have such loving nostalgia when I think of the xs/11 max form factor – I wish the pro max was still the same shape as those with the upgraded camera tech 

#iphone13reviews

Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max Specs

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max review: the best smartphone camera you can get

Apple’s biggest iPhone brings along an impressive camera

Pixel 5 review: Google spends its bill-of-materials budget unwisely

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Other Smartphone Features

GPS, accelerometer and compass
GPS uses satellites to determine the location of your phone and is free to use.

The accelerometer is a small device inside your smartphone that can tell the angle you are holding your device. This is how it knows to rotate the screen when you hold it sideways.

There’s a small compass inside your smartphone which, combined with the previous two components, makes your smartphone a handy tool for navigation.

Smartphone Manufacturers
This is the company that manufactured your smartphone. iPhone’s are all manufactured by Apple, but Android devices come from a number of different manufacturers, such as Google, Samsung, Nokia, HTC, Sony and more.

Smartphone Microphones
Your smartphone has a microphone at the bottom that is used when you’re talking on the phone. If you have headphones plugged into your smartphone, there is usually a microphone on them that allows you to talk hands-free on the phone.

Smartphone Operating System (OS)
This is the software on which your device operates. Apple iPhones run on ‘iOS’, of which the most recent version is iOS 9, Apple releases iOS updates simultaneously to everyone.

Android devices run on the Android OS, of which the most recent version is 6 (Marshmallow). Phone providers release Android updates independently, so your phone may be several versions behind.

Smartphone Ports
Ports are where you can plug things into your smartphone. Smartphones typically have a charging/data transfer port at the bottom of the device, and a 3.5mm headphone port at the top (or bottom).

What is C port in Mobile?

Called USB Type-C, it is faster than the commonly used USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 standards that personal computers, laptops and smartphones all use this at the moment. … The two advantages that it offers are faster data transfer speeds and also quicker charging capabilities.

USB Type–C is available on Galaxy S20, S20+, S20 Ultra, Z Flip, Note10, Note10+, Fold, S10e, S10, S10+, Fold, Note9, S9, S9+, Note8, S8, and S8+.

Smartphones also rely on open ports to receive certain types of information. But because of the way mobile networks are structured, phones‘ IP addresses can change as they move through the world.

Vivo has already introduced its concept smartphone under the NEX series that comes without any button and ports. Going forward more phones may adopt buttonless and portless design. With wireless charging gaining prominence, the charging/data port may slowly disappear from phones some years down the line.

The Best Smartphones That Still Have a Headphone Jack

Google killed the headphone jack in its Pixel line, only to resurrect it on its budget-friendly Pixel 3A and 3A XL models last year (9/10, WIRED Recommends). For $400, the Pixel 3A gets you almost anything you’d expect from a phone that’s twice the price: fast charging, a brilliant camera with a game-changing Night Sight mode for low-light shots, and an OLED display.

LG is one of the only manufacturers to have preserved the headphone jack in all of its flagship phones, and that hasn’t changed with the new V60 ThinQ. But the company goes above and beyond the jack.

Sony Xperia 1 II

Sony phones haven’t left a lasting impression for a long time, but the new Xperia 1 II (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is different. It excels in almost every way, with a great camera system, reliable battery life, and a sharp OLED screen. And after removing the headphone jack from its predecessor, the Xperia 1, Sony walked back and returned the 3.5-mm port to its rightful place in this update.

TCL 10 Pro and 10L

Phones on the more affordable end of the market are more likely to sport headphone jacks than their pricier counterparts. (Though that’s not always the case, e.g. the OnePlus 7T.) TCL’s first branded phones in the US—the TCL 10 Pro and the 10L—have headphone jacks, plenty of power to run most everyday tasks, and they cost $450 and $250, respectively. You also get a pair of modern-looking screens, a MicroSD card slot for more storage, solid battery life, and NFC for contactless payments. It helps that they look and feel nice.

Wireless connectivity
Smartphones have a few different types of technology which allow for wireless communication such as:

– network or cellular data – allows you to make phone calls, send SMS messages and access the internet

– wifi – allows you to connect to the internet wirelessly

– Bluetooth – allows for short range connectivity – often used for connecting to a car audio system or wireless headphones

– Near Field Communication (NFC) – included in some recent smartphones, NFC allows for very close range data transfer and is similar to the technology used for contactless payments.

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Latest Greatest iPhone to Date

It is the iPhone 13 PRO MAX

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Latest smartphone news

– Latest Android news

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– Latest iPhone news

– Latest Google Pixel news

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– Latest Samsung Galaxy news

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Smartphones Q&A

1- How often does the average person check their phone? 96 times a day.

Americans now check their phones 96 times a day – that’s once every 10 minutes, according to new research by global tech care company Asurion. That’s a 20 percent daily increase from a similar survey conducted by Asurion two years ago.

2- Can I check someone’s location on my Android phone with his mobile number?

The simple answer is Yes. The “How” is what will might give you some sweat. I noticed that this can be done, as some people have given successful feedback and there are a big number of services out there and a pretty good bunch of them need a payment, however I will share this among what I find to seem legit, this post at techtimes highlights 3 nice ones, but nonetheless there’s an android app (Phone Track by Number) too that does the play. However please note that some services may not give very accurate locations. Also note that this service is widely used by intelligence bodies and so it’s usage is critical, sensitive and so priced! Hope that’s helpful.

3- Can a text be changed before it reaches the recipient? It happened to me with God awful result. I typed in one message but she got a different message. Whoever did it obviously knows us.

The answer is no, once someone sends a text message to someone else, it cannot be altered in anyway. Example, if someone texts me saying “I like your dog” then thats what ill be seeing on my end, why because it cannot be changed once its sent, it just doesn’t work that way.

4- Is there an App that can backup & sync the pictures in my phone and restore them back in the ‘ categorical (albums) ‘ manner in which it was saved in my device?

I think Google photos automatically backs up the photos so you may be able to do it that way. And I think I will save them by things like location or it can use an AI to place simaler pictures together like.

5- What is Android widget?

Android widgets basically display data on your smartphone home screen of the application of which they are part of. Generally speaking, they are neither shortcut icons nor separately installed applications. They just provide a quick view of the data of the application which they are related to on your phone home screen.

How do I access clipboard on I phone 7?

Does the iPad Mini 2 support the Xbox One Wireless Controller?

What is a good $100 label maker for e-commerce on my iPhone?

Is there an app to keep you from texting an ex that dumped you?

Does MusicKit or any other framework allow you to copy music from user’s music library on the phone to another location? I want to copy music off my phone but iTunes doesn’t let me and I think it might be easier to write an app if it is allowed.

Are there any apps (in iOS) that changes your screen display?

How do I use my back-end Java code in making an iOS app? I have written a fill-in-the-blanks game in Java, but would like it to be compatible on an iOS device. How to I take this code and make it into an app?

Can I retrieve old iPhone messages after being blocked or deleted?

Why did Steve Wozniak never return to Apple?

It’s time to say hello to iPhone 12 mini

Why did Apple decide not to include a charging block with the new iPhone 12?

Why is my iPhone battery decreasing even if I’m not using it? I slept last night and it was fully charged and when i woke up it’s already 87% my phone’s battery health is at 100% and my phone is iphone 6s and is updated to the latest version

What are the pros and cons of iOS 14?

Why doesn’t Apple make other phones? What will they do after they stop making iPhones?

What are some of the dirty business tactics of Apple?

iOS 14 Photos and Camera: QuickTake Shortcut, Photo Captions, Mirrored Selfies, and More

How does a company with the resources of Apple make a mistake like the current model MacBook Pro’s keyboard?

Why doesn’t Apple buy Samsung?

If Quora had a dark mode would, you use it?

Should Apple have a search engine?

Which is the better phone camera, a 12MP one or a 16MP one?

Is there an iPhone app that will tell me how many devices are attached to my network?

Is there a way to make transparent pictures for widgets?

Which company will fall first: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, or Microsoft?

Why do people say that Apple does not allow apps from outside the App Store, when you can install third-party apps from the developers website?

Can I check someone’s location on my Android phone with his mobile number?

Can a text be changed before it reaches the recipient? It happened to me with God awful result. I typed in one message but she got a different message. Whoever did it obviously knows us.

Is there an App that can backup & sync the pictures in my phone and restore them back in the ‘ categorical (albums) ‘ manner in which it was saved in my device?

What screams “I’m an Android user?”

What are some of the best Android apps out there for a Samsung a20?

How can I get rid of annoying ads that spoil any browsing?

How do you stop background apps from closing when you enter another app, for example I want to use a VPN for Spotify but when I go into the VPN its still running at the top but when I open Spotify it closes down the VPN?

How can I upgrade to Android 9.1.0 from Android 8.1.0?

What is Android widget?

How do I bring my lost contact numbers back?

I have used LG phones for a long time to love them, especially the Stylos. My question is, why can’t I schedule a text to only one contact?

Is it safe to give storage permission to an app? I’ve downloaded “Girls Frontline” which Is a gacha game, but it wants storage permission to “store game assets” should I give It permission or just uninstall it?

My girlfriend has jpeg files on her phone I click and says cannot open file. What can I do to open this?

What app or sites that you can make money with, on Android that is working and proven to work?

Can I check someone’s location on my Android phone with his mobile number?

How can I restor original timeline maps in Google history?

How can I check to see if my phone is rooted and if it is how do I unroot it?

How do I delete an SVC file on Android?

AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate Exam Prep App for All platforms (iOS, Android, Windows10, PWA)

What does Android systems web view do?

What happened to the search function on googles g board app?

What is an SSID name? & hidden network?

How can I get my contact back in Hangouts?

Where can I find a minimalist YouTube app? By that I don’t mean the looks of the UI but the UX. I’m tired of seeing recommendations and suggestions on the side. I want to see only what I subscribed to or searched for. Nothing more. Any 3rd party app?

How can you prevent Android phone from accessing the Internet for games, when the game says it works off-line, but push advertisements come up anyway, so I know I’m connected to the web?

I disabled Google play services and all Google apps to enhance privacy. Problem is, about half of the apps in my phone won’t work without it. Even apps downloaded from other APK sites like apkmirror, apkpure, etc require it. Is there an alternative?

*Help* Can IG randomly hide/show my name on posts? Because my girlfriend think I remove like from photo (because my name wasnt there) bud it was there. When she looks again it was there, and she thinks I lied to her about removing likes. Please help?

Why would my phone hook up to a Roku express device? And a kdl-40r510c. I don’t know what it is

What are some good photo editing apps for Android?

What are some of the best apps for Andriod that assist in surfing dark web. (Vpn blockers or rerouters etc)?

How can I delete a “saved screenshot” on my phone?

What is Verify Kit and why would one need to have it “verified” via text?

How can I add a PDF file in Andriod studio using Java?

How formatting files OTG USB drive unreported file formatting on Android phone stronger software mobile apps downloading?

How do I create OEM unlock option on my Android device?

What is the best free app to get a second phone number so I don’t have to use my own?

Hi developers, How I can stream live video using RTSP in Android Studio using an IP camera?

My phone has been hacked all my apps are cloned somehow there is a user that I cannot delete what do I do?

Your app has been suspended and removed from Google Play as a policy strike because it violates the impersonation policy.” What should I do next?

What is com.Samsung.Android.incalluI?

What is a good app to manage work tablets like data usage and to give permissions on what apps can be downloaded and used etc.?

How can I upgrade my androd version of Samsung J5 pro 2017 running Android Oreo 8.1.0 (JF30FXXS5BSF2) to the latest verson? I’m running a Custom ROM therefore I Cannot do it the official way.

What App will eliminate the vocals and give me the original music in a son?

Is the Kajimoto app safe? It makes me seem real lonely but we’re in quarantine ok! I’m looking at it and wanna know whether its malware/ a virus? Does anybody have it or have any knowledge on it? Thanks

How can I restore my accidentally deleted Google search history?

I dialed *#21# to see if my phone was tapped, and it said the number cannot be completed as dialed. I have a Samsung S10 by the way. What does that mean?

Hi Android users: How can I print my text messages? Thank you in advance and continue to be safe.

How do I wipe my iPhone and/or reset all previous accounts on device. Apple support keeps requesting a password reset butI do not have the previous owners details to be able to get the verifications?

How can I default the end to end encryption on my watsap.. It’s disturbing me I can’t recurve calls, videos and now I’m even close on changing my number but what about the people I chat with business?

My phone was factory reset. Now it’s telling me to sign in with a Google account previously synced. I bought the Huawei phone from someone and don’t know how to reach her. How can I get past this?

Needs suggestions for improvement. what should to be added or removed in this app?

Is there any Android gallery application that auto-plays videos after startup (Android 4.0)?

Which are the best applications I must have in my Android phone?

How can I default the end to end encryption on my watsap.. It’s disturbing me I can’t recurve calls, videos and now I’m even close on changing my number but what about the people I chat with business?

I’m worried about being hacked. what’s the best protection for my android?

Is it possible to earn $1000 per month with Android apps?

Why aren’t there androids in Dune?

Ultimate free video editor app

What are some of the Android secret codes that are useful?

What is rooting in android?

How do I learn machine learning?

Is the quality of Android better than iOS?

Is there any way to enable esim access to Samsung Galaxy S20 phones that use the snapdragon chip?

What does Android systems web view do?1

Will Huawei stick with Android? What OS will they use if they don’t?

Hey, question…I have a Samsung Galaxy, if I block someone in my text messages do I still retain that text thread?

I can’t close apps running in background. “Close all apps” bubble doesn’t show. Samsung S20+5G. Swiping up on background running apps not working. Tried restarting.

I need to know if its posable for some one to hide apps and make them look like other apps ???

How do I know if a phone has a magnetic sensor?

How can I tell if someone is monitoring my phone?

What is com.Samsung.Android.incalluI?

I have used LG phones for a long time to love them, especially the Stylos. My question is, why can’t I schedule a text to only one contact?

Why does an Android phone slow down with time but iOS doesn’t?

How much is creating websites like coursera, udemy or edx?

Why do some people prefer iPhones over Androids if Apple limits what you can do and what you can’t do?

I bought a new DooGee smartphone with with Android 10 and have been really impressed with it. My previous phone was a Note 3.

What are some must have Android apps?

Can I monitor calls to my spouse’s Android phone?

Well, it’s always advisable, all the misunderstandings in a love relationship will be solved if we speak to our partner about it. When it seems everything is slipping out of your hands, it’s time to monitor him/her and save your married life. Spyw3412 is one of the leading spy software that provides you with everything you need in times of suspicions.

It offers you the most impeccable and feasible app for spouse monitoring.This monitoring software runs in incognito mode and provides you with comprehensive logging features. You can remotely keep tabs on all the activities taking place on the target’s smartphone.

It is very effective as it is able to Monitor calls, Send and receive SMS, Read e-mails, Track GPS locations, Monitor internet use and browsing history, Calendar activities and Calendar, Read Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Line, and more.

It also has an amazing Keyloggers feature. This helps in discovering the keyboard inputs of the targeted user which means, it captures all the textual inputs that includes the login names and passwords entered by the target user. It works in stealth mode. And is a cross platform spy software that lets you monitor all the activities on the target’s iPhone, android devices. This software allows you to listen to phone surroundings. This is a very handy feature to turn on when your kid is not answering your calls.

This software helps you listen the live calls and plausibly you can chip in between the call conversation, which might leave your two-timer partner aghast! Just grab the cellphone of your partner for few minutes and quickly install the software on it. Don’t worry! the software is invisible to the target user and he or she will never come to know they are being monitored. This software once installed in the smartphone, runs silently and flawlessly by gathering all the necessary evidences for you to ensure that your partner is really cheating on you. With this Mobile Spyware application, you can keep yourself updated with your spouse horseplay. It does it all from SMS tracking to discovering GPS locations.

With this feature program, you install on the target’s smartphone which lets you read all the text messages which are sent and received on his/her smartphone. All the activities gets recorded in the online account from spyw3412 atgmailcom dashboard where you can check the call logs and also listen to calls and view the multimedia remotely from anywhere and at anytime.

In the end, I would want you to know that this third party monitoring application is reliable and efficient. It offers you the unlimited capabilities of spying on multiple activities on both the iPhone and android smartphone. Hope this helps you with your decision making!

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Latest Smartphone Reviews

• [2021-01: Smartphone of the month: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Reviews
• iPhone 12 Pro Max Reviews
• Xiaomi MI 10T Pro Reviews
• Sony Xperia 5 II Reviews
• Google Pixel 4a Reviews
• iPhone 12 Pro vs vs Galaxy Note Ultra 20 Reviews
• Google Pixel 5 XL Reviews
• Huawei P40 Pro Reviews
• Samsung Galaxy 20 Ultra Reviews
• Motorola Edge 5G Reviews

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Review

I had the pleasure of daily driving the 22+ for the last week. I work for a mobile software development company, so I get to test drive the coolest hardware. However the S21+ is my ride or die daily driver. It was largely the same with the S10 and S20, the Galaxy S line is just consistently my favorite Android Phones. I say that so you’ll understand just how excited I was for my turn with Sammy’s latest and greatest. So I thought I’d weigh in on the upgrade question.

Subjectively, the camera and image processing are maybe a 10-15% increase in quality, on par or surpassing anything from Cupertino or Palo Alto. Screen quality is largely the same, though the increased brightness on the S22+ meant that in full daylight my display still looked beautiful. Running some high demand apps simultaneously, I noticed a surprising increase in computing power from the S22’s Snapdragons 8 Gen 1. Its fast folks. Like really FAST. It ran through Genshin Impact without so much as a stutter. It must be said though that the S21’s 888 tore through the workload at a pace that wouldn’t leave anyone reasonably wanting more. I also noticed an increase in battery life by about 4-6 hours, from a smaller battery no less. Most likely, this is attributable to the new chip’s efficiency and a more variable refresh rate on the screen.

Here’s the Bottom Line: Samsung didn’t take a huge generational leap with the S22, so there’s no big risk feature to focus on. As such, the S22 is a little boring, but for all the right reasons. Samsung took what was already the best Android phone experience and just dialed up what we already loved. Put more simply, it just works. It’s hard to complain about a phone that doesn’t deliver a perfect 10 in every category, but never let’s any area drop below a 9. If you love the S21, you’re going to love S22, but you won’t be surprised by any massive advancement in capability. It’s still a Sammy though, so you know you’re still guaranteed to get the best tech.

I won’t be trading in my S21+ anytime soon, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who buys the S22 to get just a little bit more of what you already love.

As of today: TOP Android Smartphone of the month: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, Factory Unlocked Android Cell Phone, US Version, 5G Smartphone, Pro-Grade Camera, 8K Video, 108MP High Res, 256GB, Phantom Black

Key Features

Contour Cut Camera Design

Introducing a bold new camera design in a category of its own. Its ultra-sized with a contour-cut camera that seamlessly houses cutting-edge lenses.

High Resolution

The 108-megapixel camera captures so much detail, you can pinch in and reveal even more shots within.2 This camera quality expresses rich colour data for true-to-life details and hues — that don’t get washed out in the sun.

Space Zoom

The breakthrough Dual Zoom system now zooms in faster, smoother and sharper than any zoom in the Galaxy series.3 And when paired with the all-new Zoom Lock, shots are now more stable.

8K Video

8K Video is the highest resolution video available in a Galaxy smartphone — that’s four times as many pixels as 4K. Record in 8K 24fps and get crisp footage that looks better than the cinema, then upload and watch right on YouTube.4

The fastest chip ever in Galaxy

Galaxy’s first 5nm processor packs epic power and speed. This outstanding upgrade means faster learning and more intelligence in every aspect of Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G.5

Intelligent Battery

Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G’s Intelligent Battery outlasts the day — even on 5G. Maxing out at a massive 5000mAh (typical), it combines with the new power-efficient display and processor to live on beyond the 24-hour mark.6,7

Super Smooth 120Hz Display

Our smoothest scrolling screen that keeps up with all your feeds. Incredibly responsive, this display delivers seamless transitions with every touch and optimizes the refresh rate based on what you view — saving battery for more of what you love.

Dynamic AMOLED 2X

It’s the most vivid and brightest display in a Galaxy smartphone. Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G delivers our most stunning experience at 1500 nits, with 100% colour volume for accurate and realistic colour — even in sunlight.8

MORE:

• Pro Grade Camera: Zoom in close, take photos and videos like a pro, and capture incredible share-ready moments with our easy-to-use, multi lens camera
• Sharp 8K Video: Capture your life’s best moments in head-turning, super-smooth 8K video that gives your movies that cinema-style quality
• Multiple Ways to Record: Create share-ready videos and GIFs on the spot with multi-cam recording and automatic professional-style effects
• 100x Zoom: Get amazing clarity with a dual lens combo of 3x and 10x optical zoom, or go even further with our revolutionary 100x Space Zoom
• Highest Smartphone Resolution: Crystal clear 108MP allows you to pinch, crop and zoom in on your photos to see tiny, unexpected details, while lightning-fast Laser Focus keeps your focal point clear
• All Day Intelligent Battery: Intuitively manages your cellphone’s usage to conserve energy, so you can go all day without charging (based on average battery life under typical usage conditions)
• Power of 5G: Get next-level power for everything you love to do with Galaxy 5G; More sharing, more gaming, more experiences and never miss a beat

Difference between Samsung Galaxy S20+ and S21 Ultra

Screen

Screen is brighter on 21+ according to specs/reviews, but the same resolution as what I’m running the S20+ while using 120 hz, which is a huge disappointment that the higher resolution is exclusive to the Ultra. I also prefer the flat screen, I’ve never really liked the curved screen of the S20+.

Processor

New faster processor on s21+ obviously a good thing, supposedly about 20-25% faster performance and more graphics performance. I watch a lot of media and games on my phone so this sounds nice but I’m doubting if it will actually be noticeable, particularly with less ram on the system.

RAM

12 GB downgrading to 8 GB, seems like a deal breaker since I like to have multiple Chrome tabs up and run lots of processes at same time, but supposedly I’ve heard conflicting reports that the 8GB in the S21+ might be faster RAM . Also think I’ve heard something about how the new Snapdragon processor can use RAM more efficiently and doesn’t need as much, but I’m highly skeptical of that claim also. Seems like a downgrade overall to me.

SD Card slot

I don’t currently use a SD Card, so this is a non-factor for me. I like the idea of having it but it’s not a deal breaker like I know it is for others.

Camera

Camera seems fundamentally about the same hardware. I’ve read there are some software changes, but those will likely be updated on S20+ in future downloads. Doesn’t seem like an upgrade, that’s more a selling point for the Ultra obviously.

Battery

Slightly bigger battery on S21+. Better processor and adaptive refresh supposedly will get better battery life also. S20+ is a battery hog, especially since I like to keep performance settings at maximum.

Cost

Even after trade-in it will cost me about $300. Sure I’ll get about $260+ in accessories credit, but I already have Galaxy Buds+ from last year, already have a Galaxy Watch Active 2, I don’t use or want a Samsung case; so I’m struggling to even figure out what I’d use the credit to purchase.

OVERALL

It seems like I’d be paying for a minor update to most features and not really a upgrade, and a downgrade on the RAM.

1- iPhone 12 Pro Max 2020

iPhone 12 Pro Max – First 24 hours thoughts.

Pros:

The battery. Feels absolutely insane. I have about 2h screen on-time since charging today, and the battery is at 79% at the moment. Downloaded loads of apps and thousands of spotify songs yesterday, battery was at 60% ish when plugging it into the charger. Such a MASSIVE upgrade from my X which never lasted an entire day for me in the end.

The size. It’s pretty much perfect I would say. I have average-sized hands and haven’t noticed any problems with one-handed usage. It fits pretty good in my pocket, nothing more to say there really. Also the new design just feels sooo good in my hands.

The RAM. My old X couldn’t handle more than 3-4 apps sometimes before killing a background process. It happened waaay too many times that I browsed youtube, opened up snapchat and reddit, then when going back to youtube it reloaded the app. Haven’t happened yet on my PM, despite opening way more apps.

Neutral:

The cameras. I am not a photographer and I did not buy this phone for the cameras. Most of my camera roll is just saved memes from Reddit. However, after comparing photos from both my X and my 12 PM, the differences are noticeable, but not major in any way. It feels better in low-light, though. Will probably do some more testing when the weather is not 1000% rain.

The price. Let’s be real, most people buying this phone is not on a budget. You buy this if you want the best. Phones these days are expensive. I think the argument “how can a phone cost 1k that’s insane” is ridiculous. It’s not for you then. Just get a cheaper one.

Cons:

I have to say the weight. This is expected from such a big phone obviously, however, especially when lying in bed and watching youtube or whatever, my hand gets really tired after a while. I find it hard to use the phone one-handed for longer periods.

3D touch. I have to add this. It was such a nice feature on my X to just press hard anywhere on the keyboard to move the cursor. Now I have to press long on the spacebar, takes some time getting used to.

Read more here…

Buy the iPhone 12 Pro Max here

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My short experience with the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro

My LG V20 finally pissed me off so much that I couldn’t live with it any more, so I got myself a phone that has caused some discussion here recently – the Mi 10T Pro.

I’ve had it for 4 days now, so these are my first impressions so far:

The screen is really good. There’s been quite a lot of discussion about it and some people accused XDA of being impartial, but the truth is that it’s a bloody good LCD. 144hz is really something, coming from 60hz, though probably I would be happy also with 120hz. The screen itself is bright, the colors are strong and vibrant and the viewing angles are also superb. AMOLED would have had some advantages (always-on display, better blacks), but in reality the screen is really good and I can’t say that I’m missing out on something.

The variable refresh rate is also working spot-on. I was a bit worried about this, but in reality you can’t really notice the refresh rate changing. Thumbs up for that.

The battery life is great. I’ve only had it for a couple of days, so I’m still tinkering with it more than I normally would, but I’m getting 8h SOT, which is not bad. The 33w charger fills the 5000mAh battery up in roughly an hour.

The main reason I preferred this to the S20 FE is the CPU, as in Europe the S20 is sold with the Exynos CPU. The SD865 in the 10T Pro is, like you would expect, a good combination with the 144hz screen and I haven’t seen any slowdowns yet.

I haven’t had the opportunity to test the cameras a lot yet, but so far they seem pretty good, especially considering the price. The 108mp main camera makes great pictures and combined with OIS and EIS, it’s very usable also in dark settings. The ultra-wide angle makes good photos in daylight, but when it gets dark, it doesn’t hold up as well as the main camera. I would say it’s on level with my old V20 wide-angle. There’s also a 5MP macro lens, but I haven’t tested it enough yet.

Build quality is great, it feels very solid in hand. It’s a large phone, keep that in mind, and with the 5000mAh battery, it’s also quite heavy, but at least the weight is balances so that it doesn’t feel like it’s falling out of your hand all the time.

MIUI – was expecting a lot of ads, a lot of bloatware, but so far I haven’t seen a single ad and there was hardly any bloatware. Maybe it’s due to the fact that they don’t add all that crap to phones sold in Europe. In fact, it came with Google Dialer and Google Contacts pre-installed, so they have swapped most of their own apps with Google ones.

So far I’m really happy with it! Even though I was worried that I would miss some of the features of the V20, other things such as a great screen, great battery life and solid performance make up for it. Read more and follow discussion here

Buy the Xaomi Redmi Notes 10T Pro here

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3- Xperia 5 II

Xperia 5 II thoughts from a 10+ years iPhone user

A little background first. My first smartphone was an iPhone 3G, and I’ve owned the majority of the iPhones released since then. My main reasons for switching were wanting a fingerprint reader over FaceID, which even before masks I’ve always hated, and the lack of a headphone jack, which despite me mostly using wireless headphones I’ve really missed being able to connect to my Hi-Fi and the latency free audio of wired ones.

I’ve been using the 5 II for a little over a month now. I actually received it a week before it’s official launch day. Since it’s what I think most are interested in I’ll start with the main negative.

Camera

Yes, despite what reviewers say, in real-world usage I’ve found the camera to be by far the worst part of the phone. My usage mostly encompasses indoor photos of pets, and as you’ll see in the example photos it fails at that. The first problem is that autofocus is terrible. Often times I’ll have to tap on the subject multiple times to get it to focus, and even then it sometimes still appears fuzzy. Sometimes it will say the object is too close to focus when it isn’t, and then a few seconds later forget that was a problem at all. But the worst part is the amount of time it takes to take photos. On my iPhone XS I would always take two in a second in case one was blurry, with this that is impossible. It takes at least two seconds, and sometimes longer between shots when indoors. This means that a lot of my shots I’ve started moving the phone as I thought it was done already, and then the photo is ruined. Or my dog has completely moved positions, resulting in a blurry mess. This is worst on the tele-photo lens, but true on all of them. I don’t feel like reviewers spent enough time using the camera indoors, or in anything but perfect lighting to see how bad it is in this situation.

I’ve included some good and some bad photos. Bare in mind that for the good ones I often had to take multiple photos to get it right. My main problem is how inconsistent and slow it is: Album.

The front camera, as many have noted, is even worse. When a face is in frame the words “Soft snap” appear, and a beautification effect that even when turned off in settings is applied. I’ve tested this by quickly moving the frame away and back to my face, and for the split-second before it realises it’s a face there is much more detail. I hope in a future update this is fixed.

Aside from that it annoys me that when the battery is low the camera app will not open, simply saying I need to charge. I’d rather at least get the chance to take a photo before it dies. I haven’t used it much for video but it seems very good. The stabilisation is fine and focus is actually faster than when using the camera. colours also look great. I do like having the camera button, but the force needed to press it sometimes blurs images.

Design

The phone feels solid. Even though it is aluminium (perhaps 7000 series as I think either the 1 or 1 II was quoted as being it) it feels no less strong than my XS’ stainless steel. I don’t find the glass too slippery, but I think when people say this about new phones they forget just how much more slippy a fresh oleophobic coating is to one that has worn off. I don’t feel the need to use a case and with the phone completely bare there aren’t any scratches to the frame or either side of glass. When pocketed the height of the phone is annoying when kneeling to put on shoes, but the narrow frame means it isn’t as bad as some other large phones.

Screen

I appreciate the higher refresh-rate screen, although it doesn’t make as much impact as on my iPad Pro. One thing people have complained about is brightness. Unfortunately, the area in Britain I live in has not seen a day of sunshine since I got it, so so far at least I haven’t been able to see if it’s a problem. One thing that annoys me is that text smoothing seems to be pretty bad. It is a lot easier to see individual pixels in text than on my XS, despite the PPI being almost identical. I enjoy the overall height of the screen, and how narrow it is. I have small hands and could only just reach my thumb to the side of my XS when holding it securely. With this that is easy.

Everything elseBattery life has been great. I get one and a half to two days from it.

The front-firing speakers are a revelation. I love how I can hold the phone properly without blocking the bottom one.

The notification light is surprisingly useful. I feel like all phones should have one.

You don’t need to press the fingerprint reader to unlock the screen, meaning sometimes when I pocket it my thumb brushes against and unlocks it. Sometimes it unlocks with a finger I haven’t registered, which is… concerning. These are annoying but not dealbreakers for me. Apart from that it’s perfect and far better than FaceID.

If you live in the UK this thing is extremely cheap on contract. My 24 month plan has 54GB of 5G data per month, and after selling the preorder bonus headphones actually costs the same overall as if I’d bought it outright.

Forget it if you want to use the flash as a torch. It’s the weakest I’ve ever had in a phone.

The Google Assistant button is useless and can’t be customised, although hopefully in the future button reassinging apps will be able to change it.

Conclusion

Overall I’m not sure if I’d recommend the phone if you intend to take many photos indoors or in imperfect lighting. Outdoors photos are great, but for those situations I have a mirrorless camera. I don’t miss iOS too much and I don’t regret buying the phone. The ability to have multiple apps open at once and Facebook chat bubbles is amazing. Apple Music also works just as well as on iOS.

If you have any questions feel free.

TLDR: Cameras bad. Basically everything else good.

Buy the Xperia II here

Read more and join the discussion here

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Google Pixel 4a

My Pixel 4a review coming from a OP7pro

TL;DR: won’t miss much. Not even 90 Hz, wide angle or tele photo lenses. Great battery, build, screen, haptics, size, camera and speakers.

So after 1,5 years enjoying a OnePlus 7 Pro, I switched to a Google Pixel 4a primarily because of the smaller size. 1,5 years is the longest I’ve ever had a phone. Was really enjoying the OnePlus experience.

Here is my review after a week of usage of the Google Pixel 4a.

My use case is phone, teams, messenger, sms, camera, YouTube and browsing.

Size: obviously the difference in size is a primary objective. The 4a for surfing and reading news in one hand usage is a joy. Also the weight of the 4a makes it a fantastic daily tool. It’s so comfortable small that a thin cover doesn’t ruin the overall size. Also it’s not so small that two finger writing is cramped like on my wife’s 2020 iPhone SE.

Build quality: at first glance I was surprised, that it’s made of plastic. It’s so well made, that it feels like an aluminium phone covered in a soft touch material. It’s also sturdy, it seems, now that Sack gave it some love. The in hand feel is what I have been paying Dbrand for, when mounting skins on my multitude of glass sandwich phones in the past like S6, S7 Edge, S8, S9, S10e, OP7pro etc. The power button and volume same is placed exactly where my right thumb easily reaches.

Screen: a very well made AMOLED supporting HDR. I’m so happy to get a flat screen again, after so many year’s of edge type displays.. the punch hole camera cutout is what it is. Fast brightness adaptation for once. Good brightness in sunlight and sufficiently low brightness in darkness. Good support for cheap screen protectors.

The performance of the screen is so good, that after a few hours of usage, I don’t notice the downgrade in refresh rate. I’m serious. When tapping on the screen the feedback does not feel like a hollow phone feeling.

Haptics: great vibration motor that feels somewhat like a linear actuator, rather than the circular motor it actually is. I don’t feel a difference from an iPhone to be honest. But it’s so strong that even setting the keyboard vibration in Gboard to 1 ms is too much. Turned it off.

Speakers: this is one important subject to me. And I’m happy to report that they are great. Greater than on an iPhone SE with better balance and stereo separation, although the 4a amplification could be better. I’ve modified the max loudness via the Wavelet app, so that the lows and highs and a little boost in the mid ranges easily compensates. Comparing to a iPhone Xr speakers the 4a speakers with my mods, sounds even more bassy and with great highs in direct comparison. It’s that good.

Battery: writing this at 9 PM after unplugging 6.30 AM (16 hours) off charger and 4 hours of screen on time, I have 46% battery left. A true all day phone with lots to spare.

Performance: this is funny. Until now I didn’t think of any difference in daily tasks. Only the Google Camera HDR process takes a few seconds to complete. But only noticeable when takin pictures in sequence going to check the results directly. Again my use case doesn’t demand much CPU.

Fingerprint sensor: really fast, precise and doesn’t even need to cover the whole sensor. The tip of a finger is enough to unlock the phone.

Charging: I think the first charge took 1,5 hours with a USB-PD 18 watt charger. I charge overnight with an old 1 amp charger. I wish it had wireless charging, as my phone holder in our car supports it. Other than that, I don’t really miss it, because of the great battery life without the need of topping up when not using the phone.

Network: good WiFi strength and good LTE signal. I was surprised and happy to see, that my local network TDC in Denmark supports VoLTE and VoWiFi, even without it being officially on their list of phones, as the Pixel is not officially sold in Denmark. Also eSIM works like a charm. Running with my private number as eSIM and company number as traditional SIM. Bluetooth connectivity without issues.

Camera: it’s a Pixel.. As good as Gcam on the OnePlus 7 Pro in comparison.

Software: it’s a Pixel.

This is my first time writing a review, so feel free to add a comment or question, supporting me in perspectives I might have overlooked in the process.

Please also accept that English is not my primary language.

Thanks for reading. And be safe everybody. Read more and join the discussion here…

Get the Google Pixel 4a here

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Samsung Galaxy 20 Note Ultra Get it here

Depending on what you want from a device and which one you are using currently. You will be opting for a new phone. The Note 20 Ultra is a very powerful phone without any doubt, however the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 price is high. But, considering the Samsung galaxy Note 20 Ultra specifications, the prices seem justified.

What sets the phone apart?

The thing that makes the phone different from all others is the S-Pen. So, anyone who sees value in that, the phone is definitely for them. Other than that, anyone who already has the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, they may consider keeping their old phones because the upgrades aren’t a lot comparatively.

The size of the phone is massive, which is a good thing for those who prefer using phones instead of a laptop or tablet for their work. But once again, preference counts in this as well. Bigger is a lot better when it comes to playing games and watching videos. The only drawback is that it doesn’t fit into your pocket very easily, which is really not that big of a problem. You can always carry the phone in your hands.

So, if the size isn’t an issue for you and you love the S-Pen. This is definitely the right phone for you. Moreover, anyone who prefers a smaller phone can opt for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20.

What do experts have to say about the phone?

Experts had a lot of good things to say about the phone and the performance as well.

· The S-Pen was also given a thumbs up for doing all the tricks without any problem.

· The solid display, the camera and the casting of your screen to a TV monitor are also commendable upgrades.

· In addition to that, there are three major android updates, guaranteed.

Get the Samsung Galaxy S20 ultra here

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G Review (US)

I recently switched from the Moto G6 to the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G, after the former device started to slow down a lot and drop cell signal, resulting in missed calls. Here in the US, we don’t have much in the way of midrange devices, and real-world reviews of the A52 5G are rare. So I thought I’d share how I’ve found it after a few weeks.

Note: only the A52 5G is available in the US. Elsewhere, there is a 5G and 4G variant. Please note that whenever I talk about the “A52” without specifying, I am talking about the 5G model.

Why I chose the A52 5G:

I wanted a phone with a long software support timeline, a good battery, and water resistance, but I didn’t care about wireless charging or the greatest cameras. This meant the A52 5G took priority for me over comparable devices like the Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a 5G, Motorola’s lineup, and the iPhone SE. I also got a good sale on it, paying ~$390 on Samsung’s website, or $110 off the usual price of $500.

Verizon info that I couldn’t find elsewhere online:

Verizon, one of the biggest carriers in the US and the one I use, does not sell the A52 5G. It does sell the A42 5G, a slightly downgraded model that has mmWave 5G (the A52 only has sub-6 Ghz 5G), but lacks water resistance, a high refresh rate screen, worse cameras, and only gets 2 years of OS updates to the A52’s 3 years (both get 4 years of security updates). It normally retails at $400, so actually more than I paid for the A52 5G with that sale.

You can buy an A52 unlocked and switch your SIM card to it, which is what I did. One thing I worried about was that, when doing research beforehand, I was warned that the A52 lacked support for Verizon’s band 13, their main LTE band. However, I am pretty clearly getting band 13 support; I have downloaded multiple signal tracking apps that show I am connected to band 13 at times. Samsung’s website doesn’t show band 13 for the A52 but does show it for the A42 5G. However, Sprint says their variant supports band 13, as does info for the US model on PhoneScoop. If I had to guess, Samsung didn’t put it up on their website because they didn’t expect Verizon customers to buy the A52 and not the A42.

I’m going to divide this into the good, the not-so-good (things I don’t care for, but didn’t mind all that much), and the ugly.

The good:

• Performance: I’m able to play a mobile game while Youtube is running Picture-in-picture and I’m scrolling Reddit in a pop-up view window (One UI is cool like that) without a hiccup. For my use case, this is as demanding as it gets, so I’m fine with the 750G chipset and 6 gigs of RAM.
• Cameras: Of the quad camera setup, the 64 megapixel OIS main sensor is amazing, and the ultrawide is great for landscapes. The depth camera might be useful for portrait shots, and I’m sure I’ll never find a case for the macro camera where getting in close with the main camera doesn’t produce a better shot, so the smaller two are all but useless, but still nice to have. Supersteady stabilization on video is a neat trick, too. It’s not a Pixel, but still pretty nice.
• One UI: Aside from some cool gestures that were genuinely useful and the ability to swipe on the front fingerprint sensor, Motorola had all the downsides of Stock Android (less customizability) and none of the benefits (fast updates, Pixel-like AI experience). As a result, I’m loving OneUI, from the vast array of settings to Good Lock (One Handed Operation+ is amazing). Heck, you can even customize your call background! In addition, it’ll get OS updates up to Android 14 and security updates a year thereafter.
• 5G: Varies from 30 to 100 Mbps, so not nearly as fast as some of the claims for sub-6 5G (let alone mmwave) but still plenty fast.
• Fingerprint sensor: I’ve heard complaints it’s not as fast or as accurate as flagship devices, but monkey brain still thinks in-screen sensors are cool. It’s faster than the Moto G6 reader, that’s for sure.
• Battery life: Pretty good, even with 120 hertz enabled. 7 to 10 hours SOT depending on how hard I push it.
• Headphone jack and microSD card: need I say more? I occasionally used the jack on my Moto G6, though I’ve mostly switched to wireless, and I never used that microSD slot, even with a paltry 32 GB on the Moto, so I doubt I’ll need it for the 128 GB A52, but good to have just in case.

The not-so-good:

• Speakers: They’re stereo, with a bottom firing speaker and an amplified under-screen earpiece. They’re plenty loud, but you can easily muffle the bottom one if you hold it the wrong way. This is probably a side effect of me coming from the G6, which used only its earpiece as a front-firing speaker; I don’t think most people will be bothered by this. I mainly use headphones anyway.
• Grip: Using it without a case is harder than with the G6. This is mainly because it’s wider, but also because it’s boxier. Though only slightly thicker, it feels a lot more so because the edges of the Moto G6 are curved, while the A52’s are basically straight lines. Even with both of them in a Spigen case, this is somewhat noticeable.
• RCS: I switched to Google Messages over Samsung Messages because chat features never showed up on the Samsung messages app. I prefer Google’s in most ways anyways, but I did like how the Samsung app blended with the aesthetic of One UI.
• Accidental Touch Protection: Way too many false positives when I used my phone in low light conditions, had to turn it off.

The ugly:

• Charging: The included 15 watt charger takes a long time to get to 100 (1:40 according to GSMArena, though longer if you use it while charging). In addition, if you do use it while charging on the 15 watt charger, it gets uncomfortably hot on one spot on the back. I’ve also used a USB-C laptop charger from HP (a first party one with USB-PD support, maybe don’t try this with crappy Amazon ones that can’t tell the difference between a phone and a laptop) and it seemed to charge at the same speed. The A52 does support 25 watt charging, and I plan to buy one.
• Bluetooth bug: Occasionally my earbuds will randomly lose connection. This may be the fault of the frankly crappy earbuds (cheap Amazon seller earbuds, these are actually my second pair the company sent to me under warranty after my originals physically broke), and it doesn’t happen a lot (once or twice a day), but it’s still super annoying.

Overall, I think the A52 5G is a great phone for the value in the US, and a worthy update to my G6 that should last 4 years or more. It is, in some ways, a flagship killer, with high end features like a 120 hertz screen, OIS on the main camera, and an underscreen fingerprint reader, but for far less. Depending on your priorities, do look at the other phones I mentioned earlier, as well as the upcoming Pixel 5a and S21 FE, if you’re looking for something roughly around the $500 mark. And be on the lookout for sales!

Outside of the US, I know you have a lot more options in the midrange, including from brands not as common here like Xiaomi and Nokia, so it might not be the best value, but also keep the 4G variant in mind. It costs ~$100 less, though it lacks 5G (duh), has a 90 hertz screen instead of 120 hertz, and a 720G chipset. Source

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iPhone 12 Pro vs. Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Speed Test

Iphone 12 pro vs Xiaomi mi10 ultra thermal throttling test

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Google Pixel 5 XL

Google Pixel 5 smartphone review: Powerful mid-range with Android 11

I bought Pixel 4 XL on release date last year and have been happy with the phone since.

Note – I have hard hearing so I heavily use the Live Transcribe and Live Captions daily.

My work phone needed an upgrade and Pixel 5 happened to release at perfect timing so I pre-ordered one and it arrived 2 days ago.

GAP? Yes the Pixel 5 has a gap, however, the gap is less than 1mm and uniform around the entire phone. Defect or not, on the unit I received it is not an issue. Some specks of dust does get in though.

SCREEN? Ok the screen is 6 inches vs 6.3 inches, small difference right? Not exactly. The difference is bigger than I expected, mainly because of the top of the Pixel 5 screen is unusable due to hole punch camera(which is a big circle, much bigger than Galaxy S10 hole punch). When I use apps or anything, the entire area the camera hole covers is not useable! On Pixel 4 XL the digital time on top left would appear and disappear and you can use the full screen. On Pixel 5 it’s just a blank if you want the clock gone.

BUILD QUALITY? Pixel 4 XL is better. This isn’t hard to compare as the phone was priced more premium as well. In actual in hand feel, Pixel 4 XL feels much more ‘solid’. A weird comparison of this is, have you ever tapped or slapped a hard plastic container of hair gel? Well I have, it has a slight tingle when you do… Pixel 5 has such tingle as well when I tap or slap the phone. Pixel 4 XL in comparison feels like a marble slab, much more solid. I’m sure you all already know how the texture of Pixel 4 XL feels in hand by now. Pixel 5 feels different, it can be good or bad. It’s a preference thing. Curious? Go to the kitchen and touch your Anodized frying pan. Feels like that but instead of metal surface… It feels more like textured adhesive wrap applied to plastic. I dropped my Pixel 5 onto wooden floors yesterday, not a scratch or mark on it. Maybe plasticky isn’t so bad. Phone most certainly doesn’t feel like a $700 device and I doubt I’ll put a case on it. It’s not glass or pretty metal.

HAPTIC FEEDBACK? It’s good enough but not amazing. I think it has something to do with how light and tingly the Pixel 5 is. Remember I compared is to a container of hair gel. Haptics not such a big deal to me though, long as it’s there then that’s good enough. Phone just feels hollow.

PERFORMANCE? Not much difference as far as I can tell. Sorry, I can’t really test the speakers anyway.

BATTERY LIFE? Pixel 5 battery is nothing short of phenomenal. There’s no comparison compared to Pixel 4 XL. If you’re having battery issues on Pixel 4 XL then switching to Pixel 5 would be more than worth it.

Ok I think so far, I kept making the Pixel 5 sound bad but it’s really not! People keep comparing the Pixel 5 to Pixel 4 XL but that’s not a fair comparison. Pixel 4 XL cost $200 more in US at release.

So if you have a Pixel 4 XL and wondering if you should upgrade, consider 3 things: battery life, physical size of the phone and Fingerprint sensor. Battery is amazing, not much to say about that. Physical size of Pixel 5 is really good, very easily one handed, similar size to iPhone 8 with a slim case. I mention this because Pixel 4 XL with a case is a gigantic monster of a phone. Fingerprint sensor doesn’t need much of an explanation with this pandemic. Read more and join the discussion here…

Buy the Google Pixel 5 here

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9- Huawei P40 Pro

The list of positives is pretty long if you talk about Huawei p40 pro specifications! This Huawei p40 pro unboxing online will definitely make you a fan of this amazing design.

The design:

Initially, the P40 Pro looks and feels whimsical with a first-class design and curvilinear screen carrying an authentic touch of elegance! This quad-curve “Overflow Display” bends graciously around the boundaries of the case meaning you get an outstanding finish but likewise a device that’s unbelievably comfortable to grip. Whirl the P40 around, you’ll find a huge quad Leica-branded back camera. It comes in a sleek black color which means you get a prominent gleaming finish. If you love a tad of shine this reflected look has quite the charm! Notwithstanding its large 6.5-inch screen, the P40 Pro doesn’t really feel that gigantic in your hands though it’s an entire glass design.

The camera:

The Huawei p40 pro camera result can merely be labeled as extraordinary. With four rear lenses and some ingenious software, you’ll get a classic shot of nearly anything you shoot. Huawei has crammed a giant 50-megapixel sensor in conjunction with a wide-angle and depth-sensing camera into its modern device and above there’s also a remarkable 12-megapixel telephoto camera which presents 5X optical and 50X digital zoom. Utilizing this lens permits you to get much nearby to what you are photographing without dropping any sorts of fine detail.

The technology:

According to Huawei p40 pro reviews, camera and screen are totally topnotch, but there’s heaps of additional bonus aspects tucked inside the P40 Pro counting the super quick Kirin 990 processor and 5G technology denoting that you’ll have fiber-like broadband speeds even when you’re not at home. A bigger entrenched fingerprint scanner increases the rapidity and accurateness when attempting to unlock the phone and the rapid charging 4,200mAh battery delivers more than sufficient power to last throughout the day.

The Huawei p40 pro price in UAE and Huawei p40 pro price in Dubai would be around AED 3499 but it’s worth every penny because of its huge array of amazing features.

P40 Pro Plus Unboxing – Photowunder can replace your camera!?

Get the Huawei P40 Pro Here

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Motorola Edge 5G

The Motorola Edge is a lot of things. It’s a handsome phone, one that looks good enough to pass for something much more expensive. It’s the more modest sibling of Motorola’s first flagship device in years. And for now, at least, it’s a very good deal in the US — Motorola will sell the Edge for $500 instead of the usual $700 for a “limited time.” 

Maybe more than anything, though, the Edge is one of Motorola’s first attempts at making a new kind of device: An affordable 5G smartphone. It’s not alone, either. We’re already starting to see a glut of 5G-friendly phones that cost far less than the flagships that first embraced these next-gen networks. There’s the LG Velvet, for one, along with Samsung’s Galaxy A71 5G, the OnePlus Nord, the TCL 10 5G, and plenty more that aren’t being sold in the US. Point is, smartphone makers are already competing hard to win this new slice of the market, and Motorola is in the thick of this fight. So, how does the Edge stack up? Read more here…

Buy the Motorola Edge 5G here

Which phone is better, the Samsung A21 or the A80? I’m looking for high processing power and especially memory.

Which phone is better, the Samsung A21 or the Samsung A80? I’m looking for high processing power and especially memory.

The more expensive A80 has the better chipset with the Qualcomm SDM730 Snapdragon 730 and more internal memory at 128GB 8GB RAM but with no SD card slot. The A21,s 32GB 3GB RAM can be expanded but not the RAM. The A80 has the better display but being released May last year I personally would not buy it just for that reason alone as you get the 3 years software and security support for 3 years from when the phone was released not from when you buy it so the A80 will only get 18 months of support.

For less money, there is the Asus Zenfone 6 with Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855 a more powerful processer, internal memory options are 64GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM and it has an SD card slot and a headphone jack something the A80 lacks. The rotating camera wins hands down over the one of the Galaxy A80 – it can do automated panoramas, can be used at any angle, and doesn’t impose any limitations in selfie mode not that the camera was one of your wants but worth mentioning. Read more here…

Get the Samsung A80 here – Get the Samsung A21 here – Get the Azus Zenfone 6 here

What are the benefits of an iPhone 11 over the iPhone X?

What are the benefits of an iPhone 11 over the iPhone 10?

As someone who upgraded from an iPhone X (aka iPhone 10) to the iPhone 11 Pro, I can speak to this.

Really, the benefits depend. The camera and battery life are going to be the biggest, most obvious benefits as both are significantly better, especially with features like Night Mode, Ultrawide lens, and better chips for handling photos. Battery life is hugely better, seeing results of more than 50% better (i.e. the iPhone X gets 2/3 of the battery life of the iPhone 11). Just how much better it is depends on which iPhone 11 you get, but you’re going to see a jump of 3–5 hours no matter what. Check out this following graph:

As you can see, the iPhone 11 is one of the top phones for battery life in the world right now, whereas the iPhone X is in the bottom third.

The other jump you’ll see is in the processors, with two years of improvements between the two and that’s pretty huge in performance. This is just one of the many graphs that show this but the results are pretty consistent across multiple tests:

As an interesting side note, the two year old iPhone X is still worlds ahead of the competition. As AnandTech states, and I quote:

Overall, in terms of performance, the A13 and the Lightning cores are extremely fast. In the mobile space, there’s really no competition as the A13 posts almost double the performance of the next best non-Apple SoC. The difference is a little bit less in the floating-point suite, but again we’re not expecting any proper competition for at least another 2-3 years, and Apple isn’t standing still either.

The same is true for the GPU, which AnandTech calls “best in class”. So you’re going to see better graphics performance and speed. Apple’s machine learning, which handles a lot of backend processes that you don’t see, also improve. The iPhone 11 also has next generation wifi included.

Still this is all very technical and beyond the obvious like the camera and battery life, where does one get the obvious benefits. The answer is outside of those two (and a faster Face ID), you probably won’t today. However, if you’re one of those people who keeps their iPhone for 3+ years, that’s when you’ll really notice it. Apple is working on projects that will tap into the hardware of the iPhone 11 that are likely a year or so out, like AR glasses possibly, and other features. In two years, when you’re running iOS 15 on your still good iPhone X or an iPhone 11, you’re going to notice a difference in how those new features work. Because Apple needs mass market appeal for their new, groundbreaking features, they need to have a hardware base out there for it, so putting out hardware that can support a feature that they’re planning on releasing in two years or so means that they’ll have literally hundreds of millions of devices that can support it. That’s when you’ll notice.

If you want to see more differences and get into a deep (and very technical) dive of the iPhone 11, I highly suggest reading the AnandTech review[1] (source of the graphs above) for more details. Whenever someone claims that Apple isn’t innovative anymore are isn’t far ahead of the competition in terms of hardware, I point them at this review.

Footnotes[1] The Apple iPhone 11, 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max Review: Performance, Battery, & Camera Elevated

Get the iPhone 11 here

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10- Switching from iOS – hat to know – what to do?

Choose your new Android phone

Turn off iMessage

Turn off iMessage on your iPhone or deregister it on Apple’s website. The website also demonstrates how to turn iMessage off.

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Set up your new Android phone

Transfer data

This will depend on your manufacturer and the skin but all phones with Google Services will have the option of transferring data from your iPhone to your new Android phone. You can also check the Android website and follow the instructions there. A few manufacturer specific links have also been provided below.

• Google Pixel phones come with an adapter to transfer data from your iPhone to your new Pixel. They also have a website that will help you make the switch.

• Samsung have a tool called Smart Switch.

• LG have a guide on their website.

• Sony’s Xperia Transfer Mobile app.

• OnePlus have instructions on their website for their tool called OnePlus Switch that seems to be working for iOS.

• Huawei and Honor have an app called PhoneClone.

• Oppo have a guide on their website

Apps

Most apps on iOS can also be found on the Google Play Store. 

Get to know Android

Here’s a couple of links that showcase what Android 11 can do and provide a list of features.

• Official Android Page
• An exhaustive Android 11 review
• Android 11 changelog and new features

11- Switching from Android – what to know – what to do?

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12- Rooting your device

• Why should I root my phone?

It seems like everyday you see some cool new feature that’s only available for rooted users.

For those new to the world of rooting, acquiring root access essentially grants you elevated permissions. With root access, you are able to access and modify files that would normally be inaccessible, such as files stored on the /data and /system partitions. Having root access also allows you to run an entirely different class of third-party applications and apply deep, system-level modifications. And by proxy, you may also be able to access certain device features that would otherwise be inaccessible or use existing features in new ways.

Having root access isn’t the end all-be all of device modification–that title is usually reserved for fully unlocked bootloaders and S-Off. That said, root access is generally the first step on your journey to device modification. As such, root access is often used to install custom recoveries, which then can be used to flash custom ROMs, kernels, and other device modifications. Root access also enables users to install the powerful and versatile Xposed Framework, which itself acts as a gateway to easy, non-destructive device modification.

Due to its inherent power, having root access is often dangerous. Thankfully, there are root brokering applications such as SuperSU that only grant root access to applications of your choosing. There are also various root-enabled utilities available to help you restore in the event that something goes wrong. For starters, you can use any number of root-enabled application backup tools to backup your applications and their data to your local storage, your PC, and even online cloud storage. And in conjunction with a custom recovery, rooted users are able to perform a full, system-wide android backup that essentially takes a snapshot of your current smartphone or tablet at any particular time.

• How do I root my phone?

PLEASE NOTE: Rooting a device may void the warranty on the device. It may also make the device unstable or if not done properly, may completely brick the device. Some methods may install additional apps/software on your device. 

• Okay I rooted. Now what?
• Rooting, 2021

Please don’t use random root customization apps from the app store (Play Store), most of them are dodgy, work only for specific apps or device or just plain don’t work. In general, for installing apps on Android, always always check the last updated date – avoid anything which hasn’t been updated in over an year, as it will most likely not work as expected – and in terms of root apps this can be very dangerous as Android changes a LOT behind the scenes between each new version. So old root apps which used to work perfectly two years ago, could potentially brick your phone if the dev hasn’t updated it. Unfortunately Google does nothing about old apps and just lets them remain on the Play Store… The Play Store in general is trash. If you want to know which apps you can trust, check out androidpolice.com (for general apps) and xda-developers.com (for root apps) for reviews and recommendations

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12- Phone Finder App – Tablet Finder App

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Notable Android features not present on iPhones

Macroddroid, Sideloading, Split screen, Vanced, Tachiyomi, and Samsung GoodLock apps, VoD, Blockada (Blocks ads system wide. Does it more securely than the DNS route others mentioned by setting up a local VPN to route all traffic to the app to do filtering.), Newpipe – ad-free lightweight YouTube client, Ability to use a system-wide EQ. There is no turning back from using auto EQ with wavelet, truecaller, Youtube pip etc..

Use macrodroid to reject calls that aren’t in your contacts

• Freedom. I can do almost anything I want with an android device, talking about functions and customization. Let alone a rooted device… The potential is unlimited.
• iPhone doesn’t have: Text message scheduling, the ability to choose a default navigation app, split screen, ability to change dialer or custom messaging app, a comprehensive file browser, ability to download music straight into a music player from a browser, ability to change default photo app. The ability to change dictation software/text to speech without a loophole. No solid integration with any other Assistant like Google Assistant.
• On Samsung you can set volume separately for all apps and play sound from two apps simultaneously.
• I use Tasker for automation, but I use the Youmail app for call filtering. It has a setting that will only let calls from your contacts through, like you mentioned, but it will also transcribe any voicemail that someone who was blocked leaves. I then get that transcript on my watch. That way I don’t have the phone ring, but I can see with a glance whether it’s someone that I need to call back or not.
• I use a Samsung S21+ and an iPhone 11 so my experience is based on these two devices
• Things I love about my S21+ :-
• CALL RECORDING: In my S21+, Call recording is natively supported and it’s a feature that I can’t live without
• YOUTUBE VANCED: I absolutely love vanced
• CUSTOMIZATION:

• I can place apps anywhere on the home screen
• I can put PDF’s as widget on my home screen
• I can download any mp3 from the internet and set it as my ringtone
• I can have two instances of the same app on my phone for example two WhatsApp accounts, two telegram accounts on 1 phone, each with different phone number
• I can sideload apps
• Google apps work better on Android
• Ability to copy on my S21+ and paste on my Samsung Tablet
• Ability to copy and paste images system wide
• Ability to insert two physical SIM cards
• My phone supports playing MKV format videos natively which the iPhone doesn’t
• Ability to go the website from where a screenshot was taken directly from the screenshot
• An actual FILE MANAGER
• Ability to plug my phone into my Windows PC and use it as a regular USB device
• Vastly superior Notifications
• Vastly superior Samsung Keyboard which has YouTube and Spotify built- in so that I can send YouTube videos link or Spotify music track directly from the keyboard without opening up their apps
• Samsung phones come in built with McAfee Security
• These are SOME of the reasons I love android and can never switch fully to iOS
• Ps2 emulation
• Android can customize Lock Screen while iPhone can’t.
• Android can move app icons to anywhere on home screen while iPhone can’t.
• Android can select custom ringtone for various apps from your own folder while iPhone can’t.
• Android has universal back button while iPhone’s back swipe/button isn’t consistent everywhere.
• Long scrolling screenshot on any screen as an image file (Android) versus long screenshot only on Safari app and screenshot in PDF format only (iPhone, iOS/iPadOS)
• Physical programmable buttons
• Always on display
• Clipboard
• Android recognize who u wanna call by typing the person name on the dial pad. Ios can’t.
• Easter Egg
• iPhones don’t have third party browser support like android. Also only safari supports extensions on iOS.
• Multi apps in pop up size like in windows pc. Opens calculator, gallery, notes, email etc. at once
• Android has separate volume sliders for media, phone, and alarm
• Calculator app on iPhone lacks a cursor and a backspace key (it looks like the functionality hasn’t changed at all since the original iOS)
• Iphone doesn’t have ability to prevent notifications from waking the display up without completely disabling Lock Screen notifications for each individual app
• Dialer on iphone is not good: The contacts app separately has no point in existence, all of it is a tab in the phone app (maybe on an ipod touch? but even on that you have skype / discord etc calls) Tapping on contacts doesn’t show all the calls I had with them in the past (see next item). The call history seems to be limited to only X elements, instead of forever (both on android and windows phone I could scroll back years). The call history has no search / filter besides “missed”
• Play store has a far better range of smaller apps that are free
• Always on display isn’t on iPhone Easy ways to use NFC aren’t on iPhone Customization isn’t there on iPhone Gaming if you like emulators is missing on iPhones
• One last gripe I have with iPhones is notifications. I still can’t add YouTube videos to watch later from my notifications and things like that. Android does notifications much better.
• Custom Launchers on Android
• CALL RECORDING: In S21+, Call recording is natively supported
• Place apps anywhere on the home screen
• Put PDF’s as widget on Home screen
• Download any mp3 from the internet and set it as my ringtone
• You can have two instances of the same app on my phone for example two WhatsApp accounts, two telegram accounts on 1 phone, each with different phone number
• 3 Finger screenshot
• Ability to copy and paste images system wide
• Ability to insert two physical SIM cards
• Samsung Galaxy supports playing MKV format videos natively which the iPhone doesn’t
• Wide range of Audio Codec support (aptX, LDAC, aptX HD)
• An actual FILE MANAGER
• Samsung Internet Browser is amazing. It supports extensions and Iyou can have extensions installed. (Example: Translator, Ad-blocker, Safe search, Amazon shopping tool, Image search)
• Ability to plug android phone into my Windows PC and use it as a regular USB device
• Vastly superior Notifications
• Vastly superior Samsung Keyboard which has YouTube and Spotify built- in so that you can send YouTube videos link or Spotify music track directly from the keyboard without opening up their apps
• T9 Dialing on Samsung Notes
• Android has much more choices and customization, there is so much more you can do in android like torrent, multitasking, use it as mass storage, etc. Iphone does less things but does them better.
• Keyboards. You can install Gboard, Swiftkey etc with loads of functionalities in Android.
• Android has a much better keyboard, assistant, and home screen management
•  On my android I can easily play music files; on iPhone, I have to have apple music and an Internet connection to play my own files.
• The first one is a system wide back gesture like on Android. With phones getting bigger the fact that on many apps the only way to go back is to reach to the top left of the screen is really annoying especially on Max models.
• In the same vein the ability to bring down the notification center/control center without having to reach all the way up on the screen is really at odds with Apple’s easy to use philosophy.
• There’s also apple’s stubbornness on using lightning. I guess I do understand that one but it’s still annoying as hell.
• Texting from any computer:

Texting from your computer. But not just from a Macbook or other apple device, ANY computer.

I want a web-based equivalent of messages.google.com. Then I’d switch back.

It’s been about 4 years since I owned an iPhone. I loved iMessage for the desktop. But when my Macbook broke down and couldn’t afford a new one I switched to a Chromebook… then switched to a Pixel… then messages.google.com came out and it was game over. I’ve thought about how it would be fun to own an iPhone again, but as someone who works from a computer all day, I’m not sure I want to pick my phone up to text people back each time. Hands-on keyboard, texting screenshots from my computer, etc. This ONE feature is holding me back from switching.

I wonder if it’s ever going to happen. I wonder if any other iPhone users who use Chrome OS or Windows hurt the same.

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Notable iPhones features not present on android phones

• Native screen recording (Galaxy Note 20 ultra has it though)
• Airdrop
• iMessage
• Local CSAM scanning
• Stability
• Copy/paste media into apps
• (Browser) Reading Mode
• Chat bubbles
• Ringer switch

• clean OS (some Android manufacturers have some heavy skins applied out of the box)

• stability (we’ve all experienced irregularities and weird behaviors while using an Android handheld)

• consistency (when you buy an iPhone you know exactly what you’re gonna get, while when buying an Android smartphone, from Samsung, to OnePlus, to Xiaomi, to Pixels, the experience is never quite the same)

• THE ECOSYSTEM (iMessage, airdrop, continuity, AirPlay, while one might argue that you could emulate the same features on Android, it’s never as seamless and you’ll always encounter hiccups and glitches when using third party solutions)

• Android doesn’t lower or mute your audio just to make notification sounds. Very annoying when listening to music.
• What I miss from IPhone– when you’re at the bottom of a page and want to scroll to the top, just tap the top of the screen. Can’t do that on Android.
• One of the best things about iPhones is the trade in/resale value. Most android phones are nearly worthless after a year or two, but iPhones have a substantial value as trades or in selling price. Some of this is tied to the availability of software updates for years after manufacture, but the quality of construction is probably the major factor.
• Privacy & Security: Android phones can be hacked but iPhone is Unhackable
• Family integration and screen time monitoring on IOS
•  Accessibility. Apple’s screen zoom is SO much more robust than android’s. Like they’re superficially the same but the android one feels clunky when you actually hardcore use it like i do, and apple’s onscreen controller has come a long way to feeling incredibly natural intuitive and fast, which makes looking at things almost as easy for me as it is for people with normal eyes
• FaceTime
• I love how with Apple stuff in general all their products just work flawlessly together. I can cast my screen from phone or macbook to my tv, use my tv as a second computer monitor wirelessly, and although I’m going to stop using it very soon, iCloud was pretty cool for saving pictures and messages from one device from another. I’ll probably still use it for files though.
• Security is a wee bit lacking on Android Ecosystems unless you use pixel devices
• Better security & privacy,  iMessage & Hassle free file sharing these are the features android phones don’t have
• Widget Stacking: in iPhone Yes, in Android No
• iphone can use exposure and focus lock during pano shots.

Some features have a superscript number, below points clarifies it

• ¹Android 12 Beta 3 offers screen recording natively
• ²A Google Pixel exclusive feature
• ³Android devices running 7.0 or higher
• ⁴Mid rangers/Entry level and some flagship devices come with a charger (Example Xiaomi’s flagships have a charger)
• ⁵Can be done on Android without a computer, whereas Apple devices need Cydia Impactor or Sideloady to sideload apps
• ⁶Android software support can be extended by the installation of Custom roms [Custom rom distributors]
• ⁷Nearby Share needs Android 4.0 or higher, offered with Google Play Services
• ⁸Unnecessary features added by the OEM
• ⁹Requires latest version of Google Messages App

Read more here

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26 iOS Features that Many Android Users Want that Only iPhone Users Get [Source]

1. Integrated ecosystem

The integrated ecosystem across phones, tablets, computers, and watches is better on iOS. This is a very big advantage of iOS. It’s much easier to use the different devices inside the walled garden. Apple is the only company that offers a complete device ecosystem. While you can accomplish most of the same tasks with Android and Windows, it’s a lot more trouble to do so. The selection of Android tablets is limited and the higher end Android tablets with 5G can only be purchased directly from a cellular carrier.

2. Apple Watch

The Apple Watch is far superior to any Android watches and you can only use the Apple Watch with an iPhone. Android watches have a long way to go to catch up with the Apple Watch, both in hardware and software. It’s now possible to get cellular service on your Apple Watch even if your MVNO doesn’t support the Apple Watch. See Apple Watch Cellular Plans for Your Family, however according to Apple the following watch features will not be available: “irregular heart rhythm notifications, ECG, Cycle Tracking, Sleep, Blood Oxygen, Podcasts, Remote, News, Home, and Shortcuts.”

3. Longer OS Updates

Longer support of operating system upgrades for older devices. On flagship Android devices you’ll probably get two years of Android operating system upgrades (Google Pixel promises three OS upgrades), after that you’ll only get security updates. With the iPhone you’re likely to get five years of operating system upgrades.

4. Battery replacement

Battery replacement on iPhones is priced well ($49-$69) and is easily available at Apple Stores. This is not the case for Android devices. Also, since iPhones sell in such huge quantities, Apple is able to order fresh batteries for battery replacements so you’re not getting a battery that has sat around for a few years losing capacity. See iPhone Battery Replacement – Official Apple Support.

5. Walled Garden prevents malware

Rogue apps are not possible since all apps must be installed from the Apple app store; side-loading of apps is not possible except on jailbroken iPhones. While this limits the available apps, it helps to prevent malware.

6. Facetime¹

If your friends and relatives are really into Facetime then you must use an iOS device. Facetime works in China, while WhatsApp won’t work without a VPN that can get around the Great Firewall (in China most people use WeChat).

Note: Beginning with iOS 15 (tentatively scheduled for September 2021) Android and Windows users will be able to use Facetime, at least if they’re invited to a Facetime call, via the web; see With iOS 15, FaceTime between Android and iPhone is easier. Here’s how to do it now. This is a significant concession by Apple and was done to stem the tide of users moving to multi-platform providers like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Facebook Messenger Rooms.

7. iMessage

iMessage is only available on iOS devices. iMessage is not banned in China. There may be a workaround to this issue for Android and Windows users if the Beeper platform is successful, but it won’t be a free service (https://www.beeper.com/). Some iOS users don’t like seeing blue messages, which indicates that they are from a non-iOS user.

8. Microphone and camera indicator¹

Indicator for when microphone and camera are being used by an app (there’s an Android app that does this but it’s not part of the operating system yet). The orange dot indicates that the microphone is active and the green dot indicates that the camera is active.

9. No bloatware

Android manufacturers often add their own proprietary, non-removable apps, that are of little use. For example, Samsung includes their Bixby personal assistant. While it’s possible to remove bloatware from Android phones, it’s beyond the capability of most users to do so, see Samsung Bloatware List (2020) | Remove Samsung Bloatware Safely.

10. Easier backup and restore

iCloud makes it easier to do backup and restore.

11. Privacy

Apple’s business model is not dependent on selling your personal information to other companies. They don’t read your email! Apple has taken a stand against apps using your personal information without consent. This is probably the number one reason to choose an iPhone over an Android phone. However Android 12 actually has some better privacy features than iOS, see Android 12 privacy features catch up to iOS, except for ad tracking.

12. Support and help from Apple Stores

If you need help with your iPhone you can head to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store. The Apple Store can also do repairs like battery replacement. If you need help with an Android phone you’re not likely to get that kind of assistance. While Samsung operates a small network of stores, it’s nothing like what Apple has done with the Apple Stores. Most Android phones will have to be shipped back to the manufacturer for most repairs.

13. Ease of Use

The look and feel of iOS has changed very little over the years. iOS has a more intuitive user interface. The lack of some capabilities that are available on Android actually make the iPhone easier to use.

14. Faster processors in non-flagship models¹

The Apple Bionic processors, while not quite as fast as the latest Qualcomm processors, are nearly as high performance and new iPhones, even non-flagship new phones like the SE2020, get the latest processor. With Android there are many different processors, from many different companies, and lower-cost phones typically get low-performance, less costly processors.

15. AirDrop

AirDrop is a seamless way of transferring files between iOS devices and Macs. While there are similar apps for Android, and cross-platform apps like Instashare and Send Anywhere, AirDrop is built into iOS devices and is very convenient. Android’s version of AirDrop is called “Nearby Share” and works only on Android devices and Chromebooks.

16. Family Sharing

Purchases of apps, music, and books can be shared between up to six family (or non-family) members

17. Apple News

When Apple purchased Texture, and turned it into Apple News+, they dropped support for Android and iOS (Apple leaves Android users with few alternatives as Texture is earmarked for May 28 shutdown). Apple News+ is a very good deal for electronic subscriptions to a large number of magazines and newspapers (Apple News+ – All Publications). Since Apple News+ is a paid subscription it’s a little odd why Apple would not want to continue to sell the service to Android and Windows users as well, like they do with Apple Music and iTunes, especially since Texture was willing to sell the service to users of all platforms.

There is no equivalent service like Apple News+ for Android or Windows that provides access to the large number of publications like Apple News+ does. Hopefully it will be available on other platforms in the future.

18. Accessory Selection

While technically not an iOS feature, one advantage of the iPhone is that there are a lot more phone-specific accessories available. As Tom’s Guide stated “The selection and availability of iPhone cases, screen protectors, car mounts and other goodies is simply far greater than you’ll find for any other phone, and that’s more important than most people realize.”

While Android phones as a whole far outsell the iPhone, no one Android phone model has anywhere near the volume of sales of any iPhone model. Accessory manufacturers tool up for iPhone accessories before they do for Android accessories. Some iPhone-specific accessories never have an equivalent accessory made available for Android phones, especially custom-fit cases. For example, my iPhone 6s Plus lacks built-in wireless charging, but I bought a custom-fit case for it that adds wireless charging capability while retaining wired-charging capability. I could not buy a similar case for my old Android phones. There are thin Qi receivers with a USB plug that you can stick inside an Android phone case, but you loose the wired charging capability.

19. eSIM¹

All current iPhone models support one physical SIM and one eSIM. Only a few Android phones have eSIM support, though many Android phones sold in Europe and Asia offer dual physical SIM clots.

In the United States having a phone with dual SIM capability, whether an eSIM plus a physical SIM or two physical SIMs, is especially useful if your main carrier has poor rural coverage. You can sign up for a prepaid provider that uses AT&T or Verizon and only use the prepaid service when you’re in areas where your main carrier has no coverage.

Some prepaid global SIM cards are now moving to eSIMs, and charging a lot less for calling plans when you use their eSIM.

Apple sells iPhones with two physical SIM slots only in China, Using Dual SIM with two nano-SIM cards.

20. Friend Bar, 24 Hour Friend Line, and Personal iStore X

Building on the success of the Apple Store Genius Bar, Apple rolled out Friend Bars inside Apple Stores. The Friend Bar is available for Apple aficionados, without any technical questions, to speak with Apple employees about Apple or non-Apple related topics. For when the Apple Store is closed, Apple has also rolled out a 24 Hour Friend Line. Finally, they are also rolling out personal Apple Stores for your home. See https://youtu.be/q9ZnwvyAk8k. Note, this video is a joke.

21. iPhones have greater resale value

If you sell your old iPhone, rather than trade it in, a used iPhone sells for a higher percentage of the original street price than an Android phone. See here

22. Face Recognition

The iPhone’s face recognition system is much better than what is available on Android phones. While face recognition is less secure than 3D ultrasonic fingerprint readers it has some advantages. Face recognition isn’t affected by someone wearing gloves (though it doesn’t work when someone is wearing a face mask which has become a big issue during Covid).

23. Compatibility with Visible by Verizon

Nearly all iPhones, back to the iPhone 6, are compatible with Visible by Verizon prepaid service (the versions of old iPhones that didn’t support Verizon are the exception). On Android, only a very limited subset of phones work on Visible. Visible is a very good deal for service on the Verizon network, as low as $25/month for unlimited everything, see https://www.visible.com.

24. Integrated reminder app with location based reminders

The Reminders app in iOS allows you to set reminders based on leaving or arriving at a specific location. Google’s reminder app, Google Keep, doesn’t have this capability so you need to use an app like Tick Tick, TickTick: ToDo List Planner, Reminder & Calendar – Apps on Google Play (also available for iOS ‎TickTick:To-Do List & Calendar on the App Store).

25. Apple Credit Card with 3% discount and 0% financing on purchases direct from Apple

The Apple credit card offers a 3% cash rebate and 0% financing on purchases from Apple stores and Apple’s e-commerce site. It’s not a great credit card in other respects, with no extended warranty protection, no car rental CDW, and no mobile phone protection coverage. See https://tinyurl.com/applecardfacts for details.

26. Native hearing aid support

iPhones have native support for hearing aids. On Android, hearing aids require a separate app (see Using Your Hearing Aids with a Smartphone)

1. Expected on future Android phones or future version of Android OS

Source: Here

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101 Android Features that Many iPhone Users Want that Only (some) Android Users Get

(Note: Some of these features are available on Jailbroken iPhones and are noted in the list)

1. MST and Samsung Pay 

Samsung Pay with Samsung’s MST (Magnetic Secure Technology)  can be used in a lot more retail locations than Apple Pay. This is a Samsung-only feature and is patented, so even if Apple, or other Android phone makers wanted to use it they’d have to license it. It’s a big plus if your credit card gives higher cash-back for mobile-wallet purchases.

Unfortunately, Samsung removed MST from their S21 line, but it is still available in their newer mid-range phones. MST is really only useful in the United States and a few other countries where NFC has not yet been fully deployed by merchants, and in a few more years MST will no longer be needed.

2. Active styli²

Android phones with active styluses are available. This is likely coming on a future iPhone in the form of a smaller Apple Pencil. Note that there are after-market active styli that do work with both Android phones and iPhones, but they aren’t stored and charged in the phone

3. Headphone jacks

Android phones with 3.5mm (⅛”) headphone jacks are available (The best phones with a headphone jack: Samsung, OnePlus, Google…). Unlikely to ever return to iPhone, Apple decommissioned the standard headphone jack beginning with the iPhone 7. Many Android phones have also decommissioned  the headphone jack, but many still have it. Ironically, it’s the mid-range models, not the flagship models, of Android phones that have retained the headphone jack. The removal of the headphone jack was done in an effort to sell Bluetooth earbuds, and it worked.

4. MicroSD Card Slots available on many Android phones

Android phones with MicroSD Card slots are available (Phones with expandable memory — what are your best options?). A memory card slit is unlikely to ever be included on an iPhone. Many Android phones have decontented the MicroSD card slot and as internal memory sizes have increased so the benefit of a MicroSD card is diminished, though it’s still very useful in other ways. For example, if you’re using a real camera instead of the phone’s camera, and want to send photos using e-mail or Facebook, or other programs, you can stick the memory card from the camera into your phone to transfer photos. If you’re using an offline mapping program the maps can take vast amounts of storage space and can be stored on the MicroSD card.

5. Apps (or “There’s an App for That”)

There are many extremely useful Android apps for which there is no iOS equivalent, either because Apple won’t allow the equivalent app, the hardware needed for the app isn’t present, or because the hardware to support the app is present but isn’t accessible to the developer. This is odd. It would only require adding drivers and allowing developers access to existing hardware. For example, iOS does not allow developers to access the raw NMEA GPS data so apps that require this information are not possible on iOS devices. iOS doesn’t support the Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) so many devices, both consumer and industrial, cannot be used with iOS devices. This would be an easy fix if they chose to do it. See 7 Awesome Apps Available Only on Android. Available on Jailbroken iPhones

6. App stores

There are a huge number of app stores distributing Android apps, you’re not limited to the Google Play store (The Ultimate List of Mobile App Stores (2021)). With Apple, you must get all your apps from Apple; this increases security but it means that more esoteric apps are only available on Android (which is why Android does so well in China even though the Google Play Store is banned). It’s unlikely that Apple would ever allow other App stores because of both revenue and security issues.Available on Jailbroken iPhones.

An Android phone without access to the Google Play Store still has access to nearly every app in existence, though it’s a bit of a chore to download the apks of the Google Play Store apps and side-load them, and you have to be careful about the source of the apks. The reality is that an android phone without a Google account can still install huge numbers of apps so the phone is not crippled by losing access to Google Play. In fact in China the Google Play store is banned yet Android is the dominant OS. And were not talking about just sketchy providers of apks, but reputable companies distributing apps that have been vetted for malware.

7. 3D Fingerprint sensors² [predicted for iPhone 14]

Flagship Android phones with 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensors are available. This is likely coming on a future iPhone. This has been a big deal during the pandemic since Apple’s FaceID doesn’t work if the user is wearing a mask, but it was an issue even pre-pandemic in countries where face-mask wearing is common for other reasons. Most of us have been in stores where an iPhone user is struggling to unlock their iPhone in order to use Apple Pay.

Another benefit of 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensors is that all the security experts agree that they are far more secure than face recognition. Apple has a patent for their own under-screen optical 3D fingerprint reader or they can use one of the existing underscreen fingerprint sensors, or they can integrate the fingerprint reader into the power button like they did on some of the iPad models.

Note that Apple is fond of comparing the security of FaceID to TouchID; TouchID is a 2D capacitive sensor which is indeed less secure than FaceID, though in some cases FaceID can be fooled by siblings or children that look alike. Remember, Apple only claimed that FaceID was more secure than the 2D TouchID fingerprint sensor that they used up until the iPhone 8 (and the new SE). This was at least a partially, though not totally, accurate statement, and included some weasel words, see:

• No, Apple’s Face ID Is Not A ‘Secure Password’

• Virtual U: Defeating Face Liveness Detection by Building Virtual Models from Your Public Photos

• My Younger Brother Can Access My iPhone X: Face ID Is Not Secure

• Experts Agree: Face ID Is Not The Answer, In-Display Fingerprint Sensors Are

• I’ll never use Apple’s Face ID

• Apple’s Face ID is bad, as this police encounter makes painfully clear 

Nearly 80% of iPhone users want TouchID back, see Almost 80% Of iPhone Users Want Touch ID To Come Back and Report: 79% of iPhone users want Touch ID to make a comeback in the future iPhones.

74% said that they have had trouble with Face ID in a public setting.

84% were frustrated with FaceID not working with masks.

33% admitted removing their mask to get FaceID to work.

39% were not buying the iPhone 12 because of the lack of a fingerprint scanner.

79% want Touch ID to come back.

56% said that the most desired new security feature was “in-display fingerprint reader.”

23% said that they would switch to an Android phone with a fingerprint scanner the next time they upgrade. ✓

Also see: The iPhone feature we really, really want is finally coming.

8. Reverse wireless charging²  (now partially enabled on iPhone 12)

This has been available on many Android phones for years. It’s taken on new importance due to smart watches and wireless Bluetooth earbuds. The iPhone 12 has the hardware for reverse-wireless charging built into the phone but you cannot charge AirPods or an Apple Watch, it is not enabled except to charge the Apple MagSafe battery, see: Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack Unlocks Long Rumored Reverse Charging Feature and (Hidden iPhone 12 Hardware Feature Could Still be Unlocked.

9. USB-C

USB-C has multiple advantages over Lightning (USB-C vs. Lightning: Which is the Future?). This may be coming on a future iPhone, since they already did this upgrade on iPad, but recent predictions from an industry expert said that Apple will not move to USB-C because they would lose Mfi (Made for iPhone) royalties that they get on Lightning and MagSafe devices. Apple is reportedly planning to add a MagSafe Charging Port for iPhone to a future iPhone based on a patent disclosed on March 2nd 2020. As ZDNet stated: “USB-C is the future, while Lightning represents an increasingly awkward past.” Interestingly enough, Apple even touts USB-C in their “Beats Highlights,” stating “USB-C universal charging.” One big advantage of USB-C is that it supports much higher wattage charging.

10. USB 3.0 Speed²

Most new Android phones support USB 3.0 which has speeds up to 5 Gb/s, and USB 3.2 goes up to 20Gb/s. The iPhone 12 only runs at USB 2.0 speeds, up to 480 Mb/s. This is an issue when transferring large amounts of data or tethering a computer to a 5G phone’s hotspot. The iPhone 12 has a maximum Wi-Fi speed of 1.2Gb/s which is sufficient for 4G LTE hotspots but not for mmWave 5G. Hopefully the next iPhone will address this issue. If Apple can find a way to make the Lightning port compatible with USB 3.0 it will address this issue. See 5 Reasons Why USB-C is Better than Lightning –.

11. Separate audio volume controls for different functions (Available on Jailbroken iPhones)

On Android phones you can set different volumes for ringtone, notifications, media, system sounds, and on Samsung phones for Bixby (Samsung’s personal assistant). This is an odd omission from iOS since it’s a heavily requested feature that would not cost anything (in terms of hardware) to implement; it’s possible that it is a patented Android feature.

Hopefully Apple will add it to iOS soon. It’s especially amusing to see inquiries from users that switched from Android to iPhone on how to set different volumes since they often refuse to believe that such basic functionality is missing (separate ringer and notification volumes – Apple Community). Genius Bar employees have stated that this is one of the most-asked questions asked by iPhone users that have switched from Android. It may be the case that Google or Samsung has a patent on this functionality and that Apple is not able to add it to iOS. However if you Jailbreak your iPhone there are apps you can install that will allow separate volume settings. Available on Jailbroken iPhones, see https://ioshacker.com/cydia/smartvolumemixer2-tweak-supercharges-volume-controls-on-your-iphon or http://apt.thebigboss.org/onepackage.php?bundleid=com.brend0n.volumemixer.

12. Better Security²

Security is better on flagship Android devices than on iOS devices. According to Cellebrite, the Israeli company whose Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) is a favorite of police departments and the FBI, the higher-end Android phones were not hackable but they could hack into every iPhone model, see Forensics detective says Android phones are now harder to crack than iPhones and , and Android Phones Might Be More Secure Than iPhones Now and FROM FORBES: No, Your iPhone Is Not More Secure Than Android, Warns Cyber BillionaireBy.

Android users do have the ability to make their phones less secure by installing apps from “Unknown Sources” and by rooting, but that’s not something you can do without expressly ignoring the security risks. Older Android phones, using older versions of the operating system, are less secure.

13. Split screen²

Split Screen². Not yet available on iOS except on iPad. This is an extremely useful feature on large-screen phones. Apple has already added to iOS for the iPad and hopefully it will make it to the iPhone soon. There is an iPhone App that at least provides some limited split screen functionality (‎Split Screen Multitasking View on the App Store), but not like Android.

14. Content transfer to a PC (Available on Jailbroken iPhones)

Transferring content between a computer and a phone is much easier on an Android phone. Unlike with an iPhone, iTunes is not required to be installed. This is especially an issue when transferring photos or videos between an iPhone and a Windows machine and the dreaded “Device is unreachable” error occurs during large transfers (this problem can be solved with the non-free CopyTrans software, see A device attached to the system is not functioning error. [2021]), also see Top 6 Ways to Fix Device Is Unreachable Error for iPhone on Windows 10. Available on Jailbroken iPhones, see Copying · Cydia.

15. Choice of app launchers (Available on Jailbroken iPhones)

A very nice feature of Android that Apple is highly unlikely to copy, Best Android launchers 2021. Available on Jailbroken iPhones, see [Question] What are your favorite app launchers?: jailbreak .

16. FM radio

Most Android phones with headphone jacks also have an FM radio. This is not a heavily used feature because data is now cheap enough that most people stream music or stream radio stations, but some Android users do appreciate having this capability, especially if they are in an area with no cellular coverage. See The list of 2021 best Smartphones that have FM Radio – Technology.

17. Better cameras²

While the award for best camera goes back and forth, for now, several of the flagship Android phones have better camera systems than the flagship iPhones, especially when it comes to two key features: night mode and optical zoom, see https://www.techradar.com/news/best-camerapho. What’s especially disappointing about the latest iPhones is that Apple dropped the telephoto lens on all iPhone 12 models except the most expensive iPhone 12 Pro.

18. Better displays²  [confirmed for iPhone 13]

Flagship Android phones now offer Samsung LTPO 120 Hz displays. This was expected on the iPhone 12 but has now been pushed out to the iPhone 13 (iPhone 13 Pro 120Hz display now looks like a lock — thanks to Samsung) .

19. Better hardware²  [confirmed for iPhone 13]

While Apple’s Bionic processors win in terms of raw CPU performance, Apple can’t yet duplicate what Qualcomm has done in terms of integrating the modem into the processor like they did on their flagship Snapdragon 888 chip set (and on the mid-range Snapdragon 765 and 775 chipsets). The advantages of an integrated modem include, lower power, less heat, longer battery life, and higher data rates. Apple is reportedly designing their own 5G modem to integrate into a future Bionic SOC (System On a Chip), but it’s much more difficult to design a modem than a CPU. It’s likely that Apple will have an integrated modem not later than the iPhone 15 in 2023. See Apple’s (AAPL) Greatest Chip Challenge Yet: Replacing Qualcomm (QCOM) Modems.

However it is true that there are many low-to mid-range, inexpensive, Android phones available, with low-performance processors, very small amounts of RAM and ROM, and with low-end screens. Those low to mid-range phones have hardware not nearly as good as iPhone flagship phones.

While all the iPhone 12 models are 5G, and use a Qualcomm X55 modem, and a 4×4 MIMO antenna configuration, that isn’t the case on Apple’s iPhone SE 2020 which uses an Intel modem and a 2×2 MIMO antenna. There have been numerous complaints about the cellular reception of the iPhone 2020SE.

20. Ability to set a default music app (Available on Jailbroken iPhones)

There was speculation that iOS 14.5 had this capability, but Apple has clarified that this is not the case. However Apple has been allowing some default apps to be set to non-Apple apps (browser and email) so iOS users may eventually get this capability. On Android, one of the music player apps I like is Music Folder Play (Music Folder Player Free – Apps on Google Play). For iPadOS you can use Documents (How to play mp3 on iPhone | The best iPhone music player) in a similar manner, but it isn’t available for iOS, where you’re stuck with iTunes. Available on Jailbroken iPhones

21. Faster charging²  [confirmed for iPhone 13]

While Apple has made some positive strides in terms of charging, there are Android devices available with much faster charging, both wired and wireless. There are Android phones with 65 watt wireless, and 125 watt wired, charging, The problem that Apple has is that the Lightning port is not capable of such high charge rates but they have not yet made the move to USB-C What Is Fast Charging?.

22. Foldables² 

While Apple is predicted to eventually come out with their own foldable design they are at a disadvantage compared to Samsung because they don’t manufacture their own screens. Without a foldable, larger screens are impractical, but a larger iPhone screen could cannibalize iPad sales. See The best foldable phones you can buy right now. A foldable iPhone is predicted to launch in 2023, see iPhone Flip: Everything we know about Apple’s foldable phone plans

23. LTPO (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide) displays²  [confirmed for iPhone 13]

LTPO screens allow the refuresh rate to be changed on-the-fly which reduces power consumption. The latest Android phones have these power-saving displays. LTPO will probably be available on the iPhone 13, see iPhone 13 rumored to use LPTO displays from Samsung with 120Hz support.

24. Faster data speeds on both 4G and 5G²  [confirmed for iPhone 13]

Android phones have much higher 5G speeds than iPhones. Even mid-range Android phones beat flagship iPhones. Part of the problem is that the iPhone 12 uses the Qualcomm X55 modem, which was the latest 5G modem when the iPhone 12 was designed, but is no longer the fastest 5G modem offered by Qualcomm. The iPhone 13 will use Qualcomm’s X60 modem which is the same modem that is integrated into the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor the 888. But the lack of integration into the chipset means that the iPhone is still not likely to be as fast (unless Apple has licensed the X60 modem cell and will integrate it into the A15 Bionic). See iPhone 12 Series 5G/4G Speed Is Slower Than Samsung, OnePlus, Google, LG in US: Opensignal | Technology News.

25. ANT+ available on some Android phones. This was surprising, I just assumed that the iPhone would support ANT+. ANT+ is widely used in the cycling world for sensors (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANT_(network)). There is a list of ANT+ compatible devices at https://www.thisisant.com/consumer/ant-101/ant-in-phones/. There is a very kludgy workaround to get ANT+ on an iPhone: 1) buy an Mfi certified Lightning to 30 Pin old iPhone connector, then 2) buy the Wahoo ANT+ key (which works with a limited number of ANT+ devices and applications. You can also buy a Viiiiva heart rate monitor that can act as a ANT+-to-Bluetooth bridge

26. Contact groups (Available on Jailbroken iPhones) 

Ability to create groups in Contacts and use that group name as an address, much like email (Android: How to Create Contact Groups). There may be third-party apps (‎Contact Groups – Text & Email on the App Store) for iPhone that allow this, but it is not part of the operating system. This is an odd omission from iOS since it’s a heavily requested feature that would not cost anything (in terms of hardware) to implement; it’s possible that it is a patented Android feature. May be available on Jailbroken iPhones

27. GPS location spoofing (Available on Jailbroken iPhones) 

This is buried in Developer Options on Android. It’s useful if you want to view content in a location other than the one you’re currently at. For example, if you have a U.S. Hulu account but are in another country, U.S. only content would not be available, even with a VPN, because Hulu looks at your physical location using the GPS location. By spoofing the GPS location you’re able to view the content that you’re paying for. See How to spoof your Android phone’s location to get around media blackouts. Available on Jailbroken iPhones, see Location Faker makes it easy to spoof your location on iOS 13.

28. Better ad blocking (Available on Jailbroken iPhones) 

This is because on Android you can edit the hosts file in the device, see How to modify the hosts file on your Android device. You cannot modify the hosts file on a non-jail broken iOS device. Available on Jailbroken iPhones

29. USB OTG 

USB-OTG (on the go) turns your Android phone into a USB host. Not only can you connect many USB peripherals to the USB-C port (or Micro USB port on older phones) you can also power those USB peripherals up to 500mA (or higher). While there are adapters available to connect USB devices to iPhones, the types of devices you can connect are very limited. See What Is USB OTG and What Does It Do?.

30. iTunes not required for wired hotspot 

Sometimes you want to connect a computer to your phone to use your phone as a hotspot; this is done with a USB cable (to USB-C, Micro USB, or Lightning). To accomplish this with an iPhone you must first install iTunes on the computer. With Android you simply plug in the cable and turn on USB Tethering. Actually, there is apparently a way to download iTunes but not install it and then only install the iOS USB tethering driver, see Next Post Getting iPhone USB tethering on Windows without iTunes.

31. No false warnings when using after-market chargers 

Beginning with iOS 14, iPhone users have been getting warnings of “Liquid Detected In Lightning Connector” when using non-Apple chargers and cables, even when there is no liquid present. It’s not clear why this false positive is occurring, but one theory is that the iPhone looks at the impedance between the pins on the Lightning connector and extrapolates that a lower than expected impedance is being caused by moisture when in fact it’s just differences in the charger or cable that are the cause. See Liquid Detected In Lightning Connector Bug (iPhone Not Wet).

32. Hole Punch cameras instead of a large notch2  [predicted for iPhone 14]

As BGR wrote here: “Every noteworthy Android phone company has now moved past the notch that Apple made famous on the iPhone X, and they have developed numerous exciting new all-screen designs that are much better. Apple’s iPhones, however, still look exactly the same thanks to the company’s new three-year design cycle.” Hopefully the iPhone 13, will combine more advanced displays with a hole punch instead of a notch. The large notch on the iPhone negatively affects the screen to body ratio. 

33. Removable Batteries 

While the number of Android phones with removable batteries has greatly decreased, there are still a few available. See The best phones with a removable battery and alternative solutions!.

34. Parental Control Apps² 

Android has superior parental control apps to iOS. See The best parental control apps for Android and iPhone 2021. There is a case pending in court by Kaspersky, against Apple, because Apple forced Kaspersky to remove features from its SafeKids app. Depending on the outcome of this case, iOS may get better parental control apps. Apple was fined $12 million in Russia, but of course this will likely drag on with appeals, and the final outcome remains to be seen, see Apple fined $12M by Russian regulator over App Store monopoly abuse and Apple Fined £8.7m By Russian Competition Authority

35. Wide Selection of Devices 

Because Android devices are manufactured and marketed by a large number of companies there are phones and tablets available at many different price points and with many different features; you can buy a basic unlocked 4G LTE Android phone for under $40 or you can opt for the Sony Xperia Pro 5G phone at nearly $2500.

36. Better Biometric Authentication² 

With the current iPhones, you can choose between a 2D capacitive fingerprint sensor (TouchID) or facial recognition (FaceID) depending on the model. With flagship Android phones you often get three choices of biometrics on the same phone: 3D ultrasonic fingerprint, facial recognition, or iris scanning.

37. File System (Available on Jailbroken iPhones) 

 Plug your Android phone into your PC and the phone looks like a drive in the Windows file system. You can copy files over in both directions, delete files from your phone, and use the phone as a USB disk drive. While Apple did finally add the “Files” app to iOS, it has much less functionality than what you can do on Android. Available on Jailbroken iPhones

38. Rooting is Easy, when Necessary 

With Android devices, it’s usually not necessary to root the device (rooting an Android device is the equivalent of jailbreaking an iOS device). However most Android device manufacturers provide a way to root their devices, with caveats that doing so will void the warranty.

39. SMS Forwarding (Available on Jailbroken iPhones) 

This is a useful feature if you’re traveling and using a prepaid foreign SIM card. Due to security concerns, native SMS forwarding on Google Voice is being discontinued by Google in July 2022. See Forward text messages or voicemail – Android – Google Voice Help. However SMS forwarding apps are still available on the Play store. The security concern is that someone could gain access to your device and set up SMS forwarding for nefarious purposes. There are apps on the Play Store that offer SMS forwarding, i.e. SMS Forwarder: Auto forward SMS to PC or Phone – Apps on Google Play.

One workaround that I use is that I ported my main mobile number to Google Voice. I can now receive SMS in my email, which is very useful, not only when traveling, but in general. 

Available on Jailbroken iPhones, see SmartVolumeMixer2 Tweak Supercharges Volume Controls On Your iPhone.

40. Browser Extensions² 

Android allows browser extensions. iOS does not allow browser extensions. In iOS 15, coming out in the third or fourth quarter of 2021, there will be a limited number of extensions only on Safari Safari’s getting mobile browser extensions before Chrome, and that’s a big deal . Note that even on Jailbroken iPhones there is no browser that allows extensions.

41. eBook Readers 

The best eBook reading app is Prestigio eReader Prestigio: Book Reader – Apps on Google Play. Prestigio supports epub, epub3, fb2, fb2.zip, mobi, pdf, html, doc, rtf, txt, and Adobe DRM. The eBook readers available for iOS all have limitations in terms of the formats they can read when used on iOS, however for iPadOS the situation is much better. Some people might insist that you would never want to read a book on an iPhone anyway, because the screen is too small. It’s true that you might not want to read a novel on an iPhone, but for books like travel guides they are useful to have on your phone. Kobo (‎Kobo Books on the App Store) seems to be the best option for iPhone, and supports epub, epub3, pdf, FlePub and mobi.

42. NMEA Data 

Android allows applications to use raw GPS NMEA data .For whatever reason, iOS does not. This enables many useful applications for Android that are not available on iOS without the use of an external GPS and jailbreaking. See Reading NMEA data from iPhone GPS receiver and iPad and GPS.

43. Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) 

iOS doesn’t support one of the most common Bluetooth profiles, the Serial Port Profile (SPP) (see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204387). The issue with this is that the low-cost OBD-II dongles (ELM-327) all use SPP to communicate with the host. You can buy higher-priced OBD-II dongles that use either Wi-Fi or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). The best app for OBD-II is TorquePro which only works with SPP and is only available for Android.

44. Always on Display²  [confirmed for iPhone 13, some models]

On Android devices with OLED screens the “Always On” display can display things like the time, battery status, and notifications. The iPhone 13 and iOS 15 is predicted to add this feature, see here

45. Multiple Users² 

Both Android phones and Android tablets can have multiple users. No such feature exists on iOS or iPadOS except for some educational models of the iPad. Obviously Apple wants everyone to buy their own devices and not share! Even for phones, it sometimes is useful to have multiple users on the same phone. Reportedly, Apple is working on bringing multi-user support to iPhone, and presumably to iPad, see Apple is apparently working on bringing multiple user support to iPhones.

46. Ability to close all open apps at once 

With Android you can close all of your open apps with single action. With iOS you have to close each open app individually, see here. This is an odd omission from iOS since it’s a heavily requested feature that would not cost anything (in terms of hardware) to implement; it’s possible that it is a patented Android feature.

47. Ability to set default apps 

On Android you can choose the default app for things like SMS, calls, and web browsing. See How to change default apps in Android. This is not possible on iOS. This is an odd omission from iOS since it’s a heavily requested feature that would not cost anything (in terms of hardware) to implement; it’s possible that it is a patented Android feature.

48. Customization 

On Android nearly everything is customizable without any need to root the device.

49. File exchange via Bluetooth 

This is limited to Android devices, see How to share files via Bluetooth on Android 9 or 10.Still, Airdrop on iOS is much better and one of the advantages of iOS.

50. Getting to settings 

On Android, swipe down from the top of the screen. No such swipe action is available on iPhone. See How to go to Settings on Android: 19 Methods.

51. Create icons that give direct access to specific websites, documents, or photos 

Are you about to get on a plane and are frantically searching for your boarding pass that is either in some pdf file, a JPG,l or is in some e-mail? On Android you can create an icon that links directly to that document and place that icon on your home screen. See How to Create a Shortcut File on Android Home Screen — Max Dalton Tutorials. This is an odd omission from iOS since it’s a heavily requested feature that would not cost anything (in terms of hardware) to implement; it’s possible that it is a patented Android feature.

52. Clipboard History 

A very nice Android feature is that it includes clipboard history. On iOS this feature requires a separate app. From The 8 things I want to see in iOS 15 : “With iOS, you can’t view your clipboard history without some kind of third-party app. Apple could add better clipboard management in iOS 15 to make life easier for everyone.”

53. Android Earthquake Alert System

What’s a better new feature for an operating system than 200+ new emojis? How about an Android based earthquake alert system that turns every Android phone into a seismometer? First launched in California, Google is now expanding the system to other countries. See Android Earthquake Alerts to widely launch next year. Earthquake alerts is not an app, it’s part of the Android operating system.

54. Android Auto is Better than Apple CarPlay

Part of the reason for this is that Google Assistant is more capable than Siri, but thre are other advantages as well. See The Things Android Auto Does Better than Apple’s CarPlay.

55. Android ELS (Emergency Locator Service) 

Launched in 2016, Android ELS provides accurate location information to emergency service providers and also now shares your phone’s language setting and some emergency personnel can route your call to a responder that speaks your language, or can have a translator available. See How it works | Android Emergency Location Service | Google.

56. Superior Computational Photography2 

The iPhone used to be the leader in the field of computational photography but has let Android, for some phone models, surpass the it. The incredible computational photography of Google’s own Pixel brand of phones has become a major selling point. See Apple finally stole my heart from the Google Pixel with this iPhone camera feature and Google roasts Apple on computational photography: ‘It’s not mad science’.

The Fuji mirrorless X-Pro series has added computational photography to “real” cameras with its “HDR” function, see next post: Fujifilm X-Pro3: First Step into Fuji’s 3 Year Computational Photography Masterplan.

57. Battery Percentage Indicator 

Android has an indicator on the lock screen that shows the percentage of battery remaining. Inexplicably, this was present on the iPhone home screen until the iPhone X; you didn’t have to swipe to find it. The suggested workaround on the iPhone’s that lack this feature is to create a widget with the battery percentage and place it on the home screen, but you still need to unlock your phone to see it. Why Apple removed this essential feature is unknown and perhaps it will return in a future version of iOS. The only somewhat plausible reason anyone has come up with is that the iPhone 12 is the first 5G phone and the 5G modem drains the battery faster and displaying the battery percentage would highlight how fast the battery was draining. See How to show battery percentage on iPhone 12 series models.

58. Multitasking 

Android devices can do true multitasking. iPhones can only do task switching except for a few specific apps, music, location, AirPlay, VoIP (Voice Over IP), push notifications, Apple News, Bluetooth, and background updates. See What are the differences between Android and iOS in multitasking? Conventional wisdom says Android has ‘real’ multitasking and iOS does not. What does that mean? What are the pros and cons of Android vs. iOS multitasking? and How to Use Multitasking on the iPhone. Note that true multitasking is available in iPadOS.

59. Installing old versions of Apps 

Sometimes an app will be removed from the Google Play Store completely, or there will be a new version that changes the app for the worse. When you get a new phone you may want to get the old version of the app, not the one currently available. If you plan ahead, and save the apk file of the app, you can reinstall the old app on a new device. Sometimes you can find old versions of the app elsewhere and sideload the app using the apk file, though you need to be cautious since sideloading can also load malware onto the phone. With iOS, if an old version of an app is no longer hosted on the App Store then you can’t get the old version unless your iPhone is jailbroken and the old version of the app is still hosted on the App Store. Read How to Download an APK File from the Google Play Store to learn how to download and save apks from the Play store.

60. App development infrastructure and cost 

One reason that Android has so many more apps than iOS is that it’s much easier and less costly to develop an Android app than an iOS app. The Android development environment is free and can be run on any computer, no Mac required. That said, it’s probably worth paying for a development environment that generates code for both Android and iOS apps simultaneously. On iOS you’re also more likely to be able to sell an app rather than rely on advertising to make money.

61. USB-C PD and Wired Charging Wattage 

Since USB-C can handle up to 100 watts via wired charging Apple has chosen USB-C for the charging port on the iPad Pro and on some MacBooks. Lightning is limited to about 12 watts. The big difference is that Lightning operates only at 5 volts so the maximum wattage is very limited because wattage is limited by the maximum current that a Lightning cable and connector can handle. USB-C PD operates at up to 20 volts so the maximum wattage is much higher. Interestingly enough, Apple even touts USB-C in their “Beats Highlights,” stating “USB-C universal charging.”✓

62. Choice of file managers 

While iOS finally has a file manager, after years of iPhone users asking for one, Android gives you a choice of many different file managers, with different feature levels depending on your needs. See 10 best Android file explorer apps, file browsers, and file managers!.

63. Less censoring of content 

Google doesn’t censor content as much as Apple. The big problem with this censorship is that you aren’t provided with a detailed reason as to what content was unacceptable so you can surgically remove only the content that has been deemed unacceptable. See 1 and 2 and 3   and 4.

64. Phone cost 

Android phone models with comparable cost and features to iPhone phone models have lower street prices, even when the MSRPs are comparable. Android phone makers, especially Samsung, heavily discount even their latest flagship models; Apple rarely discounts their current models.

65. Cloud integration and Storage Pricing 

66. Dual Physical SIM slots 

67. Professional-level phones 

68. Language support (Internationalization) 

69. High-refresh rate phones² 

70. Higher screen to body ratio² 

71. Built-in IR Blaster (Consumer Infrared) 

72. Place icons anywhere on the screen 

73. Sideloading of Apps 

74. Innovation comes to Android first 

75. Faster mobile wallet payments 

76. No throttling 

77. Android emulation on Windows 

78. Custom ROMs 

79. Home screen rotation (Available on Jailbroken iPhones) 

80. Backup and restore apps using APK (Android Package Kit) (Available on Jailbroken iPhones) 

81. On Android Netflix now lets you start watching unfinished downloads.²  

82. Digital COVID-19 vaccination cards 

83. Front LED flashes for front camera 

84. Front camera with optical image stabilization 

85. Better battery life 

86. Signal information 

87. Better Field test mode 

88. Home Screen Shortcuts 

89. Repairability by third-party repair shops 

90. Alternate Android-based operating systems 

91. Google Play Protect 

92. Better thermal design 

93. Custom keyboards 

94. 5G available even on non-flagship phones 

95. Market share 

96. Phones with secondary rear displays 

97. Phones with very large displays 

98. New features come to Android first 

99. Rugged phones 

100. RCS (Rich Communication Services) support 

101. No on-device scanning of photos 

2. Expected on a future iPhone or future version of iOS

Source: Here

Things I wish Android would copy from iOS (and vice versa)

I’m a longtime Android user (11 years) who recently switched to the iPhone 13 Pro Max. I did this mainly because I just love tech and trying new things (in 2021 I’ve used the S21, Z Fold3, and S21 Ultra), but also because my Pixel 6 was annoying me with lots of random bugs lately.

While I still think Android is the better OS for me, there are a few things that make me enjoy using the iPhone 13 that I wish Android would copy.

Things I wish Android would Copy from iOS:

• Smoother Animations: So this might not seem like a big deal to some people, but I noticed it immediately. iOS generally feels smoother because of the animations. It’s like someone sat down and key-framed every subtle movement. It just feels “natural”. It was super jarring when I picked up my S21 Ultra to compare. Not saying the S21 Ultra is slow by any means, but the animations just seem…sharp; even after going into the developer options and slowing them down a bit. While the Pixel 6 is a little better, it’s still not close to how it feels on iOS.
• Spotlight Search On iOS, a quick swipe down from the home screen will bring up a Spotlight search which will search everything. App Store, the Web, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Reminders, Apple Photos, Google Photos, etc. You can sort of do this on Android devices. However, it doesn’t bring up the same amount of information as it does on iOS. Also, iOS will give you a nicely formatted quick summary if you search for something like a well-known person or event.
• Widget Stacks iOS has this concept of widget stacks or smart widgets. Basically, a widget can change what it displays based on your daily activities and location context. I’ve actually found it super helpful. For example, my weather widget will change to the Apple Maps widget when I’m leaving the store and tell me how long it will take to get home. Or switch to the battery widget when my Apple Watch or phone are getting low. Then back to the weather widget when I wake up in the morning.
• Integration between Apps Apple apps integrate really well into other Apple apps. For example, I can set a reminder that will show up when I message someone using iMessage. Apple Notes, Reminders, iMessage, Calendar, and Facetime all work really well with each other. It would be great if Google can do this with their services. They always try then forget that the service exists and makes a new one instead.
• Vibration Haptics This one is dependent on Android manufacturers. But the vibration haptics on the iPhone are very good. It’s hard to describe without just feeling it in person.
• Battery Life The iPhone 13 Pro max has given me the best battery life in any phone that I’ve had, at least since the old Moto Z Play.
• Apple Watch I’m still waiting for Google to release a Pixel watch. I have the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, and compared to the Apple Watch, it needs some more refinement. The Apple Watch has better haptics, doesn’t lag, and a better UI IMO.

Things that annoy me about iOS:

• The lack of Notification Channels: I’m so used to Android where we can customize notifications down to the individual channel and mute certain notification channels per app. You can’t do that on iOS. You have either two options “Will this app make a sound” or will it “Not make a sound” I basically have to keep my phone on silent. For example, I can’t turn off the “swoosh” sound on iMessage that happens whenever I send a message. The only option is to have my phone on silent with the option of “allow vibrations on silent.” Likewise, I can’t turn off the camera noise on Snapchat unless I have my phone on silent.
• No work mode: Android has a great work mode feature. During work hours, you can have all the designated work apps be active, then “freeze” them once it’s over. IOS 15 introduced a new focus mode, but it literally works in the opposite way. You have to “opt-in” apps that you want available rather an “opt out”. Completely useless as a work mode replacement.
• You must do things the Apple Way: I think we all know this. But there are lots of UX design choices that seem odd to me. And unfortunately, there just isn’t a setting to change them. On Android, (especially Samsung Galaxy phones with GoodLock app), you can change almost anything that you don’t like.
• No Universal Back gesture Some apps support it, while others don’t.
• No quick actions on notifications: I was disappointed when I found out that I couldn’t just tap a “thumbs up” button on the YouTube music notification like I do on Android.
• Misc Features: No Scrolling screenshot No USB-C No Reverse Wireless Charging No PIP mode. Really miss this for Maps

Would 4K content played on an iPhone XS look better than 1080p content?

I ask bc the XS display doesn’t support 4K, so is playing 4K content better than others?

---

Yes.

Firstly, and most obviously is that the Xs screen has more pixels than a standard 1080p display (~ 2.74 million pixels for the Xs versus 2.07 million on a standard 1920x1080p display), so when viewing 4K content, you’re able to fill the display completely without upscaling. Also, in downscaling from 4K to the Xs display, you’re able to more accurately display each pixel, whereas upscaling from 1080p to the Xs it has to “guess” what the missing detail would be, or simply display a lower resolution all together.

Secondly, on a lot of video streaming services (which is where I assume you will be viewing this 4K content), offers a higher bitrate for 4K content vs 1080p. YouTube for example offers a bitrate of up to 85 Mbps for 4K, but only 15 Mbps for 1080p. So even if the display of the Xs was only 1080p, you’d still be able to stream it in a higher bitrate (I.e. you can stream at 4K on a 1080p display and get the full 85Mbps, but if you stream it in 1080p you’re only getting 15 Mbps).

Tip: Did you know you can drag and drop stuff between apps?

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