A week using an Apple iPhone -- An Android user's perspective

[mnementh]

I had and wore out no less than four Nokia 521s... I liked mine so much I bought one for my wife. We used them for nearly two years because they were cheap when we NEEDED a good cheap phone, and later we discovered that they JUST PLAIN WORKED. Unlike most smartphones, which are really small tablets with a phone as an afterthought, the 521 was designed BY A PHONE MANUFACTURER, so everything about it was very clearly a phone FIRST, and an internet gadget second. Nokia seriously knew their shit when it came to making an intuitive UI on a phone.  True, app availability was limited, but WinPhone8/8.1 shipped with a full complement of productivity apps, among which was Nokia's own GPS/Maps app which was faster and easier than Googs; and because the maps were stored locally, it ALWAYS WORKED. 

EVERYTHING that came on it just plain worked, the settings were ALL where it just made sense for them to be, and the intuitiveness of their active tiles implementation was something that other phones are JUST NOW approaching 5 years later.  As a result, aside from a few stupid games, I really never MISSED the app store; I happily used my 521s until they simply became too old & slow for the content I wanted to use on the internet. By that time, lack of browser updates was getting me shut out of sites anyways. Well that, and aging eyes with both of us was making a 6"-ish phone a necessity. 

Really, EVERYBODY designing phone UIs RIGHT NOW could learn a SHITLOAD about how to do their craft PROPERLY by living with a Nokia 521 for a week. 

mnem
 

[Halcyon]

The problem with "Nokia" these days is that they exist by name only. Just like Blackberry, who are now manufactured by TCL in China. A lot of the good brands are disappearing and I'll include Motorola in that. For those who need powerful computing and security in their pocket, you're limited to just a few manufacturers.

I remember when I had the Motorola Atrix, that was a brilliant phone!

[mnementh]

Yeah... how many RAZRs I wore out...  I wish I had THAT money back. 

mnem
*mnemories*

[Black Phoenix]

Yeah... how many RAZRs I wore out...  I wish I had THAT money back. 

mnem
*mnemories*

Good Phone the RAZRs... One of my first mobile phones, when I changed from the Nokia 3310. After that It was Sony Ericsson until my first SmartPhone, the HTC Touch Pro2.

[Mechatrommer]

the 521 was designed BY A PHONE MANUFACTURER, so everything about it was very clearly a phone FIRST

phone manufacturer who cant keep up when android phones came and then later fucked up by microsoft win8.

and an internet gadget second. Nokia seriously knew their shit when it came to making an intuitive UI on a phone.

intuitive what? its Microsoft Win8 GUI, exact copy of PC version, except its worse, paler and has to deal with small screen.

and the intuitiveness of their active tiles implementation was something that other phones are JUST NOW approaching 5 years later.

maybe you mixed up win8 521s with earlier symbian version of nokia bricks? nobody wants to copy Win8 GUI not even closer. i dont want to remember how i cursed how useless it is, the most useless Microsoft product ever.

Really, EVERYBODY designing phone UIs RIGHT NOW could learn a SHITLOAD about how to do their craft PROPERLY by living with a Nokia 521 for a week. 

just look again how hillarious it was... mario bros nintendo is much better... RIP nokia...



well, maybe just talking on the aesthetics side, but seriously, there's nothing wrong with logical order in samsung android  GUI granted there's crap brands that didnt implement the "favourite apps taskbar" that is fixed on the screen when we swipe pages. and no separate home pages, its just flat all apps pages,  yes thats crap. dont buy crap stuffs.

[Black Phoenix]

It wasn't that bad if you got used. Most people bash the Windows 8 and 8.1 plus the Windows Phone OS but I used it momentary for some months and after that It felt intuitive.

Yes It needed a little more polish and not being dropped from active development and put into the backburner and the lack of apps also didn't help but it wasn't that bad. Windows Mobile 6.5 was way worse and unreliable!

The problem with Windows 8 was that people didn't want to adapt to the new Metro layout instead keeping using the same old one. Yes if it works don't change but if good things come from there. The integrated search ability in the program bar was a time saver for people who uses lot of programs.

It was a case of learning how to deal with it and after that it would feel intuitive.

When Windows Vista was released everyone bashed and preferred the XP, when Windows 7 was released same thing regarding the 7. Now people hate the Windows 10 and say that Windows 7 was great. Soon when Microsoft does something totally different people would say Windows 10 was the best...

[garethw]

It would appear there is a bit of a pattern. The creators of tech spend their careers developing and updating their products. The consumers curse the new version of the phone/app/website saying all sorts of nasty things. Then the dust settles and everyone gets familiar with said product whilst behind the scenes the developers are busy creating a new version and so the loop repeats! [emoji1787]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bd139]

Nice to see some windows phone love. I was a windows phone user before iOS (see note later). It was far far ahead of everything. The handsets were cheap, reliable and the software was secure and functional. The problem was that they shipped with IE basically and MSFT had severe product schitzophrenia for the best part of 4 years culminating in the facial ballbagging that was windows 10 mobile and this put everyone off the platform from the users to the app developers. The two death strokes were as follows. Firstly the migration from windows CE to NT kernel which killed off a whole line of handsets from the 8 upgrade and a lot of the apps. The second, the push to have "one OS" experience on desktop and mobile.

Now they're in risk mitigation mode which is "throw shit at everything and see what sticks". Pity the poor individuals who build a business on things that don't stick and then get cut off. Only reliable propositions at this time are Office and Windows. One trick pony.

Note mentioned earlier: I actually used windows phone from the dark ages of 2003-ish with the CE based SPV C500 right until 2014 and then on and off with windows phone handsets to play with. Then through Android, and culminating in iOS.

On Windows CE phones I spent 3 years building POS and POD applications on them so I know the platform pretty well. But they murdered it.

Edit: I had a Noka 521 as well as a backup handset. Only phone you could throw at a wall and it'd still work afterwards. Another problem with windows mobile was the hardware was made of an alloy of cockroaches and 3310's forged by the same dwarfs that did Thor his hammer.

[mnementh]

the 521 was designed BY A PHONE MANUFACTURER, so everything about it was very clearly a phone FIRST

phone manufacturer who cant keep up when android phones came and then later fucked up by microsoft win8.

and an internet gadget second. Nokia seriously knew their shit when it came to making an intuitive UI on a phone.

intuitive what? its Microsoft Win8 GUI, exact copy of PC version, except its worse, paler and has to deal with small screen.

and the intuitiveness of their active tiles implementation was something that other phones are JUST NOW approaching 5 years later.

maybe you mixed up win8 521s with earlier symbian version of nokia bricks? nobody wants to copy Win8 GUI not even closer. i dont want to remember how i cursed how useless it is, the most useless Microsoft product ever.

Really, EVERYBODY designing phone UIs RIGHT NOW could learn a SHITLOAD about how to do their craft PROPERLY by living with a Nokia 521 for a week. 

just look again how hillarious it was... mario bros nintendo is much better... RIP nokia...



well, maybe just talking on the aesthetics side, but seriously, there's nothing wrong with logical order in samsung android  GUI granted there's crap brands that didnt implement the "favourite apps taskbar" that is fixed on the screen when we swipe pages. and no separate home pages, its just flat all apps pages,  yes thats crap. dont buy crap stuffs.

Welcome back; I missed your bloviation and literal crap-flinging, as seen above. ↑

You mistake lack of BS for lack of features; the metro interface was WELL-DESIGNED for this application. It was the BS-free interface I (and oodles of other users) appreciated; while trying to force us to use it on our PCs was utter idiocy, it is perfect for getting the most information out of a small screen with the least cross-channel noise.

Nice to see some windows phone love. I was a windows phone user before iOS (see note later). It was far far ahead of everything. The handsets were cheap, reliable and the software was secure and functional. The problem was that they shipped with IE basically and MSFT had severe product schitzophrenia for the best part of 4 years culminating in the facial ballbagging that was windows 10 mobile and this put everyone off the platform from the users to the app developers. The two death strokes were as follows. Firstly the migration from windows CE to NT kernel which killed off a whole line of handsets from the 8 upgrade and a lot of the apps. The second, the push to have "one OS" experience on desktop and mobile.

Now they're in risk mitigation mode which is "throw shit at everything and see what sticks". Pity the poor individuals who build a business on things that don't stick and then get cut off. Only reliable propositions at this time are Office and Windows. One trick pony.

Note mentioned earlier: I actually used windows phone from the dark ages of 2003-ish with the CE based SPV C500 right until 2014 and then on and off with windows phone handsets to play with. Then through Android, and culminating in iOS.

On Windows CE phones I spent 3 years building POS and POD applications on them so I know the platform pretty well. But they murdered it.

Edit: I had a Noka 521 as well as a backup handset. Only phone you could throw at a wall and it'd still work afterwards. Another problem with windows mobile was the hardware was made of an alloy of cockroaches and 3310's forged by the same dwarfs that did Thor his hammer.

ROFLCYCIH!!! (ROFL, Cussing You Cuz It Hurts)

Seriously... twice in one day. Stop it you bastard.  Well, okay... technically two days... but still, stop before I get a hernia...   

Cheers,

mnem
Oh sheep-dip... now I have hiccups. And I woke up my daughter.

[bd139]

 

[Halcyon]

mnementh,

Let's keep the discussion on-topic and reserve chit-chat for private messages. You should appreciate that others on this forum have differing opinions to yourself, it doesn't make them wrong nor does it make you correct.

Keep it civil please and let's not resort to childish comments.

[mnementh]

Really? You're going to spank me for calling a guy out on a deliberate troll attempt? I don't consider it an attack to tell someone when they're being ignorant; I consider it basic civility. 

mnem
 

[Jeroen3]

Troll bait. The irony is within.

Even running the latest version of iOS available today (12.3.1) it still feels unrefined at times. Even small things like activating buttons or moving levers/progress bars, I was forced to literally drag them, rather than simply tap on them.

I still think your screen is bad. Or it's due tot the fact that the SE is in the same boat at the 6S, they on the edge of the supported life. The OS grows beyond what the phone is capable of, or apple deliberately slows the phone down. Pick one.

One of the most annoying things was not having the ability to download software updates over the air, even when cellular data was on, it insisted on Wi-Fi. With unlimited data quotas on cellular networks these days, this is a stupid limitation but notwithstanding that, it should be my choice as the user how I update my device (particularly when annoyed with constant pop-ups about a software update).

There is indeed an 150 MB app download limit over cellular. Why I don't know. Maybe it's not so much a limit for the end user, but more for the developer.

The mandatory requirement to sign up for an Apple ID was also a huge turn-off. I didn't want or need it or any of the other garbage that came along with it, but there was no option to skip.

With the alternative smartphones you can skip account creation, but the device will be limited in certain features. It's Apple's style to not give the users these choices. This is indeed inconvenient. But this also makes it impossible to re-use stolen (or forgotten) iDevices. It is also inconvenient for typical end users. Since they forget what an Apple ID/Google Account or Microsoft account is after 15 minutes anyway, and will never be able to use many of the functions (store/backup/find my iphone).

Finally, the inability to connect the iPhone to a PC and use it as a mass storage device was a major disadvantage (although I could access the photos directly via gPhoto2 on Linux).

Yeah, that boat has sailed. It has been MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) since Android 4.3 as well. It turned out to be available as Mass Storage Device (MSC) for Windows/Linux you actually are required to provide exclusive block access to memory formatted as FAT32 system. Which is challenging, since you don't really want to use FAT32 for linux based operating system partition. And both the USB and the native OS want to use this memory simultaneously. Which isn't possible with MSC. So I understand that this is not longer available, maybe you too now you know?
Oh I forgot, with both Android and Apple there is significant effort being put in to not have all apps access all data. Using FAT32 as filesystem completely reverses these efforts.

I'm curious what Apple will introduce next September as replacement for the iPhone SE. They will have to, since a small form factor smartphone is something they will have to release to maintain user base with the stubborn people not wanting larger phones.

[mnementh]

...a small form factor smartphone is something they will have to release to maintain user base with the stubborn people not wanting larger phones.

Yeah, both of them. 

mnem
I REALLY need to go get some sleep... 

[james_s]

I personally know a handful of people who prefer a small phone, there are a LOT of them out there. I've never understood why anyone would want a phone bigger than the SE. It's close to the perfect size to fit in a pocket and hold in one hand. The screen is very sharp and is plenty sufficient for most things, I'm using it right now to post this. If I want a big screen I'll pull out my laptop.

[bd139]

bigger screen is better for watching netflix while you're having a shit

[Terry01]

bigger screen is better for watching netflix while you're having a shit

 

[mnementh]

I personally know a handful of people who prefer a small phone, there are a LOT of them out there. I've never understood why anyone would want a phone bigger than the SE. It's close to the perfect size to fit in a pocket and hold in one hand. The screen is very sharp and is plenty sufficient for most things, I'm using it right now to post this. If I want a big screen I'll pull out my laptop.

Yeah; the cultural bias against presbyopia and people just plain born with bad eyesight is staggering.  Shockingly, as a whole we outnumber you 20/20s by a factor of 5:1.* Thanks for reinforcing that bias.

mnem
*random shocking figure I literally pulled out of my arse. Can you read this?

[bd139]

Yeah also those of us with orangutan sized hands need a large phone.

[mnementh]

*adjusts his glasses using one Shrek-sized ham-hand* 

mnem
*off to meet the in-laws*

[Mr. Scram]

Yeah; the cultural bias against presbyopia and people just plain born with bad eyesight is staggering.  Shockingly, as a whole we outnumber you 20/20s by a factor of 5:1.* Thanks for reinforcing that bias.

mnem
*random shocking figure I literally pulled out of my arse. Can you read this?

Character size hasn't been tied to screen size for a decade or so.

[bd139]

But you can get all the big letters on the big screen now.

Same as I run my laptop which is 1920x1080 at 150% zoom

[mnementh]

Yeah; the cultural bias against presbyopia and people just plain born with bad eyesight is staggering.  Shockingly, as a whole we outnumber you 20/20s by a factor of 5:1.* Thanks for reinforcing that bias.

mnem
*random shocking figure I literally pulled out of my arse. Can you read this?

Character size hasn't been tied to screen size for a decade or so.

Nor is screen size tied to sense of humor, it seems.

mnem
Made you look.

[Mr. Scram]

Nor is screen size tied to sense of humor, it seems.

mnem
Made you look.

To appeal to a sense of humor something has to be funny first. 

[Mr. Scram]

But you can get all the big letters on the big screen now.

Same as I run my laptop which is 1920x1080 at 150% zoom

bd139 special incoming. Can you read me now!?