If you plan to buy a new mobile phone, you probably feel like being forced to choose between two brands: Apple and Samsung. Moreover, flagship models of both brands cost almost as much as the price of a new refrigerator. In other words, it seems your options are both limited and costly. So, how can we solve this problem? What is the smartest way to choose a new mobile phone?
First, you need to be aware of your options. Apple and Samsung are not the only brands that produce mobile phones. Then, you need to identify your needs and start looking for a model that fits your budget. Finally, you should determine the actual usage costs of the mobile phone models you have chosen and select one. It sounds a little complicated, doesn’t it? Let’s explain them all separately.
The Important Thing Is the Operating System, Not a Brand
First of all, no matter how many mobile phone brands in the market are, there are only two operating systems: iOS and Android. The iOS system is used on iPhone models and unique to them. It is a closed source system, so it is not possible to personalize or use it on a phone model other than the iPhone. Android is an open-source system, and anyone can use it without paying a license fee. For the same reason, Android is much easier to personalize – in fact, the operating system encourages it. For example, if you enjoy playing queen of the nile, you can install dozens of apps, even from third parties – the official application store isn’t your only option.
So, how does this affect you? Both operating systems have numerous applications and promise an easy user experience. However, they are very different in price: iOS-based phone models are limited to only a few, and their prices do not fall below a certain figure. At the time of this guide, the cheapest iPhone model was $ 599. In other words, if your budget is only $ 500, for example, iOS-based devices are not an option for you: you need to choose Android. It is possible to find a mobile phone even for $ 99 on the Android platform.
In summary, the first thing you need to learn is that the Android side is much more flexible in terms of price and offers more options. On the iOS side, there are fewer models, and prices do not fall below a certain line. If you don’t have $ 600 to spend on your mobile phone, iOS-based devices are not an option for you – stick with Android. But what if you don’t have a budget restriction? If so, which one should you choose?
Finding Out What You Need
If you don’t have a specific budget restriction, you can start identifying your needs. The question is simple: What are you going to use your new mobile phone for? Do you want to use it for business or social media? How important is gaming to you? What about taking pictures? Or are you looking for a phone that can do “anything” without a clear priority?
We’re sure that most users are looking for a phone that is capable of doing everything, but unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way. Since business and leisure are the two most basic uses, let’s use them as an example:
- Business: If you’re going to use your phone for work, consider an Android-based option. There is a simple reason for this: it is important that business phones have long battery life and uninterrupted access to cloud-based services. The battery time on the iOS side is, unfortunately, not so good. It will take too long to explain, but just be aware that in most cases, they cannot last even 24 hours. On the Android side, however, you can find amazing battery capacities due to a large number of options. By selecting the right model, you can easily achieve a minimum of 2 days of continuous use. Android phones also support cross-platform cloud services by default, and their free storage capacity is quite high (15 GB). For iOS phones, the free capacity is low (5GB), and there is no cross-platform support.
- Leisure: However, iOS is more suitable for entertainment and social media. Almost all iOS versions of social media apps have much more advanced features and are easier to use. Moreover, iOS, in general, offers better options for the camera. We don’t want to touch this issue too much because we know how ruthless camera fanatics can be. Just know that iOS devices are more suitable for general photo shoots and selfies.
Perhaps it will come as a surprise, but even the country in which you live should be taken into account to determine your needs too. The governments of third world countries are very keen on banning things they don’t like, and this includes mobile apps. If you live in such a country, the official store of both operating systems will not show you the prohibited applications.
However, using Android would be more advantageous in such a case because Android allows a process called “side-loading”, which means that third-party applications can be installed on the phone. You can still install an app that is banned in the official store from an external source. For iOS, this is not the case: if you do not “jailbreak”, no files can be installed to the phone from external sources. In this respect, we can say that Android offers more freedom for users living in less developed countries with wannabe dictators.
We made this distinction on two main uses, but of course, it is possible to use other criteria. For example, if your goal is to play games, you should focus on the features of the graphics chip and find the phone model that will give you the best performance, regardless of the operating system. Or, if long battery life is the most important thing to you, you will sacrifice OLED displays and focus on models with LCD displays. You are the only one who knows your needs, and you should start by listing them. After determining the most suitable phone models for these needs, we can start to determine the actual usage costs.
How to Calculate the Value Assessment
Once we have listed the phone models that best suit our needs, we can begin to calculate the actual cost of using them. Here, we use a very simple criterion: the official support period for the operating system. In general, we can say that the support periods of these operating systems are:
- For Android phones, this period varies between 2 and 3 years. For example, if you buy a Samsung phone, you will receive all the major updates for 2 years. According to the Android manufacturer, this time varies, but we can say that you get an average of 2 years.
- For iOS phones, there is no actual time limit. For example, the newly released version of iOS 13 is available for the iPhone 6, which was released almost 4 years ago. To be realistic, however, the battery won’t last that much. We think that you can continue to use the iOS models for 3 years before starting to notice the performance loss. After 3 years, you’ll want to change your phone, even though you can install the latest version of the operating system – trust us. Hence, we have two data for the support/usage period: 2 years for Android and 3 years for iOS.
Now, we can begin to calculate the actual usage cost by dividing these usage periods with the prices of the phones we chose. To give you an idea, we’ve chosen the most expensive models of both operating systems – you can do the same for any model. And we are aware that you can simply keep using the phones after the official support period expires – there is nothing that prevents you from doing this. However, the official support period is there for a reason, and the majority of users will change their phones when it ends. That’s why a new phone model gets released every year. In this example, we will use the Samsung Galaxy S10 for the Android side and the iPhone XS for the iOS side.
- At the time of this guide, the price of the Galaxy S10 was $ 900. With a lifetime of 2 years, it costs $ 450 per year, $ 37.50 per month, and $ 1.25 per day. In other words, it costs probably less than your monthly mobile bill.
- The price of the iPhone XS was starting at $ 999. When we do the same calculation, the actual usage price is $ 166 per year, $ 27.75 per month, and $ 0.91 per day. It sounds like the more logical option, doesn’t it? So, at first glance, it seems that if you cannot decide between the iOS and Android models, both of which meet your needs, it would be better to choose iOS.
The problem is that we used one of the most expensive models of Android for this comparison. If we preferred a $ 500 model instead of a $ 900 one, the results would, of course, be much different. Remember that we cannot pick a $ 500 iPhone for such a comparison because no iPhone exists at that price range. But, would the $ 500 model be enough to meet your needs? You are the only person who can answer this question. To be realistic, if your goal is not to play games, take high-quality photos, and look at a screen with spectacular brightness, cheap Android phones can meet almost every need. Yes, applications will be loaded a few milliseconds late, and some games will refuse to open, but they will be still sufficient for general use, and you don’t have to pay a fortune.
On the iOS side, you have almost no freedom of choice: Even if you don’t need high performance, you have to pay for it because there is no other option. Both the operating system and the models available for sale form a closed ecosystem: if you want to be involved in it, you must comply with the conditions set by Apple and expect no flexibility. However, this also brings increased security and stability – if the users are prohibited from doing certain things, an ecosystem can be much more safe and stable.
The choice is yours, of course, but in any case, you must decide according to your expectations from a mobile phone. Don’t buy the first thing you see and look for other brands – on the Android side, you get to pick between many manufacturers like Nokia, HTC, Sony, and Huawei. Instead of looks, check the hardware info and find out if it is suited to meet your expectations. Picking a new mobile phone can be a very fun experience, as long as you broaden your horizons.