Ask HN: Android or iPhone? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Android or iPhone?

4 pointscfarre20 comments

I want to buy a smartphone for my wife. Android or iPhone?

Either way, go with prepaid if you are in the US. Those "plans" the big carriers have are insanely costly. Over 10 years you are going to spend roughly $6,000 to $8,000 per cell phone.

If you go iPhone, they have iMessage for texting which costs $0 on pre-paid but you both need to have iPhones. Use WiFi where you can (home, work) and find a pre-paid option for other times. iMessage is handy if a lot of her friends have iPhones.

If her usage pattern doesn't involve lots of streaming movies or streaming audio then you really don't need a costly plan.

My wife is non-technical and the iPhone is wife approved. Her mom (in her sixties) just got an iPhone and she can use it too.

I switched to Blackberry one year ago after a lifetime of iPhone and I will never go back. BB kills it with the UI and BB Hub- best experience I ever had. I know BB is not hip but who cares. My 2 cents.

Yes.

Serious answer. As suggested why not let your wife decide what would fit her needs best?

I agree - let her decide.

If you're buying your wife a phone I'd assume she is not overly technical. If that's a fair assumption + you've got reasonable income and are time poor I'd suggest an iPhone as it tends to be the more user friendly product (at a price). That said Android is deliver an ever increasing similarly good experience.

For someone that likes to tinker, or has a lower income I'd suggest Android. Android is more flexible to customisation + the phones are at a significantly lower price point either saving you money overall or allowing for more frequent phone updates.

I currently run an Android as my personal phone then tend to run a second ever changing OS on my work phone out of general tech interest. Currently I'm on Windows as the second phone but am getting Sailfish and Ubuntu curious so I feel an upgrade coming. I wouldn't recommend the Windows phone from an experience POV (though prices can be great). It's maybe 80% as good as iPhone and still needs polishing. Windows 10 might change this as the phone will become your PC on docking which I believe will be an increasingly popular category for phones.

Too many data points lacking to consider a suggestion :)

As most said, unless it's a surprise gift, let her decide.

If it is a surprise, try to get her feedback in more subtle ways (I'm pretty bad at that, but I guess asking about her girl friend's phones or something).

In general, it depends on your money availability, general use case, IT ecosystem at your house or where she'll be using it, etc.

If money is no objection, she won't be using it for programming-related stuff or obscure hobbies, can afford apps, etc. or you have a heavy Apple ecosystem, then the iPhone is probably the best bet.

If money is a concern, then it can be either an Android-based system or Windows Phone.

For the very low-end smartphones, I recommend Windows Phone, some Android smartphones are terribly underpowered and deliver an awful user experience.

Personally, I have an Android device because it's the one that fits my needs the most (but I do use it for programming), and my country is 90% android smartphones so I'll have every app available.

iPhone. Interested to see how my karma will change. Please vote :)

Why not a Windows Phone? They're very decent.

I've recently bern using my old WP 7.8 phone for eBook reading near water after a couple of years with Android as my primary device. My opinion is that Windows Phone is hands down the best user interface. It's aesthetically coherent, communicates efficiently, and smooth to use...and the browser...well it works perfectly with Hacker News [and shouldn't the OP's spouse be reading Hacker News?]

That said, the reason I'll almost certainly stay on Android is access to all the programming tools: J, Ruby, Python, Forth, Octave, etc. It's just too nerdtastic even though I think TouchDevelop is one of the coolest things ever.

They also have secondary benefits.

My teenage son was playing rugby and while the game was going on the changing room was robbed.

The only thing the robbers took were phones. Interesting, only iphones were taken and the only phones left were a badly cracked iphone and my son's Nokia Windows phone.

What made my son particularly happy was that, the reason he has a Nokia is that he had his iphone stolen while on holiday and didn't have enough to buy a new one.

So, if you have a habit of leaving your phone around, the conclusion is to either smash it or buy a Windows phone!

The UK Home Office published data in 2014 about phone thefts [0], it's pretty interesting. Over 50% of thefts in London were iPhones, they were the only ones with a higher share of thefts than of the market (by miles - their market share was <15%) (page 13).

I can't find a newer analysis, but probably worth pointing out that they mention manufacturer security improvements reducing thefts, and iOS has obviously had some of those since 2014.

[0] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...

why don't you let your wife decide ?

its just personal choice in the end

I would go for an iPhone purely because Apple seem to be taking privacy more seriously. Google learns everything about you and I am not okay with that.

Have your wife go to a shop, try both, buy whatever she likes best. It is HER phone after all and should suit HER needs/tastes/sense of style/etc.

But if I must answer: iPhones seem to be extremely popular amongst women in particular (if you look at the demographics, women like iPhones, Samsung Android phones, and then everything else is a distant third).

I've been pretty satisfied with my Androids, but I have noticed a number of apps getting released for iOS way before (6 months to a year before) coming out for Android. (Robinhood, EveryDollar, ShakeLaw, for example).

That can be a drag if you like having the latest and greatest apps. Other than that, Android is awesome.

iPhone is best. All other sucks really. Though it is my opinion and experience.

Windows Phone :D

What do you use? If your wife has no preference it probably makes sense to use similar devices.

iPhone if you want to feel first class.

If you have much money you can try with an iPhone, if not, an Android is fine.

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