No removable battery, no headphone jack, no SD card expansion, increased difficulty installing apps not in the official store..
Apples ecosystem is a gilded ghetto
Apples ecosystem is a gilded ghetto
Remembering that macOS bug with empty password root access, I'd say that Apple security QC had degraded a lot.
1. This incredibly obscure bug (in the sense that I'm surprised someone was able to find this) was found relatively quickly
2. After it was found a fix was developed and tested quickly
3. Once that fix passed QA my devices received a software update over the air and the problem was solved. One of the big problem with other mobile OSs is that the OS updates are often going through the carrier or device manufacturer and it takes time or you don't get it at all.
I don't expect a device that's perfectly secure. I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of undiscovered vulnerabilities on the device I'm using to type this to you right now. But that's not the whole picture on security.
Genuine question.
Of course you should never use firmware from Chinese company, but it's true for 98% of other Android devices too and LineageOS + microG work great on these phones.
Like, e.g., last year my SO was changing phones, and we didn't have much budget left, so we went with then-recommended Huawei P8 Lite. Almost good enough, except it seems to have its Bluetooth stack broken in a very specific way that renders her Pebble almost useless. Oh, and every other day, it randomly drains battery very fast. It's those kinds of things you generally don't have to deal with when you go with higher-end devices.
Also when it's $160 device I don't need to worry about randomly died battery because I can always get new phone.
I thought that would be a big deal when I purchased my iPhone 8, but using the AirPods, I've never once felt the urge to plug in wired headphones. Wireless headphones really are better.