Comment by bena | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bena | Hacker News Reader

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> The rationalization comes after that.

For Android users as well. I hear more Android users defending their choices than Apple users. You talk about peers, but Apple has about 20% of the mobile OS market, the rest is Android. There are more Android devices. So if anything, you'll "notice" your peers have Androids.

And I dislike usability arguments. Often they're rooted in learned behavior. Pretty much: "This doesn't work like this other thing I've used all my life, therefore it's not as 'user-friendly'".

I found Android devices to be a little more frustrating at first because I was used to other paradigms. I get frustrated with Windows 10 because they've changed where a lot of things are from previous versions. It took me a while to get accustomed to Mac OS X's various paradigms.

I personally prefer the iPhone SE. It's got enough beef under the hood and comes in a form factor I'm physically comfortable with. I find most other high-end iPhones and Galaxy devices to be way too large. I don't need a 13 inch screen on my goddamn phone. Hell, if they could make a modern phone the size of the iPhone 4 (Android or iOS, I don't care), I'd be happy as fuck.

But I know exactly why I chose what I chose and I don't cast aspersions on those who choose differently because I don't need to defend my choice.

For me, at least, it's not about learning new paradigms. I like different user paradigms.

It's incredibly inconsistent behavior (see my first post). Is there a reason why I can set the notification sounds for 150 different applications to 150 different things, but I _can't_ set the notification/alarm/ringer volume to different levels?

It speaks of problems when the first thing I needed to do on the phone was Google how to find better alarm clock than it ships with.

Is there a reason why the wifi hotspot is hit or miss? I don't know. It's probably a power saving thing somewhere. I don't care, though. When I have it turned on and no device has connected for a while, it should still be visible in a spectrum scanner without toggling it on/off, right? I guess not.

I'm not even gonna get into Touch ID (which is less reliable than the fingerprint scanner on my Nexus 5x, 4 years ago).

The speed of the phone is fine. The form factor is great. I'd be happy if it either behaved this way or that way all the time, instead of having to guess.

I've mostly gotten used to it, but that doesn't mean I think it's a good experience. It means I've learned to work around it, in the same way that I learned to work around issues on Android. I don't want to talk about the ass-backwards behavior of the search/keyboard tray, and how desperately I miss a "back" button. Try hitting the "Search" in Spotify, then deciding that you actually want to go back. It's far too many taps versus 2 on Android, and it's not intuitive.

Subjective opinion: Android (on a "Google Experience" phone) feels more consistent (breadcrumb/menu button almost always available instead of guessing which edge to swipe from, for example). And that's fine. But it's not what iOS is touted to be.

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