The Google Android operating system has evolved and now has a very decent look and good stability. Most of all, you can praise the versions of the “clean” Android One and Android Go. In its modern form, this is a fairly good OS, not without flaws, but you can’t call it bad. But it’s not just about comparing operating systems. In this topic, we will touch on the biggest hardware problems of smartphone manufacturers, unbearable graphical shells with intrusive content, and other small nuances that do not allow competing with Apple.

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The material does not praise Apple products, but only points to an existing problem and fraud (without exaggeration) by marketers of most manufacturers. After all, what we have on the market now looks like a frank deception of users. Paying crazy money (1000+$) for equipment that barely competes with 3-4 year old iPhones is humiliating. Therefore, with facts and unconditional evidence, we will “put in place” the best phones that position themselves as “analogues” of the iPhone.

Non-competitive Qualcomm, Mediatek, Exynos processors

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Mediatek Dimensity or Samsung’s top-end Exynos are very powerful chips that compete well within the Android technology market. But when it comes to Apple, there is no chance. All flagship products from “competitors” (if you can call it that) apple processors have a striking lag in theoretical and practical performance. Let’s consider some examples in synthetics and real problems.

Weak single-threaded performance is an important reason why Android seems so slow after Apple. Even the cheap iPhone SE3 outperforms the best SD 8 Gen 1s (Lenovo Y90, Motorola X30, Sony 1 III) by an impressive 60-70% in Geekbench 5 Single Core Performance. Most of the tasks in a mobile phone depend on the power of one core (it is almost the same on computers). Even in the multi-core test, there is no chance for the most powerful Qualcomm SoCs. The difference between Apple A15 Bionic and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is not competitive.

There is also the Mediatek Dimensity 8100, but there are even more tears: single-core performance at the level of the iPhone 8. It is a shame for the most modern developments of 2021-2022 to compete with products 5-6 years ago. These are completely different devices with different levels of performance. We have not seen such a bad balance even during AMD’s stagnation (2009-2016), when Intel took almost the entire market into its hands.

At the end of the article, we will briefly highlight the main problems of Android smartphones and why Apple is the ultimate choice in the segment of expensive phones. Now let’s move on to real-world performance. In the Apple iPhone browser, pages are processed several times faster than their peers from the Android world. The difference between the best representatives with a Snapdragon chip is up to 200-300%. To equate the performance of the current Android Flagship vs iPhone is the same as saying: AMD Ryzen 3 3300X competitor to Intel Core i5-12600K (no). Both processors are good, but if the Ryzen 3 3300X were priced at 12600K, would your opinion change?

Here is a similar situation with Android phones for 800-1000+$. The data is taken from a well-known primary source . A variety of web benchmarks from different manufacturers are taken into account, so that suddenly fanatical Android lovers do not say: “This is a fake!”. We spend a lot of time in the browser, so this is quite an important indicator.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra (the top model of 2022) tries but can barely come close to the speed of the iPhone XS or iPhone 11. More expensive, newer, slower than Apple 4 years ago: Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a series for real “winners” life” (sarcasm).

When it comes to power consumption, things get even worse. Qualcomm’s top chips consume a lot. As a result, more heat is generated and the CPU drops frequencies (this is throttling in the language of computer experts). This is especially noticeable in demanding mobile games or video encoding.

The problem of throttling affects many phones with expensive processors. We pay for 100% performance, and get 55-60%

For most users, a computer or even a laptop is already superfluous electronic trash in the house. Therefore, there are more and more scenarios for the complete utilization of the processor on the phone. For example: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max shows the best autonomy result with the smallest battery capacity and at the same time is 40-60% more productive than any flagship from Samsung, Xiaomi, Asus, Sony, Motorola, Huawei, etc.

Source: Mrwhosetheboss

What about the price? The iPhone SE3 is an affordable smartphone on the market, which, at a significantly lower cost, outperforms almost twice the more expensive Android flagships in all difficult scenarios. Of course, the price is affected by the screen and cameras, so we will take into account the iPhone 13 Pro / ProMax version for the most fair price ratio. There are many smartphones more expensive than the latest iPhone. More expensive, much slower, with not very good software support and many more shortcomings.

Hardware or software deficiencies

You can talk for a long time about cameras and equate the quality of the pictures. Any phones, iPhone 14 or Samsung S22 really still shoot terribly on a relatively cheap 2005-2009 SLR camera with an inexpensive lens. They compete only with each other due to the subjective perception of these photos / videos. In fact, there were cases when well-known publishers experimented and gave out photos from cheap Android smartphones as pictures from the most expensive flagships. And the vast majority of people were satisfied with the quality.

In good light, it will be difficult to distinguish photos, because phones have become too good in this regard, even budget ones. Not enough light is another matter. An interesting fact is that Apple is an exception and does not pay Youtube bloggers to advertise their phones. The quality of Apple iPhone photos is consistently high and the percentage of successful photos is still higher than that of other manufacturers.

In the photo Xiaomi 12S Ultra vs iPhone 13 Pro Max

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, Xiaomi 12S Ultra, Sony 1 III take excellent pictures, their cameras are on par with the latest iPhones. Very beautiful photos can be taken with minimal effort, but the number of successful shots will be much less. Most of the work in phone cameras is done by artificial intelligence, which composes images from several cameras, corrects colors, blur, and many other parameters.

And in fairness, Apple’s AI works more correctly and the owner does not have to process the photo because “poorly developed artificial intelligence” does not know how to determine where to produce the effect of “bokeh” or focus. The author of bad shots will later remake them into more successful ones, but do you want this in a smartphone that costs like a used Daewoo Lanos in good condition? The difference between the average Android and flagships is too low (in almost everything) to look at the expensive segment of smartphones with this OS.

What about build quality and component base? Most Android flagships are built just like their ultra-cheap brethren. Manufacturers still use coaxial cables from the early 2000s, laid in a track on the side panel. The disassembly of Xiaomi 12S Ultra gives references to the computer world with ATX boards, where you need to connect the front panel, and even with colored wires.

In contrast, without exaggeration, the Apple iPhone has more thoughtful ergonomics and reasonable component placement. Everything is very compressed, but freely available for dismantling. The myths about Apple’s poor repairability only apply to local craftsmen using one 80-watt soldering iron and rusty pliers. In fact, their equipment is perfectly exposed to disassembly and replacement of components. iPhones are not only more advanced in hardware than their competitors (in terms of price), but they also look like they are a high-end assembled product.

Having removed the back cover of Xiaomi for $100 and then for Xiaomi $1000, it will be difficult to understand which is a cheap product and which is a premium one. Indeed, in both cases, we have a chaotic placement and ill-conceived ergonomics of the elements, while Apple has a paradise for a perfectionist.

Build quality is reflected in the reliability of the device. Not a single iPhone after the 6S has been destroyed during the Bend-Test (case strength test). Most modern cheap smartphones pass these tests without damage, but the flagship One Plus 10 Pro for 30,000 hryvnias could not.

Pictured is One Plus 10 Pro and One Plus 10T

Problematic Android skins

Android has evolved rapidly and as of 2022 is a relatively stable and complete product. The developers have implemented many useful features and improved stability. Pure Android One is the best representative among the whole family of successful (and not so) shells. It is smartphone manufacturers with their proprietary services that are the cause of many problems and user hatred. So far, several brands are releasing phones with a clean version of the system. Basically it is Google Pixel, Motorola, Nokia, OnePlus (with minor changes). But everything is fine only until we compare it with iOS, which we’ll talk about later.

Companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and a dozen other copy-pasters have decided to go the other way. All of them are followers of loaded and bulky shells from Samsung and impose their unnecessary services. The buyer of POCO X4 Pro receives as a gift more than 60 (think about the number) Bloatware class garbage programs. The relatively clean Poco shell compared to MiUI is actually clogged to a critical level right out of the box. The flagships with their proprietary shells have the same situation.

The fact of advertising in a cheap smartphone with MIUI is not terrible. It seems that this is compensation for the low price and good performance. However, most Xiaomi have a relatively normal build level and hardware, which is not bad for the money. But the owner of the $1,000 flagship Xiaomi 12S Ultra will also see ads on their ultra-expensive phone. They display advertisements in numerous applications and menu items in the high-end model. This is a thick and juicy spit in the face of users. Many expensive phones come equipped with 120Hz displays, but the “ragged” interface animations quite spoil the pleasant experience from 90-120Hz screens. After a 144Hz monitor on a PC, 120Hz smartphones don’t feel as smooth at all. Owners of gaming laptops or computers will immediately notice this.

Sensor problems that are software-based are very common for ultra-expensive Android smartphones. with frameless displays

A few words about RAM and screens. Most Android smartphones with 8-16GB of RAM do not know how to manage it. We pay for the browser to reload along with the page after several switching between programs. This is not the fault of the hardware, but the problem of inept use of memory by the system. In Android One, this happens a little less often, so many thanks to Pixel, Motorola, Nokia smartphones. Android One has smoother animations, a more stable operational experience, and is free of a lion’s share of bugs.

The poll was deleted a few hours after posting. Even Xiaomi fans hate MiUI.

conclusions

Android confidently takes its share of budget and mid-budget smartphones. They supplanted other operating systems and have no analogues. This is a great system with many programs, a simple interface. For most, a $200 smartphone is enough to handle social media, most casual games, surfing the web, and so on. For such a price, it is difficult to criticize them, because they do their job and work off every hryvnia. But when we choose between the Apple iPhone and the next Android flagship, it already becomes strange from the very fact of a similar cost. After all, what the manufacturers Samsung, Sony, Xiaomi, Asus, Huawei, Motorola offer is starting to seem like a real mockery of their consumers. For an identical cost, we get only a gigantic baggage of shortcomings, an amazingly fast depreciation of the device. over time, moral and software obsolescence in two years.

As of 2020, more than half of high-end smartphones are Apple. And every year the apple company is only growing in this direction (from 47% in 2019 to 62% in 2022). Luxury Android is dying out for very obvious reasons.

Let’s summarize the main reasons why any current Apple iPhone is 3 heads higher than the most expensive Android flagships:

• 40-60% more powerful CPU and GPU (2022 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is barely on par with the 2019 Apple A13 Bionic);
• Fundamentally better hardware construction, a higher level of build quality and attention to detail (circuitry, ergonomics, materials);
• OS support and update for more than 6-8 years (Android has a maximum of 2 years of system core updates, 3 years of security updates);
• Better RAM management (even with 8-16GB of RAM, Android programs often reboot when iPhone with 6GB of RAM does better);
• Better provision of key features: video stabilization, bokeh photo blur, fewer system crashes in third-party programs, smooth system animations, etc.;
• Significantly better autonomy at maximum performance and slower battery degradation (thanks for fast charges);

The case when even Apple does not exaggerate the power of its chips. All ARM counterparts (Qualcomm, Mediatek, Samsung) are 3-4 years behind

All these flagships would have a place on the market if they cost no more than 50-60% of what they are asking for now. And so, we see the crisis of elite Android phones and the rise of Apple. We have entered this phase of the technological race where everything has changed. They used to joke that marketers sell Apple, not engineers. Now, on the contrary, we are being sold middle-class Androids at the price of flagships. The technological component (hardware and software) of expensive mobile phones with Android is at a very low level relative to “competitors”.

And these flagships are not sold cheaper than the latest iPhone models. Having a conditional thousand dollars, buying Apple will be a more reasonable choice than, for example, Xiaomi 12S Ultra, because the latter will depreciate by almost 40-50% in 1 year, will not receive an OS update in 2 years (or sooner), etc. .d. And this is without taking into account all the crazy performance differences and disadvantages that we have listed in this voluminous material.

Cheap smartphones are the only reason why Android is so popular

If you already own a high-end Android smartphone, don’t be disappointed. Some people intentionally buy something that will make them stand out (folding screen smartphones, etc.). And it doesn’t matter to such a category of people that their device at the time of release immediately belongs to the category “far from the best”, and most importantly, that it is not like everyone else’s. It is less and less common to see expensive Android flagships in the hands of users. Apple is steadily moving towards a monopoly in this price segment, but we still hope to resume competition, as it was 9-10 years ago. Good luck with your purchases and always choose the right equipment for your budget wisely.