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Apple or Android?
pluk
TS Member
This is a hilarious use of the word only.
My last couple of phones have cost around £100. What does yours do that is meaningfully different to mine?
This is one of the great things about android phones. There's so much out there you can get a really good phone for significantly cheaper than with apple/
Matt N
TS Member
Apologies; operating systems was my original intent, but I think Android is so wide in terms of scope (I’m led to believe that one manufacturer’s version of it is often different to another’s, correct?) that phones do probably have to come into it as well.
Fair point. The only real difference I can think of is that it runs iOS, which is an OS I personally prefer and find easier to use.
Skyscraper
TS Member
A friend of mine is about to spend £976 on the new iPhone 13 pro max, and that's with a £73.50 discount! 
Matt N
TS Member
Even as an iOS user, I can’t fathom spending that much on a phone… each to their own, however!A friend of mine is about to spend £976 on the new iPhone 13, and that's with a £73.50 discount!
If your friend wants to spend the money, then great! I hope they like their new phone!
DistortAMG
TS Member
It is not what it can do different, but what can it do better. So for a higher price you have a better screen, more storage, better camera, faster processor to name a few. It all depends on what you actually want to do with your phone. So the point should not be what does it do different, but what does it do better, that matches what I want to do with the phone personally.
Phones are first and foremost portable computers these days, with the capability of telecommunication. So the use case is going to be very different from person to person.
I use my phone for astronomy for example..works very well for it along side a telescope. I need a phone with a top of the range camera to do it properly though. Any old junk wont work, then I also need a high level of storage to actually store the large files generated and also a fast processor to do astronomy related processing tasks. This requires for me a top of the range phone, with the latest stuff inside. It does nothing different than what a £100 smart phone will do. But it does those things far better and far faster.
Remember, the key here is phones are mini extremely powerful computers first and foremost, almost with telecommunications added on as an afterthought. When you think of them like that they offer exceptional value for money. If you are only using them though as a phone primarily, the value drops off much more. In that case, a £100 smart phone is a perfect fine and decent investment that would work perfectly for your specific use case.
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Each manufacturer tends to put there own skin on the system but it can be removed or you can use others. Samsung for example has there touchwiz skin but this can be changed at your own leisure and you can select anyone you want.
pluk
TS Member
While this is unboubably true, and in your case with a precise niche application clearly very worthwhile, I'd argue that the percentage of people owning top, or even midrange, phones using them for anythingmore than basic comms, browsing, watching, listening and snapping for personal use is miniscule. People paying for stuff they don't need is just fashion.
Matt N
TS Member
The reason I'm paying for my new iPhone is literally just because my current iPhone 6 is too old to run an app that I need to be able to commute to university (Trainline). If it weren't essential, I definitely wouldn't be forking out for it; the fact I currently have a 7 year old iPhone model that was a hand-me-down from my mum kind of sums up my general approach to my phone! My iPad and my PC are certainly far more important devices to me within my everyday life, and the only one of those that I'd say was eye-wateringly expensive (£500+) was my PC; I paid about £1,500 for my current PC rig overall, if you put the £1,350 for the PC system itself and the cost of the necessary peripherals together, but given that I use the PC for Planet Coaster and it runs like a dream, I'd personally say it was an expense worth forking out!
In terms of why I went iPhone; as I said above, I like iOS as an operating system. The iPhone SE was by far the best value for money option I could go for when taking that into account; I've literally bought this phone out of necessity as opposed to because I actually wanted a new iPhone. Trust me, if I only replaced my phones when I wanted a new one, I'd still be on my first iPhone 5!
But in summary; I certainly didn't cough up money for an iPhone SE as a fashion statement. Heck, because of the frame of the SE, people will probably think I have a much older iPhone than I actually do, so if I had bought it as a fashion statement, then it would be rather redundant!
DistortAMG
TS Member
A very valid point to be fair.
But I would not go as far as saying my use case or the types of use cases I outline are niche, not in the traditional sense.
There are more smart phones than people, so anything considered as niche compared to the market size, could still be a substantial amount of people and they usually are. But yeah on the whole I agree with your sentiment.
But ya know, I have a Galaxy s8 as a side phone. That just gets used for your basic browsing, snapchat, facebook, YouTube ect..general stuff. It is amazing how this once flagship phone now struggles to keep up with the demand of modern power hungry and feature rich 'average user's apps.
The fact is application development drives computer power increases and increases in computer power drive application development. Always going to have that curve. Now I am not saying you need a top of the line phone to do general stuff, you do not far from it. But again it will go back to the case of it doing those general tasks that the average user does, faster. To some people that alone is worth the extra cost.
You see the same in the world of custom PCs too. It is not isolated to phones.
Your phone is not too old to run Trainline, it is one of the most basic apps going.
You have highlighted a classic reason why people hate Apple, a problem that is not where near as bad on Android.
Apple made a conscious decision last year to remove support for certain APIs on older versions of iOS. This in turn removed support for many apps. In turn leaving you with no choice but to upgrade. Why they won't let you have the latest iOS is a different story altogether. But comes down to the same reasons somewhat, but not quite.
Shady business practices indeed, something Apple excell at and always have. There is not technical reason why your phone couldn't run an app as basic as Trainline. But the conscious decision was made to bring forward some planned obsolescence to force people to upgrade. Which it appears worked perfectly with you. Played right into Apples hands. You can't be blamed though, many people fall for it. They are masters at what they do.
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jon81uk
TS Member
and this is partly why this topic doesn’t really matter.
Most people chose an OS they prefer (iOS/Android, Windows/Linux/MacOS) years and years ago and don’t want the bother of learning something new.
jon81uk
TS Member
Don’t use Trainlone, book directly with the train operator and save on booking fees!
Matt N
TS Member
I thought that the reason why Apple didn't advocate older devices running newer iOS versions was down to the system requirements of the iOS iteration not being met by the device? For instance, I thought that the specs of my iPhone 6 were too low to run on anything newer than iOS 12?
Apple surely wouldn't make devices obsolete unless they absolutely had to, would they? If that were the case, they'd surely make new iOS systems only applicable to the newest devices?
Because of the variance in my train times (due to lectures at different times of day etc.), I'll naturally be going with lots of different operators, so I thought that Trainline might be an easier way to manage all of my different train tickets.
It's also what my parents use, and they recommended I use it. My dad used it when we did a dry run to Cheltenham together, and it looked really easy!
jon81uk
TS Member
Apple moved from a 32bit OS to a 64bit one. Trainline don’t want to keep writing an app for older systems.
This is nothing new software for years has had minimum specs or requires a certain version of an OS.
jon81uk
TS Member
You can still often buy all tickets from one operator and therefore avoid the booking fees that trainline rip people off with
Matt.GC
TS Member
Absolutely. We've had touchscreen Smartphones since something like 2008 I think? That's long enough for people to become entrenched into certain eco systems. They'll get used to them, sync them with other devices such as tablets, laptops and TV's and there's just no need to change. What would be the point in ditching one operating system for another you've used for years? It's just inconvenient. Even when you upgrade your phone, Google pretty much do everything for you to transfer everything across and I'd imagine it's probably the same with iOS.
RicketyCricket
TS Member
There's no doubt you get a high spec device for the price but having now owned both premium and budget smart phones, the difference is certainly not worth an extra £1000. The differences in camera quality are minimal, there's only so much you can do with a phone camera.
Huawei were the first to show what you can do with a phone for a fraction of the price and now lots of others offer similar products. Battery life is a key one for me and some of the budget phones get this spot on without compromising on overall quality.
My Motorola runs all apps smoothly and quickly, has a quad camera, god battery life, fingerprint and facial recognition. Only costs me a tenner a month on a sim card.
I must admit though these new Samsung foldable screen phone thingys are tempting.
MellowPasta
TS Member
I’ve had a Samsung in the past but went back to Apple. I personally find them more simple to navigate. Plus I do like how easy everything is to sync with my MacBook/Use of Apple TV.
I hate the eco system term they use but it has roped me in and it works for me. Will I go out and buy the latest iPhone every release…NO. 1) that’d be a waste of money and 2) I couldn’t afford to even if I wanted to and 3) There’s only so much ‘Our best iPhone yet’ spiel you can listen to every year to know that it’s a fools game to keep on top of.
I hate the eco system term they use but it has roped me in and it works for me. Will I go out and buy the latest iPhone every release…NO. 1) that’d be a waste of money and 2) I couldn’t afford to even if I wanted to and 3) There’s only so much ‘Our best iPhone yet’ spiel you can listen to every year to know that it’s a fools game to keep on top of.