Pick a manufacturer that gives you timely updates with a support duration you're happy with, and you're fine.
And before you complain "it's insane that I have to do that", you've already done that: just you picked Apple.
The mistake people make is in thinking of Android as some monolithic, consistent thing. It's not, and can't and won't be. Buy a Google phone, or a Samsung phone, or whatever, and stick with a manufacturer you like. At least if they start doing things you don't like, you have options in the same ecosystem. If Apple does something you don't like, you have no other options without jumping ship.
Is there an android device manufacturer that is currently supporting a 5 year old phone? I'm on the iPhone 6s, which released in 2015, and just installed iOS 14.
Android phones seem to be a 2~ year lifespan, even Google's own devices. Having switched from a Nexus 5, which got just two years of major Android updates. (Which also slowed to the point of being unusable, and eventually completely breaking with boot loops and then bricking itself)
Apple updates for 5 years. No Android manufacturer does that. Google offers 3 years and Samsung does 3 years on their high end flagships (which I don't personally like).
Apple is simply on a whole different level in this regard.
Better specs for $400 less, on a Pixel?
Name one phone built to last with better specs than the iPhone SE please, I'm listening.
I don't care about multiple cameras, OLED displays, 120 Hz or whatever the industry is trying to push these days, I just want a reliable decently built phone with a good SW support.
Furthermore, I don't see how replacing the phone more often would be a positive thing, it just means I would produce more trash.
The SE 2020 is using the A13 chip which is about double the performance of the best snapdragon soc available right now. There doesn't exist an android phone with specs comparable to the SE.
You previously said "the specs are the same or better for $400 less", but the A13 in the SE blows away the Snapdragon 730 in the Pixel 4a and the price difference is only $50.
> The mistake people make is in thinking of Android as some monolithic, consistent thing.
Well, the Android branding is all over the place. No one thinks “I’m going to switch to Samsung”. It’s “I’m going to switch to Android”. Android phones are commodity devices.
I do say I'll switch to Samsung or a One Plus if I'm looking for a higher end, an OPPO or Vivo if I'm going for a lower end, or a Redmi or Honor, if I'm going for a midrange resilient phone.
I use a Blackberry for my black box phone, so I don't really care about security on my Android stuff - Google or China can have all that's in there. What I do care about are having options, and Android does provide me a lot of options. For instance, my first Android phone was a Samsung and while the phone was awesome and lasted a solid 4 years, I hated the customer service offered. Then thought I'd have a cheaper Android, so decided to go with a Motorola. Then once I joined the workforce, it was the BB + Honor combo, because Honors are so much resilient. Just because Android has so much more options doesn't mean they are commodity devices, unless you look at phones as a status symbol, which is a thinking I've honestly grown out of.
I don’t think you’re representative of the general market...
I’ve never heard of people talking about the “Samsung experience”, or the “Huawei experience”. These devices are interchangeable. People talk about specs or price or getting longer term support.
I mentioned the Blackbox phone only because folks here (and mostly here alone) care about privacy. People outside this ecosystem don't give a damn about privacy - it's either the value of the phone at its price or its the capability of the phone which appeals to them.
Appleistas are the only ones who talk about the Apple experience because clearly it's only Apple which came up with that marketing gimmick. There's nothing different or even superbly superior of the Apple experience compared to the Huawei or Samsung experience. On the contrary, it's effectively much easier for most people I've met to get familiar with Android over Apple. Like most people mention here regularly, most people buy Apple only because of the green chat box stigma.
> There's nothing different or even superbly superior of the Apple experience compared to the Huawei or Samsung experience.
Absolute horse crap, unless you speak for the market. I don’t have to carry two phones and also don’t have to worry about privacy. In fact I have a phone made by a company who could really give two craps about the ad market and feeding it more data. Second is you can be sure if it’s Apple you’ll get quality. With other android phones you’ll get mostly cheap. The user interface style on android is also ugly, cards are old, material is boring, but this is subjective, just like you saying Apple provides no better experience than Samshit or Chinawei
The privacy of an Apple phone that allowed the Saudi prince to order a hacking into Bezos' phone, which ultimately leaked out info and led to his divorce? Yeah, no thanks.
Being on Blackberry, or any non-Google phone really, allows me to segregate my really important stuff from my every day stuff. Equating Apple's security to that kind of segregated security is a bunch of absolute horse crap.
Absolutely, lots of people are loyal to certain brands or look for the best value/spec in Android devices and make their choice based on that. If people didn't care, everyone would be buying $50 Android devices. Most people I know now even look at the version of Android it comes with.
I own an Android One device (Mi A2) and in the last year updates were complete garbage. The manufacturer clearly couldn't care less about my (2 years) old device.
I'm using LineageOS now and I'm much happier, but I think I'll switch to an iPhone SE when my phone dies
Android One held lots of potential, but Google managed to stuff that up too. They need to wrestle back control over the OS from the OEMs. Until they do, Android handsets will be disposable beyond a life of 2 years.
Ironically, a company that understands that model is Microsoft. It's a pity they aren't competition for Apple in this space yet. As an iPhone/Macbook Pro/iPad user, I am eyeing the Surface Go 2 w/WSL as a potential future replacement for the iPad.
Do you have any source/documentation for this? I'd really like to read more about it, my understanding has always been that WSL2 was more or less a classic VM on a type-1 hypervisor (Hyper-V)
Old fingerprint readers were reversed. Newer stuff is more tightly locked down. People have reversed the communication protocol, but various other bits are harder to get around due to signatures or other DRM like mechanisms.
Sure, it has some nice integrations, but I don't see how this article is in contradiction with what I've said.
(To be clear, I didn't mean it as a critique, I like Hyper-V)
I don't think that the possibility to kill yourself in a supercar has much to do with its engine placement.
If you're not a trained driver and you can't control oversteer on a RWD car with the ESC turned off, you're probably going to crash no matter where the engine is.
The handling characteristics are affected by the weight distribution. An otherwise equivalent car with more rearward weight will have a larger moment of inertia during an oversteer condition. This makes it harder to regain control once you reach the limit.
Classic 50-50 distributed vehicles like a Miata or a 3 Series are very forgiving to control once you reach the limits of rear traction, which is part of the reason these vehicle are very popular for entry level motorsports.
This is the main reason why I'm thinking about not getting a MBP as my next laptop.
Apple declares a laptop "vintage" after 5 years and doing so it basically kills any possibility to get the machine repaired since they're not user-serviceable at all. Furthermore they stop updating the OS just a bit later and if you have a newer model with a T2 chip you won't even be able to install Linux on it.
(To be fair though, I'm not sure I would pay for an expensive repair on a 5+ years machine anyway)
There's a difference though: on macOS the system will say "there's an update, do you want to install it now?". If you select "yes" the system will upgdate and eventually reboot, otherwise you can go on with whatever you're doing without worrying. On windows instead you get a notification that says "I just installed an update and you need to reboot, if you don't do it right now the machine will reboot outside of the active hours". I just don't understang why Microsoft doesn't put a simple toggle for automatic updates in W10. MacOS has it, all the linux distro have it, even iOS has it, why is it so difficult for them?
Lucky you! In the last 6 months Windows tried to install an upgrade, failing endlessly, on both my mother's and sister's laptops.
It just tried to upgrade, failed during the reboot, reverted back and booted on the old version, just to start the whole process again after a few hours. And all the Microsoft Windows Update Assistant tools or whatever didn't work at all, so I just clean installed in frustration.
TBF though, my 2013 desktop never gave me a single issue on Windows..
Paradoxically, driver issues and update issues never show up on any desktops I had, they only show up on laptops with carefully selected and entirely manufacturer-controlled supply chain and parts.
That's weird, reliable low latency audio is one of the few things where I still find the Mac to be pretty solid.
I've got a 2015 15" and I've used several times a 2018 13", on both Mojave and Catalina and I have to say that it outperforms my 2015 (it can easily manage a 32 buffer with some plugins loaded, while my 15" starts to struggle under 64).
This was using Reaper with an Apple USB-A to USB-C adapter and a UMC204HD interface
I use Ableton with Focusrite Scarlett 2nd gen. I'm currently using 256 buffer. I've tried using 128 but it screwed up some vocal takes I did the other day (there are 5-10 seconds of cracks in the middle of each 4 minute long complete song take). Also I froze the other tracks (eight of them, so not that many) before starting recording. No FX on master track.
Maybe I should've bought 2015 MBP then. Or maybe I should downgrade to Mojave? Or buy the Apple adapter? Or a different interface? No idea; both Focusrite and Ableton say they are compatible with Catalina.
As I've said, the 13" 2018 I use from time to time can easily manage a 32 buffer, even on Catalina, so your device should be just as good..
My suggestion is to try with a different adapter and maybe with a different DAW such as Reaper, just to double-check (although I don't really think the DAW is the issue here).
It may also be related to the plugins you're using, maybe they're just heavier than mine..
