A big part of it is built in batteries that are difficult to replace. My phone has a removable battery and is on its third one now... still works fine and does everything I want it to, after 10 years of use.
Edit: It's running Lineage Os 18 (android 11) not the original android 5(?) it came with, so security updates are not an issue.
It's honorable that you struggle through 2013 Android, but using an internet enabled device that hasn't received security updates in at least 7 years is a horrible idea.
Upgrade to a Fairphone at least, so you can keep replacing parts while also maintaining a base level of security.
No it's a very good phone, but I prefer to leave assistant off, and damned if it doesn't pop up about once a day to ask if I'm it really really sure I don't want to turn it on. Gets annoying
Do you mean a pop up from accidentally summoning Google assistant from holding the home button? I've had that issue on a couple Android phones and have had good luck going into settings and disabling it.
No I disabled the assistant. I tend to always do that, because in the past I've found them to be nuisances. This is the first phone where I'll fart and it pops up "want to turn Google Assistant on?"
Given that they’re upgrading from a 5 year old phone (that wasn’t the flagship when it was released) that’s still getting iOS updates and that no Android phone has historically had a similar guaranteed amount of support (and currently only the Pixel 8 is rumored to offer more) they might want to be able to keep their next phone for 5+ years.
They might not want to deal with manufacturer installed bloatware.
They might otherwise be invested in the Apple ecosystem - AirPods, Apple Watch, MacBook, etc.
They might want updates ASAP (instead of getting it months or weeks later).
They might not want to think so hard about which Android phone to buy.
They likely don’t value the advantages Android has over iOS (more customizable, earlier features, actual file system browsing, etc.) as highly as the advantages iOS has.
They might not want to learn a new mobile OS, and they might value the consistency and simplicity of iOS.
So cringey. Some people do like Apple products. Nothing beats the Mac/macbook, Apple Watch, iPad or AirPods in their respective categories. Android and iPhone are basically feature wise the same so get what you like.
But, how is it any different than being vendor locked into android with their wearables or tablets or chromebooks? Apple made an ecosystem that works well together. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s bad.
I'm not an android fan by any means, it's just the better option right now. Android is free software, I'm writing from an Android phone that has software from no corporation, not even Google. Can you compile iOS from source and remove Apple's software from it? I don't think so.
Even without installing custom ROMs, in any Android phone you can install apps from third party stores. In iPhones you can only get them from the App Store. You want to use a browser which isn't a Safari skin on iOS? Not possible either. There's a long list of similar anticompetitive behavior.
Your first comment was about a family of devices and now you only talk about the iPhone….because that’s the only device that has an open source alternative. Google/android/chrome offerings to every other category are worse than apples offerings, stuff is half baked. I’m all for open source but there is no denying how smooth all of apples devices just work with each other. That means something too. Not being open source do not equal bad automatically either.
I personally don’t care about taking source code and compiling it or installing custom roms. I have other hobbies that take my time. I want a devices that work 99% of the time without effort straight from the box.
If you enjoy non-apple products that’s great but this place just feels like the early days of Reddit where everyone is so anti-Apple because it’s cool. They do some shitty things (like basically every company ever) but they also do some really cool things too, like a family of 6 different products working seamlessly together.
There are a few reasons like their extended software support and their built in text recognition and translation features.
I don’t live in my home country and this is very very useful.
Since everyone in America uses iOS and iMessage only, I’m kinda locked into iMessage for communications.
I know there are other messaging apps, but no one has any of them. There are people I communicate with just a few times a year and I can’t ask them to download an app just to occasionally chat or catch up.
I also use very few google services. In fact if you don’t count invidious I only have a gmail account which I use for no personal stuff like Netflix accounts and stuff.