While iPhone fans brag about their beloved devices, Android fans will
grin knowingly and take comfort because there are several solid reasons
to stick with -- or switch to -- their Google-powered phones.
Here's a look at the nine biggest features that make Android devices more favorable than Apple's iphone:
1. Expandable storage
If your iPhone is filled with files, you're out of luck. Not the case
with Android, which welcomes and supports SD cards for added storage
capability.
2. Killer maps
The iPhone 5 saw Apple pull the plug on Google Maps and sub in its own
mapping app. And it's embarrassingly bad. Apple CEO Tim Cook even wrote a
statement apologizing for it.
Google Maps is still alive, kicking and as accurate as we remember it on Android phones.
3. No 'walled garden'
In the Android ecosystem, there are fewer restrictions on apps. Apple
will only allow apps into its App Store after it reviews and approves
them, which can take weeks. Google will let anyone who agrees to follow
their policies publish an app, often within hours.
4. Ability to Choose your default apps for Web browsing, email and more
Apple forces you to use its email app and Safari Web browser by default.
Android is so open that it will let you pick any alternative browser or
email client to be your default. If you want to get especially
customized, you can even change keyboards.
5. Support for multiple app stores
Yet another extension of Android's open attitude: You are free to not
only run any app you wish, but that app can come from any Android-based
app store you want. Amazon operates one, for example.
6. Multiple hardware choices
Not everyone wants to have the same exact phone. Because Android runs on
multiple devices, you can have your choice of processor speed, screen
size, and price.
7. Standard cables and dock connections
There's no goofy Lightning connector in the Android world. Your phone
connects to and syncs with your computer via a few different types of
readily available, standard USB cables.
8. Better widgets
An Android lock screen displays more useful information than an iPhone's
and does so in a more aesthetically pleasing way. Graphic weather
updates, album art for music, and notifications for missed calls and the
like show up neatly.
9. Better integration with Google services
It only makes sense that a Google-based mobile operating system should
integrate gracefully with Google's Web services. If you're a Google
Calendar user or Google Drive warrior, you only need to log into your
Google account once and everything syncs up in a snap. If you've tried
using Apple's iCloud, you know it doesn't match up to Google's web
prowess.