Apple or Google - Which is better?

By TrocProcLock | Everything Non-Crypto related | 15 Sep 2021

Disclaimer: I am biased on this one. I work in IT and have for the past 10+ years. I work with computers and servers all day and have to update/repair them. I even worked in a Help Desk back in the day and built/re-built/modified computers all day. So I would say it's safe to say I know computers. That being said that is my mindset going into this. I am not the average PC or Smartphone user. I am what they call a "Power User". I am also cheap lol. So you probably already know where I stand on this debate but nevertheless I am going to try to give a semi-unbiased opinion.

Computers / Towers / Personal Computers:

This one isn't really a fair fight but I wanted to include it to be fair to myself. Since Google doesn't 'really' have Desktop PC's we are going to have to compare laptops in this category. That would be a Chromebook versus a MacBook Pro or even a MacBook Air.

Now while Google's Chromebooks are great for what they are they are not that great at a lot of things. They are great for schooling. If this category was for what laptop would be the best for schools to pass out to kids then I would give the title to Google. But that is a very small category. I will contest that Apple makes fast and good looking PC's. Shoot a few years ago I went on a ebay spree and bought up a few of the old Clamshell iBook G3's.

I love these things. They were sleek at the time. They were colorful and they had a built in handle! What more could you want. They had a decent upgradability for the time. Honestly if they brought back this design exactly with just better internals I would buy one in a heartbeat.

But back on track to the competition. A MacBook Pro can do almost anything you need it to. You can play AAA games on it, you can render videos, you can e-mail and word process you can run virtual machines on it. Shoot you can even install Windows on it if you wanted to.

While a Chromebook is a lightweight OS on a lightweight hardware. You are not going to play AAA games on it or render anything. It is great for school work and surfing the web. It was designed for a specific use case and it is good at that but the MacBook can excel in that use case and so many other areas as well.

Again this one isn't a fair fight but it had to be said none the less. I would be remiss to not point out the price difference though. You can get a decent Chromebook for $300. The MacBook Pro is going to set you back at least $1,299 or a cool $999 for a MacBook Air. So there is a reason why Apple wins this one.

Winner:

Smartphones:

Now this is where the real fight gets dirty. I am going what I feel is fair from a company versus company standpoint. Apple has created iOS mobile Operating System. Google has created Android mobile Operating System. They both develop their own phones as well.

Apple iOS running on a iPhone has been known as the "it just runs great". And it does. Apple has developed the hardware and software to run in parallel. I have to give them credit for creating a unified ecosystem that runs great. You don't really hear about iPhone's needing a reboot or having much issues. The iPhone is a great working phone. It will make calls, play games, and take great pictures. You get what you pay for. iPhones are not cheap either. They latest flagship phone will set you back $699.

Now with Google you get a OS built not from the ground up like Apple did but was built on top of Java... you know Java the thing that runs part of the internet.. One could argue the Pixel devices are the top tier mobile smartphone but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Google has made a few Pixel phones themselves now and they have perfected them. I am not going to get into which has a bigger battery or a better camera or a better screen because well it would become a pissing match. And it would truly come down to which one you like better or which one has features you like more. The Google Pixel 5a with 5G will set you back $449.

With all that being said I do want to touch on a few things that will show you why this battle isn't a fair fight.

The Operating System. Apple has built iOS to run on Apple iPhones and that is it. They have a closed ecosystem completely and the buck stops with Apple. If you want a iPhone you have to buy into their ecosystem. Android on the other hand is 100% open source. You want a Android phone that costs $100 they have those. You want a Android phone that has passive CPU coolers so you can game all day long? They have those too. You want a Android phone that doesn't have any Google bloat? They have those too. And the reason for that is is because Google has made Android 100% Open Source.

AOSP is Android Open Source Project. It means if you build your own hardware phone you can download a bare metal Android Operating System and run it for free. Google is constantly updating it's version of Android and the base code AOSP for anyone to open and view and edit and play with. That is also why there is such a huge modding community around Android. In the early days of Android I spent more hours then I care to admit on XDA-Developers downloading new OS's for my phone and flashing them to tweak the performance of my phone. When you buy a Android phone you own it 100%. You can do whatever you want to it and install whatever you want on it. The caveat is that if you are running AOSP builds then you may not have access to official Google apps or the Play Store. BUT since the OS is open source people have developed their own replacements.

Try installing a new App Store on your iPhone and still be under warranty.. You can't.

Try modifying the OS on a iPhone and staying under warranty... You can't.

Try doing anything Apple doesn't want you to on your iPhone that you own and see if you are under warranty... I will wait.

The Google Smartphone ecosystem is so much more open and welcoming. You control your subsystem on your phone. You can edit whatever you want on YOUR phone. Sure that isn't for everyone but it's that backbone to the ecosystem that makes it superior by miles. I get it that a Android phone isn't for everyone but they still win this race by a mile.

And I didn't even get into way to change the way your screen looks with completely legal and easy ways. And I didn't even talk about how Apple likes to announce some new cool feature and act like they created it except it was on Android phones for years before that... I am looking at you... Widgets. lol Apple announced these cool new things called "widgets" as some cool new feature and I honestly went.. "wait iOS hasn't had widgets this whole time?!?!"

I do have to conceede that Apple's iOS runs better on their iPhones then Android does on a Android phone. That is because Apple can extensively test their OS on a limited amount of phones that they control so it would be easier.

Winner:

App Store - Play Store:

This one is easy that I can sum it up in 1 picture.

They ONLY way you can argue this one is that the Apple App Store is lockdown so much that it protects us the users from crap apps and virus's. And to that I say "Okay, Cool, Have fun in dictatorship China, I will be over here is a Free country where I can do whatever I want.".

It isn't a fair fight to begin with because Apple locks down what you can do on your iPhone so the amount of different apps it can have is severely limited. I have so many apps that modify things on my Android phone that wouldn't be allowed on a iPhone. Not to even talk about Crypto apps because that is a joke. The other part to mention is that I can install other app stores as well on my Android phone so even if a app isn't allowed on the Play Store I can still install it by either downloading the APK file myself or installing it via a separate app store.

Oh that super cool app that you love was recently taken off the App Store? too bad. On Android I will just find the APK of the version I want and install it and no problems.

Winner:

Company Misc.:

Besides phones and computers what does Apple do? They have Apple TV & Apple Music sure. Besides that what else do they really have?

Besides phones and computers what does Google do?

Google Search, Google Fi + Google Fiber, Google Maps, Google Drive, YouTube, Google Photos, Google Home products, Sheet and Slides, Google Cloud and the list goes on and on... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

Now we can say both companies are slimy, they both avoid paying taxes and purchase companies to bolster their own portfolio to reduce competition. But as a company verse company Apple doesn't stand a chance.

Winner:

Reparability:

A few years ago this wasn't even a close call. Nowadays it is a little easier to repair iPhones. Apple is known for locking down their hardware so that people can't get into them. I don't really blame them since they control the whole system. But as a customer it stunk. You bought a phone and you crack the screen and had to bring it back to Apple to pay their fees to get it fixed instead of buying a new screen on eBay and doing it yourself.

That being said you can purchase a iPhone 12 screen replacement on eBay easily, you can also buy a Pixel 4a 5G screen replacement on eBay just as easily. So for this section we are going to have to go to how easy it is to fix the phones once you have all the parts.

I went to https://www.ifixit.com/ to check out the guides to see stats on them.

Note: Pixel 5 states it is 12 steps.

Note: iPhone 12 Pro Max states its 26 steps.

So there is some wiggle room between models but the key difference is Time Required. On a whole Google made phones require less time to replace then iPhones.

I have replaced many screens in my day. The process for any phone is usually the same. Gently heat up the screen to melt the glue holding it down slightly. Use a guitar pick to physically separate the screen from the rest of the phone. then proceed to disconnect everything in your way until you can unplug the screen. Sure you need some TINY screwdrivers and weird ones to get the job done but it is doable.

I would be remiss to not mention the "Right to Repair" lawsuits going on now. Both sides are in the hot seat for this so it won't effect the outcome.

This section has to go to Google because of a few reasons:

1) They have been easier to repair from the get go.

2) They take less time to repair

Winner:

There you have it. My totally unbiased opinion on which company is better and makes better products. What is crazy is though with Google doing so many more products and services they are still worth less than Apple though.