iPhone

As I scroll through my message inbox on my iPhone, I can count 30 people I have talked to within the start of the school year via iMessage. In the same 11 weeks, I have been involved in nine group iMessage chats.

As I looked around the third floor computer lab in the McIntyre Library one day this week, I noticed at least three other people with iPhones, and there were about eight students around me. There’s no question, Apple’s a powerhouse.

When I was 15 years old, I knew my next phone upgrade would be an iPhone. I may or may not have entertained the idea for a slight second of owning an Android phone, but those thoughts never lasted too long.

I’ll tell you why I wanted so badly to own an iPhone in one simple, superficial yet powerful word: popularity.

Some people might scoff or roll their eyes at the word, but try to tell me there isn’t at least one person who hasn’t switched over to team iPhone because either all their friends had iPhones, they wanted to text with emojis or even be in group chats.

But popularity aside, there are so many other reasons I have loved owning an iPhone the past four years of my life and have never thought of switching to Android.

The first reason is the consistency with the products. When new iPhones are released, there are differences. They might be thinner, taller or have bigger screens. But my point is, people still know it’s an iPhone. The only reason I know an Android is an Android is because it doesn’t look like an iPhone.

Another reason I love my iPhone is because the late CEO Steve Jobs created this innovative product to compliment his other electronics. And I love how everyone knows who Steve Jobs was, even if they don’t have any Apple product. Can anyone tell me offhand who the CEO of Android is? No? Okay.

In all honesty, I’m team smartphone in general. But the thing that reels me in about my iPhone is to me, it’s the epitome of a smartphone. I could do the same things on my iPhone on an Android, but it just wouldn’t seem right to me.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I might have gotten overly attached to my phone. It’s only because I deserve nothing but the best, and the best is iPhone.

— Meghan Hosely, Copy Editor

Android

When it comes time for me to upgrade my cellular device after a long two years, you can bet your bottom dollar I will be choosing Android for more reasons than one.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not against Apple products. I work on Macs and own an iPod touch, but when it comes down to it Android beats the iPhone in most phases.

I know any audience will be hard to convince because the majority of smartphone users today, according to appleinsider.com own iPhones, but I’m willing to give it a whirl.

The first area I look at is battery life. iPhones are known for their lack of battery life, and I always have to chuckle when I see an iPhone user scrambling to find someone with an “iPhone 5” cord because, yes, you all know it, Apple doesn’t have a universal cord for all devices. When you look at Android devices, you find much larger batteries, more battery life and a universal charger to charge these batteries when necessary.

When you look at the new iPhone 6, you can see how they have basically taken what Android has been doing for years and used it in their products.

First and foremost, they have changed from having one model and instead made two, with the normal-size iPhone 6 and the new iPhone 6 Plus, which resembles Android’s Galaxy and Galaxy Note devices.

Along with taking Android’s ideas of having a larger and smaller model of a phone, Apple has also copied the swipe texting ability that Androids have had for quite some time, added widgets for home screens Android created and created an iCloud drive similar to what Android has with Google Drive or Dropbox.

Android devices in my eyes just give you more freedom to customize your device and play and work freely while giving you awesome battery life. Yes, maybe you iPhone users are awesome because you can sync your iTunes library to your phone, but really that is the only plus I see out of the mainstream gadget.

Maybe I just like being different and thinking outside the box, but in today’s fast paced world I see iPhone as the gadget that everyone and their brother buys into because of the name, but really Android devices are the ones that will get you where you need to go and beyond.

— Trent Tetzlaff, Copy Editor