iPhone Daily Tech Support Thread - [April 27]

Daily Tech Support Thread - [April 27]
The new budget iPhone SE is the right phone for an uncertain time
Moving from S10+ to iPhone 11 Pro - An In-Depth Review and Comparison
Apple Delays Mass Production of 2020 Flagship iPhones
Report suggests 5G iPhone with under-display fingerprint scanner will be arriving this year.
iFixit’s iPhone SE 2020 Teardown
GBoard's way to use screen space is absolutely ridiculous
Since the true competitor to iPhone SE (2020) is the iPhone 8. I found a camera comparison to it.
Germany flips to Apple-Google approach on smartphone contact tracing

Posted: 26 Apr 2020 09:10 PM PDT

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The new budget iPhone SE is the right phone for an uncertain time

Posted: 26 Apr 2020 11:23 PM PDT

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Moving from S10+ to iPhone 11 Pro - An In-Depth Review and Comparison

Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:39 PM PDT

I'm someone who has used many flagship Android phones in the past 6 years - namely LG G4, S6 Edge+, S7 Edge, S9 and S10+. I'm an engineer, and very much a technical guy and so I always enjoyed Android. Before my LG G4, I used the iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone 5S, so I'm not foreign to the Apple world too. I had the S10+ (Exynos) from release date, for a little over a year. This is a review of how I feel about the S10+ (a recent flagship Samsung) and the iPhone 11 Pro (a recent flagship iPhone) which I've used for over a month now. For S10 and other Samsung users, I made these threads of tips here and here.

I would say that even though my in-depth review is written for the S10+ specifically, most of it is still relevant for the S20 series, so anyone tossing up between the S20 series and iPhone 11 Pro series will find this useful.

My motivation for changing phones: I wanted a smaller phone as my 6.4" S10+ felt too big for my small hands. I always research phones, and battery is a huge factor to me, so I know that the "smaller" Android flagships always have really subpar battery - i.e. S10E, Pixel 3, Pixel 4, etc. I found that the "smaller" iPhone 11 Pro is still a champ in the battery department. I also wanted to try the newest iPhone of 2019 as my last one was from 2013 (the 5S).

Performance & Software Experience

The iPhone 11 Pro simply wins here, by far. Everything is absolutely seamless and free-flowing, and there is never even a slight hiccup. The whole OS is incredibly stable and smooth. The S10+ made leaps and bounds with One UI and Android 9 and 10, for sure. However, I feel that any flagship Android just has that ever so slight hiccup in experience compared to the same-generation iPhone, and this is only explainable if you have used a latest generation iPhone for a few days. If you have not, you probably won't know the feeling that I'm talking about.

For sure, I miss the S10+'s software customization with things like One Hand Operations+, Good Lock, Launchers and so on. However, what the iPhone lacks in customization, it more than makes up for in feel and experience. Every single thing that I do on my phone is a pleasure to do due to this amazing software feel. For example, the landscape rotation on the S10+ is always a bit glitchy and laggy, for games and other landscape apps, where as the iPhone transitions so smoothly between portrait and landscape apps, and going home from them, etc. It's really a matter of taste, but my opinion is that the extreme smoothness and seamless experience/integration trumps the ability of full customization with widgets and launchers, etc. Also, the iPhone's software is usually supported for ~ 5 generational updates, where as for the S10+, it is 2 generations of updates (and then only security patches like the S7 got for some years). This is really disappointing for the S10+ and all other Android flagships (except the Pixel? Correct me if I'm wrong).

Processor Disparity

The disparity between the Exynos and Snapdragon models for Samsung flagships is very, very disappointing. Firstly, the battery performance of the Exynos models are simply worse in every way, especially standby drain. Secondly, it heats up more and thermal throttling is worse. Lastly, even the camera processing is different however neither wins here, but perhaps the Snapdragon takes better photos. What's even more annoying is, you could be reading reviews online before buying the S10+ but those reviews will be Snapdragon-American reviews so their battery and performance reviews won't be the same as the Exynos version of the phone in your region (everywhere in the world but US/Hong Kong/South Korea/Canada?). It's like you're using a totally different phone almost. Before the S8, the Exynos was superior and the Snapdragon was worse. This disparity really has to stop, Samsung. Due to this big difference, some people even import Samsung phones from Snapdragon-countries to get a better phone, but lose out on the home-country warranties, repairs and support. This is just so annoying.

This is totally different for the iPhone side, because I can be 100% sure that every review I read on the iPhone 11 Pro will be the exact same phone that I will buy in my country. No headache at all, won't have to think about importing.

RAM Management

Both phones are great in this - remember folks, you don't need to close your apps on phones these days unless they are bugging! I did notice though that the S10+ with its 8GB RAM kept more apps open in the background than the iPhone. But it's not a huge deal since the iPhone's performance is faster anyway and opening apps from the beginning is super fast anyway. But the S10+ wins here for keeping more apps open in the background.

Display

The S10+ has a gorgeous WQHD+ display (1440x3040) and I loved it, watching YouTube and Netflix was a pleasure, and the hole cut didn't bother me after just a week of getting used to it. The iPhone 11 Pro still has a really high-quality display (1125x2436) and I found the colour balance to be much nicer than the S10+, i.e. the colour gamut was more pleasurable to look at and wasn't overly vivid. The HDR and contrast of both screens are excellent. The iPhone has a big notch and that takes a bit of getting used to - however the sensors and camera there do an excellent job compared to the S10+'s respective sensors and camera (referenced later in the review in Biometrics, Sensors, Vibration and Camera), so I'm not too annoyed at that.

For all apps and activities, both screens are excellent. Only on YouTube and Netflix, I give the edge to the S10+ because it has 1440p instead of the iPhone 11 Pro's cap at 1080p - and I can definitely notice it. I'm someone who can always tell the difference between FHD/QHD. Also the S10+ has Always-on-Display which shows the time, date and notification icons which I really liked - however it drained a little battery.

Lastly, I was a partial fan of the edge display of the Samsung phones (which I had on the S6/S7/S9/S10 series) and it is cool. However, other than "One Hand Operations" and the odd use of the edge panel, I had no need for it and the drawbacks are bad. You can't put a good screen protector on the curved screens and they often interfere with cases, hence I rocked my S10+ with the factory protector and when that was worn out, I rocked it naked. Also, the edge display has more accidental touches unless you have a thicker case on. The iPhone 11 Pro's slight increase in side bezel was so good for me - it meant that I could never make an accidental touch and I had a flat screen for once! I was able to flawlessly install a Spigen glass protector onto it - wonderful! This was such a big relief.

Camera

Both cameras are fantastic off the bat. On the S10+, I found that I had to turn Scene Optimizer off to get nice natural-ish shots, otherwise they would be way too saturated and HDR'd. Night Mode goes to the iPhone, hands down - the exposure toggle on this phone is excellent. The S10+ has made improvements in Night photography but it is still behind. The Ultra Wide Angle camera on the S10+ picks up slightly more detail but always has an unwanted extra saturation and HDR added to it that makes it look unpleasant (even without Scene Optimizer). The portrait mode on the iPhone is more versatile and has cooler options like the contrast black/white portraits. Both phones do a great job taking portrait shots overall. I give the camera win to the iPhone for sure, any random shot is usually always better on the iPhone. There is more detail in the pictures, and colours are way more natural - also gives me more room to edit photos in Lightroom/Snapseed. Front camera is much better on the iPhone as it retains detail and doesn't soften the face too much like the S10+ does. But to be honest, once I modified the camera settings on my S10+ to my liking, it was an excellent camera system overall and I'd still be fine with it today.

Also, the Camera app on the iPhone is just far, far superior. There is no delays in switching between modes and sub-modes, and video recording is also flawless. The S10+'s Camera app is fine, but simply not as seamless and smooth as the iPhone's.

Physical Build

This is all preference here, and I think they're both awesome. I like that the S10+ weighs less than the regular iPhone 11 Pro (175g vs. 188g) - note that this is for the glass-back S10+, the ceramic-back S10+ weighs 198g. Also I like that all 3 cameras on the S10+ lie on one flat plane, where as the iPhone 11 Pro has 3 separate circles - this is just nit picking, but three separate camera circles indented means a bit more dust particles gathering there. Both phones are beautiful and solid overall, but the S10+ gets the slight win here.

Inputs and Storage

The S10+ gets the win for inputs simply because it has a headphone jack and micro SD card slot - I always used the SD card slot with a 64GB card to turn my 128GB phone into 192GB. I used the Galaxy Buds so I hardly ever needed the headphone jack, but it was still useful to have. On the iPhone, I was forced to buy the 256GB model because the lowest storage model at 64GB isn't enough for me. A "pro" phone should start at 128GB minimum. Another difference is that the iPhone 11 Pro can support a second SIM via an eSIM. The S10+ has both single SIM and dual SIM models - usually most countries sell the single SIM version.

Battery

The iPhone 11 Pro (non max) is better than the S10+ (the max equivalent) in battery - this is pretty incredible although mind you, I had the Exynos model. Firstly, standby battery drain is amazing on the iPhone, better than the Samsung. The S10+ had pretty good battery to be honest, but on the iPhone I'm regularly getting 8 hours of Screen-on-Time a month in. The S10+ got around 6-7 hours out of the box, but then degraded over time. I had the Exynos S10+ which suffers in 4G idle drain as well, which is a pity. Shame on Samsung for such a huge disparity between the two processors. I guess I'll have to wait a year to see how the iPhone 11 Pro's battery holds up.

Secondly, for the S10+ (and many other Androids), a user has to tinker with so many different settings and annoying little toggles and everything to squeeze a good battery life out of it. For example on the S10+, you have to tinker with adaptive battery, adaptive power save, deep sleeping apps, normal sleeping apps, optimized charging, turning things off like Nearby Device Scanning, etc. The list goes on but you always have to play around with the settings a lot to get good battery out of it. On the iPhone, there are some things you may want to turn off but overall if you leave the phone as it is out of the box, it will still give great battery performance.

Speakers

Both are excellent with their stereo speakers, I might give the slightest edge to the S10+ here. It's just slightly louder I think.

Apps, Update Structure and Cleanness

For stock apps - both phones have good stock apps for Clock, Calendar, Calculator, etc. However for the S10+, stock apps like Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, Samsung Health, etc. always have annoying and intrusive ads on the top banner. When I go into Samsung Health, I don't want to see ads for Galaxy Watch or the Calm Meditation app. When I go into weather, I don't want to see random ads and when I go to Samsung Pay I don't want to see ads for YouTube Premium or a Note 10. I have checked all possible settings and you cannot opt out of these ads, and it varies by region. This is unacceptable for the stock apps on a phone, especially such an expensive one. The iPhone counterparts for these apps are always much cleaner and with zero ads of course. The photos app on the iPhone is smoother and faster than the gallery app on the S10+, but it's not a huge deal.

For third party apps, in every instance, the iOS app is better in experience. Spotify is so much smoother and nicer, so is Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Reddit, and so on. Almost all apps seem to be made better on iOS in my experience so far. But that doesn't mean all apps are "bad" on Android, they are generally pretty good and I only appreciated the difference when I got the iPhone 11 Pro.

The S10+ has an annoying app structure and update integration. Firstly, you have duplicate apps and bloat apps out of the box with a mix of Google and Samsung apps for things like Email, Browser, etc. and other carrier software (if you got it from a carrier) so you have to disable the ones you don't use. Secondly, there is a Galaxy Store as well as the usual Play Store to complicate things. The one good thing I got from the Galaxy Store is Good Lock (for added customization). Otherwise, I find it really weird that you can get things like "Samsung Browser", "Samsung Health" and "Sound Assistant" from both Galaxy Store and Play Store - it just complicates things. Also for the Samsung, you'll get miscellaneous system updates from Play Store and Galaxy Store, and often they are really confusing like "PaymentFramework UI" update from Galaxy Store, or "Billing" or any other little update within the software of the phone. Things like this are just confusing for the user and should just be done in major OS updates or in silence, it makes the experience feel cluttered. On the iPhone 11 Pro, the App Store is the only place to get apps and it updates in silence (no notifications like Android). And all system related updates are done in iOS updates. For a technical guy like me, these factors are fine but for the average user, it really makes the iPhone stand out in this regard where as the Samsung/Android just feels a bit weird.

File Management

S10+ wins here, all day. You can connect to a PC to drag and drop any folder of photos, videos, music, files, and it just works in all apps flawlessly. You can't do that with the iPhone and you have to sync photo folders through iTunes or iCloud. When you connect your iPhone to a PC, all you can do is browser through the DCIM folder of photos and videos, and you cannot write anything to the disk space either. Where as on my Samsung, I can put in any file like a computer - PDFs, docs, songs, photos, whatever. It just works so well. For the iPhone, I need to heavily use iCloud Drive or Dropbox for these things which I'd prefer not to.

Voice Assistant, Automations, Dedicated Button

I personally don't like to use my voice too much, but here's my review of both systems. Firstly, Bixby is not very good on the S10+ - the software is cluttered and the voice control isn't a seamless, nice experience. However, it can do some quite in-depth things if you can learn how to do it, such as opening apps and doing very specific things in them, or changing in-depth settings. Siri on the iPhone is decent and can help out with quite a few things, but again it also has its limitations. I think it is more seamless and smooth than Bixby, but its capabilities are similar. The S10+ also has Google Assistant integrated into the system which is probably the best voice assistant in the world.

For automation, I found Bixby Routines to be excellent. I was able to create routines for putting my phone into "car mode" when connecting to its Bluetooth - it would automatically open Spotify and play my library, and this worked every single time. I also created many other routines such as when reaching my work location, go to silent and media volume to 0%. Great experience. For the iPhone, the Automations functionality is workable but there are disadvantages. Bluetooth cannot be activated instantly without a user input prompt and unlock, for security reasons. So I can't just walk into my car and let the music auto-play - it will only auto-play if Spotify was open. If Spotify is closed, I have to go into my phone and do it myself. I give the automation win to Samsung for sure.

The iPhone also has shortcuts (custom commands) which can go into great detail - much more than the Samsung, and you can download a bunch of unique shortcuts created by others for things like Media downloading. This is quite cool but it isn't perfect.

The S10+ has a dedicated Bixby button. Out of the box, this is useless if it connects to Bixby which most people don't like to use. However, you can use the BxActions app to re-route the button to anything you like. I set it up so that if I hold the Bixby button down it would turn on the flashlight (a literal lifesaver!) and if I press it, it flicks between Sound, Vibrate and Silent. This was awesome. The iPhone doesn't have a dedicated hardware button for doing whatever I like with it. However it does have a physical switch for Sound and Silent.

Biometrics, Sensors, Vibration

The in-display fingerprint scanner worked quite well for me usually (a lot of others had issues with this). However, it just wasn't that smooth of an experience, there would always be a slight hiccup when waking the phone with fingerprint. Face recognition on the S10+ is not good - firstly, it's just a camera image based scanner so it isn't secure at all, doesn't work too well in the dark (hence the screen has to brighten itself) and I found the circle ring animation on the lock screen to be bad in design. Face ID on the iPhone seems to work from much wider angles and work in basically every scenario ever, and it is super seamless. Also the notification contents are hidden until it is unlocked with a successful face scan, and I love that. The S10+ has a little advantage though, because you can just scan your finger while the phone is flat on a table and open it, where as for the iPhone, I have to move my face to look at it. The iPhone has a little advantage too - it has single-tap to wake which I prefer, where as the S10+ only has double-tap to wake. Slight difference, but not a big deal.

The proximity sensor (such a simple given thing on any smartphone) was simply not good on the S10+. There was a proximity sensor issue and battery drain in the early months, and after Viber/WhatsApp calls, the proximity sensor would cause issues and drain battery. Also, the Always On Display wouldn't turn off when in a pocket, which the S7 Edge and S9 didn't have an issue with! The iPhone's proximity sensor works fine.

Haptic feedback (vibrations) on the iPhone 11 Pro is simply leagues ahead. There is a great level of precision between the levels of vibration and it feels great, plus many of the system and app elements use varying degrees of haptic feedback to the user and I really like it. Actually I never had an issue with the S10+ haptic feedback, but once I used the iPhone, then I realised that it can be done even better. In comparison, the S10+ just feels like a "loose vibration" where as the iPhone vibration feels more "compact and precise" - hard to describe.

Overall, the biometrics, sensors and "little things" are simply better on the iPhone, hands down.

Contactless Payment

Hardware capability wise, Samsung Pay wins since it has MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) which gives the S10+ the ability to emulate the swipe of a physical card when NFC-based payment isn't available. So when someone gives you the "we don't have pay-wave", you can still wow them and pay with your S10+. However, I've only found this useful when travelling, as in Australia, I found that every single payment terminal always has contactless payments, even in random country towns.

Software wise for payments, the iPhone 11 Pro wins without question. The Apple Pay (or Wallet) app is much, much cleaner than Samsung Pay. The process of making a payment from the moment your phone is in your pocket is significantly faster on the iPhone - you double tap the lock button and instantly it uses Face ID then has your primary card ready to make a payment, literally takes 1 second. For Samsung Pay, you can swipe up from the bottom while the screen is off and then there is always a slight delay before Samsung Pay opens, then you have to use the in-display fingerprint scanner and finally you are able to pay - this takes much more time than Apple Pay. It didn't bother me too much until I used Apple Pay and I was in awe of how fast this process is on the iPhone. Also, as discussed above, the Samsung Pay app has ads on the top banner which is unacceptable. This could not be removed no matter how many settings I tried (others in different regions have been able to remove them).

The location of the NFC chip on the S10+ is towards the middle of the back of the phone so you have to place the back onto a scanner, kind of. On the iPhone, it's located on the top border of the phone so you kind of just hold it out like a beam. This isn't a huge deal but I find that slightly more convenient. For me, Apple Pay wins overall since my country has no need for MST, and the software experience is way better. But others may find Samsung Pay better because of this unique feature.

Price ($AUD) and Value

Release day RRP for the S10+ 128GB was $1499 and for my iPhone 11 Pro 256GB was $1999 (64GB model was $1749). I think that overall, the iPhone is severely overpriced, and the S10+ is also quite overpriced but it is easier to find promotions and deals on the S10+. Flagships overall have spiraled into ridiculous prices, but I think the iPhone 11 Pro shouldn't be that much more expensive than an S10+.

However, the iPhone wins hands down in retaining value over time. After 1 or 2 years, the iPhone will always re-sell for more because they garner more interest than used Android phones, and secondly, they are usually in good nick comparatively.

Verdict

Taking all these factors into account, right now I'd personally go with the iPhone 11 Pro. However, the S10 and S20 series are still fantastic phones and you may prefer them.

Since I obviously like writing about tech, I started my own blog if you are interested.

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Apple Delays Mass Production of 2020 Flagship iPhones

Posted: 27 Apr 2020 04:07 AM PDT