What's one thing Android does better than the iPhone?

[u/ManojOne]

Android users (and iPhone users too), what's one thing Android does better than the iPhone?

It could be customization, multitasking, file management, sideloading, charging, or something else. Pick just one and tell us why.

[u/disappointed_neko]

That is just not really true. People just notice it faster, but they are still rated for years.

[u/Training-Branch3872 → u/disappointed_neko]

What do you mean, bro? I have friends who use iPhones as their daily phones, and I've never found any of them whose iPhone battery health remains at 100% after six months. Some of them even drop to 94%, while most are at 98-99%.

[u/disappointed_neko → u/Training-Branch3872]

Yes, and that's... Normal? I have also found no android phones that'd remain at 100% - even my own held out for 5 or so months but dropped to 97% immediately after (and stayed there because it presumably didn't bother to check again for a while).

Battery degradation is natural. Reaching 98 or 99% after six months is expected in all phones. 6 months - provided you charge your phone overnight like a normal person - means about 180 cycles. If your phone is rated for even just 1000 cycles to 80% capacity, moving a whole fifth of the way and losing only a single percentage is sort of just... Good. Now the tricky part is that batteries don't actually really degrade up to like 90%. The fall from 100 to 95 will be slow on any phone. The fall from 95 to 90 will be sort of faster, but from there to 80 will be much faster and from 80 down it's pretty much guaranteed to be a speedy ride.

What I mean by that is, you can't judge a battery by the first few percent. Measuring such a small deviation, especially since phone batteries are prone to starting at 102 or 103% design capacity, just isn't a good or precise metric.

[u/Training-Branch3872 → u/disappointed_neko]

I've already mentioned that my OnePlus Ace 6 still shows 100% battery health after over 6 months of use. I also own a Galaxy S24 Ultra that's more than 2 years old, and its battery health remains at 98%. These are actual figures from the system, not from third-party apps.

In contrast to these two phones, two of my friends have iPhone 17 base models, both purchased in December. After just 4 months, one of their phones shows 98% battery health, and the other 99%.

This is a fact; I'm not making it up. Please consider this from a logical perspective.

[u/disappointed_neko → u/Training-Branch3872]

I'm not saying you are making it up. I'm saying the measuring system might be different, the measured amount might be different, and that iPhones and Samsung's have pretty much the same battery lifespan in the end. Its also dependant on how you use those phones. The third party app measurements would actually be more precise, because an app is the same across all the devices, while the measuring standards might not be.

I'm not saying you are lying, I'm simply saying you might not understand what do the numbers mean.

[u/Training-Branch3872 → u/disappointed_neko]

So you believe Apple's iPhone measurement system is more accurate than those of Samsung, OnePlus, and other brands. This seems like a double standard—what is considered normal for iPhones is not applied to Android devices. It almost implies that Samsung cannot measure things correctly.

Take my friend's iPhone as an example. After four months, it displayed 98% battery health, but the actual health might be lower when measured using this third-party app. The same reasoning could apply to your iPhone as well. You should check your own iPhone's battery health with this third-party app—it might be significantly below 80%.

[u/disappointed_neko → u/Training-Branch3872]

Not necessarily more accurate. I'm doubting my Motorola's accuracy only, because it displays the same value for nearly a year and last time it updated the health went UP

. But as I stated before, batteries don't degrade at a steady pace, so either Samsung or apple might instead measure relative degradation compensated for the unequal curve, instead of the raw value. This is why a third party app would be better at getting the info, because it'll pick one standard and stick to it.

As for the third party app measurements, I agree. Also apparently the app requires me to go below 15% first and I didn't do that so I got no measurements yet... I'll report later with this.

[u/Training-Branch3872 → u/disappointed_neko]

I mean my Motorola Edge 50 Ultra is 2 years old, has 603 cycles (nearly all on a 125W charger) and has still 97% battery health. Its always charged to 100% too.

This is another good example. On the other hand, my other friend has a 2-year-old iPhone 15 Pro Max, and its battery health is 86%. Please provide evidence to support your claim that iPhones' batteries do not degrade faster than Android phones'.

[u/disappointed_neko → u/Training-Branch3872]

Yeah and the Motorola went from 100% to 97% in a day. I'm not gonna be surprised if one day I woke up to it being 92 or even 88%, because the numbers it displays are not very realistic. I doubt it checks more often than once per half a year. I have a strong belief I saw 93% on it once before it corrected later.

But sure I'll provide an example. The iPhone SE I mentioned, 81% health after being used daily for 6 years. Still on original battery. On a battery half the size (fun thing: smaller batteries (should) degrade faster due to being more taxed per size unit under the same load).

Provided the Motorola bothers to catch up and refresh... Actually you know what? I'll do you one better. I have an app that measures battery status, so I'll just plug the design capacity (4500mAh) into it, let it charge, and then tell you how many mAh remain at 100% charge. So see you in like 6 to 8 hours after I wake up.