When the iPhone SE (2020) debuted earlier this spring, I argued that the phone's impressive specifications and reasonable price were enough to sit eagerly and pay attention to the longtime Android. For the Apple400, Apple's latest phone will get you a powerful processor, a gorgeous screen and a robust camera, along with useful bells and whistles like waterproof and wireless charging.

In fact, the flagship phone for half of what you would pay for a premium device. The iPhone SE sounded better than its closest Android competitor on paper, and it made me wonder: It stands up to its Android rival in real life

In my experience, no. The iPhone SE is a powerful piece of hardware at an impressive price, but I found that the iOS experience dragged the entire product down a few notches. If you have$400 to spend on the phone, you should buy Google's Pixel 3a (or 4a for the expected release

reasons), but the most important of them is the fact that complete400 will buy the full product when you choose an Android device, and you will not be able to buy the full product. It's not just putting your foot on the door of a much larger and more expensive ecosystem.

After I had a discussion in favor of the iPhone SE on May 4, my editors suggested an unusual experiment: If the iPhone SE really seemed so good to me, I would have thought a month after all, if the iPhone SE could really usher in a new era of mid-range smartphones that would be better tested than long-time Android users. . I installed the SIM card on my iPhone SE on 5/15 and kept it there for the next month.

Apple is certainly not my tea, but I decided to open my heart and participate in this experiment. I've reviewed Apple gadgets before, and I think I've always fairly evaluated their strengths and weaknesses. I am also not a hardcore smartphone user by any means. I use my phone for calls, texts, emails, social media and occasional mobile games. I don't have tons of apps, and I'd rather use a computer, game console, tablet or e-reader in most cases. So whatever I can do with my Android phone,おそらくiPhoneでできることを考えましたwell.My The hypothesis turned out to be about half right.

I found some things I like about the iPhone SE, and the Apple experience in general. First, I was able to download the new interface and security updates The second they became available, but my wireless iPhone SE continues to get important security updates for years, not less than 1 and a half years. Android really, really needs to step up its game in this sector.

I also thought the pictures it took were just gorgeous. Even indoors, the color balance is spot-on, and the phone did a great job of distinguishing between people and objects, foreground and background. I don't think it's significantly better than the Pixel3a's camera, but it's definitely better than what most mid-range phones offer.

I also liked everything the excellent hardware of the iPhone SE made easy. The screen was bright, vivid and sharp, especially since it cram a lot of resolution into small spaces. Whether I was playing a demanding 3D game or just scrolling through my photo library, the navigation is snappy and immediate it just loads everything almost instantly. Compared back to my aging Moto Z3 felt downright sluggish. I've never owned a phone with this feature before, so the wireless charging of the iPhone SE was also cool.

But my very favorite part of the iOS experience was Apple Arcade. For those who have never tried, Apple Arcade is a月額5 monthly subscription service with unlimited access to a variety of high-quality games not found anywhere else on Android (to be fair, it's often available on Steam or Switch).

These games avoid the worst excesses of free-to-play mobile games, as there is no 1 that allows in-app purchases. You get a full experience where you can play as long as you like without paying anything on top of the subscription fee. I hope Android had a similar service.

The first thing I noticed was that iOS does not have a unified back button. This may seem like a small complaint, but on Android, it's very clear that any app will go back to the previous screen. ON IOS, EVERY APP HAS A DIFFERENT BACK BUTTON AND THERE IS NO CONSISTENCY AS TO WHERE IT IS. It is impossible to learn how to exit the current screen with muscle memory, because in one app you may need to scroll to the top left and in another to the bottom right.

My second big realization was that there was no way to access my text messages on the PC. Thanks to Google Messages, I've become very accustomed to using my PC to answer texts as long as I'm at home — which these days most I know iMessage is available on Mac, but Google Messages is available on both Pc and Mac, and this seems to be a much fairer arrangement.

Then on Day 1 there was a feature that started driving me out of my mind and did not let up until Day 30: The main screen of the ios keyboard has a comma or period instead, if you want to punctuation your thoughts, you need to go into the secondary menu. Android doesn't have all the punctuation on its default keyboard, but you can hold down the period button and get what you need. Fortunately, you can double-tap the space bar on iOS to enter the duration or download a third-party keyboard with more options.

I ran into a number of other small annoyances during my time on the iPhone. There is no unified app menu, so you have to scroll through the app pages or manually organize everything into folders. Apple that this is a problem because Ios14 will eventually include an integrated app menu and a new app library feature that automatically organizes apps.

No iPhone model includes a microSD card slot, meaning you're stuck with whatever amount of internal storage you've purchased — And that strike iPhone, like all other modern phones in the world, uses its own charger instead of USB-C.

I also couldn't stand the fact that iOS doesn't just drag and drop media files into the system. You have to install iTunes on your computer, create a library, convert a lot of files and sync everything manually. You can't create your own ringtones, you can't install apps from sources other than Apple, to something on the iPhone through Windows Explorer It's an old argument, but it's still true: iOS feels very restrictive if you've been using Android from scratch.

To its credit, the iPhone SE has let me do everything I usually do with my phone. But for no real reason, everything was a little more difficult than necessary.

When I informed Apple that I was going to write this article, a spokesman suggested complementing the device with AirPods and Apple Watch Series5. Since the launch of the iPhone SE, customers have been buying 3 gadgets together because they can build a mini Apple ecosystem at a cost less than the cost of the flagship phone. But neither the Apple Watch nor the AirPods added much to the overall experience. I found the AirPods very uncomfortable and always on the verge of falling out. (The sound quality was excellent, to be fair.

Seeing notifications on my wrist on an Apple Watch was kind of useful, but it didn't streamline my digital activity in a meaningful way. Sure, I would probably have similar complaints about the Wear OS device, but importantly, having two expensive Apple accessories was a very average

iPhone SE, which allowed me to browse the web, check emails, read books, play games and watch videos . My daily activity was almost the same on Android. But when I launched my old Moto Z3 again, I still experienced a profound sense of relief. The back button snaps the navigation and the open file format gave iOS a fair shot

so I can honestly say that it's not for me to add any media I want with a simple drag-and-drop. Still, there were some things that Android wanted to learn from its competitors. Security and interface updates are essential and should occur as soon as possible, not every time a carrier feels like it. The flagship processor belongs to mid-range phones. If you can attract proven developers with unique ideas, then mobile games do not have to be a stain.

Ultimately, when it's time to choose a new phone, you need to study both systems and then trust the gut. My gut brings me back to a more open OS.