Apollo iPhone XR Vs Rocky Moto One Power
Remember Rocky the very first movie Rocky 1? Do you remember the underdog who was given a change just to put up a good show? Do you remember Creed the mean machine the unbeatable? The invincible and the one no can beat and an underdog for sure no.
I have been a using an iPhone for the pretty good amount of time. I have used iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 6, 7 and finally iPhone SE as my latest phone. Everything was perfect everything was right things were great, I never had a good reason to switch to Android. I used Nexus 5X as my last android phone and the reason I switched to an iPhone because of its unreliable battery and if you or one of your friend happened to use it you know this is not an exaggeration. The apps were not there, the refinement was not there, the icons looked inconsistent and they looked small. The system font was depressing.
There were so many things I strongly believed that were just not there in any other Android phone (When I say android I am only referring to the pure Google Android devices, please don’t start rolling your thought and get your blood pressure high.) I believed that with my heart and soul and wrote an article saying why Top 30 things you will miss if you move from iPhone to Pixel. There are many points which still holds true. But these points are more or less direct comparison which I felt are far better on the iPhone. But I forgot to mention one thing this comparison was done because,
Both the phone iPhone 7 and Pixel costed a bomb, at that time 60,ooo Indian Rupees that is $860
But since then the prices of the iPhone have gone up. In India, if you are planning to the cheapest iPhone that would be iPhone XR which costs ₹75,000 ($1098). And if you are thinking about the iPhone Xs it would be closer to ₹1,00,000 ($1444). The prices have gone up dramatically.
So, in this case, it does not make sense to even think about the upgrade. Anyways I never found the design of the iPhone 7 as good as the iconic iPhone 5 and I had the only option and that was iPhone SE which I still believe the best iPhone Apple has produced apart from iPhone 4S. So I downgraded iPhone 7 to the iPhone SE the good old iPhone and the last design under the supervision of Steve Jobs. I thought nothing could go wrong with the phone and actually, nothing did. Everything with the iPhone SE works like a charm and the one-handed design is so simple and easy to use considering my small hands.
Then why there was a need for an Android phone?
Actually, there was no need for an Android phone in order to achieve any day to day tasks. It was a while since I used Android phone and the main reason I don’t want to go to Android was because of the Podcasts and the bad battery back up! There was no particular app who would have all my Podcast shows apart from the native Apple podcast app. But then came Spotify the one stop shop for all my songs and all the podcast shows. I could never be happier, and then I started thinking about trying out Android for a switch and then the search began.
Where did I start?
There were only two criteria for the Android trial,
- It has to be pure Android
- It must be reasonably priced
Then the best place to start with Google’s own Android one site. And there were many options but no one could match the with Motorola One Power’s all features be it the battery backup, the amazing screen or the rest of the moto-specific features. So after a lot of research, I figured out Moto is the one which I should consider buying. After all the discounts by Flipkart, I got the Moto One Power for ₹12,499 ($180). I mean come on you can’t get any better deal than this and finally, I got the phone.
How does it feel when you come from an iPhone to an entry-level Android phone?
I have split this experience into three parts,
The apprehension — Android cannot be better than iOS
To be honest, when I had the phone in my hand and I was like what a ₹12,000 would be? It would be definitely a highly compromised piece of hardware and software. And I was sure about what I am going to experience.
- A bad build quality, (Because no one makes better phones than iPhone the global truth)
- A bad screen, (Is there anything better than retina display?)
- A bad Operating system and very buggy apps (I mean come on only Apple can do this better as they have their own hardware)
- A very bad camera (The best camera in the smartphone is for sure by Apple post the Pixel and that is an accepted fact of the world.)
- Bad speakers (Front-facing speaker on an iPhone is the best humanity have experienced.)
And there were so many things I was expecting to bad on an entry-level Android device such as Moto one Power like the battery back up, poor apps.
Exploration — Of goodness of the overall package
Slowly I started using the phone and started observing the smooth and continuously integrated experience of the Android OS and the hardware of Motorola. I will try to explain my experience in segments of Display, The operating system, and the moto actions.
- Display — One word gorgeous!
It is a 403ppi FHD plus display. Just to put into the perspective iPhone XR had 324ppi Display. But believe me, it’s not about the numbers as a user I felt the screen is always an amazing screen.
Every time I unlocked the phone I would be dazzeled by the quality of the display and for fraction of seconds I would forget why picked my phone? I prolong my usage for few seconds just to admire the quality of the display.
Remember this might not be the top spec display but it is enough to make your day to day content consumption a nice experience. The Operating system just makes use of the display in a very content manner.
- The Operating System — Tastes like a pie.
As this a pure Android version, it runs like a charm on this phone. Forget about that 600 series Snapdragon processor or the 4GB ram, it’s not about that it’s all about how well Google has put it together. So long gone is the worry about how the phone will perform. I have not experienced gaming on this phone as it is not my requirement on any sort of the smartphone. The good part about this OS is how well the notifications are implemented and how easily you can take action from the notification center like making your SMS as read without getting into the SMS app. You always have google now at one left flick which keeps you updated with your current topics. Earlier in the iOS, I had to get into and out of the app to consume the content from the Google app.
The Moto actions come in very handy when you want to click a photograph or switch on the torch when you need it in no time. And the on the lock screen notification are very helpful in those busy meetings, where you can dismmiss or reply to some of the important notifications.
This is not the only positives over iOS but there are many which I will cover in my next experience sharing write-up.
- Power backup — To infinity and beyond.
Never in my wildest dream, I could ever imagine that an Android phone would last for two or more days with fair usage. When I say fair usage it’s about periodically catching up with my news, social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), moderate calling, checking emails, booking uber, Slack for work, clicking few photographs, Spotify, listing to blinkist and on rare occasions watching videos on YouTube. With all this, I have always managed to get battery back-up for around 2 days. The phone comes with the Turbocharger but so I believe on those short charging cycles it would come in handy, I have not experienced the specific benefit of that yet. A typical charge cycle is of 2 hours from 10 to 100%.
The battery does not drain the way it used to drain earlier, I am sure Google has worked under the hood to fix the issue.
It’s a different issue that the battery introduces the issue of the additional bulk to the phone but believe me it’s always a good feeling that your phone can hold the charge longer. But it is all up to you!
Won’t you miss the apps if you switch to Android?
In my previous medium post I mentioned about certain apps which are not in the Android app catalog like,
- Reeder 3 — I have started using Google news maybe a year back to not an issue here
- Bear Note taking app — This is the only crucial app which still is not on iPhone but I have this on my mac where I tend to write my articles on.
- Things 3 for note taking — It’s been a while I have stopped using this app as it does not support web. There is a very good alternative Remember the milk which I am finding pretty helpful.
So the issue of my mandatory apps is solved and all rest of the social and educational apps are available on both the platform so I am not missing out on anything. And I am sure most of the iPhone users will not miss out on a deal-breaking app apart from iMessage :D.
The major thing I miss is airdrop but somehow I am managing it using the Google photos sharing for my photo sharing.
Why compare with iPhone XR?
I did not indent to compare it with iPhone XR ever, I never thought about it while purchasing the Motorola one Power but if you look at the physical attributes of the phone they have striking similarities let’s look at some, here is I will be using Phone curries comparison tool for reference, On the left you have iPhone XR and on the right Motorola one power,
Price
You can but 5 Motorola one power devices in the price of iPhone XR. I know it’s not only about the money you can look at the value proposition Moto does offer over the iPhone XR which I have mentioned earlier.
Display
Can you imagine your getting a better display in terms of resolution for 1/5th of the cost where all the magic happens? and did you notice 0.1 inches bigger? It makes a lot of difference a good display makes the experience of using the phone even better.
Storage
Same storage! In moto, there is an option to expand it. I have never used a memory card but I might if I have an option.
Headphone Jack?
Just in case if you need you still have that headphone Jack on Moto
Weight
Both of them weigh the same!
Here I would conclude the tough fight! Well if you think iPhone XR still makes sense I am sure there will be some good strong reasons. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
