What's the Difference between Android, iPhone?

Dear PropellerHeads: I'm thinking of ditching my Android phone and buying my first iPhone. What will I love and hate about the iPhone if I make the switch?

Answer: Android versus iPhone is one of the great feuds of modern times - like a present-day Hatfields versus McCoys, or like Ford versus Chevy with fewer peeing Calvin decals.

The bad news is that it's more about personal preferences, like boxers versus briefs, so we can't give you a definitive answer. The good news is that both are pretty similar - not apples versus oranges, but Honeycrisp versus Jonagold - so you can't go wrong.

Keep in mind that there are dozens of Android phones available from several companies, so we'll cover differences between the iPhone and Android phones in general.

First, the camera: I switched to an iPhone because I take lots of pictures of my kids, ages 6 and 8. They are physically incapable of being still. I've never seen an Android phone that could take a picture without a delay. My iPhone snaps a picture instantly and the photo quality is great in most conditions.

Starting with the iPhone 6 line, they take "live photos," where they leave the shutter open and capture one to two seconds of video at the same time they take the photo, which is a nice feature. And on the iPhone 7, "portrait mode" is smart enough to blur the background while keeping your subject sharp, which makes the people in your photos stand out.

Interacting with an iPhone is more fluid, with fewer stutters, glitches and short pauses than I had on Android phones. The mute switch on the side makes it easy to silence the phone and the fingerprint sensor means you can unlock the phone quickly, although a few Android phones have this now. The battery charges faster than on my old phone, and holds a charge longer.

The iPhone's "visual voice mail" is a convenient way to see, hear and delete voice mail messages without navigating through voice prompts. Some Android phones have this, but carriers usually charge extra for it. Apple doesn't allow your carrier to pre-load a bunch of useless apps, so the phone comes less cluttered. This applies to some Android phones as well, but not many of them.

But the iPhone is far from perfect. For all of Apple's talk about ease of use, the user interface can be glaringly inconsistent. The iPhone famously has only one hardware button, meaning there is no "back" button like Android phones have, and different apps have different ways of letting you navigate back to the previous screen.

Returning to your news reader from another app might require tapping the back arrow in the bottom left, or the "Done" button in the upper left, or the "X" icon in the upper right.

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