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I have an Android One Nokia (8 Sirocco), and:

a) I wholeheartedly want this behaviour. The phone lasts 2-3 days without recharging, and I no longer fear leaving home with 30% battery.

b) It's not an app that kills background apps. It's Android's own Background Activity Manager, where apps that are not whitelisted can't wake up the CPU. They run only when the CPU wakes up for some other reason (screen-on qualifies but it's not the only opportunity).

I had to get used to it. In one instance the alarm didn't wake me up, because it is not whitelisted to wake up the CPU. After enabling the correct apps, I maintain pretty much the same great battery life and all app functionality I want.




From a usability perspective, this sounds crazy. Is is responsible of me to recommend Android to my non-technical friends?


I wouldn't say so. I got my grandma a cheap Android phone and a book to help her learn because I thought it'd be better since I also have Android and can help her.

My grandma is 89 now, she uses Whatsapp, Youtube and whatnot and I am not kidding but within 2 months she had:

- AVG antivirus (an ad told her she had a virus)

- She had batterylife for 7 hours before a charge was needed due to shitty apps

- Ads on her lock screen?!

- Ads on her homepage

After 6 months and 3 house calls to fix her phone we gave up and she got my aunts old iPhone 5s with a new battery.

It runs iOS 12 now and it runs flawlessly and protects her from all the stuff I mentioned.

From a guy that has always had Android: most users need iOS level protection. Just simple facts.


A cheap phone has worse functionality than an expensive* one? Forgive the snark but this comparison doesn't make sense to me.

*Speaking in terms of launch MSRP.


The software was stock android (Android One project).

The important part was that the 4 year old iPhone 5s had the latest iOS and still works better than a new €250 Android.


No. For anyone non-technical I always recommend an iPhone. I can simply say, "Press this button if you need to open another app." The difference in UI/UX you see on different android phones and auto-hide enabled soft navigation buttons confuse non technical people a lot.


> No. For anyone non-technical I always recommend an iPhone. I can simply say, "Press this button if you need to open another app." The difference in UI/UX you see on different android phones and auto-hide enabled soft navigation buttons confuse non technical people a lot.

I wonder how they'll deal with the new gesture nav (both iOS and Android), because I think that's possibly more confusing to a layman.


It's not a usability problem. It's an option I'm very glad to have.

If you disable the background activity manager, under Settings | Battery, you get the same battery life you do on iOS (about a day, give or take).


If you're not a power user and you're only getting one day from a charge on an iPhone, you may want to investigate the health of your battery.


Another big benefit of going with Apple for non-technical users is the Apple retail stores. These stores host free classes on how to use Apple devices and apps. This is huge for older people.




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