iOS vs Sailfish OS
When comparing iOS vs Sailfish OS, the Slant community recommends Sailfish OS for most people. In the question“What is the best mobile operating system?” Sailfish OS is ranked 2nd while iOS is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Sailfish OS is:
There are no buttons needed to use it.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great selection of high quality and polished apps
Apps must pass tighter guidelines to make it into the app store.
Pro Everything works very well out of the box
It's engineered to be designed. Design means choice. A collection of best options, components and programs chosen by highly experienced curators/designers/engineers are installed by default. No need to customize. It's best by default.
Pro Personal assistant called Siri
Siri is an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator. Siri lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more.
Pro Easy to learn to use
The iOS user interface is known by millions. It has mostly stayed the same throughout the years.
The main view is a simple grid menu which displays all the installed applications. On the bottom there is an app tray which displays the icons for the most used apps.
The iOS user interface is especially easy for users who want an easy experience and don't want to spend time learning on how to navigate through their phones. Everything is displayed right in the main view and it's easy to find. The fact that it has not changed, at least significantly in the past years has made it possible for it's most devoted users to keep upgrading their iOS devices without having any difficulty to adapt.
Pro Security
A trustworthy OS, secure for use with banking apps.
Pro Consistent performance
Unlike Android, iOS is developed to be used on similiar devices and both the hardware and iOS itself are developed by Apple. This means that they are highly adapted to work with each other. Even after the hardware becomes a little outdated, the performance still remains consistent and smooth on several iOS versions.
Pro Apps request permissions when needed
Instead of an app asking for all permissions it will need when installed, iOS apps request permission to access certain parts of user's data only when the current action requires it.
Pro CarPlay
Available in select cars, CarPlay is built primarily around the use of Siri voice commands and prompts, providing an "eyes-free" experience where you can respond to incoming calls, dictate text messages, or access your music library from a vehicle.
Pro Longtime support for older smartphones / tablets
iPhones don't become obsolete in a year or so. Most of them get updates for even more than about 4 years.
Pro Support for standard sync protocols
Out of the box support for caldav and carddav.
Pro Clean UI across the operating system
Unlike many other operating systems, iOS has a clean and consistent UI that is shared across the entire operating system, even with third-party apps.
Pro Apple pay
Apple pay, an easy and secure payment option.
Pro Unique gesture-based interface
There are no buttons needed to use it.
Pro Easy to use Swipe UI
Pro Lower power consumptions
Pro Inbuilt Terminal app and ssh essentials
Smartphone for power users, not just for users.
Pro No annoying search bar that you might not be able to remove
You can actually manage your files. The third option to iOS vs Android.
Pro No pre-installed Google services
But if you want, you can install it.
Pro Usability and privacy
No private data transfer to other companies.
Pro Very customizable
You can use patches to change UI or other stuff.
Pro Nearly monthly updates and security fixes
Cons
Con Tied to Apple
No alternative software can be installed unless you keep your phone jailbroken (with the system outdated and probably with security issues).
Con Inconvenient price and hardware lock-in
iOS is only available on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, in which these device may be more expensive than the competitors.
Con Apple is very unfriendly regarding warranty and repair work
If your device breaks, they will just tell you to buy a new one.
Con Vendor lock-in
You are forced to use the Apple ecosystem. Like the AppStore or iTunes.
Con Possible backdoor
There are some rumors that Apple provides NSA backdoors to its products.
Con Jailbreak breaks iOS
Unlinke Android where you can still use a rooted device normally a jailbreak will break your iOS.
Con Outdates web browsers
All Webbrowser must use the Webkit/Safari webengine to display websites.
Con No privacy allowed
Does not allow for privacy due to it's closed nature.
Con Closed source
The iOS source code is not available.
Con Unlike Android, it is proprietary
Nobody can look into the system so you can't even say if it is secure or not. In the worst case Apple could log all your activities and data.
Con Older iPhone models with poorer batteries might perform slower
iOS delibrately slows the CPU down on older iPhones with worn-out batteries so as to preserve battery life, resulting in possible slower-than-expected performance. This only applies to iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, and iPhone SE running iOS 10.2.1 and above, and iPhone 7 running iOS 11.2 and above.
Con No file managing
Managing files and directories is not possible. Files are in fact attached to applications. It is an oversimplification that can be limiting.
Con Not very customisable
Other operating systems like Android or Windows Phone (more or less), iOS isn't as customizable.
Con Apple is not interested in decent climate action
... but very much in making us overconsume through planned obsolescence and others.
Con Infantilizing
The OS is babysitting you and does not give you basic control, such as turning off location, which massively shortens the lifespan of the battery
Con Planned obsolescence everywhere
Planned obsolescence through very short OS support lifespan and steep requirements for the new Apple apps and other apps. iPhones otherwise have planned obsolescence in so many other parts of their design.
Con No sideloading of apps
You have to install all apps from the Apple Appstore.
Con No widget support
iOS has no widget support.
Con No alternative browsers
All iOS brower need to use safaris webkit rendering engine
Con Worst OS ever made
Con Very old packages
It uses a fork of QT5, Wayland and other software. So developing and running software for Linux is very hard on SailfishOS and back, running apps for Sailfish OS on other distros is complicated too.
Con Has proprietary UI component
This would lead to unwanted security compromising bugs that may not get enough eyes to be marked as a bug.
Con Only a few native apps, needs Android support to access many apps
Users may need to install Google Play store or other alternative android app store to access your bank's app or any highly specific app you might need.
Con Only a few available phones
There are currently only a few available phones on the market with Sailfish OS and both the Jolla and the Jolla Tablet are out of stock and unavailable.