iPhone 5 most reliable by a large margin - FixYa Rating

[MrX8503]

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/02/22/fixya-study-finds-apple-smartphones-to-be-the-most-reliable/

2.9x more than Samsung
5x more than Nokia
26.7x more than Motorola

Thought these results were interesting. Something to note that 2 of the iPhone's issues aren't hardware issues, so its rating could be even higher.

The difference is quite large and Moto's distant position is staggering.

 

[ponyo]

lol at FixYa. I don't know who to laugh at more. Site called FixYa or someone who try to present FixYa as data.

 

[MrX8503]

700k questions from the general public is a sizable sample. What do you have? Anecdotal evidence from 5 people? Or possibly post a link to another study.

 

[ponyo]

700k questions from the general public is a sizable sample. What do you have? Anecdotal evidence from 5 people? Or possibly post a link to another study.

Well, let me see. I had 2 iPods die and not work because of hard drive failure. 1 original iPhone that refused to charge. iPad 2 that constantly reboots after a minute or so being turned on. That's four Apple products I owned that experienced failure. I only had three other electronics that failed on me. One was IBM Deathstar hard drive. Second was some cheap external hard drive I don't remember the maker. Third was Acer netbook. That's pretty good record with the amount of electronics I had in my life. But I've had the worst luck with Apple.

 

[badb0y]

Well, let me see. I had 2 iPods die and not work because of hard drive failure. 1 original iPhone that refused to charge. iPad 2 that constantly reboots after a minute or so being turned on. That's four Apple products I owned that experienced failure. I only had three other electronics that failed on me. One was IBM Deathstar hard drive. Second was some cheap external hard drive I don't remember the maker. Third was Acer netbook. That's pretty good record with the amount of electronics I had in my life. But I've had the worst luck with Apple.

So basically you have anecdotal garbage. Your sample size is laughable compared to the 700k in the original study.

 

[MrX8503]

Still a drop in the bucket compared to 700k questions. I would say FixYa's data is more credible.

 

[Slick5150]

The flaw of the study is the questionable definition of "reliable." It isn't looking at phone failures/returns/etc... It's just looking at complaints. I would argue that iPhone owners are less likely to complain because they tend to be less knowledgeable about what does and doesn't constitute a flaw/bug/etc...

For example, my Mom with her iPhone is just going to shrug when the phone doesn't do what she wants and chalk it up to her not understanding what to do. Whereas, the IT guy with the Android phone is going to bitch about ever single time an app hard crashes on his Samsung/Nokia/Motorola phone.

(and yes, I realize there are IT people using iPhones and Moms using Android, but by in large iPhones have a broader base of casual/non-techy people than Android/WP does)

 

[badb0y]

The flaw of the study is the questionable definition of "reliable." It isn't looking at phone failures/returns/etc... It's just looking at complaints. I would argue that iPhone owners are less likely to complain because they tend to be less knowledgeable about what does and doesn't constitute a flaw/bug/etc...

For example, my Mom with her iPhone is just going to shrug when the phone doesn't do what she wants and chalk it up to her not understanding what to do. Whereas, the IT guy with the Android phone is going to bitch about ever single time an app hard crashes on his Samsung/Nokia/Motorola phone.

(and yes, I realize there are IT people using iPhones and Moms using Android, but by in large iPhones have a broader base of casual/non-techy people than Android/WP does)

I think your giving the average Joe way too much credit here. When people buy stuff they expect it to work when they want it to work regardless of if they are techies or not. I believe that casual people will complain more than they techies because they don't know how to troubleshoot the problem on their own.

 

[ponyo]

Still a drop in the bucket compared to 700k questions. I would say FixYa's data is more credible.

Garbage data is garbage. Are you really trying to push FixYa data? 700k garbage just stinks worse than my single garbage.

 

[badb0y]

Garbage data is garbage. Are you really trying to push FixYa data? 700k garbage just stinks worse than my single garbage.

Their database actually has 30 million users and they are a site based on troubleshooting electronics so yea, it's about as concrete as it gets.

 

[MrX8503]

The flaw of the study is the questionable definition of "reliable." It isn't looking at phone failures/returns/etc... It's just looking at complaints. I would argue that iPhone owners are less likely to complain because they tend to be less knowledgeable about what does and doesn't constitute a flaw/bug/etc...

For example, my Mom with her iPhone is just going to shrug when the phone doesn't do what she wants and chalk it up to her not understanding what to do. Whereas, the IT guy with the Android phone is going to bitch about ever single time an app hard crashes on his Samsung/Nokia/Motorola phone.

(and yes, I realize there are IT people using iPhones and Moms using Android, but by in large iPhones have a broader base of casual/non-techy people than Android/WP does)

That's a lot of assumptions. I could easily assume that the general public complains more because they don't know how to fix something.

Garbage data is garbage. Are you really trying to push FixYa data? 700k garbage just stinks worse than my single garbage.

That doesn't make sense.

 

[NoStateofMind]

lol at FixYa. I don't know who to laugh at more. Site called FixYa or someone who try to present FixYa as data.

Yeah IDK what you are thinking here. FiXYa has been an authority on teardowns of tech for quite some time. This reputation alone gives them credibility. Next to that they provide data to back up the claim. Now I don't know about you, but when someone supplies evidence, I find their argument to have more basis than feeling alone.

 

[fierydemise]

Just looking at the graphs linked, 35% of the complaints were based on battery life, 20% on a lack of new features. Those would hardly be what I consider reliability related.

 

[gorcorps]

People can side with whatever side they want and bitch about the data if it doesn't fit their particular flavor of BS, but I certainly miss the build quality of Apple designs since I've switched to Android. Not enough to make me switch but I was able to use my iphones for my full contract and then resell it in decent enough condition to make some money. I've had an Atrix, Galaxy S 2 and now Galaxy S 3 and none of them are built as well. I had to buy my Galaxy S3 off contract because my S2 barely lasted a year before having problems. They just don't last as long as the Apple stuff I've had.

 

[Zaap]

Meh. More of the same. Some people require external confirmation that they made the right phone choice. Something about the device must not be enough to convince on its own.

Meanwhile, Note 2 owners don't need a study to know they have the best phone currently available... it's just obvious.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Just looking at the graphs linked, 35% of the complaints were based on battery life, 20% on a lack of new features. Those would hardly be what I consider reliability related.

Battery life? I would. Lack of new features? No. But if anything the "lack of new features" is what most people complain about with Apple from what I read.

 

[dguy6789]

lol at FixYa. I don't know who to laugh at more. Site called FixYa or someone who try to present FixYa as data.

No idea why there were replies after this

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Well, let me see. I had 2 iPods die and not work because of hard drive failure. 1 original iPhone that refused to charge. iPad 2 that constantly reboots after a minute or so being turned on. That's four Apple products I owned that experienced failure. I only had three other electronics that failed on me. One was IBM Deathstar hard drive. Second was some cheap external hard drive I don't remember the maker. Third was Acer netbook. That's pretty good record with the amount of electronics I had in my life. But I've had the worst luck with Apple.

seriously? This is the authority on reliability? It's like when people hate consume reports auto reliability reviews, so they talk about their 300k GM as if a single exception is all that's needed to disprove an aggregate of millions of anecdotal accounts.

 

[Red Storm]

Not sure what to make of this 'survey', One of the three Samsung cons is battery life for the Nexus, so that ends up being a con of Samsung as a whole? Funny when they have other phones that better the iPhone in this regard.

 

[Skurge]

Yeah IDK what you are thinking here. FiXYa has been an authority on teardowns of tech for quite some time. This reputation alone gives them credibility. Next to that they provide data to back up the claim. Now I don't know about you, but when someone supplies evidence, I find their argument to have more basis than feeling alone.

I think you are confusing ifixit with Fixya. ifixit do the teardowns.

 

[abaez]

Lack of customizability = less reliable.

Right.

 

[NoStateofMind]

I think you are confusing ifixit with Fixya. ifixit do the teardowns.

Ah you're right! :whiste:

 

[badb0y]

Meh. More of the same. Some people require external confirmation that they made the right phone choice. Something about the device must not be enough to convince on its own.

Meanwhile, Note 2 owners don't need a study to know they have the best phone currently available... it's just obvious.

External confirmation of what? That the iPhone 5 is better build and more reliable than the competition? I don't need external confirmation for this I have personal experience.

Note 2 is the best phone on the market based on what metric? Screen size? Speed? Battery life?

 

[Skurge]

Regardless of the results, I don't know if I can take survey seriously that counts lack of features towards a phone being unreliable.

Samsung has some pretty crappy low end phones that barely work right. So i can guess people would call a laggy phone unreliable going by this review.

Also, a little surprised about Nokia.

 

[bearxor]

I don't know what all the fixya.com hate is about. They've been around almost as long as ifixit (like, within a couple of years I believe) and they're probably one of the largest user assistant forums on the net. I don't have any problem with their status.

I saw this story a few days ago but would have never posted it here because its not an interesting story. It's basically flamebait and no story like this is going to change anyone on here's opinion about their phone/platform choice.

The only constant reassurance I need that I made the right choice for me, is to pick up and use one of my work's issued Android phones. Every time I get the itch to switch now, intake the RAZR HD home for the weekend and by Friday night bed time, I've typically convinced myself out of it. We do have a couple of test WP8 devices now though...