Things you gain with Android
1) More functional apps
This is evident with useful apps like the True Caller family; a bunch of no-input expense logging apps like Smart Spends and Walnut; automation apps like Speaker Phone Ex and Tasker. Due to limitations of iOS platform, the ones mentioned above either don't work as well or don't work at all on an iPhone. On Android, apps like these that can truly make the most advantage of the phone's capabilities.
2) Lower cost of ownership
The 'Apple Tax' is a term used to describe the premium one has to pay to own Apple products. Android phone makers have been consistently trying to price their flagship phones as high as iPhones for years, but most of them end up quickly discounting the price, to sell better. Then there are the new-age upstarts like Xiaomi and OnePlus that thrive on selling phones with near-high-end features at a cost that's less than half of what Apple charges for its flagship device.
It is not only the iPhones that sell at a premium. A simple charging cable from Apple for your iPhone will cost you an excess of a thousand rupees. Even upping the storage capacity from the base 16GB on an iPhone to the next step (64GB) costs Rs. 10,000 - the same amount of money required to buy a usable Android phone these days.
3) Innovative hardware features
Due to stiff competition amongst Android smartphones, phone manufacturers go the extra mile to innovate on the hardware front, as Google covers most of the software side of the story. As a result, you get phones with nifty useful features like an IR blaster, which lets you control TVs, set top boxes and other appliances in your home, via your phone. Front-facing stereo speakers are great while consuming audio-visual content without hacky solutions like holding your hand behind the speakers on an iPhone to bounce the sound back.
And in markets like India, many people also prefer using two SIM cards at the same time. Dual SIMs were largely restricted to entry-level phones at first, but today, you'll see dual SIM options in phones like the LG G4 and the OnePlus 2.
There are a lot of other features you can get if you go with Android thanks to the large number of phones out there. You'll find phones with double-sided displays, screens that curve at the edge, and wireless charging, to name just a few new features.
It's not to say the iPhone doesn't have any hardware features to boast about - things like a capacitive multi-touch display with the original iPhone, the Retina Display with the iPhone 4, the fingerprint-scanning Touch ID with the iPhone 5s, and the 3D Touch-toting iPhone 6s are some of the innovations that the rest of the industry has followed suit on.
4) Tight Google Integration
Apple makes its money selling hardware, Google makes its by selling ads. Since iOS is the second biggest OS in terms of market share after Android, Google makes all its services available to iPhone users.
But although Google has made several apps for iPhone, they are just not as well integrated as they are on Android, and this can matter a lot if you're highly reliant on Google's services.
Take the example of voice commands - say you want to translate ¿Cómo estás? to English. On an Android phone, just saying "Okay, Google" and then repeating that phrase will get you the answer. Or say you want to send a WhatsApp message to a friend using voice - it's doable with "Okay, Google". This kind of stuff is not possible with Siri, Apple's virtual assistant today, as it does not integrate with third-party apps. There is a Google app for iOS, it's just an app and not a part of the OS like on Android.
Take another example - every time somebody shares a location with you on WhatsApp, Apple Maps will open up by default, not Google Maps. And we all know how helpful Apple Maps are in India.
5) Deeper customisation
No need to elaborate on this one too much - almost everybody's aware of the fact that you can customise Android to the way you like. Don't like the homescreen or lockscreen? Change it. Don't like how the default fonts look? Change them too. Want to open your favourite app when you swipe up anywhere on the home screen? No problem.
These are things you can do easily on Android, without any heavy modification to the software the phones comes preinstalled with; doing similar things on iOS is only possible by jailbreaking your device.
With Android, customisation has been allowed since day one, and that has also allowed hardware manufacturers to create their own flavours of Android. Phones like the OnePlus One were successful not only because of their bang-for-the-buck hardware, but also because of the highly-customisable variant of Android that came preinstalled on the device.
6) A universal charging port
Last but not the least, there's a good chance you won't miss carrying your phone charger everywhere if you're using Android. The Micro-USB port is ubiquitous amongst all phone makers except for Apple. A transition to USB Type-C is now underway, which will cause some hiccups, but it's something that will quickly be resolved. On the other hand, even though Apple has adopted USB Type-C in the new MacBook, there is little indication that it will replace the proprietary Lightning port anytime soon on iOS devices.
