My experience switching from Android to iPhone
My experience switching from Android to iPhone
After spending over a decade with various Android phones, I finally made the switch to an iPhone. Here’s why I made the switch and what I’ve discovered since.
The Struggles with Samsung/Android
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Slow Shutter on Samsung Flagships: One of my biggest gripes with Samsung’s flagship phones has been the slow shutter and shutter lag. Trying to capture a moving subjects often resulted in blurry photos or missed shots entirely. This has been an issue with Samsung phones for many years.
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Google’s Service Abandonment: Google has a notorious history of abandoning services. The most recent one being the Podcasts app. The podcast experience on YouTube Music is just terrible.
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Hardware Design: The Samsung S24 Ultra has sharp corners that make it uncomfortable to hold. The Pixel 8 phones have issues with connectivity and overheating. The S24+ comes with an inferior Exynos processor.
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Performance: No matter how fast the hardware is, Android phones always seem to slow down and stutter after a few months of use. It’s like they age in dog years. (My most recent Samsung phone was the S23+, and it already started lagging).
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Apps: Android apps have an inconsistent look and feel. It’s like a patchwork quilt made by someone who doesn’t know how to sew. Also, a lot of Android apps require excessive permissions.
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Disaster: A Samsung update once made my phone unbootable. I had to do a full reset and lost some data. People said I should have made a backup before the update, but Android doesn't provide an easy way to completely backup the phone. That was the last straw.
The iPhone Revelation
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Shortcuts: The Shortcuts app on iPhone is a game-changer. It automates tasks in ways I never thought possible.
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Face ID: Face ID on the iPhone is leagues ahead of Samsung’s version and even better than Touch ID. It’s fast, reliable, and just works. With the amount of unlocks I need everyday, this turns out to be more impactful than I expected.
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Files App: The Files app is actually useful, and it has built-in support for Windows file shares.
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Look & Feel: Everything on iOS feels smoother and more premium. The animations, the UI design – it’s all just so polished.
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Audio: It’s much easier to select audio output in-app when connected to multiple Bluetooth devices and AirPlay.
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Driving: CarPlay is a joy to use compared to Android Auto. Plus, Apple Maps has better voice directions.
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Emulators: Emulators are now possible to use on iPhone without jailbreaking.
Switching to iPhone has been a breath of fresh air. While Android gave me more freedom and customizations. The consistency, reliability, and overall experience of iOS have won me over.
What was your experience switching to/from "the dark side"?
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I've started using an iPhone as a side phone, and expected it to be slick but restrictive. I'm surprised how many rough corners there are, especially in the apps I use. The only slick-ness is that I haven't put much on it.
What rough corners?
Settings pages that are confusing to navigate out of, options missing, less clear information, not as good app-to-app integration, issues with browsers, and Bluetooth that doesn't like to just switch off and stay off.
Nothing too major, just a bit more awkward than my Android.
There’s a back button on every page in the exact same spot system-wide (upper left corner). How is that confusing?
What “missing” options?
What “issues” with browsers?
There’s a toggle for Bluetooth that just turns it off that, since Bluetooth was added to the iPhone, has never given me an issue. I don’t know what you mean here.
Your complaints are so vague, it don’t really know what you mean. It sounds like you’re just getting used to a different interface, not that anything is actually “rough edges”.
Maybe. Some of it certainly is just getting used to a different interface. And most of the rest is apps that haven't been developed as well in their iOS counterpart.
Anyway I'm not on a campaign here too besmirch the glory of Apple, so you can believe my experience or not as you wish.
But here's some examples, if you like, OTOH,
- Bluetooth, if I hit the button on the main screen it says "turning off for one day". I have to go into the settings fully to turn it off properly. It also turned back on, apparently by itself. (User error maybe? I just found by surprise it was on again.
- hotspot: I don't see a toggle per se - seems it automatically turns on when in the settings page for it, with an auto off after not using for a while.
- apps: nextcloud has been the most obvious so far, with the main app and notes app not using each other smoothly the way Android does.
- browser: setting Firefox as default browser gave me a messed up page within an app, fixed when back to safari. I assume that's due to Apple's restriction on browsers using their own rendering engine, and instead serving them a lesser version of what safari uses.
- "back button": sometimes there isn't. Sometimes I have to swipe the offending overlay down off the screen. I simply wasn't used to that and got stuck not having a universal "back" gesture. I suppose I should have googled "how to exit
vimapple"
Overall it just felt clunkier to use than I expected, given its reputation. Perhaps I expected too much.