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"?
I'm not gonna force you to say if you don't want to, but what is this region where the choice is just Samsung or Chinese phones? No Google Pixels? How about ASUS, or are you ahead of the curve in lumping Taiwan in with China? Nothing? That's aggressively western. Fairphone? Motorola? Heard some positive things about their offering last year.
And to be clear, I think "I want an iPhone" is an absolutely valid stance. You don't need an excuse to like a specific phone, it's just the implication that you'd like to stay on Android but don't have alternatives.
There are Pixel phones, but the current/last generations suck. Taiwanese phones are not available here, at least not with my mobile carrier.
Motorola is Chinese as well. I've never seen Fairphone and no idea who the makers are.
Don't worry, I am definitely not a tankie. Fuck the CCP.
I... guess Motorola is Lenovo now, which I think highlights the "not Chinese" thing as somewhat arbitrary, because... well, you get people on Lenovo laptops everywhere in government and enterprise, and nobody is out there boycotting that for political reasons.
I think as somebody else mentioned before, that restricting it to one carrier in one country is very arbitrary. There are perfectly good out of carrier options, and I presume that opens Sony back up (which is my personal choice) among others.
Again, if you just want an iPhone, just get an iPhone, but it increasingly seems like nobody is twisting your arm here. There is definitely plenty of choice available, and you're taking quite a long walk to this "Samsung or bust" position.
Complete list of brands from my carrier:
And I have to stick with the carrier because of my workplace.
My dude, that's your carrier only. Buy an unlocked phone from a different store, it's not that hard.
Let’s assume I can choose any brand. Which brand would recommend?