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"?
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,
Overall it just felt clunkier to use than I expected, given its reputation. Perhaps I expected too much.