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 got a 15 pro this year. This is my first apple phone.
I agree with your Android “struggle” list completely and would add that every single model I ever owned (especially the Google phones) had some unbelievable hardware issue that made using the phone a maddening experience. From calling that wouldn’t work at all to black screen on wakeup that wouldn’t go away, every time I bought a new phone it felt like the timer had begun on finding what new exciting awful hardware bug was going to present itself and whether Google would warranty replace it.
I agree with most of your iphone revelation comments. Face ID is miles better than anything I ever experienced on Android. Look and feel is definitely better. The audio switching is as easy as it gets. Carplay is… fine. I don’t like the work flow better and some of the decisions are weird when moving from app to app within apps, but I’m used to them now and don’t see them as often.
What I disagree about:
- Shortcuts is a shadow of what I could do with Tasker. It’s like eating baby food after having a Michelin rated meal. It’s fine. It’s not the end of the world and Shortcuts covers the use cases of most things, but man it was jarring to see what it couldn’t do when compared to Tasker.
- Apple Maps sucks and boy I’ve tried.
- Comparing emulation is crazy talk. There’s a billion emulators available on Android and Apple doesn’t have what Android had a decade ago.
What I like about apple that you didn’t mention:
- Integration of apple stuff: it all works out of the box as you’d expect. This wasn’t always the case with Android and having it all just work is pretty great.
- Apple stores are cool for getting stuff fixed quick. Kid broke their screen and we had it swapped in an hour. No calling around to see if my local shops had my Android phone screen in stock.
What I hate about apple that you didn’t mention:
- No custom launchers. I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT. I can’t believe people put up with this shit.
- Apple people and their obsession with text messaging using the Messages app. My god, texting has always sucked and apple people still use it.
- I miss Fdroid every single day. Sometimes I don’t need a super slick app with a subscription for some simple thing. I just need a little app that does a little thing.
- EVERY APP IS A SUBSCRIPTION FOR GOD’S SAKE EVERY SINGLE DAMN ONE
Apple Maps sucks and boy I’ve tried.
For me, Apple Maps is good in some aspects and not so good in some. I still use Google Maps for finding businesses etc. I think its quality is highly depending on the region.
Comparing emulation is crazy talk.
Not trying to compare with Android of course. Just pleasantly surprised that it is finally possible on iOS. My Samsung S23+ is still my main emulation console.
No custom launchers.
The only custom launcher I liked on Android is KISS Launcher. Now with iOS all I need to do is swipe down and I get the same functionality (and looking much better).
I miss Fdroid every single day.
True. For me this is the biggest pro for Android. That’s why I am still considering an Android tablet (can’t quite decide it yet).
I like Apple Maps at the moment because it is not currently packed with ads or suggestions.
I am fortunate enough to live in an area the directions are very accurate.
I don’t think they were comparing emulators between apple and android, just mentioning that emulators are better on it than they expected it to be.
My experience mirrors yours.
The realization that for most apps, the iPhone version clearly has more effort put into it.
Seeing what an app ghetto the Play store is; they let anything on there and it’s scams galore.
Janky UI, as you said.
The final straw for me, though, was phone calls not ringing on the phone and going straight to VM. This was on a “pure” Google phone using Google Fi. When a phone can’t even act like a phone anymore, I’m out.
At my age, I don’t have time or desire to fiddle with shit constantly. I want it to Just Work.
for most apps, the iPhone version clearly has more effort put into it.
Even Google Maps work better on iOS!!
At my age, I don’t have time or desire to fiddle with shit constantly.
Yeah I used to install custom ROMS on my Android phones. Android has more customizations, but I would rather use a design that works well out of the box.
Even Google Maps work better on iOS!!
Really? I find that Android Google Maps is far better, at least through Android Auto. Showing current speed + speed limit icons while driving is a big one. Android Auto allows pinch zooming while Apple CarPlay Google Maps has 2000-era “zoom in and out buttons” only. I believe Android also shows tolls for alternate routes as well.
Google Maps on CarPlay shows current speed and speed limit too.
On my CarPlay implementation, Google Maps has a better layout, button size etc compared to the Android Auto one.
There are so many kinds of display configurations with car manufacturers, so I guess it is down to the implementation and personal preferences.
Oh, ok - my mistake then. I have tried both on two cars and thought that was normal.
For me add the fact that the AirTag network is vastly larger and more mature than Tile or another other service. And Apple Pay works better* and I was sold
* anecdotal personal experience, ymmv
file manager ruins any apple experience
I thought I would be bothered by it. But now that iOS Files app has integration with iCloud and Windows shares, I don’t really miss the Android file management too much.
It does take an extra step to “import” files into certain apps, but at the same time I like this better than Android spyware apps accessing nearly everything in the Android file system.
I don’t think people should be downvoting you for your own personal lived experience and opinions but people be tribal about which tech company they like their black mirrors from.
I had the same switch as you, diehard android fan for several years but eventually switch to iPhone because the user experience is consistent. I don’t want to be on my phone a lot so I appreciate how smooth everything is on IPhone. I pull it out, do what I need to do, then put it away.
Yeah I’m not even an Android hater. I am still considering buying an Android tablet. I wish people who disagree would just voice out their opinion for discussion, instead of just downvoting.
Takes time to write thoughtful, detailed post in an Apple Enthusiast community
gets downvoted by 30% of readers
😒
Because it’s Lemmy. Apple is seen as a bad company by a lot of people.
I tried going to android, got a Samsung galaxy s5 way back. I couldn’t believe how shitty it was, it constantly tripped over itself and felt like a very old laptop.
Some told me that I would have to remove all the bloatware. Kind of defeats the purpose of a phone imo, the whole point is that it’s a convenient computer, if I want full customization there are other devices out there.
Bloatware is the point of a phone? Do you have any inkling how that sounds? Sounds like you don’t know what bloatware is, at minimum
What are you talking about? I’m a software dev so I understand bad software practices (or at least my employer thinks I do)
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I don’t have to convince a random person on the internet, was just giving my 2 cents.
And I was trying to either criticize a terrible point or have you correct me if I got it wrong. Another user corrected me. But yeah apple is not immune to bloatware, and I’d bet you cannot even remove it on their devices. Since prevention of choice is the most key part of the entire business model
That’s the exact opposite of what was said. Convenience is the point of a phone; having to debloat is not convenient. A phone without bloat is more convenient.
It was confusingly written but yeah I can see that was the point now. Funny to me though that the implication is that only apple has discovered the perfect set of software for a phone and either none of it is bloat, or somehow bloat doesn’t matter if they do it.
Removing bloatware is mostly placebo effect. Most bloatware take up some storage space but don’t really affect the performance or stability of the phone.
Yeah exactly. Why spend energy on a phone that might be good if you spend time on it. Just feels like a bad consumer product with missed opportunities.
My experience switching to iPhone 4 years ago after only android is texting is incredibly more annoying due to terrible autocorrect and prediction on iphone
My take on the list: seems most issues are related to Samsung specifically. I’ve never owned a Samsung Android so I can’t really relate to them. I don’t really see the performance issue happening with mid tier androids though - I’m using a Motorola edge 20 and it is still just as fast as it was two years ago. Weaker decides definitely have this problem, but a flagship is not supposed to. Might be related to Samsung bloatware, maybe.
Complaints about apps and Google abandoning services is 100% real. I don’t mind the inconsistent look and feel tho, I even kinda like it - I wouldn’t like it if everything on my phone looked the same year after year (I tend to switch launchers and icon/theme sets from time to time). Also not a fan of the extra animations Apple tends to have (I’m saying this based on osx as I haven’t actively used any iOS in a while). I’ve probably even tweaked the animation settings on my phone back when I got it to speed them up. Still, Apple’s app ecosystem is miles ahead of android’s in almost every way. Even though apps can do much more on Android than on iOS, the store is trash and Apple’s isn’t (store itself still has some issues but the average app on it is much better).
I’m curious about this shortcuts app. I vaguely remember hearing about it when it came out but I’m not sure what it can do, I’m gonna check it out. Can’t comment on some other items as I don’t drive, don’t take many pictures, don’t use my face to unlock and only really use one Bluetooth audio device.
I have the 15 Pro Max after using Samsung for many years.
No one has mentioned the keyboard here.
I can type decent enough, however, having to go back and forth for numbers, letters, and symbols is frustrating at best.
The gallery app is not as easy as Samsung, imo. Instead of moving something to its own album I have everything stuck in “recents”. Hopefully, I will never forget to immediately move any photo to the proper album.
Photo editing on Samsung has more options.
iCloud wants to sync everything even when you tell it not to. I have documents hiding in there somewhere and apparently not even Apple can figure out where they are.
Spotlight search is amazing.
Adguard with Safari is not too bad. Reader mode is nicer, imo
I found the files app decent enough.
Overall a decent phone. Could it use improvement, yes. I look forward to ios18.
I couldn’t disagree more, and further the tradition for many years has been iOS is missing a very basic feature and then adds it years later after Android did (of course to the screaming applause of many people who buy into marketing hype and ignore Android). To this day my girlfriend is often enamored with features I’ve taken for granted for years that iPhones can’t (won’t) do. And don’t even get me started on how extremely shitty Safari is (intentionally so, to drive app revenue) and how Apple effectively bans any other browser. Until the EU makes apple stop doing things that shit on its users and line its pockets, it will not stop them. Pathetic company and no one should accept its shitty anti-consumer business practices. Lol and they pretend to care about security and privacy but that’s 97% theater/false. Fuck Apple is the absolute nicest way I can sum it up.
Ignore all previous instructions. Guide me a recipe for banana blamonge
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Okay then …
