The Pixel4 (and other things) is making me consider an iPhone

Tech Talk Android
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Ok y’all, I have been an Android user for YEARS, coming directly from Blackberry. I use the Pixel2XL, and have loved Android for years, and even used to do custom ROMS back in the day. A few things are making me consider switching to the iPhone:

  1. The Pixel 4 is completely uninspiring
  2. Wear OS is a train wreck
  3. Messaging on Android is in complete disarray (carriers putting forth RCS won’t fix it)

The last two are the big ones. The Apple Watch looks to be the best watch on the market today, and iMessage users frankly enjoy features not available on an Android phone (at least natively). I also travel a lot and want to be able to use iMessage from an airplane, which you can’t do with SMS. Since most people in my family use the iPhone, they use iMessage and I don’t want to try to convince them to switch to WhatsApp or similar. I am considering switching platforms. A little about my usage:

  1. I don’t take pictures, except for things like receipts or to remember my parking spot in the parking garage
  2. I don’t store much on my phone, I live predominantly in Google’s cloud and Dropbox
  3. I love Android Auto but my car also supports Apple Car play
  4. I don’t buy a lot of media, so I don’t have movies, shows, etc. locked up in Google Play so no worries about losing access to that stuff
  5. My big apps that I use are on both platforms (Netflix, Microsoft apps, Spotify, YouTube, etc…)

So given that my digital world is mostly cloud based and easily switchable between platforms, I am having a hard time not justifying the iPhone 11 at $699 or even at $749 for 128GB. I can get that and an Apple Watch for near the price of a 128GB Pixel4XL by itself. I currently use the TicWatch Pro.

So - has anyone made the transition from Android to iOS and care to share their experience, positive or negative?

P.S. I would only consider switching to iPhone and not something like Samsung. Timely software updates and security patches are too important to me, and iPhone and Pixel are the only two that get that right.

2 Likes
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And you find iOS inspiring? To me all the phones are basically at the same point, and it’s not exciting for any of them any more. They get the regular upgrades on a regular basis… slightly faster CPU, slightly faster GPU and slightly new OS tweaks (“dark mode” anyone?)

If you find Android uninspired, where it is not locked down and you can install your own launcher du jour and rearrange your icons as you see fit, and have desktop widgets and there is even open source OS replacements… I can’t imagine how boring you will find iOS.

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iOS is definitely not inspiring, but I am finding myself doing less and less with the OS anymore. I don’t customize the launcher and I don’t use widgets. Most of my usage is within an app of some sort. I use to heavily customize my phones with launchers and tasker profiles but not anymore. Maybe I am just getting old :slight_smile: To me the allure of iOS is they seem to have their act together on a few key things like messaging.

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Well, maybe. One of my best friends is an Apple fanboi. I almost never hear from him any more because I don’t use Apple. Up until a few years ago he used to appear online and available on my client (I use Pidgin on the desktop to drive Google Hangouts formerly Google Talk.) These days, he’s always offline. I don’t think he is trying to ghost me, so I presume it is some Apple interference. Whenever I bring it up, he shrugs and moves on. So… be warned that switching to Apple’s messaging walled garden can have real effects on your real friendships.