Switching from Android to iPhone
A balance of welcome gems and things I'll miss.
Hi Peer,
I’ve raised my kids - now 19 👩🏻🦱and 16 👨🏻🦱 - with either a Windows Mobile or an Android phone in my pocket. Whether it was fast photos with ‘pocket to picture’ from the red Nokia Lumia 920 or a ‘squeeze for assistant’ to the Google Pixel 3 XL, I’ve just never crossed over to the iPhone side. Well, I took the leap before the close of 2021 (Happy New Year by the way 🥳). The iPhone 13 Pro Max is now my daily driver. It’s logged into all my work and life apps and services - including being my primary MFA authenticator via Face ID 🧔🏻♂️.
The answer to “Why did Mark cross the mobile OS road?” lies below… hint: it’s one of my iPhone’s ‘pros’ (I’ll share the final straw within the “Final thoughts…” section).
Since there are a bunch of “Switch from Android to iPhone” videos on YouTube and lotsa “Google Pixel 6 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro Max” tweets and threads, imma gonna keep it simple to five pros of each - sharing things I like about iPhone and inferring things I miss from Android.
🍎 These are a few of my five favorite things: iPhone
Facetime: Not a new feature, but a hurdle-less way to reach out and chat face-2-face. I’ve been using Duo, WhatsApp, and Messenger, and each has just a little more friction barrier to entry. The breadth of conversation will still span multiple apps, but Facetime brings some a little closer.
Bluetooth implementation: This is based on non-scientific setup and the innate feeling that it just works - when compared with previous Bluetooth connections across car, headphone, and wireless speaker pairing. So far, the iPhone feels like it works better. Previous phones worked, too. But they felt fragile in their keeping of the connection. The hands-free text sequence is faster. CarPlay rocks and is steady. Samsung Galaxy Buds sound great and work well as I navigate from app-to-app.
Camera covers close, far, and clean panoramas: I’m a fan of getting up close and personal with a wild PNW mushroom or flower - which Android handled pretty well. Though, now I can get even closer with higher resolution. And I love taking nature and city landscapes, and the iPhone implementation leaves no perceptible panoramic distortion. Images look clean on a flat, wide horizon.
The opportunity to get an Apple Watch: Envy drove this one, 100%. My riding buddy flaunted features while riding the trails: progress on Strava - including heartrate, taking important calls or texts - all without removing his phone from his pocket. Whilst I fumbled with gloved hands, or just didn’t do it at all. Envy is my one sin that did not divide, rather it bridged a gap I wanted to jump for a long time.
Big battery life: The iPhone 13 Pro Max sports a 4,373 mAh (milliampere hour) battery; 16.75Wh (watt-hours) in Apple speak. My first realization of battery optimization came from an iPad - one that sat in my drawer for days/weeks between SharePoint/Lists demos, yet it still fired up with tons of battery life left. In my normal use, I’ve not dented the battery by day’s end; much less “my phone is dead” anxiety.
🤖 Five Android features I’ll miss as the Google phone sun sets…
USB-C: I’ve so many great cables for the bedside, for travel, in the car… and it was a shared experience with my son (we had the same phone up until now). It still feels like a better cable - not only universal, but more robust. I could be wrong… I’ll guess I’ll have to USB-C if I still miss it in a few months…
Back button/gesture: I’m still swiping in from the left or right to “go back” to where I was. Android made it easy, and you could go back and back and back and back. iOS has a basic back notion, though in this day and age it lacks a back gesture - making it a back jester imo.
Double-press power button to launch camera: I miss not missing the moment. There is no faster way to take a photo than on Android with a double tap of the power button - esp. when it’s cold outside. (Ben The PC Guy had it right a long time ago: #SmokedByWindowsPhone)
Home screen widgets: Apple just started their widget journey, but Android’s implementation is far superior. I only use a few widgets (Outlook calendar, To Do for tasks, Pocketcasts controller, weather, battery, etc.), and with Android they all feel more interactive/useable - rather than fancy launch buttons. I miss scrolling thru my agenda over the next few days, switching between task lists and marking things off, or pausing/playing podcasts. Also, the notion of resizing - just made the home screen more customizable.
Back-of-device fingerprint sensor: Darkness reminds us of our darkest fears - not being able to unlock our phones when the lights are off - yikes! Face ID works pretty well, and I know I need to program it a little more… but tapping the back fingerprint reader got me in super-fast. The muscle memory of picking up my phone and having it already unlocked makes the “getting things done” almost done before you know it.
BONUS
Now, we all benefit when MKBHD presents his pov, and this is his video perspective on “iPhone 13 Pro Review: Better Than You Think!":
Final thoughts…
The real clincher for me was the Apple Watch. I’ve tried a few Android Wear OS watches, and they pale/paled in comparison - every time. My watch envy was the tipping point - pushing me across the threshold with iOS wildfire. Ride on, with hands on the handlebars more oft than not.
With every switch comes give and take. I’ll get better at this and that and miss other things. But for now…
Cheers and Happy New Year, iMark Kashman
P.S. (Pun Sharing)
Get your eye rolls ready to bake… one pun from me, @mkashman 🙄, and one from the world:
I'm looking on migrating to iPhone. Some of the changles that I'm working through:
1. Ability to install apps using computer like android using playstore. With iPHone I need to have password written down or be near computer where the password is stored.
2. If you don't enter your passwords three times Apple forces the password to be changed resulting in more confusion about what the password.
3. Ability to close all apps easily
4. I would pay an additional $100 to have a stylus like the Samsung note series.
5. Very difficult to change the apple keyboard to an Android keyboard. After investing an hour and a half still haven't been able to figure it out. Of course I could go to the genius bar but would need to carry a piece of paper with my password on it.
Moved to the 13 mini, I simply want it to play my large collection of Opus files.