I switched to Android

Talk about music, movies, television, books, and other media. No religious or political discussion allowed.
User avatar
ptdebate
Posts: 1072
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 8:39 pm

I switched to Android

Postby ptdebate » August 1st, 2018, 2:20 pm

I've been an Apple apologist for ages, and I still prefer their computers, even though I also work with Windows PCs for work and gaming.

That being said, I've gotten bored of the iPhone! Other cell phone manufacturers have historically been willing to take risks and experiment with new features, but up until recently I clung to the slow evolving iPhone in the belief that the less streamlined nature of Android necessarily meant a less polished experience. Well, if that was the case before, it doesn't seem to be now. I've had the Note 8 for a few months and am enjoying it more than any iPhone I've ever had (and I've had most of them). Don't get me wrong - the iPhone is still a fantastic product, but I think flagship products from Samsung and a few other manufacturers offer a better proposition overall. This goes to show that you shouldn't stick too religiously to one tech ecosystem because you never know what you may be missing out on.

David
Posts: 191
Joined: April 20th, 2015, 3:10 am

Re: I switched to Android

Postby David » August 1st, 2018, 5:29 pm

ptdebate wrote:I've been an Apple apologist for ages, and I still prefer their computers, even though I also work with Windows PCs for work and gaming.

That being said, I've gotten bored of the iPhone! Other cell phone manufacturers have historically been willing to take risks and experiment with new features, but up until recently I clung to the slow evolving iPhone in the belief that the less streamlined nature of Android necessarily meant a less polished experience. Well, if that was the case before, it doesn't seem to be now. I've had the Note 8 for a few months and am enjoying it more than any iPhone I've ever had (and I've had most of them). Don't get me wrong - the iPhone is still a fantastic product, but I think flagship products from Samsung and a few other manufacturers offer a better proposition overall. This goes to show that you shouldn't stick too religiously to one tech ecosystem because you never know what you may be missing out on.


Interesting. A few years ago I went the other way, from Android to Apple. I used to like the customizable UI, storage expansion, and the drag and drop nature of transferring files. Now I have an iPhone, Apple watch, iPad pro, Apple TV, airpods and a macbook. Their SOCs are leagues ahead of Qualcom and Samsung’s Exynos processors, the OS is always smooth and just works, the hardware has great build quality generally, the products hold value for resale, and they have the most apps available. Plus, texting is my main form of communication so I love that I can use iMessages on my phone, tablet and labtop seamlessly. There’s no doubt though that Samsung makes beautiful hardware. I love their TVs and their phones I would choose, and have chosen, when I didn’t own Apple hardware.

User avatar
ptdebate
Posts: 1072
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 8:39 pm

Re: I switched to Android

Postby ptdebate » August 1st, 2018, 6:01 pm

David wrote:Interesting. A few years ago I went the other way, from Android to Apple. I used to like the customizable UI, storage expansion, and the drag and drop nature of transferring files. Now I have an iPhone, Apple watch, iPad pro, Apple TV, airpods and a macbook. Their SOCs are leagues ahead of Qualcom and Samsung’s Exynos processors, the OS is always smooth and just works, the hardware has great build quality generally, the products hold value for resale, and they have the most apps available. Plus, texting is my main form of communication so I love that I can use iMessages on my phone, tablet and labtop seamlessly. There’s no doubt though that Samsung makes beautiful hardware. I love their TVs and their phones I would choose, and have chosen, when I didn’t own Apple hardware.


One thing that is undeniable about the current iPhone models is that they are unmatched in terms of performance. I guess I just realized that all flagship phone models are so ridiculously powerful that the benchmark differences between manufacturers becomes irrelevant because no matter what, I'll never max out that level of power.

iMessage integration is probably the one major thing I do miss. Also, there's no way to check an iCloud email address on an Android phone - not even in a web browser. Other than that though, I love all the little details of what this phone can do. For example, I use the S pen whenever I need to transcribe something or practice writing in a foreign language. When I was traveling in China recently, this helped me translate signs I didn't understand. The splitscreen and picture-in-picture functions are really cool for multitasking. I'm really surprised the iPhone doesn't have something like that.

One funny thing I noticed about the Note when I first got it was how much is similar in terms of the file system to the last non-iPhone handheld I used (some kind of Motorola - can't remember). For example, there's a DCIM folder where your pictures are stored. It reminded me that Android gives the user full access to see and play around with the underlying file structure of the OS, whereas iOS does not (obviously, this is more of a philosophical difference than a flaw). Anyway, it's been an interesting experience switching when I've been using iOS for 8 years.

David
Posts: 191
Joined: April 20th, 2015, 3:10 am

Re: I switched to Android

Postby David » August 6th, 2018, 1:02 pm

So did/do you have an iPad, Mac, or other Apple products? The thing that also would discourage me from switching is that I have lots of apps for these other products that wouldn’t carry over to Android.

User avatar
ptdebate
Posts: 1072
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 8:39 pm

Re: I switched to Android

Postby ptdebate » August 7th, 2018, 2:26 pm

David wrote:So did/do you have an iPad, Mac, or other Apple products? The thing that also would discourage me from switching is that I have lots of apps for these other products that wouldn’t carry over to Android.


I'm a Mac diehard. I have a 2017 Macbook Pro running both macOS and Windows 10. I prefer macOS but occasionally use Windows for work or gaming.

I've been tempted to pick up an iPad since that would help me overcome the one major shortcoming of switching to an Android phone, which is that I no longer have access to my library of iOS apps. But that in itself hasn't been enough to tempt me to get one. My app subscriptions - such as video streaming, utilities, and Apple Music - easily carry over to the android versions of these apps. The screen on the Note is so big that it kind of straddles the line between a phone and a tablet. Plus the stylus features are great - something Apple has finally acknowledged by adding a stylus to the entry-level iPad.

So - in short, I make it work with very minimal inconvenience.


Return to “Other Media”