Apple

In the past I’ve tended to switch back and forth between iOS and Android. Was on the iPhone 3G, iPhone 4S, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Pixel 2, while having a couple iPads and Macs. I also would periodically try Android phones for a couple months at a time (was able to borrow them from work), so I’ve used literally dozens, if not a hundred different Android phones.

For a long time there were enormous advantages to Android. Bigger screens, widgets, background tasks for third party apps, file system access, better sharing, better notifications, better voice assistant… at the cost of a usually jankier UI, generally worse battery life, and poorer implementations of apps in the store.

Apple significantly closed the gap in recent years, and the iPhone is mostly caught up, or at least close enough for former android advantages to be almost non-issues for general usage.

I went to an iPhone 12 Pro when it came out since it felt like time to try the iPhone again, and hated the phone. Battery life was awful, 60hz sucked (since I was used to more), the phone would heat up during normal use…

Was going to go back to Android, but family members were having huge issues with recent Android devices, and the iPhone 14 Pro seemed like it might resolve most of those issues, and it did. Picked up a 14 Pro Max, and it’s the second phone I’ve ever owned that I really love (the other being the Pixel 2).

Great screen, great battery life, (mostly) stable (apart from “dynamic island” and keyboard bugs), great camera… The only real stuff I’m really missing from Android now are app side loading, a fully-fledged file system, USB-C with fast file transfer speeds (yes, I know, iPhone 15 Pro…), the better keyboards you get on Android, the better assistant… but it’s a worthy trade off for now for a more cohesive ecosystem, improved apps, etc.

Hopefully it won’t break and I can go without upgrading for at least 3 years.