Why I Dumped my Samsung Galaxy S7 for an iPhone 7
Not all that long ago, I wrote about how I switched from being an iPhone user to Android. Instead of upgrading to the next iPhone, I went with the Samsung Galaxy S7. After all, the reviews on it were great. Android had been playing catch up on iOS for quite some time and was really breaking even. I wasn't using Apple products at work anymore (still don't) so I didn't need to be locked into an ecosystem.
It all made sense. After a while, the Android allure wore on me. I nearly switched to getting a Google Pixel, thinking that an Android phone without all of the Verizon bloatware on it may be the way to go. Still, I went back to the iPhone.
Why did I leave Android again?
The biggest issue: dependability
I realize that everyone may have a different story. Some may have had Android phones that worked wonderfully for years without issue. Some people reading this may have had iPhones that game them fits from day one. All I can speak to is my own experience.
My own experience tells me that iPhones consistently work over a longer period of time.
Out of the box, my Galaxy S7 blew away any iPhone on the market at the time. I would say on day one, most Android phones are wonderful devices. I've had two Android phones and the one trait both have shared is that they don't stay reliable much more than 8-9 months. They become buggy and slow down quicker than any iPhone I have had.
Plus, in the last week, my Samsung had two glaring issues. First - overheating. I would wake up in the mornings and my phone was literally too hot to touch. I had to pick it up with a t-shirt or blanket in order to turn it off. The battery life also began to be a lag. Quickly. It was like within a few weeks my phone's battery life kept becoming exponentially shorter.
While I know these are issues that I could fix by optimizing parts of my phone or downloading a battery saver app, I didn't want to. I don't feel like I have to do a lot of extra work on a device for it to function. It should just work.
While my iPhones I've had in the past do slow down, the battery lives fade a bit and the operating system seems to get quirky "coincidentally" right before a big release, they've still performed better over the long haul than either Android I've had.
I didn't use features I thought I would
Samsung Pay excited me. I used it for about a month...and never did again. Some cashiers appeared to get annoyed when I tried using it. Sometimes it didn't work. I found myself defaulting to swiping a card most of the time again. So that selling point was mute for me after a while.
I also loved having the Journey journal app on my phone. There's not an iOS version so I loved being able to use that (which I still maintain is superior to Day One for journaling). I eventually realized that I was using the desktop version of Journey considerably more than my phone. I also noticed Journey had a mobile web browser option. So I could move to iOS rather easily.
I also loved the idea of widgets. With the new iOS 10 upgrade, I can have a widget screen that's more custom than iPhones I've used in years past. My Android ended up only having widgets for my calendar, YouVersion's verse of the day, the weather and scores. My new iPhone accommodates all of that on one screen.
As far as the game center went? Android still has a superior gaming platform to me but I really only play Trivia Crack these days so....
iOS apps just flow better
Only one day being back on iPhone and I forget how much cleaner apps look on there. A lot of apps I use just have a much better aesthetic look. I can't put my finger on it (well...I guess I literally do put my fingers on it #dadjokes) but apps are way smoother on iOS. The key differences would be Google-built apps. Those are unsurprisingly better on iOS.
iPhone 7 has new features that will make me miss the Galaxy less
It's waterproof now. Huge thing I won't have to miss from my Galaxy.
It may be because my phone is only a couple of days old but the apps run way faster now than they ever did on my Galaxy.
Apple also allows you to delete all of their bloatware apps. Or at least most of them. It's way better than the pointless nonsense that Verizon loads onto your Android phone that you can never totally eradicate from your phone. As a result, I have way less apps on my phone. It's a breath of fresh air.
I realize at some point I could turn on Apple again when another Android-powered phone comes out with a lot of bells and whistles. My Galaxy still has more bells and whistles than my new iPhone.
However, I found myself using the bells and whistles less and less. I wanted something that just worked. In my experience, iPhones have done a great job of that.
Where do you stand on the current state of iOS and Android phones?