That one time I traded my iPhone in for a Galaxy S7
I made the move to Android one time in my life for a brief season. Mainly to switch carriers because AT&T was horrible in Chicago and Sprint didn't offer an iPhone at the time. After that term was up, I switched to Verizon and went back to my safe place: iOS.
Until about a week ago anyway.
A few weeks ago, I took a dive and ended up upgrading from my iPhone 6 to the new Samsung Galaxy S7. I had heard rave reviews about the phone and loved the fact that it was water resistant. After doing a lot of research comparing the Android 6.0 OS to the latest in iOS, I took a plunge.
Why did I switch?
Honestly my biggest hesitation to switching before last week was the fear of leaving Apple's ecosystem. The companies I had worked at since moving to Atlanta were primarily run on Apple devices. DeMoss was almost exclusively Apple products for pretty much every piece of personal tech they provided. Having an iPhone just worked better for my day-to-day. It made sense to keep everything I did, work and personal, in one place.
Now that I'm at a company that isn't nearly as Apple exclusive, I'm not locked into one platform like I had been. In addition, nearly all of the apps I used on my iPhone were now available on Android. That exclusivity factor on apps that Apple once had a few years ago is rapidly diminishing.
With Samsung providing what is currently the best phone hardware out there right now, it seemed time to try and make a switch for a bit.
Thoughts so far?
I will say that Android isn't as easy to use right out of the box as an Apple product is. Part of that is due to the fact that I've only used an iPhone for the last four years. The other part is that Apple does UX better than just about anyone out there. However, after a couple of weeks, I'm starting to get the hang of it.
Things I like
The size of the screen. Not so big as an iPhone 6+ but still a little larger than my original iPhone 6.
The fact that it's waterproof. Love it.
- Customization: I'm trying to not overdo it but I love the customization, especially the apps that help reduce the blue light on my screen in the evening.
- Samsung Pay: for the most part, it works as advertised. I still have people at stores trying to argue with me that they don't have that payment system as it rings up. It's fun.
- The widgets. I don't use very many but have a few clutch ones.
- The Android/Chrome exclusive journaling app Journey (blog post on that coming at a later date)
- Overall integration with Google and Google Now. It's almost creepy how much Google knows about me
- Memory card ability to upgrade storage for photos and videos
- The game center is awesome. Ability to record play and put a stop to any notification during play.
Things I don't love
Battery life not quite as good as advertised but it does charge very quickly
Still getting the hang of UX. Not nearly as intuitive as iOS right out of the box
- Keyboard and autocorrect aren't great to type on. I'm open to suggestions on better keyboards to download than the standard Samsung one
- Came pre-installed with entirely too many Samsung and Verizon stock apps.
- I do miss the iOS app store
A few weeks in, I'm still not having any buyers remorse on my switch. The gaps between iOS and Android are closing all the time. We'll see if I still feel the same way when Apple announces the iPhone 7.
If any Android power users out there have suggestions on apps that are must-haves, I'm all ears!