Thinking about switching to an iPhone...

Talk me into it or out of it.

For years I've said I like Android better because you have a choice of hardware. But in recent years I've decided I'm only willing to buy Nexus devices because of vulnerabilities being a bug big deal because you can't get timely software updates on non-Nexus devices, which means I really don't any more hardware choice on the Android front after all.

Advantages of staying:

Widgets. Love my calendar agenda and my five-day weather forecast right on the home screens.
Better Swype support, and I love Swype.
More reasonable prices.
Front-facing speakers are way better.
The best support for Google services, where I'm very heavily invested (Gmail, calendar, drive, keep, Play Newsstand, Play Music All Access)

Advantages of going:

Standby battery time is unbelievable.
Cameras are consistently good year after year.
Better attention from software developers.
I don't care about Apple services, but Google apps (where I'm heavily invested) seem to run well on iOS.
Higher prices, but can spread the price over two years by buying a carrier-branded device.
Essentially every other person I know in my workplace uses iPhones.

 

I am getting the new iPhone SE soon because I love small phones. Currently have a BlackBerry PRIV and I had a Nexus 6P before.

I sold the Nexus 6P because its virtual keyboard is horrible. I keep missing spaces when I type so the sentences appear with no spacing between the words. Tried difference keyboards like SwiftKey but no luck.

Now selling the BlackBerry PRIV because of this:
Contacts disappear a few minutes after I add them

I have owned iPhones before, last one was the 6S 128GB, let me tell you the battery is insane, and the standby time is even better. You could leave the phone for days and it would barely lose any charge. With Android phones, just hold the phone in your hand for a few minutes and watch the percentage go down. Even with my 3410 mAH battery on my PRIV. Large screens suck battery life like no tomorrow so I am expecting the iPhone SE with its smaller 4 inch screen to only be better.

The only thing I hate about iPhones is that you have to use iTunes to copy stuff from/to your iPhone. It is very inconvenient compared to Android phones where you just plug in the phone and bam, the phone appears in your Computer as a new drive that you can easily copy/paste from.

 

My Nexus 6P has been working wonderfully for me. With my daily use patterns, I can easily get 1.5-2 days of battery life, depending on how much of that is spent at home on WiFi. Android M has greatly improved standby battery usage, and Android's native integration with the Google ecosystem is unbeatable. Android also allows me to root and get all the associated benefits: custom DPI settings, across-the-board adblocking, etc.

Let me know if you have any specific Q's about the 6P.

 

I just switched to an iPhone 6S from android (still use android tablets). Like you I switched a large part due to the lack of timely software updates on Android. I'll comment on my experiences (which may very well differ from yours)

TL;DR For me the biggest plusses are the very responsize experience and timely software updates. The biggest minus is the less than stellar Google ecosystem integration.

The entire experience is very responsive. For whatever reason every Android device I've owned always gets laggy and/or glitchy after a few months of use. My iPhone has remained buttery smooth. Waiting a few seconds for an action doesn't sound like much, but you don't realize how annoying it is until you've used a completely responsive system.

Battery life is good, but I wouldn't all it insane. If I baby the battery and minimize usage I can get almost four days. More typical is that I'll top off every other day or so.

TouchID works brilliantly well. I can't comment on how well Samsung's works, but the new TouchID makes me forget I even have a lock screen.

The Google ecosystem doesn't work nearly as well. Some apps just plain suck, like gmail (use outlook instead. no seriously). Others are less featured than on android, e.g. can't download offline maps on iOS.

Everything is more expensive. Micro-USB cables are a dime a dozen. A good lightning cable is at least $5.

File transfers are more annoying since you have to go through iTunes. I don't transfer files that often though, so it doesn't bug me too much. The exception is that copying photos is still easy.

 

I had planned to stay on the iPhone 5S, as I hated the size increase starting with the 6. In my experiences, iPhones, when on stock operating firmware and subsequent minor revisions OR 1 major revision past stock, run PERFECT, with no lag, no OS GUI slowness, and great stability. The same couldn't not be said about ANY android phone I have ever come into contact with. The iPhone operates like butter. Furthermore, I use my phone mainly as....a phone, SMS, and occasional web browsing. It exceeds incredibly well in doing this, and it has the best single threaded performance of any phone out there. Majority of the apps are coded single threaded, and the way the iOS works with the hardware is great.

What's not so great:
1. Battery life. It is abysmal, and what's worse, is apple keeps shrinking the battery capacity instead of increasing. Only the 6S and SE have reversed this trend, but the SE should have better battery life due to smaller screen and more efficient processor.
2. iTunes. I hate itunes, I had being obliged to use it. There are workarounds for this though.
3. Updates. Never, ever, update an iPhone past 1 major iteration of the default iOS it shipped on. Apple does this as planned obsolescence, rendering your device unusable slow. What's worse, is that for all 64 bit devices and up (iPhone 5S and newer), there is no way to downgrade, which mean's if you update (accidental or not), you're stuck. Period. Forever. You might as well buy a new phone. Try using an iPhone 5S, 5, or 4S on iOS 9, and you'll know what I mean. I personally kept my 5S on 7.1.2.

The sheer out of the box quality of iPhone is superb, and it exceeds at what it does. There is a reason why it is >70% of Apple's revenue, and the most popular phone on the market. It does it's job remarkably well and in my opinion, the only thing Apple has gotten right since the iPod.

On another tangent, I think Android phones had potential, but squandered it. Instead of making proper optimizations and building a phone with properly operating hardware (snapdragon 810, i'm looking at you), and not using a 1 size fits all OS with crap java implementation, they could have made a dent.

However,
My IDEAL phone would be:
1. iPhone chassis or Sony Z5 chassis
2. Intel X86 processor
3. Full desktop class Windows operating system
This would have been a killer phone for productivity, but nobody seems to care to make this.They're more concerned with mobile gaming performance and gimmicky features vs actual advancements (read: 3D touch)

 

my 2¢ - why not check into a root and new mod for your android. I'm running CyanogenMod on my nexus 7 (tablet) and the battery life is unbelievable when you don't have all those unneeded services running. The only issue with Cyanogen is they don't include google play store, so you have to find it and install it yourself.

 

I'm personally not into rooting or flashing ROMs, and definitely not into using Google apps not obtained officially from Google itself (or from an OEM through a license with Google). Just my personal preference.

 

Actually you only have to manually install the google store app (due to licensing issues), then all the apps come from google play store.

 

Does it include the "email" app as well as the Gmail client? My Moto X does but my Nexus 9 does not, and I like using the "email" app for my work email to keep my two accounts (work and home) totally segregated.

 

I use an iPhone 6S but almost entirely with Google services: Gmail, Google Maps, Google Books, etc. They do indeed work well.

Despite generally being a Google fan, my phone is really an extension of my tablet, and my primary tablet is an iPad Pro. That said, the iPhone 6S cooperates nicely with my Surface Pro 2 and Nexus 9.

​

 

@Mitlov
The base package only includes the Play Store itself and a few basic services. All the files they provide for initial setup are official Google Nexus builds. Gmail, Calendar and whatnot are in the Play Store.

About your original question, it's hard for us to decide how important some of those points are for you. If you really love Swype's specific implementation then stay on Android, otherwise I would lean towards iPhone. iOS supports sliding input as well, and Google's integration, while not as native as it is on Android, does provide the common functions. The updates are definitely a plus.
Don't expect amazing battery life though. If you're the type of person who's careless with background tasks, the same may or may not carry onto the iPhone depending on what replacement apps you choose.


@Raidriar
You can buy a Atom phone and run a Windows VM right now. Prepare for clumsy control.


@Everyone
Thank you for not turning this thread into another Android vs iOS harassfest.

 

Honestly with the direction that Android seems to be going this year, I'm mulling over a switch as well. I just need to see if I can transfer my games over or not and decide if I really want to drop 230+ taxes and 30 a month for the 128GB 6S+

 

I'm aware of this option, but it is so clumsy and poorly executed, it needs to be updated and overhauled into a proper phone + OS. There was talk for a while of Intel making CPUs for Apple, but that hasn't manifested yet. Best so far is Intel making the LTE modem.

 

Repurchasing games can be expensive, but on the other hand, they may run much better in iOS. I was impressed at how much better The Banner Saga was on an iPad Air than on a Nexus 9...not because of hardware differences, but because the iOS port was far better executed than the Android port.

Same reason that Windows versions of games often run better than OSX versions (the OSX port receives a tiny fraction of the attention that the Windows version did).

 

Well I play free to play games, I just don't want to have to start all over so I'm going to charge my iPad if I can find my lightning cable and see if I can transfer my games over there. I was planning to anyway, they kill the battery on my Note 5 like crazy. I have a few games I purchased but I don't even play them anymore.

 

The Windows "home screen" itself and default window managing behavior can be changed easily, even by a 3rd party. Actually the Start Screen and most system configuration interfaces on Win 10 are already HiDPI-ready and small-screen-friendly. But an empty Windows is not useful on its own. Unless we can get a significant number of 3rd party devs onboard to create phone-friendly UIs for their X86 Windows software, I don't see how the situation can get much better than it is now once you try to do anything productive. We all know how well this "Metro" thing is working out. And that's for tablets. Now move it onto a phone? Will the devs of your favourite apps really care?

The same applies to running Mac OS X or Linux desktop apps on phones. You can run Linux desktop apps natively on Android, they don't work very well with the small touch screen. (Simulated touchpad control is acceptable if you don't need to use the keyboard a lot.)

If games (those are not supposed to run in the background and eat your battery) are misbehaving you might want to Greenify them.

Forget about transferring game saves to iOS without dev's support. Even transferring data to a different version of Android is not guaranteed to work.

 

Got two of them transferred but the registration server for Game of Dice is being an ass. I wasn't too far into that game and never spent any cash on it though so I'm not that miffed about it.

 

Just saw this posted:

http://www.notebookreview.com/howto/how-to-buy-a-smartphone-android-vs-ios

 

So consumer reports just released their results for battery tests on smart phones (saw it on the news just now)

No Iphone models even made the list. So either they are one sided and supporting android, or the whole battery argument was just thrown out the window
http://www.consumerreports.org/smartphones/smartphones-with-the-best-battery-life/

 

Standardized phone battery life tests are hard to do and often not that useful, whether with an Android or an iPhone. Most modern phones can last a while... until you start using it.

My cheap ZTE backup with a 3100mAh battery can do over 2 weeks with everything on if left untouched. Actually using it as a daily driver? I charge everyday.

The Consumer Reports article lists "talk time" though, and with everything being "24h+" it's not that useful.

 

That's gotta be the least useful chart ever. Every phone listed is "24h+", and you have no idea whether other phones (from the iPhone 6S Plus to the Moto X) lasted 50% as long as #5 on that list or 95%.

 

I think the chart might be missing an "unfold" function or something? If this is the intended representation it's hilarious.

Anyway, smart phone batteries all suck if you're a heavy user.

 

Iphones are nice, I've had them for years very user friendly lol. I had android before and there was alot of features I didn't really use. So I guess it just really depends on the person. If you like something simple I'd go with the iPHone.

 

After watching the hell that my roommate just went through trying to get his iCloud backup to restore, which failed so he had to go back to his iTunes backup from October and lose all the contacts and apps and such, I think I'll be sticking with Android, Titanium Backup, and SMS Backup and Restore. It's ridiculous that Apple doesn't allow selective restores from iCloud OR iTunes. Not only is that inconvenient but in the case of iCloud, using it turns off auto sync in iTunes and it also means that restoring your phone takes hours and a LOT of data. No thank you. Plus iTunes kept dropping the connection to his new 6S which meant he had to do it 3 times before it was successful. I can copy my TiBu and SMS folders to my PC, root my new phone, install TiBu and copy the folder to the new phone, then selectively restore the things I need, fire up SMS Backup and Restore and restore all of my calls and messages and then go about my day. If I decide there's something missing I open up TiBu and pick that missing app and install it. No fussing with being tethered to a computer, no worries about having to restore all my apps from the app store, and full control over what is installed and when. That was a deal breaker for me.

 

Sorry to say he should know better than to back up to any cloud. Always, always back up to a physical media, and back up often. That's not an Apple issue.

That being said, iTunes is the one downside to the iphone. I absolutely hate that garbage piece of software, and all the retarded locks and procedures it puts. I want to copy a song from a different computer? Lets wipe your whole library. Oh you forgot to leave it on manual manage? Yeah, better wipe your music library just in case. Jailbreaking and 3rd party apps does make it much better though, and I no longer use iTunes for anything.

 

ITunes and iCloud are both deal breakers and with how much of a pain it is to jailbreak if you want to be up to date, that's not an option either. Rooting allows me to pretty much always still be up to date as long as my device manufacturer has released the firmware (this is especially true for HTC since their firmware works on all of their variants of the same device, something Samsung intentionally breaks). I can backup, restore, flash ROMs, all from my phone. The only thing I ever use a computer for is the occasional manual backup and that's a Windows Explorer thing, not a third party one.

 

You cannot use ICloud if you are jailbroken?

 

Funny you mention, I literally just posted this in the iMore forums:

 

I don't get it - you mean the iPhone doesn't keep a cloud copy of all your contacts/apps by default? Android does this, it's a very basic feature. All your contacts are stored within your gmail account, and the Play Store keeps a record of all the apps you've ever purchased/downloaded.

 

Not sure what the issue Ethrem mentioned was, but iCloud does have contacts backup.

 

And it keeps a backup of your texts too?

 

Yes it does cloud copy your contacts and photos. Itunes/appstore keeps track of any purchased music or apps. It does not back up texts, but the local itunes full backup copy does.

 

I thought the Icloud backup contacts,bokmarks and other items. Not certain where passwords are backed up.

 

My roommate couldn't restore his iCloud backup was the issue. He tried for hours and iCloud was down which forced him to have to go to his old backup from October in iTunes. It's so much simpler to just use Titanium Backup on Android than either iCloud or iTunes. I mean you even get forced into reinstalling all your apps since the app data, not the apps themselves, gets backed up to iCloud. That's a lot of data when you're like my roommate with 100GB worth of apps and music and most of it is apps...