Out of curiosity why you don't like the stock Android. I have never used stock Android, this is why I am asking.
Actually it is not correct to say that I don't like the Android Stock interface, but I prefer an interface like the touchwiz that allows you to have some shortcuts and functions where you need it, I don't know why, but I find it more pleasant. The stock Android interface is a little more basic. You may like it or not, they are personal tastes, I would never allow myself to discuss this thing.
Out of curiosity why you don't like the stock Android. I have never used stock Android, this is why I am asking.
Interesting that you find Bixby more reliable than Siri. I have no experience with Samsung and Bixby but I have never heard that one. Usually what I hear is that Google Assistant is superior to Siri. Siri is well Siri. I honestly rarely use her because I do not see a lot of value from her.
I'm based on what I've seen in the various comparison videos on YouTube about voice assistants.
I know that Google Assistant is light years ahead of the others, but if I take a Samsung I would like to use Samsung services, so in this case Bixby.
Why is Bixby more advanced than Siri?
There are things it can do, secondary things mind you, like telling me what movies are on TV tonight, while neither google nor Siri can do it for example.
If I ask Siri to play a song on YouTube it cannot do it because it is related to Apple Music, while Bixby does it quietly and other small things.
By now all assistants do the basic functions well and it will be very difficult for me to ask my mobile phone what movie there are on TV tonight, but this is to make you understand that even the little things make the difference.
Can you share why you find this feature valuable?
Gladly.
I keep my phone by my bed at night in airplane mode.
It happens every now and then that I wake up and in the dark I can see the time.
I also find it very convenient as a function to pass by the phone during the day and see if there are missed calls or notifications without having to pick it up. Can you do without it? Of course, as indeed as for almost all things.
Makes sense and I kind of see your point. I was in a similar boat. There are things that I like in Android, there are things I enjoy in iOS. There are things I dislike about Android and there are things I dislike about iOS. Overall there is no mobile OS currently that meets fully my expectations and standards. So I kind of accepted that and just focused on 4-5 things that are key for me. In my case one of the key thing was the camera. And in that sense I found that the Samsung and iOS flagships have maybe the best overall cameras. I am not super fan of Samsung and IMO Samsung
s OneUI starts lagging after 2 years. Given the price of the devices (S21 vs iPhone 12) I chose the iPhone because IMO Apple supports and maintains their devices better than Android.
Does that mean that there are no days where I wonder WTH the Apple developers were smoking doing some iOS aspects? Nope, there are such days but it does not happen every day and so far I can tolerate it at the expense of the camera. That being said I am rather cautious on Apple major versions updates and do take my sweet time to update (translation - wait for others to test it and find the bugs and have them fixed).
I still hate Samsung for some choices made, I also don't like the fact that I have dual applications on the phone, such as two galleries (Google and Samsung), two voice assistants (Assistant and Bixby), two browsers (Samsung Internet and Chrome), two email clients (samsung mail and Gmail) and two digital payment methods (Samsung Pay and Google Pay).
It must be said that they can be disabled and from a certain point of view it is called "choice".
Another thing to say about Samsung is the removal of the MST sensor which was the thing that made it possible to use it pretty much anywhere. Reading around the reason is because more and more POSs support NFC and make the use of MST superfluous.
But after this change, I see no reason to use Samsung Pay rather than Google Pay. Really, if anyone has this answer I would like to hear it. I'm not argumentative, but I'm curious.
But on the other hand, I have more things at home that would bind to the Samsung ecosystem, in fact from what I know its applications integrate very well with Windows 10 after the partnership with Microsoft, which makes them recover some ground towards the Apple ecosystem.
I have an Xbox Series S and a Samsung TV at home, in short, let's say that I somehow already live in the Samsung / Microsoft ecosystem, here is another reason that makes me hesitate.
In short, the desire to try "the competition" is great, but my rational part tells me that perhaps it is better not to do it, at least for the moment, while the more enterprising one tells me to throw myself and try. At most I can resell it because the positive thing is that over time the devaluation is less than for android smartphones in general.
And as you rightly said, Apple's support as software updates over time is much longer and better than any other, which makes your purchase much more valuable and this is by no means a trivial matter.
There are a couple of other things that make me really mad about Apple are these:
Speaking of MacOS, the calendar widget in Big Sur cannot be synchronized with the calendar application. What does it mean? That once the widget is shown, I can't see at a glance if I have any commitments on a given day, if they had for example put a red dot on the days when I have a commitment it would have been a welcome thing and I think more intuitive.
Another thing: in Apple Maps the street where my parents live is written wrong. I reported this to Apple via two friends' iPhones and it was never corrected. In the street name there is an extra "i" at the end of the word.
I know these are little things too, but from devices that aim to be excellence both in price and in software, I think these little things make a difference and given the price I really struggle to pass them on.
Last thing always inherent to MacOS: but is it possible that QuickTime still cannot play all video formats? Some MKVs don't want to play them, while Windows Media Player works with just about everything.
I know there is VLC but the speech I just made is always valid.
