I had a Samsung s5 pair that I bought for my wife and I - it was our first smartphone purchase coming from a Motorola W385
The Moto was a REALLY good phone in it's day, and I always liked the old Motorolas because they were the best RADIO device in the business. When the world moved from voice to "nobody answers their phones anymore" we finally decided to do a sort of "smartphone trial" and see how we liked those. And since I bought two new for $600 cash as the s6 was hitting the market - thus owning the hardware outright - I didn't have a ton of money invested, and I could let the "user experience" guide me as to whether it was a worthy version or not.
I'm no tech newbie (although let's not talk about coding, hehe) - I have been on broadband internet since 1998, and went through all of the windoze headaches back when that stuff (and viruses) were an unbelievable painindeazz, and I had a couple comps that had to go through some serious techwork to bring them back from virocalypse. So it's not like I can't learn to use any of these various platforms, windoze and droid being no exception, and that I haven't been through the wars - but android seems like bad marriages people talk about - lots of maintenance, and lots of arguing
I did OK with SamDroid. My wife - not so much. She had more unintended customizations than one could count, and we both found the interfaces (TouchCheezWhiz) to be tedious. My phone developed an issue where it wouldn't receive random texts, and after doing testing with my carrier determined it was a phone issue. This being six months after the last software update was issued for the phone - another reason I had to move on.
With an NYC holiday trip in the works and in need of a new phone, I took a leap of faith and bought an 8 Plus (as the X wasn't enough screen for me). Had the carrier's salespeople umbilical the old Sammy to the 8 Plus and transfer pics and contacts, did some basic setup (I had iTunes on the comp already so I added iCloud) and added a few key apps and password account setups and trials, and off to NYC I go, new phone with only a few hours prep on it.
That weekend blew up on me like a nuke. Ticket deals gone bad, ticket courier brings wrong tix, meetings getting missed from delayed flights - an absolute mess - where when I need that phone to WORK, it better.
That phone sold me over those four days. It bailed me out of so much stuff and completely changed the trajectory of the weekend. The fact that I was able to do what I did and never used an Apple product since the IIe it was plainly evident why people swear by this stuff.
With Apple the idea is "let me do this for you". With Android, it's more like "build the tools you like to do your work". "Customize Me." It's a different thing, and both have absolute merit. Hell, I held off buying Apple phones because they wouldn't make a BIG SCREEN. So I've had my issues with "things Apple left out" for a LONG time now. But the things they always did well - making things EASY for the user, is what I need out of a phone. When I'm on the road and the "s^&%$*()$ hits the fan, it's not just "who ya gonna call", it's whatcha gonna call with". At home, when I have time to deliberate, research, plan, set up, etc with respect to my personal affairs or anything I do on a comp or phone, I like the "tweakable" of the mainframe computer. I am investigating about what my next comp should be. I'm not sold it's Apple (although Win 10 makes me wanna try to make Apple work). But on a MOBILE device the Apple phone clearly sets itself apart for that user who appreciates the "let me do this for you" as opposed to "OK, you're gonna have to tweak me....."
With my wife NOT being technically inclined, it's a plus that she can have an Apple phone and I can too, and yet BOTH of us have it deliver what we need. I would rather have her stuff speaking the same language as mine, so if she has issues with anything I know well the language.
Soooooo....
With respect to the PHONE, I am rather pleased with the switch. That 8 month experiment with the 8 plus turned into a preorder for the Xs Max - the phone I have wanted Apple to build ever since I had time on that Samsung.
Reservations:
If I have a complaint on Apple, it's the MUSIC files. I don't like "proprietary" anything when it comes to music, books, and so forth. I like PAPER books and VINYL and CD and DVD so I actually OWN the physical copy. Not with ANY company who if an error is made my collection goes "bye-bye". I won't buy kindle or anything similar....I want it PERMANENT, PHYSICAL, and MINE. I don't have issue with streaming (Apple Music) or renting flicks through iTunes. I had iTunes just for those independent documentaries and such that weren't oft available other places, so I do stream movie rentals. But buying the files? No thanks.
If I were to have to go back to Android, it would be a Google Pixel most likely. In hindsight, I would have probably appreciated it more if I had bought a Nexus/Google phone back then. Didn't know better, just figured Samsung was a reputable manufacturer that had a foothold in the marketplace. No way would I buy one of those now.
.....and I got a $300 rebate-through-financing (interest free) offer from my carrier on my Xs Max, so I'm getting the phone for $950 - not too hard to take, and considering the Xr with a 256gb hard drive will be $899 (and even with incentive-to-be-named later doubt it's $300) the Xs Max seems an even better deal.
And OMG is it ever a beauuuuutiful beast. Mine's working really well (although some of them have had issues) and am every bit impressed with the phone overall. I think there's a slight edge in voice quality through the 8 Plus, although not extreme - but it just seems a little "fuller bodied"/rich in tone. The Max sounds better than the Samsung and others I've used, so it's not substantial.
