Anyone transition from mac to pc (as well as iOS to android)?

[Eggtastic]

Hey everyone,

As of now, I have a 2016 rMB m5 and an iPhone 6+. I upgraded to the rMB from a 2011 MBA so it was a big upgrade for me. My day to day uses are minimal so this machine fits my needs and I love almost everything about it (also got it refurbished with 9 charge cycles so saves almost $300).

I also have a 2.5 year old iPhone 6+ that has served me well minus getting the camera replaced (factory error - zero cost to me). Again, I baby my phone and it has been great. I opted not to upgrade to the 7 because it looked exactly the same, but I kind of wish I did for the better camera.

Now, here is something crazy I have been contemplating... Going from mac to pc and going from iOS to android. My idea was getting a dell 2-in-1 xps 13" and the new samsung galaxy s8+. I've been using mac for years now and am getting kind of bored and figured I would try something new. The dell would provide a bigger screen, better battery, and more power (not that I need it), plus the option to use the tablet feature. The S8+ would be a major change and I don't really need to list those options.

I got the idea when I visited a best buy to try both pieces of hardware and was really impressed. Anyone think of a similar transition? I know some people go through a lot of hardware every year. I generally keep my phones 2-3years (3 this year because apple was an @$$hole and kept the design the same) and my mac longer (5-6 years).

Bonus Q: Upgrade my iPhone now (6+ to 7+) and sell it when the 8 comes out? I do use the camera often. If you answer you win a thumbs up.

 

[fitzsimonsjl]

Moved from a 2015 rMB (1.3ghz) to a Dell XPS 15 9560 back in February. Would have been a 15" MBP if this years model came without a touchbar. I'll admit I miss macOS, but realistically speaking there really isn't that much difference when the applications I need are cross platform and I feel I've settled in pretty well.

Still got an iPhone 6S for social media/ banking/ document scanning related things, but 95% of my time is spent on a BlackBerry Passport. Currently waiting for the Keyone to be released in May so I can consolidate everything into one device.

As for upgrading, if you feel it'd be worth it for the camera alone or there's any other particular features you're missing out on it probably wouldn't hurt. You'll still be able to sell it for near enough what you bought it for to then put towards the S8, though it's only a few months (and if you really felt you were missing those features I'm sure you'd have upgraded by this point) so personally I wouldn't.

 

[bopajuice]

Been there done that.

The key part of your question that stands out to me is:

"My day to day uses are minimal so this machine fits my needs and I love almost everything about it".

So my question is why change? Is it for the sake of change? Something new? I can understand that. Apple products lately have not been that exciting. Updates, tweaks, and updates. Boring.

Personally I would try a Windows 10 partition on your Mac for a while to see how you like Windows 10 before diving in.

Also, integration is pretty compatible these days. You could have a Mac and a PC and set it up to sync calendars, contacts, etc., between platforms. That is what I do.

 

[Partron22]

As soon as my iPad 1 started syncing multiple copies of the same pic from my cameras, moving to Android was a no brainer. It had and has a real user facing file system. None of this sync thru iTunes or whatever nonsense, just select and drag your files around.

 

[Eggtastic]

Thanks for all the replies. As for the syncing I am starting to migrate towards google services so they will obviously work cross platforms.

My idea for the s8 would be to use it until apple comes out with their 8 and sell it off if I am impressed enough.

As for the computer, I still love the rMB and might just bootcamp Windows 10 to try it out. I just liked the idea of a touch screen, bigger screen, new look, etc.

 

[lowendlinux]

I probably wouldn't commit to a switch quite yet. Try the new phone since yours is getting a little long in the tooth but keep the laptop since it's practically new. You may find that you don't like Android or Samsung's Android as much as you hope and want to switch back.

 

[maflynn]

I'm happy with my iPhone, I see little reason to switch from iOS to Android. My whole family is on iOS and so it makes too much sense to stay on that platform.

As for Windows/OS X. I'm between, there are things I still like with OS X, and my iMac (being only a year old) is doing great but I do find myself using Windows more and more. Even on the iMac when my work day starts, I boot the iMac into Windows.

 

[jerryk]

I just got an S8 and love it. Sleek, great screen, waterproof, wireless charging, USB-C, and earphone jack. I agree with the criticism that the fingerprint scanner is not the greatest, but the iris scanner work very well, so I rarely use the fingerprint scanner.

Between that and the bang for buck of Windows desk-side systems, the Apple products I use get less and less use.

 

[curtvaughan]

I still have my iPhone 6+ which I was going to upgrade until the 7/7+ came out without phone jack. So, instead I put a new battery into my 6+ to keep around for iMessage / iCloud syncing. For everyday use, I bought an LG V20 and have been very happy with it. It has a phone jack wedded to a 4 channel DAC for music, will accept a memory card if I need more than the internal 64 GB memory, has 4 GB RAM, and <drum roll> has an easily swappable battery. Perhaps next year, if Apple comes up with an acceptable alternative for the phone jack / power conundrum I might consider another iPhone next year. Oh, and the V20 also comes with a USB C port instead of the proprietary lightning port, and charges twice as fast.

As Apple's direction with Macs has been disappointing for me, especially for the price, lack of ports for the MBP, I chose to buy a Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition which came with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed on a 512 GB SSD with 16 GB memory and Kaby Lake I7 for around $1950. I've since made the little box triple-booted with 3 Linux flavors - Ubuntu, Antergos (Arch based), and Kali (for playing around with Linux security). I love this little box, and just wish I'd perhaps gotten the 15 inch version and/or a TB SSD for a few hundred more dollars.

That said, I do miss OSX/MacOs and the Apple vertical integration, but the price point for the new offerings didn't convince me to continue, at least with laptops. I might upgrade my iMac later in the year if the rumored new iMac comes with sufficiently updated hardware boxed up in a configuration that is not so susceptible to overheating and consequent high rpm fan noise. We'll see. I have no desire to go back to Windows after having worked with MS with both desktops and servers for 15 years prior to my retirement. Hence, Linux for me. It's cheaper and also kind of fun to tinker with the system.

And you know, after posting frustrations with Apple directions and product offerings the last few years to forums such as this one, and being told repeatedly to quit "trolling" and just buy another brand, I finally took that sage advice. In the end, that may be the only real way to get Apple to listen. Again, we'll see.

 

[2580285]

I left Windows with Seven and got back to Windows 10 by installing it on my 2012 MBP (the configuration of which you see below, so not the most top-spec high-end 2016 powerhouse) after several years of prolonged daily professional use of macOS in the medical and educational field.

After some months with Windows 10 I see that the messy Windows of old is giving way to a clean, polished, sleek and productive OS. Being the kind of a geek who likes (and the pro user who needs) to delve in advanced configurations and settings, I found it fairly easy to customize it without continuosly searching for how-tos on the web, editing text files or messing with the registry. It's quite easy and straightforward to perform maintenance, too.

The basic and advanced functionalities are accessible and complete; the included software could be better (and I hope it will), but in my opinion the mail and calendar apps best macOS' Mail and Calendar, and so does the Office suite (which is not Windows only but in Windows 10 I find it significantly faster than on macOS).

The tools to manage files are more flexible on Windows (Explorer has more options and direct shortcuts) but I think the Finder is more polished and clean in the process of organizing and displaying your files. I hope that Windows Explorer will be integrated in the Metro look and feel with the future iterations of Windows, bringing the uniformity and continuity of experience we have for other apps.

On my machine Windows is noticeably faster and more responsive than OS X, too, and I find it more visually appealing (dark skin, smoother transitions between windows, more complete tools to manage them in a three-monitor setup like the one I have).

Where I deem OS X superior is the overall cleanliness and consistency of the user experience and of the graphical layout. Windows' looks are, in my opinion, punchier and overall better (I wouldn't have thought I'd say this just three years ago), but OS X still has an edge in the way things are shown and presented across the system.

And the libraries. And drivers. When I look at the list of installed apps in my macOS installation, I see the installed apps. When I look at it in Windows, I see tons of libraries, drivers and bloat/useless stuff that got installed when I wanted to try out this or that program. Microsoft and Windows app developers need to get their stuff together and streamline the program and dependencies installation process to declutter the program library and the system as a whole.

This does not mean that, for example, a Canon printer brings with it some sort of junk and bloatware every time it gets installed on Windows and does not on macOS: I found lots of the friggin' "Canon IJ Printer" folders scattered around my Mac system, too. But at least peripheral and drivers' management in OS X is not the time consuming and stressful process I experienced on Windows.

All of the above is only my personal experience, based of which I strongly recommend giving Windows 10 a try. It's not a perfect OS nor is it completely free of the "because Windows" hiccups, but I think the potential and the future lies here.

I just humbly suggest you to look at a Surface Pro 4 (or 5, when it'll be ready), too, if you are in the market for a MacBook replacement. This is an impressive piece of hardware loaded with Windows 10 Pro, an oustanding touch monitor, excellent build quality, modern, refined and unique looks and a keyboard that has nothing to do with the butterfly whatever we are forced to use on the MacBook (and now on the MacBook Pro, too).

Speaking of mobile, I'll be very direct: I would never, ever trade my iPhone 6 with anything else than an iPhone. The way Apple is going with macOS and related hardware is not something I will be part of, I think, but their take on smartphones is unrivalled, in my opinion.

While I find the iPads rather dull, especially after having tried and used the Surface Pro 4, I still feel the iPhone is the best smartphone around. Hardware-wise I think other companies have got it right: Huawei's stuff is well built and feels (and is) premium, as Samsung does products do since the S6. But every time I delve into Android I miss the cleanliness of iOS. With the latter you have a direct link between what you want to do and the software performing it; with the former, a fair amount of things can get in the way; app quality is generally lower and everyday tasks, I think, require more time.

As for the continuity between devices, being now a Windows "desktop" and iOS mobile user, the only things I miss when I use Windows instead of macOS are:

• the ability to retrieve tabs in Safari;
• iMessage;
• the keychain (I am currently using LastPass but I am hating it).

And that's the only three things I miss, really. Productivity? I discarded iWork a long time ago, so Office on Windows and on iOS, too. Mail? Outlook on iOS excellent. Files? Pick the service you like the most, and you're done. I am now with OneDrive since my institution uses it and I'm happy with it; otherwise you can set the photos you shoot on the iPhone to be uploaded to Dropbox or Google Drive (as you said, if I remember correctly, you already are transitioning) and pick them up in Windows, or download iCloud for Windows. In the era of cloud I don't think having two different platforms for desktop and mobile would be much of a problem, and with an Android/Windows setup you would have the same problems. Only solution would be to get a Windows 10 Mobile phone. I did it, and it did end with the Lumia 950 XL sold within two months.

As for the hardware, I'd get a Surface Pro 4 with an iPhone 7 Plus, or a Surface Pro 5 (the rumors of which just started, but I don't know much about it) with an iPhone 7s Plus/iPhone 8/iPhone whatever, depending on when you want to upgrade.

Cheers!

 

[skaertus]

I bought a Dell XPS 15 last year, to replace my 15-inch MacBook Pro which was showing sights of running slower after Yosemite. Windows 10 is a great operating system, and I do not miss macOS at all. In fact, I think that window management is better under Windows 10 than macOS, and Windows feels faster and snappier than macOS. And Windows has more software options, in addition to Microsoft Office running better on Windows than macOS. Both are great, though, and macOS also has its advantages. What I do really miss is hardware: the MacBook Pro had better build quality, by miles: better trackpad, better keyboard, better materials, and so on. The integration between hardware in the Mac is also great; the trackpad gestures are just amazing. I would go back to the Mac to have this quality once again, but I would have to run Windows as well.

As for the cell phone, I have an iPhone 6s and I also bought a Moto Z Play in December, running nearly stock Android. Android itself is fine and more customizable than iOS. But software in iOS is usually better, and the overall experience is better (although Android has clearly improved). Hardware is not that great. The iPhone is really neat, and the Moto Z Play is OK but not great. The iPhone is much faster (not so much after the latest upgrade, probably due to APFS). The Moto Z Play lags a lot. Where the Moto Z Play wins big is battery life, though: it seems to never end, as it lasts for more than two days even with intense use. The iPhone 6s battery, on the other hand, barely can make it through a day even if I use an expensive Apple Smart Battery Case.