It was always so crystal clear before. I've had an iPhone 3gs, 4s, and 5s. I always appeared content. The phone was quick, worked well, had good resale value, and great synergy with my mac book air... but there were cracks in the armor.
The main reason that started my path to the dark side was a price mistake by AT&T. I ended up getting a contract free Note 3 for $249!
I couldn't pass that deal up. I figured I would just sell the Note 3 on Craigslist for a $200+ profit and keep my iPhone 5s, right? But once I started playing with the Note 3 I saw the limitations of the iPhone that weren't as visible to me before I got a taste of the other side.
Of course there were some differences that caused me hesitation to switch at first. The first and obviously biggest reason had to do with the size of the Note 3. Every smartphone I've ever had before the Note 3 was a one handed device. It was a huge transition to mentally retrain my brain and phone habits to 'need' 2 hands to use my phone. For example, with the iPhone I could reach pretty much every part of the screen with my thumb, yet with the Note 3 it's am uncomfortable struggle to reach the bottom back button while holding the phone in my left hand. Now as for solutions to this problem I found an application called 'pie controls' which allows you to slide your thumb in from the edge of the screen to bring up a variety of control buttons you program (such as back, home, multi-task, etc). This helped out immensely when it comes to things like browsing the Web and almost as convenient as the iPhones swipe to go back gesture.
Another 'solution' was simply getting used to the fact that I didn't really need a one-handed device. It's nice to have in a way but for the physical limitations it places on so many other parts of the phone (i.e. screen size, battery size, etc) the trade-off is more that worth it to me once I got used to a two-handed device.
Another thing I really missed was the touch ID sensor on the 5s. I always lock my phone with a pin or password for security purposes but the 5s made the process of unlocking the most convenient I've ever experienced. Simply press the home button and your password protected phone unlocks immediately and you don't have to waste time inputting a less secure 4-digit pin every single time you want to unlock your phone like you do with the Note 3. Again though this loss was mitigated by simply retaining my brain to get used to quickly putting in a pin code plus the other beneficial factors the Note 3 offers over the iPhone that I will detail further below.
That pretty much it for iPhone advantages: the smaller size, for those that want it, and touch id. Everything else (the battery life, respective app stores, camera, price sales, security, etc) are all pretty much on par with or better than the iPhones.
Let's start with the most important: battery life. The battery life on my Note 3 destroys the battery life I got on the 5s. De-Stroys. I can get anywhere up to 5-7 hours of the screen being on with my Note 3. I would be lucky to get 3.5 hours of screen on time with my iPhone. The Note 3 is the very first smartphone Ive owned where even as a super heavy user I dont have to worry about bringing a charger with me. And yes, I already know other people's experiences are different and that Anandtech says the iPhone gets something ludicrous like an 11 hour Web browsing battery life, but from my personal experience the 3200mAh battery of the Note 3 runs circles around the 1560mAh battery on the 5s.
While we are on the subject of batteries let's talk about another major advantage of the Note 3 over the iPhone: a user replaceable battery. This makes me happy since if I want I can simply buy a spare for $20 and have it tucked away in my wallet in case I want to double my battery life. With the iPhone I would either need a really thick expensive battery case or bring a charger and pray for an open outlet nearby. Not only that but every year lithium ion batteries wear down where you use them or not (it's a chemical process), so in two years the battery is only holding 70% of the charge that it used to when I first got it I can easily buy a new battery and pop it in. With the iPhone I would need to drive out far away to an Apple store and pay them a rip-off amount of $80 to replace my battery. So with the Note 3 it's much easier to keep it running at peak battery performance long term compared to the iPhone.
Another huge thing the Note 3 (or any Android phone for that matter) has over the iPhone is an operating system that provides more freedom. The iPhone is pretty well locked down. Let's say I want to get music on my iPhone, how would I do it outside of being forced to use iTunes sync? Let's say I'm at my friends house and I hear a tune that I want to put on my phone but they don't have iTunes? I'm stuck. I don't like my phone trying to dumb things down for the mass of idiot consumers out there who would get confused by a file system with Android I simply plug in my phone to my friends computer and drag-n-drop the songs (or whatever other files I like. Let's say I make a voice memo on my iPhone and want to upload it to my dropbox? Nope. Not allowed. Let's say I want to reply to an email on my iPhone with an attachment? Nope. Not allowed. You see the theme here? With android you have your whole computer at your fingertips, whereas the limitations of the iPhone make it feel like a dumbphone by comparison.
Another thing the Note 3 has over the iPhone is a bigger screen. And my god is it gorgeous! Now while I am at the gym I can be on the treadmill and watch a movie or TV show without straining my eyes like I do with the iPhone. I'm not the healthiest guy atm but I'm trying to change that and this makes a huge difference for me when it comes to going for hours on the treadmill a day and getting healthy again. Once you get used to a bigger screen like this its hard to go back to something smaller. Imagine as iPhone owners trying to use something as small as the 2.6 inch screen size of the Palm Pixi? Ludicrous right?
Another thing that I didn't like about the iPhone, or Apple, is how greedy they are when it comes to memory. An extra $100 for a measly 16gb bump of storage to 32gb with no way to expand it in the future if I need to? With the Note 3 it has 32gb standard + a micro sd card slot if i need more in the future.
Another thing that the Note 3 blows the iPhone out of the water with is in the gaming department (specifically emulators). Apple doesn't allow any gaming emulators on the iPhone. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if you could simply install apps outside of the app store but the iPhone is simply locked down tighter than a virgin. With Android you can have entire game systems on your phone and play all the old classics. Real games. Not those short and lame mobile games which are all going to shift to the in app purchase model to try and scam more and more money from gullible users. Yes I know if you were OK with jailbreaking you could install gaming emulators on the iPhone from the Cydia store, but jailbreaking is highly fought against by Apple since once you do so you can't get restore your phone if needed or get warranty service without losing your jailbreak forever. With Android you can simply be stock and all the gaming emulators are right on the play store (many free). I purchased a Moga bluetooth controller (same layout as an x-box controller) and have 4 - 5 different game systems with me wherever I go.
Pretty much everything else is a wash in my opinion. The cameras on both are excellent, both app stores have the essential apps needed, resale value is good on both, security is fine for either one as long as you aren't stupid with the apps you download. Besides, this post is probably already getting too long as it is but I just wanted to share my experience with making the transition from iPhone to the Note 3 for others who might be wondering about making the switch themselves. If you are on the fence I would say do it, but to give yourself a clean slate from the start and don't compare the two devices until you have gotten used to Android or a bigger sized phone.
For the condensed TLDR list of reasons for going with the Note 3 or Android
Pros
1) Much better battery life
2) User replaceable battery
3) User accessible file system
4) Bigger screen for better experience
5) User expandable storage
6) Gaming emulators freely available
Cons
1) iPhones smaller size better for one handed use
2) Touch ID
I still have a macbook air that I am more than happy with and plan to keep for years to come but as far as phones are concerned it looks like Apple has lost a longtime customer to a more hungry, and appealing competitor.
The main reason that started my path to the dark side was a price mistake by AT&T. I ended up getting a contract free Note 3 for $249!
I couldn't pass that deal up. I figured I would just sell the Note 3 on Craigslist for a $200+ profit and keep my iPhone 5s, right? But once I started playing with the Note 3 I saw the limitations of the iPhone that weren't as visible to me before I got a taste of the other side.
Of course there were some differences that caused me hesitation to switch at first. The first and obviously biggest reason had to do with the size of the Note 3. Every smartphone I've ever had before the Note 3 was a one handed device. It was a huge transition to mentally retrain my brain and phone habits to 'need' 2 hands to use my phone. For example, with the iPhone I could reach pretty much every part of the screen with my thumb, yet with the Note 3 it's am uncomfortable struggle to reach the bottom back button while holding the phone in my left hand. Now as for solutions to this problem I found an application called 'pie controls' which allows you to slide your thumb in from the edge of the screen to bring up a variety of control buttons you program (such as back, home, multi-task, etc). This helped out immensely when it comes to things like browsing the Web and almost as convenient as the iPhones swipe to go back gesture.
Another 'solution' was simply getting used to the fact that I didn't really need a one-handed device. It's nice to have in a way but for the physical limitations it places on so many other parts of the phone (i.e. screen size, battery size, etc) the trade-off is more that worth it to me once I got used to a two-handed device.
Another thing I really missed was the touch ID sensor on the 5s. I always lock my phone with a pin or password for security purposes but the 5s made the process of unlocking the most convenient I've ever experienced. Simply press the home button and your password protected phone unlocks immediately and you don't have to waste time inputting a less secure 4-digit pin every single time you want to unlock your phone like you do with the Note 3. Again though this loss was mitigated by simply retaining my brain to get used to quickly putting in a pin code plus the other beneficial factors the Note 3 offers over the iPhone that I will detail further below.
That pretty much it for iPhone advantages: the smaller size, for those that want it, and touch id. Everything else (the battery life, respective app stores, camera, price sales, security, etc) are all pretty much on par with or better than the iPhones.
Let's start with the most important: battery life. The battery life on my Note 3 destroys the battery life I got on the 5s. De-Stroys. I can get anywhere up to 5-7 hours of the screen being on with my Note 3. I would be lucky to get 3.5 hours of screen on time with my iPhone. The Note 3 is the very first smartphone Ive owned where even as a super heavy user I dont have to worry about bringing a charger with me. And yes, I already know other people's experiences are different and that Anandtech says the iPhone gets something ludicrous like an 11 hour Web browsing battery life, but from my personal experience the 3200mAh battery of the Note 3 runs circles around the 1560mAh battery on the 5s.
While we are on the subject of batteries let's talk about another major advantage of the Note 3 over the iPhone: a user replaceable battery. This makes me happy since if I want I can simply buy a spare for $20 and have it tucked away in my wallet in case I want to double my battery life. With the iPhone I would either need a really thick expensive battery case or bring a charger and pray for an open outlet nearby. Not only that but every year lithium ion batteries wear down where you use them or not (it's a chemical process), so in two years the battery is only holding 70% of the charge that it used to when I first got it I can easily buy a new battery and pop it in. With the iPhone I would need to drive out far away to an Apple store and pay them a rip-off amount of $80 to replace my battery. So with the Note 3 it's much easier to keep it running at peak battery performance long term compared to the iPhone.
Another huge thing the Note 3 (or any Android phone for that matter) has over the iPhone is an operating system that provides more freedom. The iPhone is pretty well locked down. Let's say I want to get music on my iPhone, how would I do it outside of being forced to use iTunes sync? Let's say I'm at my friends house and I hear a tune that I want to put on my phone but they don't have iTunes? I'm stuck. I don't like my phone trying to dumb things down for the mass of idiot consumers out there who would get confused by a file system with Android I simply plug in my phone to my friends computer and drag-n-drop the songs (or whatever other files I like. Let's say I make a voice memo on my iPhone and want to upload it to my dropbox? Nope. Not allowed. Let's say I want to reply to an email on my iPhone with an attachment? Nope. Not allowed. You see the theme here? With android you have your whole computer at your fingertips, whereas the limitations of the iPhone make it feel like a dumbphone by comparison.
Another thing the Note 3 has over the iPhone is a bigger screen. And my god is it gorgeous! Now while I am at the gym I can be on the treadmill and watch a movie or TV show without straining my eyes like I do with the iPhone. I'm not the healthiest guy atm but I'm trying to change that and this makes a huge difference for me when it comes to going for hours on the treadmill a day and getting healthy again. Once you get used to a bigger screen like this its hard to go back to something smaller. Imagine as iPhone owners trying to use something as small as the 2.6 inch screen size of the Palm Pixi? Ludicrous right?
Another thing that I didn't like about the iPhone, or Apple, is how greedy they are when it comes to memory. An extra $100 for a measly 16gb bump of storage to 32gb with no way to expand it in the future if I need to? With the Note 3 it has 32gb standard + a micro sd card slot if i need more in the future.
Another thing that the Note 3 blows the iPhone out of the water with is in the gaming department (specifically emulators). Apple doesn't allow any gaming emulators on the iPhone. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if you could simply install apps outside of the app store but the iPhone is simply locked down tighter than a virgin. With Android you can have entire game systems on your phone and play all the old classics. Real games. Not those short and lame mobile games which are all going to shift to the in app purchase model to try and scam more and more money from gullible users. Yes I know if you were OK with jailbreaking you could install gaming emulators on the iPhone from the Cydia store, but jailbreaking is highly fought against by Apple since once you do so you can't get restore your phone if needed or get warranty service without losing your jailbreak forever. With Android you can simply be stock and all the gaming emulators are right on the play store (many free). I purchased a Moga bluetooth controller (same layout as an x-box controller) and have 4 - 5 different game systems with me wherever I go.
Pretty much everything else is a wash in my opinion. The cameras on both are excellent, both app stores have the essential apps needed, resale value is good on both, security is fine for either one as long as you aren't stupid with the apps you download. Besides, this post is probably already getting too long as it is but I just wanted to share my experience with making the transition from iPhone to the Note 3 for others who might be wondering about making the switch themselves. If you are on the fence I would say do it, but to give yourself a clean slate from the start and don't compare the two devices until you have gotten used to Android or a bigger sized phone.
For the condensed TLDR list of reasons for going with the Note 3 or Android
Pros
1) Much better battery life
2) User replaceable battery
3) User accessible file system
4) Bigger screen for better experience
5) User expandable storage
6) Gaming emulators freely available
Cons
1) iPhones smaller size better for one handed use
2) Touch ID
I still have a macbook air that I am more than happy with and plan to keep for years to come but as far as phones are concerned it looks like Apple has lost a longtime customer to a more hungry, and appealing competitor.
