iPhone XR i have switched from pixel 8a to iPhone xr

[iPod2001]

just switched to iPhone XR from pixel 8a as I was missing the iOS features so bad , overall performance not too bad iOS 18.3.1 seems to be running well .
wanted to be on iPhone sooner as saving up for iPhone 16 but couldn't stand staying on pixel for any longer .

 

[Cobalt Blizzard]

What was wrong with your Pixel?

 

[James6s]

After I wrecked my 15 Pro without AppleCare I then thought I’d try a used cheap Pixel for the first time, a 7 Pro. Didn’t like it! Ended up using my very old iPhone 8 for a few months before being able to get a new iPhone 16e.

Nice looking device but very frustrating - software wasn’t great, annoying stutters and lags, overheating and poor battery life. The UI looked very basic too. Not for me! Maybe the device was faulty or something.

 

[eyoungren]

After I wrecked my 15 Pro without AppleCare I then thought I’d try a used cheap Pixel for the first time, a 7 Pro. Didn’t like it! Ended up using my very old iPhone 8 for a few months before being able to get a new iPhone 16e.

Nice looking device but very frustrating - software wasn’t great, annoying stutters and lags, overheating and poor battery life. The UI looked very basic too. Not for me! Maybe the device was faulty or something.

Interesting. That was not my experience from May 2020 to February 2021. During that time my wife and I had the Pixel 3a XL. We both still have the phones, although Android 12 is as high as it can go. We didn't leave back to iPhone because the Pixel was bad or had issues. I just decided I liked iOS better.

My Pixel is still very functional, smooth and has no lag or any other issues. Of course, I have never used any of my phones (iPhone and Android) as replacement computers, game consoles, televisions or anything like that. I use them just as phones with some email, texting and light web browsing. So maybe that's the difference.

But my Pixel is four versions older than yours so I wonder what happened in between.

 

[James6s]

Interesting. That was not my experience from May 2020 to February 2021. During that time my wife and I had the Pixel 3a XL. We both still have the phones, although Android 12 is as high as it can go. We didn't leave back to iPhone because the Pixel was bad or had issues. I just decided I liked iOS better.

My Pixel is still very functional, smooth and has no lag or any other issues. Of course, I have never used any of my phones (iPhone and Android) as replacement computers, game consoles, televisions or anything like that. I use them just as phones with some email, texting and light web browsing. So maybe that's the difference.

But my Pixel is four versions older than yours so I wonder what happened in between.

Maybe I just got a bad device! I thought it was poor for a two year old flagship running the latest Android 15 software.

This was using social media apps, emails, web browsing, photography etc.

 

[TechRunner]

Interesting. That was not my experience from May 2020 to February 2021. During that time my wife and I had the Pixel 3a XL. We both still have the phones, although Android 12 is as high as it can go. We didn't leave back to iPhone because the Pixel was bad or had issues. I just decided I liked iOS better.

My Pixel is still very functional, smooth and has no lag or any other issues. Of course, I have never used any of my phones (iPhone and Android) as replacement computers, game consoles, televisions or anything like that. I use them just as phones with some email, texting and light web browsing. So maybe that's the difference.

But my Pixel is four versions older than yours so I wonder what happened in between.

I still have my Pixel 3aXL too. It was my daily driver for two years, and I thought it was great for the price. Still in service as a clock on my nightstand.

 

[S.B.G]

I recently had the opposite occur.

After years of iPhones, from the first one to the XR, I switched to Pixels with the 3a. The last one I had (still have) is the Pixel 7. Then a few months ago I bought the iPhone 15 and used it as my daily. But I missed the Pixel too much and found a deal for a new Pixel 8 for $399 and bought it.

So I switched back the Pixel with the 8 and I don't run stock Android, I put GrapheneOS on the Pixels, including the Pixel tablet that I have.

 

[eyoungren]

I still have my Pixel 3aXL too. It was my daily driver for two years, and I thought it was great for the price. Still in service as a clock on my nightstand.

Yeah, I was fairly impressed with it. I had wanted to try Android for a while and see if it was any good (as compared to the last time I looked). I chose the Pixel because I wanted pure Android, not anything that was carrier infested with apps and all that. I'd heard about slowdowns and lag and such, so I just wanted to see.

It turned out to be a great phone. Battery is still good. I just put it on charger right now at around 76 percent. It's been a couple days. So, nothing on the phone, it's a great phone. I just decided, as I said earlier, I prefer iOS.

 

[eyoungren]

Maybe I just got a bad device! I thought it was poor for a two year old flagship running the latest Android 15 software.

This was using social media apps, emails, web browsing, photography etc.

That's what occurred to me, but I am not familiar enough with Android phones to be able to make guesses. And there are some just in general, some bad phones out there.

 

[TgeekB]

Yeah, I was fairly impressed with it. I had wanted to try Android for a while and see if it was any good (as compared to the last time I looked). I chose the Pixel because I wanted pure Android, not anything that was carrier infested with apps and all that. I'd heard about slowdowns and lag and such, so I just wanted to see.

It turned out to be a great phone. Battery is still good. I just put it on charger right now at around 76 percent. It's been a couple days. So, nothing on the phone, it's a great phone. I just decided, as I said earlier, I prefer iOS.

My last phone was a 7a. I quite liked it but got tired of Android. Nothing beats the Apple ecosystem.

 

[eyoungren]

Nothing beats the Apple ecosystem.

Well, there we diverge, LOL.

Despite owning iPhones, most of my services (ecosystem) are with Google and Dropbox. I do use iMessage, but that's never been anything to draw or keep me with iOS. SMS/MMS/RCS are still plenty good for me. Of course, SMS/MMS is not secure like iMessage, but I am never discussing anything important or sensitive over iMessage. Anything like that is done in-person, face to face.

All of my email accounts are IMAP as well, so they are cross platform and I get the same thing on any device I use.

All of this is a direct result of trying to buy into Apple's ecosystem in 2012 with my iPhone 5, but Apple rejecting me because at the time my Macs were all PowerPC. I had to find workarounds to sync stuff between my PowerPC Macs and my iPhone 5. That was primarily Google. Dropbox comes in to play because it automatically backs up my camera roll.

As far as other Apple ecosystem features, there are either other ways of doing things or I'm just not interested. In any case, I eventually decided it wasn't good to put all my eggs in one basket. So when I finally did get Macs that could leverage the Apple ecosystem (through patching or OCLP), I continued to use the services I already use instead.

Basically, at any time, I could come and go between Android and Apple and not lose anything. I don't though, because while it isn't Apple's ecosystem that attracts me, it's iOS itself. And that only works on iDevices.

 

[TgeekB]

Well, there we diverge, LOL.

Despite owning iPhones, most of my services (ecosystem) are with Google and Dropbox. I do use iMessage, but that's never been anything to draw or keep me with iOS. SMS/MMS/RCS are still plenty good for me. Of course, SMS/MMS is not secure like iMessage, but I am never discussing anything important or sensitive over iMessage. Anything like that is done in-person, face to face.

All of my email accounts are IMAP as well, so they are cross platform and I get the same thing on any device I use.

All of this is a direct result of trying to buy into Apple's ecosystem in 2012 with my iPhone 5, but Apple rejecting me because at the time my Macs were all PowerPC. I had to find workarounds to sync stuff between my PowerPC Macs and my iPhone 5. That was primarily Google. Dropbox comes in to play because it automatically backs up my camera roll.

As far as other Apple ecosystem features, there are either other ways of doing things or I'm just not interested. In any case, I eventually decided it wasn't good to put all my eggs in one basket. So when I finally did get Macs that could leverage the Apple ecosystem (through patching or OCLP), I continued to use the services I already use instead.

Basically, at any time, I could come and go between Android and Apple and not lose anything. I don't though, because while it isn't Apple's ecosystem that attracts me, it's iOS itself. And that only works on iDevices.

I don’t think many people are 100% into either ecosystem. Some Apple users, including myself, still have a Gmail account. I even have core Android apps on my iPhone though I will probably back off on that. I’ve used both throughout time and, to me, both the OS and the ecosystem are what brought me back. We’re all different though and it has become quite easy to use a combination of both which is quite handy.

 

[eyoungren]

I don’t think many people are 100% into either ecosystem. Some Apple users, including myself, still have a Gmail account. I even have core Android apps on my iPhone though I will probably back off on that. I’ve used both throughout time and, to me, both the OS and the ecosystem are what brought me back. We’re all different though and it has become quite easy to use a combination of both which is quite handy.

You might be surprised how many iPhone users are anti-Google.

In any case, I believe you're right. Personally, I maintain a Google One subscription, allowing my Pixel to still be backed up. I also have the app on my iPhone, I just don't use it very much there. And Google Pay still works.

 

[TgeekB]

You might be surprised how many iPhone users are anti-Google.

In any case, I believe you're right. Personally, I maintain a Google One subscription, allowing my Pixel to still be backed up. I also have the app on my iPhone, I just don't use it very much there. And Google Pay still works.

There are staunch anti-Google people and anti-Apple people, no doubt. I’ve never understood it myself. I remember the BlackBerry crowd, of which I was one, laughing at both right up until the day their phones were useless. Just couldn’t let go of it. 😂

 

[JuicyGoomba]

I stuck with the Pixel 5 until the Pixel 9 series, as the 6/7/8 all suffered from Google's poor CPU. The 9 finally fixed that, and I can say the experience is significantly smoother than iOS... but then again it was on the Pixel 5 too. Tensor G1/G2 specifically were awful and no doubt contributed to the negative experiences of some.

Objectively, Android has been significantly faster and smoother than iOS since a year or two after Jobs' passing. Timmy stopped investing in software development at Apple and instead focused on quantity over quality along with shareholder satisfaction.

These days, Google has Android nice and stable for the last few years and has instead been focusing heavily on improving animations, transitions, and general UI cohesiveness. I'd say it's 95% of the way to matching Apple in this regard, and Android 16 will likely be the final piece. Unlike Apple, the last few years of Android updates have rarely added features, and instead focused on refinement.

Think of the glory days of Snow Leopard where Apple actually refined what they had with each iteration of the OS and added meaningful features.

I know it'll never happen, but iOS/MacOS need years or de-cluttering at this point to fix the issues.

Of course most people don't care about 120hz in Apple land, let alone fixing long standing bugs and the significant UI/animation stutter that has plagued Apple for years now. Just look at Apple Music on MacOS, the performance is embarrassing. Heck, they haven't even fixed the bug with "Pro" motion displays and transitioning between spaces (the animation is twice as long at 120hz, because they tied animation speed to framerate like a broken 90s video game).

I'll happily go back to iOS if they ever bother to care again, sadly I don't think that'll ever happen.

 

[cateye]

You might be surprised how many iPhone users are anti-Google.

Largely as a message board affectation; to flex their fealty. The rest of us have work to do and therefore use a variety of software, hardware, and services to get things done. I would never limit myself to one ecosystem. Why? Take the best from each.

 

[JuicyGoomba]

Largely as a message board affectation; to flex their fealty. The rest of us have work to do and therefore use a variety of software, hardware, and services to get things done. I would never limit myself to one ecosystem. Why? Take the best from each.

Pretty much this, being narrow minded and stuck in a box is a very strange flex but it's something that the acolytes won't think twice about bringing to the table.

 

[eyoungren]

Largely as a message board affectation; to flex their fealty. The rest of us have work to do and therefore use a variety of software, hardware, and services to get things done. I would never limit myself to one ecosystem. Why? Take the best from each.

For a lot of diehard Apple users it comes down to 'privacy'. And in Apple's narrative, security is paramount while with Google 'you are the product'.

I get all that. But at the same time if you want zero risk, then you're just going to have to become an air gapped data hermit with no access to anything. And for my own self, I'm not strictly confident that Apple has my data in it's own best interests either.

So, I do what I can to mitigate what risk there is while still using the services. Perhaps Google and other services do consider me as the product, but there are settings you can check, things you can do to prevent just being sold outright.

But it's work, it takes an effort to examine and check things. Apple promises you that you don't have to do that. They take care of it all for you. For some, that's really an attractive reason to be all in. But, I'm just too dang independent and distrustful to buy it.

 

[cateye]

But it's work, it takes an effort to examine and check things. Apple promises you that you don't have to do that. They take care of it all for you. For some, that's really an attractive reason to be all in. But, I'm just too dang independent and distrustful to buy it.

As you should be! Privacy is an individual responsibility, not something you pass off to a corporation because they say they say trust us, we'll take care of it! They'll take care of it until the moment it becomes difficult or undesirable for them to do so.

And that's really the rub: There are elements of Apple's approach to data security that make sense and are great options to take advantage of (ADP, for example). There's also a lot of privacy-as-marketing going on that limits the utility of some of their services—there is no reason why Apple shouldn't be fully leveraging cloud resources to process Siri requests in order to improve its utility, for example.

Everyone should make that decision for themselves based on their individual needs and baselines. But the moment you say "I only use Apple because Apple takes care of privacy for me," you're broadcasting to the world that you don't actually care about privacy. You care about brand cheerleading.

 

[sdfox7]

You might be surprised how many iPhone users are anti-Google.

In any case, I believe you're right. Personally, I maintain a Google One subscription, allowing my Pixel to still be backed up. I also have the app on my iPhone, I just don't use it very much there. And Google Pay still works.

From my own experience this is probably the exception rather than the norm. Pretty much everyone I know has a Gmail account, even AOL people in their 70’s and 80’s, and they Google web search and Google-owned YouTube. Two of the most useful websites on the internet.

My father has learned how to do things and fix things himself by using YouTube. And he’s no spring chicken. I got him to finally start using Chrome during the Windows 7 days because I told him Internet Explorer wasn’t as secure.

I bought my first iPhone over 15 years ago, and have had iPhones ever since. They just seem easier to learn, and the vertical integration with hardware/software ensures a great experience. However, I am not opposed to using Google products.

Google is the default search engine in Firefox, and it’s estimated accounts for 80% of Mozilla revenue. If it wasn’t for Google, Firefox would probably be bankrupt by now.

 

[eyoungren]

From my own experience this is probably the exception rather than the norm. Pretty much everyone I know has a Gmail account, even AOL people in their 70’s and 80’s, and they Google web search and Google-owned YouTube. Two of the most useful websites on the internet.

My father has learned how to do things and fix things himself by using YouTube. And he’s no spring chicken. I got him to finally start using Chrome during the Windows 7 days because I told him Internet Explorer wasn’t as secure.

I bought my first iPhone over 15 years ago, and have had iPhones ever since. They just seem easier to learn, and the vertical integration with hardware/software ensures a great experience. However, I am not opposed to using Google products.

Google is the default search engine in Firefox, and it’s estimated accounts for 80% of Mozilla revenue. If it wasn’t for Google, Firefox would probably be bankrupt by now.

Perhaps then, it is simply a vocal minority. I do not know. What I do know is that whenever I mention Google around here, I am often pummeled by the privacy/security argument and that my data is for sale. To be fair, I have encountered others with a similar outlook as mine. But they are usually posting in (it seems to me) somewhat friendly Android threads.

 

[iPod2001]

What was wrong with your Pixel?

similar to what some other people have said ,
I had a iPhone 12 but it broke and had to get a phone for a good price so got the 8a however after using it for a few months the software isn't great and the apps not optimised for the device , the tensor in house chip from google has helped but going back to the iPhone even if its 5 years old it still works better and smoother .