iPhone 17 Pro Max Iphone pro or stay with Samsung

[Bingo1814]

At present time I have the s24ultra, it's been a nightmare compared to my s23ultra, s21ultra and s8 I've had. I have never used an iPhone and don't know how difficult it will be to learn the new system. I mainly decided on this to try something new + I really love photography and I thought I'd give you guys a good honest try! I thought about and still do about the 26ultra however I think I want to try the 17 pro max unless the newer one next year has a better camera layout, any suggestions

 

[ElPaso]

At present time I have the s24ultra, it's been a nightmare compared to my s23ultra, s21ultra and s8 I've had. I have never used an iPhone and don't know how difficult it will be to learn the new system. I mainly decided on this to try something new + I really love photography and I thought I'd give you guys a good honest try! I thought about and still do about the 26ultra however I think I want to try the 17 pro max unless the newer one next year has a better camera layout, any suggestions

You're right, it is a little difficult to switch to iPhone from Android - but they are similar enough that it's not that bad. Apple has a 14 day return policy (if purchased directly from Apple - it may vary if purchased from a carrier), and with that in mind I would advise that you get the 17 pro max and give it a week or so. Why not? Just keep the packaging and keep the device pristine in case iPhone leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

 

[Tsepz]

At present time I have the s24ultra, it's been a nightmare compared to my s23ultra, s21ultra and s8 I've had. I have never used an iPhone and don't know how difficult it will be to learn the new system. I mainly decided on this to try something new + I really love photography and I thought I'd give you guys a good honest try! I thought about and still do about the 26ultra however I think I want to try the 17 pro max unless the newer one next year has a better camera layout, any suggestions

It can be really difficult switching ecosystems, personally I would say go get the S26 Ultra, your S24 may have been a lemon especially given that you enjoyed your previous Samsungs.

I personally jumped from using a combo of Samsung Galaxy Note8 + Huawei P30 Pro back in 2019, to an iPhone Xs Max + Huawei P30 Pro combo to make things easier for me. I had already owned iPads so I was very familiar with iOS, but jumping fully into iOS can be a little difficult as it works differently still to Android especially when it comes to things such as File system management.

If you are truly over Android and Samsung then go ahead and get the 17 Pro Max, it has been truly amazing for me, the Camera is excellent and stunningly consistent as is the usual thing for Apple, battery life is also great overall.

If you go for the iPhone maybe keep your S24U around while you transition.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm just going to point out that Google's services work on iPhone/iOS. And Google's apps perform better on iOS, in my opinion.

Some people think that by switching brands they have to switch to the services provided by the new brand they are using. That is not the case here. For years Google has made it easy to use my stuff cross platform. And switching back and forth between Android and iOS is fairly easy because of that.

 

[ElPaso]

I'm just going to point out that Google's services work on iPhone/iOS. And Google's apps perform better on iOS, in my opinion.

Some people think that by switching brands they have to switch to the services provided by the new brand they are using. That is not the case here. For years Google has made it easy to use my stuff cross platform. And switching back and forth between Android and iOS is fairly easy because of that.

I completely agree with this. Google apps (in my experience) run on an iPhone even better than they run on an Android -- and, if you know the workarounds, run very well on a MacBook too.

 

[Antaris]

I went from a S25U to 17PM. I had read reviews on the 17PM's camera and, with DxoMark's review being the final factor, I took the plunge. All in all, I don't regret it.

There is a learning curve of sorts since not all OSes do the same thing with the same processes.

Biggest paradigm changes (pluses and minuses) are:

• 17PM Camera quality is magnificent, especially for low-light and contrast. Reviews definitely detail its improvements over the S25U.
• Battery life is phenomenal on the 17PM, especially compared to the 25U.
• moving files to and from PC (with Apple Devices)
• music files are locked down, but the $25 iTunes Music was HUGE in getting my library moved from mp3 to aac and I just need to remember to backup the local iTunes folder (or use iCloud, which is pretty solid nowadays)
• the keyboard is the biggest step backward compared to Samsung. You'll get used to it, especially if you get a third-party keyboard, but hopefully the keyboard will get a refresh one day... that said, I've had 3 generations of Samsung that screw up auto-type or whatever it's called as typing a comma has it typing a period of its own accord, so when everyone gripes of the iOS keyboard issues, a variation of the same thing happens on Samsung too. Neither is perfect, but Samsung gets overall layout, sizing, and press-hold for alternate keys polished. Even using third-party keyboards don't offer 100% identical experiences on both platforms, interestingly enough. Close enough in some ways, though... (GBoard, Swiftkey, et al.)
• no universal back button in iOS, swipe from the left of the display to the right gets around this.
• Can't see battery life remaining in Samsung despite looking up documentation (must be a region restriction in some areas). It's readily present in iOS.
• Earpods 3 Pro have no competition worth mentioning. The integration and hearing test facilities, and others, are pretty slick and still improving.
• I still have a weird bug (as of 26.5) where, if you go into settings/wallpaper but don't exit it when going back to launch another app, when going back into settings later on the wallpaper selection is "locked", tapping on any button does nothing, and it's a pain to close/reopen a zillion times for it o un-lock. A restart gets around this, but I have not yet tried doing the screen swipe from the previous point... (Come to think of this, this happened once in Chrome browser as well so I think there's an esoteric bug in iOS that occurs under very specific circumstances that's not easy to recreate as there are times I've tried to recreate the conditions and had no problems.)
• as with Samsung, the 120Hz refresh rate can be disabled on iOS to help save battery life and I've never really noticed the difference in "buttery-smooth and other adjective-laden descriptions" in the faster display. Some apps stutter while scrolling vertically either which way
• S25U has a faster storage device technology (UFS 4) than 17PM's NVMe - both are robust, but S25U is faster for writes/saving large files. Still, 17PM's pros more than make up for this IMHO
• Most apps in iOS are more robust overall, running faster or more effectively. Few nitpicks here.
• Apple Maps is overall more useful (disclaimer: I did have an odd lock-up once on a road trip, but I've done a couple of those along with regular commutes and it happened only once, in 26.4 so it may have been resolved since.)

 

[HouseLannister]

At present time I have the s24ultra, it's been a nightmare compared to my s23ultra

I need more details here. You have used several Samsung phones and like them, so I see no reason to switch. But the S24U is so similar to the the S23U that I can’t imagine what went wrong. Did you just get a lemon? Were there some changes to OneUI that broke something for you? Tell your story.

 

[flybub]

If the iPhone is your only Apple device, get the 26 ultra. The ultra will be better as a standalone device. If you have a Mac or MacBook or iPad maybe take the plunge with iPhone and give it a try.

 

[ab2c4]

It can be fun to try a new OS. I was a diehard Android guy for about 10 years and got to the point of being bored with it and wanted a change, so 6 years ago I switched to Iphone. The OS itself is very easy to pick up and learn nowadays as both have become more and more like each other (I find the biggest difference between the two is Android's on screen nav bar/buttons vs ios gestures).

After 6 years with iphones I am getting really really bored with ios, and the gesture navigation system has long since worn out its welcome, and I find the keyboard to be horrendous (I spend more time fixing the words than I do actually typing). iOS is a very limited and locked down OS so be prepared for that, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that but just thought it was worth mentioning it. I don't regret trying iphones at all and glad I did as it was the breath of fresh air I needed a few years ago. I don't plan to stay with iphones due to the reasons I mentioned though, unless Apple can add an optional on screen navigational bar with on screen buttons and fix the keyboard already. The keyboard is truly a nightmare to use compared to Android phones.

If this was on the Mac forum asking if someone should switch from Windows to Mac my answer would be absolutely yes, but with iphone its more of a "eh maybe but only if you really are in the mood for a change".