Thinking of switching from Android - how is the experience of Windows + iOS?

[adrianghc]

Hi everyone, I'm a long-time Android user (9.5 years) who is, for the first time, seriously considering switching to iOS - not through any shortcomings of Android itself, but because I really like the iPhone 17 and Liquid Glass (yes, really, I'm surprised by how much I like it).

I'm also a big-time Windows user and that is not going to change in the next few years. I always valued the integration that MS and Samsung have built between Windows and Android, but I'm evaluating which parts of that are really important to me (I would miss Instant Hotspot for sure) and which ones I don't actually need.

I'd like to ask you folks about your experience with the following:

1. How well does Phone Link work on iOS? Is it stable and reliable? How does it compare to Android?
2. How is Microsoft Edge on iOS?
3. Is it worth using OneDrive for camera roll on iOS or is it better to switch to iCloud outright?
4. Is iCloud on Windows good? Photos sync in particular. Are photos dumped into a big bucket or can you group them by date?
5. For people who switched from Android, is there something you really miss? Both regarding Android by itself and in regards to OS integration.

Would love to hear y'all's thoughts. Thank you if you read this far!

 

[HouseLannister]

I can’t comment on some of these as I don’t connect my phone to my gaming PC, but…

2. Meh. It’s still Safari WebKit, but without the Liquid Glass, so don’t know why you would use it given your reason for switching. It’s just going to use more battery than Safari and deliver a substandard web-browsing experience. If you are big into Copilot in the browser, go for it.

3. OneDrive does a good job as a camera roll backup. It backs up the heic files without downgrading them to jpg. If you have Office365, that 1 TB space is a great backup and you shouldn’t have to pay extra for iCloud storage.

5. You are most likely to miss the number row on Gboard, the universal back gesture, and the notification experience. And of course you will miss out on the serious tech nerd tweaking: getting apps from third parties like GitHub, custom launchers, icon packs, using Good Lock on Samsung, Shizuku, rooting, system-level adblocking… stuff like that.

I use Android and iOS daily. But I greatly prefer the look of Material 3 Expressive to Liquid Glass, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

 

[adrianghc]

Thank you very much for responding.

2. I don't really care about the browser engine. I use Edge on Windows and I want to sync my data, so I want to use it on my phone as well.
3. That's good to hear. No issues with background permissions or iOS killing the app and the like?
5. How is Gboard on iOS? Is it much better than the native keyboard? I could see myself missing the back gesture and also the notification experience, but fortunately I don't get many of those anyway. I don't use any of the other things except for Good Lock, but if the UX is already good enough then I don't need that anyway.

 

[Sammael]

I was a long time, and still am an Android user to some degree, I still use my Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra. I honestly think Android is the better overall OS, but Android’s left hand has no idea what its right hand is doing. The overall ecosystem of Apple is vastly superior to what Android offers.

I sincerely miss the endless possibilities for customization with Android, you can do anything with an Android device. The iPhone not so much.

 

[BigBlur]

2. I don't really care about the browser engine. I use Edge on Windows and I want to sync my data, so I want to use it on my phone as well.

Edge will sync your data, including saved passwords, so no problem there. Edge has a built-in ad blocker which is nice (or can use a different one from their extensions store).

If you want to lean into the Apple ecosystem some more, you can install iCloud for Windows to have your Safari bookmarks and passwords synced/available in Edge on Windows and vice versa. On the iPhone, you can set Edge to be your password manager so you can use them in Safari and other apps. Honestly, you could set it up so that you can use either browser interchangeably.

5. How is Gboard on iOS? Is it much better than the native keyboard?

IMO, no… It adds a number row, but you need to long press the letter key to get the number (ex. 't' for '5'). I've found Microsoft SwiftKey to be better in that regard. It has a dedicated number row. However, be aware that third party keyboards cannot autofill passwords, so you may find yourself switching back to the native keyboard often, which isn't difficult.

 

[Reverend Benny]

1. How well does Phone Link work on iOS? Is it stable and reliable? How does it compare to Android?
2. How is Microsoft Edge on iOS?
3. Is it worth using OneDrive for camera roll on iOS or is it better to switch to iCloud outright?
4. Is iCloud on Windows good? Photos sync in particular. Are photos dumped into a big bucket or can you group them by date?
5. For people who switched from Android, is there something you really miss? Both regarding Android by itself and in regards to OS integration.

Would love to hear y'all's thoughts. Thank you if you read this far!

1. Haven't tried.
2. Its good, running it on my workphone to keep things in synk with my desktop. It just works.
3. Personally I like to keep things simple and my 5 cent is that Apple keeps it simple. The day when I want to leave I'll just export stuff. In the event if I would have like to make a backup of things to an external service, then i'd consider onedrive.
4. I use the webversion, trying to keep things clean.
5. Have never really had an android as my primary device so really can't tell.