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).
Same here. Still quite new in returning, but overall UX and camera experience are all positives...
In my case, I'd went to Android/Samsung after iPhone 4. But the camera for iPhone 17 Pro Max lured me back and, having used it for a few days now, am 99% pleasantly surprised. (no fingerprint reader, no number row, have yet to figure out emoticon usage, Apple Music replaced iTunes but I think I've got my iTunes library copied back over (haven't time to test it yet but remaining free space is down accordingly), and no direct file access requiring additional tools are my only quibbles but everything else is so FANTASTIC that I'll figure out the quibbles and go with them.)
Seriously, standby mode is far better on the 17, more so when you reduce the number of email fetch attempts
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:
- How well does Phone Link work on iOS? Is it stable and reliable? How does it compare to Android?
- How is Microsoft Edge on iOS?
- Is it worth using OneDrive for camera roll on iOS or is it better to switch to iCloud outright?
- Is iCloud on Windows good? Photos sync in particular. Are photos dumped into a big bucket or can you group them by date?
Haven't gotten there yet, but I don't use PhoneLink and with 1TB of local storage it's nice to not have to rely on an internet connection to listen to music without streaming problems.
- 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!
iOS 26 feels more solid, even if I miss S25Ultra with Niagra Launcher. Most of it is really just a learning curve with the new ecosystem. The speed of the user interface and photo quality are really nice and as I get to optimizing the screens better it'll only be that much better. Until then, the search bar comes very much in handy.
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).
Same here.
From experience so far:
Pros:
- Size
- Larger than my previous 6-month-old Android phone, the ESR case is slightly thinner but still rated highly for drop protection so I'm not too worried
- Plus, AppleCare
- Camera!
- The first reason that compelled me to switch back
- Captures low-light detail from same zoom and lighting settings that the old Android phone couldn't
- Still floored and impressed by this
- going between lenses is a heck of a lot smoother than on the old Android phone
- Still have to test a couple spots where the camera might go between normal and telephoto lens but, from what I've read, I needn't worry about the bugs from the old phone
- Camera control physical button with finger slide feature is IMPRESSIVE
- Holds nice in the hand with my ESR case
- will be testing Rokform
- Both cover the plateau area a little, which will hamper device cooling a tad so I'll be mindful
- Phone has only gotten warm in one unexpected way, has ran cooler than my previous phone otherwise
- Much longerbattery life compared to barely used Android phone of similar mAh battery
- Was at 66% when leaving for lunch
- Android phone would be down to 50% (and this is a 6-month-old phone barely used and kept battery between 40 and 80% at all times so there shouldn't have been significant degradation)
- Ability to turn off 5G/UW leaving just regular LTE
- reduction of battery usage noticed (as expected and am appreciative of)
- temperature reduction also noticed when housing phone inside holster with zipper shut
- it didn't get very warm to begin with, maybe a little more than said Android phone
- when sitting on the table there was no temp. increase
- Liquid Glass UI
- Still haven't tested every option yet
- Wouldn't mind the search bar being given a little more opacity as it does blend in until you get used to it
- Far smoother running apps without needing to reboot after x number of app changes
- My car's Navigation isn't competing against Maps
- Charges faster
- gets a little warm, not a biggie if there's no way to turn off rapid recharging
- UX
- Way too easy to set up 24-hour mode
Growing pains:
That show from 1985 - just kidding- Needing to use iCloud as intermediary step for file transfer
- which mitigates some types of malware risks
- No back button
- No way to alphabetize app icons
- There might be a way, I'm just remembering the relative order in which I've installed apps
- No way to reorder pages?
- The final swipe leads to groupings of icons, which looks potentially more useful but along with widgets there may be a way to move all these around and I've not found the way yet
- Different configuration paradigm for apps, features
- Finding a way to use my own mp3 as ringtone or notification
- CarPlay:
- Only AppleMusic seems compatible, not Marvis Pro
- The time remaining slider is static, cannot tap on a specific minute/second area to instantly move to (must restart the song from the beginning)
- a minor issue, I had that with most Android apps too
- YouTube Music is stuck as "Loading" in CarPlay until it reads "unable to load" (paraphrased)
- still looking into this
- my local music library is voice-searchable
- Still get "please wait, system is updating (paraphrased) as my library is a tad large and I could pare that down, which will speed up its caching, something I've seen dated back to previous vehicles back to when these media system technologies were introduced over a decade ago so I'm maximizing the cache
Not working or figured out yet:
- While parked and watching the car get washed, I couldn't use the phone to browse the web
- Probably by design to eliminate distractive driving
- Custom fonts to replace the GUI default
- Fontcase or AnyFont created the packages, which were installed via "VPN & Device Management", and the fonts do not show up in the main system fonts folder so I'm stuck with the GUI default (which is hardly a big deal)
- No way to turn off that ding noise every time I download/get an app
- a long running issue from what little I've read up on so this is more a "growing pain"
- Notifications for lock screen
- e.g. emails, I turned them off for lock screen but they still appear. Will recheck.
- Couldn't find a master setting for lock screen as I don't want flashlight or camera buttons or anything apart from the clock - this might be a "growing pain" issue too
Honestly, there's less than I'd thought for that last category, and even then most of those issues are likely little other than "growing pains".
I'm also a big-time Windows user and that is not going to change in the next few years.
Same here. I loved Snow Leopard at the time, but many changes since were not my cup of tea and then comes the issue of license crossgrades if/where possible, and I'm not keen on BootCamp (if still available)
I'm inclined to get a Mac Mini for NAS and also use it for iPhone/iCloud where it might otherwise be tedious on the Windows box. Am still glad to see the ecosystem sufficiently open to Windows, it's an embrace-and-extend philosophy that's quite nice.
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:
- How well does Phone Link work on iOS? Is it stable and reliable? How does it compare to Android?
Never used it. Not yet, anyway.
- How is Microsoft Edge on iOS?
Haven't tried it. Still going between Safari or Chrome. Am inclined to install it, though.
- Is it worth using OneDrive for camera roll on iOS or is it better to switch to iCloud outright?
From what I've seen, I'm sticking to iCloud and manually copying to OneDrive if needed. The more you get used to iCloud, the slicker it is.
- Is iCloud on Windows good? Photos sync in particular. Are photos dumped into a big bucket or can you group them by date?
From limited experience, yes. It's more a learning curve for me than anything else. I vaguely recall the option to sort by date, but not group by. I've used it mostly for migrating my older iTunes downloaded songs from the Windows PC to the phone.
What
@Paddle1 said is interesting as well, since I've not updated my Windows machine to 11 yet. Win11 is more resource-hoggy and with 3D rendering tools, I prefer the applications getting the CPU and GPU power first and foremost and not a zillion OS tasks running under the hood. (Win11 seems more RAM-intensive, but still.)
- For people who switched from Android, is there something you really miss? Both regarding Android by itself and in regards to OS integration.
See my list above. I miss a couple aspects, but the tradeoffs are well worth it so far. Am rather enjoying the iPhone experience.
Other thoughts: The number of CPU and GPU cores combined are definitely right-sized and balanced. I've yet to do anything 3D with graphics or fractals or such, but have zero doubts based on what I already know that this phone will be faster, making those times for thumb e-twiddling even better.
Would love to hear y'all's thoughts.
Thank you if you read this far!
Thank you for posting! It's fun to read people who migrate over, their stories, what they like, dislike, etc.
